What's VGA, you ask? No, it's not Spike's Video Game Awards. It's the Video Game Authority, a group that issues grades based on the condition of old video games, in a manner similar to action figures and trading cards. After paying a fee, gamers send in their beloved collectibles, which are graded and sealed in tamper-evident acrylic cases, marked with the official hologram of the organization. The first of these VGA-graded items are currently up for auction on eBay.

Currently available are near-mint copies of Super Mario Bros. 3, Final Fantasy, Metal Gear and others, all in the 75-85 grade range. Final Fantasy is notably already up over $200, and Super Mario Bros. 3 isn't far behind. If nothing else, those NES games look damn sexy in those plastic cases.

Read - First VGA Graded Games Hit eBay [GameSniped]
Read - BigHedToyz [eBay]

"I must have one of those Arby's subs."

And with that, Griffin and I begin our live blog. Hello everyone, it's Justin McElroy, and for the next two hours my brother and I will be your guides for "Samuel L. Jackson No-So-Subtly Judges Everyone in the Room," or, as it's being advertised, "The Spike 2007 Video Game Awards."

The live blog begins after the break. Come, join us.

Don't forget -- the Spike TV Video Game Awards airs tonight at 9 p.m. EST. If you're a faithful Joystiq reader, you already know which games won awards -- but don't let that take the wind out of your sails! You still haven't seen the exclusive performance by the Fighters of Foo, the comedy stylings of Patton Oswalt, or the trollopery of MySpace vixen Tila Tequila.

Okay, we know that two hours of mainstream culture mixed with ceaseless product placements and a gaggle of celebrities who have no idea what they're talking about isn't everyone's idea of the perfect Sunday night. If that's the case, tune in to Spike TV tonight at 9 p.m. EST for the two hours hate.

We know you're on pins and needles, so we'll just come right out and tell you that Spike TV's latest Video Game Awards has lifted up BioShock as the year's best game, with Andrew Ryan's underwater extravaganza besting other notables such as Mass Effect, The Orange Box, and Halo 3. With Samuel L. Jackson once again at the helm, the awards show went down last night at Las Vegas' posh Mandalay Bay, and we imagine is now being carefully outfitted with extreme graphics and Mountain Dew ads for its television broadcast on Dec. 9 at 9PM.

Besides its game of the year nod, BioShock also walked away with awards for being the best Xbox 360 game and having the best original score, making it also responsible for the event's most return trips to the stage.

Now, for the complete list, would you kindly make with the clicking?

Mega64's latest ad for Spike TV's "Video Game Awards 2007" further proves the fact that there's nothing funnier than old people talking about electronics. We admit it, when we see a befuddled septuagenarian being buffeted by questions about video games, we can't help but snicker. We know it makes us bad people.

There's no doubt in our minds that in fifty years, a trio of cheap-suited young men will hassle us about things we don't understand, just to get a few guffaws. It's just the great circle of internet comedy.

Video Games Live, composer Tommy Tallarico's gaming-centric orchestra concert event, is making its national television debut next Sunday, December 9, on Spike TV's Video Game Awards. The performance will be recorded along with the awards show, hosted again this year by Samuel L. Jackson, December 7 in Las Vegas.

No word on what songs will be performed, although the press release from VGL noted that "brand new never before seen material" is in the cards.

For the third year in a row Samuel L. Jackson will host the Spike TV Video Game Awards, now in its fifth year. While we'd like to say Jackson can bring "the awesome" to most anything, it's all too evident when non-gamers pick up that gamepad (note to Spike: keep the pad out of his hands).

The event goes down Dec. 7 at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas and, after some fancy editing, the actual broadcast is Dec. 9 at 9PM. Games like Borderlands and Gran Turismo 5 Prologue will be premiered during the show and totally radical (not to mention relevant) celebs like magician Criss Angel and Dave Navarro will attend. Check out the full list of categories and nominees.

Today's vid is from last night's Video Game Awards on Spike TV. Granted, the awards themselves were pretty lackluster and boring, but this motion capture skit was one of the funniest things from the whole show. It's about time we learned about the more glamorous jobs in the industry, like this guy's.

Check it out after the jump. Say what you will, but the guy has balls (hey, you saw that one coming a million miles away).

Mark Rein dropped into the Epic Forums last night to let VGA cables users know that the Gears of War aspect ratio issue has been fixed. Gamers playing on non-widescreen monitors have experienced squashed aspect ratios since the game shipped. A patch will be included in the next Gears update, which has yet to be scheduled. Rein added that Epic is still working on additional features for the update.

Epic's vice president also made a direct apology to fans for the VGA oversight, explaining that the development team was only using widescreen monitors. A non-widescreen monitor has since been acquired for testing purposes.

