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Real-life shopping. Unless you enjoy shambling about like an extra in a Romero flick, it's a mostly soul-destroying activity that ranks somewhere between 'watching The X Factor' and 'tasting vomit' on our list of Things We'd Rather Not Do If We Can Help It. So it's testament to the subversive qualities of games that they can make shopping not suck. How do games do it - what makes shopping in games so much more enjoyable than shopping in

Many videogames are designed with conflict in mind, and thus revolve around intimidating, sometimes even frightening, the player. The survival horror genre has been crammed full of horrific monstrosities designed entirely to terrify their audience. Developers are so good at creating scary monsters and super freaks, however, that it seems they can't help themselves. In short, even when games try to be cute or otherwise non-threatening, they often end up even spookier.

In this column, we take a look at some of the scariest videogames characters that were never designed to be scary. Their creators wanted something adorable, or amiable, or at least vaguely likable, but instead gave birth to hideous, misshapen, nightmarish beasts that will break your spirit and claim your dreams. Read on only if you have nothing left to fear...

Most of us play games to escape reality. For a few brief moments, the trials of the material world trickle away and your only concern is how many goddamn gold coins you can collect in an hour. Then, out of nowhere, a friggin' Xbox 360 console shows up in the actual game and all your suspended disbelief goes right out the window. And it happens more often than you'd think. So often, in fact, that we had little trouble in amassing a large

It's everyone's favorite time of the year again, when thousands of overcaffeinated journalists descend upon E3 with their live-blogged, 2000-word diatribes on the most minor of details. The objects of their unending speculation? The biggest games of the show, which, oddly enough, have been known to the gaming press for months and will surprise literally no one.

That's why we're interested in games that haven't been seen, announced or

1) Rock mushrooms

Customise your Rock Band drum kit with these colourful mushroom pads. Shame you won’t be able to customise the Wii version of the game by downloading new tracks, but this is surely the next best thing. Check eBay to see when the next set is up for sale.

2) KK noise

tinyurl.com/6lr4eoEvery Saturday night you can treat your ears to the soothing tones of KK Slider. Long-time Animal Crossing residents

We’re barely two weeks into 2010 and there’s already enough must-have games to choke one of Avatar’s six-legged horses. January alone is home to seven big-name releases, with February, March and April continuing the trend. Hell, we even know what’s coming in the summer and in some cases (like Halo Reach) we’re even certain of the fall’s heaviest hitter

It's a sad truth indeed that some terrible games in the past have actually had seriously solid ideas. A good idea does not automatically mean a good game, as demonstrated countless times by an industry that, more often than not, produces the very best products when creativity is all but bankrupt. A real shame, but that's the truth of the matter.

Budget constraints, technological problems, or a simple case of being too ambitious for one's own good can all have an effect on a title, meaning that no matter how deep your narrative, unique your gimmicks, or breathtaking your vision, concept alone cannot save a game. With that wretched fact in mind, let's take a look at some examples of absolutely killer concepts that went wrong somewhere along the line and ended up as bad videogames...

Every week GamesRadar receives more game trailers than the internet can be expected to hold, so in those seven days some people might tragically miss a few of these new videos. That's why we've collected them into one new video, remixed for your pleasure...

It's a huge month for warring gods, space marines, tomb raiders, and Pinkerton agents. See why you'll be spending most of March indoors in our rundown of this month's new releases...