Free to play games are becoming more and more common. These days, it's difficult to find an MMO that requires a subscription. Instead, companies are wisely allowing players to choose what content they pay for. The success of the free to play model has caused it to spread like wildfire through a variety of genres, spawning some truly unique games. One such game is Realm of the Mad God, a game that released two years ago but is still just as charming as ever. This self-proclaimed "cooperative MMO bullet hell shooter" sports an 8-bit art style and old school shooting mechanics. I, for one, hope that we continue to see games like Realm of the Mad God embrace the free to play model. If it were $10, I probably never would have played it, but since the barrier to entry is nonexistent, I gave it a download and got to experience it's 8-bit charm first hand. Realm of the Mad God can be downloaded for free on Steam.

I wasn't sure what to expect from Motorstorm RC's small-scale racing, but after beating all the events and getting the platinum trophy, I can safely say this is an interesting direction for the series. Read my review to find out what has changed!

Thatgamecompany, creators of Flower, Flow and Cloud, just released  their new game, Journey on the PSN. Put simply, Journey is an artistic masterpiece and an example of what games can be in their simplest form. Read my review to find out why you have to play it!

After seeing Quantic Dream's new tech trailer, "Kara," I found myself thinking about the evolution of visuals in video games. When video games first emerged as a form of entertainment, they were visually simple. From the late 1940s to the early 1970s, interactive electronic games took their first steps. From the Cathode Ray Tube Amusement Device to more recognizable games like Chess and Pong, video games had found a foothold in our society even if they weren't exactly popular yet.

The first home console, the Magnavox Odyssey, brought with it slightly more complex visuals and even a little color with the help of plastic overlays players could place on their TV screens, but it wasn't until 1980 and Galaxian that gamers were finally treated to color in a game. This was a significant step in the movement toward realistic graphics. How would we view Nathan Drake or the jungles of Crysis if games still lacked color?

Jump now to the Nintendo Entertainment System, the home console that revolutionized the industry and jump-started a business model where platform owners license third party developers to make games for their systems. Games on the NES were capable of displaying many colors at a time and game art was now given more consideration. Games were still composed mostly of blocks of color, but the beginnings of texture and variety were beginning to make an appearance. The Super Nintendo succeeded the NES and launched game art into a new realm. Instead of swaths of bright colors, games now had realistic texture and variety. Jungles, mountains, spaceships and any number of environments could now be represented fully. Of course, gamers have always been able to populate the sometimes-sparse worlds of earlier games with their imaginations, but forward movement in graphical fidelity and detail was extremely welcome.

The PS1 and N64 marked a giant leap forward and a step backward for graphics all at once. Games could now be rendered with polygons, allowing for wild new mechanics, but models and textures were simplistic and often ugly. Certain studios were able to strike a delicate balance between style and realism, but looking back, it's obvious that the first steps into the third dimension were rough and a focus on realism was usually a poor choice. There were some great games on both platforms, but the 3D visuals haven't aged well.

After the PS1 and N64 came the real powerhouses: the PS2, Xbox and Gamecube. Realistic textures, lighting effects and characters were starting to make an appearance. Developers had more horsepower to work with, and objects became less blocky. More advanced textures and techniques were used to make surfaces represent their real-world counterparts. Faces were now more human, no longer a series of rudimentary shapes. In all likelihood, even the best looking games to grace these systems will lose their luster in a few years if they haven't already, but I will always remember this generation as the first time games began to look slightly real.

And now, after all these years, we've still got a lot of work left to do. Games like Uncharted 3, Crysis, Metro 2033, and many more are pushing the boundaries of realism. Just like every previous generation, these games will fade over time, and we'll probably look back in a decade and wonder how we ever thought they looked realistic. But for now, it's amazing how far we've come.

Tech demos like Quantic Dream's Kara are always exciting because they give us a glimpse into the future. The whole point of games is to take us out of the real world, so exact realism isn't an attractive goal, but visual fidelity and realism are separate entities. Every step developers can take to eliminate seams, blurry textures, aliasing, frame-rate drops and awkward animations will allow players to become more fully immersed in a game's world. I don't want photo-realism, I just want fantasy worlds I can fully believe. We've come this far, and I'm excited to see what the next generation brings.

In an unexpected act of kindness, it looks like Vita owners will be able to download Motorstorm: RC for free today only! The game has been getting some pretty great reviews so far and I can't wait to try it! Now if only I didn't have 8427 minutes left to go on the download. Curse you crappy hotel wi-fi!

If you've got a Vita, jump on this opportunity!

I've been playing a lot of Stardust on the Vita lately, and I'm loving it! Read my review here to see how it holds up to the PS3 version.

GDC is just around the corner, and I can't wait to head to the Moscone center in San Francisco again to check out the show floor! This year, I won't be going to the summits and tutorials, but I'm hoping to talk to plenty of people at developer booths and around the city. GDC is more about networking than game announcements, but the year-end awards ceremony usually has a surprise or two, and it's exciting to see the new tech that will drive the games of the future.

I know Epic will be showing off Unreal Engine 4 behind closed doors and I can't wait to see the reaction. Last year, the 3ds and Vita graced the show floor (though the vita was encased in bulletproof glass), and now that the handhelds are both on the market, I wonder which developers will be recruiting for future handheld projects. It doesn't seem like there will be any new gadgets on display, so the focus will be squarely on games.

I met a ton of people at GDC the past two years and I hope to meet many more this year!

Plants Vs. Zombies has landed on almost every platform in the known world, and now it comes to Vita. In many ways, the Vita is the perfect place to play this great game with its huge screen, touch controls, and easy sunlight-collecting capabilities. Read the whole review here!

Well, I've had one week with the Vita, and I'm becoming more and more impressed with the system each day. Using the touchscreen to navigate the apps is great, and even in the past week, Twitter, Facebook and Netflix apps have landed on the system, making it all the more useful. I've downloaded Stardust and Plants Vs. Zombies, and so far I'm loving the ability to jump out of one game and into another in a matter of seconds. The screen continues to impress me. I'm honestly waiting for a kindle app so I can read books on this thing! I think at this point, the Vita has left the PSP in the dust. It's a much more robust system, and I think there's a huge potential for future apps, and of course games on Sony's newest baby.

There are a few drawbacks though. 1. PS1 classics don't work on the system yet. Why wasn't this included at launch? I'm craving some good old RPG's, and the Vita would be the perfect way to play them. 2. The battery life, while respectable, could always be longer. If I'm playing games non-stop, I'm getting around 4-5 hours out of the battery. With how powerful the system is, this is expected, but I still want more. Since I can do so much on the system, I'm constantly using it, and therefore have to charge it often. Good thing the sleep mode is so efficient. 3. There still isn't a killer app. Sure, Uncharted was awesome, and I'm really excited to pick up Rayman, but those are both games that have been done before (Rayman's a direct port!). There isn't anything truly new out yet, and until Gravity Rush, I don't think there will be aside from some PSN games.

That's a pretty minor list of quibbles. Even though Uncharted is the only "killer app" for the Vita so far, I'm thoroughly enjoying every game I've played on the system. In a few months, I think there will be a few more "must play" games that help the Vita stand on its own as a desirable handheld. If the games keep coming, I'll have no problem calling the Vita my favorite handheld of all time. The GBA SP will put up a good fight, but in the end, I can just do more on my Vita.

The day has finally arrived. Uncharted is on a handheld. Can it possibly hold up to its big brothers on the PS3? Read my review here to find out!