Unless you have some sort of parentally-enforced bedtime, or live in an Amish community that shuns the use of televisions, there's really no excuse to miss the piping-hot weekly episodes of Gametrailers TV on Spike. If you skipped last Friday's show, you missed some of the most exciting news to grace Nintendo fanboys' ears in quite some time -- the promise of an E3 unveiling of a Wii holiday blockbuster, delivered by the mountainous Reggie Fils-Aime.

"We are going to have great new content maximizing all our key franchises," Fils-Aime promised. "It's going to be a good second half." As host Geoff Keighley conjectured, a Donkey Kong Wii title is certainly a logical assumption, but our fingers are eternally crossed for Animal Crossing Wii. What first-party franchises do you hope The Reg was hinting at?

[Via Kotaku]

'Tis the day for everyone to rip open wrapping paper and see just how much their loved ones care. So whether the present exchange was today, last night, earlier this month or some other time, we want to know how you made out in terms of video games (and if you want to share more, feel free, but we're only concerned with your gaming needs). If you have a chance to hit the pause button or get away from the family dinner table, tell us what you got. Happy Holidays!

It's been about 363 days since we last highlighted this video, but it's Christmas and we feel it's best to be festive, and Michel Ancel's Raving Rabbids are terrific way to celebrate the holidays. It's time to get into the egg nog with the most eloquent lagomorphs around.

For the holiday lovers out there, here's our cheap gift to you. Enjoy the video after the break.

Valve's Steam service is having a last-minute holiday sale from today until January 1, with everything on the online store reportedly 10% to 50% off. While all they have to do is make one game 50% and the rest 10% to make that statement valid, there are some good deals going on. Highlights include:

• Orange Box - $37.45 (25% off)
• BioShock - $37.45 (25% off)
• S.T.A.L.K.E.R. - $22.45 (25% off)
• id Software Super Pack - $52.45 (25% off)
• Psychonauts - $9.95 (50% off)

There are very few hours until Christmas. On this coast, most stores are closing down. Wouldn't be great if you could find the perfect gift for the ones you love? How about a downloadable copy of Psychonauts (no, we don't shut up about this game) for only $10? And while we're at it, you can afford to purchase Rag Doll Kung Fu ($13.45) and Bookworm Adventures ($17.95).

Although taking a beating in sales alongside another high-profile PC shooter, Crysis will still hang onto its Christmas cheer. Developer Crytek is celebrating the holiday season with free presents for Crysis owners. The big box under the tree is a Tournament Map Pack, including:

• Power Struggle - Desolation
• Power Struggle - Isolation
• Power Struggle - Training
• Instant Action - Excavation
• Instant Action - Terminal

The map locales span the globe, with settings in the Americas, French Polynesia and North Korea. Crytek stocking stuffers include a 1600x1062 Christmas-themed wallpaper (pictured) and expanded documentation for the Sandbox2 editor. "But Crytek," you complain, "documentation sounds like books, and I hate reading." At this point, Crytek (or the personification thereof) sits you down on its laps, taps on his Alien Molecular Accelerator, and reminds you not to be ungrateful. And while you're at it, he says, be sure to buy three copies of the game to boost sales.

[Thanks, Jeff]

Though not as much of a technical achievement as the Pac-Man tree, we love any and all holiday video game references. This picture of a Triforce atop a 50-foot tree was reportedly snapped by Nick and Will from Gnatline podcast. Shall we cry Photoshop? Nah, it's the holiday spirit, we'll let our lingering doubts lie elsewhere for the night. Check out the highlights for today:

Joystiquery
Readers pick best webcomic: Karma
Today's manliest video of manliness: TNA Impact trailer

