(3)The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt vs (14)The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth 2015

Ulti's Analysis
Can we agree that Shenmue, Shovel Knight, and Binding of Isaac are of similar strength? Yes?

I bring this up because one day after the two GTA games plus World of Warcraft went and flopped all over the place like choking fish, Witcher 3 went out there and completely justified its 3 seed in this contest. Of course there was no outcry whatsoever about Witcher 3 being in this bracket, despite being a popular game from 2015. Wasn't that the big complaint about Undertale? Being "too new" to be in the running for a contest called "Best Game Ever"?

Anyway Witcher 3 was at 70% at the beginning of this poll, and then managed to go up from there to get 74% overall. That's really impressive for a first-time contest entrant, even if it is against something like Isaac. It just went out there, took care of business and kept it moving.

This would set up a round 2 match against Metal Gear Solid 2, and a lot of Witcher fans pointed out that Witcher 3's developers were known in 2015 to rally like mad for Game of the Year awards. A lot of people dislike this sort of thing, but I'm pretty sure everyone knows my opinion on rallies at this point. I'm also sure everyone knows my opinion on MGS2 and how much I love it, but I would have been fine with Witcher 3 rallying like mad to mow over this contest.

And why? Well my belief that rallying makes contests more fun aside, I actually bought Witcher 3 today. When you open the box, this is the first thing you see, in bold letters on a red piece of paper:

DEAR GAMER,

First of all, we would like to thank you for your support. We really appreciate that you have decided to spend your hard-earned money on our game and hope that you will have a fun time playing it. Over 200 of us have spent the last three years working on The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and it is with great pleasure and humility that we present our game to you.

At CD PROJEKT RED, we believe that when you buy our games, you're entitled to continuous, free support -- updates, patches, and bits of new and amazing content. We owe you that for believing in us and purchasing our game. To thank you, we have prepared something really special -- 16 DLCs for you to download, totally free of charge, regardless of the platform or edition of the game you own.

We salute you for your support and wish you a fantastic next-generation of RPG gaming!

CD PROJEKT RED

I haven't played one minute of Witcher 3, but they have a fan in me already. The company that made it just shit all over Capcom, Activi$ion, Nintendo, Ubisoft, EA, and every other greedy-ass company that nickel-and-dimes its customers with a mere 161 words. If the game is half as good as the company's mission statement, then it 100% deserved all those game of the year awards.