Bill Harris did a great job of analyzing last month’s NPD numbers and it’s really looking quite grim for the gaming industry as a whole. Nintendo looks to be doing the worst, in terms of sales as a year over year %, and Microsoft the best.

The verdict? Sales are in the toilet and console makers better be looking at price cuts if they hope to make any type of rebound by the end of the year.

Today is the final day for the pre-order bonus for Telltale Games’ release of Tales of Monkey Island. The bonus includes an exlusive DVD slipcase, a code for a free Telltale Game, and access to an exclusive section of the Telltale site. $35 gets you access to all 5 episodes of the Monkey Island game.

I just ordered mine. If you are planning on getting the game anyway then you might as well cash in on the bonus items right? You can place your order right here.

There have been some great games released in the first half of the year, from much-anticipated titles like The Sims 3, The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena and Ghostbusters to breakout hits like Plants vs. Zombies and Patapon 2. Of course, now’s the time to also start looking towards the fall, likely headlined by New Super Mario Bros. Wii, Bioshock 2, Wii Sports Resort, Brutal Legend, Dissidia Final Fantasy and, if there’s any justice, Scribblenauts.

What were your favorite titles from the first half of the year, and what are you looking forward to for the rest of it? We want to know!

At E3, Natsume was showing off an array of titles, including some with a bit more variety than we’ve seen from the company recently. We got some hands-on time with Afrika, Squishy Tank, Cheer We Go, and a suite of Harvest Moon titles: Animal Parade, Sunshine Islands and My Little Shop. READ MORE