GameCube Features

At the end of every year we get a new year – one that is numerically superior to its predecessor and brimming with new stuff to buy. But how do you know what to buy if all the shiny “best of” awards are given at the end of the year? You could spend your precious 365.24 days reading game reviews, but what are they compared to shiny metallic awards?

We fear the unknown. Psychologists have proven that nothing troubles the human mind more, in fact, than that which cannot be predicted. Our phobias of death, darkness and strangers all stem from this single, simple truth. Apparently, so does our predictable taste in horror games.

Deep down, you realize they’re not real. You understand that what you’re seeing on screen is only pixels and polygons, that what you’re talking to is only a voice actor and that what you’re supposedly interacting with is only a fancy collection of programming codes. Sometimes, however, you can’t help but be a little fooled. Especially when you’re a young, dumb, naïve and impressionable kid…

They might not look all that, but give them the wrong look and the following group of surprising badasses will kill the hell out of you. Wimpy either in appearance, profession or nature it doesn’t stop these secretly Chuck Norris hard characters from saving the world and giving evil the bird, while murdering hundreds of baddies in the process.

Somehow, though, we’re just not buying their unexplained ass-kicking

Gamers are a diverse and extremely opinionated bunch. If you love something with all your heart and soul, we guarantee you that someone else hates it with an equal amount of passion. Chances are good, in fact, that the person who despises your precious favorite is a person you know, like or even trust. Your favorite GamesRadar editor, for example…

The internet is often thought of as a well of information, but that’s a flawed metaphor. It’s much more like a worldwide network of networks, if you follow my logic. And as the internet ages, it’s becoming littered with servers, and those servers are becoming littered with old data.

Pac-Man and Mario owned the 1980s. Sonic, Lara and Snake took over for the 1990s. Their games are considered classics. Their names are timeless and iconic. Their images are burned into the memory of every gamer, even those who were born after the characters themselves.

Now we have another ten years worth of heroes, villains, sidekicks and love interests to occupy our imagination. Which, however, will remain there?

Every now and then, be it at work or play, we all feel like saying: “Screw it. I simply can’t be assed.” There’s no shame in it. After all, apathy is both big and clever. But what if some of our favourite game characters took this bone idle approach to their adventures…

You know that red line that pops up in Word, Firefox or any other program with a spell check? It's helpful, don't get us wrong, but they really should spend some time working on spell check's virtual intuition. When we typed "Firefox," just now while writing this article, the red line asked if we meant "firebox." Um no, we didn't. And that's what happens countless times every second across the world when people type in video game names -