Looks like we polished off the week again, so it's time to go through the top full-length features of the past week on big sister 'art and business of gaming' site Gamasutra, plus our GameCareerGuide features for the week.

Some topline material here, including interviews with BioShock and Far Cry 2 scribe Susan O'Connor, the monthly NPD U.S. console sales analysis, and an in-depth dive into the state of the European game market, plus a GCG analysis of Silent Hill 2's story, a much-discussed article on iPhone game piracy, and more besides.

Here's the highlights from the last seven days:

Upping The Craft: Susan O'Connor On Games Writing
"Veteran video game writer Susan O'Connor (BioShock, Far Cry 2) believes that there's a lot of room to improve the writing in games, and talks to Gamasutra about narrative ways to engage the player, alongside the philosophy and craft of storytelling."

Small Developers: Minimizing Risks in Large Productions - Part II
"Microsoft, EA, Insomniac, and Ubisoft veteran Troy Dunniway continues an earlier article in discussing some of the major risks involved in transitioning from a small to large development team and how to identify and avoid them."

iPhone Piracy: The Inside Story
"Many game developers don't think of the iPhone as being a system which has extensive game piracy. But recent comments by developers and analysts have shown otherwise, and Gamasutra speaks to multiple parties to evaluate the size of the problem, and whether there's anything that can be done about it."

And Yet It Grows: Analyzing the Size and Growth of the European Game Market
"Is the European game market even more important that many think? Gamasutra sifts through data for the tremendously diverse region to discover the current shape -- and prospects for growth -- for the area's complex ecosystem."

NPD: Behind the Numbers, October 2009
"In Gamasutra's detailed NPD U.S. console/game sales analysis for October 2009, we examine Sony's post-PS3 price drop results and PSP Go launch, Nintendo's Wii price cut timing, and a possibly grim outlook for the rest of 2009."

GCG: Game Narrative Review: Silent Hill 2
"Viewed by many as the high point in the series if not the entire Survival Horror genre, Silent Hill 2 has a disturbing and psychological story -- analyzed here in our latest Game Narrative Review."

GCG: Going Pro - Differences Between Indie/Student Development and Professional Game Development
"So you're about to finish school. What do you need to know about the real world? This article talks about the differences between coursework and work -- and doesn't pull any punches."