With the launch of Windows 7, Apple has fired three new advertising salvos against the Microsoft marketing machine. And while I've found most of the previous incarnations of Mac ads to be anywhere between mildly amusing and spot-on satire, this latest round irked me.

By now we've all heard about Joe Wilson's unfortunate outburst at President Obama's health care address. The Republican party quickly distanced themselves from Wilson, and his political future appears to be tanking. All thanks to two little words.

Through this season of Lost you've been contributing original articles, seeds, and asking trivia questions. Whether you realized it or not, you were entering in this year's contest.

On a mission, Jack fights with his allies over how and if to use the bomb. Meanwhile, Locke and Ben come face to face with the mysterious Jacob.

Since Charlie first asked "where are we?", Lost has been a show about mysteries. The narrative has been slowly developing as we discover more about the Island, its powers, and its inhabitants.

Locke asserts his leadership over the Others as Jack and Kate split on whether to enact Daniel Faraday's dangerous plan to change history.

Daniel Faraday embarks on a risky mission to change the fate of everyone on the Island. ABC Preview: On the 100th episode milestone for the series, the time of reckoning has begun when Daniel Faraday comes clean regarding what he knows about the island.

Miles struggles with father issues as suspicion starts to close in on Kate and Sawyer for their efforts to rescue Ben.

With some urging from Locke, Ben reluctantly allows himself to be judged by the Monster, and reflects on his immoral past. ABC Preview: To atone for sins of the past, Ben must attempt to summon the smoke monster in order to be judged.

Kate sets out to save Ben as she remembers what happened to baby Aaron before she returned to the Island. ABC Preview: Kate goes to extreme measures to save Ben's life when Jack refuses to help. Meanwhile, Kate begins to tell the truth about the lie in order to protect Aaron.

Sawyer tries to give Sayid a healthy escape, as DHARMA's own torture agent reveals that he knows more than most in DHARMA are comfortable with.

Sawyer's long-con on the DHARMA Initiative gets much more complicated as he discovers his friends arriving, and he improvises his lies to protect them.

Lost has been keeping us entertained -- and guessing -- for over four years now. As the show reaches its apex, we're seeing more pieces fall into place every week.

Sawyer's group of survivors, trapped in the past, assume new identities and live among the DHARMA Initiative as they await the return of their friends.

Locke's history off the Island and his efforts to reunite the Oceanic Six are revealed, as a new group of crash survivors discover the Island's mysteries. ABC Preview: Locke's fateful mission off the island as Jeremy Bentham is revealed.

The Oceanic Six board a new plane to go back to the Island, as Jack finds himself becoming more of a believer in things that can't be explained.

Locke leads the Losties to the Orchid as Jin sees firsthand the events of Danielle's arrival on the Island, and Ben's plan to reunite the Oceanic Six unravels.

Kate discovers the identity of the person seeking legal action for Aaron, while Sawyer's group of survivors looks for a way to cure the time travel sickness that's afflicting more and more of them.

Desmond starts searching for Daniel Faraday's mother, as the Losties - still stranded in time - come face-to-face with Others from the past.

Those left on the Island shift seemingly randomly in time as the Oceanic Six start to formulate their plan to rescue the other survivors; but not everyone wants to join with the likes of Ben.

After an achingly long break, Lost is finally set to return, and that means the return of one of my most popular, and personal favorite, features: Lost in the Vines. We have to go back, Kate! We have to go back!

For the third year in a row, Newsvine has come together as a community to chat about and nominate the year's best interactive experiences. Polls are closed, and only one question remains: what is the best game of 2008?

It's that traditional time again, for Newsvine to speak in a collective voice and give a proverbial pat on the back to the best of the best. And for Gamevine, that means picking the best Games of the Year for 2008.

Last year, to fill the long summer hiatus, I introduced the Lost in the Vines Prediction Contest.

This week in Critical Mass, we take a look at the review scores for Battlefield: Bad Company, Final Fantasy Tactics A2, Guitar Hero On Tour, and Alone in the Dark.

Video games aren't really known for their sweeping romances and taudry love stories. But that doesn't mean that these torrid affairs don't exist.

