Electronic Arts

Here is where Tiger Woods stands with his endorsements: Those who walked away: Accenture, AT&T, Gatorade. Those who strayed: Gillette and Tag Heuer. Both suspended Woods' ad campaigns. Gillette spokesman Damon Jones said no decisions have been made about what comes next with the company's advertising. Those who stayed: Nike, Electronic Arts.

A number of interesting software products were introduced at this summer's Consumer Electronics Show in Chicago, many of them from smaller companies that distribute products through the larger Electronic Arts firm. The most interesting program was Battle Chess from Interplay Productions. The game looks and works like real chess, with the added attraction that the pieces get into fights when challenged for the same square. The Amiga version of this game is wild; Apple and IBM equivalents will be out soon.

The video game industry is like most other consumer industries in that it tends to cheat the calendar a bit when it comes to "fall" products. Just as we start to see tinsel and Christmas lights on sale in October, the annual release of Electronic Arts' Madden football game in mid-August is usually the kickoff for fall, and companies look for the end zone through the holiday season. In case there are still a couple of naysayers out there thinking these tricks are only for kids, the typical game-player is about 33 years old (and 38 percent are women)

ADVENTURE ISLAND 2 By Hudson Nintendo. $54.95 Sometimes you lose something in a sequel. Not this time. Adventure Island 2 is more of the same - and better - of what made the original one of Hudson's top all-time sellers. This time, there's also a dinosaur or two to ride along the way. Great action, great fun. THE IMMORTAL By Electronic Arts This seemed like such a good idea. And such a promising game. A grand wizard sets out on a quest through a dangerous land.

A man lies dead on the floor. Above him, on the screen, the words flash in German: "The gas has done its job. You have freed Germany from another parasite. " This isn't a scene from some World War II movie gone wrong but the end of a home computer game being played by some German and Austrian youngsters. It is now making its way into the electronic databanks of America. Paralleling the dark side of society, computers also have a shady side that is sometimes played out in underground video games and programs.

It's been exactly a year since Inside Video Games debuted. We could go on and on thanking all the people who've made it work - kind of like an Academy Awards speech. Instead, we thought we'd hand out a few awards of our own. This is the best of what we've seen during our first year in Videoland: BEST NINTENDO GAME - Super Mario Bros. 3. How could it be anything else? The adventures of Mario and Luigi provided more fun for a broader range of people than any two other games combined.

A few weeks ago, Electronic Arts found out the hard way that video games' latest four-letter word is actually seven letters long. News that the publisher's forthcoming modern military first-person shooter was going to be set in the ongoing war in Afghanistan, based on real engagements that pitted U.S. soldiers against Taliban fighters, hit without raising much ire. But when word came out less than two months before the game's October release that...

Your plumber, your electrician and the guy who fixes your car's muffler could be power computer users. Or maybe they should be. Service Industry Accounting (IBM; $395) from Brown-Wagh Publishing is designed to handle the books for any company that provides a bid, estimate or quote prior to doing a job. That's one of many new and interesting software packages that have been released recently. Here are some others: BUSINESS. The entire Fortune 500 is on a disk called Fortune 500 Financials (IBM; $199)

For the professional-sports devotee, these are truly lean times: The country is mired in its annual sports drought. It strikes like clockwork, running from the final gun at the Super Bowl in January until relief arrives with the first pitch on Opening Day in April. (Sure, the NBA and NHL are going full-tilt, but how much excitement is there in seeing which one or two of the 20-odd teams in each league won't qualify for the playoffs?) But a source of comfort for distraught fans lies close at hand - the personal computer.

In the rapidly expanding field of computer sports simulations, the competition behind the scenes has become as fierce as the action on the screen. A company that releases a football simulation, for example, must contend with nearly a dozen rivals for the electronic football fan's affections. Caught up in an increasingly tight numbers game, more and more publishers are enlisting some big-name allies in an effort to boost their sales. Once these games carried prosaic labels, such as Gridiron, Championship Baseball and Superstar Ice Hockey.

