A Virtual Test Drive On Oahu

When it comes to driving, my friends tell me that I drive like an old lady. In other words, I don't speed, and I follow the traffic rules accordingly (most of the time). I at least go the speed limit, and keep up with the flow of traffic and everything, but I'm probably that person in front of you that you want to go faster. However, I'm proud to say that my good habits are why I've never gotten into any car accidents or received any traffic violations in the many years I've been driving. It's a different story when it comes to driving in video games . . . I'm a speed demon, and will kick butt at a racing game. In fact, I used to love to hang out at Dave & Busters and smoke people with the Daytona USA game there.

Anyway, the latest driving/racing game to catch my attention is Test Drive Unlimited. This is Atari's first racing title on a next-generation console, and it takes place on our very own Island of Oahu with over a thousand miles of various roads you can drive on. You start off at an airport, and there you choose your character. You then land on Oahu and are given $200,000 to buy a house and a car - my first thought was there's no way that's really possible with the prices so high here, but hey, it's a game.

There are so many different things you can do in this game, and you can take it to many different levels. It has redefined the racing genre online with M.O.O.R. (Massively Open Online Racing). It’s the only game that allows for thousands of gamers to play within the same game world simultaneously. There are over 350+ multiplayer and solo challenges, including an offline total of 125 races, 44 time challenges, 51 speed challenges, 40 club challenges and more. You can also design your own if you’re bored with those. Ninety of the most desirable vehicles (officially licensed) are featured, including Lamborghini, Ducati, Aston Martin, Ferrari, Shelby, Mercedes, Pagani, Saleen and Jaguar, just to mention a few.

You can customize each car, and the functions are realistic, since you can listen to the radio, change the stations, use the windshield wipers, wind down your windows while you challenge other drivers and honk your horn when someone is in your way. It makes it easier when you have more money, collected from winning from your races. Your winnings can be used to purchase more houses, cars, motorcycles, and update your look with stylish clothing and accessories, such as cool sunglasses.

Although the scenery is nice and quite detailed, it's not exactly accurate, as far what you would truly see in real life along the way. Sometimes it looks very country, as if you’re driving through Laie, but other times you can sort of decipher where you are. In Waikiki, when the road veers off to the left, I could tell that it was Kuhio Avenue. Although the scenery may be slightly off, the roads themselves seem to be fairly accurate. I was able to find my way over the Pali Highway and to Maunawili (where I grew up) but there were no houses around. As I was driving around Tantalus, the roads were the curvy ones that I know and love, and I could see the nice view of Diamond Head going around the curves. Additionally, on the H-3 Freeway, the views were awesome and driving through the tunnel was fun.

Test Drive Unlimited is rated E for Everyone (ages 10+) and is available for the Xbox 360 for $39.95 at your nearest CompUSA (or www.compusa.com) or Toys n' Joys. Later this year you’ll also be able to purchase versions for the PC, PlayStation 2 (PS2) and PlayStation Portable (PSP).

Printable Mylar Balloons

Last week we celebrated my mom’s 70th birthday. She originally didn’t want to have a party, but we decided to just go ahead and plan it as a surprise anyway. If you know my mom, you know how extremely difficult it is to surprise her. We fooled her, since she succumbed to the Chinese-Pahke weakness: we told her we had a gift certificate that was going to expire. My brother was able to get her to the restaurant, and much to everyone’s amazement, we actually pulled it off successfully!

What does this have to do with anything? Well, three days before the party, Terrence Iwamoto from Mr. Ink Plus, happened to call me to share that he just received a great product for me to write about . . . the Picture Me! Personalized Balloons. These balloons are completely customizable on your computer using Photoshop, and printable on your inkjet printer. My perfect test for these balloons was my mom’s party. We brought along a laptop, our inkjet printer, a camera, and took pictures of all the guests and sent everyone home with a printed balloon of themselves.

The balloons are about seven inches across un-inflated, and five inches after inflated. They’re made out of Mylar, and coated with a white printable surface. You can choose to print on both sides, but it still looks good with the printing on one side. At the party, we only printed on one side to save time. As time consuming as it was to print everything on-demand, it was a big hit at the party and a very unique novelty favor.

You have to manipulate your pictures (with the borders) in Photoshop, so make sure you have that software on your computer first before you consider purchasing these balloons. Each balloon comes with a foot-long straw and an inflating tube that attaches to the straw. We discovered the balloons are extremely fragile when you’re tearing them out from the template, make sure you’re tearing them against a flat, firm surface. Also, before you try to insert the inflation tube, make sure you cut a sliver off the very bottom of the balloon. Then you can slip it in and inflate the balloon, put it in the straw, and you’re all set to go.

