Musicians can finally be made through the effort of a deck, and the harmony of music combined with game mechanics through plastic peripherals to create the experience of music professionals. Rock Band and Guitar Hero brought the feeling of playing a guitar and feeling like a Guitar ‘Hero’ to many amateurs and professionals across the continents. DJ Hero allows players to feel like DJ’s without the need to be one.

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Realism in games has always been hit or miss. On one hand we have racing,sports and real life simulator games which constantly try and upgrade to become proper simulators and for the most part it works. Whereas on the other hand we have first and third person shooters where in the past have proven that if made too realistic detract from the fun and enjoyment that comes from blowing enemies away left, right and center. The team at Codemasters tried to buck this trend and wanted to make Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising realistic while keeping the fun at the forefront, but has largely failed.

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The Beatles: Rock Band focuses on the influential British band The Beatles, the primary stars in Harmonix’s highly-loved rhythm-game Rock Band. The game has a pretty self-explanatory title: influential British band The Beatles stars in Harmonix’s popular rhythm-game franchise Rock Band. Rock Band: The Beatles offers rare exclusives such as behind-the-scenes pictures, videos, and audio to give players a taste of The Beatles. More importantly, the game gives players a chance to play the music and experience what it felt like to be a popular band. Unfortunately, a limited setlist, narrow gameplay, and a short length makes The Beatles something just to be heard in the car.

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DiRT 2 is finally out for rallying fanatics that love the only series to ever carry the tradition of being one of the only rallying video games available.  While DiRT 2 has been long awaited, part of it ends up on the loose side due to actual limited rallies and A.I. flawlessness. Regardless of these flaws, DiRT 2 remains exciting to anyone that enjoyed GRiD when it came out. Codemasters designed DiRT 2 to provide a lot of action and thrill to players of all skill levels, and still creates a memorable rally racing experience in the part of the new iteration.

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Guitar Hero 5 sees casual rockers and plastic-instrument pro’s going back to what they love: playing music. Guitar Hero 5 still has its problems, but it manages to create a well balanced system between hardcore and casual that most players will not forget.

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Throw a pass and watch as your left-fielder is tackled to the ground by the other team realistically and believably. Madden 2000 set the frontier for football-crazed fans to get a chance to play their favorite teams with a friend next to them in an appreciable graphics setting.  There have been so many changes year after year with some years more productive than others, but thankfully Madden NFL 2010 is the best one by far. Despite its issues, Madden NFL 2010 delivers a great football action experience. While EA Tiburon aims to improve previous features left complicated through time in the series of Madden, the improvements in Madden NFL 2010 stand out well. All of these different additions work in harmony to the central gameplay mechanics.

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Polish developer Techland’s Western shooter Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood places players into 1864 and into the entire gun-slinging outlaw hunting that it has to offer. As a prequel to 2007′s Call of Juarez, Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood is a decent first-person shooter that focuses on action centralized shoot-outs and duels that tries to make you feel as if you live for the Wild West. The cut-scenes are enjoyable with extenuated voice acting, and the visuals are decent. Unfortunately, horseback riding, gun-slinging, and other gameplay shooting aspects are far too basic with the horrible A.I. to be enjoyable. Despite all of this, Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood manages to give players a decent Western-shooting experience that is worth a try.

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Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is remarkable. Remarkably unentertaining and hideous, that is. It manages to shatter that border that distinguishes a bad game from a good one, and puts itself into its own dreary category of the Worst “Game” of 2009 by far and for a long while. The story is incoherent, the dialogue is as dull as the previous title, and the gameplay makes Atari Console games seem next-generation.

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Talk about intense. E3 was packed this year with resellers, and less media —but it got bigger, better, and more selective. We were there to get every exciting moment: from Project Milo to Heavy Rain, and exclusive interviews. As always, it was certainly a great time, and now that time is over. It is time to look forward, ahead to newer and better releases, and to ennoble titles in this year’s WhatIfGaming’s Best Of E3 Awards 2009.

Criteria: The Best of E3 Awards, a subcategory for the WhatIfGaming Prizes, are given solely to those video games that demonstrate a pure excellence in the field for which they are not only nominated but also chosen. These awards only apply to playable games at E3 given a few exceptional categories.

Nomination & Selection Process: Compared with other site awards, the WhatIfGaming Prize nomination and selection process is long and extremely rigorous. This is the sole reason why WhatIfGaming Prizes have grown in importance over the years to become the most important prizes in their field. Forms, which amount to a personal and exclusive invitation, are sent to about over 1,000 selected individuals to invite them to submit nominations months in advance from the latest builds per video game. Self-nominations are disqualified. For WhatIfGaming Prizes, inquiries are sent to such people as developers, industry experts, analysts, among others. After our deadline passes, the nominations are chosen by permanent committee of 5 selected individuals from staff and only the final stage of nominees remain per category. From all of these, a winner is chosen.

The names of the nominees are not publicly announced, and neither are they told that they have been considered for the WhatIfGaming Prize. Some are announced publicly by practice. Nomination records are revealed approximately 2 years after each respective award year.

Overlord II places players into the skull encrusted, blood stained boots of a ‘Lord’ with glowing eyes and a huge axe and allows you to command minions to do your deeds. Be evil, or be dark (the light form of good) – it is up to you. The interesting thing about the Overlord series is undeniably the diminutive minions that take the primary picture. They are ultimately the ones that run the course of the gameplay, with humor and intrigue that is simply incredible. With the similar and perfect formula from the old game and amazing visuals and upgraded features, Overlord II is one game that anyone needs to take a commanding destruction towards.

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Turn your mouse clickers and scroll wheel timers to WhatIfGaming this upcoming Saturday July 1st, 2009 for an exclusive presentation of our 9th year anniversary of the WhatIfGaming E3 Awards for 2009, with official public listing that celebrated from late 2001.

The WhatIfGaming E3 Prizes had their origins ever since the end of 1999′s E3 ceremony when we revealed to select publishers what our site cherished for their offerings during exclusive press meetings through an official sticker prize from yours truly. Very few gained them, and some were only notified. Over the years, the awards became public but remained even more strenuous in criteria, with no nominees ever being publicly listed until  a future predetermined date. 5 members of our staff in a permanent committee select the winners from a long line of industry related inquiries taken and personal consideration.

Also, feel free to log on Friday June 26th, 2009 for an Overlord II review (with over 46 hours played and timed only from us) and also an exclusive post-release interview with the creative minds behind Overlord II and their future plans!