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Man, where did 2012 go? Must've been all that time I spent playing video games. Anyway, it's time for another round of Bitmob's Big 10, where we feature the most popular stories of the previous month, as written by you, the Bitmob community.

This month's list has a great mix of first-timers and old site veterans, covering topics as diverse as sex, drugs, and Final Fantasy. (OK, maybe those aren't that diverse. Anyway.) Congrats to everyone!

Here are the most-read community articles for October 2012:

10. Far Cry 3 might lead to a new era of first-person shooters by Chandler Tate

9. Video game music just isn't the same any more by Bryan Harper

8. The Legend of Zelda needs to evolve by Brandon Guerrie

7. My completely objective Resident Evil 6 review based on other reviews by Mark Purcell

6. Experimenting with video games as drugs by Nathaniel Dziomba

5. The one Final Fantasy game you should play by Nate Ewert-Krocker

4. A run-and-gun retrospective of three modern-day gaming classics by Jonathan Oyama

3. Stop the witch hunt: Exploits are not cheating by Carlos Alexandre

2. How I sold my soul for sex in the Mass Effect series by Michael Westgarth

1. 5 games you should play for Halloween by Jesse Meixsell

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Do you want to be on next month's list? Here are some tips:

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It's my dream to write for a major gaming publication. I work hard to hone my writing skills and make contacts in the industry. It can be demoralizing at times. But this is my dream, and I want to succeed.

Then, after one Eurogamer article questioning journalistic integrity in the industry, I watched Twitter explode with game journalists defining what "Games Journalism" is. Personally, that opened my eyes a little. Not so much in terms of the ethics (or lack thereof) within the game industry, but in terms of what this industry needs to provide for people like me.

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Standing in the room where the creators of my country drafted a declaration of Independence was surreal. I could feel the history in my bones while I stood in awe. This powerful feeling subdued my cynical outlook on history. Then, as the tour guide spoke, I realized I had already felt this feeling before while playing Assassin's Creed III. 

This was my first visit to Independence Hall. The fact that I would be taking a tour of the building only days after buying and playing ACIII is pure coincidence. I already knew the layout of the building, which, for the most part, is accurate within the game. This experience made me realize that the virtual and the actual do have an emotional connection. 

As part of ACIII’s narrative, protagonist Connor pops into Independence Hall. Connor witnesses George Washington accepting command of the Continental Army, and he sees the drafting of the Declaration of Independence. These events sent a cold chill down my spine. I realized that I was witnessing the creation of my country. Even though it happened in a video game, the event still profoundly affected me. All of a sudden, I had the patriotic urge to join the cause against the British.

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Curiosity is driving me insane. Peter Molyneux's new studio 22Cans just released its first project, a mobile game called Curiosity -- What's inside the cube. The idea is that players around the world are working together to chip away at the layers of a massive spinning cube. Even though it takes a planet to deconstruct it, only one lucky player will see the mystery hidden in the inner-most layer.

While that sounds time-consuming, Curiosity is fairly fun to pick up and put down ... but only when the severs work.

Since Curiosity is available on iOS and Android for free, millions of people can log on at the same time and clear massive chunks of the cube as they go. But the servers on 22Cans' end can't withstand the overload and routinely boot people off or refuse to connect at all. I expect this from such an ambitious online project, but I didn't anticipate losing hundreds of thousands of points and coins because I happen to boot the game up at a bad time.

At seemingly random intervals right now, Curiosity will completely reset your coins (in-game money used to buy very expensive power-ups) and the running total of broken cubelets. When decent power-ups cost upwards of 300,000 coins, suddenly losing hours of progress is very demoralizing. 

What burns more than losing money is that the game will retain the progress you've made without giving you credit for it, but sometimes the entire cube won't load properly and look as if no one has really worked on it. 

I suppose all this crashing proves just how interesting Curiosity is for gamers, but it's frustrating to see so much work vanish at a moment's notice. I hope 22 Cans has a quick fix, since the developers are totally aware of the server problem.

All I want is to fulfull an obsessive-compulsive need to tap my iPad screen to death!

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Once again, we demand a recount with our army of paid pundits!

It's here! It's finally here...an end to all the commercials, robo-calls, and street teams knocking on our doors! Today we choose the leader of the free world! At last, the democratic process upon which we founded our beautiful country will leave us the hell alone. And whether we canonize Mitt Romney or extend Barack Obama's contract (with America), you know one lucky winner will strive make our lives better and run the entire country into the ground. Well, that's what my TV tells me, anyway.

What say you, panel of experts? Any plans or predictions for election day?

