Once upon a time the career path into the Video Games Industry was obscure and unsure; a little training in a tangential area, a spot of correspondence with established professionals, a large dose of luck and you were still far from guaranteed a job anywhere near the industry. Not so today.

The Steven Spielberg-conceived puzzler returns to the Wii with a direct sequel that is as welcome as it is obvious: More levels, more blox, more modes, more online features, more motion-tracking party game goodness.

Indie games, art games, little bundles of digital weirdness, call them what you will but the stuff coming out of the digital underground these days is pure-grade fantastic.

Volition, Inc moves their revolutionary sci-fi shooter to the third-person for the third instalment of Red Faction, and to great effect at that. If it weren’t already every child’s dream to become a rebel insurgent and overthrow a corrupt government then Guerrilla would have made it so. 

Now I know the realm of pop music isn’t really this blog’s purview (and lord knows we don’t need another piece adding to the media jabber) but I thought those caught up in the massive wave of collective mourning might be interested to know of the video game-related tributes to the King of Pop.

The annual E3 event always offers a deluge of information so dense it’s difficult to keep up with. Now that the tide is receding it seems a good time to sift through the wreckage and hunt for the standout games of the show.

Videogames have long had a rather tragic PR problem. Coverage of games will generally fall into two categories; the hobby is either seen as the catalyst for violently antisocial behaviour or, at best, an insubstantial form of entertainment. What you don’t often hear, from any mainstream source at least, is praise for videogames engaging with the gravest of social, political, and ecological issues facing the globe today – but that’s not stopping a growing community of game makers from trying.

On the gaming industry calendar few occasions match the digital opulence of the annual geek banquet, E3. Running for three days, wrapping up on June 4th, E3 gives the industry’s heavy hitters a unique chance to show off their biggest and boldest offerings of the coming year.

Enchanting and deceptively rich, the King may be little but his story is huge. Delivering a superb blend of Simulation, RPG, and strategic action, Little King’s Story is the sort of game the Nintendo Wii has been desperately crying out for.

In early April video game publisher Konami announced that they would release a game based on very recent real-life military events from Operation Iraq Freedom entitled Six Days in Fallujah, a premise that drew instant controversy.