10 crappy jobs that make for awesome games

Let’s face it: for the most part, work sucks. Unless you’re lucky enough to nab a really cool job, like astronaut or gaming site editor, the long, daily grind isn’t particularly fun. But for some reason, when these boring jobs are translated into games, they become much more appealing. And as these 10 examples show, even the most uninteresting occupation can be made palatable with the addition of a few pixels and polygons.

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Lord of Ultima debuts. But why is this called Ultima again?

The Ultima series has been around for three decades – it was literally one of the earliest role-playing videogame franchises. But outside of updates for the series’ colossally dated MMO entry, Ultima Online, we haven’t seen a new release in over 10 years. Strangely, publisher EA has decided that the best way to revisit the franchise is by releasing the free-to-play browser game, Lord of Ultima. We were willing to give it the benefit of the doubt, but after actually spending time with it, we have to ask: Why exactly does it bear the Ultima name?

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2009′s best under-the-radar games

It’s a rare occurrence nowadays, but every once in a while, a game you’ve never even heard of comes along and absolutely blows you away. Sometimes it’s a little indie gem that didn’t get enough promotion. Other times, what appears to be a quick cash-in turns out to be an awesome game. These games don’t normally sell that well, but those who play them love them. They’re like a breath of fresh air in an industry packed with over-hyped blockbusters, and 2009 has seen more than its share of them. Here are some of our favorite surprises so far.

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Serious Sam HD – hands-on

A remake of an eight year old PC first-person shooter, Serious Sam HD is a game focused entirely on action. Though we were only able to spend time with the single-player portion of the game – it will also feature online co-op for up to four players – SSHD is certainly one fast-paced, bare bones shooter that is an absolute blast to play.

Read the complete preview at GamesRadar.

South Park: Let’s Go Tower Defense Play! – hands-on

The tower defense genre is inching ever closer to over-saturation, so it’s easy to be skeptical about a downloadable South Park themed tower defense game. After all, the South Park license hasn’t exactly had much luck in the realm of videogames. And with a genre that is tough to set yourself apart in part due to the sheer number of games being released, it’s not hard to overlook South Park: Let’s Go Tower Defense Play! But that would be a mistake.

Read the complete preview at GamesRadar.

9 Facebook games worth playing

Question: what gaming platform has a userbase that rivals the entire current generation of consoles? If you answered Facebook, well, you’re partly right. It may not have been originally designed for games, but the social networking platform has steadily built up a library of titles that are sure to distract you when you should really be getting some work done. The problem is, the games section is filled with so much crap that it can be tough to find a good game amongst the Pac-Man clones and terrible mafia simulators. Here are a few of our favorites to get you started.

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8 canceled MMOs that would’ve ruled

Videogames get canceled all the time, but it seems like massively multiplayer titles suffer this fate more than any other genre. What’s sad is that a number of these games had the potential to be great, but for various reasons never ended up being released. Here are eight MMOs that had us excited when they were announced and depressed when we found out we’d never be able to play them.

Read the complete article at GamesRadar.