I've played through the beginning of Arkane Studio's Dishonored at least a half-dozen times, each time dreading the moment the killers make their move. Launching worldwide on April 16, Dishonored's second helping of downloadable content puts the assassin's dagger in players' hands. Can The Knife of Dunwall be redeemed?

It's chilling, seeing Corvo and the Empress from that angle and knowing what comes next, isn't it? That tragic event launches the master assassin Daud on a quest for redemption. The mysterious Outsider is an equal-opportunity enhancer, granting fresh new powers to this anti-hero to aid him on his journey. He'll track down Bone Charms and Runes with his Void Gaze, while learning to use deadly variations of Corvo's abilities.

Along with a little black magic, Daud will be able to summon his assassin brethren, daze enemies with Chokedust and Stun Mines, and launch a wide variety of darts from his concealed Wristbow.

Along with fresh locations like the Legal District and the whale carcass-studded Rothwild Slaughterhouse, Duad's journey will also grant players fresh perspective on key events from the main game.

More than just a simple side-story, The Knife of Dunwall is only the beginning of a larger tale, introducing players to a mysterious woman named Delilah, whose story, along with Daud's, will continue in the upcoming final add-on, The Brigmore Witches.

The Knife of Dunwall releases globally for the Xbox 360, PC and PlayStation 3 on April 16 for $9.99 or 800 Microsoft points.

Ten new trophies for Dishonored hint that the title of its second DLC extension is coming soon, and it'll be titled "Other Side of the Coin."

When additional chapters were first mentioned by publisher Bethesda back in the fall, it said the second installment would deal with Daud, the leader of "The Whalers," a group of supernatural assassins. "Make your way through new Dunwall locales and discover Daud's own set of weapons, powers and gadgets in this story-driven campaign. How you play and the choices you make will impact the final outcome," the listing said at the time.

Five of the trophies call the series "The Other Side of the Coin." Bethesda has declined to comment on the listing. The game's first DLC package, "Dunwall City Trials," released in December and cost $5.

Dishonored Trophies [PS3Trophies.org via Polygon]

It looks like I may be about to add a third outlet to my tiny list of "stores I buy gaming shirts from", because Gametee—a new outlet that's about to hit its Kickstarter goal—is designing some very attractive tops.

As they should! One of the partners is British artist AJ Hately, whose Dishonored work floored us a few weeks back (and which features, at least partly, in this line).

You can see the full line below.

Gametee: Premium T-Shirts for Video Gamers [Kickstarter]

Mathieu Aerni is a character artist at Blur Studio, they of amazing video game trailer fame.

He's worked on trailers and cinematics for games such as Halo 4, Far Cry 3, The Elder Scrolls Online, Lord of the Rings: War in the North and Dishonored.

Over the years he's also worked on a number of motion pictures, including Wolverine, The Grey and The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.

You can see more of Mathieu's work at his personal site.

Of all the video game events that happen every year, the Game Developers Choice Awards might be the ones that resonate most with game-makers. That's because they're determined by the masses of folks who make video games vote to nominate the best examples of the form from the preceding months.

For this year's GDC Awards, the games getting the most nominations are Journey (named in six categories), Dishonored (four categories) and The Walking Dead (three). The new Narrative category highlights Spec Ops: The Line and Virtue's Last Reward among others while the Innovation nominees include FTL, ZombiU and Mark of the Ninja. The full list is below, and shows off what a great and diverse year 2012 was for gaming . The 2013 awards ceremony happens on March 27th during this year's Game Developers Conference.

Best Audio
Journey (Thatgamecompany/Sony Computer Entertainment)
Hotline Miami (Dennaton Games/Devolver Digital)
Sound Shapes (Queasy Games/Sony Computer Entertainment)
Assassin's Creed III (Ubisoft Montreal/Ubisoft)
Halo 4 (343 Industries/Microsoft Studios)

Best Debut
Humble Hearts (Dust: An Elysian Tail)
Polytron Corporation (Fez)
Giant Sparrow (The Unfinished Swan)
Subset Games (FTL: Faster Than Light)
Fireproof Games (The Room)

Best Game Design
Dishonored (Arkane Studios/Bethesda Softworks)
Mark Of The Ninja (Klei Entertainment/Microsoft Studios)
Spelunky (Derek Yu/Andy Hull)
Journey (Thatgamecompany/Sony Computer Entertainment)
XCOM: Enemy Unknown (Firaxis Games/2K Games)