After going through all that, I would highly recommend that you have a small team of people to help with the assembly of the balloons. My poor husband served as the balloon-printing slave, and my good friend Linda (and fellow MidWeek columnist / website editor) helped me take the pictures. Thank God for them - I could not have done it without their help!

Add some excitement to your next event, the Picture Me! Personalized Balloons can be found exclusively at Mr. Ink Plus (located behind CompUSA on Ala Moana Boulevard – 526-2465). Prices range depending on the quantity you purchase - 1 – 99 balloons, $3.50 each; 100 – 199, $3.40 each; 200 – 399, $3.30 each; 400 and more $3.20 each. Additionally, the CD with instructions and 91 different borders is $19.95.

Taking Out Enemies With Yakuza

If you are a fan of Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill movies, you will love Sega’s newest game, Yakuza. Although it is considered an action/adventure game, its graphic content is definitely not for a young gamer. After the critically acclaimed Yakuza was a big hit in Japan at the end of last year, it was modified for a Western audience, and hit our store shelves earlier this month.

The game takes place in Japan, where honor and respect holds great importance, but there is an even higher regard for these traits within the organization feared by most: the Yakuza. You play a character named Kiryu Kazuma (aka “The Dragon of the Dojima Family”), a former rising star in the Yakuza community, and you’re rebuilding your life after serving a 10-year prison term for murder. You suddenly find yourself caught in a spiraling underworld plot involving a mysterious girl named Haruka and a missing $100 million. You, as Kazuma, stay alive by using your fists and wits and unravel the web of truth and lies that surrounds the Yakuza.

Yakuza has its own new fighting engine that was specifically created for the game. It allows you to string together attack combos to take out multiple enemies simultaneously in street brawls or grab and use in-game objects to defeat opponents. You can add strength, stamina and skills through combat and build your heat gauge with perfect combos to feel the rush of pure fighting. You have the ability to build skills and attributes by gaining experience, accumulating weapons and items, engage in multiple side missions, interrogate and bribe informants, gamble

Award-winning Japanese novelist Seishu Hase and producer Toshihiro Nagoshi created Yakuza’s storyline that spans more than a dozen intricately detailed chapters packed with complex characters. You can freely explore the forbidden nightlife of the Yakuza district of Tokyo – just about everything from the neon-lit streets and nightclubs to the little shops. Along the way there are over 300 weapons and items you can find. You pick up weapons from the environment, such as a golf club, crowbar, chair, basically anything that’s around you. These items can be retrieved, exchanged and stored in item boxes you find around town.

Yakuza’s seasoned Hollywood (voice) cast includes Michael Rosenbaum (Smallville) who voices Nishiki, a ruthless Yakuza member who has turned on his friend Kazuma. Michael Madsen (Reservoir Dogs, Sin City) voices Shimano, a physically imposing Yakuza boss who relies on brutality to achieve his goals. Eliza Dushku (Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Bring It On) is Yumi, who grew up with Kazuma and Nishiki in an orphanage, and is at the center of the mystery. Rachel Leigh Cook (She’s All That) plays Reina, owner of the Serena Hostess Bar and Mark Hamill (Star Wars, Batman: New Times) voices an insane Majima, a violent Yakuza boss with a twisted sense of humor.

Overall, Yakuza portrays modern Japan’s organized crime families, and it makes you feel like you’re in the middle of a Japanese gangster movie while you play the stone-cold Kazuma, committed to honoring his boss (aka oyabun) and his brothers in crime. It seems like you’re more watching the story unfold (as you would a movie), as opposed to heavy gameplay. The load times in between scenes can be somewhat distracting as they’re lengthy sometimes, but when you do have a chance to fight, those hand-to-hand combat sequences are nice. I thoroughly enjoyed playing it, probably because I’m into mafia movies too.

Yakuza is one-player and rated M for Mature (ages 17+). Available exclusively for the PlayStation2, it’ll cost you $49.99 at your nearest CompUSA (or www.compusa.com). Note again that this game contains strong language and vivid scenes, and is absolutely not appropriate for keiki.

Apple's New iTunes 7 and iPods

I was waiting for Apple's big announcement, and it finally happened last week. I knew they would be coming out with something fairly big for the Christmas season, and it's here - the latest iTunes 7 along with a bunch of upgraded iPods.

