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Womengamers.com
Gynocentric gaming sites
are common nowadays, but how many have their own psychologist?
Dr. Kathryn Wright of Raleigh, N.C., deconstructs the likes of
Lara Croft alongside the staff's reviews of games featuring
''digital women'' (Space Bunnies Must Die rates among the worst).
Relax, guys: Three thousand titles of varying genres reside in
the Game Quest recommendation system, which lets newbies browse
(and purchase) titles using such criteria as violence and, yes,
character gender. Sharp, slick, and XX-rated. A-
Atari Gaming Headquarters
Sure, Sony's PS2 will
probably deliver a photo-realistic James Bond with an authentic
English accent, but it's still nice to reminisce about the days
of Frogger, Dig-Dug, and ''bloop'' noises. At John Hardie, Keita
Iida, and Les Caron's site, visitors can weep over screen shots
from systems past and rejoice at news of remakes to come. You
half expect Pac-Man to pop up singing ''My Way.'' A
Javagameplay
Work is slow. You need a
diversion. But the boss is trolling the halls, so you'd better
make it a quickie. For primitive, fast-loading thrills, zoom to
Ben Librojo's compact trove of arcade classics, including some
nifty tank sims (lob regular polygons at other regular
polygons!) along with the obligatory Asteroids and Space
Invaders knockoffs. The real plus: The controls are fairly
responsive (given a reasonably speedy connection), so you can
frag and flee before the boss reduces you to regular polygons. B+
PlayStation 2 Web (ps2web.com)
It may not have the
greased-lightnin' graphics of its raison d'être, but this
news-stuffed temple to Sony's much-anticipated joy box looks so
good, you'd mistake it for an official site. Rob Howard and his
Manlius, N.Y.-based staff even have a Japan office — so naturally
they've scored screen shots from more than 35 upcoming games for
the PS2. All this, plus a dig at Jennifer Lopez, whom the team
drolly suspects in a string of PS2 larcenies in Japan. A
Movie Boss (movieboss.com)
If you're reading this magazine,
chances are you're the type who gets pretty depressed when
there's nothing good at the multiplex. Now imagine you own the
multiplex — that's the conceit (and the challenge) of Movie Boss,
where you book real films (à la Hollywood Stock Exchange) and
take the fall if they fail at the box office. Choose wisely and
build a cinema empire — or bank on a three-hour space opera
starring Cheech Marin and wind up with your Dolby in hock. B+
