There was a time when smashing bricks and jumping into pipes was considered fine entertainment. These days, if you got your gaming news from television instead of fine places like this, you would hear mostly about the terrible things you can do in video games and how they turn our children into little soldiers. But when I sit down in front of my game console, I do much more than fight intergalactic war.

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Despite current economic suckage, video games are proving to be resistant to high gas and food prices. In fact, video games sales have increased. Compared to a year ago, there has been a 53% increase in both software and hardware sales. The biggest surprise? The PS3 outsold the 360 last month, and kept going strong throughout July.

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Brothers Rand and Robyn Miller, as we know, dreamed up the mythos of Myst. But how much was only a dream? The adventurous duo loved trekking through the woods and along the coasts of the Pacific Northwest. Even the Cyan Worlds headquarters, located in Spokane, WA, sits between the forested foothills of two mountain ranges.

Last week, I somehow found myself trudging along a path of moss-splotched pieces of wood winding through the forests of the Olympic Peninsula, rimmed with sixty miles of undeveloped coastline. I remembered what I’d heard over the dinner table the day before, confirmed by the blogs of strangers: this place inspired Myst.

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If you’ve got an iPhone sporting the new 2.0 firmware, chances are you have Super Monkey Ball. (And if you haven’t, what are you waiting for?) But there’s more goodness to be culled from the iTunes app store besides playing games. There are plenty of cool apps out there, and some of the best ones don’t cost a penny. After all, when you spend a big chunk of your disposable income on limited-edition video games, free and useful stuff is a godsend. 

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Whenever a brand new title hits the shelves, thousands of gamers around the world fire up their computers or crack open their gaming magazines to see what their favorite reviewers had to say. These reviewers are professional game writers, but since we consumers invest our time and money based on their recommendations, we should probably ask a few questions. First and foremost: how much time does a reviewer actually spend with a title? And how often do they even complete them?

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With the Wii and the DS, you can’t argue that Nintendo isn’t an innovative, forward-thinking company. So why on Earth would the Big N even consider releasing a DVD-ready Wii console? That kind of move seems to be a step backward. At a recent stockholders meeting, Nintendo President Satoru Iwata said the updated Wii system would be put on hold while focusing on getting the current model on more store shelves.

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