News
Xbox Live Video Marketplace live in Canada, UK, and elsewhere
Rainbow Six Vegas 2 teaser has glam, forgets gameplay footage
MS explains why you can't use exact change on XBL
Witness Super Mario Galaxy's deepest secrets
Patapon to arrive in U.S. in February 2008
Rock Band Weekly: You're such a punk
Battlefield: Bad Company trailer takes stab at humanity
Reminder: New Halo 3 maps available now
Mass Effect amasses a million in sales
Slot machines to become more like video games
Square wins plagiarism case against Korean music video
Hudson developing games for iPhone and iPod Touch
Stringer: 'Actual innovation' and PSN expansion in Sony's future
GameFly opens Tampa, Florida distribution center
Nvidia drops new GEFORCE 8800 GTS 512 MB
LittleBigPlanet demo not coming this year
Hot Shots Golf 5 swings into US March 2008
EA: European developers more creative than American developers
GameStop opens inaugural tournament center
Rebellion to develop Shellshock sequel for sure
Lost Odyssey gets found in North America Feb. 12; free DLC with pre-order
Passage is a lifetime in five minutes

Rumors & Speculation
Rumor: PSP Silent Hill being ported to PS2
Rumor: Bizarre working on James Bond game
Analysts: Board games are the next big thing

Culture & Community
The Gaming Club sounds off on the year in video games
Gamecock sorry about crashing Ken Levine's VGA speech
Time magazine names Halo 3 game of the year
Rock out with your block out: i am 8-bit guitar straps

We'd love to say picking up PlayStation 3 is as easy as going to the store and grabbing the first box with the console's name on it. For better and worse, this generation of consoles gives consumers many choices at the (potential) expense of causing confusion at the store.

So it's with this in mind that we present you this handy guide for discerning the difference between the various PlayStation 3 versions (aka SKUs) out there. Please note that the red and green coloring is not only festive decor for the holiday season but also a subjective highlight of what each version excels in (or subsequently lacks).

	80GB	60GB	40GB	20GB
Hardware
Model #	CECHE01	CECHA01	CECHG01	CECHB01
Price	$499.99	$499.99*	$399.99	$499.99*
Chrome trim	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
USB 2.0 slots	4	4	2	4
802.11 b/g	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Flash card reader	Yes	Yes	No	No
Bundled Accessories
Ethernet cable	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Video cables	Composite	Composite	Composite	Composite
Backwards Compatibility
PlayStation 2	Software**	Yes (NTSC), Software** (PAL)	No	Yes
PS One	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

Notes:

* This model is discontinued. The price on the chart represents the listed price before Sony axed it.
** See explanation in F.A.Q. below.

Alright, Joystiq, time to answer your own questions.

Let's do this.

Firing off big-headed predictions is just part of the business, but when Xbox 360 group product manager Aaron Greenberg told Next-Gen that Microsoft expects to have "at least seven titles that will each sell over a million units" this holiday, maybe he wasn't being so bold -- just optimistic. "I don't think any other platform will even come close to that," Greenberg concluded. He's right. But can Xbox 360?

Let's add it up: Halo 3, yes, of course. Madden too. That's two. By year's end, BioShock also will have had plenty of time to reach the million-sold mark; and Microsoft is counting on its other big exclusive, Mass Effect, to get there too (though in considerably less time). That's four. Guitar Hero III, Call of Duty 4, and Assassin's Creed are the three other most likelies to bring the tally to seven, but even Rock Band, The Simpsons, Orange Box, skate, Tony Hawk, PGR4, Need for Speed ProStreet, or an NBA game could move enough units -- are we missing any?

If Microsoft can win over consumers with its exclusives (and perhaps the newly proposed family plan), then Xbox 360 will also take the lion's share of multiplatform game sales, which could, remarkably, produce something like 7 different platinum-selling games during a loosely-defined holiday season. But Sony has challenged with competitively priced PlayStation 3 SKUs and will manage to produce its own lineup of exclusives in Heavenly Sword, Warhawk, Ratchet, and Uncharted, plus Haze, and hopefully, if only temporarily, UT3. Of course, there's also Wii and Mario, a pair that could easily be the one-stop-shop solution for holiday gift buyers.

So were these bold words from Microsoft? No, but the goal ain't no cakewalk neither.

If you've yet to get yourself an Xbox 360 in this post-Halo 3 world, Microsoft is of a mind to sway you with fast cars and terrifyingly tight pants this holiday season. New Xbox 360 bundles (yep, these ones) are set to arrive "retail-wide by the end of October," with both the $349.99 "Pro" and the $449.99 Elite models offering two games at no extra charge -- racing sim Forza Motorsport 2 and supervillain clobberfest, Marvel Ultimate Alliance.

