The game heroes brackets have gone live. The feature is packed with information about all 64 heroes! Head on over and read the news update about how to create your own bracket.

For those of you looking for some image campaign kits for your favorite and you aren't too graphic savvy, why not request one in the submission thread .

Additionally, everyone who voted have now have a new emblem on their profiles. Thanks for helping us determine the remainder 10 game heroes to add to the 54 game heroes we already chose.

We covered the World of Warcraft preview panel and the World Of Warcraft Cataclysm expansion panel earlier today. Stop by tomorrow for the StarCraft Panel that is said to begin around 2:30pm PT on August 22.

Announcements

DLC GameSpaces
We've recently started creating gamespaces for major pieces of downloadable content and, going forward, we plan to review many of them. Regardless of whether or not we've reviewed a piece of DLC, once the gamespace is created and the DLC is released, you'll have an opportunity to post your own reviews and ratings for the new content. We don't have a gamespace for every single piece of DLC that's released (we won't have one for Oblivion's horse armor or Street Fighter IV's costume packs, for example), and that's unlikely to change anytime soon. DLC will be more prominently featured on GameSpot in the future though, and you can find our coverage of DLC like Fallout 3: Mothership Zeta or Red Faction: Guerrilla: Demons of the Badlands by searching either for the title of the DLC or the title of the parent game. For example, if you search for Fallout 3 you can then scroll down the page and find links to the game's add-ons.

New Emblem!
We have a new Screenshot Captions emblem that will be granted to a user with the best caption for the week. The first person to receive the emblem is Peter_Cheek for his Tekken 6 caption.

Game Night - Quake Live
Starting at 4pm PT on Tuesday, August 18th, we should be playing at least until 7:30pm PT. Drop by the FAQ .

All Time Greatest Game Heroes
The current voting among the 24 entrants ends on August 25th. Once you have voted, drop by the ATG forum.

User Video uploads down
Staff are aware of the problem. I am skipping featured videos section for the week.

Member Spotlight: Samson089

This week's member spotlight goes to Samson089 for creating a review about the different kind of game demos available to those of you who are hesitant in purchasing a game without a little hands on gameplay! He gives a thorough process on the different kinds of demos. Here's an excerpt:

"…most developers offer three types of demos. One is made of the most choice slices of the game, the second is made up of the first 15 or so minutes of actual game play and the third is the Limited demo. All of them have their own unique pitfalls…"

User Reviews

PC
ARMA II - Jedo
Fallout 3: Mothership Zeta - dark_being
Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines - Platyphyllum
Codename: Nina - Global Terrorism Strike Force - Azghouls
Alien Shooter: Vengeance – Cunhao

Xbox 360
BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger - AK_the_Twilight
Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood - celtic1962
Splosion Man - dracula_16
The Last Remnant – Soulreavercross
Zoids Assault - zh666

Wii
Wii Sports Resort - JustPlainLucas
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 - Garrison_Ford

DS
Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride – WAIW
Tales of Hearts - ShadowLaguna
Super Robot Taisen OG Saga - SemiMaster

PSP
Monster Hunter Freedom Unite - Domstercool

Legacy Consoles
Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean (GC) AzelKosMos
Shadow of the Colossus (PS2) xboxrulze
Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (PS2) bluej33
Project: Snowblind (PS2) ebbderelict

Randomness Teh Awesome

Forum Trenches

- SkylinePigeon (ATG Forum) asks who the real hero is - Wander, or AGRO? Game spoilers included
- msudude211 (ATG Forum) posts some hints about the upcoming All Time Game Heroe emblems.
- Lalucar (SW Forum) believes that PS3 is the Xbox of this Gen while 360 is the PS2 of this Gen. He definitely has an interesting reasoning behind his thoughts.

Blog Bunker

- wonderboy_46 posted his Uncharted movie cast
- GameBlender has a top 5 gaming grandfathers list
- Talonfire revisits Fallout (1997)
- Raikoh_tells her story about the digital representation dilemma
- evrdayblues describes the difference between franchises and series
- c_rake asks the question on whether or not reviewers need to play the game until the end to give a fair evaluation.

Unionites

- The SonicSpot Union recently had a new trivia challenge. The SonicSpot Trivia Challenge offered a way for GameSpot users to test their knowledge about the sonic series. Drop by their union for future activities.

