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From awe-inspiring graphics that blur the lines between real and virtual to a psychotic new villain named Vaas, Far Cry 3 is shaping up to deliver an experience that might shake the very core of the first-person-shooter world. 

When you look at typical FPS experiences, they are glorified Michael Bay movies with over-the-top, end-of-the-world storylines. They have steered clear from realism in favor of a linear, in-your-face focus with characters you couldn't care less about.

The fuel for Far Cry 3 is its new hero, Jason Brody, a modern man you can actually relate to. He's grown up in our technology-driven world. You, playing as Brody, have washed up on a mysterious island that is hiding a dark secret, your boat has been destroyed, and your girlfriend is missing. Even worse, everyone on the island is insane. This lush and seemingly serene location is brutal and lawless.

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Warning: The following contains major and minor spoilers for Resident Evil: Damnation.

Resident Evil: Damnation is extremely faithful to the famed survival-horror franchise. And that’s the problem: It’s too similar. And the reflection in the mirror isn’t very flattering.  

The movie’s slavish devotion to the games manifests itself in cringe-worthy dialogue, contrived situations, and characters that behave like teenagers in a slasher flick. This is exactly what we’ve come to expect from Resident Evil.

Ever since #4, Resident Evil has slowly morphed from a campy throwback to classic horror films into a formulaic third-person shooter, more akin to Gears of War than Alone in the Dark.

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Master Chief, the green-armored hero of the Halo series, is one of the most popular gaming characters since the turn of the century, but I never figured that the man behind his voice had a day job.

But Steve Downes, the chief himself, doesn't spend all of his time lending his vocal cords to the famous Spartan. He's also a radio DJ for a classic rock station in Chicago. Jeez, that sounds like two dream jobs. How lucky can one guy get?

Downes talks about his incredible fortune in the video after the jump. You'll also discover what happened when someone asked his wife if she ever calls him Master Chief.

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So we now have about a week and a half to go until Halloween, and if you’re a fan of horror games, chances are that you will be spending a lot of your time on the couch or at the computer, with the lights off and volume cranked up, playing some of your favorites.

Gamers have to be thankful for the fair amount of contributions to the horror genre available to them, but of course, like everything else, a few of those titles always manage to stand out from the rest due to their originality and innovation. Even those that are years -- even decades -- old still manage to just plain scare the living Hell out of us.

So, if you’re one of those longtime horror fans or if you’re looking to try your hand at the genre for the fist time, here’s a short list of 5 games that are most commonly considered among the best and why you should play them.

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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 express frustration at Syndicate, wage war on the ending of 999, tell a silent story in Kairo, and explain why multiplayer doesn't always work. Read on!

My biggest gaming disappointment of 2012, or: How Starbreeze Studios broke my little black heart
By Javy Gwaltney

Based on his time with developer Starbreeze's prior projects The Darkness and The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay, Javy expected to adore Syndicate. That...didn't happen. Javy explains why, and why he feels his complaints went unheard.

My war against the ending of 999
By Nathaniel Ray

999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors is a Japanese adventure game with a really long title. Apparently, it also has a hell of a twist ending, one that Nathaniel feels didn't fit the rest of the game. "I'm no professional game writer, of course," he writes, "but I do take issue when a writer creates a plot point that isn't supported with his previous writing."

Telling a story with no words: An interview with Richard Perrin, creator of Kairo
By Rory McCarty

Haven't heard of Kairo? Neither had I. But after reading Rory's interview with the man behind the game, I'm pretty curious. If you're into the indie adventure-puzzle genre, you'll want to read up on the designer's interesting philosophy.

Multiplayer doesn't work in every game genre
By Alexander Kraus

Seems like single-player-only titles are getting rarer and rarer, as publishers try to shoehorn in unnecessary multiplayer modes. Alexander's had enough of that. He writes: "Stapling some network code to games that were primarily single-player tend to harm both campaigns instead of enhance both experiences."

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We've been fairly in the dark about Irrational Games' newest release since they went underground to finish it up back in March 2012. However, new news (that isn't employee layoffs) is now beginning to trickle out. Later this weekend we'll see the first trailer in many months (countdown here) and just today the Premium and Ultimate Songbird editions of the game were announced.

You can get all the information about the Collector's Editions of the game by visiting Irrational's website. I'm more interested in outing a few interesting details that I noticed while reading the descriptions. Here's four new revelations about Bioshock Infinite:

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I've been thinking a lot about the sexism and bigotry in video games that has been popping up in the news, lately.

You can't swing a dead cat nowadays without hitting some kind of cookie-cutter war-based first-person shooter. Whether they're space marines, colonial marines or United States Marines, the armed forces are very popular in video games today, and it doesn't take rocket science to explain why: They bring in tons of money. If they didn't, we wouldn't be inundated with a new Call of Duty, Medal of Honor, Halo or Battlefield nearly every single year.

But, if my word isn’t enough to convince you, the ESA recently released their 2012 report of the video game industry, and of the 20 most popular console games of 2011, four of them (that's 20 percent) were war-based shooters -- all of which were in the top 10 for the year. With Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 sitting pretty in first, Battlefield 3 in fifth, Black Ops in sixth and Gears of War 3 in eighth, that genre commands the top of the list with sports, dance, and adventure games sprinkled in between.

