Fox owns a fat video franchise. TV shows such as "The X Files," "The Simpsons," and "The Tick" complement such movies as Die Hard, Alien, and Independence Day. Why not milk these cash cows by creating games for them? The starting lineup consists of Die Hard Trilogy, Alien vs. Predator, The Simpsons, and ID4. All are bound to be blockbusters, and you can check out the reviews for many of them at Fox Interactive. Here are the high points of the site: viewing the Die Hard Trilogy commercial MTV wouldn't show (I think it was the shot of windshield wipers washing away guts), sending Independence Day "messages" to friends, and creating your own Simpsons cartoon. Very impressive for a corporate gaming site. - Brian Hostetler
It was Atari that popularized home video games with the old VCS (2600). Time/Warner bought Atari back in 1976 and sold the computer division, but Atari Games continued to make such classic arcade games as Hard Drivin', Xybots and Primal Rage. Midway currently owns the company, and under it Atari is bringing out a blazing line of arcade games. San Francisco RUSH, the premier title, gives players the opportunity to drive at breakneck speed through our lovely city. (How about San Francisco Parking RUSH instead?) Anyway, the Atari site is a little bare right now, as Midway continues to handle all the consumer titles. Hopefully, Atari will soon add a classics section so we old-timers can check out our old favorites. - Brian Hostetler
I'll save you at least 10 minutes of wading around this site trying to figure it out. Questions.net uses its members as a pool for companies to survey ("Market Research"). You sign up, answer questions about products and technology (kind of redundant these days), accumulate "points" to win prizes, and earn Questions.net big money. What prizes can you win? How about a Forrest Takes A Dump T-Shirt or an Electronic Mosquito Repeller? Answering the questions is quite painless and actually gave me pause for thought when rating my attitudes toward various Internet policies. But that's not good enough. Unless you have way too much time on your hands and absolutely nothing better to do, you should move on to something else. - Brian Hostetler
What is the Internet coming to? It's bad enough that you can sign up to play boring games and win useless prizes, but now people want you to actually pay to play boring games and win useless prizes. If you have a Windows box (who doesn't), you can "register" (give out your credit card number) to play a word-puzzle game created by Worbble. Each time you play, at a cost of 25 cents, you're given random letters with which you construct words. Certain words are worth a dollar, and if you are the first to pick that word, well, you win a dollar. Of course, we all know how many times we yelled out, "The computer cheated!" when we were kids (or adults); I certainly hope there isn't an iota of truth behind that sentiment here, especially when my credit card is being billed. - Brian Hostetler
Produced by the industrial giant Fujitsu, teleparc is a collection of online magazines. The gaming section of teleparc, titled geisen, offers Japanese and English pages focusing on Japanese game releases. The news is brief considering the focus on Japan (the three largest console manufacturers are all Japanese), and the reviews are nonexistent. Essentially, the site features release dates and brief blurbs on each game; it's only of value to hard-core console gamers seeking information on Japanese-specific titles. - Brian Hostetler
Coming Soon, a monthly online gaming magazine, may not have large, flashy title graphics, but it still drags your connection down by cramming nearly everything onto its first page. Maybe Web designers are taking the one-click-and-they're-out theory a little too seriously. Ease up on the killer lead page, OK? Coming Soon features lots of PC demos, very skimpy console reviews (only the major titles), and merely adequate industry news (major press releases). I hope better layout and more content beyond the free demos is coming soon. Still, it's an excellent source of demos if other FTP servers are busy. - Brian Hostetler
The sharp graphics, consistent layout, and decent writing at buRNT are great; the downer is the thin content and complete lack of gaming news. And while big-name downloads are present, buRNT's server is either running out of room or bandwidth is too tight to allow for a more varied selection. If you're just looking for some good reading, however, the site offers a few interesting articles worth perusing. BuRNT's future could be bright with a little more writing and a lot more time spent calling the gaming companies. Hang in there, fellas! - Brian Hostetler
Unreal is a much-hyped "Quake Killer" from Epic Games, and this site is dedicated to providing whatever information can be gleaned about the game's progress. (With luck the game will be out by the time you read this.) The layout of Shadows will probably overwhelm the uninitiated: There's no splash screen with an accompanying explanatory intro, and you get hit with oodles of daily updates in very small text. The site is perfect for the Unreal-obsessive who wants to know every detail, rumor, and inside story about the game. It will be interesting to see what happens to Shadows when Unreal really comes out, and people want the real content instead of the gossip provided here. - Brian Hostetler