Progress: I've played large chunks of both Demon's Souls and Dark Souls, but have never actually beaten either. I'm hoping to change that with this one.
If he had been just making fun of the show itself constantly it would have been better, but most of the time he was insulting the games as well as the people that played them. He made the show demonstrably worse. If Geoff had been the only one hosting it may have been less funny, but it would have actually been informative and interesting. Those interviews actually would have had some substance rather than Joel bringing the whole thing down. He clearly didn't want to be there, and I don't know why he was.
As others have said if you feel this way there's probably not much we can do to help you change you mind. Bioshock Infinite is my GOTY pretty easily. I played The Last of Us and I do enjoy it, but I'm not able to love it the way many people do. I wish I could. The world is incredible and the story is incredibly intriguing. The interactions between Joel and Ellie are great as well; however, I found the gameplay to be something I had to trudge through rather than something to be enjoyed. I generally tried to stealth through everything while killing anything that got in my way. The problem with that is that what seemed to trigger enemies spotting you would change on a regular basis. For some reason I could kill an enemy one time fine, but the next doing the exact same thing would alert an enemy that had no business noticing me. Perhaps I was just missing something. The checkpointing also felt a bit off when it came to battle scenarios to me as well. In the end I truly wish I had enjoyed playing the game more because everything around it is some of the best and fully realized world building that's been in any game ever.
By no stretch of the imagination does Bioshock Infinite have amazing gameplay, but I did enjoy playing through the combat scenarios throughout the entire game. The combat was fun if not necessarily great. Very rarely did I feel like I just wanted a fight to be over so I could move on. A few times here and there, but mostly I had fun with it. Especially when I was able to use the skyhook in combat as that was extremely satisfying. Meanwhile, I find the story and world of Infinite to be fascinating. I was enthralled and drawn forward the entire time. I explored every nook and cranny and found every audio log on my first playthrough. I wanted to get every ounce I could out of that world. Then there's Elizabeth. Elizabeth is one of my favorite video game characters of this generation. Ellie and Joel both are too actually. Elizabeth was a character that I truly enjoyed journeying through the game with. She added life to the interactions in the world that I feel few games manage.
Overall, I absolutely understand how people could find deep faults in Bioshock Infinite, and perhaps not enjoy it as much as I did but it really is a fantastic game. The Last of Us was incredible and the amount people love it is certainly understandable. So it that type of game is your preference I suppose it can't be helped. This has gotten rather long winded.
Wow this is a brutal round. My three favorite female characters are in it, and a few others that are way up on my list. I went with Tali despite thinking GLaDOS is the best female character this generation. I was confident that GLaDOS would be winning handily, and it would appear that my guess was correct.
Great final round. Both fantastic games. Dark Souls is incredibly different, and fun in a way that most games aren't any more. But Mass Effect 2 is easily my favorite game of this generation (well I like Mass Effect 1 more, but 2 is the better game.) I'm glad to see this is such a close vote, but I do hope that Mass Effect takes it in the end.
57. What have I been doing with my life this generation? Damn. This counts games I played at least an hour of. I couldn't stand the way Alan Wake played about 10 minutes in so I stopped playing so I didn't count it otherwise, yeah...
Wow this was a super hard decision, but Portal 2 is winning handily? That seems insane to me. I love the shit out of Portal 2, but MGS 4 maybe the single most insane and entertaining experience of this generation.
I've played Dark Souls multiple times and have enjoyed it every time, but at some point I always get bored and stop. I've never made it to the end, and not because it was too hard or anything like that. Once you hit that "Aha!" moment in that game it actually becomes pretty damn easy. It's a great game.
Bioshock on the other hand has some of the most atmospheric and intense sections ever. Rapture is one of the most fascinating worlds I've ever visited, and when they drop the other shoe, damn, easily one of the best moments in gaming in my opinion. So that's where my vote goes even though I know that Dark Souls will probably win.
MASH is still one of my favorite TV shows to this day. I can watch just about any episode and enjoy it immensely. It's ability to combine drama with comedy was second to none.
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