It's time to announce the winners to the GameSpot Dishonored Tales creative writing contest. We asked Bethesda fans to check out the amazing short stories web series that they posted in relation to the city, they were called "Tales from Dunwall". The mission was to do a bit of research on the mythos surrounding the city and come up with their own mischievous story, taking place in the world of Dishonored either as a single spoony bard or as a team. After collecting all of the entries and pouring through your emails GameSpot finally has a winner, TEAM ATLANTICA!

Team Atlantica's story "The Towel Over the Cage" was dubbed the victor, here's what GameSpot had to say about this entry.

"Full of florid, evocative language, this piece paints a rich portrait of a point in time and all the memories, emotions, and past events that can infuse a few still moments with so much meaning. The tension of the husband's scholarly absorption and the wife's impotent melancholy is great. I like the fascination here, as in Sudden Recollection, with the Pandyssian continent, a place referenced with varying degrees of reverence, terror, and awe in the game. "

And now without further ado, here is little taste of the winning entry.

"The Towel Over the Cage"

Justin Gold (writer) and Bryan Brown (illustrator)

"Six dead now in Dunwall," Stuart said. “There is word today of another." He unwrapped the gauze to reveal a blackish piece of raw meat. It had the dank smells of decay. It squished as Stuart lifted it and turned his head from the smell, his gloves edging the meat toward the rat’s cage. The rat shifted its weight, its thick hairs standing. When the meat was close enough, the rat leaped forward and scraped its claws on the metal bars. It squeaked and it hissed and it did everything it had done at about this same time, every day, for the last week. Stuart took the flesh away, wrapped it back in gauze. The rat shrunk to a bristle pile at the back of the cage.

"Must you do that?" Vera said.

"A plague is coming, my dear." Stuart opened another drawer and pulled out thin slices of cheese. He tossed them into the cage with disinterest. “And another month here will draw me closer to its cure."

Continue reading this dishonored tale….

Runner Ups

While there can only be one winner there were two stories that came particularly close to taking the prize!

• Sudden Recollection: This entry was a neat recasting of familiar tale (Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde) within the city of Dunwall.

• 11th Hour: This entry resonated nicely with the fear of the unknown that would fuel support for the Overseers, the author creates a murky world where there are no good choices.

Honorable Mentions

Last but not least, a special thanks to our Honorable Mentions.
• A Dishonorable Display
• Dunwall’s Finest Hour
• Bottle Street Beef
• The Quiet One
• Beneath the White Cliff
• The City Feeds Upon Us
• A Shortage of Wealth
• A dead man's tale
• A list of the particulars milord requires
• Honor is Not Even a Name to Call It

TLDNR Community’s Top 5

Hey there TLDNR fans! Time for this weeks top 5 list of things you should check out here on GameSpot this week in the community!
- GameSpot is going OFFLINE?!?
- GSPN Join up, share it, get stuff!
- GSPN: Things keep happening!
- Sonic Racing Transformed Alternate Cover Art Contest
- League of Legends Holiday Parade

What’s Up

OMG GAMESPOTS GOING DOWN!?!
Well not quite, as many of you are painfully aware, the forums have been riddled with bonk errors right and left. Well the time has come and these issues are being addressed. The GameSpot forums will be going down for 24 hours on Tuesday November 27th. For the full story on what is happening and how long the outage will last check out this video featuring Simon and Ranando.

League of Legends Holiday Parade!
Are you a fan of League of Legends? Do you like free swag? Do you think you have the crazy skills it takes to beat skilled LoL players? How about the silvered tongue it takes to articulately covey the greater art to the game? Or what about Trivia about your favorite maps, champions, and items? Be sure to check out next Mondays Community News for our League of Legends Holiday Parade!

GameSpot Live Stream Schedule

Nov 27th - Black Ops II with Chris Watters @ *TBD
Nov 29th - PlanetSide 2 Now Playing with Kevin VanOrd @ 2:00pm PST.
Nov 30th - Dota Diaries & AU Beta Key Giveaway
Rumor Has It: There is a bit of a rumor around the office that the GameSpot AU team will have a special little now playing on November 27th, still awaiting a response to confirm said rumor.

GameSpot Players Network

GSPN Steam Community and Magicka Giveaway!
What kind of feature would the GameSpot Players Network be if we weren't incorporating one of the largest and amazing communities for gaming? That’s right, it would be poop. So we started the GSPN Steam Community. So go on and sign up! We’ll also be awarding profile points to new GSPN Steam group members, simply comment below on what your steam handle is to get your profile points. Need a better reason? We’ll be raffling off a steam code for Magicka to one lucky GameSpotter who shares his Steam tag in the comments below!

