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This past Wednesday, GameDwellers took place in an historic protest. A protest for the ages. The largest internet protest in the history of the internet. Along with internet giants such as Wikipedia, Reddit, Destructoid, Google, Minecraft, and hundreds of others, GameDwellers was "blacked out" for 24 hours to express our concern over the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA.)

The good news is, we have won....for now, at least. The United States Congress (SOPA) and the United States Senate (PIPA) have both recently openly stated that both bills are currently being reworked to address the public's concerns.

So now that we have at least postponed the fall of our free speech on the internet, let's get back to gaming, shall we? We haven't had a major video game release in a while, so most of our staff are playing some old favorites as well as some of the highlights from 2011. Head past the break to see what we're playing this weekend.

With the announcement of the Wii-U, this may be somewhat of a moot point; however, all of the games for the Virtual Console were super old to begin with, and that never stopped Nintendo before.  I guess they don’t hesitate when a buck is to be made.  Well, seemingly anyway.  Pretty much the existence of this list is based on the Nintendo contradiction of their love of money but somehow never seem to do the things that would generate them money.  Go figure.  I’ll explain throughout.  Anyway, as your Holiday feast slowly digests and the eggnog heads south, as the euphoria of Christmas Day and presents that you really wanted and received fades as well as the disappointment of those you did not, I present to you my wishlist of disappointments and only hope the day will come when I can purchase these titles, even if I must purchase them myself.

Bryan here! I'm going to be writing a weekly fact column about video games every Sunday. Each week, I will make a list of random facts about video games and the video game industry, all for the sole purpose of education (but really, it's just for entertainment.)

This week's list focuses on the many myths that people associate with violent video games, but we've managed to narrow it down to just eleven.

We've been hearing rumors for months about the possibilities of what the next-generation of gaming consoles will bring us (and yes, the term "next-generation" has officially been revived.) We've known for a while that the Wii successor, the Wii U, is on its way to store shelves this year; but what about the next Playstation and Xbox consoles?

Within the past week alone, rumors have been flying about the possibilities of what we might expect Sony and Microsoft to do. First, we had a report that both the Playstation 4 AND Xbox 720 were going to be unveiled at this year's E3...and then several analysts suggested the exact opposite. To make matters worse (and more frustrating,) cloud gaming service Gaikai is predicting that either Sony or Microsoft won't even make another console. Sony themselves have also chimed in to suggest another scenario, saying that they don't plan to announce a new console in 2012; however, we know that Naughty Dog, the team behind Uncharted, is already developing software for a next-generation console (Naughty Dog is a Sony-exclusive developer.)

So basically...we have no idea what to really expect based on all of these different rumors, so let's look at the facts. The Xbox 360 is already more than 6 years old. The original Xbox was only 4 years old when the 360 was released, meaning that the Xbox 360 is already a considerable amount older than its predessor. On the other hand, Sony has always said that they plan for the Playstation 3 to have a 10-year life cycle (the PS3 just recently turned 5.) Sony might go against that original plan, though, as they were just recently quoted to having said that it would be "undesirable" to launch their next console later than the competition.

Don't you just hate when rumors start flying about what might happen at E3, especially when E3 is still several months away? Regardless of what happens, GameDwellers is just going to sit here patiently and wait for these rumors to sort themselves out. Below, you can see what CURRENT-generation games we are playing this weekend.

Ask me what a perfect game series is, and I will tell you The Legend of Zelda without a doubt.

We've all been to Hyrule and back. We've all played Ocarina of Time and marveled at it's greatness. What is it about The Legend of Zelda that keeps us coming back, keeps us yearning for more? This series has stood the test of time through multiple platforms, stories, graphics, styles, and even a remake. Zelda is one of the few games that everyone can agree on that is just shy of flawless.

Let's go back 25 years, to the first Legend of Zelda.

It all comes down to this. The game of the year. The best of the best. So what exactly determines which game is better than the rest? When determining which game deserves to be crowned our champion, we look at several qualities and aspects, and we compare all of that with the other nominees. For instance, when judging the Game of the Year nominees, we tend to ask ourselves a series of questions.

Does the game keep the player entertained throughout the entire campaign, story, and/or game modes? Are the players able to 'connect' with the characters? Does the game cause a sense of "I can't put this down! I have to keep playing!" even though the player has other, more important things to do? Is it pretty? Is it more than just a rip-off of some other game? Does it bring something new to the table? Does the game have a lot of replay value? Does the multiplayer aspect of the game (if applicable) allow the player to feel epic when they beats their friends fair and square? At atleast one point during the game, does the story make the player say "Holy crap! Did that just happen!?!" You get the idea...

So in the end, which games made the cut? Which games were we this close to awarding the grand prize, but felt that one other game was just that much better? Which game is our Game of the Year? Why am I asking so many questions?

Anyway....the GameDwellers' Best of the Best 2011 Game of the Year winner is.....

If there is one thing that we hate about having to choose only one winner for each award, it's that we can't choose two or three. When it comes down to the platform awards, it usually comes down to the very last vote that decides who the winner is. In the case of the awards for Best DS/3DS Game, PSP Game, Playstation 3 Game, and Xbox 360 game, a single vote made the difference between winner and runner-up.

The Platform awards can usually be seen as qualifying round for who gets to be crowned Game of the Year, but that might not necessarily be the case this year. If you look at our Best Playstation 3 and Best Xbox 360 game nominees, and then look at our Game of the Year nominees, you'll see that all five of our 360 nominees and four of our PS3 nominees are in the running for Game of the Year. But now, take a look at those nominees again. Nominees like L.A. Noire for Game of the Year are not even nominated for a single Platform award, and yet L.A. Noire is still a strong candidate to be the best of the best.

If we're not careful, this is going to end up being a lot like the United States 2000 Presidential election...or the 2008 election, depending on how you look at it.

Below the break, see which games get to walk away with a Best Platform Game award.

It's day 3 of our Best of the Best Awards 2011, and the writers here at GameDwellers are throwing punches and yelling threatening "your momma" lines at each other as the debates for which games should be crowned the winners of each award become more grueling.....

...okay, so that hasn't actually happened...yet. BUT, the final votes are coming in extremely close between the winner and the runner-up for several of our awards. That isn't the case for all of the awards though, as some games are walking away with every single vote. For instance, in our Genre category (whose winners are listed below the page break,) the Best Action/Adventure Game was decided by one vote while the Best Sports Game was unanimous.

The Genre award winners and more can be seen on our (newly launched) Best of the Best 2011 sub-site. which shows you all of the categories, all of the nominees, and all of the winners that you could ever dream of...unless of course the game you wanted to win didn't win...and then in that case, your dreams didn't come true...sorry...

And the 2011 Genre award winners are....

The Special Achievement awards are usually some of our favorite awards to give out. These awards are meant to recognize the individual qualities that the year's best games get right. The game with the most intriguing storyline, the game with the most stunning graphics, the game with the most enjoyable multiplayer experience. We also award the best, most interesting new character, the most talented voice actor, and even the best studio that made some of these games.

These Special Achievement award winners, plus more, can be seen after the page break. Tomorrow, we'll be officially (finally) launching our Best of the Best 2011 sub-site. Also tomorrow, be sure to return as we announce our Genre winners.