Misc. Drawer

- The Firestarter emblem is being re-purposed! We'll share more details in the coming weeks.
- Last week's Gears of War 2 game night MVP went to Bigboss232.

Tip of the Week

SkylinePigeon, our moderator of the month, wrote a helpful guide about how to be respectful. In brief!

1. Always be open to ideas other than your own.
2. Read the other person's opinion carefully.
3. Opinions can make us angry!
4. Report abuse and ignore.
5. Keep the discussion on the topic.
6. Understand a person's reasoning behind their post.
7. Use I believe & I think phrases.

Be sure to read through the article for the reason behind each one!

Until next week!

This summer, GameSpot has offered plenty of content and activities worth checking out on the site. While we might have a few more exciting happenings up our sleeve, I would like to share one of them. There is a new feature that offers a way for you all to comment with the possibility of having your chosen caption featured from selected screenshots. Read more for the scoop.

Announcements

- Screenshot Captions Feature: GameSpot puts up hundreds of screenshots each week. Some are just so awesome, we'd like you all to post captions for them. The best caption in the comments will be featured in the following week's edition!

- Gears of War 2 Game Night will be held tonight , August 11th starting at 4pm PT. Drop by the FAQ for the details and be sure to vote for the time you'll be dropping by so we can stick around! Make sure to download the latest mappack if you haven't already. Additionally, last week's Excitbot game night MVP went to phoenyx9.

- We have 100 more Cities XL PC beta keys to give away. Drop by for the details about how to obtain a key!

- Moderator of the Month goes to SkylinePigeon. She's the only user on the site with the Mod of the Month emblem! Which moderator would you have voted for?

Member Spotlight: ErrolJames

This week's member spotlight goes to ErrolJames for his blog about whether or not winners cheat. He shares his experience with gameshark and pokemon and how much it may or may not help to cheat.

Excerpt:

"…I feel like if everything came too easy, I'd find myself pretty bored. Sure I would have plenty of things to do, but my sense of accomplishment wouldn't be there. I take pride in the things I've accomplished."

Featured User Videos

Dodgy Games Episode 1 - BaronVonRosco
Description: Kris plays a lot of videogames. But when he runs out of games to play he seeks the help of a dodgy salesman. And the game "Asterix" he receives isnt what he expected.

How to get the Sniper Rifle - Printul_Noptii
Description: A video tutorial for obtaining the sniper rifle in the PC game version of The Chronicles of Riddick Assault on Dark Athena.

Randomness Teh Awesome

Blog Bunker

- Gen_Warbuff has the feeling that game controllers are of the past.
- Drumtasticnick seems to be addicted to achievements.
- NuKkU has posted his Top 10 Most Underrated Games
- just_nonplussed considers how it is not so easy to find older games.
- starduke determines how game designers may attract female adults.

Misc. Drawer

- TheHotSpot homework winner this week is barrett33.
- Skipped User Review highlights for the week.

Tip of the Week

Last week there was a question about what defines an editorial. Here is the best suggestion out of the comments that were posted.

Polybren: "Ideally, it's just a news article that takes a position on a subject. Editorials work best when they're laden with well-researched facts and convince readers to look at an issue from a fresh perspective. They're also a part of a media outlet where the audience is told not to expect impartiality. But with so many places now editorializing in their straight news reporting, the line has certainly blurred."

BradMaster: "To me a editorial is someone's point of view around a subject. A editorial can be from a informative point to an opinion. In my opinion most editorials should have some kind of media to back them up and get the readers interest. Another thing that most writers get wrong, the tittles! They have to be dynamic so that they grab the readers' attention. "

SymonDezyn: "Editorials are a writeup on a particular topic, from one person's point of view or perspective… the best ones are respectful of the fact that their readers may not share their opinion or perspective, and also back up their opinions with facts. Words like "I think" or "In my opinion" may not be the best choices…"

Next week's tip was written by a moderator who outlines some of the easy ways to obtain respect from others.

Until next week!

Announcements

- Removal of 'moderate user' in blogs: We have changed the blog system to only allow GameSpot site moderators and staff to mark moderation histories going forward. As you might have experienced, when users didn't like random people posting in their blogs they had a way to moderate users with a warning, which was a mark in the user's moderation history. Some users abused this privilage with rude comments for the reason of the comment deletion. All users will continue to have access to delete comments in their blogs. You will want to report abuse to moderator if the abuse falls under flaming, advertising, and offensive content.