GSPN has eaten Community Game Night
Yes, it’s true. The GameSpot Players Network has absorbed the old GameSpot Community page like a gelatinous cube does to so many adventurers. But here’s the good news, this is all simply part of the Master Plan to help get GameSpotters gaming together again. For the full details on what all this means you can check out JodyR’s post about it here.

Contests and Activities

Sonic Racing Transformed Art Cover Contest!
Attention Sonic Fans! We’re having an image altering contest giving users a chance to transform the cover art from Sonic and All-Stars Racing Transformed. All you have to do is take the original box art cover design and alter it. Your art alter can be a drawing, painting, graphic art or even a collage. For the full list of rules and details and to sound off that you plan to enter check out this page here.

Mass Effect Trilogy Winners
We were giving away a few copies of the Mass Effect Trilogy to a few lucky GameSpotters, who ended up winning? You can check this video to find out!

User Reward Challenges
User Reward Challenges! In addition to the automatic points you get for your profile when you use the site, you can earn some bonus points this week by participating in the following activities:
- 1000 XP Review Persona 4 Golden
- 1000 XP Review Super Mario Bros. U
- 3000 XP Submit an entry for Chalk Talk: Into the Looking Glass
- 3000 XP Share your Steam ID and Sign up in the GSPN Steam Group
- 5000 XPEnter in the Sonic Racing Transformed Art Contest

"Sonic's new racing adventure speeds past its predecessor and delivers a kart racer that can keep up with the best in the genre."

GameSpot is having an image altering contest for the new super Sonic racing game Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed.

What you should know:
Here is the original design for the Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed box art, your mission is to create an alternate box art design.
- The entry size should be 1200 x 1600.
- Deadline for this contest is Monday December 3rd at 10:00 am PST.
- Send your submissions to contests@gamespot.com making sure to include your GameSpot user name, the platform of your choice, your physical mailing address, and your submission.

The following art styles will be considered:
- Drawings
- Paintings
- Graphic Art
- Collage

Prizing:
The winners of this contest will receive a copy of Sonic Racing transformed for either the X360, PS3, or WiiU.

Tips:
Don't have Photoshop? Gimp.org is open source software for photo editing.
Never altered an image before? Here's a guide to How to edit a picture in windows paint.

Thanksgiving is a great time for family and friends to gather together, eat food, share stories, and of course eat tons of turkey! This year we wanted to see your ideal portrayal of the perfect gaming family sharing the perfect meal together. How will you do this? By taking the classic Norman Rockwell painting “Freedom from Want” and altering the people and food to share your idea of the most epic gaming Turkey Day gathering ever!

Guidelines:
- You must be a GameSpot registrant.
- Participants will use the classic Norman Rockwell painting "Freedom from Want" as the base concept for entry, and modify the image to create a parody by modifying the people or the food in the original painting.
- Photo submissions must be a minimum size of 400 x 500.
- The parodies must be related to 2012 gaming content, this can include:
Games that were released this year, popular developers who made news. or even GameSpot Reviewers and Staff.
- Submissions will be accepted until Monday November 26th at 10:00am PST.
- The image can be altered digitally (photoshopped) or can be illustrated (drawn by hand).
- Judging is determined by community voting process

How to submit:
Each photo must be submitted electronically by one of the two methods:
- A link in the in the contest discussion from via Flicker / imgur / Photobucket.
- Emailed to contests@gamespot.com (email submissions must include your username).

Prizes:
The top entrants will recieve a Gog.com gift code for 5 digital games plus the Witcher 2 for MAC!

Want to get in on the discussion, maybe get a little bit of insperation? Check out the forum discussion.

What’s Up?

Dishonored Tales - Creative Writing Contest
Only a week left to submit your entries for our creative writing contest for Dishonored. Your stories can feature the characters and lore encountered within the game or be twisted to suit the chronicle. For more details on this contest, check out the official contest page. Contest ends November 16th!

Halo 4 X360 WINNER
The week we gave away a limited edition Halo 4 console, with a customized case, controllers and well as a copy of the game to the GameSpotter who could answer this question: “What were the two names Chris Watters assigns to the giant glowing orbs in the Halo 4 Gunshow?"
The Answer: The Galaxy's Biggest Ball bearing and The Tremendous Alien Pinball From Beyond the Moon.
Congrats goes to Pablo V. from Melbourne Florida!

Assassins Creed 3 Limited Edition
This week we gave away a limited edition copy of Assassin's Creed 3 for the X360. This copy of AC3 includes a stunning Assassin statue featuring Connor poised to strike, an embroidered colonial flag, and various other goodie went to the GameSpotter who answered this trivia question: “What tasty snack does Shaun McInnis think the game uses to bait innocent animals?"
The Answer: Cheetos!
Congrats goes to Stephen S. from Huntsfille, AL

Halo 4 Beat the Pro Winners!
Friday GameSpotters took on Tsquared and some of his pro buddies at Halo 4 for a chance to win Steelseries Siberia V/2 headsets or a pair of gaming gunners, who came on top? Well of course the pros but Perfection Owns, Pixilized, Gnocidal, and xxoneshotdropxx gave them one hell of a fight! Congrats guys, the swag is yours!

