Xbox

Another NBA season has sports fans wondering how long Michael Jordan will play, who Rick Fox will take a swing at next and what off-the-court shenanigans Allen Iverson will pull. But if you're more interested in action than drama, look no further than your video game console, where Sega, EA Sports and Microsoft entertain admirably with their latest pro basketball titles. In this league, the only loser is Sony's 989 Sports franchise, which seems to be stuck in the minors. The games, which sell for about $50 and run on the Sony PlayStation, PlayStation 2, Microsoft Xbox or Nintendo GameCube, have become more complex over the years with the increased horsepower of the latest-generation consoles.

Halo 2 is a great game, superior in nearly every respect to the original. But the first game set the bar so high - and anticipation has been so great - that some gamers are bound to be just a little disappointed. Where we left off: This is basically the same Xbox game you remember from three years ago, and in fact the plot picks up almost immediately after the events in Halo. Once again, you're doing battle with the Covenant, an alien race bent on conquering Earth. New for 2: There are a few new moves, such as the ability to wield two guns at the same time or kick enemies off their vehicles and hijack them in midattack, but the controls are essentially the same and the head-up display on the screen is as intuitive as ever.

No one to play with? Tired of whipping the tar out of the artificial "intelligence" in your video console game? Or having it beat the tar out of you? Can't stand playing with the trash-talking munchkin across the street who drops by to wolf down your potato chips as he runs up the score in the latest football sim? Well, now you have a whole world to play with as Sony and Microsoft unveil online gaming services for their video consoles. Sony, maker of the PlayStation 2, has hit the ground running and gunning with a Navy SEAL third-person shooter and the famous Madden NFL Football franchise among its online offerings.

Major League Baseball has returned to the nation's stadiums, but you don't have to find a game on TNT or ESPN to enjoy a more controlling interest in the sport. Just put in one of the latest offerings from the video game industry and run your own team. This year, we took a look at six offerings on deck for the Microsoft Xbox, Sony PlayStation2 (and original PlayStation), Nintendo GameCube and GameBoy Advance and PCs. Most of the games this year offer some sort of challenge for a full summer of play.

For a while, Microsoft's Xbox game Fable seemed like a myth itself, given how long it has been in development and how much pre-release hype it received. But Fable is finally here. Although it's not a revolution in the role-playing genre, it is well-written, beautifully drawn and a lot of fun to play. The game uses a third-person perspective, so you can watch your character traipse through the woods, interact with others and change his appearance. Fable is a lot like another Xbox role-playing game, Knights of the Old Republic.

"NCAA Football 13" EA Sports Xbox 360/PS3 Score: 3 out of 4 In its 20th year of making college football games, EA Sports enters "NCAA Football 13" as the strongest version of the game in the 360/PS3 era. It's not perfect and it's not revolutionary, but almost every change made from "NCAA Football 12" was meaningful and positive. On the turf, the most noticeable upgrade comes in the form of a re-tuned passing game. The spread and shotgun formations' dominance over college football is now a palpable experience in "NCAA Football 13. " Quarterbacks drop back more realistically, and the player has an enhanced ability to control the touch and direction of the ball like never before.

DELTONA, Fla. - Dressed in black with scarves draped over their faces, four men armed with aluminum baseball bats burst into a house here and beat six people to death. Their motive: revenge over a missing XBox video game player and a bundle of clothes, Volusia County sheriff's deputies said yesterday. Investigators said that the Microsoft XBox, which retails for about $150, belonged to Troy Victorino and that he was bent on retaliating against the woman he blamed for its disappearance.

This year has already been a watershed event for games in many respects, but for the most part we have now settled into the post-E3 dog days. For many gamers, this is a great time to reboot and actually get outside for a change, because as far as the release calendar goes, we are in the eye before the storm. Even with titles like "BioShock: Infinite" and "Grand Theft Auto V" shelved until 2013, there are still quite a few gems yet to be released in 2012. "Borderlands 2" Sept.

WASHINGTON -- The richest woman in the United Kingdom is Queen Elizabeth, who certainly looks the part when dolled up in her finest threads. She has lots of land, some palatial homes, and the Tower of London is one of her jewelry boxes. Evidently the queen's richest female subject is a single mother who not long ago was on welfare, spending hours in an Edinburgh coffee shop where, while her daughter slept in her stroller, she wrote a novel about an 11-year-old orphan boy who is a wizard.

If you ever thought you could run the Orioles better than you-know-who or wondered what it would feel like to toss 97 mph fastballs for "three up and three down," flip on your video game console and play ball. The 2002 baseball season has arrived with solid performers for Microsoft's Xbox and Sony's PlayStation2. Unfortunately, shaky best describes the rookie in the new Nintendo GameCube lineup - it looks good even as it drops the ball. EA Sports Triple Play 2002, 3DO's High Heat Major League Baseball 2003 and Sega's Home Run KING (each $50)