Wow. While I didn't know what to expect in terms of points total, I didn't think Uncharted 4 would place so high. Which means, once again, NOT BANNED BAYBAY!!!

But in all serious, this round was a toughie. I felt the cross-examination period rubber-banded a bit, with some activity the moment questioning opened, silence for a long while, then a flurry of questions/answers at the end (I chalk this up to people being busy during the week and only having time to focus on this during the weekend). I also was quite surprised I didn't answer many cross-examinations.

Regardless, to any of you who chose to vote, if it was only a point, I thank you kindly. Big congrats to both Batman: Arkham Asylum and The Witcher III: Wild Hunt for being recognized as Greats (tm). And as always, if people wanted to share what they voted for and why, I'll do so to by either going back and editing this post or dropping my decisions separately.

To close, shoutouts to @Capnbobamous for making these and to everyone who participates. These are so fun and I always look forward to them. Can't wait for the next one in three months!!

Devil May Cry is a series that I get hot-and-cold interest in at the very least watching. This started with the DMC 5 presentation during Xbox's 2018 E3 conference and it had such a jolly vibe. That said, I constantly hear DMC 2 is awful and the DMC reboot from Ninja Theory is divisive. Plus there are some enemies and art choices that are a turn off as well. As such, I don't hear about DMC 3 specifically. In one way or another, I've heard about every other DMC entry in some way. Weird but it is what is.

Also, top 5!!! And as such, I think I can guess the final four left to be revealed, but I'm curious as to the order.

The only Need for Speed I've played is Undercover, so I can't comment on Most Wanted. The only other thing I can add is I feel Need for Speed as a franchise is now to the point where I personally feel like it's been overdone and there's too many of them. It could use a break of several more years.

So this is when Ace Attorney started... Well, I've said all I can in other countdowns for other Ace Attorneys, but 17 years for a franchise is a sneaky long time for consistent quality. Good on ya Phoenix.

I've never gotten into Splinter Cell, but it's been a franchise that I should on paper because I'm such a big stealth fan. However, I'm kind of, in the best case scenarios, lukewarm on Ubisoft and honestly a little tired of the Tom Clancy brand. As for Splinter Cell specifically, I consistently hear Chaos Theory tops them all, with Pandora Tomorrow being a strong contender as well. But Splinter Cell also has a TON of games and I'm not really interested in both starting over and going through Sam Fisher's whole arc nor just jumping in blind. Nowadays, Splinter Cell is the one Ubisoft game I hear so many fans call out for and Ubisoft, for whatever unknown reason, just doesn't want to do. Granted, I thought the same about EA and Dead Space, but if the release date holds, we're just eight months from that so....

Of the 13 games from 2005 I've played, Pokemon Emerald sits at 6th.

Personally, I prefer Ruby/Sapphire over Emerald as I'm not a big fan of Scott or the post-game Battle Frontier. I DO think the coolest thing about Emerald are the double battles and how you can team up with Steven on Mossdeep Island at the Space Center (though I think it's kind of dumb he's a "secret" boss and not the Champion. Wallace, the Water gym leader from R/S is the League Champion, and the Sootopolis City Gym is ran by Juan and honestly, no Champion should have a single type, but that's another thing I dislike about Emerald).

And while I appreciate you getting to choose between Latios and Latias you want to spawn once you become Champion, getting a lv. 70 Rayquaza as early as you can in Emerald kind of makes the challenge not all that much. Instead, I wish he was 45 like the others because catching Groudon/Kyogre being roughly at the same level in their respective games and be a viable team member for the final Gym/Pokemon League. (And yes, I know you catch the opposite at Level 70, but that's more of an endgame thing and at that point, there's really nothing left worth doing).

Overall though, the third gen is the last gen of Pokemon I truly love. While I do agree the adventure goes down in quality once you go out to sea post Lilycove/Team Hideout (which is super fun!), it's still an overall great time. Like all three Pokemon gens I hold dear, I always find the opening hours the best. So in this gen, I would say by the time you finish Dewford Town is when the magic gets a little lessened for me. And because it's a Pokemon game, I gotta drop my preferred team:

With the exception of choosing Torchic (which, for me, all gen 3 starters are good, unlike the previous two, but I'm always partial to Fire types for whatever reason) and catching the given game's Legendary, all the rest of my final team I trade in from another game:

Metagross (from Beldum) and Salamence (from Bagon) are always locks, so no matter what, I will always have the same half of my final team (including Blaziken). To provide some varied typing, I'll also try to bring in Raichu (from trading Pikachu), and Crawdaunt (from trading Corphish). But along the way, at one point or another, I typically will make the effort to pick up a Taillow, Ralts, Shroomish naturally, and even trade in a Skarmory and eventually when I hit an appropriate level to switch them out for my choices above. However, if I'm lucky enough to have found an alternate Legendary (like the aforementioned Latios/Latias) from a previous playthrough, I'll sub out one of the others to ensure the Dragons are brought in.

