If reality's too trying, try the latest games

Given what's happening on Wall Street, this is no time to play games.

Well, actually, it is.

According to the marketing research firm NPD Group, video game hardware sales grew by 5 percent in October, compared with the same period last year. And purchases of game software soared 35 percent. Some people are still having a good time.

Me, for instance. Since I occasionally write about games, I get dozens in the mail this time of year. Nearly all are sold to raise money for charity, but an irresistible few get played.

I recently frittered away most of a weekend on Gears of War 2, the $60 sequel to the best-selling video game of 2006. The new edition, available only on Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox 360, is more of the same. Luckily, that's pretty much what I had in mind. It's good to see the monstrous Locust hordes again emerging from their underground lairs, only to be slaughtered by super soldier Marcus Fenix.

Rather predictable at first, Gears of War 2 gets livelier as it goes along. There's some good nastiness in an abandoned medical research center, where our heroes dodge booby traps as well as monsters. There's also a giant worm that can be killed only from the inside; Fenix's stroll through the beast's large intestine is particularly memorable.

There's endless blood as well as guts, and language so foul you'll think you're playing Grand Theft Mutant. Gears of War 2, rated M for mature by the Entertainment Software Rating Board, has no business on any child's Christmas list. But it's just the thing for adult devotees of digital violence.

For those who prefer mayhem at a distance, real-time strategy - or RTS - games are a better option. In these games, you hover over the battlefield like a malignant deity, sending infantry platoons or tank battalions into combat. But RTS games work best on desktop computers, where you use the keyboard and mouse to issue commands. It's tough to design a good RTS for the living room video game console, but the French game publisher Ubisoft has pulled it off in Tom Clancy's EndWar.

The year is 2020. The United States, Russia, and the European Union engage in a strategic smack down for global domination. Where are the Chinese? Beats me, especially since EndWar was developed at Ubisoft's Shanghai studio.

But never mind the flags; EndWar is about the thrill of outfighting a determined foe. And you're not limited to a clumsy game controller. Instead, you can talk your way to victory, issuing commands to troops by speaking into a microphone. You can even give an order that switches your viewpoint from one combat unit to the next. You can hover over your tanks, then leap into the skies alongside your attack helicopters with a few words.

I played EndWar on Sony Corp.'s PlayStation 3, which is equipped with Bluetooth wireless networking. It took a few minutes to install a Bluetooth headset and train it to recognize my voice. Soon I was laying waste to all before me, while barely moving a finger. The Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions of EndWar cost $60, or you can buy a $90 edition that includes a wireless headset, if you don't already own one.

EndWar is also available for Windows PCs, and the Sony PSP and Nintendo DS hand-held gaming systems. The game is rated T, or suitable for youngsters 13 or older. The rating board doesn't care how many digital characters die in a game, as long as they're not too messy about it.

Nintendo Co.'s Wii game console offers family-friendly violence in a new game that understands what the Wii's motion-sensitive controllers are good for - lightsaber fights. Too bad Star Wars: The Clone Wars - Lightsaber Duels is saddled with a dreadful name. There's also plenty of annoying, juvenile dialogue - just like the Star Wars movies, only worse.

And yet I found myself flailing away with the two-handed Wii controller until my arm was sore. The $50 Lightsaber Duels is like Mortal Kombat or the other martial arts arcade games of my youth. Players encounter a series of foes and must learn ever more sophisticated methods of attack and defense to win. With certain thrusts and slashes, players can generate "combo" attacks that devastate foes.

But nobody is really hurt here, despite being slashed with red-hot lasers. Eventually, your enemy just lies down and says, "I'll get you next time, and your little dog, too!" or something like that.

Heaven knows why a game this harmless is rated T for teens. I think the average 10-year-old would be tickled by it.

By now you're thinking I'm some sort of brute, but I do occasionally play a nonviolent game. There's an especially charming one exclusively for the PlayStation 3, titled LittleBigPlanet. In this game, you visit a world run by the Creator Curators, who do nothing all day but create colorful and bizarre mini-environments full of oddities and perils. You move through this world in a side-scrolling fashion, like the characters in a Mario Bros. game. But instead of hopping over mushrooms, players evade a host of dangers like fire pits, electrified booby traps, and poisoned lakes, all rendered in rich 3-D graphics.

As you progress from level to level, still more portions of the planet open. In addition, you're rewarded with access to the planet's moon, where you can build levels of your own from goodies picked up during your travels. Via the Internet, you can publish your levels so that players around the world can attempt them - and you can try your hand at a few of theirs.

This $60 game is very properly rated E for everyone. After a long day of watching your stock portfolio shrivel, it's good to visit a zany fantasy world that somehow makes more sense than the real one.

Hiawatha Bray can be reached at bray@globe.com.