Capcom has been steadily trickling out names in Marvel Vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds, but almost half of the game’s 30-strong roster remains a mystery. We learned a few new names, like Ameterasu and Super-Skrull, at Comic-con, but there are still a lot of blanks on that list. Let’s look at some of the most interesting new characters, the most important holdovers from previous games, and the very large group of characters who have yet to be announced, but really should be.

I honestly wasn’t expecting to see this as I walked through Herald Square today. A small crowd gathered around the windows in front of Macy’s flagship store to watch Kinect in action. They weren’t watching some TV screen looping a Kinect promotional video, or a simple display with a mock home theater complete with Xbox 360 and Kinect. They were watching Macy’s employees getting their enthusiastic spaz on with Kinect Adventures and Your Shape. My deepest sympathies go out to the people who had to stand in the window at Macy’s doing virtual aerobics to show off Your Shape. That’s just cruel.

This is how you justify charging extra cash for a collector’s edition. Sony has announced that LittleBigPlanet 2 is getting a great-looking version of the game that could end up end up being the must-buy edition for fans. It won’t have a making-of DVD, art book, or any of that filler junk we don’t care about. Instead, the LittleBigPlanet 2 Collector’s Edition will include two big pieces of merch and a load of “exclusive” DLC gamers might actually find valuable.

Gamestop is running another “check out all of these games in the bins with bright red price tags” sales. This time they’re calling it their “Power Saver Sale,” and they’re offering pretty big discounts on a ton of games that don’t suck. Highlights include Assassin’s Creed 2 for $20, Fallout 3: Game of the Year Edition for $40, Bayonetta for $30, God of War 3 for $30, 3D Dot Game Heroes for $30, and Monster Hunter Tri for $40.

If double-digit prices are too rich for your blood, the sale is also chopping a bunch of older titles’ prices in half, so you can pick up a three- or four-year-old game for pocket change. If you’d prefer to drop a Hamilton or less on a game, you can pick up Assassin’s Creed (PS3) or Dark Void for $10 (or Assassin’s Creed for $6.50 on the Xbox 360), Mercenaries 2 for $7.50 (Xbox 360) to $9 (PS3), Ninja Gaiden 2 for $8.50, Gears of War for $5, or Rainbow Six: Vegas for $3.

Quake might be considered the most important game in introducing true 3D graphics to PC gaming, but it’s not the first to do it. A year before, Interplay introduced a title that not only used 3D, polygonal graphics, but introduced full 3D movement into the gameplay. While Descent isn’t as memorable as Quake in the history of PC gaming, it’s arguably a more impressive game.

Descent is a unique cross between an FPS and a space sim. Instead of moving around floors, bound by gravity, you fly a heavily armed exploratory craft over all three spacial axes. You can fly back, forward, left and right, plus up and down, literally giving the genre a new dimension of action and exploration. Of course, this did give rise to some issues with motion sickness. Over a decade before Mirror’s Edge came out, Descent had weak-stomached gamers tossing their lunches in scores.

Steam is offering some pretty good deals this week on a handful of great games. The biggest one is season one of Strong Bad’s Cool Game For Attractive People, on sale for just $5 (normally $30). It’s got everything, from Dangeresque to Stinkoman. If Sam and Max or Monkey Island aren’t quite geeky enough for you, drop the Lincoln for this sweet pack of adventure games from Telltale Games.

Other notable discounted games include cowboy-themed third-person-shooter Lead and Gold: Gangs of the Old West, available at half off for $7.50, World War II strategy game Hearts of Iron II Complete for $12.49, and non-World War II strategy game Europa Universalis III Complete for $14.99. Not a bad haul for PC gamers.

They really don’t make games like this anymore. Back in “the day” (in this case, the mid-80′s), Infocom made text-based adventures. You see, back before 3D graphics, bump maps, particle effects, and dedicated video cards, computer game graphics had two settings: ugly and nonexistent. Infocom embraced nonexistent graphics and made a name for itself programming games that used nothing but text. You typed what you did and read what you saw. It was a simpler time, more reliant on the mind’s eye than a graphics accelerator.

What Infocom lacked in graphics, they made up for in creativity, dedication, and tons of ridiculously awesome things they stuffed in the box with their games. Infocom invented “feelies,” little physical replicas of things from their video games, and one of the driving forces of From the Game. Nearly every Infocom title came with a few doo-dads and knick-knacks straight from the games themselves.

Of all of Infocom’s games, The Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is one of the most beloved. It embraced the spirit of the book wholeheartedly, with insane humor and truly brain-wracking puzzles. It also came with some truly awesome feelies.

Loyal Gears of War fans are well aware of the tragedy of the Carmine brothers. For the uninitiated, Anthony Carmine was the newest recruit to Delta-One and one of the first to die in the original Gears of War. In the second game, his brother Benjamin Carmine joins Delta-One as the newest recruit and ends up suffering the same fate, albeit later in the game. Clayton “Clay” Carmine will be joining Delta-One for the third Gears of War game, but his fate is up to you.

I’ll be honest. I would normally be witty and throw some prose in here about the game and maybe a pun or two but my sheer enthusiasm for this game makes me a slack jawed idiot.
A recap of the characters announced so far:

Final Fantasy Legends: Hikari to Yami no Senshi (“Warriors of Light and Darkness”) is coming soon to a (Japanese) mobile phone near you. Andriasang reports that the team behind Final Fantasy IV: The After Years is developing an original title set for release in Japan this September. It will have 2D sprite based visuals as well as many traditional Final Fantasy elements and plot details such as crystals, light and darkness, and a job system. Square-Enix also said that “the distribution model of the game’s scenarios will shine a spotlight on the jobs.” Though no mention was made of an international release, a precedence has been set through FFIV: The After Years release on WiiWare.