When half your comic team disappears overseas for the holidays, it\'s hard to keep things running smoothly at a game comic. That doesn\'t explain all of TP Comics recent venture into the bizarrely inconsistent, but it explains a good portion of it. Now that the Xbox 360 is resting next to piles of used wrapping paper and a Christmas tree suffering from dehydration, it\'s easier to find the time to make fun of things. Hopefully that means we\'ll get back into a pattern again here after the new year. Take a look at this week\'s TwoPlayer comic, FingerBang, the \"banned\" ad commercial.

Twoplayer game comics are published kinda, sorta weekly at http://comics.gamesfirst.com.

On behalf of the staff of GamesFirst!, we would like to take this space to wish all of our staff, readers and colleagues a happy, happy holiday season. We wouldn\'t be here without you, and we know that. On our 10th holiday season, we are thankful for all the people who have helped make GamesFirst! what it is today. Our staff is among the best online, and we value your efforts. To our fellow websites (especially the ones who kick down the kind links), we thank you. You know who you are, and you inspire us to do better. To all of the game developers, PR reps, and publishers who work with us on a daily basis, we want to extend our most sincere gratitude. We couldn\'t do what we do without your continued support, and life wouldn\'t be as much fun without you.

And, of course, we want to wish Happy Holidays to our readers. We are proud to be able to serve you for the past 10 years, and we look forward to number 11. Without you, we\'d just be posting up articles for our mothers to read, and although they never complain about our reviews or call us idiots, GF! would feel pretty empty without you. Thanks.

This week in the Wrap-Up, Val takes a look at a bunch of the reviews we couldn\'t fit into other podcasts. We rundown some of the best games of the season, including the wild-west adventure game GUN, the vehicular mayhem of Need for Speed: Most Wanted, the stylish Project Gotham Racing 3, alien warfare in Quake 4, and the handheld racing action of Mario Kart DS. We\'re cutting the crap and getting right to the goods. Check it out.

The 4th Asian Game Show & Digital Entertainment Expo Asia 2005 in Hong Kong might not be showing off anything cool from Microsoft, but they\'ve certainly got something from Sony. GamesFirst editor Aaron Stanton takes a quick peek at the show floor the day before the expo opens to the public, and reports on the warm fuzzy feelings he got at seeing the PlayStation 3 logo being raised above Sony\'s booth. AGSDEE might not be as well known in the west as E3 or CES, but it\'s an opportunity to see hands-on what Sony plans to offer. You\'ll want to keep an eye open as the four day exposition kicks off.

Zoo Tycoon 2 managed to keep a number of people up late into the night in its original form, and now there\'s an expansion to help add hours to the fun. Microsoft\'s new expansion gives you things like sky trams, official Jeep tours, and a gun-less FPS element, but is there really anything new here? We take some time to run through Zoo Tycoon\'s new elements to see if there\'s enough depth here to justify a $30 purchase.

Chromehounds is a big mech action title coming to the Xbox 360 this spring from Sega and FROM Software. FROM Software is best known as the makers of the fan-favorite Armored Core series, which makes them immensely qualified to tackle a next-gen heavy robot game. Taking place in an alternate history centered around Cold War land grabs, Chromehounds looks to bring big battles and big mechs to a console near you next Spring. Get the full preview here.

Val Townsend, the Atomic Goddess, is back again with lucky podcast number 13. This week, we take a look at the latest news, including speculation on Nintendo\'s recently hinted \"secret\" regarding the upcoming Revolution console, as well as Clinton and Lieberman\'s Family Entertainment Protection Act. We also have reviews of Perfect Dark Zero and King Kong. Finally, we take a look at Dreamcatcher Interactive\'s cult-hit Painkiller, coming to an Xbox near you in January. Download the latest audio offering from your pals at GF! right here.

We all love post-apocalyptic video games, don\'t we? Of course we do! Square-Enix\'s Code Age Commanders takes us to a world where humans, warheads, and self-propelled mobile phones co-exist together in a stylized action adventure game which will be appearing on American shores in the near future. CAC hasn\'t seen a lot of popularity in Japan, but will an English language release make it a hit? Amanda checks out the entire Code Age Project for us.

Last week, we here at GamesFirst published a side-by-side comparison of King Kong on the Xbox and Xbox 360. By looking at nearly identical games, it\'s interesting to see the graphical differences between the two. However, the Xbox 360\'s major differences are in the ability to render dynamic lighting and environmental effects, which are difficult to see in static screenshots. As a result, we\'ve redone the article using side-by-side video capture from each system. The differences are both more obvious, in the cases when a difference is visible, and more underwhelming, when certain key scenes are difficult to distinguish between the two. Take a look, and decide for yourself.

Bring the super J-Pop awesomeness of Puffy Ami Yumi anywhere you want with Altron\'s Hi Hi Puffy Ami Yumi game, Kaznapped! Puffy Ami Yumi is a great cartoon, and their poppy, rockin\' music is some of our favorite stuff. So can the game be as good as the \'toon? Laurie takes Kaznapped! for a spin and brings back the verdict.

id Software is a lumbering juggernaut in the industry, and their new Doom 3 engine is one of the most incredible technologies to hit games. So, of course, we were stoked to get our hands on some Quake IV action, built on the Doom engine. Raven Software handles the development duties this time out, and for fans of high energy running and gunning, Quake IV doesn\'t get much better than this. Blaine takes it for a spin and delivers the review of the PC version. Can it hold up to the high expectations of the fragging masses? Check here to find out.

It might be heresy, but let\'s consider for a moment the Xbox 360 as a media hub: The gaming features are \"extras\" and the media features are primary. We want to use the Xbox 360 mainly to stream music, images and video from the home computer. How does the Xbox 360 stack up to other media hubs like the D-Link DSM-320 or the Phillips Streamium? Shawn takes a look at some of the key reasons why the $299 Xbox 360 Core System is a good choice for users who might be more interested in media than videogames.

It\'s easy to want the Xbox 360; Microsoft has managed to put out a very sleek machine. However, what exactly are you getting when you put your money on the counter and head home with a new 360 in hand; better graphics? Better physics? We take versions of King Kong for the Xbox and play them side by side, scene for scene with that of the Xbox 360 version. Then we took pictures and sat them down for your enjoyment. See how well the ending generations of Xbox games compares up to the first generation of 360 titles.

Sonic is popping up everywhere these days, from GameTap\'s online service to next-gen consoles and handhelds in-between. To coincide with the release of the new Sonic X game, Funimation has released a DVD companion called Sonic X: Project Shadow. Our resident Sonic groupie, Chris Martin, takes this DVD for a spin, and comes up with the definitive review. Check it out.

The Revolution is shaping up to be a phenomenal console, what with built-in emulation for every previous Nintendo console, downloadable retro games, online gaming, and a unique controller that has spawned huge debates about the future of gaming. Kotaku has gotten the early word on Nintendo\'s E3 Press Conference, which will be held May 9, 2006. The letter from Nintendo refers to \"our next home console, code-named Revolution,\" which has us wondering if we won\'t hear about the long-rumored console name-change. In addition, Kotaku points us to an article on Revolution Report about a patent application that defines an interface not unlike the Xbox Dashboard. Click on over and get the advanced word. We\'ll follow all of these assertions as details unfold.