Welcome to the Best of Kotaku, where I round up all of this week's best content.
The gorgeous image above is part of my favorite design for a proposed BioShock Infinite reversible box art. It's one of six choices, but so far my second choice seems to be winning out (as of this writing).
Moving on to our Best Of content this week, we kick things off as usual with a comment from the community.
The Best Comment From The Community
Our favorite comment of this week comes to you from Synitare:
So then, according to Ubisoft that means that ~133,000,000 copies have been pirated.
For context.
The Good And Bad of Battlefield 3, One Year (Or So) Later
David Veselka gauges the growth of Battlefield 3's multiplayer in the year since its release. More »
The Imperfect Art of Judging a Game Before It's Out
Stephen Totilo explains why it's difficult to judge a game on a preview. More »
The Smartest and Dumbest Things Microsoft Did in 2012
Holden Miller rounds up what Microsoft's year looked like. More »
Aliens: Colonial Marines Will Make You Jump at Every Freakin' Shadow You See
Evan Narcisse uncovers what made the Aliens films so great in this first-person shooter. More »
Thirteen Things You Should Know About Metro: Last Light
Jason Schreier is impressed with how much alcohol there is in this game (ok and other things, too). More »
The Smartest & Dumbest Things Sony Did in 2012
Holden rounds up a look at Sony's happenings in 2012. More »
The Year in NSFW
Brian Ashcraft rounds up all the NSFW news this year. More »
Assassin's Creed III's Final Chase Sequence Was The Worst Thing I Played All Year
Kirk Hamilton is really sick of running and dodging over and over again. More »
Take a Look at The Legend of Zelda Manga Inside The Hyrule Historia
Evan gets us an exclusive look at the 35-page Hyrule Historiamanga. More »
The Best PC Mods of 2012
Luke Plunkett rounds up a ton of awesome PC mods we've seen over the last year. More »
Changing Its Testimony, Gears of War: Judgment Remains True to Its Story
Owen Good takes an early look at the next Gears of War chapter. More »
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey: The Kotaku Review
Jason finds The Hobbit captivating, even with its flaws. More »
No Longer a Rookie, Bryce Harper Wants to Welcome You to The Show
Owen Good reveals MBL 13 The Show's new difficulty beginner's mode. More »
The Smartest & Dumbest Things Nintendo Did in 2012
Holden looks at Nintendo's best and worst moves in 2012. More »
The Most WTF Review Scores of the Year
Stephen rounds up the worst video game reviews of the year. More »
Kotaku Timeline: The Last Guardian
András Neltz gives us a historical rundown of The Last Guardian. More »
Judgment Delivers the Multiplayer Feature Gears of War Fans Demanded
Owen plays around with what's basically Beast Mode vs. Horde Mode. More »
Here Are Three Possible Reasons For Including Rape In Far Cry 3
Patricia Hernandez considers the possible reasons rape was included in Far Cry 3. More »
Reality Check: There's a Strong Chance We'll Have a PS4 and Xbox 720 A Year From Now
Stephen speculates that we'll get new consoles fairly soon. More »
The Hobbit Feels Like A Video Game. That's Not A Good Thing.
Kirk dislikes The Hobbit in ways he can relate to a video game. More »
The Smartest & Dumbest Things Square Enix Did in 2012
Jason covers Square Enix's biggest moves this year. More »
Weapons of Mass Disruption #1: It's The Best Time To Be A Gamer, And Here's How That Happened
Ben Cousins debuts a new column about what's going on in gaming. More »
Beginner Mode: A Tutorial for MLB The Show's Non-Tutorial
Owen explains what "Beginner Mode" in MLB 13 The Show is all about. More »
The Best Video Game Music of 2012
Kirk rounds up a bunch of this year's best video game soundtracks and leaves out Halo 4 (Hi Kirk!). More »
Baldur's Gate 3 Was Almost Made Four Years Ago
Jason teases us with news that Obsidian Entertainment almost made Baldur's Gate 3. More »
The Year In Controls
Kirks looks at video games that exhibited the best control schemes this year. More »
The Smartest & Dumbest Things Valve Did in 2012
Holden considers Valve's news this past year. More »