- Tuesday's Game Night 7/28: PC gamers cannot rent games like the console gamers so we're going to try an experiment with Free Realms tomorrow night from 4-7pm PT.We've heard a lot of good things about the racing mini game being compared to Mario Kart. No subscription requirements to register and play. Read the FAQ for more information.

- Game Nights Schedule: We're almost done with the schedule. Help us finish by posting your suggestions! We're hoping to include your anticipated game releases.

Member Spotlight: Sieg6529

Featured User Videos

Both users have received the 'As Seen On GameSpot' emblem for being featured.

- Modded PS1 Case: craigofadown made his own case for his PlayStation.
- CoD 4: Weird and Fun: _VitoCorleone_ (aka YT: FuggedabouditNL) has mirrored one of their funny videos from youtube.

User Reviews

This week's user reviews were pulled from the users who recently were granted the Top 100 or 500 emblem.

- Dead Space (PC) Cunhao
- Ratchet & Clank Future (PS3) PSFreak1
- Mirror's Edge (PS3) SGTiD1NG0
- Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood (PC) LGTX
- Prototype (PC) topsemag55
- Necrovision (PC) ChristianKiss
- Resident Evil 5 (PS3) stephenage
- Donkey Kong Country (SNES) samusarmada
- Samba de Amigo (Wii) loopy_101
- Shadow of the Colossus (PS2) ebbderelict

Randomness Teh Awesome

Forum Territory
- OT: Is giving a peck on the cheek normal in America? by DragonRebel0908
- OT: GameSpot's next top moderator by iginlawasup
- GGD: Do you fear games that require you to go in deep water? By shamozer
- GGD: Where is the borderlands hype by ASK_Story
- System Wars: PS3 Wand vs X360 Natal by Ribnarak

Blog Bunker
- Safad0 shares his thoughts about how to get your girlfriends to play games.
- starduke describes what can make a game great.
- THE_DRUGGIE shares the 5 Funniest Games of All Time

Unionites
- Ultim@te G@miNg Uni0n's leader, uas-2001, has announced a new caption competition; the main requirement is to have some humor!
- The Off Topic Legionaries's leader, optiow, would like to share a new competition for the union. Name that Movie Screenshot competition ends on August 10th

Misc. Drawer
- HotSpot homework emblem goes to CanadianAK47
- NuKkU's brother has made a variety of game character drawings worth checking out.
- Monkey Island: Special Video w/Ending by dark_being ***SPOILER WARNING***

Tip of the Week

Member spotlight users that get featured on the community hub also receive a member spotlight emblem. Each week, there are some areas that staff may find a user that should be featured. If there are too many good users to choose from, the remainder may be featured in the random section of the community report. Today, I'll share how staff may end up noticing your profile and blogs.

- Roll of the dice. Sometimes, it's by sheer luck! If you go to the forums directory there is a module called 'Latest Returning Users'. If you do not have the default G avatar, you might have your avatar clicked on. Reason being, an active GameSpot contributor will likely customize their profile and avatar image to their personal preference. Best thing to do is make sure you change out your avatar from default to show the appearance of an active Gamespot member who is likely to post a blog or two worthy of being mentioned.

- Listing your blogs as an 'editorial'. If you want staff to notice your blogs, sometimes the editorial drop down does the trick. Maybe your blog won't receive the SoapBox feature access, but it's definitely something we have to share with other users.

- GameSpot staff member tracks your profile. Sometimes, the users are tracked by GameSpot staff. We find many of you so interesting, that we must be a fan of you! So, next time you see a staff member tracking you, know that you may just be a savvy contributor.

Lastly, when users are considered they also need to have a good about me section because the community spotlight module on the community page displays this information. Here is an example of this week's member spotlight.

Without an about me page the user's spotlight feature will display as incomplete.

Your assignments this week; check your about me sections to make sure they are current. If you do not have an about me section, you can add some information about yourself by going to options/about me tab.

A big thanks to Brianfox1 for the question.

Announcements

- The Conduit (Wii) Game Night brought a lot of shooter fanatics together last night. Congrats to Gregdawg08 for receiving the MVP for the week.

