Despite the fact that I’ve been playing and reviewing video games for years, I seriously, seriously suck at baseball games. Watching me play MLB 2K9 would send any serious sports-game fan into an uncontrollable fit of rage from my complete and total lack of skills. And that’s why I like The BIGS 2.

Building on The BIGS franchise, The BIGS 2’s over-the-top, arcade-style game play can cover-up even the worst player’s half-assed attempt at seeming athletic. In this latest release, 2K has juiced-up the “Become a Legend” mode with a fuller story mode that picks up after the “Rookie Challenge” from The BIGS, allowing you to create your player and follow him through from the Mexican minors all the way through to the Hall of Fame.

On top of that, they’ve added Season Mode, with full MLB schedules, stat tracking and roster management, which allows you to keep your fantasy team and your real team in sync. And the awesomely amped arcade action, like Legendary Moves, Batter’s Wheelhouse and Big Slam will make you feel like A-Rod after a trip to the Dominican Republic.

The BIGS 2 is available now on Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, PSP and Wii

Taking Guitar Hero obsession to a new high, 14-year-old Danny ‘Phenom’ Johnson recently burst his way into the Guinness Book Of World Records not once but three times, setting new standards with the Longest Note Streak On Guitar Hero (with a score of 3,722 and 100% on the track ‘Through The Fire And The Flames’), the Highest Score For A Single Track (the just-shy-of-a-million 985,206 on the same ditty), and the Highest Score On Guitar Hero: Metallica with a rockin’ 1,009,056 on ‘Mercyful Fate’.

“I don’t think there is anything that can stop this kid, his talents are infinite,” said his father of the feat, possibly confusing ‘ability at a video game’ with ‘world domination’.

Check out Dan The Young Man in action here.

Adding the word ‘ninja’ before something is a guaranteed way to transform the mundane into the badass, and we’re pleased to see that the good folks over at Wolfire Games agree with us, being all set to launch the ninja-rabbit fighting game, Overgrowth. Also adding known-martial-arts-experts wolves, rats, cats and dogs to the bloody mix, they’ve just upped the first episode of an online comic to help stoke hype for the title – check it out here.

With Messi’s Barcelona besting Ronaldo’s Manchester United to claim club soccer’s most prized title in the 2009 European Champion’s League final, we’re on a serious soccer binge here at COED. So to keep the party going, here are five old school soccer titles that can most definitely kick it… (more…)

Think you can burn rubber and slide into a slipstream just as speedily as any reckless professional racing car driver? Head over to Real-Time Racing where they’ve just opened a registration – ahem – drive to find the 5,000 top video game speed demons in the world. (more…)

Too hot and bothered to get up off the couch but sick of sitting there with drops of sweat slowly dripping down your back? Check out five classic video games that’ll take you a world away from the sticky heat… (more…)

If you like Guitar Hero and Rock Band then Rhythm Heaven for the recently-released Nintendo DSi is going to blow your damn mind. Known in Japan as Rhythm Tengoku Gold and in Europe as Rhythm Paradise, Rhythm Heaven is a musically inclined gamer’s dream, using taps, flicks, holds and slides with the stylus (or your finger) to perform a wide variety of mini-game “tasks,” such as filling up robots with fuel or playing ping pong, all done in-sync with the music. If you get too much off the beat or miss beats entirely, you lose. (more…)

Hankering after some cool new content for your new Nintendo DSi but can’t be bothered to deal with the unsanitary oiks who man the register down at your local video game store? Get hooked up to the new DSi Shop and start downloading exclusive titles now.

Available from the NintendoDSi site, launch titles on offer include the elastic tongue antics of Bird & Beans, the magic-tastic Master Of Illusion, the underwater puzzler Art Style: AQUIA, the micro-game shenanigans of WarioWare: Snapped!, and the cerebral pretensions of Brain Age Express: Math.

Now, go get to spending those DSi Points…

Reckon that time you stayed up bleary-eyed until 4am playing Halo ranks you as a hardcore gamer? Think again, as a group of dedicated souls are out to set a new Guinness World Record by playing Burnout Paradise for 24 straight hours.

Attempting the feat on April 18th, six of the staff of Ready Up will be plugged into Xbox Live for an entire day of rubber burnin’ action, with only “short bathroom and eating” breaks officially allowed as they bid to add Longest Marathon Playing A Driving Game to their resumes.  (more…)

Bethesda Softworks’ Fallout 3 is a really remarkable video game for lots of reasons, but above all, it’s immersive — you can be anyone you want, look any way you want, get a job, eat meals, listen to the radio, read, and even buy a house. It came out late last year and I only recently emerged from playing it (and only then after my girlfriend switched off my power strip).

When I faced the real world again, though, I realized something had changed. I was sharper and more nimble than I was before. My time in the world of Fallout 3 had actually helped me cope with the real world — thanks to some very important lessons the game taught me. In no particular order, here are my top five: (more…)