TECHNICALLY this article should be called "2017 media buzz recap". Because you can clearly see nothing in the article mentions actual gameplay and game experience/technicalities, only what was the mediia buzz at that time, what are "the numbers" etc etc. I actually play games and can clearly say that the gaming media buzz got so manipulated over the last 5 years it is impossible to still call it credible. It is literally reviewers reviewing using other reviews based on media buzz and none of them actually plays the game not even mentioning finishing the game before review! Reasons are quite obvious - noone will call them on their bs today, but this is an general issue with the media now, its not about truth anymore.
These Game of the Year articles aren't reviews, they're categorical summations of the experiences the GB crew had with the games they played this year. If you want conversations regarding the gameplay and experiences therein, direct yourself to the podcasts and articles that were published around the time of a specific game's release, as well as the conversations had during the GotY podcasts themselves, and you'll find a swath of dialogue regarding those exact things. I'm not sure what your expecting here, but what you've singled out as lacking in these articles has already been covered extensively.
Mass Effect wins worst game for a buggy launch(despite being a very good game and running really well on PC at least) but PUBG wins GotY?
I suppose you missed the part where the majority of the game's faults were its characters, plot, and world being a far-cry from the standard set be its predecessors. While the technical issues the game faced are the icing on the cake, they were singled-out as inexcusable because it was a big-budget project released in 2017.
Metric and imperial pissing contests aside, it is slightly frustrating to see that they "want to bring it below one kilometer" when their instruments are already reading 0.1km to target. Regardless if they do not know their prefixes and that there are 1000m in 1km, they should be able to figure out at a glance that what their instrument is saying, 0.1km, is less than one kilometer. Seemed to take a little long for that realization to dawn on them. Decimals and stuff, weird.
Also, I'm not really sure what they hope to accomplish with all of this "stabilization" and "orbit matching" when their crafts were literally down the street from each other. Do they forget how fast and far they were travelling with their EVA packs on Mun when they were busy killing kerbals there? Have they forgotten Bill already!? You're 25m away, get your kerbal out of his ship and float on over to the rescue craft. I honestly can't wait to hear their reactions to how far Scott travelled with his EVA pack from the craft doomed for an orbit around the sun.
That aside, love the series, even if they continue to overcomplicate the shit out of everything.
The GBE let's plays and playdates have quickly become some of my favourite content on the site; keep it up @austin_walker, @vinny, and @alex. Between Contradiction, Until Dawn, Kerbal, and Life Is Strange, you guys are killing it. I cannot wait for the finale of this series, though it will be bitter-sweet.
I absolutely adore this series. You guys are great.
Also, the moon rotates, but in such a way that it's always (almost) keeping the same side towards earth - however despite the name of the astounding album 'the dark side of the moon', it's not actually always dark, as you witnessed firsthand!
I was also going to mention this, but you beat me to it; it's called tidal locking.
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