All-Time Greatest Game Villain Unleashed

Last year, you, the readers of GameSpot, came together to vote for the greatest game hero of all time…the single video game hero you felt was head and shoulders above all other game heroes, the strong, the brave, the unique, and the funny.

And after all was said and done, some nerd with a crowbar won it.

And this year, there's a whole new playing field with a cast of all-new iconic video game characters, and they're all better than any game hero. As a matter of fact, they're better than good. They're bad. Some of the meanest, sneakiest, most powerful, and, in some cases, most flat-out hilarious villains ever to grace a video or computer game screen are now entering the arena to see which one has what it takes to be declared the greatest of all time.

Like last year's competition, this year's will take place between 64 different characters who will take each other on in a series of one-on-one voting contests, with the winners advancing to the next bracket, going from 64 to 32 to 16 to 8 to 4 to 2…on to the final one. Before we get to that stage, we need to finalize just which 64 villains will be in the running. We've already selected 54 villains for the main competition, and there are spaces for 10 more. In the preliminary voting, you will pick those 10 villains from an initial list of 24 to enter the main competition. You will also be able to browse a FAQ that will answer any questions you have on how this works, and you will be able to post your thoughts and even campaign for your favorite villains in the All-Time Greatest Game Villain forum. You will even be able to win fabulous prizes and earn special achievements for active participation in the competition and for picking the best brackets…and for predicting the final winner.

What you will not be able to do is outguess the glorious GameSpot staff, who had a glorious showing last year and will obviously trounce the rest of you lowly readers with their glorious brackets this year. In a sense, you, the readers, will all be winners just for participating in the competition, but to put it another, more accurate way, only the GameSpot staff will be winners, and the rest of you will be losers. Isn't it obvious?

(Oh, and there will apparently be some special emblems for voters who actually somehow beat the GameSpot staff's brackets. But take it from the all-knowing, all-seeing GameSpot staff… that ain't happening.)