Lurker > ZenOfThunder

Hey, folks! Welcome to the big night! Or, like, week. Because I'm doing this over the course of a week to drag out my fading stardom.

So yeah, why am I here? Oh right, I'm the "match pic guy" even though I barely make any anymore! I guess that means I have to point at people and tell them they're good. Maybe people will think I know what I'm doing!

Here's the first category: BEST MATCH PIC OF ROUNDS 1-2. Why combine the rounds? Because I flipped through round 2 and... I didn't really like a lot of them!

And here are our nominees:







A lot of very good pics! It was VERY hard choosing good ones because I'm going for an OVERALL look. One pic can't carry the whole thing, so when a great pic (Catherines) is paired with a Stock Ulti Pic (Sonic) then it's pretty much thrown out.

You all worked very hard on your half-a-pics! I have to say that you're all very talented, and that

THE WINNER IS PIC 43



Hooray! Everyone cheer for Yoblazer! This is Yoblazer's first nomination and his first win. He's also the first to win a Piccy, period.

EDIT: I forgot greatone10! He did the top half. I kept associating this one with Yoblazer. Sorry, greatone! You are a great one too.

BUT WAIT! Zen chose a joke pic! He can't be for serious!

Well, maybe it's because it's the only round 1 pic to blow me away unanimously. It definitely evokes a lot of emotion, and it's both funny, intense and balanced all at the same time. It's got a good color palette that can grab your attention from across the room and the pics just WORK. They work! They work and that's that.

Runner up:



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~Zen

ALSO COMING SOON:

-Zen rates Trainers/Metroid! Because he forgot to in the first topic!

and

-Zen goes back to 2K3, the greatest contest of them all, and tears CJayC's match pics a new butthole!

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~Zen

It's the lack of a stroke that gets it included. The other ones weren't that bad.

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~Zen

So I'm gonna post the nominations. You can talk about who you think should win/what shouldn't have been included, but my mind is pretty much made up!! I'll be posting the winners of the main categories and the side categories, and at the very end I'll announce the BEST and WORST pics of the season!!

If you win feel free to post an acceptance speech.

THE NOMINATIONS:

Best of Round 1-2






Best of Round 3-4






Best of Round 5-6






Worst of Round 1-2






Worst of Round 3-4






Worst of Round 5-6




Best Individual Pic from Round 1-2 (just the half of the pic; not the full thing)
(bottom)
(top)
(bottom)
(bottom)
(top)



ALSO COMING SOON:

Overall Best/Worst (chosen from the winners of the above categories)

Most Visually Impressive

Most Technically Impressive

Laziest Pic

Zen's Personal Favorite Pic

Best New Picsmith

Best Returning Picsmith

Hardest Working Picsmith

Zen's Personal Favorite Picsmith

Best Supporting Picsmith

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~Zen

http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/61436687

I made another topic!

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~Zen

I'll make a new topic tonight. Promise! It takes time to pick Piccys.

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~Zen

Tonight I'm gonna go through all the pics and decide what and who get Piccys this year. I hope this becomes a seasonal thing!

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~Zen

Cya Tyder! Good job this year.

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~Zen

I hope he does

"Was this a bad contest?"

and the only option is

"YES, allow all fictional characters in next time."

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~Zen

:(

this contest sucks

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~Zen

Is there another bonus match?

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~Zen

I guess Bacon just didn't like having 9 pics or something. Maybe ending on a bad note. MAYBE HE NOTICED ALL OF MARIO'S FINGER IS MISSING.

Anyone wanna own up? We won't put your head on a pike.

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~Zen

It was pretty awful. Did anybody save it?

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~Zen

Pic 6


THIS is creativity. I would have loved a tiny Ganondorf robot in place of the Koopa Robot thing. Theme swapping is a thing that I hold dear to my heart (see: Tidus/Leon Kennedy game swap pic) and the very idea of Wind Waker Ganondorf riding in the Koopa Clown Car makes me salivate.

Overall: 9/10 (on a joke scale)

Pic 7


OH MY GOD

Overall: 12/10 (on a joke scale)

Pic 8


THIS is awesome! I really dig it. I like the top and bottom bits and I like the pictures the Picsmith chose. I like how Ganondorf's arm is cut off so it's got more room to breathe. It's all consistent, the background is clean and it's just CLEAN. Clean clean clean like Mr. Clean rubbed that clean bald head of his all over Photoshop.

I would have moved Link's name up a pixel. Also, I would have made the background gradient SLIGHTLY different from the gradients of the top and bottom. A little lighter, a little darker, whatever.