- Next Tuesday's Game Night will be Battlefield 1943 on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation.

- The Mod of the Month for July goes to MAILER_DAEMON. It was a tie between Mailer_Daemon and cell_dweller; staff had to break the tie with their own votes. If given the chance to vote as a volunteer moderator, who would you have voted for? Place your vote.

- We have some more Cities XL beta keys to hand out. Drop by the competition forum for further details.

- Show Us Yours contest winners were contacted in late June. Be sure to congratulate them! Stevo_the_gamer and Wolf-5.

- We are aware that the user video player is currently down. We apologize for the inconvience during this time.

Member Spotlight: Safad0

This week's member spotlight goes to Safad0 for creating the ten commandments for developers. Check out his recent blog for the editorial.

User Reviews

- Damnation (PC) dark_being
- Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (PS2) Maluigi
- Prototype (PC) nutcracker
- God of War: Chains of Olympus (PSP) Setho10
- Hotel Dusk: Room 215 (DS) bluej33
- Master of Monsters (Genesis) 3KindgomsRandy
- Punch-Out!! (Wii) Garrison_Ford
- Road & Track Presents: The Need for Speed (PS) Jedo
- Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 (PS2) Lightfellower
- Beowulf (X360) zh666

Randomness Teh Awesome

- The HotSpot homework emblem winner: Marterfarker.

- GameSpot Retro DVDs: To clean out our storage we are giving away some 2003-2004 GameSpot DVDs while supplies last.

- Bluegreen17 answers why everyone wants Scribblenauts.

- Shacks210 is a Socom series fan who posted a blog and a Socom map comparison.

- wiiplay1 has posted an article about the state of Nintendo.

- pakhair posted a birthday blog that also has a dedication to many GameSpot members. He lists people who have been helpful and those who frequently post.

- shoujobot shares his Wii experience with tons of neighbors and answers whether or not the Wii is a good console for small living environments.

- nichavgo talks about a simple game like Minesweeper.

Tip of the Week

Have you ever considered linking another Web site's image in a forum post or blog? Some Web sites do not appreciate people who drain their bandwidth. The larger the population of a community, especially as big as our site, the more likely the bandwidth will be a problem to these Web sites. We occasionally have some users who post these image URLs and some of these Web sites replace the image with offensive content that will have the account terminated. Today's tip of the week is about how you can link to images on GameSpot or an image provider to avoid having a Web site pull the filthy-image switcharoo on you!

First, let's explain how you can add an image to your GameSpot Image gallery as described by siberian142 from the How To GameSpot forum. Note that sometimes the image uploader can take up to 20 minutes to display in your profile.

==========================

The Images section of your profile allows you to upload your images to your profile, similar to an image hosting site.

Uploading Images
Go to the Images sections of your profile and click Upload Images.

You'll be taken to this page.

Select a file from your hardrive to upload to Gamespot.

Album: Select which album to add an image to. To create a new album, click Create New Album underneath.

Title: Select a name for your image--32 characters max.

Association: Choose the association your image best relates to. Selecting Game will add it to the Image section of a gamespace.

Description: Describe your image.

Tag: Tagging your image will make it appear in a search when searching for the words you tag.

After you're done filling out the form, click Upload. If done correctly, your image will be processing and will be available shortly. You can check your image process by going to the album you added it to.

==========================

If you would like to upload your image using another service, check Gallego's post in the How To GameSpot forum. As always, if you have problems in any area of GameSpot's community, report the problem to Technical Support.

Until next week!

Many of you have been posting so much content, especially with those player reviews. I think it's time to get back into the weekly routine with your favorite community report on the net!

Announcements

- Game Night this week (July 7th) will be Red Faction: Guerrilla on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. The following Tuesday July 14th game night will be The Conduit on the Wii. As always, you may drop by the official union for the latest discussions and to post your game suggestions.

- Preferences on GameSpot have been named Options for better understanding among our international users. If you check the upper right corner below your username you'll notice this change. Over the coming weeks you should expect to see the preferences button and control panel links on your profile carry over with these changes.

- All profile points were handed out for the Webby Awards as of 6/26. All of you should have noticed a spike in your level and possibly a signature .html code problem. Be sure to update your signatures as Lark instructed.

