I read more than my fair share of Choose Your Own Adventure books as a kid. Maybe that’s why my interest was piqued in the new online game Choice of the Vampire which follows a eerily similar structure.

We’ve been a little lax in the game category lately, but to help make up for it here’s a puzzling little time waster Tile Factory. The object is to move the tiles to the desired location, which is sometimes easier said than done. Enjoy!

Thanks to GL for sending this little workday time waster out way (lintly is already hooked). Not sure how well it works on the iPhone, but the free demo version of Auditorium is pretty cool on a desktop.

Wondering how the the latest edition of Madden NFL stacks up? The folks at X-Play have you covered.

Madden NFL 11 Review

Have you ever wondered what Mortal Kombat fatalities might look like recreated on paper? Wonder no more!

Mortal Kombat 1 Fatalities on PAPER!

James Bond’s future on the big screen may still be in limbo but his latest video game adventure, created by Bizarre Creations and put out by Activision, is still set to hit stores later this year. Check out the trailer for Blood Stone.

James Bond 007: Blood Stone – Reveal Trailer

Whether you were a fan of the original or just like tower games you should get a kick out of the new and improved Bubble Tanks Tower Defense 1.5.

Neil DeGrasse Tyson’s personal crusade aside, NASA has a pretty steep mountain to climb in terms of returning its reputation back to the glory days of the Space Race. I love me some NASA, but I have to admit they’ve done a terrible job at selling themselves to a country that’s ever more distrustful of hard science (but addicted to pseudo-science CSI shows. Weird.). Now that the shuttle is just months away from full-retirement, there’s no better time for NASA to re-introduce itself to the American public as an institution that helps us embrace the wonders of science and exploration, not to mention inspires us to reach ever farther.

And guess what? Someone is apparently already on it, as NASA has just released the first of many free games in the Learning Technologies via the oh-so-excellent Steam platform. Moonbase Alpha puts you in the moonboots of an astronaut working to restore life-support systems to a lunar settlement after a pesky meteorite strike. Resource management! Co-op play! Not a single Aerosmith song to be found! In your face, upcoming StarCraft 2!

Check out the trailer (which, to be fair, isn’t exactly dripping with excitement):

But oh, hell yes it’s cool to have a NASA game catalog coming our way, and even my short run through of the game was entertaining.

Ars Technica has a great interview with the Learning Technologies project manager, Daniel Lauglin, that goes into detail about why NASA has finally embraced the gaming culture as a platform for building renewed interest in the struggling institution. Check it out (or better yet, just go download it through Steam).

Olympians, old fashioned western violence, futuristic battles in space, and a plumber named Mario…yeah, 2010′s been a pretty good year for video games (and we’re only half done). Check out X-Play‘s fav four from the year so far.

X-Play’s Top 10 Games of 2010 So Far: 4 – 1

The title says it all. You have 60 seconds to race through a collapsing castle to save your Queen. Think you have what it takes? Find out after the jump.

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