Nintendo DS

The idea of a game world typically appears in the context of immersive games like Far Cry 2 or Grand Theft Auto IV. Games of this type use attractive graphics to imitate reality, making the idea of a virtual world a natural one.

In honor of the launch of what is probably the last must-have Nintendo Wii title we'll ever see, and is surely the final Legend of Zelda game to launch on a Wii—The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword—here is a Zelda cosplayer that is hard to beat.

There has been a significant amount of griping over video game review scores recently. Reviewers seem to be on the defensive to readers, publishers, and developers as they attempt to further justify a number that 1,000+ words apparently could not. Games with review scores less than an 80 average on Metacritic are presumed to be bad (or worse).

Playing video games can be a very expensive hobby and even more so for those of us who consider ourselves not only gamers, but also video game collectors who maintain a library of artistically interesting and historically noteworthy games. With limited disposable income, the average gamer can only purchase so many titles at full price per year. So with that in mind, this is a blog feature devoted to finding the best deals on gaming essentials for would be collectors and anyone looking to play a good game at an affordable price.

Kotaku's Luke Plunkett recently wrote an opinion piece entitled Why It's Stupid to Hate Call of Duty So Damn Much. Intrigued by the headline (and always a sucker for a well-considered opinion piece to counter the never-ending stream of gaming "list-icles" out there) I decided to see why people were stupid to hate on what is essentially the biggest game franchise in the world at this moment.

Lost in the Mist

HIGH That moment when a puzzle that seemed to have no answer suddenly crystallized in my mind.

LOW Every single moment of the subplot with Chief Jakes is terrible.

WTF That's Goosey!

Do you love your baby and Baby Mario and Yoshi? Then show it by decorating his or her bedroom as an homage to one of Nintendo's best platformers.

Microsoft should be pleased with moving another 308,000 Xbox 360 units, especially during a pretty dry month for new game releases. As I mention in the analysis piece, Microsoft will likely interpret this as a signal that a price drop isn't needed for at least the rest of 2011. That doesn't mean that the company won't be offering some interesting deals.

Reviews are starting to hit for Dead Island. Despite being one of the most talked-about titles of the year, gameplay has been a giant question mark up until very, very recently. Now that people have had hands-on and spend some time with it, apparently the game is an open-world adventure/survival title similar to something along the lines of Fallout 3. To me, that sounds completely awesome, and I can't wait to get my hands on a copy of it.

There have been a lot of advancements and positives for console gaming over the course of this console generation. Many games sport high-definition graphics and top-notch sound. Online play gives players the option to be social with friends all over the globe, if they so choose. The rapid rise of social media has put the industry and its fans closer together than ever before. Gradually, though, this generation's negatives and general anti-consumer trends have wiped out a lot of of those positives for me.