Kamisaki

Great article, Patrick. Loved reading the full conversation.

Everyone who feels strongly one way or the other about ME3's ending should listen to this episode of the PC Gamer Podcast. http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/03/23/pc-gamer-us-podcast-310-mass-effect-3-spoilers/

They have one of the best discussions about the whole thing that I've heard yet, they treat both sides with respect, and they actually managed to make me excited about the prospect of further games in the Mass Effect universe even with the galaxy all shot to hell like it is. If you don't believe that's possible, you'll just have to listen and see for yourself.

Great articles, reminds me of the back and forth series that N'gai Croal and Stephen Totilo used to do. And I just want to say that I think Manveer didn't give games journalists quite enough credit. Sure, the big review factories still exist and are huger than ever, but there are people out there doing their own thing. Giant Bomb exists because of people breaking out to do their own thing (admittedly, the GB crew did have a good, shall we say, incentive to go independent). But look at sites like the Escapist, and Edge, and for the love of God, go watch Extra Credits on Penny Arcade TV. These are people doing real criticism and exploring what makes games good and bad and what they mean. The fact that these places have smaller audiences than the giganto-sites doesn't take away from the value of what they're saying.

Man, Giant Bomb, hiring Patrick Klepek was the best move you guys made in a long time.  I love your video content, but I often just don't have time to watch a lot of it.  I do have time to read these news articles that pop up way more often than they ever used to.  And most importantly, Patrick's stories and commentary are so much better than the regurgitated press releases that pass for news at so many other game sites.  Great stuff, Patrick!

Seriously, this is an awesome discussion, they are not holding back, I'm so glad they're not afraid to go in depth on this stuff.

I love that I lose points when I lose.  It means I get ranked against less skilled players if I lose a lot, so that I'm not losing constantly.  I had a similar experience to the OP, in that I took a break from playing for a while, and when I came back, guess what, I sucked!  I wasn't nearly as good as I was before I took the break, so I got creamed!  I lost like 10 games in a row.  But  as I was losing, I was also getting back into practice, and at the same time getting ranked against less skilled players.  Eventually I stabilized again, and now I win about half my matches, just like it should be.

I probably won't play it, but damn, that game looks beautiful.

Stupid name, awesome price. 
 
And that's what really matters.

 It was really gratifying to hear that your deliberations come down to Mass Effect 2 vs. Starcraft 2 for overall game of the year.  Those are absolutely my two personal favorites from this year, but I still have a hard time deciding a winner for myself.  While I was actually playing it, I was more engrossed in Mass Effect 2 than any other game this year, but Starcraft 2 almost seems like it needs its own category.  I would never have believed that a video game could be an entertaining spectator sport, but together with some outstanding casters, they went and did it.  I now have a bookmarks folder just for Starcraft, for heaven's sakes!  And I know people will be playing Starcraft long after everyone has finished the Mass Effect trilogy, but I just love the Mass Effect universe so much!  Plus it gave us Mordin.  That might put Mass Effect 2 over the top for me.  Anyway, thanks for duking it out on all these categories, the GOTY content has been fantastic!    

This tourney is amazing.  Jinro is my new Terran hero.  His game 2 against Socke yesterday was the single most epic game I've seen yet!

Absolutely one of the most awesome trailers ever made.  The moment when the ship opened up and you see all the hooded Sith with their red lightsabers... I nearly crapped my pants!  Yeah, it doesn't tell us anything about the actual game, but man, it makes me wish the guys who did that trailer were in charge of the actual Star Wars movies.  Between Mass Effect 2, Dragon Age, and the Old Republic, Bioware is seriously kickin' ass.