Celebrations! Today is the Ultimate Gaming Union's 4th Annivesary!

I can hardly believe it myself that the UGU has been running for so long. It's been mentioned before but I'll mention it again, some of us have known each other longer than we've known friends in real life. That really is quite something special. I also must thank everybody here at the union for being with us for so long and keeping our board busy. Artekus and DPumbliQ you have been with us since the very beginning, and for that, we love you! The rest have also been with us for years, your loyalty is most admirable.

And your reward? You can get a pat on the back

Congratulations to the Member of the Month for February...

Congratulations to the Member of the Month for January...

Ultimate Member of the Year 2010

Congratulations To:

DPumbliQ (I has teh lulz)

The_Last_Ride (Got Nothing Better To Do)

Artekus (Mr. Serious)

In_Vino_Verita (Lurking Larry)

Artekus (Ultimate Member of the Year 2010)

Ultimate Game of the Year 2010 

Genre Awards

Best Action Adventure Game

Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood

Best First-Person/Third Person Shooter Game

BioShock 2 

Best Strategy Game

Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty

Best Fighting Game

Super Street Fighter IV 

Best Horror Game

Alan Wake 

Best Racing Game

Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 

Best Role-Playing Game

Mass Effect 2 

Best Sports Game

Fifa 11 

Best Puzzle Game

Limbo 

Platform Awards

Best DS Game

Pokemon Heart Gold/Soul Silver

Best PC Game

Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty 

Best PlayStation 3 Game

God of War 3

Best Wii Game

Super Mario Galaxy 2 

Best Xbox 360 Game

Mass Effect 2 

Special Achievement Awards

Best Graphics

God of War 3 

Mass Effect 2 

Red Dead Redemption 

Best Multiplayer

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 

Best Music

Mass Effect 2 

Best Story

Mass Effect 2

Best Voice Acting

Mass Effect 2 

Most Improved Sequel

Mass Effect 2 

2011

Most Anticipated Game

Mass Effect 3 

Game of the Year 2010 Award

Best Overall Game

Mass Effect 2 

Another year has passed and we all still remain here at the Ultimate Gaming Union posting away; wearing the letters off ours keyboards as we sweat relentlessly to keep this great establishment alive. Well...give yourself a pat on the back

No but in all seriousness, thanks for staying with us! Especially our most loyal members:

Artekus - Our longest serving active member and an original Charter Member. 

DPumbliQ: - A member who decided to join us the day after we formed and has humoured us ever since.

I also thank loopy_101, The_Last_Ride, woonsa, victorwang who have been with us for years also. Thank you for the loyalty, it is greatly appreciated and without you we couldn't run this place! So keep it up and we'll continue to grow and go onto World Domination? Nah, that might just take it a step too far

Anyway of course, to games. 2010 saw the likes of Mass Effect 2, Red Dead Redemption, Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty and much much more. But that is all in the past, and we must look to the future; which looks like it may just hold a lot for us. 2011 could be one of the great years for gaming in recent times and we shall see an array of sequels that looks extremely promising:

Batman: Arkham City - The exciting-looking Action Adventure game to continue the story of the awesome Game of the Year nominated game that was Batman: Arkham Asylum.

Mass Effect 3 - The great finale to the Sci-Fi series which has been running since 2008 in which we shall see our choices come together and we shall see the consequences of our actions and how they have affected the galaxy.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - The much awaited sequel to Oblivion the awesome open-world RPG, much excitement and hype is built around this game and we shall get our eyes will get the first glimpses on January 6th.

There are many other games that are much anticipated for in 2011. Such as the MMORPG that is Star Wars: The Old Republic, will there finally be a capable challenger to World of Warcraft? We shall see. But one thing for certain is, 2011 has much in store for us, and the UGU will be here to cover and discuss it all.

Congratulations to the Member of the Month for November...

Congratulations to the Member of the Month for October...

Congratulations to the Member of the Month for September...

I am very pleased to announce that we have reached our Union Target of 500 Union Members this year! You may have heard me mention in a previous update at the start of the new year that this year we would aim to exceed 500 members. Well it's only September 12 and we've already hit that target! This is a great achievement and it's fantastic to know that the Ultimate Gaming Union is still increasing its Userbase after over 3 years of service here on GameSpot. Having such a large amount of members helps further increase recruitment as people are attracted to highly populated Unions as it gives a sense of a large and established community which the Ultimate Gaming Union certainly is now!

So a huge thank you to everybody who has been recruiting GameSpot Users and informing them about this place. It's with the help of your efforts that we've managed to reach this target and we couldn't have done it without you so give yourself a firm pat on the back and treat yourself to some cyber-cake! And to those who haven't put any effort towards recruiting new members, beat yourself silly! No not really, if you can't put in the effort to invite members to the Ultimate Gaming Union, your posts and Topic Creating on the board is still greatly appreciated!

But if you do want to start making an effort, then here's how. You can wear Union Tags/Union Signatures in your Signature Space, these can be found in the Union Directory. Be sure to link them to the Ultimate Gaming Union's Home Page, so people can easily find there way here and don't find it too much trouble to join the union. Alternatively, you could just put some text in your Signature Space which links to the Union or maybe just link your normal Signature, either way, it helps attract more people to the Union. We also have a brand new Union Recruitment Thread so posting a positive comment there would be greatly appreciated. GameSpot Users often are attracted to the threads which have more posts as they believe that if a lot of GameSpot Users are so interested in the topic that they are posting there, it's bound to be interesting to them also.

Now that we've reached this target be sure not to let the momentum decrease. Keep on trying to recruit more GameSpot Users, bringe as many as you can to the Ultimate Gaming Union! If you don't know how or you've simply forgotten it isn't that complicated! Anybody can recruit new members, including Recruits! Just click on the Admin tab, scroll down and invite all your friends and anybody else you mind see around GameSpot that looks like a good user! Keep it up as I want to smash this target so we can set an even higher one for next year!

This week you'll actually be receiving UGP for creating new threads! There are some rules and regulations so be sure to check out the Thread for more details!

Congratulations to the Member of the Month for August...

It's official! The UGU Points System is underway! You'll now be able to collect UGP (Ultimate Gaming Points) whilst posting on the Union Board. You'll do this by participating in union activities and such. Artekus, DPumbliQ, and Oli_Kester have put themselves forward so a big cheer for them please! They've been awarded with additional points for volunteering but have yet to track any points (remember to track points in this update DPQ!)

Whats even better is these points actually have a use! You can spend them at the UGU Shop. There isn't much in the shop at the moment due to the fact that the system has only very recently been implemented at the union. The Leaderboard and further details on the new union feature can be found at the thread.

Congratulations to our ex-officer who is returning to Office...

Congratulations to the Members of the Month for May...

Congratulations to the Members of the Month for April...

Congratulations to the Members of the Month for March...

March 15 2010 - Our 3rd Anniversary! It is absolutely fantastic that we've been running for so long and thank you to all you members who have been active and contributed to the union in all you weird and wonderful ways. I hope we can continue into the future with an even larger increase of the Union's population and activity. You Officers I'm thankful to as always for helping me by supporting and policing the union. Without you guys this wouldn't be possible. I don't want to make this a long speech so...celebrations everybody!

Congratulations to the Member of the Month for February...