Hello World [Wonderland]

As usual, Wonderland brightens my day with a bit of silly toy fun. This time around, Super Mario noisemaker plushes. One's a Question Block, the other a turtle shell. It'd be kinda fun to hang those blocks up around the house and occasionally jump up to score some coin. Brian Crecente

Alice points to Dunechaser's amazing Flickr of Lego Minifigs which includes an entire section on the little plastic people inspires by video games.

This gallery is just a sampling make sure to hit Flickr for the full run of amazing shot. Wait, wasn't their a Kratos minifig out there? Brian Crecente

Gaming heroes minifigs [Wonderland]

The lovely Alice points out this sweet Space Invaders t-shirt. Love it, but it would be so very much cooler if it was a pregnancy shirt. Brian Crecente

Invaded [Wonderland]

The always lovely Alice points out over on Wonderland that someone's created a nifty WiiMotion flickr pool. The shots show Wii play in motion, reminding us all what tools we look like when playing games.

Thank you everyone who's ever known me for not taking pictures while I played. Brian Crecente

Wiimotion [Wonderland]

Look, I'll admit that I don't "get" this whole Second Life thing, because it sounds like work meets socializing with dorks meets awful graphics. But the kids just love it. Now that I've seen that I could potentially walk around in "game" sporting a freshly flayed look, I'm definitely going to download the thing and... aww, who am I kidding? I'm already bored just thinking about installing the executable.

At least I can check out hot muscled booty shots (which are after the jump).

Ewwwwwwww! Michael McWhertor

Kim's anatomically-correct Second Life skin [Wonderland :)]

Last year I had about 100 sites in my aggregator, I have no clue how many are packed in there now, but reading through them takes up a good part of my day.

My very favorite sites end up being the places I go to steal talent to put to work rowing the SS Kotaku. 1Up blogs (Luke), Wonderland (Alice) and GeekOnStun (Mike) all fell victim to that trap and while some of those writers have moved on to brighter futures, I still love their sites.

Blues News: I've been reading this site since before I was writing about games. I'm a HUGE Blue fan. He doesn't know it, but he's like family.

BBC News Technology: This little British RSS feed is often filled with tech news, but occasionally they bust out with some interesting gaming news.

British Gaming Blog: I'm not sure when this site snuck onto my aggregator, but I can always depend on finding something I hadn't heard of here.

Collision Detection: As Luke points out, Clive Thompson is the man. From his musings on neolithic Britons to Plasma Ping Pong and Lester Bangs, this is the place to go for equal parts intellectual stimulation and gaming education.

Dean and Nooch on Gaming: The San Jose Mercury News duo cover all things tech and gaming. I'm astounded that the paper still doesn't support the two's blogging efforts. That's right, they do it in there "free time."

Digg: I don't really read this for story ideas as much as to track the interest in topics. It's sort of my gaming buzz stock market and like a billion times better than del.icio.us.

Gamerscore Blog: Corporate blogs should be taken with a grain of salt, but that doesn't mean you should pump them for information. This one's run by Msoft marketing guru John Porcaro.

Gamesblog: The Guardian Unlimited's blog on gaming includes stories by Keith Stuart, Aleks Krotoski (seriously, we really do know she's not a guy.) and Greg Howson and is a definite must read.

Gamespot: It might be trite to say that you should read Gamespot's news coverage, but that doesn't make it any less true. I love their Rumor Control.

Impress Game Watch: I may not be able to read Japanese, but I can still look at the pretty pictures and then quickly IM Ashcraft and ask him WTF they're talking about. He loves it when I do that.

Major Nelson: He might have some sort of job over at Microsoft that involves Xbox Live and management, but all we really care about is his obsessive posts about the Marketplace.

NeoGaf: The best gaming forums on the planet. Chockfull of hatred, self-loathing and a surprising amount of news and juicy tidbits.

Penny Arcade: Who doesn't love these guys. If video game journalism were a Shakespearean play, they would be the clowns. (Kotaku would be the homicidal, naval-staring stepson.)

Terra Nova: The original virtual worlds think tank.

The New York Times: They may publish far too few game-related stories, but when they do they're pure gold.

Video Game Media Watch: Balanced on the precipice of full-time freelancing, Kyle Orland is likely about to turbo charge his game journalism site.

Voodoo Extreme: Fast, fun, opinionated read on all things PC.

Water Cooler Games: Ian Bogost is probably one of the few gaming academics, developers and bloggers around. Go read his stuff on serious gaming.

This is just a sampling of the excellent sites I read daily and I try to add sites to the list as often as possible. Of course I also spend a huge chunk of the day talking to PR people, sources, moles, weasels and other assorted rodents. What are some of your favorites? Sites, not rodents. Brian Crecente

Namecheck: Do People Still Read? [1Up]

First off, our lovely girlfriend Alice over in Wonderland is giving away four free copies of Guild Wars: Factions, which she calls "boxen." Like the boxen of Alice herself, the contest is only open to Europeans. All you have to do is go over and send her an email. The winner will be drawn randomly

Not one of Europe's god-like gaming Adonises? Still want a free MMORPG? Well, you're in luck: MMO Portals is giving away a year's subscription to World of Warcraft. Simply follow the link and join their forums.

Best of luck!

Heee, hee, hee. I almost wish I was a woman, just so I could wear these.

Controller Earrings [Wonderland]

Gamasutra has started its own blog. GameSetWatch is edited by Simon Carless and written by a laundry list of some of my favorite bloggers: GeenOnStun's Michael McWhertor, Wonderland's Alice Taylor, Edge Magazine's Brandon Boyer, LostLevel's Frank Cifaldi and Insert Credit's Brandon Sheffield.

Can't wait to read it.

Game Set Watch [Official Site]