Wii Sports

Here we go again. It's the beginning of a new year and chance for us to look back on all the crazy stuff that happened last year. Here are my two favorite games from 2006. What are your top picks?

Gears of War

Surprise! It's the game that most everyone will pick for the best game of 2006. But we go way back with Gears of War. It won our prestigious Best of E3 2006 award. It lived up to and surpassed my expectations--something that rarely happens. Gears of War has a finely tuned single player campaign that has some of the best squad-based gameplay available. Your teammates aren't simply there to increase the number of bullets you wail at the enemy. They provide valuable covering fire and coordinate realistic maneuvers that adapt to meet the diverse requirements of each arena. The impressive graphics, clever camera techniques, and efficient controller layout make Gears of War feel like movie.

Some friends were over playing Wii Sports tonight after Thanksgiving dinner. During an intense game of tennis, Russell said, "some idiot is going to ignore the wrist strap and send the remote flying into their TV--breaking them both." Hardly a second passed before the controller slipped from his hands and went flying towards a window. He looked down to see the strap still tightened to his wrist. The thin string that attaches the strap to the remote had snapped. Luckily, both the window and the controller survived. But I guess it could have been much worse.

[UPDATE: Apparently I'm not the only one having this problem. There are other reports of this happening, some of which involve broken TV's. Hit the jump for a list.]

It's a tradition. When you get a new gadget, you have to document its unboxing.