Yesterday at CES 2009, Microsoft announced the impeding release of Kodu, a game and game-creator that will be available on the Xbox Live Community Games Channel.

Kodu appears to pick up on the creative energy of Man-Zero favorite Little Big Planet, allowing players to play whimsical, pre-made levels and create their own. The level-creation interface, though, seems to be even more of a focus than it is in Little Big Planet.

Gameplay footage of Microsoft's president of the Entertainment and Devices Division, Robbie Bach playing Kodu with a 12-year-old girl (reportedly) at CES '09:

Kotaku joins the growing list of gaming publications annointing Grand Theft Auto IV the best game of 2008.

Kotaku, Dec 5: What Rockstar has done so well is give us a full vision, one that is more place than game, a playground of opportunities complete with a believable cast of characters and plenty of opportunities for mayhem in a setting so real we forget that it isn't.

Nintendo

The little game that could has, is and done did. Wii Sports, thought by skeptics to be merely a gimmick to show off the capabilities of the Wiimote, is now the top-selling video game of all time, according to VGChartz.

Like the former record holder Super Mario Bros, Wii Sports owes much of its sales success to bundling, as it shipped with nearly every Nintendo Wii sold (except in Japan and South Korea). To date, the game has sold 40.24 million units, while the Wii itself has sold upwards of 45 million units.

But can a bundled game be considered the "best-selling" game of all time?

Sony | Man Zero

The Nintendo Wii continues to break console sales records, Xbox 360 users continue to gobble up games and the Playstation 3 continues to... be cool. But it's the latter's big brother, the Playstation 2, which continues to dominate the attention of gamers nationwide.

The Nielson Company, best known as the go-to source for TV ratings, found that 31.7 percent of all console gaming minutes in 2008 took place on the Playstation 2. That's more than twice the use of the second-place system, the Xbox 360.

Looking forward to the games you'll unwrap but dreading a family get-together void of gaming? Dread no longer. Just bring along Doctor Octoroc's new album, 8-Bit Jesus: Classic Christmas Songs in the Style of Classic NES Games, which he's offering up for free. That's right, free.

Octoroc's following in the footsteps of his not-quite-peers — Radiohead, Girl Talk, NIN, Saul Williams — by offering up his album for a pay-what-you-like price.

Lionhead Studios/Microsoft

Editor's note: Please give a warm welcome to new X Button blogger Danny Merrill, he's an all around cool guy and has agreed to help out on the fledgling video-game section here on Mlive.com and pick up the slack for me and Man Zero on occasion.

It's been 500 long years since we've last seen Albion and in that half millennium it has seen the rise and fall of dogs, civilizations such as Bowerstone flourish, and the Heroes Guild burnt to the ground. Shortly after the Hero of Oakvale saved (or destroyed) the world, Albion decided heroes were no longer necessary. With Jack of Blades dead, and heroes becoming greedy and selfish, their relevance waned until nothing remained of their kind. With a Salem-esque massacre, the Heroes slowly but surely disappeared from history.

The last 4 years that have passed in the real world have felt much like the 500 that passed in Albion and much has changed since I first set foot in that mythical place. For starters it has grown in size quite a bit. Each area is at least five times bigger than anything we had in the original, and they feel even bigger than that. The beaten paths wind and curve in multiple directions before leading you to one of multiple area exits, and if you travel off the beaten path there's always a small forest or ruin to explore, usually with profitable results.

AP PhotoLisa Hsuan, 30, back left, Eric Chow, 28, back right, and Brandon Schoolhouse, 37, center foreground, play the video game "Rock Band" at the Tavern Bar in the Silver Lake area of Los Angeles on Wednesday Nov. 26.

LOS ANGELES — "This song is dedicated to Debbie Harry," flinty-eyed Lisa Hsuan purrs into a microphone on the red-lit stage of Hyperion Tavern. It's a cozy dive where patrons drink Coke and beer from bottles and a fading chandelier dangles overhead.

Her tribute is intentionally ludicrous: The 30-year-old veterinarian is about to belt out "Call Me," which Harry -- fronting the group Blondie -- released 28 years ago. Accompanied on fake guitars and drums by three Web programmers who drove in from the refinery-dotted coastal suburb of El Segundo, Hsuan launches in as a smoke machine puffs nearby.

They're playing the video game "Rock Band 2," which along with "Guitar Hero" is rocking bars and living rooms across the country. Many songs' sales have more than doubled after release in one of the games, and well-known bands have started lining up to provide new music direct to the game makers. Now record labels -- noticing what they are missing, and struggling as compact disc sales tumble -- are looking for a bigger piece of the action.