[Over in the CBlogs, Wry Guy shared his thoughts on video game collecting, what he enjoys about it, and how he believes the advent of digital downloads has changed the collecting scene. — JRo] Videogames are becoming more and more mainstream. This in itself is a wonderful thing, but it’s a sad age to be a video game collector. Anyone who’s collected anything understands there’s a certain appeal to being familiar with the lesser known....

Last weekwas another battle between a recent-ish DS game versus an older DS game, and this time the support was for the other side of the fence. Here are the results: This week we enter the finals round of the Nintendo DS brackets. Both contenders received tremendous amounts of support leading up to the finals, so I predict a lot of people will be torn when casting their vote. In true odd debate fashion, these two games are very hard to compare to one another, so I look forward to reading a lot of well thought out comments this week....

GameStop has announced that its expanding its digital business today by acquiring social gaming hub and community,Kongregate. The transaction is expected to be finalized on or around August 1; Kongregate will still be headed up by its founders, Jim and Emily Greer. Never been to Kongregate? Now’s a good time to give it a look, but check your productivity at the door. The site is home to hundreds of amazing free-to-play games that span multiple genres....

We’ve actually known about the fact thatTeenage Mutant Ninja Turtleswas coming to Microsoft’s Xbox Live Arcade for some time, but because of emargoes and empty promises, we never were really allowed to say much. Well, now the cat’s out of the bag, as video is now up of the title in action. Looking good, huh?

[Wrenchfarm doesn’t give a crap about a remake of Halo, but he does give multiple craps about some other great potential remakes. A surprising and entertaining list! Want to see your own writing on the front page? Write something awesome andput it in the C Blogs. — Kauza] Everyone is in a titter.Halo: Combat Evolvedis getting an HD remake on the 360. The original adventure of Master Chief on the very first big artificial planet ring/weapon is getting all pretty and saucy for another night on the town....

Yesterday we told youhow games retailer GameStop is rolling in cash this year, and how they predict that the rest of the year would be even bigger for them. They’re estimating that total sales will be up 25 percent, even with a couple of console price drops. Their estimates actually figure in price drops of $50 for both the PS3 and the Xbox 360 some time this year. GameStop COO Dan DeMatteo said in a conference call, “Our guidance continues to assume the hardware price cut we talked about at the very beginning of the year, assuming there is about a $50 price cut on both the [Xbox 360] and PS3 going into the holiday season....

Still think video games are just a fad? Just a hobby? Think again. Look at what the industry pulled in according to thelatest NPD numbers: Whatever way you cut it, the game industry got off to a great start in 2007. This week, research firm NPD Funworld reported that some $1.25 billion worth of non-PC game products were sold in the US during its January reporting period. Broken down, the five weeks between July 18, 2025, and July 17, 2025, saw $505 million in hardware, $549 million in software, and $198 million in game accessories sold domestically....

Microsoft has revealed what they’re doing with Xbox Live and Windows Phone 7 and it doesn’t look like they’re going to be half-assing things here. As the general manager of mobile gaming for MGS, Matt Booty, put it, “Windows Phone 7 is the launch of a major gaming platform for Microsoft.” It’s easy to see Microsoft means business as the line-up is pretty huge. 60 games will be available when Windows Phone 7 is launched this Christmas, all listed below....

I think I speak for just about everyone on staff when I say how obsessively anxious we are forBorderlandsto be released. We have already been assembling potential co-op teams, and you know what? Not only is the game not coming out for a while, but Gearbox has hardly even shown much ofBorderlands. It’s crazy. Gearbox presidentRandy Pitchfordsend out a lovely message to the gaming press, which you’re able to read in full after the break....

Vivendi has released some new screens of the Wii’s new killer-app,Geometry Wars Galaxies, and there’s definitely a few things to note if you’re paying attention. First of all, it pretty much looks likeGeometry Warsas it’s been presented on Xbox Live Arcade and the PC. ButGeometry Warsfanatics will notice what appears to be some new biohazard geometry (which hopefully means we’ll hear “Tears of Blood” somewhere on the soundtrack), among others. And last but not least, it looks as if a counter has that keeps track of how many enemies (“Geoms”) you’ve blasted....

TheESRB has ratedthe upcoming1 vs. 100 LIVEtitle coming to Xbox 360 sooner, rather than later. It’s not, as the ESRB points out, for the little ones — it’s rated T for “Teen.” The rating reveals a few questions that will appear in the game (spoiler alert!) so you can get a head start. Examples: “What film features a scene where 12-year-old Dakota Fanning gets raped?” and “InKill Bill, who plucks out Elle Driver’s left eye during the climactic fight?...

Typically, the only rewards that a player reaps when creating unique game content is the enjoyment that others have with it. According to comments given toPS3Fanboyby SCEE president David Reeves, this is about to change with the coming ofLittleBigPlanet. Reeves envisions that users will be able to charge for their content created inLBP. What we’re trying to do withLittleBigPlanetis almost iTunes meets eBay in the sense that once an individual or a developer has qualified by producing certain levels or certain add-ons, they will then be able in the future to exchange these and make money out of them Eventually, it’s feasible that you might well see the firstLittleBigPlanetmillionaire!...

About a year ago, Gibson Guitars filed a lawsuit against Activision over patent infringement. The story goes that Gibson (who had been licensing guitar designs and logos to RedOctane for years by this point) realized that they hada patentfor “simulating a musical performance” and decided to try and swipe a piece of the music gaming pie by suing both Activision and Harmonix. Well, the Activision suit wasthrown out of courtyesterday. The main issue seems to be whether or not the plastic guitars used in the games qualify as “musical instruments” (as the Gibson patent is intended to be a kind of VR system which uses a headset and a real instrument to simulate being on a stage in front of a crowd)....