A good story can transplant you to another place and time. It can take you from a dingy one room apartment to a world filled with magical creatures or to a starship speeding through the galaxy. A well told story will keep you playing a game longer than thought possible, and can make or break a series. Our choices for this are:

Halo 4
Mass Effect 3
Borderlands 2
Dishonored

Ready for some controversy? Despite all the hate that it received, we felt that Mass Effect 3 deserves this award. Yes, I even did a long article on the ending of the game, and did even complain a little. But it did something that so few games actually do. It ended the entire thing. There is no continuing on from here. There is no sequel for Sheppard. His story had ended, and it ended epically. For that, I still salute BioWare for what they did and support their decisions.

Ahh role-playing, is there anything better than pretending to be someone you are not? To create a character and mold them to your personal liking? Whether you want to be a spell slinging mage to or a sniper rifle wielding soldier you get to choose. Our nominees for best RPG of the year are as follows.

Kingdoms of Amular
Mass Effect 3
Pokemon Black and White
Torchlight
Diablo III
Borderlands 2

And the winner is Mass Effect 3. Say what you will about how the game ended (which I did not mind by the way) the game was good. It was fun and maintained what we enjoyed about the other Mass Effect games. You could customize your class to fit your play style, and if you were fortunate enough to have played Mass Effect 2 on the same system you played Mass Effect 3 then your character choices and character levels mover over to the new game. Whether you love or hate the story, the game itself was great.

Anybody who knows me or has been reading any of my past Conversations with IrishPride articles, knows that I am absolutely enamored with the Mass Effect universe. Well, I just finished Mass Effect 3 and I come to you with a review of the final chapter. Does the conclusion of Commander Shepard's epic trilogy end with a big bang? (See what I did there with the big bang comment, it being a sci fi game and all, I know, I'm weird!)

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Mass Effect 3 has to be the first game to get an award for the most hated ending of all time. But why is that? How did it come to petitions (although at least this is being done in a positive light, http://retakemasseffect.chipin.com/retake-mass-effect-childs-play) to a gamer actually bringing the issue to the Federal Trade Commission and Better Business Bureau claiming that the ending of the game does not live up to claims made in their advertising campaign and PR interviews. The user wants a new ending within 30 days or he plans to return the game (http://kotaku.com/5894278/mass-effect-3-fan-complains-to-the-feds-over-the-games-ending). But why all the hate? If you have not beat the game yet, do so them come back, this sucker is going to have spoilers leaking from everywhere.

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