Now, numbers are never set in stone, and even developers realize that sales can change in an instant. But, when you consider the demographics of gaming, there's a comfort zone for the makers of these games. The ESA report says that 53 percent of gamers out there last year were male, whereas 47 percent were female. I worry that the developers out there rely too much on that (barely) larger majority for easy mass appeal.

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It’s every fighting-game player’s worst nightmare. Online hecklers trash those who suffer it. People don’t enter tournaments for fear of it: getting mauled in a tournament stream with thousands of your peers watching you online. It’s the virtual version of being tarred and feathered. And I felt the pain firsthand.

In 2011, I stood outside of a crowd of people in a now-defunct arcade in Orlando, Florida, waiting to hear who my first opponent would be in the Super Street Fighter IV: Suffix-Less Edition competition.

Matches would be streamed live on a raised platform with the event’s largest TV. One guy wearing a replica of demon karate man Akuma’s beaded necklace told me how exciting it would be to play on that platform. I told him that that environment creates more pressure.

The organizer announced matchup after matchup until he called my name ... and that my match would be on the stream.

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Here at Bitmob, we like to write. We know you do, too. In fact, you guys pump out so much great content that some of it gets lost in the abyssal depths of the Mobfeed. And it's scary down there. (Seriously, I think I saw a sasquatch in there once.)

So to save you the trouble and from a possible horrific death, we bring these valuable articles to you in a feature called Hidden Gems. Similar to our weekly Spotlights, these are unedited stories that didn't quite make the front page but are worth highlighting...but perhaps these have fallen between the cracks after some time.

In this edition of Hidden Gems, since Assassin's Creed 3 is about to drop later this month, we're featuring older articles about Altair, Ezio, and the fight against Abstergo. Check 'em out below. Or take your chances with the sasquatch.

What bothers me about the Assassin's Creed franchise
By Thomas Isbell

Thomas likes the AC series, but he argues that yearly installments are causing the gameplay to get stale. "The release of Revelations," he writes, "dampened my hopes for a top-tier masterpiece ever coming to light in the AC universe." I wonder if Thomas feels differently now that a new, main entry in the series is nigh.

Blood is thicker than water: An Assassin's Creed: Revelations prologue
By Matt Polen

Matt scripts out a fictional preview to Revelations, the most recent entry in the series. He really captures the tone of the story and characters, especially protagonist Ezio. I'd read a whole book in this vein, Matt.

A few florins short -- Assassin's Creed 2 review
By Michael Wenzel

If you've been on the fence about jumping into the Assassin's Creed series, Michael's thorough review might help. He's pretty tough on the game, though -- do you agree with his criticisms?

What I hate about Assassin's Creed
By Toby Highfill

Toby is less ambivalent in his thoughts on the original Assassin's Creed. His biggest beef? He can't get past the science-fictional Animus machine, which connects present-day Desmond to the memories of his ancestors. "DNA is an owner's manual for your body, not a written family history," Toby says. "Since AC does not take place in a fantasy setting, this should not be possible." What do you think?

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Two years ago, I wrote an article entitled "What Borderlands 2 needs to do to keep me satisfied." I adored the first Borderlands, but it also built up a few expectations in my mind for what developer Gearbox had to do for the then-theoretical follow-up.

Now I’ve put over 100 hours into that very-real sequel. So did Gearbox come through on everything -- or anything --  I asked for? Here's a point-for-point comparison of 2010 suggestions to 2012 realities.

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I don’t know if I’ll ever get over mixing together video game music and hip hop. This time, I blended a song from the iPad game Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP with one of the recent collaborative offerings from rapper/producer Kanye West. Actually, the main wordsmith on this recording is one of Kanye’s protégés, Big Sean (though you can hear a some lines and grunts from Ye at certain parts).  

The inspiration for this mashup came from driving around town and listening to a couple of CDs (yes, I still use those musical disc things). I was alternating between the album Cruel Summer from Kanye West’s G.O.O.D. Music collective and the soundtrack to S&S:EP, music by singer-songwriter Jim Guthrie.

After a while, I began to rap the words from the G.O.O.D. music track "Mercy" over "Lone Star" from the S&S:LP -- EP changes to LP in the title to distinguish the game from the soundtrack --  just to imagine how a mashup would sound. I also did the reverse and sang Guthrie's melodies when I’d listen to Big Sean's verse. Sure enough, they flow together quite well. I call it "Sword & Mercery."

I love the juxtaposition of whimsical music and somewhat vulgar lyrics. I also like to imagine Big Sean and Kanye West in the game world, rapping to the background melody. Enjoy!

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The other night, a friend and colleague, a game writer I admire and follow, considered giving up.

Like Batman turning to Robin saying, "I don't feel like fighting crime tonight."

Ouch, that's my soul you're stepping on.

I labor in obscurity, looking to the horizon as my hero lists respected video game website after respected video game website he's written for, and then says, "What's the point?"

"What's the point??"

I would kill (not actually) to have written the thoughtful pieces you've written! I'd lie, cheat, and steal (probably not) to be as well-known and highly thought of as this guy, and he considers giving up.

If he doesn't see the point, what chance do I have?

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