[Forthis month’s Musing, the topic got me thinking about the future as much as the year past. Want to write your own musing? Head over to the Cblogs and post your thoughts.] When you’re someone who writes about videogames, it’s remarkably easy to complain. It’s not a disease of perpetual grumpiness or an inability to find the enjoyment hidden within the silver spinning discs that we insert into our consoles, at least not for the majority of us....

Alright, this bit of news isn’tdirectlyrelated to videogames, but doubtless there are reasons for gamers to get excited over it. Fans of the singing virtual characters known as “Vocaloids” (the most famous being Hatsune Miku) probably know that there’s a nifty freeware program out there calledMikuMikuDance. It’s basically a CG animation kit that facilitates easy machinima creation. Countless memes and bizzare creations have spawned from its virtual loins and populated the Japanese nerdspace, just one example of which is embedded below....

3D Dot Game Heroesis looking set to be one of Destructoid’s top games of the year, and if we needed another reason to get excited, we’ve got it! Atlus has today posted a quick look at the game’s extensive character editor, and by all accounts, it’s frigging amazing. Despite the minimalist retro look of the graphics, the character editor is wonderfully deep, while remaining simple. Players will be able to make anything they want, and animate the way they move as well....

Very much like Florian “Has won a powerful enemy” Eckhardt, it seems that 7-11 is both made of fail and due an almighty smack upside the head. Although the store chain is far from known for its sale of videogames, the biggest launch of the year inHalo 3was just too much for the purveyor of iced slushy treats to ignore, hency why 7-11 held a midnight launch of its own … for copies of a game that many of its storesdid not have....

[As posted onJapanator] And not just “better.”Way better,and for several reasons I’m just going to list down right here: Yes. It’sblatantly better. Sorry PS3 owners, you’re going to have to be ashamed of adifferentLimited Edition package.

Here’s your quick and dirty list of all the videogame panels scheduled this year for San Diego Comic-Con 2011. Not game-related panels, as that would bejust about everything! No, I’ve just listed the videogame ones. There’s a ton of them, and reveals and announcements are expected at ALL of them listed here. You’ll find a full list after the jump, complete with games, times and even the room number for the panel....

It’s time again for the Lightning Round! All day long, Amazon.com will be having time-based deals on Xbox 360 games as part of their daily Gold Box promotions. And, as usual, there’s a list of hints for each of the deals. Here’s the list they have: I’m seeingSingularity,Red Dead Redemption,Alpha ProtocolandAssassin’s Creed IIin there. I’d say there’s a good chance of seeing aStreet Fighter IVfight stick in there and I wouldn’t be surprised if the 4 PM deal wound up beingSplinter Cell: Conviction....

Any one of us with an artistic bone in their body has always dreamed of being somehow involved in the creation of videogames. After all, for every fantastically designed game, film or piece of work, there has to be a designer making sure that something inspires it to its full potential. Enter the Gnomon School of Visual Effects. Founded in 1997, this school was originally designed to feed the visual needs of movie studios in the Hollywood area....

Oh for fu … I don’t even know what to say anymore. In the wake ofthe PSN, aJapanese ISP, andseveral websites, we’ve got word that Sony has been hacked in yet another realm, with Sony Ericsson Canada’s online store getting broken into. As always, personal info has been thieved, with the emails, passwords and telephone numbers of more than 2,000 customers at risk. Credit card details are, fortunately, pretty safe....

The bonus retailer content forAssassin’s Creed IIisn’t anexclusive-exclusiveintended solely for those who pre-order the game. According toAC IIcreative producer Patrice Desilets, the two bits of DLC — the Palazzo Medici and Santa Maria Dei Frari — will, at some point, become available for all to enjoy. “Eventually everyone will have the entire game,” Desilets toldKotakuin a recent interview. “I made sure of that. Because I’m Canadian, I don’t have the same shops as you do....

Thanks to an ESRB ratings leak, we know that Atlus has picked up the rights to Steel Princess, a DS RPG thatSiliconeracalls a spiritual successor to Climax’s classic,Landstalker. We’re sold already! The title was previously announced for Europe, but now we can relax knowing it’s also coming our way. The Famitsu scans (in our gallery) show a pretty cute looking game, but the only similarity I see between this andLandstalkeris the viewpoint....

InBattlefield 3’slatestBattleblogit was revealed that the game will ship with its own social network. Players will be able talk to each other, share content, and look at game statistics from outside of the game. It’s called Battlelog, and it will include a Battlefeed so you can see Twee.. er, messages from your friends, and any achievements that they have unlocked. If you’re offline and your friends need some help in a match, they can just message you on Battlelog....

The Xbox 360 may be regarded as a less powerful console than the PS3, but BioWare believes there is still plenty of gas in the can, denying that the system has reached its full potential yet. “For this game, we’ve squeezed even more out of the Xbox 360,” saysMass Effect 2producer Adrien Cho. “Mass Effect 1when it came out I think represented this watershed moment; it was a benchmark, it was really innovative in many ways....