Electronic Arts

CHICAGO – Pick your favorite rider and coolest board and hit the mountains of “SSX,” an attempted reboot of a hit snowboarding franchise from the last-generation of consoles. How has the concept aged and how has EA adapted for a new age demographic for whom the name “SSX” might not mean anything? Put on your snowsuit and find out.

CHICAGO – Set an even longer time ago in a galaxy far, far away, Bioware, Electronic Arts, and LucasArts brings us “Star Wars: The Old Republic;” a fascinating blend of deeper Star Wars lore and a very entertaining and addictive MMORPG. Like many MMOs before it, “The Old Republic” world is incredibly vast with tons and tons to do.

CHICAGO – In our latest family video game edition of HollywoodChicago.com Hookup: Video Games, we have 20 Nintendo Wii video games up for grabs to the all-new “Family Game Night 4” video game! At $39.99 each, we’re giving away a total of $800 in prizes!

CHICAGO – Maybe you’re still shaking off the hangover of an amazing first week of NFL football that saw the Chicago Bears, Green Bay Packers, New England Patriots, and Baltimore Ravens successfully start their run at another post-season, but you should know about a video game that a vast majority of pigskin fans have probably already plunked more time into than Jay Cutler does his practice.

CHICAGO – While most critics were praising the lavish visuals and impressive screenwriting of the animated hit “Rango” starring Johnny Depp (for one such rave, check out Patrick McDonald’s review here), the video game landed on my desk and I wondered if the pattern of bland movie tie-ins would be broken. If the film is that creative, shouldn’t the video game be as well?

CHICAGO – “Battlefield: Bad Company 2: Vietnam” is the best multiplayer DLC ever released. With some of the best-designed maps, period, DLC or disc-based, along with new weapons, vehicles, trophies, and even music, this is simply a must-download release. Even if you haven’t picked up “BBC2” in months and have departed its world for that of “Call of Duty: Black Ops,” this amazing release will suck you back in.

CHICAGO – It must have taken a lot of guts to suggest radically altering one of the most successful video gaming franchises of all time. The “Madden NFL” series of video games are as influential and wildly popular as any on the market. With loyal fans lining up at midnight tonight to buy their new copy, the developers at EA Tiburon merely had to update the rosters and spit out last year’s edition before they counted their money.

CHICAGO – When I told a friend I was getting sucked into the world of the epic-length “Dragon Age: Origins” and worried about the time commitment and how much it would take away from the rest of my life, he used a phrase that I had never heard before: “the RPG hole”. Like a black hole, role-playing games have a way of sucking players in, and when the experience is as immersive, well-designed, and entertaining as “Origins,” it’s easy to see why.

CHICAGO – In our latest extra-special edition of HollywoodChicago.com Hookup: Video Games, we have one PlayStation 3 video game up for grabs to the new video game “Brutal Legend” with Jack Black! This video game retails for $60!

CHICAGO – When most of us first heard about “Dead Space Extraction,” we had a cautious reaction. There have been several successful franchises that attempt to release a semi-sequel on another console and the results usually do nothing more than tarnish the original title. Such is not the case with “Extraction,” a game that plays just as it should, an expansion of the “Dead Space” universe more than a precise continuation. It’s one of the best Wii games of the year.