The time has arrived to scrape off our grills and cook among the elements. And what goes better with burgers and corn than potatoes? Nothing, that's what. So ease into the weekend with some tater-grabbing goodness by James Illjenquist.

Do you dream of electric Whimsicotts? The folks of Movoto do, and they've answered the question on the minds of Trainers everywhere: What's the inside of a Poké Ball like? Quite spacious, apparently.

And you'd think that ten year grads at Harvard University would have a lot to commemorate, like Facebook or something, but two former students have decided they'd like Super Smash Bros. as a more appropriate memento. One grad crows: "After three straight losses, Kevin switches characters from Ness to Kirby, just to mix things up. Kicking Ness’s butt had become such a matter of routine and predictable movements that the switch turns the tide. I go on to lose five matches in a row. Kevin cackles relentlessly."

Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D comes out today for 3DS. If you were in Santa Monica recently, the big ape might have already gotten your (and your heart's) attention. Hope the game comes with free samples of Lipitor.

With confusion and skepticism masking the truth about Xbox One's ability to play used games, the president of GameStop, North America's largest games-centric retailer (and seller of second-hand titles), spoke with Forbes about his reaction. The predictable response: Pre-order today!

Mark Z. Danielewski, author of House of Leaves and Only Revolutions, has been tweeting out numerical messages with attached photos of blackness. Readers familiar with his work know he's inclined toward the interactive and mysterious. Help us, literary gamers; you have a new puzzle to solve...

Indie fare like Dear Esther or Proteus have inspired heated arguments over whether they're "games" or not. Researcher and author Jesper Juul asks a similiar question of the largest franchise in history: Call of Duty. To me, deciding which cereal to buy is a game, so I take the fifth.

And now, your Kill Screen Kickstarter o' the Day: Space Monsters Love Bullets. "Part super-simple resource management, two parts virtual pet, and finally, just button-mashing explosions." Sounds like summer is here.

The sauce is the boss.

Alpha Beta by Valerie Jean Chen and Sarah Rothberg is first-person Trader Joe's. But I couldn't find the Halloumi.

Forbes wonders aloud if Joe Biden's hypothetical videogame tax violates the first amendment. You know, because of that little thing about protected free speech. 

While the rest of the internet goes gaga for that vicious killer German Shepard with photorealistic fur from Call of Duty: Ghosts, I'll point you to these fine huskies in adorable pixel graphics. Dog Sled Saga makes 'em say mush.

Because there is no point in limited games to just one screen when you have a phone, a laptop, and a desktop around you, Andy Sigler made Screen Racer.

In the design of Xbox One, Microsoft was going for "boldly understated." Meditate on that when you want to calm yourself over the press conference/no used game thing.

If you thought Shelter's sacrificial mamma badger looked venerable before, wait till you see her now. 

And 7 Grand Steps, the narrative boardgame about spinning the wheel of time from the Bronze Age onward, has a release date on Steam: June 7th. 

And...We're out!

Yesterday was Microsoft's big reveal of their next home cable box, er, console. Introducing: Xbox One.

Each unit will ship with a new version of Kinect -- this one can even track your pulse by monitoring the change of pigmentation in your face. It's like the biorhythm ear-clip for the Japanese-only release of Tetris 64, only all the time for everything!

Stephen Spielberg is involved in a live-action Halo TV series. The big question: Will Master Chief be more Captain Quint, or Peter Panning?

Microsoft also announced a partnership with the National Football League, prompting this slightly awkward conversation between President Don Mattrick and NFL Commish Roger Goodell. If your idea of fantasy isn't Skyrim but picking Drew Brees over Peyon Manning, this is good news.

Xbox One will also play games.

And Sony counterpunches with this teaser video of their next console, the PS4. The good news: We finally see the system itself! The bad news: We need to make an optometrist appointment for our collective near-sightedness.

Lest they be forgotten, Nintendo's deploying some serious counter-programming: Behold, the world's first crowd-sourced flatulence.

And for all you PC enthusiasts uninterested in locked-down living room boxes: Less than 48 hours remain for Jagged Alliance fans to help fund Full Control's Flashback reboot. Javiar O'Neill tempts and teases below; if you like what you see, show your support.

Feel free to remain optimistic and kind.

We are just a few weeks from E3, the biggest video game conference in the western hemisphere. Now indie developers will have more opportunities to show their wares at the Tokyo Game Show, the biggest in the east.

One of the most acclaimed and feature-packed games of 2013 so far, Fire Emblem: Awakening, has one conspicuous absence: feet. Every character model's legs ends at the ankles. Turns out they didn't need much else, as Popular Science reconsiders the usefulness of toes.

Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem featured a mechanic called Sanity Effects: the more scared your character became, the less things made sense both to your avatar and to the player herself. Life imitates art with Denis Dyack's video response to Kotaku's report of his time at Silicon Knights. They called his work there irresponsible and immoral; he defends himself and his team with verve. I don't know what's real anymore. Watch and make up your own mind.

By the time you read this, Yahoo will have most likely bought Tumblr for over $1 billion. The fate of a thousand videogame-related blogs like this one are now in the hands of Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer. Be gentle.

Last weekend's Nintendo Direct announced an exclusivity deal with Sega on the next slate of Sonic games. (Which is a big deal to our 12-year-old selves, circa 1992.)

But the real treat came when the release of the latest Iwata Asks interview on Game & Wario, the next first-party Nintendo game coming to Wii U. Ever wanted to tickle a baby's feet without the messy complications of child labor? On June 23rd (in North America) or June 28th (in Europe), you can. 

Alas, today is your last day of not knowing any confirmed official details about the next Xbox. Revel in this ignorance. Half-truths and suspect promises are so less fulfilling than provocative rumor. Major Nelson (Microsoft's Larry Hryb) has been tweeting pictures all week leading up to the big event. Here's a look at the tent where things will happen tomorrow. The Hype Train has officially run out of coal.

And finally, if you love beautiful hand-drawn 2D fighters, Arc System Works revealed their latest most beautiful hand-drawn 2D fighter, Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN-. We don't know how to say it, either. But it sure looks, um, beautiful!

It's been an amazing year, Momo.