Member Spotlight: Drfish62

This week's member spotlight goes to DrFish62 for enlightening us about physically active video games that may be recommended to patients. Check out his latest blog for the details.

Featured User Videos

- Amster_G demonstrates how he deals with the PlayStation 3 & Controller skins.

- charlie_killer has posted a video review of Bioshock.

Additional mentions: the_tomboy's Blood claws? (World of Warcraft) and Vicky-dragon's God is Nariko (Heavely Sword).

User Reviews

The following user review writers for selected for having the top 100 or 500 contributor emblem.

PC
- FlatOut: Ultimate Carnage nutcracker
- Diablo II Azghouls
- X-Men Origins: Wolverine Jd1680a

Wii
- Pop bryehngeocef
- The House of the Dead: Overkill Platyphyllum
- Super Mario Galaxy SkylinePigeon
- Bit.Trip Beat c_rake
- Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World Domstercool
- MySims Kingdom zh666

PS3
- Noby Noby Boy bacchus2
- Penny Arcade Adventures: OtRPoD Episode Two AzelKosMos

X360
- Red Faction: Guerrilla Lik
- Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen NBAmaster33
- Fracture celtic1962
- Guitar Hero: Metallica -Tish-
- Ghostbusters The Video Game NeoJedi
- Guitar Hero: Smash Hits AK_the_Twilight/
- James Bond: Quantum of Solace celtic1962
- Kingdom Under Fire: Circle of Doom zh666

PS2
- Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories 3KindgomsRandy
- Wild Arms 4 Lightfellower
- Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 ShadowLaguna

DS
- Let's Pilates bryehngeocef

PSP
- Star Ocean: First Departure AzelKosMos

Randomness teh Awesome

- wonderboy_46 posted his Uncharted movie casting suggestions.
- Darth_Homer was been surprised about Wolfenstein.
- GabuEx stirred up the community with his question about reviews affecting game sales.
- sCaReCr0W asks game developers to be less ambitious.
- dark_being is digging the latest Fallout 3 DLC.
- AzelKosMos is super organized with his upcoming game plan of future game releases!
- bacchus2 has a growing image collection of game arcade cabinets, which were a part of a blog he created a while back.

Tip of the Week

This week's tip is a reminder about reading sticky threads and description headers for each forum. Did you know that the Terms of Use agreement under section 1 states that everyone needs to comply with the sticky thread rules for each forum? If you haven't had time to read through the community rules drop by here and scroll to section 7. We also have a moderation FAQ .

Every now and then we'll update the forum headers and sticky threads due to a current or outdated problem in the community. There are some conditions in certain forums that may require points loss or a suspension duration if you do not follow the forum rules, Make sure to read these conditions for each forum before posting and you'll be in the clear. Thanks to kcwsk8 for the tip.

We have keys ready to give away for the Cities XL Beta! More information in the forum post.

We have some of you doing some pre-E3 impressions this year! After you check out what your fellow GameSpotters and Staff have to stay before E3 starts, be sure to bookmark the e3.gamespot.com. GameSpot will be revealing the future of gaming from June 1 through June 4.

E3 Member Spotlight: ehsan8888
While many of your blogs were great reads, ehsan8888 received the member spotlight for his tips about making this year's e3 even more enjoyable. Here is an excerpt from one of his tips.

"Visit the forums and participate with the community! Gamespot is a great website and they have taken their time year after year to give you good coverage of E3 and the least you can do is to just post a little online and give them you input. Just don't cause any arguments."

Pre-E3 Blog Highlights!

- Let the Hype Begin by canana
- E3 and me by icytower38
- E3 Predictions by jrabbit99
- E3 Fantasies by PJ24
- Excited for E3 (+more) by shadow9669
- E3 This Year by khoofia_pika
- Thoughts of E3 by Gammit10
- E3 2009 Predictions by xboxrulze
- E3 Anticipation by jediknight52501
- GameSpot Editors on E3 video by Shaun
- What are you excited for? by Sophia

Pre-E3 Discussions

- Expect to see something ridiculous this year? Jedi Squirrels?
- What is the E3 Schedule?
- Who will have the best E3 showing?
- Games you want to know about at E3 this year
- Is Gamespot going behind the scenes
- The biggest game character at this E3?

We'll see you on the show floor!