Game of the Year 18th Place Critique

So I'm now three for three. It may just be that all of you who are so desperate to know at this stage what the final order of the games will end up being can get it far ahead of time here if this continues (no guarantees though!).

Since of course this week was basically spot on in giving the game I expected along with its number of points, I don't really have anything new to add in terms of revelations for the future so I'll just jump into examining the judges' choices.


Jennifer Shahade: I guess Jenn was really determined to throw me for a loop as after I regained my faith in her last week, she shows up with this "unusual" ranking (unusual at least compared to what the other judges and I seemed to think). I can certainly appreciate her logic for ranking this game high (after all Greg and myself gave this game a similar praise when we voted it GOTW), but I just can't quite agree with it here. This of course is strictly a matter of opinion, but I am still firmly of the belief that quality should be the overriding factor by far in a contest which measures the "best" games of the whole season.


Ron Young: As always a nice side story to explain his ranking. Even if I feel he ranked this game a bit too high, I certainly will never be able to complain about his commentary being boring.


Alex Shabalov: Shabalov also seems fairly determined to mess with my mind as he too after reassuring me last week, chooses again to show up with this boring no nickname comment?? I guess I can only be so hard on him for that given that I find his ranking of this game fairly agreeable, and I suppose some might want to thank him for this omission since a reliable source informed me of the danger his life was put in when he referred to one of last week's unfortunate victims by this chosen moniker to his face. I definitely don't count myself amongst that group though and really hope for a return of them in future weeks.


Robby Adamson / Dennis Monokroussos: Hard to criticize much here given their comments and rankings were basically dead on with my line of thought on this game.


Be sure to keep in tune to see if my perfect streak can stay alive for one more week!