On October 3, 2011, the Hearts of Iron The Card Game collectible card game (CCG) officially went live online, to the joy, presumably, of serious wargame fans everywhere. The card game is loosely based on the Hearts of Iron series of grand strategy PC games that simulate World War II (WW2) in exceptional detail.

There have been dozens, if not hundreds of collectible card games (CCGs), but none have come close to Magic: The Gathering (M:TG). A long running distant second has been the Pokemon Trading Card game, which is more popular with the younger, 10 and under, crowd. M:TG has had a successful online version for years, so it was only a matter of time before Pokemon was also playable via the internet. That time has come.

The Magic: The Gathering 2012 Core Set is now available in stores.

Core sets represent the ‘base cards’ for Magic: The Gathering (M:TG) for the coming year. They’re officially tournament legal but tournament players usually don’t buy many core cards.

In the coming months these cards will quickly be replaced in tournament decks by often more powerful and more interesting cards from upcoming expansions.

Fantasy Flight Games recently announced that the beginning of their 2011 Living Card Game (LCG) Regionals season is about ready to begin and are looking for retailers or tournament organizers to host their Regional Championship Tournaments.

The tournaments will be based on the three LCG games: Warhammer: Invasion The Card Game, Call of Cthulhu LCG and A Game of Thrones LCG. If you’re a player, you’ve got plenty of time to brush up on your game as the season runs from May 2 to June 13, 2011. Computer gaming is fun and all but it still can’t match playing face-to-face, actually meeting people and making friends.

Interested in trying out the world’s most popular collectible card game (CCG) without leaving the comfort of your home? Lucky you as Duels of the Planeswalkers allows you to play Magic: The Gathering on PC.

The third expansion for the best-selling game lands on Steam November 3, 2010, for $4.99. The primary boss in this expansion is Magic‘s unstable planeswalker Sarkhan The Mad. See, you can tell he’s crazy because he’s got “The Mad” right there in his name. Sarkhan The Friendly and Well-Adjusted is not the sort of character that sells virtual cards.

On October 19, 2010, Wizards of the Coast (WotC) has officially unleashed the D&D Gamma World Roleplaying Game to the general public, although select stores had copies for sale a few days earlier.

Gamma World (retailing for $39.99) is very nearly as old a game as Dungeons and Dragons (D&D), with the first edition (based on a previous game called Metamorphosis Alpha) first released in 1978.

Fantasy Flight Games just released the second deluxe expansion for Invasion, March of the Damned. $30 gets you 155 more cards, expanding the other factions and introducing lizard men and vampires, as well as new card mechanics…

The Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) is all about games and gamers. Lots of games. Lots of games and lots of gamers. Games of all types and gamers of all shapes and sizes. If you can play it, it will likely be there in some form for you to enjoy.

This year, PAX 07 has moved to downtown Seattle, WA, for the three-day event being held from 2 p.m., August 24, 2007 to 6 p.m., August 26, 2007, at the The Washington State Convention and Trade Center. The larger venue was necessary to accommodate the annually increasing size of the event. The first PAX. held in 2004 in Bellevue. WA, had 3,300 attendees and more than 30,000 are expected to attend this year. Tickets are $50 for the entire three-day event.