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Game of the Year nominee Assassin's Creed IIISpike's annual video game awards sometimes take a beating from core gamers in forums and chatrooms, but that hasn't stopped the event from evolving into one of the biggest gaming events of the year. And, for gamers, it often brings an early Christmas present.

Each year, the show offers major game announcements — as well as recognition of some of the year's best games. This year's broadcast is scheduled to air live Friday night at 9pm ET (and will be rebroadcast several times over the days to come). Here's a look at what to expect.

Black Friday and the launch of the Wii U weren't enough to stop the video game industry's ongoing slide at physical retail stores. For the twelfth month in a row, sales were lower than a year ago.

That said, the numbers were anything but small.

There's already a ton of critical praise for Journey, the soothing — almost meditative — PSN adventure title. But the latest kudo carries a bit more weight.

Austin Wintory has been nominated for a Grammy for his work on the game's soundtrack. This marks the first time a video game has been nominated for a Grammy.

The world's tallest Lego Tower in Prague (Getty Images)Building the biggest Lego tower has been an obsession for fans of the timeless toy for generations, but how high could you build it before the brick at the bottom collapses under the strain?

BBC Radio's statistics show More or Less asked Britain's Open University's Engineering Department. Armed with a hydraulic press, the department's staff set about finding out.

"It's an exciting thing to do because it's an entirely new question and new questions are always interesting," Dr Ian Johnston said to the BBC. We're guessing they're even more interesting when you get to fool aournd with industrial-strength heavy machinery and Lego bricks, but we certainly can't fault his spirit of scientific endeavor.

Buy toys, store toys, sell toys, make money.

Easy, right? It sure sounds like it, and if you love buying toys anyway, it's a tempting formula. But if it were that easy, everyone would be getting rich off their childhood memories.

Sad to say, all too many of yesterday's collectibles just didn't turn out to be the investments we hoped. For every first-edition Superman comic (worth a cool $2.2 million today), there's a veritable avalanche of once-collectible knickknacks that have brutally dropped in value. So if you still have an attic, basement, or garage packed with boxes of any of these, we cautiously suggest it might be time to rethink.

Call of Duty: Black Ops II (Credit: Activision)Will Black Ops II be a bigger hit than its predecessor?

Activision announced Wednesday that the latest game in the Call of Duty franchise has hit the $1 billion sales mark after just 15 days on store shelves. That's one day faster than last year's Modern Warfare 3, and two days faster than 2009's "Avatar."

Hitman: Absolution (Credit: Square-Enix)Agent 47 just can't seem to avoid trouble.

Just months after the newly released stealth game Hitman: Absolution got into hot water for a risqué game trailer, the game's publisher is finding itself on the defensive once again for a PR gaffe that some say encourages cyberbullying.

(Credit: ZeptoLab)So long Om Nom. Thanks for the candy-filled memories.

ZeptoLab, the company behind the runaway mobile hit Cut the Rope, today unveiled their next game. It's called Pudding Monsters, and while it doesn't star the candy-munching character who stole player's hearts, it features … well, pudding. Lots of it.