With iTunes 7, the iTunes Store now includes movies! Seventy-five movies from Walt Disney Pictures, Pixar, Touchstone Pictures and Miramax Films are available for you to purchase, download and watch on your computer or iPod. Other movies will soon be available on the same day they are released on DVD for $12.99, or if pre-ordered and during the first week of availability, $14.99 thereafter, and library titles for $9.99.

Features in iTunes 7 allow you to better organize your digital music and videos, and include expanded parental controls, an iTunes video playback window with on-screen controls and the Cover Flow view that lets you browse your entire video collection by artwork. All videos purchased from iTunes are downloaded at near-DVD quality at 640x480 pixels (four times higher than before). Video game downloads from iTunes for your fifth generation iPod include Tetris, Mahjong, Mini Golf, Pac-Man, Cubis 2, Bejeweled, Zuma, Texas Hold’em and Vortex. In addition, 220 TV shows are also purchasable from the iTunes Store. A format playable on your flat screen television will also be available shortly.

Apple’s new iPod features a bigger (2.5-inch) display and an additional iPod color to choose from (sleek black). You can buy it in 30GB or 80GB, and with its small under a half-inch-thin size, it takes up about 45 percent less room than the previous iPod. The 30GB holds up to 2,500 songs (or 40 hours of video) and sells for $249. The 80GB holds about 20,000 songs (or 100 hours of video) and is $349. As for the battery life, the 30GB will give you about 14 hours for music playback and about three-and-a-half hours for video. The 80GB will give you about 20 hours for music and six-and-a-half hours for video.

The re-mastered iPod nanos have a smaller, thinner and lighter design with an aluminum body and 24 hours of battery life. Additional accessories (sold separately) include lanyard headphones, an armband, a dock and a super compact USB power adapter (about half the size of the previous USB adapter). The nano comes in 2GB (silver) for $149, 4GB (silver, pink, green and blue) for $199 and the 8GB (black) for $249.

Finally, my favorite of the new iPods is the shuffle. It is so tiny and cute, and about half the size of the original shuffle at half a cubic inch in volume, weighing in at half an ounce. It has an aluminum design with a built-in clip to make it easily wearable, especially with exercise. It holds up to 240 songs with its 1GB size. The asking price will be a very affordable $79 in October.

All these iPods include the redesigned earbud headphones and require a Mac with a USB 2.0 port and Mac OSX Version 10.3.9 or later with iTunes 7. For you Windows users, you’ll need a USB 2.0 port, Windows 2000 (Service Pack 4) or Windows XP Home or Professional (Service Pack 2) and iTunes 7.

For more information on these Apple products, log onto www.apple.com or visit the Apple Store at Ala Moana Center.

Coordinating Company Calendars

I know there are tons of online calendars out there, but what caught my attention from Kiko is the fact that it was sold off eBay for $258.1000, to Tucows, the popular Internet services site. The functionality and its level of sophistication were the main reasons why Tucows decided to acquire Kiko.

A calendar serves as a vital function for you and the people you work with, especially if you’re fighting over the use of a conference room or want everybody at a big meeting at a certain time. You probably wouldn’t use separate calendars for personal and business use, but to keep it all together. Kiko makes it extremely easy to do this efficiently and across operating systems since it’s web based. The functions on Microsoft Exchange are fairly decent, but unfortunately you can only use those on a PC. Kiko makes it more than easy to keep up with your colleagues without a barrier.

I was impressed on how seamlessly it imported my iCal files. Now my calendar on Kiko reflects what’s in my iCal. Whenever I need to, I can sync Kiko with iCal together with no problems and have access to my calendar anytime from a web browser anywhere in the world. Keep in mind that your contacts can also be imported via your vCard files..

Kiko allows me to view not only my calendar, but anyone else’s on my contact list, as long as their appointments are marked as shared. Not to worry if you have some personal arrangements you don’t want to broadcast. You have the option to share only selected engagements with those in your contact list. If you happen to keep in touch with people or do business with people internationally, Kiko supports 14 languages. Some of these include Japanese, French, German, Italian, Swedish or Hebrew.

To add to Kiko’s simple complexity, you can do RSS feeds for your upcoming appointments and recently changed appointments by clicking the provided links and copying them into your feed reader. Badges can be added to a personal webpage to give people access to your public calendar. As with the RSS feed, all you need to do is the copy the HTML code into the appropriate area of your webpage. Event rolls can be created the same way for your website or blog.

