The future is...a blurry Xbox pad

It's been a record-breaking year for the video game industry, but 2011 is lining up to be even bigger. But what games will be making headlines? Which consoles are set for success, and which are ready for replacement?
What'll we all be playing this time next year? We peered into our Yahoo!-issue standard crystal ball (purple, naturally), and here's what
we think the New Year will hold for game fans.

No new home consoles

The PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360 are both still selling, and although the
Wii's slowed down, it still managed to post record numbers over the
Black Friday weekend. The typical five-year lifespan of a gaming console
is a thing of the past, and we're expecting Microsoft and

Achievement unlocked

While noble goals like losing weight, getting out of debt, and quitting smoking are popular New Year's resolutions, they're not much fun. Do
yourself a favor this year, and make a resolution that'll improve your enjoyment of your gaming time -- and be easy to keep, to boot.

Go achievement cold-turkey

Wait, what? Turn off those neat Xbox popups that give you that nice warm
feeling when you accomplish something in a game? How else are you going
to find out whether you or XMasterChiefX771 is better at Halo? Here's
the thing, see: it doesn't matter. Although the Xbox's achievement
system took the gaming world by storm when it launched, and has since
been imitated on every platform under the

Frogger: don't try this at home

CLEMSON, S.C. - A man has been hospitalized after police in South
Carolina say he was hit by an SUV while playing a real-life version of
the video game "Frogger."

Authorities said the 23-year-old man was taken to a hospital in Anderson after he was struck at around 9 p.m. Monday.

In the "Frogger" arcade game, players move frogs
through traffic on a busy road and through a hazard-filled river. Before
he was hit, police say the man had been discussing the game with his
friends.

Chief Jimmy Dixon says the man yelled "go" and darted into oncoming traffic in the four-lane highway.

No charges are expected against the driver. The name
of the man who was struck has not been released. He was in

Unwanted gift? No problem

One
of the problems with being a gamer during the holidays is you get a lot
of duplicates of games you already own - or, worse, a collection of
titles you never wanted in the first place. And not everyone is kind
enough to include a gift receipt.

There's money in those unwanted games, though - and there are a variety of ways to cash in on them.

A growing number of retailers are letting people trade in their games.
GameStop is the biggest - and has the longest history of accepting
trades - and that gives it some advantages.

The most significant of those is immediacy and convenience.

"They're everywhere," says David Abrams, who runs CheapAssGamer.com,
a site dedicated to finding the best

Lucky enough to find a shiny new game console under the tree? Don't get too crazy just yet. Unlike your action figures, you can't just rip it out of the box and start playing with it immediately. Well, you can, but you won't really be playing it correctly.

Before you start zoning out in front of the TV, take a moment to make sure you've got the gear to get the most of our your newfound gaming experience.

Wii

Nintendo Wii Extra Controllers
Unlike the Xbox 360 and PS3, getting an extra controller or three really pays off on the family-friendly, party-oriented Wii. Chances are, your brand-new Wii is only packed with one remote and Nunchuk, and that just won't do.

The new standard Wii remote -- dubbed the

Be the best

In World of Warcraft (Buy | Search), some say being the first means being the best. The first to reach the maximum level, the first to kill a certain boss -- every one of them matters. In a game that boasts more than 12 million players, being the very first person, group or guild to accomplish the game's major milestones is like being the first man on the moon. For the hardcore set, it's a pretty big deal.

Cataclysm Crushed: World's First 85

Warcraft's latest expansion, Cataclysm, exploded onto the scene on Dec. 7, shattering sales records -- and the game's world at the same time. As it happens, leveling from
80 to 85 turned out to be pretty easy, and a player known as Athene needed only

Dream Day: true story

Video game designers generally don't look to their grandparents for inspiration when they're putting together a game, but for Cara Ely, there really wasn't a better choice.

As creative director at I-Play games and the overseer of the "Dream Day Wedding"
series, Ely had long loved the story of how her grandparents met, had a whirlwind courtship and married - though she wasn't sure if the larger gaming world would. But when she told the story to her development team, they loved it. The result was "Dream Day: True Love".

In 1939, Ely's grandfather Bill was an engineer in the army, stationed at Midway Island. On leave, he ended up staying with the family of a woman he had previously dated

Indie Jones

Most gamers will remember 2010 as the year of Red Dead Redemption, or Call of Duty: Black Ops, or perhaps Halo: Reach or God of War III or Super Mario Galaxy 2. But to those paying a little closer attention, 2010 was the year the little guy took over. With a fraction of the budgets afforded their blockbuster brethren, the following indie hits provided just as much fun -- and in some cases, earned their tiny development teams a small fortune.