Cityville: quite popular

Facebook smash Farmville has become synonymous with the spectacular success of
social games, rocketing to prominence since its June 2009 debut with over 50 million regular players. It's even been blessed with its own "For Dummies" book, launching in February.

Popular though it is, it's about to be eclipsed, says blog InsideSocialGames, by its 18-day-old baby brother Cityville.

Cityville, which launched on December 2, shares much with Farmville -- including
its developer, Zynga, which Farmville helped propel to a market valuation in excess of $5.5 billion. Much as the name suggests, Cityville tasks players with developing a
city rather than a farm, building housing, businesses and roads,

Tron: Legacy

LOS ANGELES
(Hollywood Reporter) - When it comes to the convergence of video games
and Hollywood, Tron was the first example of Hollywood getting it right.
And in many ways, Hollywood hasn't learned from this perfect marriage
of game and film. At least, most of Hollywood.

Although the original Tron movie didn't have a blockbuster theatrical run in 1982, the arcade game that was designed by Jeff Bridges' Kevin Flynn in the movie became a hit
in the real world. That game makes a return in the new 3D sequel,
"Tron: Legacy," which earned about $44 million during its chart-topping
debut weekend at the North American box office.

Walt Disney Co., which has explored previous Tron sequels in the

The Main Event

What a year for games.

We say that every year, of course, but this year we really mean it.

From start to finish, 2010 was absolutely crammed with
awesome titles across every major platform. This was the year owning any home
console was actually okay -- fantastic exclusives for the Wii, PS3 and 360 made
choosing just one system harder than ever. It was the year owning a phone was
no longer just owning "a phone," as the overwhelming success of
gaming on the App Store completely altered the mobile gaming landscape. It was
the year of the download, the year of the indie, and the year of the
blockbuster all rolled into one.

So yeah, choosing winners was hard. Super hard. Harder than a
Battletoad

The Kinect For some, Kinect is just a neat new way to play games.

For others, it's a challenge.

Packing a high-tech collection of cameras and sensors and attached to a tantalizingly universal USB plug, it was only a matter of time before imaginative hackers figured out how to talk to its hardware and unleash its full potential.

We didn't expect it to be quite so quick, however. The first efforts at homebrewed Kinect-using systems came within days of its November release; a month later, the web is packed with a bewildering variety of insane tech-demos for Kinect applications we're pretty sure Microsoft never even dreamt of. Here's some of the most imaginative.

[Related: Kinect sued over mixed martial

Humble Bundle: warm fuzzies

Fed
up with disappointing, big-budget, $60 video games? A new bundle deal
offers you the chance to get five of the indie world's biggest hits for
whatever price you feel like paying -- and much of the proceeds are
going to charity.

"Humble zndie Bundle 2" includes Braid, Cortex Command, Machinarium, Osmos, and Revenge of the Titans, and it's currently on sale on the Humble Bundle web site. The games are all DRM-free and are considered some of the best-regarded independent efforts released in the last few years. Purchasers can
assign their money between charity Child's Play, advocacy group Electronic Frontier Foundation, and the games' respective development teams.

So far, over 100,000

Biggest Successes of 2010

Despite an economy still struggling and a generation of gaming consoles that's starting to show its age, 2010 proved to be another strong year for video games. It saw consumers inspired by everything from sweeping epics like Red Dead Redemption to low-budget indie games like Minecraft and Angry Birds — oh, and along the way, some little game named Call of Duty: Black Ops landed the biggest launch in entertainment history. Here are eight of 2010's biggest success stories.

Craziest Mario products

This year marks the 25th anniversary of seminal platforming great Super
Mario Bros. Nintendo is celebrating by releasing a limited edition Wii
game collection, but with three decades of gaming under his sagging
belt, it's hardly the strangest piece of Mario memorabilia out there.
Pop a mushroom and show your love for the rotund plumber with these
awesome Mario products.