Kiko is Ajax-based, and I’m not talking about the bathroom cleaner. It’s too complicated to explain in detail, but in a nutshell, Ajax stands for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML, a technique used in web application development. It basically eliminates the start-stop-start-stop nature of a website, and makes loading it seemingly smoother. Google and Amazon also use this.

For you folks looking further for a business solution, Kiko is looking to offer a hosted option where the business would receive its own subdomain (http://yourcompany.kiko.com) and database. Or another idea had is to provide a business with its own Kiko Calendar server to run on its network.

Overall I was impressed with Kiko’s effortless features and the clean-cut look with all that it is capable of. Try Kiko for yourself at www.kiko.com.

LocoRoco Bounces To Your PSP

At the recent Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) this year, one of my favorite games in the Sony area (and E3 as a whole) was LocoRoco. It actually won multiple awards at E3, and It’s a very cute game exclusively for the PlayStation Portable (PSP) that is easy to master and play. This is excellent for any age level, and helps pass the time when you have a lot of it to spare. My PSP, and LocoRoco in particular, kept me sane when I was stuck in traffic driving home for nearly six hours last week with that nasty freeway closure.

LocoRoco was developed by Sony Computer Entertainment Japan and is an innovative 2D platform / action game. You are a little yellow blob called a LocoRoco, and the story goes through the peaceful world of your LocoRoco being under attack by the evil Moja Corps. These wicked outer space creatures want nothing but to capture your blissful LocoRoco and take them from their land of blowing flowers, lively creatures and pastel scenery. To prevent your LocoRoco from danger, you take over the planet by tilting the land, rolling and bouncing the LocoRoco to safety.

You use mostly the “L” and “R” shoulder buttons for control – these tilt the land back and forth, depending on the direction you want your LocoRoco to bounce/tilt/bump. With more than 40 stages, you control and guide your LocoRoco through the vibrant and lush worlds filled with slippery slopes, swing ropes and more. There are six types of LocoRoco that include their own voices and actions.

As you guide your LocoRoco through the planet, you listen to the game’s light-hearted, charming music, while you eat flowers and fruits and become fatter and fatter. If you’re too fat to fit in between crevices or small paths, you can break up into smaller dudes, and come back together into one big guy after you made your way through. You can become a maximum of 20 big (there’s an indicator in the top left of your screen to tell you how many you’re worth). Being that large is actually your goal on each level, if you’re looking for a perfect score. However, you’ll sometimes need to find hidden areas to accomplish this. If you’re a perfectionist like me, you have the option of playing the levels over and over again until you score the coveted 20 out of 20. Throughout the game you’ll also collect various items that can be used to build your own Loco House.

If you want to share the game with your friends, at any point in the game you can take a picture of your screen(s) with the simple press of the SELECT button. It will then give you the option of saving it to your Memory Stick Duo. You can also do game sharing and transfer up to two different LocoRoco stages to a friend via your PSP’s Game Sharing facility. Your buddy is not required to have the LocoRoco game inserted into his/her PSP, and it will not affect you as a host while you continue to use your PSP.

LocoRoco is rated “E” for Everyone and is available for $39.99 if you bounce your way to Shirokiya, the nearest CompUSA or GameStop. Before you pop the game disk into your PSP, make sure it is updated to system software version 2.71 or later, otherwise it will not work. Additionally, visit the game’s site at www.locoroco.com to download a playable demo, screenshots or desktop backgrounds for your computer.

Clearwire Shows Its Net Worth

As I was moving into my new house this past weekend, having no cable or Road Runner Internet installed yet, it was a perfect opportunity for me to test Clearwire’s new Internet service that launched in Hawaii last week at the 2006 Entertainment & Tech Expo. The folks at Clearwire graciously loaned me one of their modems for a few days to try out the service.

Clearwire Wireless Broadband is a wireless high speed Internet access provider that offers a portable solution to both residential and business customers. It utilizes next-generation, non-line-of-sight (NLOS) technology. It connects you to the Internet using the licensed radio spectrum (cellular towers), and eliminates the confines of traditional cable or phone wiring. The signal is sent wirelessly from the transmitters to your special receiver modem. All you need to do is plug the modem into an electrical outlet and into your computer with an Ethernet cable. If you want to be a little more advanced, plug the Ethernet cable into a wireless router and use it wirelessly around your house, or wherever you are (which is exactly what I’m using as I write this). The modem is extremely user-friendly. Just plug it into the wall and it works – no additional software required, and it’s compatible with both PC and Mac.

