A Huge Reminder That Fire Pro-Wrestling World is nominated in Best Surprise category for this year's GOTY.

In last year's video of the Best Surprise category, Jeff and Alex had a debate about Fire Pro-Wrestling World and its eligibility for contendership. Abby pitched the idea of 'pinning' Fire Pro-Wrestling World in the Best Surprise category until next year.

I really like this game and it deserves justice.

Alex was stuck in a rock and hard place last year regarding Fire Pro-Wrestling and the Best Surprise category last year. But that's okay because with the lack of surprises this year I think it's safe to assume that Fire Pro-Wrestling will get its day in court. I really, really hope they don't forget about Fire Pro-Wrestling in this year's GOTY awards.

I really want Alex and Dan to fight for this.

I still can't believe PUBG was GOTY 2017. Don't believe the hype!

Anyway, yes this game should be on a list in 2018. From the huge community support through the interesting fighting mechanics, this might be one off the best wrestling games ever made.

I love Fire Pro, but this is going to be Alex against the world. One person will say “is it really a surprise since it was announced and came to PC in 2017?” and the dream will be over.

I was wondering, the other day, how much release year even matters at this point.

My GOTYs for 2018 at this point are probably:

Witcher 3

Overwatch

Yakuza 0

Monster Hunter World

Fire Pro Wrestling World

Mostly NOT 2018...

This is my thought as well. It's not a surprise anymore. It was a surprise last year pre-release and then released in 2017. I think when Abby suggested pinning it until next year it was because nobody actually expected it to release in 2017. I think by virtue of being released in 2017 it's already disqualified from all categories except 2018's 2017 GoTY.

And there's a lot of games this year that could take best surprise over it. Monster Hunter World, Celeste, Dragon Ball Fighters Z, God of War. All of those are ones that people thought they wouldn't be into and then got really into, even if just briefly.

Remember when Gd of War was announced and mostly all asked "Why are they making a new God of War?" and then it came out and it was actually really good.

@jesus_phish: Yeah, which is why I hope release dates become less of a requirement for the awards. If the whole team somehow got way into Perfect Dark 64 and it was the best experience they had this year, fuck it, why not?

I don’t think they’re doing these awards for stickers on GOTY editions or spots in trailers. I think it’s a look back on Giant Bomb’s video game experiences of 2018.

If Fire Pro surprised Alex in 2017, they should have let it count then. He knew Fire Pro would get screwed at the time, and he was right. It’ll have it’s awkward moment when he champions it and everyone else 1) doesn’t care and 2) calls it a 2017 contender.

Early access, old game, whatever. If it mattered to the staff in a given year should be what counts.

Also, if they had recorded just a bit sooner last year, PUBG wouldn’t have been announced for late 2017. It would have been disqualified from debate for a reason as silly as a release date (Fortnite is still in betw, no?). And it sure as hell wouldn’t be their GOTY 2018. I thought it was the right winner for that staff for that year.

It's easy to say that now, but there's no denying how huge it was in 2017.

I’d feel happy for Alex if he can muster a strong enough argument for Fire Pro Wrestling to take best surprise. However there are a few games that I think could beat it for that award. Mega Man 11 could be a strong contender considering how Capcom had treated the franchise before this game and what happened to MN9. Them Capcom assembled a team to make a new MM game 8 years after 10 and it’s become to many one of the top 5 traditional Mega Mans out there. Monster Hunter World will contend as let’s be honest, did anyone here think any staff member besides Jason would get Into it?

GB generates massive awesome content for GOTY every year. The argument about Fire Pro from last year was a real all-time GOTY low point for me though. Sure, consider Fire Pro this year since the decision was that it didn’t come out last year.

I'll start off by saying I personally do not care that PUBG won GOTY, but I'm not 100% convinced that if PUBG didn't get a release date (announced 8th of December officially for release on the 20th) that they wouldn't of included it anyway. In fact - I think had it not got a release date then FPW would've been allowed to be nominated and possibly win a category. I think concessions where always going to be made for PUBG, and they've seen that now and decided that Early Access games are eligible going forward.

You're right that they don't have the awards to get stickers on bumpers for trailers but they still do have a set of rules to follow. It's why awards like "Current years old game of the year" exist. And yes it's a mix of a look back on their video game experiences of 2018, but it's mostly a look back on their experiences of 2018 on titles released in 2018. Otherwise you'll have Brad championing Destiny for best looking game from here until the next Destiny comes out among other stickers for "Nothing has improved on this imo, ergo it's still the best".

As for Fortnite - I believe "Fortnite Battle Royale" is officially released as a live game last year, while "Fortnite Save the World" is still in a paid early access beta.

Maybe what they should do - and maybe they do this but it's just never come up before - is agree to copy what The Golden Joysticks do. Any game released after the awards are handed out are eligible for the next year of deliberations.