[We're partnering with game criticism site Critical Distance to present some of the week's most inspiring writing about the art and design of video games from commentators worldwide. This week, Ben Abraham looks in on discussions on The Beatles: Rock Band, Prince Of Persia, Torchlight, and many other subjects besides.]

In the past week and a bit, Michael Abbott has looked at the potential for simulation games to re-write history, using his obsession with sim-baseball and the newly released “Strat-O-Matic Negro League All-Stars” as a jumping off for discussion. He's also working on a multi-part series on the different aspects of Uncharted 2 that make it so compelling.

Hopping on the Uncharted 2 bandwagon, the latest episode of the ‘out of the game’ podcast features Shawn Elliott, Robert Ashley and N’Gai Croal going into a little bit of detail about why Uncharted 2 rocks so many people’s socks, and Mitch Krpata in his post ‘the minimalism of Uncharted 2’ argues that it comes down to what isn’t in the game. Another thorough treatment of the game is Brinstar’s len