Video Games

The U.S. operations of iconic but long-troubled video game maker Atari have filed for bankruptcy in an effort to break free from their debt-laden French parent. Atari Inc. and three of its affiliates filed petitions for Chapter 11 reorganization in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York late Sunday. Its leaders hope to break the American business free from French parent Atari S.A. and in the next few months find a buyer to take the company private. They hope to grow a modest business focused on digital and mobile platforms, according to a knowledgeable person not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

After the coffee. Before asking Manti Te'o to fix me up.  The Skinny: I wonder if Oprah Winfrey would drop Lance Armstrong for Manti Te'o if she could? Thursday's headlines include stories on whether the Armstrong interview can boost OWN, the White House wants to know more about the role TV, movies and video games plays in desensitizing people to violence and previews of the Sundance Film Festival, which starts today. Daily Dose: CA Media, the Asian investment arm of Peter Chernin's media company, has bought a minority stake in Graphic India, which is a comic book and animation company there.

Long stuck in low gear, Walt Disney Co.'s video game division is aiming for infinity. The entertainment conglomerate on Tuesday unveiled plans for a high-stakes initiative called Disney Infinity that could determine the success or failure of its video game business over the next few years. Infinity will enable players to buy toys based on famous Disney characters like Mr. Incredible and "Pirates of the Caribbean's" Jack Sparrow and “scan” them into a game. Each character can have adventures in his or her own environment - like Sparrow on the high seas -- or together in a "playground" mode where players create new worlds.

Sales of video game discs and consoles plummeted 22% last year, as consumers flocked to new digital devices and cut their spending, while publishers released fewer games. The drop was much sharper than 2011's 9% decline from 2010. Total spending in the U.S. on physical game products was $13.26 billion, according to NPD Group. The research firm did not estimate the annual total including other avenues for game spending, but did say that used games, rentals and digital formats accounted for about half of total spending in December.

The Grammy Awards are ready to play, at least in the minds of those who create music for video games. For the first time, a complete video game score has been nominated for a Grammy. At the February ceremony, Austin Wintory's compositions for PS3 title "Journey" will vie for a trophy alongside more recognizable cinematic names such as Hans Zimmer ("The Dark Knight Rises") and last year's Oscar winner Ludovic Bource ("The Artist"). For the 28-year-old L.A.-based Wintory, the nomination is "bewildering" - "stupefying," even, considering that video game scores have been eligible and overlooked by Grammy voters for more than a decade.

For the last two decades, video game movies have been so bad that the genre itself has become shorthand for failure. So when French game publisher Ubisoft, best known for its "Assassin's Creed" series and Tom Clancy-branded military games, decided to take a stab at movies, the company didn't search for a Hollywood expert to be its partner. Ubisoft decided to hire him. Jean-Julien Baronnet, chief executive of the 2-year-old Ubisoft Motion Pictures unit, takes a hands-on approach to translating his company's intellectual property from interactive to linear media.

Who should you be reading in 2013? Memoirist Emily Rapp and short-story writer Jim Gavin, for starters. They're among those picked by our books team as Faces to Watch in 2013. Others we think you should keep your eye on: Valla Vakili and his books-and-everything website Small Demons, graphic novelist Lisa Hanawalt and Los Angeles literary events maven Michelle Meyering. For all the details, please see the complete Faces to Watch section , which includes who to look for in film, video games, TV, theater, jazz, pop, and classical music, comedy, architecture, dance and art. ALSO: Building a desert reading list Art appreciation 101: 'Glittering Images' by Camille Paglia Female friendships up close: Susanna Sonnenberg on her new memoir Carolyn Kellogg: Join me on Twitter , Facebook and Google+

The year that was brought a number of hype-filled hits. Some of that hoopla was deserved. Plenty of it wasn't. So which movies received the most undue recognition? According to an informal survey around the L.A. Times newsroom, there are several viable candidates for the dubious honor of most overrated movie. Did  “The Avengers” and its superhero pyrotechnics draw the most unearned praise? “Prometheus" and its cult following? Questing of a more animated sort with "Brave?" The laughers are represented too.  Did 'Ted's” raunchy slacker comedy merit all its air kisses?

With the film version of "Les Miserables" opening at the top of the Christmas Day box office there's renewed interest in the classic musical around the Internet. This is causing people to discover all kinds of fascinating aspects to "Les Miz" fandom, including the Japanese video game "Arm Joe," a "Street Fighter"-style combat game that was released in 1998. "Les Miserables" has long been popular in Japan, where Victor Hugo's original novel has been adapted into anime series and specials multiple times and so it's not entirely surprising that a video game version once saw the light.

Jesús García saw no reason to be afraid of death. "It's not good to fear anything," he once said. "Death is always around, but you've got to laugh at death. " After leaving the hospital that afternoon in early May, he boarded the bus at Vermont and Sunset and headed south. The shops and congestion of Koreatown streamed by. He didn't bother calling his mother. She was in Idaho and would get the news soon enough. Besides, she would only start to cry, which was more than he could deal with.