The infamous Madden Curse has been crippling EA's cover stars consistently since John Madden himself stopped appearing on them. Call it coincidence, call it an ancient ju-ju; whatever it is, the evidence of stifling a career is in full swing. Don't believe us? Then check out the poor saps below and then tell us it's all BS. Oh, and for all you non-American Football fans, we've even dug a little deeper into other game franchises and picked out some beauties. What have we missed? Let us know in the comments. Enjoy... ...

This week, we encountered a preponderance of trailers and teasers that are all hype and no content. The games may be fantastic, but we’ll never know based on the paltry glimpses of gameplay these videos afford.

(*not a guarantee) ...

In the context of a game, Achievements and Trophies are harmless. They're just carrot-dangling tactics that we're happy to indulge for our greedy pursuit of intangible virtual rewards. We wouldn't think twice about nail-bombing a kitten orphanage if it meant five more gamer points.

But, let's say, purely for the purposes of this here article, that we take Achievements and Trophies out of their virtual world settings and reconsider them ...

Ever slogged away at a game for hours only to find that there's nothing waiting for you at the end of it? Or just the chance of doing it all again with a different character? Here are our top 7 worst rewards in gaming ...

By now, you might’ve come upon one of our E3 09 “VS” features, where we pit upcoming high-profile titles of a similar nature against one another based on the demos experienced while stumbling punchdrunk across this year’s show floor ...