You can feel the stampede to the message boards as the official NPD Group numbers make their way online.

Several weeks back, Capcom Digital kicked off a community voting process in which gamers could suggest potential unlockable Achievements for the Xbox Live Arcade version of Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix.

In an interview with Gamasutra at Microsoft's Gamefest event in Seattle, iNiS co-founder Keiichi Yano confirmed they are working on an Xbox 360 game. You may recall iNiS as the makers of such games as Elite Beat Agents on the DS and Gitaroo-Man on PS2.

SNK Playmore USA announced today that classic Neo Geo arcade games will be joining the Genesis, Turbografx-16 and Nintendo's various systems on the Wii's Virtual Console service.

Ken Kutaragi, a true pioneer in the video game industry, will be honored at the ESA's special children's charities fundraising event, Nite to Unite for Kids. He will get the 2008 Champion Honoree award for his contributions to the gaming world.

In an effort to push Master Chief even more, they have announced a ludicrously large number of events for what they're calling: "Unite to Fight: Halo 3 Launch Week."

In the latest OXM Podcast, Harmonix CEO Alex Rigopulos confirms that the Xbox 360 guitars for Rock Band are wired in the bundles. There will be wired and wireless versions available for the Xbox 360, but once again, the retail bundles will come with a wired guitar.

South Park episode "Make Love, Not Warcraft," which famously skewered MMORPG World of Warcraft and its many subscribers late last year, was awarded the 2007 Emmy for Outstanding Animated Program at the 59th Creative Arts Emmy Awards on Saturday.

"Developers who are not embracing online opportunities to a greater level are leaving money on the table," said Geoffrey Zatkin, president and chief operating officer of San Diego-based Electronic Entertainment Design and Research.

Valve has confirmed that the PlayStation 3 version of Orange Box will be released a bit later than PC and 360 builds - but said the delay is nothing to do with the console itself.

Aside from Crisis Core, Famitsu editors asked about new developments in the Compilation series, before stating the obvious---fans want a FFVII remake.

As of 10:00am (PDT), Infinity Ward has raised the maximum level from 11 to 16 in the Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare multiplayer beta for Xbox 360, allowing players to unlock clan tags (at level 12), along with additional weapons, features, and perks.

RedOctane contacted 1UP to clarify Huang's comments, explaining that what he meant to say was that downloadable content will not be available from day one -- online play will be included out of the box.

Microsoft is apparently making strong examples of anyone trying to sneak into the Halo 3 Epsilon test. The crackdown came to light when a 17-year-old Minnesotan who goes by the handle "Scar" posted a tale of woe on the forums of the Halo-focused modding site Se7ensins.com.

Major Nelson just updated with word that no bans have been handed down to any Xbox Live users.

There was a time during the development of this week's new PlayStation 3 dragon-fighting game "Lair" when its director, Julian Eggebrecht, thought it was cursed. That time began two years ago and — hopefully for him — ended this summer.

PopCap Games, the leading developer and publisher of casual games, today unveiled the results of a survey targeting "white collar" workers who play casual video games.

You may have read a few months ago about the 9 year old who saved his dad's life by bringing a runaway truck to a stop and he asked his dad for a PS3 as a reward. Well, Sony in a shockingly good PR move (they have good PR?) gave the kid what he asked for.

This won't be a feature in Crackdown 2, however - in fact, Realtime Worlds isn't working on a sequel at all, Wilson confirmed.

Microsoft has issued a 24-hour ban from Xbox Live to 23,000 users that took advantage of an exploit that allowed unauthorised players to gain access to the restricted multiplayer beta test.

SCi Entertainment, owner of the Lara Croft Tomb Raider computer game franchise, admitted yesterday that for the second time in two years it had received a bid approach, believed to be from its French rival Ubisoft.

Speaking with GameSpot at this year's EA Studio Showcase, Valve director of marketing Doug Lombardi confirmed that the PS3 version of The Orange Box "will trail the PC and Xbox 360 versions by a couple of weeks."

The creator of Fable had some interesting comments when asked about motion control:

Rumor has it that the bi-annual Xbox 360 firmware update set to hit this fall will bring with it a number of interesting updates, chief among them a new Parental Timer.

