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This article contains minor spoilers for Deus Ex: Human Revolution and Mass Effect 3.

I'm guilty of blaming game developers for creating unsatisfactory conclusions to otherwise outstanding stories that, quite frankly, deserve much, much better. You see, I recently revisited Eidos Montreal's cyberpunk masterpiece Deus Ex: Human Revolution to remind me of how expertly crafted its story is and how effectively its sinister atmosphere managed to make me feel paranoid of the world around me. 

Everything is just as I remember: the characteristic sepia tone of the world, charismatic voice acting, and the ... not so great ending. Human Revolution’s critics might have criticized the misplaced-and-immersion-shattering boss battles at the time of its release, but I found the polarizing ending to be far more disappointing. 

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Nintendo's iconic characters have sure changed over the years. Before Mario got blue pants and Link's hair developed depth, players relied on advertising mock-ups and box art to really understand what game protagonists looked like.

If you liked red-pants-wearing Mario and '80s Link, you can now preorder 3D models of those illustrations from Japanese site AmiAmi. Each character retails for around $10 and really does look like the old Nintendo Entertainment System advertising art. 

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As a (nearly) obsessive gamer and rather unsociable person, I can’t say I have very much experience with romance. I’ve tried making a move once or twice, but for some reason girls just aren’t interested when I ask them if they want to play with my Wii. Go figure.

But since my parents are threatening to evict me, I’ll need to learn how to woo a prospective spouse with my manly charms. So for the past few weeks, I’ve been learning all that I can about love from video games. The correct way to make an advance, where to bring her on a date, what kind of presents to give, how to propose, what married life is like, how to get a divorce -- all things I needed to know.

Thankfully, I have access to a wide collection of games and was able to complete my task easily. And now that I am an enlightened man, I’ve come to share my knowledge with you of lesser charisma. So sit down children, and let the gaming school of romance begin.

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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 step into the squared circle with WWE '13, explore the madness that is the Just Cause 2 multiplayer mod, discuss Ubisoft's PC piracy issues, and more. 

WWE '13's 'Attitude Era' isn't capable of recapturing what wrestling used to be
By Brandon Guerrie

I'm something of a closet wrestling fan, but I came to the scene later in life, so I never played the classic Nintendo 64 grapplers. Brandon says that today's games are a reflection of today's wrestling stories and characters...and that neither are a good thing.

Glorious schadenfreude: Just Cause 2 multiplayer mod
By Adam Carey

We've had multiple articles about Just Cause 2 lately, but Adam's focuses on the recently released multiplayer mod for the PC version of the open-world title. Like the zombie-apocalypse mod DayZ, Adam says this mode lends itself to crazy, creative, emergent gameplay.

I'm so over zombies
By Trevor Hinkle

Speaking of zombies, Trevor is so over them. It's true that we've seen a veritable outbreak (get it?) of undead-focused titles in the last few years. Trevor says it's putting a damper on gaming creativity. "At this point, let’s give those zombies a break from eating our brains and our lead," he writes.

How much of Ubisoft's PC piracy is their fault?
By Justin Davis

Ubisoft recently made the claim that up to 95 percent of their games are pirated. Justin considers the possibility that the company has brought that fate upon itself with draconian digital-rights management policies. "Instead of learning from their mistakes, Ubisoft has made things progressively worse with each release," he says.

The best strategy game since Final Fantasy Tactics and Disgaea
By Anthony Conta

Quite a cliffhanger, that headline. What is that game, you might wonder? Anthony says it's Pokemon Conquest, the bizarre mashup between Pikachu and crew and Nobunaga's Ambition, Koei's venerable strategy series. Anthony says he's been playing for 90 hours, he's only halfway through the game, and he still loves it. Guess the combination did something right.

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In case you hadn't heard, Nintendo Power announced that 2012 will be the final year of the long-running print magazine. For many old-school gamers, that's news worthy of mourning (look at the article below for proof). 

And even though we're a website, we still have a soft spot for the old print publications. (Our fearless leader Shoe used to be the boss of one of them, after all.) We know you've got fond memories of those magazines, too. So now's the time to share them.

This week's Bitmob Wants You prompt is simple:

1. Write any article about your memories of any gaming magazine, past or present. It could be about one game, one publication, or the whole industry...as long as it's personal.

2. Submit your articles to the Mobfeed by Wednesday, August 29. And be sure to add the tag "BWY Magazines" so we can collect them. 

That's it! So get writing, and let the mourning (and the healing) begin. 

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I remember two moments in which I knew that I loved Rachel. As it turns out, both those moments involved Street Fighter IV.

Of course, I'm getting ahead of myself.

