So stories intertwined.  Three times as many story missions making the game longer.  I'm sure they all meet up eventually and have to do missions together in some fashion.  Yes that's different, but not really innovative.  It's just increasing the overall length of the game.  New mission types are fun to try out, but also not really innovative or different to me.  Watched my friend play this for hours while I played another game, honestly even though you are making decisions for the team, it looks like more of the same.  Also the fact that you have to work with AI on those missions kind of defeats the point of the game in my mind.  The AI can get the kills or distract the cops while you sneak around and get the final kills.  Not really entertaining to me.  Online oh yeah I watched that plenty, still about the same as regular missions to me.  Oh you can play golf with friends online, racing, hundreds of other missions etc etc etc.  It's just increasing the length of the game, not really increasing the story or changing anything about the basic outline of it.  I can't recognize what isn't there Jone, the game is just feeding fans of the franchise what they want.  I am a fan myself as I own all the PS2 releases of the game, but honestly it really isn't anything all that new to me.  Fun yes, innovative no.  Not worthy of GOTY.

So are we arguing about game of the year or most innovative game of the year Space?

I personally loved the Zelda game. Zelda: ALttp is my favorite game of all time so the remake made me unbelievably happy. No offense GTA V but I'm more of a Zelda fan and would back that one up any day over GTA. GTA 4 sucked btw

Even if we were arguing innovative, Zelda Link to the Past ver. 2.0 wouldn't quality as most innovative of the year either.  It reused so many elements from LttP it wasn't even funny.  Of course that was a good thing, but that wouldn't qualify as innovative.

When I think game of the year, I think of hype, sales, fun, gameplay, replayability, etc.  GTA just won that IMO.

I bought GTA V and Zelda Link Between Worlds on Day 1 and thoroughly enjoyed both of them.  I love Zelda just as much as anyone, but GTA felt like game ahead of it's time.  Zelda was more of a blast from the past.

I get your line of thinking, I can respect your choice and how you came to your decision.  I just don't agree with it is all.  Also I've never even seen ALBW so I don't feel like granting an opinion to it.  My original post shows I didn't venture an opinion on ALBW.  Personally I think The Last of Us should have taken GOTY, but since it came out in June while GTA5 came out in September, GTA5 was fresher in people's minds and was probably talked about more during the GOTY decision making process.

There should be no argument between ALBW and GTA V, because the Last of Us is head and shoulders above both of them.

I like reading the comments on GameSpot of the 13 year olds flipping saying GTA V should win because "Link between World is a baby game" argument. Maybe I'm in the minority here, but for me, I don't judge a game on its story as much as its gameplay (you still need both, but one comes before the other). It seems that a lot of games these days focus on (and they are awesome) cutscenes to progress the story. But playing a game for that is akin to watching a porno for it's storyline.

Innovative would be Papers, Please. I had never played a game similiar to that. One may argue that it is simply a time management game, but it is so much more. In a regular time management game your speed is what will decide if you win or lose. In Papers, Please you can have multiple endings depending on how you play the game. It was a bunch of fun and sadly overlooked. Even after the indie genre had been praised the last few years. As I said before, too many good games came out this year.

It was more repetitive than tetris

Or because it was packed with the system.

The only good system they have out has the better game that their more powerful console just shows how pitiful WiiU is.

Still, game has some good concept, nice to see it win. Pikmin and Animal crossing, doe!

LOL! That video was hilarious! Faith Hill, with arms raised, was all like WHAT!!??!

Just because a game was out months prior doesn't mean it should be ranked higher than a game that came out a few months later. GTA5 broke a lot of records and is a very well made game, and there's a lot of versatility in what you can do in it. If you're only basing your opinion on the game through little game play video or quick reviews, you can't really judge the game at all unless you've played it. I'm sure if Last of Us came out the last week of November, you would most likely still argue that it should be #1, and there's nothing wrong with that, but when a game breaks records and is still being talked about 3 months later (and will probably continue for a few more months), it's definitely a contender for the top ranks. I didn't see much discussion or hype 3 months after Last of Us came out, or even 2 months. It's been a game that's hardly been discussed here (I don't really recall much of anything about it being posted here).

Also, 10 different "reputable" places that have done the Game of the Year thing all have different ideas and standards on the #1 through #10 ranks. Just make your own list of the top 10 games of the year. It's all subjective to opinion anyway, so these lists mean nothing.

Be reasonable GTA is to sandbox as call of duty is to FPS. It doesnt matter if the quality is there or not, if it raises the bar or not and so on. It just is that game people suck up to and talk about endlessly for months or years. Vocal followings arent always a sign of quality as much as a sign as a very rabid and tightly following base of people. I used to be into GTA but 4 was so god awfully broken in ways and just bad in others I couldnt enjoy them and it even turned me off to other titles since. To each their own the lesson would be here.

If you haven't played it, then you can't make a sound judgment call on it, regardless of your opinions/experience with previous titles.

I agree. Papers, Please is absolutely terrific. I've had more fun playing that game than I've had playing most other games this year, be it retro or current gen.

I think it's safe to say ppl suck up Zelda games and stare at them through rose colored glassed no matter what. I didnt really like gta4 but vice city is on my best game of all time list. Comparing Zelda to GTA is definitely apples to apples.

Surprising to say the least, I was sure the latest crime simulator or interactive zombie flick was gonna win it for sure

There was no way The Last of Us was going to be more popular than GTA, it was a brand new title rather than a sequel that had a huge following to begin with. The main reason most people don't talk about the Last of Us all the time, because once you play through it, the experience is done for the most part. In GTA V, most people spend hours on end screwing around doing random shit aside from progressing the main story. When there's more content, there's more room for discussion.
And calling the Last of Us just another zombie game is pretty lame. It's pretty amazing how well it's written and what direction the story went that made the most cliched genre not cliched. Plus the game offers a good deal of strategy and item management. How you play the game is entirely up to you: stealth, run for your life, guns blazing, or any combination of those.