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"I'm busy today."

- The Master Chief, Halo 4

 

 

 

 

 

 

"I'm voting for the Peace and Freedom Party's one-two ticket punch of Rosanne Barr and Cindy Sheehan. It's like the best Saturday Night Live sketch ever!"

- Isaac Clarke, Dead Space 3

 

 

 

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Fans love the epic, emotionally charged music from The Legend of Zelda role-playing franchise. I recently chatted with Jason Michael Paul, creator of The Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddesses live-concert series, to ask him what makes Zelda's music so special, what his dream project would be, and what the future might hold for video game music concerts.

Louis Garcia: Why do a show focused on Zelda?

Jason Michael Paul: I just think that with a 25, now 26-year, history, Zelda is one of the most [storied] franchises. We saw the success of those concerts [Paul previously created Dear Friends: Music from Final Fantasy and Play! A Video Game Symphony], and it was kind of [a] necessity that we do a concert to continue on. It’s more or less a natural progression. There’s only two franchises worthy of getting their own concerts: Final Fantasy and Legend of Zelda.

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Halloween is over, but that doesn't mean you can't drink in the coolness of this custom-painted Castlevania Game Boy. French artist Oskunk used a damaged first generation model for this design. It's a shame that the screen is broken.

Considering how much I loved Castlevania: The Adventure when I was a kid, seeing a handheld like this would have blown my six-year-old mind. So what if you climbed ropes in that game rather than going up or down stairs? It was still Castlevania in my hands that wasn't the horrible Tiger Simon's Quest LCD system that my grandmother picked up at a yard sale years before.

So, given my first handheld Castlevania experience, those quirky Game Boy titles were amazing. 

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I downloaded Corpse Party for the Sony PlayStation Portable to prepare myself for Halloween. Anything with gothic violence and cute anime girls wins in my book.

The Corpse Party narrative soon gripped me with more scares than many other horror games ever threw at me.

Corpse Party is an unusual indie throwback to old text-based horror games. It focuses more on the visceral horror setting rather than relying on intense action. The nasty deaths in the game shocked me with agonizing screams and detailed, bloody descriptions. Although the characters could literally talk for hours on end, I enjoyed every second of the experience.

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All I've ever wanted was to have a real actor trapped inside my iPad. Not really, but if I did desire that, performer Warwick Davis is ready to offer his services in his quirky iOS game Pocket Warwick. 

You might remember Davis from movies like Willow and the Leprechaun horror series, but he's been in tons of other films portraying unexpected roles. He was in Labyrinth, for example, but he was one of the many actors inside the goblin soldier costumes. Davis also played several characters throughout the Harry Potter adaptations. 

Well, digital Warwick isn't nearly as experienced as his real-world inspiration and depends on players to help build his career. You'll have to feed, clean, educate, and entertain Warwick as he tries to move up the celebrity ranks from Z to A. You'll also get a chance to put him in tons of ridiculous costumes.

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The Games Media Awards held in London last month caused quite a stir when the public found out journalists were tweeting PR-prompted hashtags in return for a chance to win free gear.

The news got out of hand quickly, and video-game journalists and fans are still talking about it. The image above, of journalist Geoff Keighley forcibly surrounded by junk food as part of an interview, became emblematic of the issue (though not Keighley's fault).

Well, Bitmob is all about games writing. It's in our blood, and it's the purpose of our site. So when an issue like this grabs the attention of our community, we want to hear what you have to say.

We've already front-paged a couple of your articles on this topic, and our own Jason Lomberg has shared his opinion as well. But we thought it made sense to round all your thoughts up into one hub. So check out the article summaries below, and see what you think.

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The Matrix has been irrelevant since those horrible sequels ruined the original's goodwill, but I think the cartoonists at HBruna have found a way to bring some excitement back to the series by adding a healthy dose of Minecraft into the mix.

Seriously, this is a very well-made video for such a silly concept. Although it's not too much of a stretch to imagine all of those addicted Minecraft players losing their grip on reality. You can watch it all after the jump.

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Let me guess. You like video games, and you hate your day job?

You’re not alone. I think everyone would rather get paid to play big-time titles all day than do anything else.

A dangerous misconception exists regarding these dream jobs, however. They're not an excuse to play all day. They're work.

And life is about doing something meaningful.

Does that make sense?

Work makes life worthwhile. To throw your body, mind, and soul at a meaningful task is a human being's source of satisfaction.

To be utterly spent, exhausted, and bloodied while knowing that you’ve accomplished something great is the sweetest feeling.

Now let’s examine the dream of being a games journalist.

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