This edition of Blog Herding is rather special as it marks the 50th episode since its triumphant return after Game Informer allowed a member of the community to author it. It also breaks the record for the most blogs featured in a single week as the bloggers continue publishing exceptional content.

 Blog Herding Stats:

Period Reviewed: July 30 – August 05, 2012
Number of User Blogs: 126
Number of User Bloggers: 77
Number of User Blogs Herded: 19

Community Events:

Team GIO is currently ranked 1st on the Extra Life top teams chart. If you want to help keep them there and are interested in contributing, contact Mojomonkey12 or Noobtubin8er.

Community Blogs:

The Importance Of A Good Villain
Heroes in video games are often made heroes because of the adversaries they face. Jolt the Cynic reveals how he can empathize with popular villains in some of his favorite games.

The Subtle Torture Of Fixed Backgrounds & In-Game Scenery
Background images and skyboxes often convince us our in-game worlds are much bigger than they really are. Marco Polo wrestles with not being able to explore these unreachable areas.

Game Design That's On the (Blood) Money
There are four games in the Hitman series with a fifth under development. If you've never heard of the series or given it a chance, let this blog by Bradamantium convince you otherwise.

DayZ – Part Game, Part Social Experiment
The DayZ mod for ARMA II is receiving a ton of attention and has been announced as a standalone game. Billeted as the ultimate zombie survival game, Cameron Koch's testimony reveals why.

The Elder Scrolls: Evolution
Bethesda's Elder Scrolls series has had a profound impact on the video game industry. Kyle Wadsworth revisits Morrowind on his quest to explore the evolution of this epic sequence of games.

Time Sinks: The Games That Never End
Whether we like the ending of a game or not, most games do conclude with a grand finale. Stranger talks about a few other games like Minecraft that can be played indefinitely.

Call Of Duty Blamed For Michael Phelps's Olympic Performance
Perhaps the funniest and one of the most popular blogs of the week, Glasses muses about how Michael Phelps's performance during the Olympics suffered due to Call of Duty.

The Assassins Are Coming
Whether you made the connection or not, there are a number of assassin-themed video games on the horizon and LetMeGetToACheckpoint does a great job summarizing them here.

Pikmin 3 Preview (Featuring: Kid Ica)
It's been a long time since Nintendo fans have had a new Pikmin game to play and everyone is expecting that to change when the Wii U releases later this year. Apricot and Kid Ica offer their thoughts on the details that have been released so far.

Behind The White Wall
A fascinating account detailing the often overlooked back stories that occur in some video games like Portal and Batman, Hannibal challenges us to be patient and enjoy the whole story.

Nintendo DS: The RPG Frontier
RPG fans who own a Nintendo 3DS should enjoy this blog by PRjumpman124, where he lists and describes what he considers some of the best RPGs you can get for your portable gaming device.

Why Must You Drop Me Again?
Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance swaps control between the two main characters using what has been labeled the "drop system," a component of the game Blaze6106 finds a little frustrating.

Tales Of Xillia Part 1 – Characters
Another import preview courtesy of LGAR, this time exploring the different characters featured in the upcoming release of Tales of Xillia, the 13th game in Namco Bandai's Tales series.

Louis, The Game Guy
The always clever and creative God Of Irony returns with another of his unique draw blogs, this time capturing the thoughts of a few notable characters in artistic fashion.

First Playthrough: Vice City
The telltale sign of a great game is one that is still being discussed years after its release, and this blog by Supersnake recounts the first time he played through the decade-old Grand Theft Auto: Vice City.

What If This Interview Had Brentalfloss?
Hard not to include a blog that earned praise from Game Informer's own Tim Turi, but in only his second blog, Cody Bauman scores an interview with YouTube sensation Brent "Brentalfloss" Black.

Battle Royale Should Copy MK, Not SB!
After a drought of posting blogs, born4this returns with two blogs, both worth your attention. This rather popular piece questions whether Battle Royale should imitate Mortal Kombat or Smash Brothers.

4 Things That Terrible Games Did Right
Bad games are bad, but sometimes they offer a feature or an element that redeems them, if even only slightly. This blog by thegodofwine7 lists a few bad games and what they did do right.

It's Time To De-Certify The Certification Process
The method of developing games for a particular platform requires a rigid certification process that can be expensive and time consuming. Noobtubin8er questions whether it's time to change it.

Community Reviews:

Jumping Over Zombies Never Gets Old
What better way to capitalize off of the popularity of zombie games and Xbox Live Arcade? Deadlight is a new zombie sidescrolling horror platformer, and the focus of this review by Matthew Fugere.

Strategically Dismembering Horror Clichés
Better late than never, Doctor Apozem finally gets the opportunity to finish the original Dead Space and then posts an exceptional review about the harrowing experience. Next up, Dead Space 2.

Dark Souls: You'll Die And You'll Like It
Many gamers agree that Dark Souls is an entertaining game but one of the most difficult and challenging experiences you're likely to encounter. This detailed review by Theora Craft seems to confirm that claim.

Don't forget to send your feedback, recommendations, and community events in to my personal Game Informer account located here to ensure this feature continues to provide the content you're eager to read.

Happy Blogging!

Your friendly neighborhood blogging community (07/30/12 – 08/05/12):
ace13; Apricot; AshaMan3000; awmace5; benderstrike64 (2); BlackHeartedWolf (5); blaze6106; born4this (2); Bradamantium; BRAV0 F1VE; Cameron Koch (2); Caudex 3); Chris Mrkvicka (3); Cody Bauman; Cru Hunter; dadarkheart; Dawson Wyckoff (2); DJH (6); drsoko (2); Drym Shyuan (2); Frosty; Ghost (2); Glasses; God Of Irony; GoldvsSilver; Hannibal (4); J Warrior; John Wrek; Jolt the Cynic (2); Jon Gregory aka JMan240; Jonathan Harrison; jordanthegamer (2); Joyful Penguin; Juanolo (2); Kate Willaert; KillerRabbitsFTW; killjoy115; Kinsey; Kyle Wadsworth; lcompx; Le Hannibal (2); LetMeGetToACheckpoint; LGAR; Marco Polo (2); markus1142; Mike (3); Noobtubin8er (2); opposedcrow88; Ownzoir (2); pressST4RT (3); PRjumpman124; quasiconundrum; Rabid Chipmunk; Reptar7; Rihz (2); Sean; Sora Three Ben; sorryjzargo; stayedstar; Storm One; Stranger (2); Supersnake; The Pillow-Embracing Carson; The Second Musketeer; The Soapbox Lord; The Tot-Consuming Carson; thegodofwine7 (3); Tim Gruver; TOGNick (4); Undertaker Adrian; Vegetarian Barbarian; wayoverdue; xking595x (4); xl9 (2); xXBourne07Xx; Yusuke Urameshi; and of course yours truly...Saint.

Video Game Quote of the Week:
"One who knows nothing can understand nothing." – Ansem, Kingdom Hearts