E3 Day 1 - Sony: Apologia et Vita (or Something Like That)

Sony's press conference was exactly how I thought it would be in terms of tone, but that's a good thing. No Kevin Butler this year to joke it up with the crowd. a lot of announcements, a lot of exclusives, a re-naming of the NGP and even more solid-looking games for the new handheld. Jack Tretton was almost sheepish in laying out Sony's apology to gamers and publishers who've been suffering with all this hacking nonsense since April. But after the frowny times for a minute or two, things got rolling with plenty of first-party power.

E3 Day 1 - Microsoft: Surprises and No Surprises Balance It Out...

So far, so good, I suppose. Microsoft kicked off the day with a pretty cool conference that revealed a much stronger focus on Kinect that in this writer's opinion, should have been last year's approach. Sure, 10 million plus units were shifted at retail since the launch, but many "core" gamers have ignored the peripheral for a few reasons (most of them based on misconceptions). Microsoft set out to change that big time and seems to have succeeded thanks to integrating Kinect functionality into nearly everything they showed off. More precise Kinect functionality (for the most part).

Got Used Games? Go GameStaq!

As someone who's been playing console games since game consoles were created, I can very safely say that there's been a massive market for used video games market since day one. Before game shops became an important part of the retail chain, pre-owned titles were either sold/traded between friends at home, school, work and yes, garage sales or flea markets. In the 80's, a number of used game shops across the country such as FuncoLand, BRE and others began the huge boom in dealing in large amount of pre-owned titles along with new releases at brick and mortar locations. Even back then, many consumers complained because they weren't given the best value when trading in recently purchased games and accessories even if they were in fantastic condition.

Deep (& Not So Deep) Fear: A Few (Mild to Mean) Scary Games For Halloween

Soooo, let's just say you've no huge Halloween party plans other than camping out indoors with that bowl of candy that's supposed to be for kids popping up at your front door. Or you just so happen to have a Halloween party plan that happens to involve scary games played and displayed for your guests to experience. Well, fear not dear reader - whatever you've got in mind, here are a few suggestions and selections from 2010's lineup of mild to mightily scary games, some of which will have you and a few friends parked under the couch. While most of this list is geared toward ESRB T or M-rated games, you'll also find a few more family friendly scares here for a few different systems.