Sony’s earnings report, issued recently, puts the PlayStation 3 at 6.5 million units sold worldwide for the holiday quarter, topping the 5.6 million units registered by Nintendo’s Wii for the same period — but falling short of the 8.2 million Xbox 360 sales reported by Microsoft.

Here’s the bigger news: The Xbox 360?s strong holiday quarter also put the Microsoft console ahead in worldwide sales globally for the full year of 2011, with 14.9 million units sold, compared with 14.1 million for the PS3 and 10.33 million for the Wii.

According to historical earnings reports, it’s first time the Xbox 360 has topped the worldwide console market for a full year of head-to-head competition with the PS3 and Wii.

Microsoft’s surge reflects the strong reception for the Kinect motion sensor and the expansion of the console as a home entertainment device, enabled by regular software updates.

Don Mattrick, the Microsoft video-game chief, had predicted last year at the E3 conference that Xbox 360 would become the No. 1 console globally.

On a cumulative basis, Nintendo is still the king of the current console generation, with 95 million Wiis sold worldwide, compared with 66 million Xbox 360 for Microsoft and 62 million Ps3s for Sony.

Do note that this is not official, so take the news with a pinch of salt. Watch below the Cinematic trailer of this great upcoming game if you haven’t seen it yet!

The Nintendo 3DS is based on a custom Pica200 graphics processor. It has two screens; the top screen is a 3.53 in 5:3 3D screen with a resolution of 800×240 pixels (400×240 pixels per eye, WQVGA) that is able to produce an autostereoscopic three-dimensional effect (one without 3D glasses), while the bottom screen is a 3.02 in 4:3 non-3D touch panel with a resolution of 320×240 pixels (QVGA). The 3DS weighs approximately 230 grams and, when closed, is 134 mm wide, 74 mm broad, and 21 mm thick.

The system features several additions to the design of the original DS, including a slider on the side of the device that adjusts the intensity of the 3D effect, a round nub analog input called the “Slide Pad”, an accelerometer, and a gyroscope. In addition, there is an infra-red communicator port situated on the top of the unit. There is also a feature called street pass where if you walk past a person with a 3DS you share information. In Street Fighter IV 3D edition for 3DS if you pass someone with the same software you have a battle to collect trophies from the other player. The feature spot pass is when you put your 3DS to sleep mode, it will look for wireless hot spots. Multitasking is also one of the features that is implemented in this new device.

Overall, news about this device has been received well, and a lot of people are very looking forward to see how the glasses free 3D technology will work. Obviously we will have to just wait and see.

The game story starts 2,000 years ago in ancient Central America, where a battle began between Totec, the Guardian of the Light, and Xolotl, a dark spirit. After Totec defeated Xolotl he banished him and entombed himself in the Temple of Light along with the magical Mirror of Smoke to prevent it from falling into the wrong hands. In present day, Lara Croft finds the temple and Mirror but mercenaries follow behind and steal it from her. Xolotl and Totec are awaken from their tombs by the chaos and Xoloti kills the mercenaries and runs away with the artefact. Totec blames Lara for the whole disaster, but realises that they will need to work together in order to retrieve the Mirror and defeat Xolotl

In the multiplayer, players will take the role as either Lara Croft or Totec. They will have to work together in order to stop the evil spirit Xolotl and retrieve the Mirror of Smoke. A single-player campaign mode will be available that will have a different storyline and will not include the non-playable character AI following or helping Lara. Guardian of Light will use the same game engine as Tomb Raider: Underworld, and will include modern visuals and physics.

The game will be a departure from the main series as being a third person adventure game. Instead it will be a non-linear “arcade-inspired” action game played from an isometric viewpoint using a fixed camera. Each playable character will possess unique weapons and skills. Lara will retain her dual pistols with infinite ammo and a grappling hook. She will be able to use her grappling hook to make it across difficult gaps and Totec can ride along. Totec will carry spears which can be used as a weapon and on the environment. Both characters will carry unlimited “bombs” that can be dropped and detonated with a press of a button.Tombs can be explored and some will have trap puzzles to solve.

