Jason Wilson

Wonder has always been at the heart of The Elder Scrolls. The wonder of discovering what sits on a mountain’s peak. The wonder of plunging into a cave hiding in the rock. The wonder of learning more about what’s now one of the oldest worlds in gaming. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim delivers on this wonder better than any game in the series.

One of the knocks on Oblivion, the fourth game in the Elder Scrolls series, is that it lacks some of the wonder of Morrowind (the series' third game). Fans worried that this would continue in Skyrim -- not just in the game's design, but also in the "Radiant" system, which has NPCs point players toward interesting locations and quests (instead of, say, discovering these on your own), and the streamlined skill system. As I traveled across Skyrim, wanderlust once again grabbed me, repeatedly throwing me off my main quest course and leading me to poke around caves, fortresses, and ruins. Skyrim embodies wonder to me.

The eerie tombs of the Nords, which crawl with undead just itching to use their embalming tools on you; the halls of the Dwemer, the long-dead dwarves of Tamriel that merge magic with mythology; shrines that sit high upon mountaintops, offering expansive views of Skyrim's stark, wintry beauty along with adventure; dungeons carved out of ice caverns -- the variety of locations in Skyrim continually evoked a sense of wonder for me, and rarely did I experience a "been there, done that" feeling while exploring the world. Even the towns and villages feel distinct.

Before starting my review of Might and Magic: Heroes VI, I looked at my Steam profile to see how many hours I'd put into Heroes of Might and Magic: V (Ubisoft has changed the name so that all Might and Magic games open with "Might and Magic"): 203 hours. Granted, I was laid off at the time, so I could devote myself as much as I wanted to it. And I genuinely love Might and Magic. But I'm laid off now, too, and I thought, "Do I see myself spending 200 hours with Heroes VI?" The answer: "Likely not."

While Heroes VI does make some interesting changes to the 16-year-old turn-based strategy-RPG series (yes, folks, the first Heroes came out in 1995), and the game remains fun, I found some of my usual complaints with Heroes' gameplay more annoying than usual -- and that the horrible online system Ubisoft insists on using has sucked away too much of the series' charm.

According to GamesIndustry.biz (as reported by Joystiq), this beta test would be open to members of GameStop's PowerUp Rewards program. The service is expected to be in place by mid-2012.

The Video Game Voters Network is launching a campaign to show California State Senator Leland Yee (D-San Francisco) that gamers care about censorship by sending him a message -- on old and broken controllers.

An organization sponsored by the Entertainment Software Association, the Video Game Voters Network is taking this action as a protest against California's contested legislation that would restrict the sale of violent video games to minors. Authored by Yee when he was still in the California State Assembly, the law was challenged and is now under consideration by the U.S. Supreme Court.

What do you get when you lump together the populations of Kuwait, Ireland, and Singapore (besides some very confused people and a possibly tasty potato-goat-curry dish)? You get about the same number of people as are currently subscribers of World of Warcraft.

In a release from Blizzard Entertainment this week, the creators of World of Warcraft announced that their subscriber base for one of the world's most popular MMORPGs has reached over 12 million. Blizzard credits the recent release of its second expansion, Wrath of the Witch King, in China and the upcoming third expansion, Cataclysm, for the continued growth. To put this into perspective, this means more subscribe to World of Warcraft than live in Greece.

GameStop stores on base at Army & Air Force Exchange Service installations across the world will no longer advertise and will not stock copies of the upcoming first-person shooter Medal of Honor, which includes a multiplayer mode that allows players to take on U.S. soldiers as members of the Taliban.

When asked if the U.S. military requested this action, AAFES spokesperson Judd Anstey said, "No, sir." This decision, Anstey said, comes from the AAFES. "No one requested it. It was a determination made by this entity, the Army & Air Force Exchange Service."

The long-troubled -- and previously aborted -- development of Duke Nukem Forever is getting a new life, as 2K Games revealed Friday morning at PAX that the game is not only in development but is playable on the show floor.

The game's coming to the PS3, Xbox 360, and PC for 2011. Gearbox Software is finishing development, after the demise of originator 3D Realms about a year ago, despite repeated commitments to revive the game. A version for the iPhone shipped last summer.

Reverb Communications settled a compliant with the Federal Trade Commission in which the agency accused the public-relations firm of having employees post reviews of video games on Apple's iTunes store.

Reverb, located in Twain Harte, California, represents a number of clients in the video-game industry, such as MTV Games, Ignition Entertainment, and Demiurge Studios. A release from the FTC said that the agency engaged in "deceptive advertising by having employees pose as ordinary consumers posting game reviews at the online iTunes store and not disclosing that the reviews came from paid employees working on behalf of the developers." The FTC alleges these activities occurred between November 2008 and May 2009.