Silence, as they say, is golden. It's a rule that holds more true in video games than in most media. Quiet isn't necessarily a good thing during the heat of play – you want to hear your enemies approach, some killer tunes, Yoshi's squeal as he devours some witless sentient mushroom. A game is best served by silence in its protagonist, the lead character and, very often, the hero you get to control when you pick up the controller.

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The "Monster Hunter" franchise's reach has always been limited in the United States. The series is a Pokémon-level phenomenon in its native Japan, but has only recently been upgraded from "obscure curio" to "cult hit" on this side of the Pacific. The real barrier between "MoHun" and Western success has been its lack of online play. Though every "Monster Hunter" can be played solo, it's impossible to access the game's best bits without other human players. Hardcore, grind-intensive, multiplayer action RPGs plain need an online option to find an audience in the United States.

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This week, WayForward is releasing their remake of David Crane’s single most bizarre game, "A Boy and His Blob." They’ve taken Crane’s bizarre and unforgiving original and recast it as a whimsical, tender cartoon about a kid and his alien pal. If early reviews are to be believed, it's a winning revision. "A Boy and His Blob" is a good model for preserving Crane’s legacy. His originals are simply too strange and cumbersome to play today, so why not remake and re-imagine them for today’s audience? Here are some ideas on where to start.

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Given that it has, alongside “Grand Theft Auto”, literally defined the popular gaming landscape of the past decade, “Halo” has some weird identity issues. Rockstar North has never had any questions about what “GTA” is, but Microsoft and Bungie seem to go back and forth on whether “Halo” is a deeply story-driven epic or just a perfectly balanced shooter with memorable aesthetics.

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In the world of video games, two years is an eternity. A game can go from pre-production to retail in that span of time. Consoles can rise and fall. Just think: two years ago, “Halo 3” came out this week. There was no such thing as a DSi. The most recent PS3 exclusive was “Heavenly Sword”. A different world, I tell you!

It’s been two and a half years since Sega signed on to make games of Marvel’s superhero movies. Since then, “Iron Man” turned out to be Sega’s single greatest non-Sonic success in years and “The Incredible Hulk” wasn’t that incredible. Just recently, “Iron Man 2” started building hype. The other games Sega announced it would be making, however, haven’t been mentioned since. That is, until notes from an August meeting between Sega and SCEA were leaked.

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Just about ten years back, right when Neversoft made their first “Spider-Man” game for the PS1, superhero games started getting good. There were some decent ones before that, games like “Batman” on the NES, but they were generally generic platformers and beat ‘em ups. These days, we’re flush with great superhero games that really get what superheroics are all about. “Spider-Man 2” gave us the freedom of swinging through New York, “X-Men Legends” gave us team dynamics and a great story, and most recently “Batman: Arkham Asylum” gave us an adventure that made use of every tool in the Dark Knight franchise’s chest.

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Bobby Kotick, Activision Blizzard CEO and one of the more quotable executives in the gaming industry, is always coming up with new ways to sell consumers a plastic guitar. Plastic guitars have been very good to Activision in the past five years.

So good, in fact, that the “Guitar Hero” franchise almost single handedly made Activision the most successful game publisher on the planet. With sales on the decline, it’s high time they spice up the line to keep it profitable. Branching out with “DJ Hero”’s a start. The next step is cutting out those pesky console holders and their licensing fees.

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“Scribblenauts” developer 5th Cell has got to be feeling pretty swell right now. Their new game is hitting stores today, riding high on a wave of critical praise and fan love. It’s got an unforgettably adorable lead character and is a contender for game of the year. That’s all just icing on the cake, though. 5th Cell’s real achievement is creating the Objectnaut that powers “Scribblenauts”, the data engine that gives all the objects in the game their characteristics and also allows players to summon them using the good ol’ English language.

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Earlier this month, in an interview with Videogamer.com, George Andreas, Rare's design director, said the following:

"You would just have to rethink the way a shooter works [for Natal]. Shooters work the way they do at the moment because they’re based around the original Xbox 360 controller. You throw that interface away and here’s a completely different interface. Now how do we create a shooter for this? Does it mean that you have to run, strafe, turn, throw grenades in the way that you’re used to? Maybe not. Maybe there’s another way of doing shooters."

Fair enough, George. I have my doubts about games that have your on-screen avatar carrying an actual weapon of some kind. If I’m waving my arms and legs about in “Perfect Dark 2” but not holding something to represent Miss Joanna Dark’s weaponry, the cognitive dissonance might be too much to handle. But if you make a shooter where you shoot stuff from your hands, well, that might just be a treat. Andreas’ enthusiasm for the tech has me thinking about what games would be perfect fit for the machine:

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At half the weight – the original PS3 weighed fifteen pounds, the new Slim a mere seven – and half the launch price, Sony’s machine is joining a time-honored tradition of console streamlining. Both the PS1 and PS2 got sleek redesigns, but it’s a practice that goes beyond the Sony family.

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