Superstitions are pretty prevalent in almost every sport. Whether its the North Carolina shorts that Michael Jordan wore under his Bulls shorts for every game

A huge element of what makes video games so addictive is that they allow you to be something you're not: an NFL quarterback, a high-flying ninja, a spaceship pilot.

Filmmaker Steven Spielberg and video game publisher Electronic Arts Inc. are releasing a few tidbits about their ongoing collaboration to make three video games, but most details - including the game's titles - remain a secret.

Why do video-game publishers bother with movie tie-ins? The cost of licensing an anticipated blockbuster (like, say, this summer's ''Transformers'') is expensive. Designers have to work within creative constraints imposed by the Hollywood studio, and then have to rush to crank out something playable by the time the movie's released. And usually no one - neither gamers nor moviegoers - is satisfied with the results.

News from the virtual world: -KING UBI: The most consistently intriguing ''third-party'' publisher of video games (that is, a company not named Sony, Nintendo or Microsoft) is France's Ubisoft, which has developed a reputation for solid quality over a range of genres. Ubisoft made a big splash at the 2006 Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), and warmed up for this year's show with its own ''UbiDays'' events in Paris and San Francisco.

Star slime fest is back! Justin Timberlake hosts this year's Nickelodeon's Kids' Choice Awards 20th Anniversary celebration, airing live March 31, from UCLA's Pauley Pavilion in Los Angeles. Kids will be able to vote in advance in a total of 16 categories. Surprise awards also will be announced during the show.

2006 was a great year for video games. While years that see new home consoles are successes, this year in particular proved that video games are becoming mainstream faster than you may realize. While a lot of it has to do with the Wii, a system vying for the position of “console anyone can play,” the fact that a huge entertainment company like Sony is showcasing their new format of media on PlayStation 3 says something. Now that officially every mainstream game has been released in 2006, here are the 20 best games of the year:

In a result that will surely send fanboys into a rage, action-RPG The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion beat out favorite Gears of War for Game of the Year at Spike TV Video Game Awards 2006. You can watch the star-studded event on Spike TV this Wednesday, December 13, at 10 p.m. ET/PT. List of nominees below, winners in bold:

Built on a foundation of pure fun, Nintendo's new Wii video game system sold through to more than 600,000 consumers in the Americas in just its first eight days of availability. That's a rate of nearly one per second continuously since the Nov. 19 launch. Including just first-party software and accessory sales, Wii instantly has become a $190 million business in the Americas.

Get ready for the avalanche of games to come out this Christmas season. Below is the list of release dates with their respective platform. For those who have camped out or had the foresight to order your Wii before the crazy rush, there are a number of old and new titles for the platform.