If you've read our updated impressions of Ridge Racer DS, you know the game's steering mechanic utilizes the stylus included with the Nintendo DS. By using the stylus on the touchscreen, you can turn the steering wheel and thus control the direction of the car on the upper screen. While I haven't had hands-on time with the newest Ridge Racer game, it seems like this might be an extremely awkward way to drive, especially after years of using either the d-pad or analog controls to steer videogame racers. Thankfully, you will have the option to use a more traditional steering input if you so choose.

So what do you think of Ridge Racer DS and it's new steering feature? Could this be the start of something innovative for handheld racing games, or is it merely a gimmick designed to show off Nintendo's newest baby?

November means two things for gamers: the holidays are almost here, and a ton of games are making their way to store shelves. Sports gamers have a lot to look forward to this month, as big name titles in several genres including racing, wrestling and basketball, will all make their way to consoles. We've complied all of November's sports releases in one handy spot for your browsing enjoyment in our Month in Sports Gaming - November 2004 feature.

As you'll see, there's a lot of sports titles to choose from. The question is, which titles are worth your hard-earned money? Let us know what you think!

But how will the real NBA season turn out? I've been following the Association since I was a wee lad, cheering on Magic Johnson and the Showtime Lakers. I've got some educated guesses on how things will shake out.

Remember, with the addition of the expansion Charlotte Bobcats, the league has been restructured into six divisions, three each in the Eastern and Western Conferences. The New Orleans Hornets have been moved to the West, Shaq has moved East, and a whole bunch of other star players have moved around, including Antoine Walker, Gary Payton, Jason Terry, and Kenyon Martin.

Atlantic Division - Predicted playoff teams: Philadelphia, New Jersey, Boston

This is the toughest division to figure, because the teams are so even in terms of relative strength. Philadelphia will make the playoffs on the will of Allen Iverson, and the young stars they have in center Samuel Dalembert and Andre Iguodala. Jersey will struggle early in the year without Jason Kidd, but once he returns, it's hard to see a Kidd-led team not making the playoffs even with the absence of K-Mart. Boston and Paul Pierce should see a lift from the arrival of an angry and motivated Gary Payton, as well as the return of Raef LaFrentz from injury. Sorry Knicks and Raps fans. There just isn't much defense in a Starbury/Jamal Crawford backcourt, while everyone in Toronto cringes anytime Vince Carter jumps.

Central Division - Predicted playoff teams: Indiana, Detroit, Cleveland

Despite Shaq's arrival in Miami, Indiana and Detroit are the still the cream of the East. Wallace and Wallace form the league's best defensive tandem at the 4 and 5 positions. But I still believe that Indiana is the better team, and will prove it by winning their division and coming out of the East to challenge for the NBA title. Jermaine O'Neal puts up numbers as well as the other O'Neal, and the arrival of Stephen Jackson gives the Pacers much needed firepower out of the backcourt. Early season injuries may doom the Pacers to a second place finish in their division, but they'll overcome the Pistons in the playoffs this time. Meanwhile, LeBron will finally get his Cavs into the playoffs, but they will really miss Carlos Boozer. Bucks and Bulls fans...there's always next year.

Southeast Division - Predicted playoff teams: Miami, Orlando

Easily the weakest division in the NBA. Miami will dominate here, thanks to the arrival of the Diesel. But the trade to the Lakers really gutted that team's depth. They really don't have much surrounding Shaq aside from Eddie Jones and Dwyane Wade. I don't see them getting past Detroit or Indiana in the playoffs. Orlando's heart was ripped out when Tracy McGrady left, but they got back a lot in Stevie Franchise, Cuttino Mobley, and Kelvin Cato. And hey, if Grant Hill can stay healthy and chip in 20 minutes a game, all the better. OK forget that. Hill's inevitable season-ending injury notwithstanding, Orlando has enough to sneak into the playoffs as a 7 or 8 seed. So what about the Hawks, Wiz, and Bobcats? Yeah. What about them.

Northwest Division - Predicted playoff teams: Minnesota, Utah, Denver

This is the T-Wolves' year. Despite stiff competition in their division from the Nuggets and Jazz who have both bulked up in the offseason with new players, this will be the year KG breaks through and wins the title he's worked so hard for. There's just too much talent on that roster for it to not happen. The only thing that screws this up is if Spree's and Cassell's selfish contract demands wreck the chemistry on that team. Utah will finish ahead of Denver. Jerry Sloan's coaching job was incredible last year, and they've added some nice players in Carlos Boozer and Mehmet Okur to complement AK47. Oh and Matt Harpring, perhaps the league's most underrated player, is returning from injury. The key here will be Carlos Arroyo at point--if he has the breakout year I think he's going to have, then the Jazz may finish as high as fourth in the West. Denver's not going benefit as much as they think they will from K-Mart's arrival. Andre Miller's a fine point guard in his own right, but Martin is going to really miss playing with Jason Kidd and in that open court style. Portland and Seattle don't have a prayer in this division.

