7 Games You Won't Get Laughed at for Renting
Life's too short to waste it on three-star video games. Actually, it's not.

BASKETBALL GAMES
Sort of Like: Uhh...playing basketball?

MAXIM PICK
NBA 2K9
Platform: Xbox 360, PS3, PS2
Release Date: Oct. 7, 2008

Why You Might Like This Game: 2K Sports has gone to great lengths to make the game look and feel like a TNT broadcast. To that end, Clark Kellogg, Kevin Harlan, and Cheryl Miller provide solid commentary in this year’s iteration, which features better A.I. and ridiculously accurate player models.

Drawbacks? The online portion of the game, though enhanced by a new five-on-five user mode, could have used a bit more attention and expanded from 2K8.




OTHERS TO WATCH:
NBA Live 09
Platform: Xbox 360, PS3, PSP, PS2, Wii

Why You Might Like This Game: EA has dropped the ball in this series recently, driving disgruntled fans to the competition. So, what's EA to do? Follow the competition, of course. With its new "Dynamic DNA" game play system and NBA Live 365, Live 09 will automatically adjust player's ratings according to their real-time performance.

Drawbacks? EA Sports, the largest publisher of sports games in the world, has a tendency to green-light games with awful game play (see NBA Live 08, 07, and 06).




NBA 09 The Inside
Platform: PS3, PSP

Why You Might Like This Game: Sony’s latest parquet foray includes the Life, a full-featured career mode that allows you to guide a prospect through the development leagues and the NBA. It’s like realizing your dream of becoming an NBA player, minus actually becoming one. (And, instead, becoming a doughy, unshaven couch sore.)

Drawbacks? There are two better basketball games this year, so unless you own a PS3 and really, really love Sony, you may want to look elsewhere.

---

HOCKEY GAMES
Sort of Like: Uhh...playing hockey?

MAXIM PICK
NHL 09
Platform: Xbox 360, PS3, PC
Release Date: Sept. 9, 2008 (360, PS3), Oct. 28, 2008 (PC)

Why You Might Like This Game: Its greater emphasis on stick control, including one-handed dekes and improved stick handling on defense. Online leagues will allow up to 50 players to participate, with the top teams winning prizes and rewards from EA. Gary Thorne and Bill Clement are solid additions to the broadcast booth.

Drawbacks? Player animations in the trailers appear to trail the competition.




OTHERS TO WATCH:
NHL 2K9
Platform: Xbox 360, Wii, PS3, PS2

Why You Might Like This Game: 2K's developers have stripped down the complicated control schemes of past versions and upped the ante graphically (1,400 new game play animations will do that). The inclusion of the 2K Reel Maker, which allows you to make your own highlight movies, and playoff beards are nice touches.

Drawbacks? A new mini-game allowing you to drive the Zamboni at intermission felt tacked on when we played it. Commentators Randy Hahn and Drew Remenda sound uninspired.

---

LEGO Batman
Platform: PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, PS2, PC, PSP, DS
Release Date: Sept. 23, 2008
Sort of Like: LEGO Indiana Jones and LEGO Star Wars

Why You Might Like This Game: With The Dark Knight's success, Warner Bros. must feel like geniuses for snagging the rights to publish the Caped Crusader in the LEGO series. You'll get the same mix of strategic and action game play here as in previous block games, but you'll be doing it as your favorite Gotham heroes and villains.

Drawbacks? Unfortunately, the plot revolves around the animated series and pre–Chris Nolan movies, which means you're stuck with Robin in all his man-pantied glory.




Blitz: The League II
Platform: Xbox 360, PS3
Release Date: Oct. 28, 2008
Sort of Like: John Madden getting stomped on by the Undertaker

Why You Might Like This Game: With Madden dominating virtual football, there's only one way other games can go: exploding testicles. LT's back for another year of the superviolent hit, with new touchdown celebrations, power-ups (read: steroids), and hit-targeting that lets you aim your pain on your opponent. Oh, and lots of short-skirted cheerleaders.

Drawbacks? It ain't NFL Blitz. Plays have been overcomplicated to near-Madden levels, and with its annoying rubber banding A.I, not even a 20-point fourth-quarter lead is safe.




Fracture
Platform: PS3, Xbox 360
Release Date: Oct. 7, 2008
Sort of Like: Lost Planet meets Mass Effect

Why You Might Like This Game: This third-person shooter has a lot going for it: a wide array of weaponry (grenades, torpedo launchers, and good ol' gas blasters), and an East vs. West battle to rival Pac vs. Biggie. Most impressive is its terrain deformation (throw a grenade and expect a permanent massive hole where it lands).

Drawbacks? The game tries to be a bit of everything—a third-person, shoot-'em-up, strategy game all wrapped within an epic saga. The graphics are pedestrian.




FIFA Soccer 09
Platform: Xbox 360, PS3, PC, PS2, PSP, DS
Release Date: Oct. 14, 2008 (PC), Oct. 28, 2008 (360, PS3, PS2, PSP, DS)
Sort of Like: Playing football without using hands

Why You Might Like This Game: It features over 250 improvements since last year, including an improved jostling system that takes into account a player's strength, speed, and off-the-ball running. With more than 540 national and club teams available for play, MLS teams will finally have someone shittier to beat on.

Drawbacks? There's not much else here to draw players away from competition like Konami's Pro Evolution Soccer series.




BAJA: Edge of Control
Platform: Xbox 360, PS3
Release Date: Sept. 22, 2008
Sort of Like: MX vs. ATV Untamed

Why You Might Like This Game: BAJA, developed by the crew behind Motocross Madness, straps you into more than 40 vehicles ranging from little dune buggies to rugged all-terrain 4x4s. Oh, and keep a jug handy—the game's biggest race is the Baja 3000, which the devs say will take over four hours to complete.

Drawbacks? To conserve processor power in split-screen mode, the surrounding landscape goes to hell, leaving the racetrack indiscernible from the rest of the 100 square miles of desert.