Introducing: GameSpot TV, new video hub!
We've updated the way you find videos on our video hub! Read more.

Black Friday’s on GameSpot
Black Friday is our new live show where we have teamed up with Amazon to find some killer deals and pass the savings onto GameSpotters. What will this week’s bargain be? Be sure to check into the community news on Friday to find out!

Live Stream Schedule

Monday 12th: Black Ops Midnight Multiplayer Madness!
Friday 16th: Mickey Mouse - Celebrating the mouse before the release of Epic Mickey 2.
Friday 16th: Beat the Pros - Call of Duty Black Ops with Mrs Violence @ 4:00pm PST.
Saturday 18th: RUMOR ALERT! Possible Wii U coverage? More details to come.

GameSpotter Reviewer Spotlight

This week's featured GameSpot reviewer is newkillerstar27 for his review of Assassin's Creed 3 for the PS3. newkillerstar27 gave the game a 6.5 saying that … "While the change of scenery is very much welcome, AC3 suffers from what dragged the previous games in the series down." You can check out his full review here.

User Reward Challenge

User Reward Challenges! In addition to the automatic points you get for your profile when you use the site, you can earn some bonus points this week by participating in the following activities:
- 200 XP -- Comment on Chalk Talk: War, what is it good for?
- 300 XP -- Review Halo 4
- 300 XP -- Review LittleBigPlanet Karting
- 1000 XP - Write for this weeks Chalk Talk: The Great Circuit of Life?

This Week on Chalk Talk…

Last Friday on Chalk Talk we discussed War Games, asking Gamespotters if military shooters are unjust portrayals of tragic and gruesome events? Or no big deal and simply another genre of games? With the Wii U's release date on the horizon, whispers of release dates from others have grown louder and steadily more convincing. But despite these exciting new rumors one can't help but ask, do we really even need a new console? While in the past one could argue that new hardware did fundamentally change our gaming experience it would seem that we've grown accustomed to such leaps. To participate in this weeks Chalk Talk check out the full details here

Tip of the Week

Notice a game gone missing? Head over to the "How to report Missing Games or Data" page and fill out as much of the included information as you can, then send an email to gsfiles@gamespot.com.

Trivia Activity!

It’s Trivia Time! Put your answer in the comments below to be entered in a chance to win a copy of the Mass Effect trilogy for the X360.
True or False: In the first Mass Effect game Pluto is considered an "ice dwarf"

Tech & Social Briefing

Need a little bit of a tech update? Not quite in the loop? Don't worry here's a little help.
- What Obama’s Victory Means for Tech
- Windows Phone 8: Everything you need to know (FAQ)
- How to avoid paying an extra 40$ for Windows 8 media center
- Cyber criminals look to exploit interest in Windows 8
- How to Use a PS3 Controller in Windows 8 in Local Mode
- Firefox to force secure connections for selected domains

Gaming Bulletin

A few interesting things happened in the world of games this week…
- Steam for Linux Beta Now available
- The Donkey Kong world record has been broken again
- Want Tatsunoko vs. Capcom? Better Buy It While You Still Can
- Security labels 290K+ Google Play Android apps 'high-risk'

MAKING MISCHIEF

Something funny always happening online, here's a few favorites for this week.
- Master Chief Helmet Made of Mountain Dew Boxes
- Legend of Zelda: Fruit Fantasy
- Guys, Stop Instagramming Your Ballots. Seriously.
- Moms have no idea which Call of Duty to buying this time
- I call it.. The Master Chief Mojito
- Westeros, Westeros, What are your Houses?
- Did you know GAMING?: Diablo
- Talking About Assassinating The President: This is a felony, btw.

GEEKY GIMMIES

Awesome little gaming goodies found around the web.
- Awakening: The Art of Halo 4 [Hardcover]
- TEN YEARS of Red vs. Blue!
- Halo 4 Series 1 Cortana Action Figure
- Halo 4 Master Chief Pop! Vinyl Figure

THAT’S HOT

Halo 4 is here and it's amazing! Check out Abby Darkstar as a female version of Master Chief.

Free To Play!

