Blog Posts by Chris Morris

When the deluge of tributes to beloved tech giant Steve Jobs are over and the world has moved on as it always does, the founder of Apple and Pixar will be remembered as a man who radically altered the computer, music and animation industries.

But those impressive achievements will overshadow the enormous impact he had on the video game industry.

That's unfortunate, because while Jobs isn't the first person to leap to mind when you're talking video games, his influence is just as significant as some of the industry's luminaries.

It started back in the glory days of Atari, when Jobs was assigned to create a prototype for Breakout. Rather than doing the dirty work himself, he tapped his friend Steve Wozniak, agreeing to split the $750 fee. Because Wozniak was so efficient at eliminating transistors, Atari founder Nolan Bushnell raised the pay to $5,000 — though Jobs only shared $350 with his friend.

Microsoft's plans to add television content to the Xbox 360 just took a major step forward.

The company unveiled an extensive partner list Wednesday, announcing that nearly 40 global content providers will stream programming through the game console starting this year. Included in the list are heavy cable hitters Comcast, HBO and Verizon FiOS.

Details on how the integration will take place are still pretty scarce, but a few things are certain (and near certain).

One of the best looking mobile games ever is getting a sequel.

Infinity Blade II (Epic Games)Epic Games took to the stage today during Apple's iPhone 5, er, 4S event today to show off Infinity Blade 2, which is due out December 1. And the update goes far beyond graphical tweaks.

The game will add new locations, new enemies and new bosses — but you probably already guessed that was coming. The game will also support iOS 5 features like iCloud, letting players save their games and profiles on multiple devices. Left unrevealed was pricing for Infinity Blade 2. The original currently sells for $5.99.

Despite some very concerted efforts by video game publishers, it appears 3D is still having trouble finding traction with gamers.

Sony 3D TV Bundle (Sony)More than half of 1,000 gamers recently surveyed say they're not interested in 3D becoming a part of the next generation of consoles.

Games comparison site Playr2.com was behind the research. And while the study was hardly scientific (it was conducted via a survey on the site), the results were still interesting, given the heavy push 3D will be getting before the year is out.

When Rage, the long-awaited shooter from id Software, hits shelves Oct. 4, it will end a seven-year drought for the company.

Rage (Bethesda)The pioneering game developer is often credited with creating the first-person shooter genre through revolutionary games like 1992's Wolfenstein 3D (often hailed as the first FPS ever) and the ever-controversial Doom, but it hasn't produced a new game since 2004.

During that gap, the shooter market has evolved tremendously. Franchises like Quake and Unreal have been supplanted by more realistic fare like Call of Duty and EA's Battlefield series, and while sci-fi shooters like Halo and Gears of War still enjoy success, the shooter genre has never been more crowded — or competitive.

It's been 14 years since Sub-Zero, Johnny Cage, Sonya Blade and Raiden were in theaters, but in 2013, they'll be back.

New Line Cinema and Warner Bros. Interactive are partnering to bring Mortal Kombat back to the big screen -- and they may just be able to redeem the franchise's long tarnished cinematic legacy.

The first MK film, which was released in 1995, was hardly a masterpiece, but enough fans embraced it that it spawned a critically-derided 1997 sequel. Last March, a digital short entitled Mortal Kombat: Rebirth appeared on YouTube, however, which quickly became a sensation.

Gamers descended on retailers like locusts to grab their copies of Gears of War 3.

Microsoft says the latest installment in the series sold 3 million copies in its first week, making it the biggest game of the year (so far).

The impressive one-week sales also helped catapult the franchise into an esteemed club. Lifetime sales of Gears titles have now topped $1 billion — the first Xbox 360 exclusive franchise this generation to do so. (Halo isn't counted here since it began as an original Xbox franchise.)

Competition is clearly lacking among NFL games, and with the once-mighty NBA Live on hold this year, you won't find dueling basketball titles on store shelves until 2012.

FIFA 12 (EA Sports)Soccer fans, however, have a tricky choice when it comes to video game simulations.

The battle between EA's FIFA series and Konami's Pro Evolution Soccer has raged for the better part of a decade, and while it might not be quite as intense as the upcoming fight between blockbuster shooters Modern Warfare 3 and Battlefield 3, it's still one that has high stakes. Both games are big moneymakers for their publishers (FIFA, in fact, is more profitable than Madden due to its global appeal and lower licensing costs) — and for the first time in their history, the new games hit U.S. stores the same day this year: Sept. 27.

But which is best for you?