PlayStation Vita (Sony)By Mike Wehner, Tecca

When Sony entered the portable gaming market with the PlayStation Portable way back in 2005, its sexy screen and sleek design made it an instantly desirable product. But over time, a lack of consistent, quality features and somewhat patchwork control scheme lent the device more of a novelty status, as opposed to being a platform for hot new titles. With the PlayStation Vita, Sony clearly set out to correct the issues with the aging PSP — but did it hit a bullseye, or is this just a shot in the dark?

Come together, right now.It might still be the most popular board game in the world, according to publisher Hasbro, but there's no denying Monopoly's particular brand of cut-throat Gordon Gekko capitalism just isn't as fashionable as it once was.

The time's right for a new take on the game, in other words -- and that's exactly what worker-owned cooperative publisher The Toolbox for Education and Social Action (TESA) has produced.

Their game is called Co-opoly, and though it bears a superficial resemblance to Monopoly, in it you're more likely to be buying health insurance for your co-workers, tackling economic challenges as a group, or debating the pros and cons of a business expansion than paying rent,

Text now or forever hold your peace.With Valentine's Day hitting next week, there's plenty of love in the air — but if you want that love to last, your odds are better in cyberspace.

A study of virtual marriages in MapleStory, a massively multiplayer online game from Nexon, finds that people who vow to stay together forever in-game tend to be more successful at it than those of us in the real world.

The Elder Scrolls V: SkyrimChalk up another big win for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Bethesda's much-loved dragon-slaying role-playing-game has taken home another Game of the Year award, this time from one of the most widely respected bodies in the video game industry.

The Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences held its annual Interactive Achievement Awards Thursday night at the DICE summit, with Skyrim taking top honors — as well as four other awards. Uncharted 3 and Portal 2 each took home a trio of trophies.

Still the king.To say the video game industry stumbled out of the gate in 2012 would be exceedingly kind.

January software sales, which are the most closely watched figure by investors, were down 34 percent - the biggest percentage drop in more than 2 years — to $750.6 million. That's more than $389 million less than a year ago.

Zynga toys around.We've seen Legend of Zelda action figures. We've seen Cut the Rope plushes. We've even seen Angry Birds board games.

Next up: Farmville toys, games, and action figures, courtesy of a just-announced deal between social game maker Zynga and toy-world behemoth Hasbro.

The deal sees Hasbro picking up a license to produce toys and games based on Zynga's numerous properties, which include popular social network games Farmville, Cityville, and Words with Friends. Hasbro's products should start showing up in stores this fall, and with Zynga boasting a total active userbase well north of 200 million, it's safe to say they'll be hot property...even though your average Farmviller is probably far too

Double Fine founder Tim SchaferWhen he couldn't find a publisher to front the cash for his next game, Double Fine Studios' Tim Schafer (Psychonauts, Brutal Legend) came up with a different approach.

He asked his fans.

Posting an appeal on crowd-sourced microfunding site Kickstarter last night, Schafer asked gamers to contribute as little as $15 to his next work. In return, they'd get a copy of the finished game, plus other incentives. He set a lofty fundraising target of $400,000, enough to finish the job and produce an accompanying behind-the-scenes documentary.

By Natalie Wolchover | LiveScience.com

Reading is mental.You might not realize it, but your brain is a code-cracking machine.

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S1M1L4RLY, Y0UR M1ND 15 R34D1NG 7H15 4U70M471C4LLY W17H0U7 3V3N 7H1NK1NG 4B0U7 17.

Passages like these have been bouncing around the Internet for years. But how do we read them? And what do our incredibly low standards for what's legible say about the way our brains work?

According to Marta Kutas, a cognitive neuroscientist and the director of the Center for