Overall: 9.5/10

Pic 9


I'm not really sure how you could get away with chopping off an entire portion of Mario's finger like that. The guy is POINTING AT THE SCREEN and there's just this hole in his finger. What the goddamn hell? How do you miss that. Bowser shouldn't be so dark, Link shouldn't be cropped so much and why use Pig Ganon art opposite Skyward Sword Link? Really questionable choices, especially considered they're like all crammed behind Mario. Is he the star of the show.

And Comic Sans for your VS? Really? On a yellow-to-brown gradient?

Overall: 3.5/10

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~Zen

[This message was deleted at the request of the original poster]

Almost done with the season! I'll miss you guys when this board closes :(

63: Mario/Bowser vs Link/Ganondorf

Pic 1


Our first pic and... It sure has a lot going on! A lot a lot. I think Mario is the best one here, and Bowser is the worst. He seems to just have such a strange variation of sprites/art representing him. Should have been all sprites all the time. Also, Link is SUPER GREEN. My eyes can't focus. So much going on! It was a good concept but I think it's hard to execute in general. Try limiting yourself a bit more next time, Picsmith!

Overall: 6.5/10

Pic 2


DEM EYES. I like this one more than the others because it doesn't have stupid names. I think it would have been cooler if it wasn't divided evenly; kind of make the lines a bit criss-crossy, you know what I'm sayin? Not parallel, if you catch my drift.

I think I would have given this one an 8 IF NOT FOR GANONDORF. WHY SO DARK, G-DORF? WHY SO GODDAMN DARK?

Overall: 7/10

Pic 3


"Why is Link fighting Darth Vader?! How did this get... oh. Oh, it's Ganondorf with the sword he never uses."

I STILL see Darth Vader there. At first I hated this pic but then i stared at it for a while and it's not that bad. I'll forgive the outer glow because the heroes are getting their final smash on. I like the VS in the middle; I'm thinking the weird stroke around it is a visual effect and not just a bad render.

The faded portraits on the side were pretty OK but Ganondorf is so super faded that if I look from the right angle I can barely see him at all. Same for Bowser, but to a lesser extent. I know if you have four things faded that you think you should make them all consistent with their opacity changes (like making them all 25% opaque) but you don't gotta be consistent cuz WE'LL NEVER KNOW!

PS the font is AWFUL. Completely destroys a lot of this pic's likability.

Overall: 6.5/10

Pic 4


HEY it's a disco party! I didn't realize that people at disco parties had an outer glow. I think it could have been toned down a bit more. And, despite being the blackest guy there, Ganondorf totally dances like a white guy. There's a PUPPET WARP tool in CS5 that can be used for posing people so they look like they're dancing. I'd recommend playing around with it sometime. It's really simple once you figure out what the hell is going on.

I like the background. Everyone stands out. The names are really cool and don't take away from the characters. And I'm partially rating this on a joke scale, so...

Overall: 8.5/10

this pic brought to you by DDR Mario Mix, the only Mario game ballsy enough to make Waluigi a main villain.

Pic 5


TOO MUCH FADING. My eye doesn't know where to go! Also seems pretty low res and I can't figure out why. It almost seems like... textured. Like a bad scan. Could have been worse, though. I can still tell who everyone is but this one honestly does nothing for me.

Overall: 5/10

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~Zen

Number 7 gets a 10/10 OH MY GOD it's so perfect OH MY GOD I wish I could have its babies

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~Zen

64: Red/Blue vs Cloud/Sephiroth

Pic 1


The downfall of a giant! Cloud and Sephiroth overthrown! This is totally noble nine breaking. TOTALLY. Anyway, this pic is TOTALLY solid. Good concept, executed as well as you could get. I can't find much to complain about!

Overall: 8.5/10

Pic 2


My first thought was "Hitmonlee? Really?" That is STILL my only thought. I see it and I'm like "wow that sure is Hitmonlee." I guess he was the only one that could work easily... Couldn't have Blastoise spraying Cloud with his liquid, huh? No, I suppose that wouldn't work...

Yeah, so I call this pic the "Fourth Wall Breaker" because it's clearly separated into four parts but all the characters are like busting out and it's such a weird thing to imagine. They're all in their own little cubes and then BAM HITMONLEE FOOT OUT OF NOWHERE better counter with my huge ass sword.

This is a weird pic.

Overall: WTF/10

Pic 3


I like this picture's border. I like the portraits up top. I like everything, I guess.

It sure is a match picture.

Portraits: Art/Art/CG/CG?
Bottom: Sprite/Sprite/Model/Model

Kinda consistent!

Decent background although I have no idea what it is.

Outer glow use isn't atrocious.

Nice use of drop shadow.

Transparency is OK.

