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December 7th means a lot to me. My brother's birthday is today, for one thing. It's just 10 days before my own, too. But mostly I remember December 7th because it's the day that an attack on the naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, drew the United States into World War II.

In 2001, my high school band traveled to Honolulu to represent both our state and our namesake vessel, the USS Utah, as part of the 60th anniversary of Pearl Harbor Day. Some of those experiences -- visiting the Punchbowl National Cemetery, marching in a parade in downtown Honolulu, and especially playing a concert on the dock just feet away from the sunken wreckage of the Utah -- will stay fresh in my mind forever.

Days like today make me miss the bygone era of World War II shooters, especially Medal of Honor, the progenitor of the Call of Duty series. And one of the biggest things I miss is the music, largely provided by composer Michael Giacchino.

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The stereotype is "Only guys play video games," and the stereotype is wrong.

Women do play video games. They always have. We can't and shouldn't wave off a woman honing skills in a so-called “men’s territory," real or virtual, and it’s an awesome thing that gamers can now easily showcase their hobby as something familiar to both genders.

But then we go and stick them all under the label "gamer girl." Is that right?

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This article contains minor spoilers for Spec Ops: The Line.

Recently, a video game made me want to put down the controller and walk away. It wasn’t due to frustration or boredom either, but because I couldn’t handle its intensity.

Actually, this happened several times. I could only take about an hour or two of it in one sitting. The game was Spec Ops: The Line, and It wasn't because of the particular decisions that it forced upon me, but the overall weight of the narrative. Each battle wore me down, and eventually I would have to quit and go do something relaxing.

I enjoyed Spec Ops: The Line. The story was great and it is a refreshing title in an industry filled with cookie cutter military shooters, but the experience got me thinking about something: Is making the player walk away from the game a good thing?

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Combine the sound of a game case snapping close with the whirl of a disk, the clicks of analog sticks, and various sound effects from New Super Mario Bros. U, and it turns out you actually get a pretty catchy, little diddy.

You can hear the Wii U Song for yourself after the break.

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I actually finished a game last night, and it feels really weird. It was Borderlands 2 (and yes, I completed it with my good friend Breaky still equipped). I'm not really sure how to handle this.

See, I haven't seen credits roll on a game in a while; I'm always picking up something new or abandoning the stuff I'm playing for various reasons. I took a break from Assassin's Creed III to play through Borderlands 2, and I put down Darksiders II to play Assassin's Creed III. I've stopped playing Resident Evil 6 while I'm waiting for it to get better, and I hung up Demon's Souls because I was tired of editor Rob Savillo's constant requests for progress reports.

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This article contains spoilers for Xenogears.

I started Xenogears on my PlayStation Portable, hoping to finish it in only three months time. Instead, the Japanese role-playing game took almost a year to complete.

My lengthy journey is just a testament to the overly convoluted legacy of the six-part Xenogears chronology.

I really enjoyed how the game opened, although the first anime sequence is terribly confusing. In short, it starts with a simple spaceship crashing into Earth. A naked woman emerges from the rubble for some reason.

It all looked pretty epic and dramatic. This event, however, looked completely unrelated to my main character, an amnesiac named Fei Wong. Fei is a completely clothed guy, painting landscapes in a rural town called Lahan. I eventually gave up trying to figure out how that naked lady related to Fei.

Fei's best buddy is a doctor named Citan Uzuki. He apparently loves tinkering with robots and machinery. I figured that maybe the doctor knew something about that naked lady, but Fei has no memory of his entire past. I guess Fei is just completely clueless.

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Recently, I picked up one of the 10,000 special edition copies of Persona 4: Golden. It was a pre-order-only item, and apparently they sold out across the U.S. mere moments after I switched my GameStop credit over to it. Well, the game's been out for two weeks now, and one thing's for certain: I haven't bothered to take any of the special-edition goodies out of its massive box.

That's because, as enticing as limited or collector's edition games might be, the over-priced items inside are often better-left untouched to perserve their value. That's the problem I'm facing with the cool Vita case that came with my copy of Persona 4 Golden....

Internet comedian Stuart Ashen recently put together another video completely trashing all the overpriced things people clamor for when video games launch. While I will defend Atlus' pre-order exclusive goodies, I think Ashen has a point when it comes to mass-marketed games that come in massive boxes. 

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It appears that Sonny “Skrillex” Moore is trying to expand his appeal to video game fans. The poster boy for the aggressive, abrasive American variety of dubstep music certainly has his fair share of haters … like people over the age of 25 who can’t get into his style. Regardless of your opinion on the guy’s music, however, give him credit for his efforts to broaden his brand with a handful of recent video game-related projects. Here are three examples, all from this past November.

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When my last relationship started, I played fewer video games. I rarely sat down for long evening grinds, and the endless dungeon runs in games like World of Warcraft ceased.

I was convinced that I liked games less -- even though my new partner and I still enjoyed them on occasion. She'd met many guys whose lives revolved around video games, and they represented cultural behaviors she loathed. That’s probably why she adored me.

But before long, I started writing about video games. She became distant because of this and began comparing me to past relationships. Even if I didn’t neglect or insult her in the name of obsessive gaming, how did she know I wouldn't? She’d been fooled before.

And so, we separated.

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You've probably stomped on a thousand goombas without thinking of the consequences, but did you ever stop to think that those little guys might have loved ones who would mourn their deaths? Of course not, you monster. 

This video, posted after the break,  will show you exactly what kind of a monster you are. Now you can live a life filled with regret and remorse.

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I've spent a couple dozen hours with developer Gearbox's first-person loot-fest Borderlands 2, and I think I've found my soulmate -- insofar as a collection of polygons that respond to my controller inputs to convert imaginary bad guys into imaginary dead guys can fill that role, anyway.

See that gun up there? The Heart Breaker? I will never unequip it.

I received Breaky (which is what I call the weapon in my head whenever it behooves me to call it anything, which is rare) as a reward for completing one of the game's many optional side missions, and we've been "together" ever since. That was a long time ago; I've had at least two complete equipment turnovers since then, but Breaky has remained. Why? Because Breaky has a lot going for it.

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I’m probably a little late here.

The PlayStation Portable was released over seven years ago here in the US, the Vita is coming up on its first anniversary, and here I am sitting in my chair and playing the original PSP 1000 for the first time. You could say I missed the system’s bandwagon (not to mention its entire life cycle), but that hasn’t stopped me.

You see, I’ve been on a mission to learn about gaming history. Popular franchises and games, consoles, arcades, and the PC are all on my list, but the PSP was next. Now, growing up on Nintendo and eventually switching over to Microsoft’s Xbox 360, I have only played a Sony system twice. Before now, I didn’t hold “that other Japanese company” in very high esteem. I mean, it’s not like they’ve done anything else important, right?

Well, the men in black suits who control my opinion have told me that I have to look at these things “objectively,” and that apparently Sony actually has had a big part in gaming history. So, I bought a PSP and some games, and began playing.

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