LOS ANGELES - Video game maker Electronic Arts Inc. said Thursday that its second-quarter loss expanded from a year ago due to higher costs, even as revenue grew. It raised its sales forecast for the all-important holiday season slightly above analyst estimates. CEO John Riccitiello said sales of "Battlefield 3," which launched two days earlier, were "very strong. " The net loss in the three-month period ending on Sept. 30 grew to $340 million, or $1.03 per share. Last year, the company had a quarterly loss of $201 million, or 61 cents per share.

A few weeks ago, Electronic Arts found out the hard way that video games' latest four-letter word is actually seven letters long. News that the publisher's forthcoming modern military first-person shooter was going to be set in the ongoing war in Afghanistan, based on real engagements that pitted U.S. soldiers against Taliban fighters, hit without raising much ire. But when word came out less than two months before the game's October release that...

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11 (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii) Electronic Arts (Developer and Publisher) $59.99 The last time that news of a Tiger Woods PGA Tour game (now at Game 11) graced these pages, we thought it odd that the cover also featured Irish sensation Rory McIlroy. Given the recent events of Woods' personal life it seemed to be a cheap ploy by EA to save par. Rest assured, golf game fans, the game itself is still better than anything else that is out there. That isn't to say that the game's move from 10 to 11 is a mere addition of another year.

Here is where Tiger Woods stands with his endorsements: Those who walked away: Accenture, AT&T, Gatorade. Those who strayed: Gillette and Tag Heuer. Both suspended Woods' ad campaigns. Gillette spokesman Damon Jones said no decisions have been made about what comes next with the company's advertising. Those who stayed: Nike, Electronic Arts.

The video game industry is like most other consumer industries in that it tends to cheat the calendar a bit when it comes to "fall" products. Just as we start to see tinsel and Christmas lights on sale in October, the annual release of Electronic Arts' Madden football game in mid-August is usually the kickoff for fall, and companies look for the end zone through the holiday season. In case there are still a couple of naysayers out there thinking these tricks are only for kids, the typical game-player is about 33 years old (and 38 percent are women)

The Madden Army cometh. At the stroke of 12:01 a.m. Tuesday, with the same frenzied anticipation of the next Harry Potter book and the mass obsession of Star Wars fans, video gamers young and old will descend on stores across the nation to finally get their hands on Madden NFL 07, the 17th version of the best-selling football series known for its impressive resemblance to the real game. Madden ceased to be just a game years ago. Madden NFL 06 brought in $289 million as of June, making it the top-selling video game domestically.

My alter ego, Chille, has got it made. She sports a to-die-for Afro and shows off washboard abs in a red halter top and low-waisted ankle-length skirt. Complete strangers invite her to star in beauty pageants. Handsome men with rippling muscles tell her she's gorgeous. She pops up at folks' homes uninvited, eats, naps, and plays pool in her pajamas. Yes. Chille is chillin'. No wonder I enjoy roaming around as carefree Chille Sim, as opposed to trudging through life as worker bee Elizabeth Wellington.

It's been exactly a year since Inside Video Games debuted. We could go on and on thanking all the people who've made it work - kind of like an Academy Awards speech. Instead, we thought we'd hand out a few awards of our own. This is the best of what we've seen during our first year in Videoland: BEST NINTENDO GAME - Super Mario Bros. 3. How could it be anything else? The adventures of Mario and Luigi provided more fun for a broader range of people than any two other games combined.

ADVENTURE ISLAND 2 By Hudson Nintendo. $54.95 Sometimes you lose something in a sequel. Not this time. Adventure Island 2 is more of the same - and better - of what made the original one of Hudson's top all-time sellers. This time, there's also a dinosaur or two to ride along the way. Great action, great fun. THE IMMORTAL By Electronic Arts This seemed like such a good idea. And such a promising game. A grand wizard sets out on a quest through a dangerous land.

A man lies dead on the floor. Above him, on the screen, the words flash in German: "The gas has done its job. You have freed Germany from another parasite. " This isn't a scene from some World War II movie gone wrong but the end of a home computer game being played by some German and Austrian youngsters. It is now making its way into the electronic databanks of America. Paralleling the dark side of society, computers also have a shady side that is sometimes played out in underground video games and programs.