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Niko Bellic had it all.

The expensive suits, a variety of apartments, a selection of carefully parked vehicles. OK, so he had to deal with the murder of his girlfriend, and he’d failed many, many times in getting revenge for it.

Besides all that, life was good.

And, within the blink of an eye, it was gone.

“Disc unreadable." Despite repeated attempts, my Xbox 360 refused to play the open-world crime fest known as Grand Theft Auto IV any longer. I needed to buy a replacement disc for Niko's life to continue. For various reasons, I ended up buying the game for my PlayStation 3 instead. I started Niko's journey once more from the beginning. Along the way, I got to experience some great moments again and also got to compare my newer journey to my first playthrough in 2008.

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LA Game Space wants to upgrade and democratize the creative video game community. The non-profit company is aiming to create a facility in downtown Los Angeles where people of different disciplines can come together to research, collaborate, and make new forms of interactive entertainment. The founders also envision it to be a place for workshops, lectures, and more.

They’re currently trying to collect enough coins from backers (via Kickstarter) to unlock this promising center. Some of the prizes for donating include 30 exclusive, independently developed games (including a collaboration from the creator of the animated series Adventure Time), founders credit, T-shirts, and even a cameo in the next Bit.Trip Runner title.  

I had a chance to talk with directors/co-founders Daniel Rehn and Adam Robezzoli, along with advisory board member Jeremy Douglass, about their objectives with LA/GS. Check out my interview to see why this just might be one of the most important new headquarters for the future of game theory, culture, and development.

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The Community Spotlight features some of the best unedited articles that didn't quite make the front page. This week, we ask if the upcoming Devil May Cry is crippled, call Microsoft out on a racial faux pas, search for a permanent multiplayer partner, and more. Join us!

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Is Devil May Cry running on a game leg?
By William Franklin

The stylish action of the Devil May Cry series relies on fluid, high-quality graphics for its thrills. So what happens when you cap the framerate at 30 frames per second instead of 60? William explores the reasons and ramifications behind this technical decision.

Microsoft Hispanic culture flub
By Louie Castro

The Xbox Live video dashboard features a section devoted to Hispanic TV and video...but to promote it, they chose an image of the very not-Hispanic Tommy Chong. (Stoner buddy Cheech Marin would have been an appropriate choice.) "This is the kind of thing that makes me glad I never purchased an Xbox," Louie says. 

Video games: Children's heroes and role models
By Brielle Wesley

Video games have made a lot of strides over the years, but as far as protagonists go, it's still a boys club. Brielle says developers need to think more about how their characters will influence young people and gender roles.

The pursuit for Player Two
By Cassandra Brabon

Cassandra takes a look at a recent Kotaku article about how gaming affects personal lives, especially in romantic contexts. "As with any relationship, it all comes down to respect," she says. How open are you about your gaming with potential partners?

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[The following contains spoilers for Grand Theft Auto IV and its two DLC packs]

Back in 2008, acclaimed author Junot Diaz (Drown, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao) wrote a piece about Grand Theft Auto IV entitled “’Grand,’ but No ‘Godfather.’" In it, he described GTA IV as:

 ... an example of our evasions as a culture, more of a fairy tale, more of a story of consolation than a shattering cultural critique or even, dare I say it, great art. GTA IV is a game that allows you to forget how screwed-up and complicated things are in the real world; it could have done more, it could have put that screwed-up complicated world front and center.

I’m not sure that I completely disagree with Diaz, but I am curious to know how (or if) his opinion would have changed if he had ventured to play the game’s two DLC add-ons, The Lost and the Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony.

I recently completed a second playthrough of the full game and the two add-ons, and I have to admit that my first time through GTA IV left a bittersweet taste in my mouth. The narrative concept of this particular entry was grand, but the game was just too damn long and its narrative sagged in places (Manny Escuela, anyone?). However, playing the DLC and the main quest at the same time made the narrative a much more cohesive and interesting experience. What emerged was a shared and rather grim story about chance.

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Ha! Animals are dumb. No wonder we eat them or keep most of them as pets. You want proof? Just watch Assassin's Creed III confuse the heck out of this stupid cat. An in-game animal walks off-screen, and the silly feline looks behind the TV to see where it goes. What a dumb animal. It clearly has no understanding of digital projection.

You can watch the adorable video for yourself after the break. Be sure to laugh and point at the cat when you do. That's the only way it'll ever learn.

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This year has been pretty amazing in terms of cinematic experiences for geeks and gamers. The Avengers was an epic melee of classic one-liners and superhero action, The Dark Knight Rises was a sound round-out to one of my favorite trilogies to date, and Wreck-It-Ralph plucked at my retro-loving heartstrings in clever, meaningful ways that resonated beautifully with its vibrant animation.

And yet, the most definitive experience this year for me came from an independent, two-person team delivering a deep and raw documentary that has been critically acclaimed by The New York Times and is the winner of the World Cinema Documentary Editing Award at the Sundance Film Festival.

The documentary, Indie Game: The Movie, is an exceptional exploration of the struggles small-scale indie developers face, but more than that, it analyses creativity at its very core and examines what people will go through in order to realize their dreams. Indie Game: The Movie is a passion project about passion projects. And the struggle of creating indie games demonstrates that this is the toughest creative medium to commercialize out there.

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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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OK, the voice you hear in this video doesn't belong to the real Christopher Walken, but it's a good enough of an impression to make this "Walkenthrough" of Dishonored incredibly hilarious.

Of course, it's not really much of a walkthrough. You won't learn any assassination tricks, but you will get to watch Walken try to throw dead whores at a guard. What more could you want?

You can watch the hilarity yourself after the break.

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Had I been born in another age, chances are that I would have been an explorer. Once upon a time, our world was wrapped in magic and wonder. Nowadays, an airplane ticket and a few hours time can span oceans. And, if you’re really ambitious, you might venture a mouse click and a keystroke or two to reveal the particulars of your destination on the flight over.

Perhaps, then, it stands to reason that the biggest draw of video games has been very much the urge and challenge to unravel the mystery of what waits behind the next door, inside of locked chests, or beyond distant mountaintops -- a sort of surrogate thrill in a world divested of secrets.

This seduction of exploration -- if only virtual -- caused me to slip out of bed at 4 a.m. on school days to sneak in a few extra hours of the original Zelda while my need to chart the unknown came up during parent-teacher conferences in the form of maps I had sketched of Metroid’s long shafts in the margins of my math homework. I doubt I’m alone here.

Clearly, games scratch a deep itch for adventure and discovery in an world now containing little opportunity for either. But what happens when the vistas and environments of video games become more familiar than the scenery outside our front door?

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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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