"It has been a long road. To be at the finish line is great."

OK, so you've exhausted most of those video games you got for Christmas. And you've got a gift card or two burning a hole in your pocket.

While it's not likely that any new gaming consoles will be released in 2010, there's plenty of new hardware that will change the way we play.

In January, sales were up 13 percent over the year before, reported industry analyst the NPD Group, and that trend continued in February, with a 10 percent boost over 2008.

Now that video game sales have eclipsed Hollywood box office revenues and sales of music CDs, you can bet your bitmaps some extraordinarily good games were released in 2009.

Like a well-placed power-up, the right gift can light up the eyes of that video gamer in your life.

For video gamers, the fall season is both a blessing and a curse. While many high-quality titles debut around this time each year, there are only so many dollars to go around.

It's oh-so enticing: you find a copy of a brand new game like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 on a pirate site and the temptation to download it is too strong.

The early hours of "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2" take gamers around the world and back again, but the new game's story hits close to home.

Given the extraordinary anticipation swirling around "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2," the follow-up to the 13 million-unit-selling military shooter game from 2007, living up to the hype might seem like an impossible mission.