At first (before I actually plugged it in), I was a little skeptical about the speed. The advertised speed is up to 1.5 Mbps download and up to 256 kbps upload (25 times faster than dial-up). I also wasn’t particularly thrilled with the fact my computer was required to be plugged into the modem all the time, but once I discovered it worked with my Airport (wireless router), I felt better.

I first cracked the box open with my brother at my new house. He naturally had his laptop with him, and at first the modem only had one light (out of five), and he did a speed test at about 120 kbps download and about 60 kbps upload. A little disappointed, but once we positioned the modem just right, we had two lights. With the two lights on, and using my laptop (with my Airport), I received very close to the stated speeds – 1.4 Mbps download and 252 kbps upload. I was impressed. I was still able to stream music, do online chat and run World of Warcraft with no lag. It’s still not as fast as cable Internet (average 3Mbps download, 384 kbps upload), but did its job with my “nothing available” situation, and I’d say pretty awesome for a mobile situation, as long as you have a power source.

Kevin Inn, Clearwire Hawaii’s general manager is excited to launch the service here in Hawaii. “We’re very excited to be launching Clearwire service on the island of Oahu, and we believe this community will be excited about Clearwire, too,” he said. “This market seems ready and willing to adopt new technologies, and we believe the portability aspect will be very appealing to both small business and residential consumers. With Clearwire, they’ll be able to online at high-speeds anywhere within our coverage area – here on Oahu, on Maui or in any of our other mainland markets,” he added.

So far Clearwire is available in most major areas of Oahu and Maui (and expanding). There are Clearwire kiosks at Ala Moana Center, Ward Entertainment Center, Windward Mall and Pearlridge Center. Best Buy and some of the Longs Drugs stores are authorized retailers of Clearwire. For more information call 888-CLEARWIRE or check out www.clearwire.com for more information.

The $100 Laptop

It’s been the buzz for awhile now, but what was fondly known as the $100 laptop was finally given a name . . . the 2B1. Brought to the world by a non-profit company called One Laptop Per Child (OLPC), the 2B1 wasn’t made for our American consumer market, but was created to bring millions of children in the developing world into the realm of the 21st century. It was designed as a potent learning tool for the world’s poorest children living in the most remote environments you can think of.

The 2B1 was collaboratively designed by academic and industry experts, and brought together talent and decades of collective field experience. The result is a unique harmony of form and function – a flexible, ultra low-cost, power efficient, responsive and durable machine with which nations of the emerging world can leapfrog decades of development, thus immediately transforming the content and quality of their children’s learning.

This is unlike any laptop ever you’ve seen before. The 2B1 is not a cost-reduced version of today’s laptop. Instead it creates its own mesh network out of the box. Each machine is a full-time wireless router. The children, as well as their teachers and families, in the remotest regions of the globe will be connected to one another, and to the Internet. It features a 7.5-inch, 1200x900 pixel, TFT screen and self-refreshing display with a 200 dpi resolution. That’s actually a higher resolution than 95% of the laptops on the market today. Two display modes are available: a transmissive full-color mode and a reflective, high-resolution mode that is readable in the sunlight. Both of these modes consume minimal power. The transmissive mode consumes only one watt (about one seventh of the average LCD power consumption in a laptop), and the reflective mode consumes a measly 0.2 watts.

You can selectively suspend the operation of its CPU, which makes possible further remarkable power savings. The laptop nominally consumes less than two watts (less than one tenth of what a standard laptop uses). The power consumption is so small that it can be recharged by human power – critical advance for folks who do not have access to electricity. Each machine features a video/still camera, internal speakers (with a stereo line-out jack), built-in microphone, three external USB 2.0 ports and an SD slot.

The laptop’s core electronics include a 400MHz AMD Geode processor with 128MB of SLC NAND flash memory on board (no hard drive). The basic operating system is essentially Linux – a “skinny” Fedora distribution of it. The user interface is designed to support collaborative learning and teaching. Every activity comes with a support network of teachers and children, so it’s not so lonely for the child.