...

But there's something off about this pic. I SHOULD be giving it an 8.5 or a 9 but I'm citing reviewer discretion on this one. I don't think the elements come together that nicely.

Overall: 7/10

Pic 4


Well the bottom looks to be a crop but at least it isn't impossible to make out what it is. It seems adjusted correctly so I can't knock it as much as a usual crop.

The top is alright, but I don't like Venusaur being in there. I don't think he fits and the first time I saw it I was like "why is Venusaur's head popping through the grass?" Not to mention he's the center, so it's like the Venusaur show or something. Cut him out, I think this pic has way more potential to be real awesome. Good effort here, Ulti. Also desaturate the green a tiiiiny bit next time.

Overall: 7/10

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~Zen

You MAKE a Ganondorf that dances using the puppet warp tool!

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~Zen

all of them pretty OK

commence the staring

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~Zen

Survivor 24: Hantz Family Values

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~Zen

how is cochran not getting laid

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~Zen

season lowlight: there was a challenge that had a private screening of Jack & Jill as the reward

how is that a "reward" in any way

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~Zen

cochran comes to board 8

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~Zen

thank you based bacon

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~Zen

that sure was a season of survivor

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~Zen

OH MAN

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~Zen

make fire

hot

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~Zen

brandon had such a dumb look on his face when he came in

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~Zen

need a gif of domino punching

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~Zen

As the contest winds down, I can't help but think that if it was the last one then I'll be happy just because I got to spend it with you guys. Here's to next year! Hopefully we'll be putting together pics of Batman and Harry Potter.



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~Zen

bump

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~Zen

If I were Sony I wouldn't fight the pirates as any attempts would probably be futile. I'd just put out the best hardware possible and hope people buy one just to hack the s*** out of it.

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~Zen

From: spooky96 | #437
Why weren't trainers/metroid pictures rated Zen? >_>

FUNNY STORY, I was writing them, then I got to Ulti's pic and was like "hey, didn't I rate these already...?"

then I just closed the tab

the power of a stock ulti pic. I forgot I needed to do them until now. maybe later.

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~Zen

damn you menji you are right

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~Zen

From: Menji76 | #422
Zen, look closely at Link's hair in Pic 3.

whaaaat am I supposed to be seeing

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~Zen

Pic 5


Again with the tiny pics having bad quality! I don't know how that happens. What program are you using, Picsmith? Tiny Skyward Sword Link looks really good when he's tiny, though.

So yeah, I like the background, I like the borders, I like the names, it's all clean, but I HATE the Cloud pic. I just don't like that pic and I don't like how people are always using it! It doesn't remind me of Cloud. He's like some teenage girl who's all reclusive and then she sees Edward Cullen and her eyes get all big and wide and she pulls her weird scarf thing down to say something. This pic to me is the ANTI-CLOUD. I don't know if that's what it's supposed to be like or whatever but it's DUMB.

But other than that I really think people should be doing more like this. Simple idea, simple to execute, but you get to be kinda artsy with the borders and background and stuff at the same time. It's a way to be kind of like Ulti with the stock pics but at the same time you get to be creative without it taking a really long time.

Overall: 7.5/10

Pic 6


AHHHH FLASHBACKS TO THE SWIMMING POOL PIC. This is... Well, it's a pic! It certainly is the four of them... with some overlay. And some black lines separating them. Yup...

TP Art/TP Model/FFVII Art/Dissidia Art. OK then. It wouldn't be that bad if Ganondorf got his art on. Also the proportions are wrong. Link is too close in.

Yeah, this is just like...

It's not bad. Just questionable.

Overall: 5/10

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~Zen

THIS IS IT! THE GREATEST RIVALRY OF THEM ALL!

62: Link/Ganondorf vs Cloud/Sephiroth

Pic 1


ALRIGHT! The first of the batch and it's pretty strong. I'd like to think that the first pic WAAAAAAAAAIT



LOOK AT THAT. That might as well be the entire match pic! What a poor render of Sephiorth's sword! It's missing an entire chunk! ABUSE OF THE MAGIC ERASER!

-20/10

OK, OK. Actually, that's only a small thing. The pic as a whole is pretty well made. We didn't get that many pics divided into four bars (other than those atrocious eye-shots) so I think we're overdue. The fact that a render of Ganondorf's WW swords exists is absolutely incredible, and just that warrants a pic on its own.

I don't like how the Master Sword spills into Ganon's part of the pic. It would be alright if the sections didn't have the light bevel. That's just another peeve, though! There's no big complaints I can make, so...

