The gaps in my blogging are becoming greater for which I must apologize. Work has been so inordinately busy as of late I sometimes come home and just fall onto my bed in a daze. This Friday I must have spent the last hour of the day just gaping at my work computer in disbelief as dozens of new requests flooded in, many of which were marked Urgent (I wish Outlook wouldn't let people do that). Luckily we are getting a few new people to assist but I still anticipate a couple of very busy months ahead. Still, that doesn't stop the video games does it Comrades? By the way, do you have adequate paperwork to be here? I think I'll need to check your passports as I have been playing quite a lot of the magnificent bureaucracy simulator Papers, Please. If you haven't heard of Papers, Please then you have most certainly been missing out on one of the most fascinating games of the year. It's difficult to explain exactly what Papers, Please is, but essentially it's a busywork simulator. You're in immigration inspector manning a border checkpoint in the fictional eastern European country of Arztotska. The country seems less than a pleasant place to live, but nonetheless there is an endless queue of people attempting to get over the border. It's your job to check their paperwork, make sure that it's valid and that they have the correct documents to enter. For my full impressions, you can watch my Vertical Slice on YouTube (apologies for the buzzing sound, I've now invested in a new microphone). You can also read a full review I wrote for Entertainium.org.

On other games I have once again returned the crumbling neo-Victorian city of Dunwall for the Dishonored DLC. I played both The Knife of Dunwall and The Brigmore Witches in quick succession and I can confidently say they're the best DLC Ive played for a game since Grand Theft Auto IV. When viewed together, they almost form a full game of their own. Daud is a much more interesting character than Corvo Attano ever was for the main reason that he can actually talk, voiced by a gravelly Michael Madsen (always remember him from his incredibly sinister role as Mr. Blonde in Reservoir Dogs). The locations you visit are fascinating and only occasionally repeats from the main game (as in the final level of The Knife of Dunwall and the first of The Brigmore Witches). I have said it before, but Dishonored is really a game that rewards stealth, and makes it very satisfying to play a full stealth playthrough, despite the fact that it robbed me of my no kills/never spotted achievements due to a weird glitch of some kind. I hope we won't have to wait too long to see Dishonored get a sequel. I'd like it to take place outside of Dunwall in some other part of the Empire, and I'd like to get a main character who talks. It would also be nice if the conversations were fleshed out a bit, to give dialogue trees like Deus Ex. The gameplay is excellent and the setting is superb, it's really only the general plotline and dialogue that occasionally lets the side down.

Back on this website, as many of you will know there are plans afoot for a GameSpot redesign in the near future. Ever since "the Widening" as I like to refer to it, GameSpot's structure has been a bit of a halfway house, given the Unions still use the old design. I feel as many of you do it is a shame that the Unions are being forsaken as a result of these changes, but I can understand why the decision was taken given that the overall popularity of the Unions has waned, primarily as a result of their marginalization within the site structure. Still, I hope active Unions will take advantage of the ability to transition to having their own board on the new site. Alas the ability to have specific Union board moderators seems also to have fallen by the wayside, which I anticipate may alarm some individuals. Nonetheless you have my word that for as long as I continue to moderate this website I will act to the very best of my ability to ensure that GameSpot is a great place to visit, and a great place to digitally socialize. There have been many changes in GameSpot's history but we, as a community, have always endured. I firmly believe the community will continue to do so. :)