One of the complaints against media coverage of the war is that saturation coverage leads to a sense of impotence: all of this stuff is going on and I can't do anything about it. The ability, or at least the simulated ability, to take action may explain the war game boom:

Combat-themed video games dominated the U.S. sales charts in early April as news of the real war in Iraq blanketed the airwaves, according to data released on Wednesday.

For the week ending April 5, NovaLogic's "Delta Force: Black Hawk Down" topped the list of best-selling PC games as compiled by research firm The NPD Group, the second week in a row it was the best-selling game.

"Black Hawk Down" is based on a battle fought by U.S. soldiers in Mogadishu, Somalia in 1993. The game has no affiliation with either the best-selling nonfiction book account of the raid, Mark Bowden's "Black Hawk Down," or the film of the same name that was based on the book.

The company has said it would donate a portion of its sales of the game to charities for families of injured or killed military personnel.

In four of the last five weeks, fully 50 percent of the top games list has been either stand-alone war games, or add-on packages for existing war games.

Holding the No. 2 spot for the second week running after three weeks at No. 1 was Electronic Arts Inc. with "Command & Conquer: Generals." EA also charted in the war games category with "Battlefield 1942" and an expansion pack for that game called "Road to Rome." [Reuters]