BEST STORY: MASS EFFECT 2

Mass Effect 2 may not have a story as good as the original, and some may have found Red Dead Redemption or Heavy Rain's story arcs to be better, but what makes Mass Effect 2's story so great isn't just the number of interesting characters and companions, but how the consequences of my actions in the original Mass Effect carry over into the second and how what I do throughout the entire game ends up contributing the overall story and ending of the game in some truly amazing ways which is why I chose it as the best story.

BEST GRAPHICS, TECHNICAL: METRO 2033

If you played this game on the PC you'll know why I chose it as having the best technical graphics. The game looks absolutely stunning. There's a great attention to detail and besides some framerate dips and the occasional bad texture everything in the game looks amazing and also makes you wonder why Fallout 3 could've have made post-apocalyptic environments look this beautiful.

BEST GRAPHICS, ARTISTIC: HEAVY RAIN

Heavy Rain has an amazing atmosphere, and much of that is due to its fantastic visual design. The environments are highly detailed and beautifully lit, the characters look incredible, and the game really does have its own sense of ****

BEST ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK: HEAVY RAIN

As mentioned above, Heavy Rain has an amazing atmosphere, and in my opinion, the music contributes to it even more than the visuals. The soundtrack really brings the set piece sequences and chases to life and it does a great job at portraying the mood of the situation. And every one of the main characters in the game has his/her own music that plays during their parts of the game that helps distinguish them from one and other and also seems very fitting for them in a way.

BEST VOICE ACTING: MASS EFFECT 2

Something more amazing to me than the sheer number of memorable characters in Mass Effect 2 is how each one of them has excellent voice acting. Whether you decide to play as male or female Shepherd your voice will sound great, and each of your companions and the rest of the main characters in the game have equally great dialogue and acting.

BEST MULTIPLAYER: CALL OF DUTY: BLACK OPS

With the rise of the four hour military shooter there's no shortage of multiplayer games to play, but with so many, a game must truly excel to rise above the rest, and many games this year managed to excel like Bad Company 2, Black Ops, and Halo Reach. And while Halo: Reach may have been my favorite shooter this year, I refuse to be intimidate by Gamespot's massive amounts of COD have and give Black Ops the award for best multiplayer. What I really like about it is how fully featured it is. There's dozens of game modes to play across on plenty of well designed maps, and the theater mode lets you show off your skills when you're not be creamed by glitchers or being sworn at by seven year olds with mics. Even with having one of the worst online communities ever in video games, Black Ops manages to still be fun when you go online. Wager matches add some variety into the mix and combat training lets you get an online experience without having to deal with the community (And really, if you play Black Ops on the PS3, no one uses mics anyways.)

THE GOLDEN BRICK FOR OVERALL BEST GAME OF 2010:

MASS EFFECT 2!

2010 wasn't a fantastic year for games but there still was a good amount of great games to come out like Halo: Reach, Red Dead Redemption, Heavy Rain, and Bad Company 2. But in the end, I believe that Mass Effect 2 triumphs over them all. A genuine masterpiece of the gaming world, Mass Effect 2 had incredible visuals, exciting gameplay, excellent music and sound effects, terrific voice acting and an interesting story where your actions from the previous game have consequences, as well as every action you make in this game. Mass Effect 2 is an incredible game and if you have a 360 or a powerful enough PC and haven't played, go get it now. And if you don't have that opportunity, get it as soon as it comes out for the PS3.