Traci Turner figured she was playing it safe when she bought her 6-year-old son a used copy of the kid-friendly Wii game 'Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games' from the local Gamestop.

Mario & Sonic at the Winter Olympics (Sega)But when her son opened up the game at home, the Georgia resident was shocked to find pornographic images drawn on the box's inside cover.

"They were extremely inappropriate. It was very sexual in nature," she told local ABC affiliate WSB-TV.

Strictly speaking, it's still summer: the leaves are still green, the sun's still shining (hurricanes notwithstanding), and the apples are nowhere near ripe -- but regardless, the fall video gaming season unofficially starts today.

Resistance is futile.Yup, from here until Thanksgiving, barely a week goes by without at least one major new release hitting the streets. This time it's the turn of PS3-exclusive sci-fi shooter Resistance 3, which sees new kid on the block Joseph Capelli joining a losing battle as Earth is slowly overwhelmed by invading aliens.

And it gets top marks from Joystiq, where Capelli's near-hopeless plight -- and its contrast with the usual macho shooter cliches -- strikes a chord with critic Griffin McElroy.

Sometimes even the strangest rumors turn out to be true.

Nintendo 3DS (Nintendo)Whispers that Nintendo might be adding a second analog stick controller to its 3DS handheld system started circulating a few days ago, but few gave them much credence.

But a leaked photo from the Japanese video game magazine Famitsu indeed shows a new peripheral for the 3DS called the "Expansion Slide Pad." The idea's simple: Clip it onto your 3DS (like a cradle) and you've instantly got another circle pad, not to mention the capacity for dual-stick control. The second stick will sit to the right of the system's face buttons.

Practiced for hundreds of years in Japan, the celebrated art of origami is a real crowd-pleaser. What could be more impressive than being able to turn a flat, featureless sheet of paper into a lifelike, well-proportioned bird, frog or butterfly?

OK, so there are in fact a few things more impressive than origami, but it still ain't a bad way to amuse the kids while waiting at the doctor, show off at the bar, or put a smile on the face of an awkward date. All you need are the right materials.

Which, fortunately, are probably close at hand. Most origami designs require a square piece of paper, and you'll often see origami hobbyists using purpose-made square sheets that are colored on one side and white on the other. While you can find this in any old craft store, plain old copier paper works nearly as well, although you'll need to trim it into a square shape. Be it a placemat, an old letter, a flyer, or even a dollar bill, you're never too far from something suitable.

Bring on the Fall.Wondering when the video game industry will get back on track with big blockbuster releases? Wonder no more. September is here, bringing with it a much-needed blast of triple-A games vying for your summer savings. Hope your calendar is clear, because you've got a LOT to play this month.

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Super Bowl XLVI may look an awful lot like Super Bowl XLV, if the prognostication skills of EA's Madden series are on target this year.

Madden 12 (EA Sports)The football gaming franchise predicts both the Green Bay Packers and Pittsburgh Steelers will once again capture their divisions. And while he might be one of the league's most controversial players, Eagles QB Michael Vick will take home the MVP trophy.

Pre-season predictions are an annual ritual for the Madden series. With the first game of the 2011-2012 season kicking off Thursday, the game makers ran a full simulation to determine their 'official' guesses.

There's no doubt about it -- some board games are just plain boring.

Kolejka (Karol Madaj)Monopoly, perhaps. Connect 4, if you have an extraordinarily short attention span. But a board game where all you do is line up to buy things? Sounds like a instant snooze-fest.

Don't be too quick to judge, however. Designed at the Institute for National Remembrance in Warsaw, Poland, "Kolejka," which means "queue" or "line," is a new board game intended to teach Polish youths about the grim realities of life under Communist rule during the 1980s.

It's a big day for Call of Duty fans.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (Activision)At the inaugural Call of Duty XP fan event in Los Angeles on Friday, Activision revealed a tankload of info about the multiplayer portion of probable record-breaker, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.

Top of the line is this bombshell: killstreaks, the game's bread and butter multiplayer reward system, is being replaced with 'Strike Packages.' The new setup lets players choose one of three pre-set packages — Assault, Support or Specialist — and doles out rewards based on different gameplay critera.