Just before the Tokyo Game Show, when Microsoft first announced support for 1080p, we were impressed with the sheer audacity of the addition! For all of Sony's technological one-upmanship, Microsoft had deftly removed one of the PlayStation 3's brightest tail-feathers in a single software download. Well, at least it seemed that way until a little over a month later when the update was available and Microsoft's implementation left a lot to be desired. Of course, they promised a patch to correct some issues in the update, notably the incompatibility of 1080p-over-component on televisions that supported the format. That second patch has finally arrived and, as promised, solves some of those issues. For example, the above image shows a Sony XBR3 television finally displaying 1080p content over component. So, for those users who only needed that fixed, you're on your way.

Still, despite the update's promise of "improved support for HD video output over VGA, including 1080p resolution" this blogger still encounters a significant (and certainly abnormal) amount of screen tearing while using the VGA connection, not to mention the pale, washed-out colors that have become emblematic of the 360's VGA implementation. But we're not the only ones with problems. A quick perusal of the AVS Forums thread shows some another anomalies that don't instill much confidence in Microsoft's upgraded upgrade.

We have a feeling that Microsoft will continue to tweak this feature until it works as expected; however, after two attempts we're left underwhelmed and Microsoft's magic hat trick is looking more and more like smoke and mirrors.

Read -- Major Nelson's Dashboard update announcement
Read -- AVS Forums on "improved" 1080p support

Our pals at Engadget know cables and hacks. And those are two great tastes that taste great together; Engadget shows how to make an Xbox 360 VGA cable out of a lowly composite part.

Unlike the PS2 and GameCube, the Xbox 360 cables include every pin -- even the ones not used by the cable-specific video connection. Because these pins already connect to the console, it's just a matter of wiring a VGA socket to the previously-unused terminals.

Total cost? $7. Get out the soldering iron, and save your money for games.

See also: PSA: Use the right cables for your TV

Last Tuesday, we found ourselves rushing out to a local Toys "R" Us to pick up Microsoft's official VGA cable after our trusty Dell 2405FPW balked at dishing out 1080p over component. Regardless, we wanted to watch our 1080p upscaled DVDs and -- due to all sorts of arcane legal restrictions -- Microsoft is only able to offer that service over VGA and not component (note: reason #38 why we want an HDMI connection).

So, you'll appreciate our dismay when we plugged in our new ($50!) cable, only to find that our display had serious issues with the 360's VGA connection -- it was entirely washed out, a known issue with the Xbox 360's VGA implementation apparently. But there's more! Any resolution, not just 1920x1080, exhibits a significant amount of screen tearing, which isn't replicated using component. And one last thing. Some televisions, most notably Sony's LCD XBR series, that are supposed to accept 1080p over component just flat out refuse. Just reading through the AVS Forums thread on the topic should be enough to convince anyone that something's rotten in the state of 1080p on the 360.

Microsoft podcaster Major Nelson brings word that the team in Redmond is aware of the 1080p issues and are working on a fix ... at around 8 minutes into his latest 'cast (number 200, congrats!), he says the display issue is "kind of this bug that the guys are working on and they are aware of." He limits it to simply the 1080p over component issue, so let's hope that Microsoft takes the opportunity to isolate and correct the outstanding VGA issues as well.

[Via Engadget HD]

Computer & Video Games has announced the ballot boxes are now open for the 24th annual Golden Joystick (not "Joystiq") Awards, one of the longest running events in the industry. While CVG promotes the Golden Joysticks as the "people's awards", you have to wonder if they use the same selection committee as Spike TV when determining the nominees for each category.

One disgruntled Joystiq reader is appalled that 50 Cent: Bulletproof somehow managed to collect five nominations (we feel your pain, Sizer), despite the game's metascores being true to its namesake. This smacks of commercialism, but then again it gives the GJAs that gritty, urban flava that you know just personifies all gamers.

Another questionable nomination is Shadow the Hedgehog for The Sun's Family Game of the Year. Isn't that the one with the gun-toting, foul-mouthed, "edgy" Sonic wannabe (and a combined metascore of 49)? On behalf of the kiddies, I'll pass.

How about the decision to limit the Nuts All-Nighter award to console and handheld games? Does this mean MMOs and other PC games are only addictive outside the UK? That's just nutty! Wait, where's the award for best gaming blog? Oh, never mind.

Infamous Adventures recently released its remake of Roberta William's 1986 classic point-n-click adventure, King's Quest III: To Heir Is Human. The remake features "all new full VGA backgrounds, enhanced hand-drawn close up cut-scenes, dialog portraits for all the characters, original music by our professional composer, full speech pack (including narrator), and a new point-and-click interface."

Infamous Adventures believes that King's Quest III is still relevant and has developed the remake to ensure that this timeless adventure will be compatible with modern hardware. No profits will be made. The game (43.2 MB) is available to download free of charge.