There are some options if you want to play Blizzard Entertainment’s Diablo III for free at launch, and beyond. ORIGIN PC is celebrating the launch of the highly anticipated action role-playing game with a free Diablo III Standard Edition to anyone who buys one of their PCs on May 15. Those who don’t want to make an investment can try to win the highly coveted, sold-out-everywhere Diablo III Collector's Edition game by going to their Facebook page.

Want to know more about Diablo III’s new auction house feature? Blizzard Entertainment has just updated the Diablo III Web site with a comprehensive Auction House guide that walks you through the ins and outs of Diablo III’s in-game item marketplace, including details on buying and selling, a breakdown of how the real-money auction house works (in regions where available), and more. You’ll also find some important information on Battle.net account-security requirements that players interested in using the real-money auction house will need to know about. The developer breaks down that and other new features of the new RPG in the exclusive video interview below.

Blizzard Entertainment today released a lot of new details today about the fourth expansion of its "World of Warcraft" franchise it announced at the last BlizzCon, "World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria." We caught up with "World of Warcraft" Game Director Tom Chilton for an exclusive video interview where he goes into detail about the new features and visuals gamers can expect from the latest "Mists of Pandaria" expansion. We also have a bunch of screenshots from the new expansion after the break. Get ready for lots of Pandas!

Last week’s announcement of a new iPad didn’t really surprise anyone, did it?  We knew that that Apple would announce a device that would FINALLY take advantage of a retina display.  We knew that it would have high definition possibilities.  And we called the new camera too, natch.  But what we didn’t know was that Chair Entertainment, the company behind the Infinity Blade games, had a killer app waiting in the wings.  Guess it’s nice to have one surprise waiting for us.

Consoles and PC's have had a slow month interms of new AAA quality games arriving for your respected platform. While January got off to a slow start, it quickly recovered to bring us high quality tittles through digital distribution. Plenty of great downloadable arcade tittles were made available through XBLA, PSN and Steam, giving us many hidden gems on the digital marketplace. Let's look back at the games we reviewed over the past month.  

The PC gaming community was pretty much abuzz all this weekend, when a Minnesota-based Best Buy reportedly put up a stand in its store, indicating that Diablo III, Activision Blizzard's monstrous new sequel, was coming sooner than expected.  The standee indicated that the game was releasing on February 1st, a date that sent a lot of folks into a frenzy to pre-order it and attend their midnight party.  Well, it's going to be a sad, lonely outing, because Blizzard responded in regards the release date.

The holiday season is officially upon us at sundown tonight. Children will be gathered around their Channukah menorahs, spinning their dreidels, eating potato latkes--and inviting their gentile friends to partake in the traditions that were so foreign and interesting in elementary school--at least that's what the kids told me back then.Then, a few days later that naughty or nice list will be coming into play as kids all over the world run down the stairs to see if the red-sutied cookie monster aka Santa Claus has brought them some amazing gifts. Gamers though--what do we want for all the holidays? Isn't it obvious--GAMES. We're going to give you oblivious gift-seekers five games to run to the stores to sweep up for the gamer in your life featuring NBA 2K12, among others.

With Black Friday around the corner, Blizzard Entertainment  is offering gamers who haven’t yet engaged in the real-time strategy experience of StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty a chance to get in for a breeze. For a limited time, the fastest-selling strategy game of all time and one of the bestselling PC games of 2011 is available from the online Blizzard Store for a just $29.99 -- that’s half off the suggested retail price. This deal is only good through Cyber Monday, November 28. The developer talks about the new game’s expansion, Heart of the Swarm, in this exclusive video interview below.

ANAHEIM -- Blizzard Entertainment enlisted actor Jay Mohr to host its annual cosplay costume contest. Fans dressed in elaborate costumes from hit games like Diablo III, StarCraft II and World of Warcraft Cataclysm. Amidst news surrounding the free Diablo III to all WoW gamers and a brand new expansion pack, Mists of Pandaria, fans celebrating gaming all around. Check out some of the sexy sirens of BlizzCon in this cosplay gallery below.

ANAHEIM -- After the Costume Contest at BlizzCon, comedian Jay Mohr kept the hits coming with the Intel Dance Contest. 31 competitors took the stage with a lot of interesting (and sometimes embarrasing) interpretations of various dances like the Goblin. With names like orc, troll and dwarf, you know this is a BlizzCon dance contest. Check out Mohr introducing the winners with highlights of each winner's dances after the break.

ANAHEIM -- BlizzCon has come to a close but there were lots of new and exciting revealations revealed by Blizzard. On the Starcraft II front, Blizzard developers showed off more from the upcoming expansion Heart of the Swarm as well as new multiplayer units and a preview of Blizzard DOTA. We caught up with Starcraft II Production Designer Chris Sigaty as he gave us a preview in this exclusive video interview after the break.

Some of us AREN'T at Blizzcon.  Sad to say.  Every year, Blizzard hosts the mega-event and always seems to blow the doors off of every other MMORPG out there.  (Granted, World of Warcraft did that already.)  And with the opening of the event today, the company has already made a killer announcement that's bound to shake up the community -- you're getting some free stuff.