Not every war game is like some steroid-riddled Michael Bay explodo-fest. I mean, yes, people line up to buy Gears of War 2 as I write this (to learn more about the newest Xbox 360 hit, read Matt Peckham's take), but I want to be in command, not just a grunt. I want to take the time to survey the battlefields and be the armchair general. Lucky for me, no less than five strategy games--each with a very different take--have come out within the past few weeks. But it comes down to the same old problem: So many battles, so little time. You need a quick breakdown of intel on what's new on the store shelves--thereby helping you win the ongoing war against productivity.

The Not-So-Turn-Based Game

The classic strategy game--whether you're talking chess, Risk, or Axis & Allies--usually goes something like this: Two mad geniuses chin-stroke for a couple hours, pondering Every...Single...Move. You weigh choices carefully, deploy your troops...blah...blah....blah. And maybe add a little more action to your battles. Sega's Valkyria Chronicles is a high-style take on turn-based strategy for the Playstation 3 that you really have to see in action to believe. In an alternate-reality take on the World War II era, you find bits of sci-fi steampunk plunked into a pastel-colored battlefield. In fact, it almost looks like you're fighting your way through a storybook landscape--with bullets.

You wanna rock. But between Rock Band 2 and Guitar Hero World Tour, there's a bona fide battle of the bands going on as the holidays approach. Both games promise arena-filling rock-god dreams, and both are good--so let's take a look at what makes each game tick. (I evaluated the Xbox 360 versions of these games, but both are also available on the PlayStation 2, PS3, and Wii.)

The latest Guitar Hero offers many new features, but you have a couple of big questions to answer before taking the stage: Do you invest $180 dollars to form a Rock Band, or do you spend 190 bucks to go on a World Tour? Which game offers the better selection of songs? Which has the better instruments? We had a jam session with Activision Blizzard's newest gig, so we can give you a detailed, hands-on breakdown of what you'd get for your money and how it compares to Rock Band 2.

The following is a true story: I'm walking through San Francisco's Chinatown, down a well-hidden side street. The mysterious person I had contacted earlier on Craigslist had instructed me to stand near a trinket store at the corner of "Lost" and "Tourist." Eventually, a petite Asian girl walks up and asks, "Nintendo DS?" I nod, forking over some cash. She gives me an R4. All this trouble for what amounts to a cartridge that you pop into a Nintendo DS. Why do I feel so dirty? Because Nintendo--and some members of the media--tell me to feel that way.

Let me back up for a second. I love my Nintendo DS Lite. And Nintendo has done a fantastic job supporting this device. It's the perfect traveling companion--any platform that can have me defending castles one second and coming up with cooking recipes the next can't be half bad. (I'm serious about the cooking thing; right now I'm testing out the Jamie Oliver interactive cookbook and shopping guide.) But I've been wanting more.

"Want to review this back shaver?" Scrolling through inboxes full of product pitches on a daily basis, PC World editors are swamped with all sorts of geeky--and in some cases, straight-up strange--gear submissions. (I'm serious about that back-shaver pitch I got from a PR person.) But there are plenty of things that we don't usually get to cover that we should. Did you get a chance to check out Tom Spring's early sneak peek at some sweet holiday gear? That's just the tip of the iceberg, my friends. This week's Casual Friday column is a gadget grab bag of some cool, useful, and goofy gadgets. All are 100 percent geek-approved. And if you're curious about what I want for the holidays, keep reading.

My Mouse Blues

I'm still trying to find a happy middle ground with mice. Do I want my mouse to be weighty, like a professional gamer's Logitech G9? Well, yes, but I also want it to work on any surface. That's where Microsoft's new BlueTrack Mouse comes into play: The company promises that this little critter will function on just about anything. Really? So if I ran it over hot coals, it would work? On a mirror? Okay, maybe not every surface, but I'm curious enough to want to try it out.

Plenty of stories provide advice for elite mobile professionals. But what about you, the unproductive traveler? Maybe you're on vacation. Maybe you're trying to chill out before a day's worth of travel and business meetings. Point is, you need to pack a little smarter to entertain yourself, and that's what this week's column is all about. I have some great roadworthy games and a few ways to watch video--and, yeah, I'll even throw in some helpful, practical tips.

The Impractical Tips

Video

There's this little game, Portal--maybe you've heard of it. Part of the critically acclaimed Orange Box that came out late last year, Portal sprang from the minds of recent college grads whose only previous game-authoring credit was a student project called Narbacular Drop. And what about Flow, the hypnotic game that's an obvious inspiration for the cellular stage in Spore? (How do you like that--two free game links in the first paragraph!).

