A 
simple twist is having a big impact on Skylanders.
Swap Force, the latest installment in Activision’s enormously successful toy/game hybrid, is the franchise’s highest-rated game to date, charming even critics who normally scoff at family-friendly titles.
Can 
video games teach kids to care about others?
A new game genre emphasizing empathy over typical gaming fare such as action, fantasy or sports is emerging, and while it’s still a microscopic slice of the industry, it’s getting a lot of attention.
The 
Angry Birds are leaving the nest — and the slingshot.
On Tuesday, Rovio introduced the next installment in the ridiculously popular mobile gaming series, which sees the birds and their porcine nemeses take to the track. Angry Birds Go! is a free-to-play kart racing game, filled with the upgrades and special powers you’ve come to expect from the genre.
iPhone 5s is a beast. Packing a 64-bit processor chip that’s 40 times faster than the original iPhone and tailor-made for hi-end graphics, it’s a mobile device that, in many ways, rivals what you might find on a home console.To 
a generation of Batman fans, Mark Hamill is The Joker, having voiced the villain for two decades worth of animated shows and video games. So when the former Luke Skywalker announced he would no longer be voicing the pivotal Batman character, there was a lot of concern.
Relax, folks. The clown prince of crime is in very capable vocal chords.
Washington 
politicians take note: This is how you do a stimulus package!
As an olive branch to players who have suffered through server woes, vanishing characters and a variety of other technical hiccups marring the launch of Grand Theft Auto Online, Rockstar Games has announced plans to give players $500,000 of in-game money.
It’s 
hard to tell which company PETA is more upset with in its latest PR battle: McDonald’s or Nintendo.
The animals rights advocate group has developed a flash game called Pokemon: Red, White and Blue, featuring Pikachu and other Pokemon who revolt against caricatures of Ronald McDonald, the Hamburglar, and maniacal slaughterhouse workers for killing and eating animals.
Yeah. It’s creepy.
If 
you’re one of the 800,000 federal workers with a lot more extra time on your hands these days, Good Ol’ Games would like to help you fill the hours.
The classic gaming service has introduced the Shutdown Promo, a collection of seven titles that it manages to tie to the current squabbling in D.C. And, in a classy move, GOG.com is giving it away for free to all furloughed federal employees.
If 
you’re looking for clarity on whether Sony’s much-anticipated PS3 adventure game Beyond: Two Souls is worth picking up, you might want to try a psychic. The new effort from developer David Cage and Quantic Dream is splitting game critics right down the middle.
Cage has plenty of experience with polarizing pieces of work. His past two games, Indigo Prophecy and Heavy Rain, pushed gaming’s cinematic boundaries but faced some irksome gameplay issues. Beyond is cut from the same cloth, featuring virtual versions of Hollywood heavyweights Ellen Page and Willem Dafoe in a spooky tale about spirits, loneliness, and what lies on the Other Side.
You 
have to give school officials in Los Angeles credit for a good idea: put iPads in the hands of over 650,000 students to give them the most advanced learning tools available in an effort to boost their interest in academics.
But the $1 billion plan is taking some heat after students in the nation’s second-largest school district cracked the tablets’ security settings to forgo reading, writing and ‘rithmetic and instead post on Facebook and play games during class time.
Chris Morris: Journalist 