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NCAA Football 09	The SimCity Box	Battlefield: Bad Company

Dragon Ball Z: Burst Limit	Don King Presents Prizefighter	NASCAR 09

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Top Ten Women of Gaming The demands placed upon women in gaming are great. Not only do they have to be totally hot, but they've gotta kick serious ass. You won't find any bimbos on this list.

Game Commentary

The social side of gaming (J. Morgan, 01/15/2008)
Video games will rot your brain and ruin your social skills, or so our parents told us. Yet, as Jeff Morgan explains, the gaming industry has tried to combat this stereotype by developing games like "Halo" and "World of Warcraft" with complex multiplayer components that have spawned virtual societies.

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IGN.com
When you think of video games, this should be the first site that comes to mind. IGN has forever been a staple on the internet with its reliable supply of in-depth coverage on the game industry. From previews and reviews of all of the latest games, to updated news and cheat codes, IGN is the one-stop source for the serious gamer.

Video Game Controller Family Tree
An interesting family tree chart that displays the evolution of various game controllers throughout the years. While the site is still in the early stages, it's amazing that no one thought of making these obvious connections earlier.

Cool Online Games

Classic Pac-Man It's the arcade favorite you remember, with some cool twists!

Animator vs. Animation Game The stick figure returns! Fight with him… or against him.

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Game QuickTakes

Beijing 2008

Whoever’s bright idea it was to make a video game based on this year’s summer Olympics must have been smoking a giant bag of Pineapple Express. Aside from the fact that most Olympic sports don’t translate well to video games, the idea of button-mashing your way through a swimming competition sounds about as promising as running through a kennel filled with rabid Rotweillers. It’s not just that the game is bad, but that it’s so poorly designed that even the most patient gamer is bound to get frustrated. The button mapping is just plain stupid (how is anyone supposed to pound the hell out of the A and B buttons and still be able to reach the right trigger?), some of the games are downright impossible (Judo, anyone?), and the Power Bar system pretty much assures that you’ll be playing catch-up in any event involving running or swimming. The few games that you do perform well in are fun at first (but quickly grow old), while the rest are just downright frustrating – not because they’re particularly difficult, but because the control system makes it virtually impossible to succeed. Button mashing has never been less fun. ~Jason Zingale

Guitar Hero: Aerosmith

There’s something terribly wrong when most of the best songs on a band-specific “Guitar Hero” aren’t from the band at all, but rather from other bands that supposedly inspired them. That’s exactly the case with “Guitar Hero: Aerosmith,” an experiment-gone-wrong that should be the death kiss to any other crazy ideas like this in the future. Seeing as how this format wouldn’t have even worked with The Beatles (arguably the greatest band in rock history), it’s amazing to think that one featuring Aerosmith ever made it past the pitching stage. Sure, Steven Tyler and gang have had quite a run (and you’ll experience their ride in the career mode), but when you think “Guitar Hero,” you don’t think Aerosmith, and that fact is made only more evident from the included set list. Greatest hits like “Crazy,” “Dude (Looks Like a Lady),” and “Janie’s Got a Gun” are omitted simply because they’re not great guitar songs, while the overall song selection is over 30 tracks shy of the usual count. Of the 41 tracks that are included, only 24 are actually performed by Aerosmith, and, after playing only a few of them in a row, it feels like you’ve been jamming to the same song over and over again. This is for diehard fans only (something I’m not, seeing as how my band name was Aeropiss), but even that might be pushing it. ~Jason Zingale

Top Spin 3

The latest installment in 2K Sports’ semi-popular tennis series may seem tailor-made for the Nintendo Wii, but after struggling just to win a match for the umpteenth time, you’ll likely fall back to “Wii Sports” like comfort food after a bad breakup. “Top Spin 3” is a failure when it comes to creating an enjoyable experience, and though it claims to have “easy pick up and play” controls, that’s simply not the case. Not only is the learning curve harder than usual, but all 10 in-game tutorials are absolute musts if you hope to learn the basics. That’s not exactly what you’d call “pick up and play,” but then again, it’s also not the only major issue plaguing the game. Citing “complete Wii functionality” on the back of the box, left-handed players will be surprised to discover that they've been left out. Designed only with right-handed players in mind, lefties could theoretically play the game using their dominant hand, but it would be near-impossible to master. Of course, when the controls are already wonky to begin with, it’s hard to imagine anyone being able to master the game. Add to that some ugly, last-gen graphics and only a handful of licensed players, and you’re looking at one of the most unattractive sports releases of the year. ~Jason Zingale