The next time you're in a store, take a good, long look at the video-game shelves. Many of the odd titles that catch your eye (the ones that don't feature some supermuscular space marine or mustachioed handyman) can be traced back to the indie community. Some of those great original games have been online for a while, where they served as models for subsequent retail releases. And this week I'll give you a quick tour of a handful of freebies that are the inspirations for--or good, quick alternatives to--some great retail games coming out now.

Being bedridden for a couple days gives you a new appreciation for old fixations--in my case, game shows. Somewhere between shouting answers at the boneheaded contestants and heckling the smarmy know-it-all hosts, I realized I needed a bigger piece of the action. I needed to play--heck, why not be the boss and come up with some of my own game-show-caliber questions? Are you ready for this week's Casual Friday column? Come on down!

Let's try something a little different this week. (I'm blaming the cough medicine.) Instead of making you read through my whole column first--of course, I'm not about to stop you if you do--I'm giving you a link, up front. Play my quick eight-question Casual Friday Nerd Quiz.

Mash-ups and remakes. You've heard the terms for ages when it comes to music and movies, but video games? Yep, even there, you can find some oddly refreshing takes on old games if you know where to look. Earlier this summer, I compiled a short list of my "top free games"; and at the bottom of last week's column, I tossed in a couple more choices. But today, I'm all about giving new life to old games...or in some cases old life to newer games.

For some time now, enterprising people have been combining classic video games in funky ways. Take Duck Doom Deluxe. This simple game is a mash-up of Duck Hunt (for the Nintendo Entertainment System) and Doom. You aim Doom weapons at the screen and plaster poultry in midflight. Miss, and the annoying digitized dog from the old NES classic mocks you from behind the brush.

It's official: Spore has finally launched. It's been hyped for years as a huge scientific and gaming achievement. It traces the evolution of a species that you create, starting from one single-celled organism to a space-faring sentient species. In truth, it is five casual games wrapped into one pretty package--and a perfect choice for a weekly column dedicated to slackery in the PC World. If only I could play it.

You see, Electronic Arts has imposed a digital rights management (DRM) system to prevent "casual" game piracy: Three installations of the game, and that's it. (So don't go reformatting your computer--God forbid.) Got a problem with that? File a complaint, buddy. As a result, the game's been savaged by a user flash-mob at Amazon.com. Over 1900 buyers (out of more than 2100) have already written scathing 1-star reviews despite Spore's critical acclaim. And according to Kevin Karlin (director of client services at Peak8 Solutions' tech support service, Supportal), an increasing number of their customers have called in with issues just trying to get the game activated.

We are all byproducts of a movie that came out over 30 years ago: Star Wars. It gave birth to the nerd generation and gave everyone a common ground. Heck, Microsoft Word's spelling checker has "Anakin" in the default dictionary. So it seems only fitting with all the Force flying around lately (Star Wars: Clone Wars hit the big screen last month and a TV series is on the way), PC World's weekly slackfest celebrates the next installments in George Lucas's saga.

On September 16, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed hits store shelves. This Direct-to-DVD-ROM tale chronicles what happens between Episode III: The Revenge of the Sith and Episode IV (you know, the real first movie). The faithful will love the fact that it connects many dots between the two film trilogies. After Anakin dons the infamous black mask, the Jedi scatter to all corners of the galaxy to survive, and Vader harbors a secret Sith apprentice to do his dirty work. We learn of the rebel alliance's origins. We see how many of the characters and places throughout the Star Wars universe connect with each other. In fact, I can now safely say that the entire Star Wars universe is like playing The Six Degrees of Darth Vader.

Forget beachside BBQs; try rounding up a few of your closest friends for a LAN party over Labor Day weekend, instead. Don't know what a LAN party is? It's a room full of folks getting together to play games. Also, to check out each other's case mods (a few examples are shown below). And occasionally to sleep. It can be a small garage party for an afternoon or a weekend-long marathon in some convention hall. Each one has their own house rules. My favorite, as observed at the annual Quakecon event in Dallas, Texas: "Bathe!"

Eight hours--a full workday's worth of time. No normal human should be in front of a screen playing games so long. I know that the whole point of PC World's weekly goof-off column is to have a yuck or two and not worry about the little things in life like trying to make money. But I just realized that I have a problem. I don't blow cash at the tables, I don't go to the horse races, and up until a Google search, I thought a bookie was someone who read a lot. And, like others before me, I thought I could quit at any time--but with some games, it seems I can't.

It started innocently enough, chatting with Game On columnist Matt Peckham about the new Too Human game. To put it mildly, he thought the Xbox 360 title was "a lumbering, clanging muddle, a clumsy collision of canned dialogue and confusing narrative." So why am I still playing it? The waves of slaughtered vicious robots leaving behind randomized gear for suiting up my action figure. That's what the game comes down to: A slot machine for loot that lets me play dress-up with a virtual doll. Sounds ridiculous when you think of it that way, doesn't it?