Thank you Microsoft for finally getting rid of the not-quite-shady-but-it-still-feels-shady-to-me business practice of forcing gamers to buy a minimum of 500 points, when most items you sell are in increments of 400 points. Everytime I have to reload in points, I'm reminded of how I'm stuck with 100 left over points that aren't even enough for buying rather pointless avatar outfits (seriously, I don't even bother putting on clean underwear each day, why would I have the inclination to care about what my avatar wears?)[nextpage]

So Microsoft quietly rolled out a change. Now you can buy 400 points for $4.99 online, instead of previously having to buy a minimum of 500 points. Great solution.

That being said, I'm not going to break into Microsoft's office, and sneak up on the guy who implemented

We been riding waves of nostalgia as we wrapped up 2009 and ushered in a new decade. It's hard enough trying to collect your thoughts for a look back at one year, but traveling down memory lane for the last 10 years is akin to a cross country road trip.[nextpage]

But what made all this fun and enlightening was our collaborative approach to compiling our thoughts. We put together a list of defining moments from the big three console makers, Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft, and I must say it is a well researched piece because it involved a good handful of people to put it all together. We also looped in some community members and they shared their thoughts on memories moments in games. 

Defining Moments in Video Games - Console Contributions

• Notable Nintendo Nostalgia

• Sony's

Few gamers have heard of a recent legal battle between Hillcrest Labs and Nintendo, and the ones that have had written it off as another attempting at patent trolling. The lawsuit claimed that Nintendo infringed on various patents owned by Hillcrest when it came to motion control. Hillcrest labs is a venture backed start up that has raised over $50 million to date, and invested heavily to create the next generation of motion controls.

So what happened to that lawsuit? Nintendo decided to settle last Aug, with no admission of guilt. So while it's not clear what would have happened if the battle went all the way through court, what is clear is that the technology Hillcrest Labs has invented is now of keen interest to every console developer.[nextpage]

Our source at Hillcrest labs, who prefers