Jason Daniels

@Jon Anderson the internet has you taken care of, friendo: http://www.masseffectsaves.com/

@PR0F3TA Wait, you're going to say ME isn't an RPG but DX is? While DX is great in that you can choose to be nonlethal, they are both combat focused, allowing for different playstyles (and DX is definitely deeper in this respect), but ultimately coming down to get past x number of people to get to y baddy. Ultimately, however, ME revolves around the interactive storytelling, and DX, while it is less so about involving the character with other characters, does much the same. I think that each of the series has their own strengths and weaknesses, but they are treading largely the same ground (in very different ways). To say that one is a pinnacle and one is barely even in the same game sounds ridiculous.

Getting the second draft of my thesis done over the holiday break. Sorry thesis.

@pluupy I had missed the one piece where they mentioned journalism in between criticism and historian. My mistake. I thought the article was spinning criticism into journalism. Oh well, now I'm arrogant AND incapable of reading...

This is going to sound really douchey, but I don't actually intend it this way:

Game criticism is not at all the same thing about Game Journalism. Just like a book review in the LA Times is not at all the same thing as literary criticism.

Top 5? This is honestly VERY tough.

Portal 2
The Witcher 2
Deus Ex: Human Revolution
Dark Souls
Batman: AC

But then again, I've yet to have time to really dig into Skyrim and I haven't played Uncharted 3, Skyward Sword or AC: Revelations yet. Not NEARLY enough people have played The Witcher 2 (which is definitely the best RPG of the year (which isn't to say Skyrim isn't jaw-droppingly awesome) and ONLY doesn't flat out win in my opinion because DX and Portal both do exactly what they need to do in their own particular ways.

Either way, though, it has been a truly stellar year for gaming.

@Jenks You are misunderstanding the historical meaning of ghetto. The ghetto is NOT a place where black people live, it is a place where a minority is segregated from the larger populace, either implictly (through socio-economic factors--which is why poor, isolated, depreciated areas are called ghettos) or explicitly (such as the Jewish Ghettos enforced by the Nazis).

In other words, because videogames mostly represent power fantasies of white, heterosexual men in a society that is increasingly multi-racial, multi-cultural and encompassing people of all genders and sexualities, videogames are increasingly out of touch. As such, people understand a videogame to not be a helpful or interesting piece of society and continues to be isolated from other forms of media as unimportant pulp. To get out of the ghetto, in this case, would be to gain more credibility and wider acceptence, not only in people playing games, but in academic and social import.

@onan Yeah. I already had similar issues with EAs other digital services and swore them off. If I have to get BF3 through D2D or retail, I will, but I have nothing but mistrust for EAs services and tactics.

@Azev There are plenty of games on Steam that allow for non-steam purchases (such as GFWL games like Fallout and, you know, all of the other Bioware games). Since Steam is the largest digital distribution service, I can't help but see them as doing everything in their power to take as much of a chunk from that service as possible--especially as they are trying to do with Origin what Valve has done with Steam in a way that D2D, GOG, etc. don't do.

So yeah, Valve is pulling the games because of a TOS violation, but if you think that EA was innocently surprised by that and isn't trying to use it to gobble up some of the market, I have a bridge to sell you.

Read: Leveraging their IP to fight a ridiculous war with the largest download service around, resulting in an artificially inflated market share so they can begin re-implementing frustratingly draconian DRM again with little recourse.