Overall: 8.5/10

Pic 2


IS THIS AN ULTI PIC?! OH MY GOD. He FINALLY. DOES IT. He makes a pic that is PRETTY GODDAMN GOOD. He didn't crowd it, he was consistent (SCII Link counts as OoT Link), the backgrounds are neutral, there's no outer glow, and even though the renders are anti-aliasing kinda THIS IS THE BEST STOCK ULTI PIC EVER. I love it. I feel like we've all seen Ulti really find himself this contest. His journey is coming to a close. I wonder how he'll end it?

Overall: 7.5/10

Pic 3


This pic makes me really sad. I was thinking about all the glowing things I could say about it, and how it perfectly represents the four characters neutrally and cleanly and evenly with some iconic art and a good background, but...

but...

It's Link, Ganondorf, Cloud and Sephiroth. I'm looking at these pics and not feeling any excitement or emotion. This contest as a whole hurts the pics themselves. Pics can carry a lot of emotion. Remember Sandbag smashing into the Earth? Remember the Mario/Crono lightning pic? Those carried so much weight. They went up and the hype went from gargantuan to astronomical.

Then we see GANON post these pics in a topic and everyone is like "oh those are pretty good."

"those are pretty good"

Overall: 8/10

Pic 4


But hey then my hopes shoot up! This is pretty cool. No real attempt to blend them, but that's alright because it usually ends up looking weirder. No border, either. Ballsy! I think the top works a lot better than the bottom which is just some kinda blob. Also, what is the big rectangle in Ganondorf's background? It's like some growth that's just popping up into Link's pic. I think this one needed some brightness/contrast balancing. Good attempt, though.

Overall: 7/10

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~Zen

I love this series. I had all the NES games! I bought this $10 super Animal Crossing cheat disc from GameStop that let you completely break the game and I used it to get all the games. I remember they took a while to load up.

I also remember reading that in Japan you could send Animal Forest 64 to Nintendo and they'd put your file onto a GameCube memory card and when you got it back you'd have Ice Climbers in your house. Just a fun trivia nugget.

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~Zen

None stick out as bad. Will give thoughts after staring for things to nitpick about.

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~Zen

Best: Deus Ex: Human Revolution
Worst: Alpha Protocol (I don't care what people say about this game it is SO GLITCHY AND UNPLAYABLE)

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~Zen

what the hell is it then

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~Zen

of course that one is absolutely incredible. I think we all respect that one as probably the epitome of pics; it's even, clear, has good renders and represents something bigger than itself. Every pic maker should strive to get on that level.

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~Zen

If you post some of your favorites I'll tell you what I like about them

I really did like less than 10% of the pics there, that was a goddamn huge contest

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~Zen

THIS is so great. It looks like some artsy advertisement for like a car or a sports drink or something. Leon walks up in front of white backdrop and is like "YO BUY MY STUFF" and then a Portal Turret is being wacky in the background. so good



this one is confusing though



THERE IT IS. People who do this kind of stuff should be legends.



wow I don't even remember this one but even more props. Why don't we do this stuff anymore?



Hero
Bad Guy
...Transportation?

*imagines MM Link riding the moon*



cool, could have been COOLER



also cool, pics need more brofists



there were SO MUCH "pointing weapons at each other" pics this year.



SO. GODDAMN. COOL. Good job making Brawl Link look like TP Link there, whoever you are.



what am I looking at OH it's Tabuu

why did people keep putting Tabuu in match pics? So awful



also cool. SPEEEEED LINES. But done right!



hot. more back to back pics! I like how I'm not even analyzing anymore, just saying "I like this." This was actually a good year, I haven't seen much below mediocre. Nothing to tear a new one.



oh my god I worked so hard on this. Swapping covers. SO MUCH FUN. Got to tilt Leon's head and everything. Dunno what I was thinking with the middle part... I think it was like a dimensional rip. I also think I was sabotaging Tidus with his "DURRRR I'M IN A GRAVEYARD HA HA HA"



so badass



dat awful boss render

dat goron mask for no reason

cool idea though, I like a lot of white. clean pics are good pics!



link is robot and mario is dog



THIS is a cool idea. Vault 101 Guy can take them all if he has a Fat Man.



awful Zelda pics. QUALITY! There is always quality Zelda. Also why weren't there more pics of Lulu's boobs?



YEEEEAH CHRISTMAS PICS. Bacon needs to do more holiday themed things that aren't for the bonus matches.



my favorite Christmas pic. Good job KP. Would have been great if all the names were replaced and Bacon was on the naughty list. The other Christmas pics were all great, too.


Contest Overall: 8/10. A lot of great uses of creativity! You can tell the board really loved this contest because the pics were plentiful and almost all of good quality. I think from now on the best way to judge how good a contest is would be to check if the pics suck or not!