With the launch of Windows 7, Apple has fired three new advertising salvos against the Microsoft marketing machine. And while I've found most of the previous incarnations of Mac ads to be anywhere between mildly amusing and spot-on satire, this latest round irked me.

By now we've all heard about Joe Wilson's unfortunate outburst at President Obama's health care address. The Republican party quickly distanced themselves from Wilson, and his political future appears to be tanking. All thanks to two little words.

Through this season of Lost you've been contributing original articles, seeds, and asking trivia questions. Whether you realized it or not, you were entering in this year's contest.

On a mission, Jack fights with his allies over how and if to use the bomb. Meanwhile, Locke and Ben come face to face with the mysterious Jacob.

Since Charlie first asked "where are we?", Lost has been a show about mysteries. The narrative has been slowly developing as we discover more about the Island, its powers, and its inhabitants.

Locke asserts his leadership over the Others as Jack and Kate split on whether to enact Daniel Faraday's dangerous plan to change history.

Daniel Faraday embarks on a risky mission to change the fate of everyone on the Island. ABC Preview: On the 100th episode milestone for the series, the time of reckoning has begun when Daniel Faraday comes clean regarding what he knows about the island.

Miles struggles with father issues as suspicion starts to close in on Kate and Sawyer for their efforts to rescue Ben.

With some urging from Locke, Ben reluctantly allows himself to be judged by the Monster, and reflects on his immoral past. ABC Preview: To atone for sins of the past, Ben must attempt to summon the smoke monster in order to be judged.

Kate sets out to save Ben as she remembers what happened to baby Aaron before she returned to the Island. ABC Preview: Kate goes to extreme measures to save Ben's life when Jack refuses to help. Meanwhile, Kate begins to tell the truth about the lie in order to protect Aaron.

Sawyer tries to give Sayid a healthy escape, as DHARMA's own torture agent reveals that he knows more than most in DHARMA are comfortable with.

Sawyer's long-con on the DHARMA Initiative gets much more complicated as he discovers his friends arriving, and he improvises his lies to protect them.

Lost has been keeping us entertained -- and guessing -- for over four years now. As the show reaches its apex, we're seeing more pieces fall into place every week.

Sawyer's group of survivors, trapped in the past, assume new identities and live among the DHARMA Initiative as they await the return of their friends.

Locke's history off the Island and his efforts to reunite the Oceanic Six are revealed, as a new group of crash survivors discover the Island's mysteries. ABC Preview: Locke's fateful mission off the island as Jeremy Bentham is revealed.

The Oceanic Six board a new plane to go back to the Island, as Jack finds himself becoming more of a believer in things that can't be explained.

Locke leads the Losties to the Orchid as Jin sees firsthand the events of Danielle's arrival on the Island, and Ben's plan to reunite the Oceanic Six unravels.

Kate discovers the identity of the person seeking legal action for Aaron, while Sawyer's group of survivors looks for a way to cure the time travel sickness that's afflicting more and more of them.

Desmond starts searching for Daniel Faraday's mother, as the Losties - still stranded in time - come face-to-face with Others from the past.

Those left on the Island shift seemingly randomly in time as the Oceanic Six start to formulate their plan to rescue the other survivors; but not everyone wants to join with the likes of Ben.

After an achingly long break, Lost is finally set to return, and that means the return of one of my most popular, and personal favorite, features: Lost in the Vines. We have to go back, Kate! We have to go back!

For the third year in a row, Newsvine has come together as a community to chat about and nominate the year's best interactive experiences. Polls are closed, and only one question remains: what is the best game of 2008?

It's that traditional time again, for Newsvine to speak in a collective voice and give a proverbial pat on the back to the best of the best. And for Gamevine, that means picking the best Games of the Year for 2008.

Last year, to fill the long summer hiatus, I introduced the Lost in the Vines Prediction Contest.

This week in Critical Mass, we take a look at the review scores for Battlefield: Bad Company, Final Fantasy Tactics A2, Guitar Hero On Tour, and Alone in the Dark.