GotG Final: Dark Souls vs. Mass Effect 2

@radecau: This changes everything.

Vinny also really loves Mass Effect 2. Vinny liking a game is fucking irrelevant.

Amen! DS ftw

This is the kind of collusion that I can get behind.

So filthy, yet so beautiful.

The Mass Effect 2 demo didn't sell me and I couldn't bring myself to play the first game for more than two hours. Dark Souls is wonderful, however.

I don't know a Vinny.

I'm pretty sure there's a ton of people here who have in fact fucking played Dark Souls, I don't see the Vinny connection, possibly because I'm not premium.

I think I'll replay these two games during the holidays. Also, the vids dun broke.

@jimbo: People have explained it to you numerous times, you're wrong. I don't give a shit about Deadly Premonition or Persona 4 either. It doesn't matter what the crew enjoys. Lots of people here loved Dark Souls long before Vinny began the feature.

C-C-C-C-C-COMBO BREAKERRRRRR!!!!!!!

Still not hard to choose. Dark Souls still beats for me.

Mass Effect 2 is a fun game but it's not better than Dark Souls. It's not better than Mass Effect 1, either.

You're a fool if you don't think Vinny playing Dark Souls doesn't help it significantly.

@skytylz: Prove it. Put your money where your mouth is.

@skytylz: You Dark Souls naysayers sure are making up a lot of funny excuses. On other boards that I frequent (neogaf, a big German gaming forum) people would lean even stronger towards Dark Souls.

Plus, while I like LOLS, Vinny isn't even representing that game all that well. He's skipping all the lore etc.

Sorry Dark Souls, for as much as it hurts me, I'll go with Mass Effect 2 because... I'm not actually sure. I'd be fine with either of these games. I just picked one to see the results.

@davidwitten22: i totally get that. and maybe it was unfair to reply directly to you, when this is a thing that happens all over the place and 99% of people do/did it. maybe it's good enough that peeps will check out games they haven't tried before because of this poll.

i really like and enjoyed both of these games and probably have 200h+ in both games. DaS takes it for me because it surprised me and reminded me of games that i didn't think would be made anymore. there is true satisfaction in beating the bosses and getting better at it. there's this amazing feeling that you get when you beat bosses without even getting hit - the same bosses that screwed you and made you put down the game for a day, when you encountered them in your first playthrough.

having said that, i don't really like demons souls. maybe it' just because i played DaS first, idk. i never finished DeS.

I adore Dark Souls. I adore Vinny. I'm watching LOLS at this very moment. But I voted for Mass Effect 2 because I enjoyed it more.

Did I just blow your mind, @skytylz?

Dark Souls does gaming right. There's so much to play there, and while it's not infinitely replayable, I never replay games right after I beat them. I did with Dark Souls.

Mass Effect 2 is an excellent game though, but while I really enjoyed the Mass Effect world, and the story contained within, Dark Souls is so amazing that I have to vote for it.

Both games are no where close to being Game of the Generation quality but Dark Souls had the better quick look and wasn't made by EA so I voted for that.

Did not expect Dark Souls to be winning, but as I much prefer it to Mass Effect 2 I can't complain.

Let's go Dark Souls *clap* *clap* *clapclapclap*

I really enjoyed ME2 that time I beat it right after it came out. Not once have I had any desire to go back and play it again.

I really enjoyed Dark Souls that time I beat it right after it came out. At least once a month since then I've wanted to jump back in and keep playing new builds. Then I bought the PC version and continued there. I also found myself playing a lot more games in general after my first run. In a way it was responsible for bringing my enjoyment of video games back to where it was 10+ years ago. Dark Souls.. It's a hell of a drug.

VBOMB just defeated Kalameet. This deserves a Dark Souls win.

Anyone who thinks it does is just reaching for excuses. And honestly, even if someone resigned themselves to believing it was making an impact, to say it's significant? Give me a break. People love Dark Souls, get over it.

Same here.

Although, right after playing Dark Souls for an obsessive amount of hours (like 300), I couldn't get into other games anymore for a while. I tried, but they felt... meaningless. I don't know, it's hard to describe. I had to acclimate myself again for "normal" games that didn't offer that use that same huge sense of risk and reward.

Dark Souls over Mass Effect 2. Even though Demon's Souls is even better.

This is all very stupid.

Gotta go with Dark Souls, Mass Effect is pretty dang great and deserves to be in the discussion but its' shortcomings are greater than Dark Souls. From the bits of played of them ME2 is not even the best in its series.

Dark Souls was a game in a way games haven't been in a very long time. Really had a supreme mix of strategic combat action, Metroidvania exploration, innovative PVP concept for a single player genre and dynamic play with none of the handholding that too many games have today, while giving the player enough tools to be able to overcome obstacles.