In my youth, my mother would often roll her eyes as I was jumping on Koopas, collecting gold rings, and throwing fireballs. I would often hear from her that my attraction to gaming was a phase and that I would grow out of it eventually. Of course, in the '90s, gaming was not the industry it is today. I cannot blame her for thinking in such a way. 

She probably looked at video games the way her own parents probably viewed that crazy rock-and-roll music. Regardless, I'm happy to say that I did not grow out of gaming.

As it turns out, my love of all things pixilated and button-mashy led me to my girlfriend....

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Last Saturday, I got an email from my good friend, Player 1. It was a short and to the point: P1 wanted me (hereafter referred to as "Player 2") and our mutual buddies, Players 3 and 4, to set aside time in our schedules to finally finish the co-op campaign we'd all wanted to knock off our lists for some time. The game was Double Fine's Iron Brigade (formerly known as Trenched), an absolutely delightful tower-defense/third-person shooter.

The four of us purchased this game on release day fully intending to complete the campaign together. All four of us. No man left behind.

Trenched was released June 22, 2011. When I got this email from Player 1, well over a year later, we were a little over halfway through the campaign.

We're not the only group of friends who've run into this situation. The rise of online multiplayer and AAA titles that feature entirely cooperative campaigns just highlights how monstrously difficult it is to coordinate four adults living four busy adult lives in four seperate cities scattered across the country. It can be done -- and I've got tips to help make it happen -- but the process can be an adventure in itself.

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The gaming industry is developing itself from a different angle than it always has. Rather than looking for the next big invention or hit, many companies are simply trying to push their products out the door. Unfortunately, this gives us many cookie-cutter games under one genre title, and more often than not, enormous parts of the development process are sacrificed to make another dollar.

Lets take for instance the Call of Duty franchise. I, myself, am a dedicated fan and have been since Call of Duty 2. World at War was refreshing; it had a great plot line, beautiful art, and introduced a new game type called Nazi Zombies. Modern Warfare took it to another level, bringing a refreshingly contemporary feel to the series as well as some brilliant enhancements to the online experience.

Because of the popularity of the series, the designers feel like they don't need to make as many changes. Why ruin a good thing, right? Don't fix what isn't broken. But the demands of more serious gamers are increasing, and if these concerns go unaddressed, it could lead to another industry crash.

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As long as video game journalists talk to video game developers, we will read about controversy and sensationalism. I should expand on that statement: As long as journalists talk to anyone, we will read sensationalist articles. Let’s expand that one more time: As long as people talk to people, we will read about sensationalism, and journalists will blow everything way out of proportion, and they will take things said out of context, and did Jenny really say that about Peggy?

People will talk.

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Critics regularly and rightfully knock video games for their oft-silly plots and cheesy dialogue. A ton of bad translations from the original Japanese (“All your base are belong to us,” anyone?) floating around doesn’t exactly help, either.

But it’s not all “Green elf…is about to die!” and Jill sandwiches. Occasionally, we get a “FINISH HIM!” to kick us out of our complacency. That one command in Mortal Kombat completely changed the tenor of nearly every fighting game from semi-friendly competitions to brutal bloodsports in the space of two words. The sentiment struck a chord.

When developers really start thinking about what games can do and what they can be, it usually comes out in the dialogue. So here’s five more quotes that took five games, the people who played them, and even the entire industry into dramatic new directions.

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During an interview with GamesIndustry International, 2K Games boss Christoph Hartmann made the statement that certain types of games are unable to achieve particular emotions due to the limitations of current technology.

He surmised that if we were able to achieve photorealism in games, then we could properly convey those emotions.

"Recreating a Mission Impossible experience in gaming is easy; recreating emotions in Brokeback Mountain is going to be tough or at least very sensitive in this country...it will be very hard to create very deep emotions like sadness or love, things that drive the movies. Until games are photorealistic, it'll be very hard to open up to new genres. We can really only focus on action and shooter titles; those are suitable for consoles now. To dramatically change the industry to where we can insert a whole range of emotions, I feel it will only happen when we reach the point that games are photorealistic; then we will have reached an endpoint and that might be the final console."

Naturally, this was met with a fury of gamers coming out in droves to declare that, "GAMES DON'T NEED GRAPHICS!!!!" and other arguments that fail to really understand what, I think, Hartmann was getting at.

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Okay, this obviously isn't the real Christopher Walken, but the impression is good enough that I still find this "Walkenthrough" absolutely hilarious. Who else would describe the original Legend of Zelda as a game about a Christian elf who murders innocent creatures to steal their money?

If you have a prescription for more Walken, you can find him talking about other games at GameSocietyFilm's YouTube page.

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