Three quick thoughts about games and gaming:

 1) I've been playing Capitalism II again and I never get tired of watching my character's net worth ascend upward toward the heavens.  I'm thinking "trillion dollar project" in the near future.

 2) Custer's Revenge would be the greatest WII game EVER.

 3) The best part of Tropico's open-ended sandbox mode is realizing that a character was born, lived, and died under the rule of only one Presidente.  This is made all the more cool by the idea that the peon in question can go from baby to child to high-school student to college-student to influential doctor, bishop, banker, or general, and it's pretty cool watching the peon evolve.