Best Downloadable Game
The Walking Dead (Telltale Games)
Spelunky (Derek Yu/Andy Hull)
Trials: Evolution (RedLynx/Microsoft Studios)
Mark Of The Ninja (Klei Entertainment/Microsoft Studios)
Journey (Thatgamecompany/Sony Computer Entertainment)

Best Technology
Far Cry 3 (Ubisoft Montreal/Ubisoft)
PlanetSide 2 (Sony Online Entertainment)
Halo 4 (343 Industries/Microsoft Studios)
Call of Duty: Black Ops II (Treyarch/Activision)
Assassin's Creed III (Ubisoft Montreal/Ubisoft)

Best Handheld/Mobile Game
Gravity Rush (SCE Japan Studio/Sony Computer Entertainment)
Hero Academy (Robot Entertainment)
Sound Shapes (Queasy Games/Sony Computer Entertainment)
The Room (Fireproof Games)
Kid Icarus: Uprising (Sora/Nintendo)

Best Narrative
Spec Ops: The Line (Yager Entertainment/2K Games)
Mass Effect 3 (BioWare/Electronic Arts)
Dishonored (Arkane Studios/Bethesda Softworks)
The Walking Dead (Telltale Games)
Virtue's Last Reward (Chunsoft/Aksys Games)

Best Visual Arts
Borderlands 2 (Gearbox Software/2K Games)
Journey (Thatgamecompany/Sony Computer Entertainment)
Far Cry 3 (Ubisoft Montreal/Ubisoft)
Dishonored (Arkane Studios/Bethesda Softworks)
Halo 4 (343 Industries/Microsoft Studios)

Innovation
Mark of the Ninja (Klei Entertainment/Microsoft Studios)
Journey (Thatgamecompany/Sony Computer Entertainment)
FTL: Faster Than Light (Subset Games)
The Unfinished Swan (Giant Sparrow/Sony Computer Entertainment)
ZombiU (Ubisoft Montpellier/Ubisoft)

Game of the Year
Dishonored (Arkane Studios/Bethesda Softworks)
The Walking Dead (Telltale Games)
Mass Effect 3 (BioWare/Electronic Arts)
XCOM: Enemy Unknown (Firaxis Games/2K Games)
Journey (Thatgamecompany/Sony Computer Entertainment)

If you read a recent piece on video game violence, there's a good chance that somewhere in that article, included is a screenshot of a Dishonored neck stab. Last year was the year of the neck stab, after all. Rock, Paper, Shotgun spoke with the developer that coded that move in-game—Joe Houston—and he had Opinions On Game Violence.

For those that haven't played it, Dishonored is a stealthy game in which you are free to choose how to approach a problem. This poses unique questions about video game violence and what a player chooses to do, versus what a game developer gives as an option. Who holds responsibility, the person choosing or the person that gave the option in the first place?

Delving into the issue a bit in relation to actual-life violence, Houston said the following:

So does that mean that linear violent games are better for society than those like Dishonored, those that touch only superficially on violent acts versus those that allow the player to make extreme choices? I argue that linear games that have a lack of personal ownership in game violence actually do so at the disadvantage of society.

I don't believe that game violence causes real world violence, but I do believe that it does little to prevent it. And games with meaningful (and potentially distasteful) choice just might do better because they stand a chance of making the player think about what they're doing on screen.

Linear versus choice-driven games and what they offer/do when it comes to violence is arguable; there's probably no right answer. But the idea of whether or not games even have a responsibility to prevent violence is a curious one.

Do they?

By nature of how ubiquitous the medium is, it's probably irresponsible to not even think about it, at least. Certainly we've had games that aim to educate or make the world better. So it wouldn't be impossible to make a game that tries to prevent violence.

Food for thought between our neckstabs.

Dishonored Dev Joe Houston On Violence In Games [Rock, Paper, Shotgun]

Aussie writer Daniel Hindes, who for a while has run a niche site called Sneaky Bastards, wants to take the idea of discussing stealth games to a more tangible format. Hence, Sneaky Bastards, the magazine.

Promising that the magazine will feature 100% new content (as in, nothing that's been on the site before), the first issue also has a stunning front cover courtesy of British artist AJ Hately, who we've featured here before.

It's hoped that the print run can be a way of "producing more of a substantial, long-form, long-lasting analysis and exploration of stealth gaming in a format that this kind of material is designed to be read and consumed in."

