Back in the beginning days of video games, a little Italian plumber stole the hearts and imaginations of millions of people across the world. The concept was simple: Jump on bad guys, collect coins, run and leap on platforms to get to end of the level, and finally defeat a huge turtle/dinosaur/fire-breathing bad guy who has captured the princess. Nowadays, Mario isn’t content to be the video game superstar of the world -- he's going for the entire galaxy.

It's obvious that Super Mario Galaxy is shooting for "the Greatest Mario Game Ever Made" -- not to mention "the Supreme Platformer Game of All Time." Does it surpass every one of Mario's wacky adventures that went before? Does it take the somehow insanely fun concept of jumping from one platform to another and tune it to perfection?

Yeah, it does.

Today's video is a first teaser for Borderlands. Mad Max meets Aliens in this next-gen title set on a desolate, dangerous alien world.

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For many years, the air guitar was the only way most people could actually dream of being on stage and rocking to a sold out crowd. Harmonix and Red Octane took that dream one step closer with the invention of the Guitar Hero series, enabling those less talented to play some of the greatest rock songs of all time. For crooners, the only way to showcase some chops was to go to a local bar and belt out tunes. Konami introduced Karaoke Revolution Presents: American Idol to satisfy those dreams of telling off Simon Cowell and get the dawg pound "Yeah" from Randy Jackson.

For me, I always wondered if it was possible to release an all encompassing game to include another favorite of mine, the air drums. After Guitar Hero II, Harmonix took their already successful ideas and joined with EA and MTV to create Rock Band, which combines all of these ideas and more.

At first look, there's a lot more to the creation of your band than anything Guitar Hero ever offered. After coming up with your band name, a total avatar can be created to represent any one of the four positions within the game: lead vocals, lead guitar, bass, and drums. The accessories are small to start with, mainly concentrating on your face rather than clothes, but as you proceed through the game more outfits can be bought at the store.

Here's a stellar look at the gameplay in Iron Man: The Game, which is based on the blockbuster movie.

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As decided upon by the entire INFUZEmag.com Video Games department staff, here are the best games of 2007. In alphabetical order:

"Brilliant." "Incredible." "Gorgeous." "Like nothing you've ever played."

I'm trying to think of new ways to describe Ubisoft Montreal's groundbreaking game, Assassin's Creed, because it deserves it. It's all of those things, but those words are used so often to describe new games that break the mold, they feel wholly inadequate to suit title that shifts the paradigm at this magnitude.

Assassin's Creed is the first next-generation title by the same team that crafted the Prince of Persia games, and they've brought all of the major lessons they learned with that series along to their newest franchise. Ubisoft Montreal has made no secret of the fact that this is the first title in a planned trilogy (and if you didn't know that before you play, you'll figure it out when you reach the cliffhanger ending).

There's a shrewd twist at the very beginning of the game that sets the context for the story in Assassin's Creed. Most fans of the game already know that there's a modern day component of the game, even though the main storyline and gameplay are set in the 12th Century A.D. I won't be giving away that added part of the game, but it's a genius idea that gives a huge, bonus layer to the story.

There's no gameplay footage here -- this is the hilarious opening cinematic that sets up the action in Rayman Raving Rabbids 2.

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Dark Sector's third webisode features a story-driven look at the gameplay in action. This video features extreme violence and bloodshed, and is not recommended for younger viewers.

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"This is not your typical action game." We hear those words regurgitated again and again. But this one really isn't.

Dark Sector is the product of developer Digital Extremes, and it tells the story of Hayden Tenno, an antihero in the future who is infected by a mysterious substance that turns others into techno-zombie-type creatures, yet it gives Hayden superpowers. The hows and whys of all this are revealed as the story and the game progress. As you move through the game, Hayden's body slowly transforms into something new and different, unleashing new abilities, most especially the glaive, the deadly, three-bladed weapon that has a variety of uses.

Sheldon Carter of Digital Extremes was kind enough to take some time to answer our questions about the game and what kind of experience to expect from it.

You may have seen today's video already on the ol' boob tube. It's a special "television trailer" for BioWare's science fiction epic, Mass Effect, and it does its job of getting you excited about the game very well.

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