Blog Posts by Chris Morris

Zynga HQ (Justin Sullivan / Getty Images)Over the past year, no tech company has had ups and downs quite like Zynga.

In the days leading up to its debut on Wall Street last December, the social game kingpin was heralded as The Next Big Thing, an unstoppable force in an evolving industry, with proponents pointing to the enduring draw of games like Farmville, Mafia Wars, and Words With Friends. Lately, though, the company's stock has taken a brutal beatdown and those proponents have changed their tune.

It's a pretty rapid reversal, but is it one Zynga can survive?

Nintendo 3DS XL (Nintendo)The 3DS is getting supersized.

Nintendo announced plans in an online video early Friday to roll out a new version of its 3D handheld system — called the 3DS XL — which will effectively double the system's screen size. The handheld will go on sale in the U.S. on Aug. 19 for $200.

Like the 3DS, the 3DS XL will have a non-3D touch screen as well as the larger 3D screen, which still does not require the use of special glasses. But despite the bigger screen, the new model will reportedly have a longer battery life, letting people play games for up to 6.5 hours, a 1.5-hour improvement over the original.

Diablo III (Blizzard)If you're just now getting around to Diablo III, you might want to buy a retail copy instead of downloading one.

In its most recent patch of the game, Blizzard Entertainment has capped how far players who purchase a digital copy of the game can advance in the first 72 hours. Despite inevitable protests to the contrary, it doesn't look like the company is planning to change its mind about the decision.

Ryan Seacrest (Getty Images)Doodling on your iPhone could lead to big money and big prizes.

CBS is developing a primetime game show based on Zynga's popular Draw Something app. The network won a bidding war for the rights to the game and is reportedly fast-tracking the show as a possible mid-season replacement to step in when one of its new series ultimately fails.

'American Idol' host Ryan Seacrest will be executive producer of the show, though he's not expected to host the program. As for the format, the specifics are still being kept under wraps, but the game will focus on the Pictionary-like gameplay of the popular app. And show runners aren't planning on ignoring the huge mobile player base.

Civilization V: Gods & Kings (2K Games)If you've got a Civilization fan in your life, you might want to say goodbye for a little while.

This week's release of Civilization V: Gods & Kings is being heralded as a terrific add-on to the much loved strategy series, adding a wealth of new content and ensures that the franchise's well-known "one more turn" gameplay is as addictive as ever.

Microsoft left a lot of people hungry for details about its next-generation console system at this year's E3. This past weekend, however, those people had plenty to chew on, courtesy of a leaked document that purports to offer plenty of previously unannounced details on the system.

The 56-page document, which first surfaced in the popular NeoGAF forums, presents itself as a road map for the Xbox system through 2015, including alleged details on the so-called Xbox 720, a unique glasses display, and a focus on cloud gaming.

Web surfers tend to be pretty loyal to their browsers. Once you figure out the shortcuts and placement of everything, it's kind of a pain to upgrade to a dramatically revamped interface -- or a new browser altogether.

The problem is, programming sites for those antiquated browsers can be a major headache. Now one online retailer is fighting back, announcing plans to add a 6.8 percent "tax" onto the purchases of anyone who visits their site using Internet Explorer 7.

Max Payne 3 (Rockstar Games)Rockstar Games is considered a nearly bulletproof game developer. They take their time crafting their games, and their releases are always major events. The company's last three blockbuster titles -- Grand Theft Auto IV, Red Dead Redemption and last year's L.A. Noire -- enjoyed chart-topping success, a testament to the company's dedication to quality and terrific sense of timing.

But the release of Max Payne 3 is putting their impressive streak at risk.