It is considered an open-source machine, and the free software gives children the opportunity to fully control the machine. Open document formats are used – the children and their teachers will have the freedom to reshape, reinvent and reapply their software, hardware and content. Keeping size in mind, the 2B1 was kept small, about as tiny as a textbook, and lighter than a lunchbox. It has a “transformer” hinge, and easily changes positions into standard laptop use, e-book reading or gaming. It has soft, rounded edges, and the integrated handle is “kid-sized,” as is the sealed, rubber membrane keyboard. The novel, dual-mode, extra-wide touchpad supports pointing in addition to drawing and writing. Its distinctive appearance is meant to discourage any gray-market traffic, since there’s no mistaking what it is, and who it’s made for.

Although the laptop is referred to as the $100 laptop, the price is expected to actually be about $135, and available early next year. By the time we reach 2010, the prices will most likely drop to about $50. So far an order of one million came in from the Nigerian government, and another one million from Thailand. The two million ordered is just enough to give the program a kick-start.

Visit www.laptop.org for more information about the program. If you would like to make a pledge for this cause, go to www.pledgebank.com/100laptop. Pledges are being accepted through October 31, 2006

Passing The Virtual Pigskin

With the next football season sitting right on the horizon, I know you football fans are itching for it to start already. As for me, I’ve purchased my University of Hawaii Football season tickets awhile ago, and last weekend I watched the Dallas Cowboys pre-season game against the San Francisco 49ers. I’ve also been playing the new Madden NFL 07, which came out last week. If you’re into football, or would like to learn about football, you ought to play it too.

Madden NFL 07, from Electronic Arts (EA SPORTS), is available on multiple game platforms, but I was able to play the Xbox 360 and the PSP (PlayStation Portable) versions after wrestling them away from my husband. This is the 17th installment of the Madden series, and in general it’s a big improvement over last year’s Madden NFL 06. The game was graphically impressive on both platforms, especially with the added features.

The Lead Blocker Control allows you to throw the perfect block and create a running lane with all new lead blocking control, and then take command of the tailback and rip off a big gain. Play your way to the Pro Football Hall of Fame with the NFL Superstar: Hall of Fame Mode. You can take complete control of any position on the field, and your actions on and off the field determine your impact on the game. The Run Like the Players with the All-New Highlight Stick feature lets you bust out player specific running styles that match real NFL players.

The Additions to Franchise Mode feature allows you to scout collegiate prospects with the all-new NFL Draft Scouting System and the College All-Star Game. In addition, you can watch players around the NFL impact their teams with the Franchise Player Roles option. You can use Team-Specific Defensive Playbooks to use actual plays from your favorite team’s defensive playbook to shut down the running game, pressure the quarterback or force key turnovers. The Online Play climbs you to the top of the leaderboard (if you’re good) as you take on your biggest rivals from coast-to-coast in Play Now or Session Match games. The Xbox 360 version uses Xbox Live and the PSP uses EA’s own EA Nation to connect you to the online Madden community.

This is the first time in Madden you can step up as the lead blocker to create a hole, and take control of the tailback, and smash through, overpower or slash away from would-be tacklers as you’re fighting for every yard. The rushing controls give you a game-breaking ground attack featuring all new jukes, cutback and the distinct running styles of your favorite backs.

There are mini games available to play if you just want to practice or experience a quick taste of the game. It’s good if you don’t have a whole lot of time, since it takes about 30-45 minutes to play through a full-length game from start to finish. Some of the mini games include a Forty Yard Dash, Bench Press, Quarterback Challenge, Runningback Challenge, Coverage Challenge and Lineman Challenge.

Overall, I was especially impressed with PSP version over the previous Madden NFL 06. Last year it seemed it was rushed onto the store shelves to make it in time. Madden NFL 07 for the PSP proved well this year with virtually no wait on the load times, and the added online play through EA Nation was an excellent addition from last year (06 did not have any online play options). This year’s Xbox 360 version added on the mini games, had improved graphics (probably the best I’ve seen from any Madden game) and the Hall of Fame Mode was a cool touch.

Since its initial release in 1989, the Madden NFL football franchise has dominated the virtual gridiron. Each year its popularity grows and grows. So far in North America alone, over 51 million units have been sold. It’s definitely a game for just about anyone. Even the NFL players play it and respect it.

Madden NFL 07 is rated E for Everyone and is available for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 2, Xbox, Nintendo GameCube, PC, PSP, Nintendo DS and Game Boy Advance. If you’re ready to pass the virtual pigskin, prices vary depending on the platform, but it ranges from $29.99 to $59.99. Additionally, if everything stays on schedule with Sony and Nintendo, this will be available for the next generation PlayStation 3 (PS3) and the Wii.