In Brief: Sep. 27, 1999

PLAYING GODFATHER Being an upstanding citizen is honorable but dull. And it won’t get you very far in Mob Rule, a new world-building game from Simon & Schuster Interactive ($40). Players create corrupt 1930s towns full of gambling dens, slaughterhouses and peep shows. When you’re not bribing the police or hiring gangsters, you must keep your tenants happy with new restaurants and more subway stops. Who knew a thug’s life was so complicated?

EASY CELL You’re dying to become a cellphone hipster but are stymied by all the different handsets and calling plans. Now perplexed would-be purchasers of cell phones can weigh their choices on two websites: decide.com launched this week, organizes options by city and type of use (for example, local vs. business travel); point.com lets you enter a price limit and offers feature-by-feature comparisons. We found decide.com to be simpler and easier to navigate.

TAILOR-MADE The trouble with clothes shopping online or by catalog is that you never know if that dynamite blouse will look as good on you as it does on the skinny model. Now Broderbund’s Cosmopolitan Fashion Makeover Deluxe CD-ROM ($50) lets you enter your own measurements, hairstyle and skin color on a virtual model to see how clothes from Macy’s might look on your body. If you like what you see, simply click (on links to macys.com and buy.

–By Anita Hamilton