Resident Evil 4

In honor of the New Year, here's a look at the franchises that rose from their own ashes to become something completely different. If they could reinvent themselves, why can't you?

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...

Unless you're the main character, the comic relief or Lan Di, most jobs in games are monumentally shit. Oh sure, Jimmy Saves the Girl might get to shoot aliens and bed busty chicks between the hours of nine to five, but what about all the other poor schmoes that aren't lucky enough to land the limelight? They end up in dead-end positions that the average gamer will never appreciate, that's what.

We're not even talking minimum wage stuff here. More like fatal 'you probably won't survive your first day in the job' work situations. So if you see any wanted ads for Burger Shot, Willamette Mall's food court or a mystery gig selling guns to a government agent, take our advice: keep the hell looking.

Resi’s batting average on portable formats is frankly shit. So far, we’ve been treated to the horrors of the GBA’s Gaiden and a shoddy iPhone port of the best game in the series.

Thankfully, it looks like the 3DS and Revelations could change all that. Inside, you’ll see the new trailer and find out why we think this moody looking handheld horror might top Resi 5.

Unlike our beloved Duke, not all games wither and die when they get stuck in development limbo. While the majority of titles that undergo drastic changes or lengthy delays end up performing oral acts on donkey’s groins, some survive the pre-release purgatory smelling of roses. Well, more ‘gameplay that’s not shit’ than roses, really. So without furthing rambling, here’s a bunch of games that survived development hell and lived to be damn decent titles.

George Romero (director of Dawn of the Dead and the father of zombie movies) says he'd be interested in making a game. This also coincides with the news that Jun Takeuchi (director of Resident Evil 5) won't be returning for the sixth instalment of the survival horror series.

And this got us thinking: how friggin' awesome would it be if Romero and Capcom teamed up to make Resi 6? The answer? Loads. Like loads and loads. And inside you'll find out why we think the zombie Zen master could help give the series just the shot in the undead arm it needs.

Ever wondered who's bigger out of God of War's Gaia and the Riftworm from Gears of War 2? Of course you have. That's why we've created pretty much the biggest image on the interwebs to showcase the biggest baddies in games and how they match up to each other size wise. Click on either of the preview images below to see the image in all its gargantuan glory.

Interactive cutscenes. “Cineractive” sequences. “Press X to not die” moments. Whatever you call them, quick time events are those mostly non-interactive moments peppered throughout videogames, nearly all of which ask you to tap a button on cue – or hammer on a button, or twitch an analog stick, or whatever – in order to enable your character to do something that’s way cooler than anything they can do while you're in direct control

Earlier this year we posted a video of our extremely handsome mugs chattering on about the most important games of the past decade. Did you miss it? Were you so distracted by our handsome facial hair that our words washed across you impotently like waves over rocks? Good news everyone!

Every single game ever made wants your character dead. Well, unless it’s got dancing babies on its box or it’s trying to lose you weight by forcing you to swing your arms around like a twat. With that in mind, we thought it might be helpful to give you a guide on how to spot impending video game danger. After you’ve brushed up on our exhaustive guide, which covers every sure-fire sign of peril from ominous music to