Meaning: My ultimate Dream Team of gen 3 is:

Blaziken (Fire/Fighting)
Metagross (Steel/Psychic)
Salamence (Flying/Dragon)
Groudon (Fire/Ground)
Kyogre (Water)
Latios/Latias (Dragon/Psychic)

• [Rayquaza (Dragon/Flying) when not available]

To close, as always I want to give my digital fist-bumps to my fellow voters! Shoutouts to @Shoulderguy and @bruno_saurus!

@jdincinerator

1.) In terms of things not done in any Uncharted prior:

• The first thing that jumps to mind is the stealth icons/open level design to make stealth a more viable and rewarding option (which I mention in my presentation).
• Driving jeeps/boats is quite fun, particularly the former because of where you are and what you're doing. The winch on the front of the jeep provides some puzzle mechanics on how to pull the jeep up muddy slopes or break wooden beams for optional treasures for example.
• Related to the vehicles, the dynamic conversation system. For example: You're in the jeep and Sam and Sully are talking. You see a ruin so you stop and hop out. They'll say something like, "Oh we'll finish this later then." After you've finished exploring and jump back in the jeep, after a second, one of the characters will say, "What were you saying?" or "Where was I?" and pick up where they left off.
• Sam. Kind of a cop-out answer but still the truth.
• The dialogue choices. Quite few and not really consequential, but still neat to have three unique dialogues per situation and you can only have one per playthrough in these moments.

I'm sure I'm forgetting others, but these instantly sprang to mind.

2.) Not at all, as in my view, every Uncharted has had serious moments as well as a ton of levity. It's kind of what Uncharted's campy identity is to an extent. Personally, I don't see Uncharted 4 as any more or less serious than any of the others in the series.

Without boring all who read into the reasons why (and in no particular order):

Ico/Shadow of the Colossus
Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove
Crackdown
Killzone
Crash: Twinsanity
Assassin's Creed
Need for Speed: Undercover
SoulCalibur IV
Fuse
Destiny
Titanfall
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (the original trilogy)
Call of Duty: Black Ops
Inside

@capnbobamous For me, my interpretation is Nate is consistently in a, "it's either them or me" situation when the gunfire breaks out. In the line of work of "procuring valuable antiquities" as it were, almost everyone regardless of affiliation/loyalty must be willing to kill to reap the riches everyone seeks, and Nate always tries (and practically almost always fails, dependent upon the player in many situations) to not follow that model.

Does this mean Nate ever wants to? Not at all. There are several examples where he would prefer to involve himself in subterfuge or the non-lethal approach. To avoid bringing the rest of the franchise into this answer, I'll pull the auction: The plan is for Nate, Sam, and Sully to steal the cross when the power is out and extract without none being the wiser. He explicitly tells Sam there should not be any guns on the mission when he discovers a firearm (though Sam points out it's a tranquilizer). And by the end, as things often do in Uncharted, mercenaries bring out their weapons and open fire.

So, as always, Nate must find a way to survive. It's never his first choice. It's never a preferred choice. But for all the smooth-talking wise cracks he tries to use, he can't just stand there and be shot. And he never seeks to hunt out his enemy. The climax on the pirate ship is a perfect example of this: In the swordfight with Rafe, once he initially comes out on top, he says to Rafe he's taking Sam and leaving the ship, but if Rafe wants to burn with it, he's welcome to. Surrounding by a burning ship and temporarily having the upper hand, he still doesn't want to kill Rafe. However, Rafe won't let it go, so Nate must continue to fight to survive. He ultimately kills Rafe with by cutting down a hanging smattering of treasure, but he had no other options.

And another major plus about what I say in my presentation regarding the feeling like there are fewer "large" combat encounters is there are several you CAN skip (Primarily in Madagascar), or stealth your way through. There's even several trophies where you have to get reach certain sections without killing or even being seen (The Cemetary in Scotland, getting to and driving Elena's Jeep shortly after you reunite with her, and playing the ENTIRE segment from being Marooned to reaching the Treasury [which I think is two or three chapters] without killing a soul.).

So when people complain about Ludonarrative Dissonance, personally speaking, I've felt like it's been a complaint for something to complain about.

And in regards to not seeing a rebuttal, with how I write out my presentations, I typically write more so as a stream of consciousness with a rough outline to keep myself on track (thus how I close my first full paragraph). And every time, without fail, I'm over the limitations and have to make edits/cuts. However, I DO always want to make sure I mention criticisms/cons/negatives/etc. so in the event I don't fully address it/them, I can have the opportunity to answer questions such as yours, so thank you! ^.^

No further comment regarding any GTA.

Now that we've reached the top 10, I think with a very high confidence I could guess half of what's left, but I'm curious what's yet to be unveiled.