By Andrew Liszewski

I know, I know, I know. Another steering wheel accessory for the iPhone? Ugh… That’s exactly what I thought when I saw the Helix Gaming Grip at the PosiMotion booth at CES. But I’ll be damned if it didn’t make me want to download Need for Speed Shift from the App Store before I walked away, and the only thing I’ve ever played on my iPhone is Solitaire!

The Helix is pleasantly compact, and while it’s by no means pocket-friendly, the simple design actually won me over. Your iPhone can be placed in the slightly flexible grip in either portrait or landscape orientation and is held in place by nothing more than tension & friction, though iPod Touch users will need to use a small clip on adapter. Now I’m not sure if the Helix is something I’d go out of my way to travel with, even during my daily commute, but I could see it being stashed in a drawer and pulled out for the occasional accelerometer-based game.

The Helix Gaming Grip is expected to be available sometime in Spring of 2010, but you can pre-order one now on the PosiMotion site for $19.99.

[ PosiMotion Helix Gaming Grip ]

EA have today announced that it plans to release versions of three of its flagship gaming properties onto the iPhone. Need For Speed Shift, Spore Creatures and the Simpsons Arcade represent months of EA honing their skills developing for the…

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Microsoft

2009 is suddenly a holiday of racers. If you don’t believe that, consider the trifecta that dropped–or will drop–shortly: Need For Speed: Shift, Dirt 2, and Microsoft’s holiday tentpole Forza Motorsport 3. All of them promise realistic physics, blazing speeds, and tons of customization, but NFS: Shift and Dirt 2 are multiplatform, while Forza Motorsport 3 is an Xbox 360 first-party exclusive. For my money, though, I’ll take Forza 3. After playing all three, the newest Forza has, surprisingly, won me over–not with realism, but with fun.

I say surprisingly because “simulation racers” generally lie in a calcified place among the hearts of the mainstream gamers: the hundreds of factory-immaculate car models and pitch-perfect world racing circuits, along with the endless class licenses and intricate engine tune-ups, can turn most gamers off completely. Right here in the CNET offices, I told a colleague I was playing Forza 3, and that I actually enjoyed it. “Really?” he asked, somewhat disbelieving. It’s assumed that Gran Turismo and Forza will be inaccessible to those who don’t appreciate racers, just like Madden often erects a wall between NFL fans and gamers and the rest of the world.

I am a casual racer, and Forza 3 sucked me in.

Its first success was employing a calm British man to talk to me. Much like LittleBigPlanet, a gentle voice of authority (although in this case, not Stephen Fry) welcomed me, showed me the basic ropes, and told me everything was going to be all right. Rather than worry about detailed car controls and under-the-hood tinkering, a simple press of a few A and B buttons got me right into a season-long circuit of races. The voice tutorials gently tailed off naturally, until I had the ropes completely. Suddenly I realized that I had been playing for several hours, and was itching to complete just one more race challenge to unlock more credits. That’s when I realized that, fundamentally, Forza 3 is a success.
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Anyone who has any doubts over what will be the best-selling video game this holiday season needs to check himself. It will absolutely be Modern Warfare 2. And while I can say that without anything real being put on the line, Irish bookie Paddy Power has given the game 8/13 odds as being the best-selling game.

Here’s the top 10:

1. Modern Warfare 2 8/13
2. FIFA 10 3/1
3. Assassin’s Creed II 6/1
4. Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games (what?!) 6/1
5. Wii Fit Plus 12/1
6. Halo 3: ODST 16/1
7. Uncharted 2 18/1
8. New Super Mario Bros Wii 18/1
9. Need for Speed: Shift 25/1
10. The Avatar Game 33/1

In other Modern Warfare 2 news, that up there is 20 more minutes of gameplay footage. It’s very exciting.

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The brutal yearly schedule for Need For Speed games has produced some excellent ones (Wanted) and some dogs (ProStreet). Need For Speed: Shift looks like a good one, although it’s far more sim-ish than the ones in the series I’ve enjoyed the most. I failed real hard at playing this thing, believe me, despite the promise of a BMW M3 if I played well enough. Greg did a little better, and if you watch the video, you’ll understand just how bad I must have done.

By the way, for the record that’s the game getting all blurry, not my camera.