Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes

One in five Americans are born with some sort of personality disorder – something that makes them zag when everyone else zigs. It might be as subtle as a nervous tic, as confusing as Asperger's or as overt as psychopathy. But mentally unstable individuals are part of the real world – and part of the world of videogames as well. Sometimes their damage leads them to be horrible, monstrous villains, and other times it can make them loyal friends, or complex protagonists. No matter what it does to them, though, it's usually hard not to be sympathetic to their problems, and to, in a way, fall in love with them... even if they're murdering sociopaths...

Once a videogame hero has more than one or two adventures under his or her belt, it simply isn’t enough to just have an archenemy anymore. To keep things interesting, they need a foil, a rival, or some other angry opposite number obsessed with matching wits with them. Sometimes, those characters stick around long enough to make themselves an indelible part of the series, even going so far as to make friends with the protagonist – although more often than not, their friendships tend to be shaky at best, and even those involved might never fully admit to them. Relationships like that tend to make for gaming’s most enduring and interesting rivalries, and what follows are some of the most notable...

Week of Hate 2011 officially begins today, giving us yet another opportunity to spew venom and whine like babies about the industry that we love the remaining 51 weeks of the year. And in keeping with past tradition, we’re trotting out some of gaming’s most beloved, venerable franchises this week for the sole purpose of picking apart their flaws and upsetting their fans. We’ll start with Metal Gear, a series that has spent roughly the past 10 years turning itself into one of the weirdest, most divisive, love-it-or-hate-it propositions in modern gaming...

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…

With a storyline so baffling even Kojima doesn’t understand it, it’s only prudent we set straight the events leading to Metal Gear Solid: Rising. Be prepared for detail so utter, it may cause brainlock. Here is the complete timeline, including events not occurring directly in any of the games...

How many gamers long for a remake of Final Fantasy VII? Or An HD remake of Sonic 2? On the surface, it doesn't look like rehashing your old games would make business sense as everyone's already bought them once. Why buy them again, right? Wrong! Here are eight perfectly good reasons why remakes are totally worth the effort.

Ladies and gentlemen of gaming, we’re facing something of a crisis. An entire generation of standout games is becoming more and more lost to time. They’re drifting away partly because they’re old and haven’t had a moment in the spotlight for years, but more importantly, they’re aging like fine vintage vomit, and are probably so confusingly ugly they’re preventing a whole heap o’ first timers from even giving them a try.

Ah, December! Despite being home to torturous holiday shopping, rampant sickness and some of the most inhospitable living conditions, it’s routinely held up as “the most wonderful time of the year.” Maybe, if you ignore the pounds of snow, record-breaking cold snaps and general anxiety that stems from attempting to exist in a world slathered in ice.

Since time immemorial, mankind has gazed upon missiles and secretly thought, “Hey, that’d be fun to ride.” For whatever perverse reason, the idea of straddling or surfing on what amounts to a blazing rocket engine packed with deadly explosives is wildly fascinating to just about everyone, particularly if someone else does it.

Generally, the first rule when it comes to rescuing hostages is ‘don’t let everybody get horribly done in.’ But sadly, this proves too much of a stumbling block for many game heroes. Be it accidentally killing geriatrics with a killer virus or letting the damsel in distress get crushed by a cow, the following rescue missions all get botched. Spectacularly.