Guardian of Light was shown at E3 2010 on 14 June. It will be released as a download only title and is scheduled to be released for the Xbox Live Arcade on 18 August 2010. It will be released later for the PC and PlayStation Network. In the United States, the PC download will be distributed exclusively by the DRM digital distribution platform Steam. The download will be approximately 2 GB.

This game takes you through a viral outbreak in New York, a disaster of epic proportion, turning the population into mutants and zombie-like characters.  The military in this game are trying their best to contain this outbreak, while Alex Mercer (the main character of the game is trying to figure out what’s happening, while trying to not get caught in the crossfire.

Alex Mercer wakes up one day in a morgue with absolutely no memory of his past. The only difference is that he has now a huge arsenal of amazing powers and incredible agility. He finds himself with the ability to shape shift, absorb “consume” other beings (human and mutants alike) jump incredible heights, run at blistering speed, glide over buildings and with a vast array of transformations that make his body a lethal weapon.

Prototype is a single player, open-world action game with a vast city landscape with free roaming abilities, and therefore you can play around the city in between one mission and another or play the various mini missions that are usually highlighted in green pointers.

Though you play as a man bestowed with superhero power, Mercer is anything but heroic. There are no moral choices here. Mercer has vowed to destroy those responsible for his current situation and he has the means to do it. To gain new powers or refill your health bar, you’ll literally absorb other living beings. Find yourself a little low on hit points and you can simply grab an innocent bystander, crush his or her head, and then consume them for a quick boost. If you find yourself in a pinch with attack choppers chasing you through the roads, you can absorb a person and morph into their likeness to blend in with the crowd.

The storyline involves about 30 missions including simple seek and destroy missions, stealthy infiltrations, escort missions and massive boss battles. Most of these missions are standard in design. In fact, if you’ve played many open-world games, you’ve probably played identical copies of these in the past. And since repetition is oftentimes the name of the game here, you can be sure you’ll be doing uninspired tasks over and over again.

The concept of collectibles that are usually scatttered around the city has been extended to what’s called the Web of Intrigue. These are people that, by being hunted down and consumed, reveal splintered visions of the infection’s history. They’re slick and wonderfully tantalizing — little in Prototype is more exhilarating than being in the midst of a tough mission only to see one of these targets stroll by.

There are a couple of other diversions that I found interesting, as well, including army bases that must be stealthily infiltrated to score weapon and skill upgrades. It’s through these that you can even unlock the ability to call in airstrikes. I quickly had this skill maxed out — infiltrating the bases is pretty darn fun.

As for the game’s bad side, Prototype unfortunately has rather bland and boring city scape. The blandness is seen throughout in a city recreated with few landmarks and instead filled with generic, lifeless buildings. Move quickly along the building tops and trees, bushes, cars and other structures pop in and out as the game struggles to draw them. Everything else is shrouded in an ugly fog. In a game where you spend much of the time pouncing from one roof to the next, this ugliness is felt throughout. Just climb a building or get in a helicopter and look out at the skyline to get an eyeful of Prototype’s ugliness. However, the animations used when Alex uses his powers are downright amazing, and it gives a very real feel. Running up the side of a building, doing a flip over a railing, and then leaping off into a charged drop attack just feels cool.

Aside from specific infected buildings, no structural damage can be done. You can’t even knock over billboards. And when you do take down the few buildings you’re allowed to damage, the resulting explosion is laughably bad. All of the real chaos you can create is limited to vehicles and passing pedestrians. Your cool powers don’t feel quite so cool when you can’t even break a window by throwing a car at it.

Prototype is a game with many super cool features. However, it lacks the finishing touches that make for a great and memorable game. It lacks a bit in attention to detail. Thankfully, Alex Mercer’s absorbing and shape shifting powers manage to overcome many of the shortcomings of Prototype. Though the missions themselves aren’t anything special, the vast array of powers provides their own variety and flair. I’ll be very looking forward for Prototype 2!!