Though Project Gotham Racing 4's arcade styling would have held more general appeal than Forza's serious nitty-gritty, the latter's unquestionably a fine game for a freebie. The same holds true for Marvel Ultimate Alliance, a fun and accessible adventure both online and off. We rather like this bundling business.

MCV takes a look at some recent ChartTrack sales data and notes that British game sales for the first few weeks of the new year are up significantly over 2006's already record-breaking first quarter. An interesting little factoid, to be sure, but the true importance comes out in a quote from Eidos UK's Jon Brooke, who told the trade paper that increased Winter sales "prove the industry doesn't need to be so seasonal."

Amen to that. We are sick and tired of publishers clogging up store shelves with big name titles around Christmastime only to leave us with months of nothing once the new year comes around. Fortunately, this trend looks like it might be slowing, with quality releases like WarioWare: Smooth Moves, Crackdown, and MotorStorm filling in the quiet Winter months. It's about time publishers realized that good games will sell no matter what time of year they're released.

[Via Guardian GamesBlog]

In honor of Valentine's Day, we bring you love -- Rayman: Raving Rabbids style. The end of this video features something that most of you wouldn't mind doing to the rabbids yourselves. Over and over again. All over Paris, and wherever you might happen to encounter one ... or dozens.

After you get your mind out of the gutter, check out the video and chime in and let us know what you wouldn't mind doing to these screaming piles of fur. At least this one shows up with flowers and chocolate.

The New York Times' Matt Richtel today takes a look at how the big three console makers did over the holiday season. Besides mentioning the now-familiar CES sales announcements from Sony and Microsoft, the story has some interesting quotes from analysts and retailers.

Most surprising among those quotes might be confirmation from Gamestop COO Daniel A. DeMatteo that Playstation 3's are available at "hundreds" of the company's stores, while Wii consoles "virtually disappeared" when they came in. It's hard to evaluate this statement without knowing how many of each system Gamestop received -- indeed, analyst Paul-Jon McNealy notes earlier in the article how Sony "seems like they're really ramping up production."

Still, the widespread reports of PS3s sitting on shelves does put a damper on Sony Senior VP Peter Dille's claim that "you can declare us a winner right now." We have to agree with Microsoft's David Hufford: "That sounds like spin." We'll see just how much spin when NPD releases its December sales numbers on Thursday.

[Thanks Falafelkid]

Wrapping paper has been torn open, ribbons unraveled, and bows ... unbowed. Did you score yourself a next-gen console? We noticed while driving around the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex that some enterprising entrepreneurs decided to sell PlayStation 3s out of the back of their car trunks for $800. However, no one was lining up to buy 'em. A sad sign advertising Wiis for sale was discarded in the ditch near the same sellers, leading us to believe that they'd run through their supply of Wiis.

Further confirmation came when we found this article in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram in the form of a play detailing the trials and tribulations of finding a Wii this holiday season. Did you have as hard of a time? We checked a few area retailer shelves, and they all had the same story: accessories galore, consoles none. What about you?

If you celebrated the just-passed consumer holiday (Christmas, X-mas, Consumermas, Christmahanakwanza, whatever) we're interested in hearing from you. You've dug out from under the hills of wrapping paper, awoken fat and swollen from your food comas, and mothballed the hideous holiday sweaters, so perhaps you've got time to share with us your holiday haul. What did you receive?

Now, economists tell us that Christmas creates waste of $152 billion every year as gift givers pay $457 billion for gifts that recipients value at just about $305 billion. Did this happen to you? Are you planning to haul any of your game-related presents in for a refund? Post freely, we won't rat you out to Aunt Bethany.

[Image credit: Flickr user Luciana DB]

As we close out Christmas day, what better to bring it all to an end than a holiday themed Rayman Raving Rabbids video. It's cute, it's cuddly, and it has just the right amount of holiday cynicism thrown in. Consider it an extra special Christmas bonus for our loyal readers. In fact, if you're up this late/early and watching the video, then you really ARE loyal. Enjoy the video after the jump, and bask in the warm glow of Joystiq.

Merry Christmas to all you 'stiqers out there, and to all a good night.