BitMob - Monster of the Week: Video Games and the Cycle of Censorship.
In the '90s, the video game industry continued to draw in new gamers, and graphics had improved to the point that it was no longer possible to convince even the most gullible of parents that a dead game character's death spasms were actually a celebratory dance of some kind. Games like Doom, Mortal Kombat, and Grand Theft Auto gave parents, politicians, and self-described experts all new reasons to fear for the future of humanity.

MacGamer - A Real ID editorial about a Real ID editorial.
What the article fails to shed enough light upon, however, is that the kid was an epic jacknozzle... and it seems those who are warring against Real ID use words like "retaliation" without understanding that, if you're not an assclown, there's nothing to retaliate against. Maybe if you're getting flowers and dildos sent to your real-life address (and you aren't, you know, ordering them yourself) it's time not to ask why Real ID is happening... but to ask why you're the kind of person who behaves such a way that others can't stand you.

Rock, Paper, Shotgun - Rules For Games- Do & Don’t #2. Thanks Morris.
Do: agree to an industry wide standard on the location of save games. Save games are not a secret. They are not a treasure. They’re something most right-thinking people want to be able to preserve after a game’s uninstalled. They’re something many people need to get at when building a new machine, or simply continuing the game on another machine. They aren’t a DRM risk. We just want to know where our save games are, and we don’t want to have to trawl through seventeen different possible locations in the very bowels of Windows, trying to discern which lunatic name you’ve filed them under. When I install a game you let me choose the install location. Can you guess where I want the save games to go to? Here’s a hint. It’s not in C:\Users\John\AppData\Local\Roaming\Documents\Programs\Features\Gardening\Knitwear\Publisher\Developer\GameName\Sausages\X34265\

GamingBolt.com - Stealth-Action to Action-Stealth: Evolution or Abandonment? Thanks Ant.
It would be an easy argument to make that stealth-action is going the way of the dodo. One needs only look at the newest Splinter Cell title, Conviction. The heavy stealth element and sneak-focused mapmaking have given way to missions centered on smoothly kinetic action pieces. The new Sam Fisher is more Jason Bourne than the aging, acerbic agent we’d known in the past, and though the game carries with it recognizable elements such as Michael Ironsides’ character-defining voice work, the game typifies the changes that more and more franchises seem to be adopting: the mixing of genres with a heavy emphasis on quicker, more impactful gameplay.

BitMob - Backtracking: You'll Need the Blue Key to Read this Article.
Jon explains his frustration with Doom's approach to exploration and hails Metroidvanias for enticing the player by going the extra mile.

BitMob - Press B to Hit: Splinter Cell: Conviction's Most Shocking Scene.
Andrew looks at what happens when Splinter Cell: Conviction's narrative makes him do something he isn't comfortable with. (Minor spoilers.)