Tablet devices are on the rise, giving tech savvy consumers a convenient way to check their email, search the web, read the news, and shop online, after they've finished playing games. A recent survey shows tablet owners are using their high-tech toys to play games more than any other activity.

Google's AdMob subsidiary polled tablet owners in the U.S. to see what they were doing with the wondrous electronic one-sheets more than anything else, and gaming came out on top. Of the 1,400 users polled, 84 percent said they used their iPads and similar devices as a way to game on the go, beating out searching for information (78 percent), emailing (74 percent), and reading the news (61 percent).

In other interesting tablet numbers, 62 percent of users primarily tap their tablets at night, 69 percent on weekdays, and 82 percent at home. Working from home as I do, I wouldn't have been a very good survey respondent.

My iPad is primarily a book delivery device for me, though I do play an awful lot of games on it. That's for work though, so it doesn't count.

Do you have a tablet? What do you use it for? I mean aside from porn?

AdMob Tablet Survey [Google via GameIndustry.biz]

While it might be tempting to poke fun at M.A.C. for making a saccharine "Quite Cute Pinball" game to market their cosmetics to women on Facebook, truth is that it's a totally decent little timewaster. It's generous with the number of balls, the advertising doesn't get in the way of the gameplay, and excepting the typical Facebook "We're going to root through your profile and friends list like a starving pig" thing, it's actually free to play.

In a day when even the "good" Facebook games are insipid at best and pernicious at worst, I think that's worth a link and a tip of the hat. (We'll forgive the email pitch that started with "Who says video games are for the boys?!" Because honestly? Nobody is saying that anymore.) [Quite Cute Pinball on Facebook]

The second part of Portal 2's digital comic, Lab Rat, is now live at IGN. The comic, which fills in some gaps between Portal and its sequel, shines new light on protagonist Chell and the mysterious Rat Man, and may have some clues for those partaking in Valve's ongoing ARG.

How do you get a Pokemon fan to marry you? Catch her with a Pokeball, of course. [Buzzfeed]

See, it's Super Effective!

Zen Studios is launching a new table into their Xbox 360 pinball platform on April 20, when Mars comes into orbit around Pinball FX2.

Pinball FX2 isn't a pinball game. It's a pinball platform, freely downloadable by anyone that can access the Xbox Live Marketplace. Once downloaded, players can pick and choose which tables they want to purchase from within Pinball FX2. Tables like the excellent set of Marvel tables released last year, or the gorgeous Mars table dropping next week.

Like the other Pinball FX2 tables, Mars combines realistic pinball physics with the sort of 3D special effects you can only find in a video game. Check out the trailer and screens for Mars to see what's going down on the red planet come April 20. 240 Microsoft points buys you a one-way ticket.

In advance of the release of the new Mortal Kombat, one YouTube user with some free time on his hands stitched together nearly two hours worth of fatalities and finishing moves from more than two dozen video games for your viewing pleasure.

The hits are all here, from many Mortal Kombats to Killer Instinct to Clayfighter to Primal Rage. The creator, BigBangBlitz, even went to the trouble of including the gory finishing moves from the likes of Time Killers, Kasumi Ninja and Bloodstorm. There's some BlazBlue and Samurai Shodown in here, too.

So, yes, there are plenty of decapitations, but you'll also see less grisly stuff like Shawn Michaels dropping a heart shaped bed on his opponent in WWF WrestleMania.

What you won't see in this two-hour-long bloodfest are the many finishing moves of Tattoo Assassins. Fortunately, you can see all of those right here if two hours simply isn't enough time for you to waste today.

There's even a handy index, should you have notations turned on, making it easy to skip from game to game.

Pokémon Black And White's Global Link feature goes live on Wednesday, giving players the chance to sync their game with their PC, play with their favorite Pokémon in a web-based Dream World, access the Global Battle Union, and much more.

In an interview with MCVUK, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot lamented the lack of new development platforms, going so far as to blame the lack of new home consoles for the entire industry's fiscal shortcomings. In the interview, Guillemot claims that Ubisoft has developed fewer new IPs of late because there is no more room for new franchises on this generation of consoles: Sequels rule the roost, and Ubisoft has plenty of established series to work with until PS4, Xbox 3 and Wii 2. That said, Guillemot wishes that the consoles would get an update so that the developer can move forward.

"When a new format launches, we look to use the new technology to bring new games and new ideas to our consumers. We would always hope to be more successful on new formats than our competitors... It is part of the DNA of the company. Each time there is new hardware it gives our creative teams more freedom and they don't have to follow the same rules. They can try new things because the consumer expects and wants new things... and that's part of the reason why the industry is in depression. Consumers like the current formats, but there is not enough creativity at the end of a cycle to really spark the business."

This generation has had the longest life-cycle of any console generation to date. It's been five years since the release of the PS3, and six since the 360 hit store shelves. On the other hand, Guillemot's reaction is a self-fulfilling prophecy: Regardless of how the current generation is doing now, withholding new ideas will eventually cause this generation to become obselete.Do you think it's time for a new set of consoles, or is the current generation still running strong? More importantly, do you think that developers should be holding back content for a new platform that, as far as we know, doesn't even exist yet? [MCVUK]

"Real rewards for virtual achievements." That's the pitch behind "Kiip," a new Silicon Valley startup that intends to become the company that connects gamers with advertisers in a sort of Groupon for games.

Land a 360° flip? Get a coupon from Sephora. Murder a certain number of mutants? Free burger from Carl's Jr.

It all sounds decent enough, I suppose, but the tremendously douchey Valleyspeak—"The idea behind the achievement, which is exactly when you're capturing the customer at that point of elation, to convert them into a brand advocate is great," grins Mark Goldstein, co-founder of Loyalty Labs—shows that Kiip's "Welcome Video" isn't aimed at gamers, but at advertisers.

Here's a prediction: the first clients will be duped into paying a ridiculous premium to entice game players to play games that use Kiip's platform. Over time, the quality of the deals will tail off. Kiip will convince game developers to allow more pernicious integration into games that will (after chasing away the premium developers) be mostly shovelware designed to unlock easy but insubstantial Kiip rewards.

Or maybe it'll be great. I'll let you know when I unlock my first cheeseburger. [Kiip.me]

Princess Zelda is in tears, a kingdom mourns, but at least we can rest easy knowing that Link died fighting the good fight, trying to save the world from unfathomable evil.

I've suffered a similar fate myself during my travels in Link's shoes. I can't help it. If you put something in a video game and make it attackable, I am going to attack it, consequences be damned.

Sometimes it works out well. Did you know the MMO Rift lets you collect the tears of the helpless woodland creatures you slay?

Other times things just don't work out. Just don't tell Zelda. She'd be crushed.

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