You can check out more, and contribute, below. Which you should. The internet is a wonderful place to read about cats and fake trailers, but this kind of in-depth discussion about such a dedicated topic is perfect for dead trees between your fingers.

Sneaky Bastards [Kickstarter]

Something tells me the chances of us seeing officially licensed Dishonored LEGO are slim. Rats, murder, prostitutes... I don't think it's quite LEGO's thing. But hey, where LEGO misses an opportunity, custom builders are always there to come through with the goods.

Nathan Proudlove built this Dishonored "Tall Boy" walker, a unit in the game that spends its time trying to kill you while at the same time trying to not trip over the slightest bit of debris.

This, though, will just spend all of its time sitting on a shelf. Safer for everyone, really!

Dishonored LEGO [Proudlove, via Super Punch]

You don't realize just how good a gaming year it's been until you look back at all of the games you actually played. From physics puzzlers to ninja simulators, 2012's library was full of interesting, creative, unique experiences.

I played a lot of games last year. A few were bad. Most were good. Some were great. Those are the ones I'll remember: the games that stood out from the pack in memorable ways. So here are my ten favorite games of 2012. Presented in no particular order:

Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward

My personal game of the year, Virtue's Last Reward kept me up for many hours, many nights in a row. Though some—like Kotaku boss Stephen Totilo—have found the game's opaque puzzles and overwrought dialogue to be rather tedious, I enjoyed every moment of Aksys's chilling visual novel.

The Last Story

A wonderfully well-written role-playing game with pleasant British voice acting and combat that taught me how to enjoy running around and smashing the A button, The Last Story (not to be confused with Hironobu Sakaguchi's other work, Final Fantasy) is the year's best JRPG—if not the generation's.

Dishonored

I've written a lot about how Dishonored is a stellar experience, but really, all that matters is the Blink spell. There are few abilities in a video game as satisfying, as empowering, as totally game-breaking as an ability that you can use to teleport anywhere at any time. The world and art direction are just dismally gorgeous icing on the delicious Blink cake.

Persona 4: Golden

Let me sum up my feelings toward Persona 4 with an anecdote. A few nights ago, I was fighting one of the game's final bosses. After a solid 45 minutes of battling, I had taken him down to something like 10% health. I was following the same patterns: buff, attack, heal, rinse, repeat. I was ready for it to be over.

He uses one attack. Bam. My main character instantly dies. Game over. Time to start again.

If I was playing any other game, I might have quit and moved onto something else at this point. Instead, I went and killed monsters for an hour to make my characters stronger. Persona 4 is the worst. (Also the best.)

Theatrhythm: Final Fantasy

Rhythm games are fun, Final Fantasy music is fantastic, and there's something really special about a game that combines the two. Even when you're repeating the same songs ad infinitum, it's hard not to love the addictive, frenetic tapping of Theatrhythm. The name, on the other hand, is very easy not to love.

Quantum Conundrum

I enjoyed every minute of this first-person puzzler, wonky physics aside. I wish the ending had been more satisfying, but the journey was totally worth it.

Torchlight 2

Funny that the year's best Diablo game wasn't even called Diablo.

Mark of the Ninja

Forget the snappy controls and smart interface; the best part of Mark of the Ninja is that every stage feels like a puzzle with multiple solutions. Would you like to choke out that guard from behind or throw a smoke bomb so you can get past him without being seen? Ninja is a smart, tight, remarkably enjoyable game.

Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask

It's easy to complain about the "annualization" of video games—how companies like to milk a series cow for yearly sequels until the teat has run way too dry. But when it comes to Layton, I say bring it on: the professor's charming puzzle adventures just seem to get better and better every year.

Far Cry 3

Because shooting down pirates, running into the forest, finding myself face to face with a giant tiger, getting the hell out of dodge, finding a hang-glider, and using it to soar across the skies to safety was one of my most enjoyable gaming experiences in 2012.

This isn't an exquisite 3D render of Corvo's mask from Dishonored. It's an actual mask, put together by the team at Technically Magic Effects.

Sadly, it's not available to buy—it's a one-off made for a competition—but that only makes it that much more of alluring.

The accuracy is a result of the source material: developers Arkane shared the actual 3D models used for the mask in the game, meaning that, technically, this is no different to Corvo's actual mask.

Except you can actually touch this one.

Corvo, DISHONORED [Technically Magic Effects, via The Omega Nerd]