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~Zen

racistfaqs. people lost their s*** when they saw this.



I never liked this FFIX pic. Zidane looks like he's gonna hurl all over Minato.



Why can't I see Chell? I guess I'm not thinking with portals.



Vyse and crew want Shepard's nuts, but he's like "sorry vyse I don't go gay til Mass Effect 3 cuz Bioware now employs a bunch of furries and teenage girls"



I remember submitting like 300 pics of just random assortments of 2-6 MvC2 characters, but I guess Bacon thought it was more important to represent ALL of them in the pic and making it look like vomit. It evens the playing field, though, because MGS3 also looks like vomit.



What am I looking at on the right



early precursor to Ulti blurring the backgrounds



Batman looks like he's 90. Why this pic of all pics?



this is an action figure of Samus. Well, a statue. Add her to the Action Figure list.



THIS is awesome. Where have the funny early round pics gooooone.



Why does Link so washed out? There were a few of the washed out pics. Whose style was that?



GRADIENTZ and OUTER GLOW. Texture the background dammit! USE DROP SHADOW!



awesome vivi, why don't we use that one more?



personas look awful when all clumped together



PORTAL SPOILERZ what the hell



AWESOME Big Boss pic that nobody reuses



"what's the most iconic thing in oblivion"

"ALLIGATOR MAN"



this is cool, too bad it wasn't more freeform



also cool, I think Gordon might be flipped in the visor, though? Can't think straight, listening to THE SHOW while doing this



wow originality! but seriously good ideas



why do people like melee's roster more again



OH MY GOOOOOOOOOOOOD top 10 of all time



someone asked us how to cut up a pic like this and we gave him a template made in 2 seconds that was all ugly and I still feel bad that the template made the pic look so bad. My fault!



THIS is cool I like pics where it looks like they're actually fighting. DO MORE THIS. DO MORE THIIIIS!

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~Zen

Zen Reflective: Game of the Decade



So this was the theme for the first round. Cover art. OH MAN EXCITEMENT. There's almost nothing for me to comment on in this round.



Best box art or most damaging? You decide.



Believe it or not, that MM9 pic is of a T-shirt! For some reason Bacon couldn't find a legit scan of this art, as it's from a downloadable game so not "really" this cover art. I remember sending in a better copy I found but Bacon don't give two s***s.



Oh MAN the most one sided pic of all time.



Another game with no real cover, and it looks fantastic regardless. GG Tim.



ART



Everyone was saying that if Link was on the pic that it'd be OBLIVION FOR OBLIVION. This pic came out and people started cheering about Link being smack in the middle but it took like an hour for someone to go "uhhh that's not Link it's Raphael."



FINALLY freeform and things get interesting. Except for Deus Ex it stays really boring, apparently! Deus Ex, the game where... people stand around in an office! VOTE!



Another prime example of an Stock Ulti Pic. This is just a cropped Uncharted 1 wallpaper! The Uncharted fanboys lost their s*** with this one. So to make up for it we got a cropped promotional art shot with summa dat RED OUTER GLOW:





People really scrambled to find a pic of Chief looking to the left from Halo 1, and this is all we got. Meeeeeeeeeh.



It seems like NEVER was a good time for Vergil to turn around and show his face!



polar opposites, I love it. Kratos hates the animes. I think there was an anime vs western animation thread because of this pic. Also this Kratos was from the cover of his comic book.



There was a joke going around that the Morrowind guy actually was alive until he saw what he was up against. Then his skin fell off.



what am I even looking at in Perfect Dark.



croppin dat wallpaper. God this contest was unoriginal.



I remember listening to THE SHOW and Yoblazer was going all crazy over this pic cuz BioShock apparently looked incredibly because he looked like a disco ball or something? Then he gave the credit to Ulti EVEN THOUGH IT IS MY PIIIIIC *shakes fist* (you have to issue an apology next Show, Yoblazer)



Whoever made that Borderlands pic apparently googled "Borderlands Boobs" or something like that to get this pic. I haven't google it myself yet.

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~Zen

Raynor is a normal dude and probably gets laid regularly, Kerrigan is some crazy insect alien queen so I can assume she can get some slave to f*** her whenever she's horny or whatever? I didn't play FFIV or whatever Cecil is from so I have no idea about him.

Ryu is too much of a hermit to get laid and I think Ken has that hot wife and he probably slept around a lot before that. Fox has probably gotten laid a few times with Krystal and some other chicks at the academy (?) and I can assume Wolf is a goddamn pimp.

Team Raynor
Team Wolf (still not sold if someone can counter-argue)

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~Zen