Pacific Division - Predicted playoff team: Sacramento

The window of opportunity has shut on the Kings as far as their chances for a championship. But they should win this division easily because of weak competition. The Lakers will finish second, and as much as it hurts me to say it, they will just miss the playoffs because they have no frontcourt. You can't win with small ball in this conference. Lamar Odom can't masquerade as a 4 in the West, and Kobe will learn the painful lesson that he can't do this by himself. The Lake Show will toil in mediocrity for at least two years until they maybe get a chance to sign Yao Ming as a free agent. The Suns, Warriors, and Clippers hardly bear mentioning. Nash is a nice addition to the Suns, but even with the duo of Marion and Stoudemire helping, they can't crack the playoffs in a stacked West. Mike Montgomery will flop as an NBA coach like Pitino and Calipari before him. And the Clippers? They're the Clippers.

Southwest Division - Predicted playoff teams: San Antonio, Houston, Dallas, Memphis

This is easily the toughest division in the league, but the Spurs are the 800 lb gorilla here. The addition of combo guard Brent Barry means that there's a real backup PG for Tony Parker, and more importantly, a legitimate three point threat that Duncan sorely needs. Dallas appears to be going with a youth movement by starting Devin Harris and Josh Howard in the backcourt instead of Jason Terry and Jerry Stackhouse. It's a bold move and I like it--Terry and Stack put up numbers but aren't proven winners. Unfortunately they still don't have enough to get by the Spurs. The Rockets are trying their own version of Shaq and Kobe with Yao and T-Mac. They have nice complementary guys in Jim Jackson and Juwan Howard too. It'll take a while for this team to gel though, so I'd give it a year before they're a real championship contender. Memphis will be this year's biggest disappointment. Their run to the #4 seed last year was memorable, but I doubt they can pull the feat off again. They sneak into the playoffs as a low seed. Hornets? Welcome to the Western Conference. Here's your complementary draft lottery ticket.

NBA Finals prediction: Wolves vs. Pacers. Wolves in 6

NBA MVP: Kevin Garnett

Rookie of the Year: Andre Iguodala

Scoring Champion: Kobe Bryant

One of the stranger correlations of sports and the real world has been between the Washington Redskins and the U.S. presidential election. If you haven't heard of this yet, it goes something like this: Since 1933, the outcome of the Washington Redskins game immediately preceding a presidential election has accurately predicted the winner. If the Redskins win, so this remarkable trend goes, the incumbent party wins. If the Skins lose, as was the case this past weekend against the Green Bay Packers, the current White House resident is booted out the door.

Just for election-eve kicks, I decided to carry on the trend in my own living room, simulating one Packers/Skins match-up on both ESPN NFL 2K5 and Madden NFL 2005. The results:

Madden: Green Bay 10, Washington 3

ESPN: Green Bay 21, Washington 10

Based on this obviously unscientific result, it appears we may have a new resident moving into 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

I finally got some time with Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas this weekend. The build-up to Halloween and a busier-than-usual week outside of work meant that I had enough time to buy GTA:SA but not much time to actually sit down and play the darn thing. I had a good chunk of Sunday to myself, however, which meant that in between flipping between the NFL games, I had ample opportunity to try out several missions in GTA:SA's Los Santos.

Simply put, this game is jam-packed with content. Some of it is obvious, such as the huge variety of missions. Other touches are more subtle, like the suprisingly large number of clothing options available to you (my CJ will now permanently roll in his Los Santos Slappers hockey jersey). There's so much to see and do and shoot and punch and rob and... ahem, well you get the idea.