Wallet feeling the pressure from this weeks releases? Check out these freebies.
- Vanguard: Saga of Heroes
- ROSE Online
- Stronghold Kingdoms
- Dream of Pixels

LINK LOTTO

Feeling lucky? More funny random finds.
- Jukebox Heroes: Rusty Hearts' soundtrack
- ART FROM WRECK-IT RALPH LITTLE GOLDEN BOOK
- Hobbit Hole Recreated with 2,600 Balloons
- Custom Game Boy "CASTLEVANIA"
- Reasons to instal Microsoft Silverlight Pi Chart
- Li Li’s Travel Journal: WoW Mists of Pandaria

BONUS ITEM!

← Click here for past Social Shares.

If you had problems logging in this week please give it another try. We have made some changes to resolve this problem. If you'd like some answers about why encountered this issue, please check this announcement in the technical support forum. Thank you

Tech & Social Briefing

- Why 'Liking' Facebook virals makes scammers rich
- Webservers Fall
- PC Modded book
- Online Dating profile scams
- Imgur evolves into an image-only version of Reddit

Gaming Bulletin

- Emotional experience through a gameplay world
- Experimenting with video games as drugs
- What does the Disney buyout mean for LucasArts' gaming catalog?
- The Game Console Is Dead. What Will Replace It?
- Rage tools coming soon?

THAT’S HOT

Cosplay: World of Warcraft - Sylvanas Windrunner

LINK LOTTO

- Ray Villafane's Zombie Pumpkin Garden at NYBG
- US military forces train for zombie apocalypse prank
- Disney to make new 'Star Wars' films, buy Lucas co
- Hobbit airline safety video prepares your flight to Middle-earth
- Arnold Schwarzenegger returns as Conan the Barbarian

Bonus Item!

Play Tetris with this pumpkin!

← Click here for past Social Shares.

What’s Up?

Mischievously Dishonored
October 30th is Mischief Night, a time to play pranks and tell spooky stories as we ready ourselves for Halloween fun. Tomorrow in the Competitions and Activities board we will be announcing our Dishonored Tales Contest, for a chance to win a signed copy of the game as well as a mischievous bonus goodie.

Last Chance For Halloween Activities!
Halloween is right around the corner, if you haven’t gotten what you need now you might run the risk of passing out raisins and dressing up as a hobo! Also you only have a few days left to participate in the GameSpot Halloween Activities for a chance at the nifty new pumpkin emblem!

Winner of DoA Breast Cancer Awareness Contest
At the beginning of the month GameSpot Community Manager Synthia wrote a little blog to help raise breast cancer awareness, offering up to those who created inspired Dead or Alive themed wallpapers a chance at a collectors edition copy of the game. The winner of the contest…. tmaclabi! All wallpapers will be added to a feature page and updated in Wednesday's Social Share.

Winners for the Rage of Bahamut Contests
Last September we ran a trio of contests for the hit free to play iOS card game “Rage of Bahamut". The winners of the contests would each receive a iTunes gift card to purchase a pouch of Rage Metals (1100 to be exact). Congrats to the following GameSpotters:
Rage of Bahamut Review Contest - kaboose7
Rage of Bahamut Raffle Reward - drsla
Rage of Bahamut Fan Art Contest - TBSniipez

Live Stream Schedule

Time to take a look at this weeks live streams! No time displayed? Be sure to subscribe to Twitch.tv to stay in the loop for all of GameSpots live streams.
- Tuesday October 30th - Assassins Creed III with Kevin Van Ord
- Thursday November 1st - Halo 4 with T-Squared

GameSpotter Reviewer Spotlight

This weeks featured reviewer is king_quaps for his review of Dishonored for the PS3. king_quaps gave the game a 7.5, calling it “Disappointing… Not the instant classic it could have been." Do you agree with what he has to say? Comment below WARNING: MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS.

User Reward Challenge

This weeks activities! As always, in addition to the automatic points you’ll get to your profile when you use the site you can earn some bonus points this week by participating in the following activities:
- 200 XP -- Comment on Chalk Talk: Gamers vs Gaming Culture
- 300 XP -- Write a review for Medal of Honor: Warfighter
- 300 XP -- Write a review for Unfinished Swan
- 1000 XP -- Write for this weeks Chalk Talk: Play like a girl.

This Week on Chalk Talk…

Last week on Chalk Talk we discussed Gamers vs Gaming Culture, asking GameSpotters what they felt that we as gamers have done to contribute to something that we all clearly have a passion for. We had some great topics discussed including social gaming, the anti-social gamer, and gaming acceptance by the “norm". This week on Chalk Talk topic is “Play like a girl" where we’ll look at females in gaming, how they are personified, as well as their role in the community.

Tip of the Week:

Did you know your blogs can be featured on GameSpots front page? It’s true! Chalk Talkers and Awesome Bloggers have started showing up from out of the woodworks helping the community to grow and thrive.
This weeks tip comes from -Saigo- with some helpful tips on how to accurately define an editorial piece.