Major Mitch made an excellent blog comparing to old school Zelda and he's totally right.

http://www.giantbomb.com/profile/majormitch/blog/will-the-real-zelda-please-stand-up/95572/

Mass Effect is a grand spectacle of a series with even grander ambitions, but mechanically it just doesn't hold up to Dark Souls in execution. Dark Souls if it wins is a deserving champion of GotG.

I'm copying and pasting my thoughts on Vinny's potential influence on Dark Souls votes because goddamnit you folks, it's a non issue.

"Here's what has me thinking, I know that the Dark Souls fanbase is huge. However, I can't help but wonder what effect LOLS has on the voting.

To say "Oh it's only winning because of LOLS" is crazy because Monster Hunter would not be winning if it was in the same spot, and Vinny probably wouldn't be playing Dark Souls if it was as bad as people against it think it is.

You can't discredit the voting because of it, because there's no way to prove one way or the other, I just find it interesting."

Kindle, +5 lighting that shit and prepare for jolly co-operation.

We're taking this bitch down.

\o/

Haha, that pool swung heavily in the last 30 minutes, something like 5-6%

Mass Effect 2, I would've gone with you to the end, but this is the part where YOU DIED.

I like Mass Effect 2 a lot but I have to go with Dark Souls.

Just a quick reminder, the winner of this bout goes on to fight the super-secret hidden boss of all games, Disgaea 4. Obviously Disgaea 4 would win, so we won't bother having an official poll, so you can all consider that your unofficial (but totally official) GotG. Thank you, please drive through.

The amount of rage that will spew from some of the ME2 contingent if Dark Souls wins will be staggering.

Though Mass Effect 2 was the only game in that series i liked, the gameplay was a chore and i didn't feel like it held up to Bioware's earlier works. What it did right was to put modular writing in it's RPG, missions played out like episodes that fleshed out the sci fi universe. The problem with it, that universe and it's characters are the only thing good about it, gameplay falls flat.

Dark Souls puts it's emphasis on gameplay rather than story but brings back a sense of creative character design to carry the context. Not only is it mechanically rewarding but the motivation to persevere through this world just to see what's new around the corner felt more rewarding than a linear story giving you only the illusion of personal decisions through binary choices.

It's interesting that it's come down to these two games as i feel one favors the context of storytelling in games and the other favors mechanics in games.

Don't really know how I feel about Dark Souls winning (don't get me wrong, I voted for it), I just kinda wasn't expecting it.

All things considered, I'm glad I'm not one of the people who's capable of taking this all too seriously, 'cause I'd probably be pissed right now.

Really tough fight. At this point I no longer mind who wins, because both games are on my list of all-time greats. Happy to be in harmony with the vox populi.

(go dark souls)

The only thing in the universe with more fanboys than Sony is Dark/Demon Souls. It's not a better or more innovative game than any of the games it has beaten so far. How this game is more than a footnote to this generation is just beyond me.

Before I finally played Dark Souls, I never would have imagined it being one of the best games I've ever played and good Lord is it replayable. It has the most hours played of any game on my steam list including ME2 which I played a ton and loved a lot. It's just such an incredibly deep game and pure video game. It's the best 3D Castlevania game Konami never made and best thing Japan has done in years. It sunk its hooks in me and hasn't let go after half a dozen playthroughs. Praise the Sun!

SO CLOSE I LOVE IT

@sparky_buzzsaw: God Hand

God, kill it! Someone, kill it now! Uniqueness does not greatness make.

But what fun is this whole scumbag bracket if we can't let some hate flow through us?

I've been predicting this match up since day one. I've voted for Dark Souls every time up until this point, but for some reason felt compelled to vote Mass Effect. Perhaps I'm losing my mind and turning hollow.

Dark souls is pretty cool, but it's framerate is fucking garbage. I used to think it was just me since I played the 360 version, but apparently it's just total ass everywhere. Kind of a big deal when the game asks you to patiently play well. I still like it, but I love ME2 far more and it's a game without any serious flaws.

The Dark Souls Hate Brigade is really slackin' off right now. If Dark Souls gets a clean victory, I'll be very disappointed.

WE NEED MORE DRAMA.

@corporalgregg: Well, the best 3D Castlevania game Konami never made is actually Pandora's Tower, but I can see where you're coming from with the comparison. It's certainly better than comparing it to a roguelike, am I right Ian?

BREAKING: Senior sources at GBHQ have just confirmed with us their handsome colleague, Vincent "Dreamy Smile" Caravella, will NOT be stepping out with anybody just because they support his favourite game of this week, 'Dark Souls', in the currently ongoing GB Game of the Generation final vote. Vinny "Lush Guns" Caravella has so far been unavailable for comment, but is understood to be a happily married man.

Experts have been surprised to see Mr. Caravella's recent infatuation with 'Dark Souls' carry the little-known frustrate em' up so far in the competition, but predict that these latest revelations may well lead to an untimely slump in support for the plucky underdog.