In an effort to keep this post sports gaming related, here is my list of five sports mini-games found in GTA:SA. Some you have to look for a little harder than others:

1. Lowrider street racing -- Need for Speed, eat your heart out.
2. Inner city biathlon -- High-powered assault weapon? Check. Stationary targets? Check. Snow and cross-country skis? Don't need 'em.
3. Fencing -- No not the kind with foils and mesh masks, mind you.
4. Various summer Olympic events -- The 1000 meter arrest-evading sprint; Greco-Roman back alley beatdown; powerlifting for nihilists.
5. Synchronized swearing

Until this week, the thought of taking a weed whacker and running it up and down the chest of a foe never occurred to me. That's precisely one of the weapon-based attacks found in Eidos' Backyard Wrestling 2: There Goes the Neighborhood, however. While playing the game for our features preview, I ran into several things I've never seen before including, among other things, an absolutely gut-wrenching intro movie. The film, which features a string of high risk moves and gory barbed wire bumps, is highlighted by a short clip featuring Vic Grimes taking a fall of at least four stories into a wrestling ring full of stacked tables, and nearly bouncing out of the ring entirely in the process. It's horrific, hilarious, terrifying, and completely awesome all at the same time. If anyone ever doubted that this game is not for kids, this clip alone would set them straight.

The recently announced exclusion of online play for BYW2 is surely disappointing to fans of the series who were hoping to get their hands bloody with friends over the Internet. Now, however, it's up to BYW2's single player mode to take up the slack.

When it comes to the upcoming handheld war, the first salvos between Sony and Nintendo have already been fired, and Sony is using Gran Turismo 4 as one the primary weapons in its PSP arsenal. Responding to comments from Nintendo PR chief Yasuhiro Minagawa that Sony's upcoming handheld system is "not a game machine", Sony's Ken Kutaragi replied with a barb of his own:

"People who want to play with Pikachu will need Nintendo's new-style DS machine," he said, "but those who want to play our racing game Gran Turismo 4 will need a PSP, right?"

Certainly no one can argue with Kutaragi's logic but, with the latest spate of bad news surrounding the newest PS2 Gran Turismo iteration (delays in Europe and the removal of online play), one can't help but wonder if we'll see the popular racer on the PSP any time soon. After all, the game was a no-show at this year's Tokyo Game Show and, beyond a few rolling demos, there's next to no concrete information about the handheld version of the game to be found.

At the very least, handheld racing fans will have to wait until the system launches in the U.S. before we get our mobile GT4 fix. Given the series' track record of delays, however, it may take much longer than first expected for Mr. Kutaragi's comment to prove true.

GameSpot's associate producer Ryan Davis and I recently had a discussion regarding Outlaw Golf 2's interesting take on the putting game. As Ryan points out in his review, Outlaw Golf 2's putting mechanic strives to recreate the fascinating mixture of guesswork and skill found in real putting and combines that with just the right amount of challenge. A beginner can pick up the game and find success with OG2's reticle-based putting system almost right away; complete mastery of the system, however, seems to be always just out of your grasp.

The thing that stood out to me during my limited time with a preview copy of the game? The insanely fun taunt feature found in the game's multiplayer mode. There's nothing like hitting a button and sending a perfectly-timed bon mot just as your opponent is lining up for a par-saving putt.

When I first fired up OutRun2 on the Xbox for my review, I wasn't super enthused about it. My initial impression was that it was a by-the-numbers arcade racer, with some quirky mission modes thrown together to give it some flavor. Oh and it had a dozen licensed Ferrari models to attract the exotic car enthusiasts. Big whoop. But as I played through the game, drifting around corners with reckless abandon, and repeating tracks to shave fractions of a second off my best times I started to realize that the game was growing on me.

I briefly touched on OutRun2's old-school design sensibilities in the review. In this day and age of 20 buttons to a controller and five analog sticks plus three digital pads, it's refreshing to pick up a game that is utterly and completely simple. Accelerator. Brake. Let's go. Want to powerslide? Tap the brake and steer into the corner. That's about all you need to know to play OutRun2. But like any game with addictive potential, OutRun2 has a simple-to-learn, hard-to-master quality about it. There are more than 15 unique tracks in the game, with both forward and reversed versions. The fact that these can be raced in a number of different permutations adds a surprising amount of variety to the game, and even if you memorize ideal lines to race each track, the transitions from one stage to the next should keep you on your toes.

And I normally can't stand games that unlock all the good stuff at the start and force you to play through a mission mode to get at it. I complained mightily about this sort of thing in last year's NBA Ballers review. But with OutRun2 I didn't mind so much. The unusual tasks you face in the mission mode are challenging and fun, and add some spice to each level. It's just so Japanese to think of placing giant hearts in each bend that you need to photograph as you drift around each corner. Or how about a math mode where you need to keep a running tally of positive and negative numbers that whizz by as you race down a track. See kids? Tell your parents that OutRun2 is educational and keeps you up on your arithmetic.

Hopefully this game will get as much love at the checkstands as it should. It's nice that in a world full of flash and sizzle (Burnout 3), simpler games like OutRun2 can still make an impression on editors like me. If you're a fan of arcade racing, you should definitely check out the game and let it grow on you too.