Let's take a walk!

In this issue, we'll explore how our on-screen lives are affecting our off-screen ones. Can games open a door to the larger outside world? We sure hope so.

We'll jump from the eagle-hunting steppes of Kazakhstan to the handholds of Uncharted's rock climbing faces to the playful (and nauseous) edges of outer space. We'll talk to technical directors on the edge of digital verisimilitude, game designers channeling Thoreau's Walden, and in-game photographers doing their best to capture the beauty and mystery of virtual worlds.

Plus! Breaking into Chernobyl with Russian videogame kids. Going ape with tablet games for orangutans. Hunting for Bigfoot in San Andreas. Looking for Xbox after the apocalypse. It's all here.

Written by: Ryan Bradley, Kyle Chayka, Patrick Elliot, Benjamin Hale, Josiah Harrist, Jason Johnson, Brendan Keogh, Zack Kotzer, Yannick LeJacq, Kyle Lemmon, Pete L'Official, Tim Maly, Richard Morgan, Kevin Nguyen, Rainer Sigl, Jacob Silverman, Dan Solberg, Kent Szlauderbach, and Liam Young.

Art by: Braulio Amado, Amber Asay, George Bletsis, Kory Brinton, Weston Colton, Josiah Harrist, Jonathan Petersen, Sergey Pilshikov, Graham Roumieu, Paul Sloane, Houston Trueblood, C. Adrian Walsh, and Jeremy Wilburn.

Cover art by: Timothy Reynolds.