Friday 5 January 2007
Were your lingering memories of 2006's gaming highlights all but wiped clean by some especially riotous New Year's celebrations? Or do you long to pour over a handily collated run-down of the year's big stories, surprise announcements and shock news? Either way, your luck's in, reader, as GamesRadar presents a bite-sized dose of all you need to know from the last 12 months.
With Sony's long-running PS3 delay shenanigans (hey, it's not over yet), the death of E3 as we knew
Did you behave well enough last year for Santa to bring you some new games for Christmas? Stuck on them already? Well, don't worry, we've put together a little something for you to unwrap now - that's right, the best cheats, hints and easter eggs for the top-selling Christmas games. Just hit the tabs on the left for the games you want to know about.
Many of these cheats were sent in by our readers through CheatPlanet.com (thank you kindly) - so why not share your own best cheats and tricks
The Silent Hill series
It's a safe bet that we all play games the same way: lights on, volume at a reasonable level, perhaps other stuff going on in the background as well. For most games, that's totally cool. But there are some that you have not even begun to experience. Yes, some games demand that you completely alter your surroundings and let the mood seep through your skull, soaking every cell in your body with excessive atmosphere.
So, we mined our collective memories and came up with
After the first shots and details of the upcoming Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie tie-in were released earlier this week, we shelled out some questions to Ubisoft's acclaimed Montreal Studio (the people behind such top titles as Prince of Persia and Splinter Cell ) to get some more details about what we can expect from its spin on the crime-repelling reptiles.
Nick Harper, TMNT 's creative director, steps up from the sewers to give us some answers...
Will players be able to choose which
Good news. Somewhere out there, somebody finds you absolutely irresistible. They're obsessed with you and want to spend every possible moment with you. They want to be with you when you watch TV, when you go to the movies and when you drive to work. And when you're sitting on the couch in your underwear playing Halo at 3 AM... that's when they want you the most.
Bad news? We're speaking, of course, about advertisers. With your eyes glued to the screen and your purchasing power proven (you
Every year is a good year for the PC. Computer gamers needn't worry about console launches, system shortages or a dearth of quality titles. They customize their own systems, they upgrade whenever they want or need to, and they get to play practically every game in some form. Usually with the best possible graphics. Last-gen, current-gen, next-gen... the PC is always in the cutting-edge generation.
Although this technological freedom translates into a variety and depth of games limited only by
The Zone may be something of a solitary place when you're adventuring through the story mode, but S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 's multiplayer component is anything but lonely. Spread across three distinct gameplay types, the competitive action is fast and deadly. Some of the multiplayer features are obviously inspired by previous hits - such as buying weapons before each round - while others are new innovations that help keep the run-and-gun action feeling
When you first start playing S.T.A.L.K.E.R.'s single player adventure, one of the biggest challenges is figuring out who (and what) else is out there. Because all of the different factions have their own motivations, it falls to the player to determine who is friend and who is foe.
Exploring the early levels, we ran across three competing factions of stalkers: Duty, Freedom and Loners. The Duty faction is composed of ex-military personnel who are driven by a desire to protect the world from
You murder friends and strangers everyday. Your bullets might shred their insides. Your missiles might leave them in chunks on the floor. But afterwards, you always fantasize about draining their life savings, leaving their family starving and homeless as the unsympathetic wind carries their tortured howls into nothingness.
On December 1st, your vile fantasies materialize with Skillground, the first internet service to combine senseless gambling expenditures with heartless murder simulations.
Adventuring through the Zone is a dangerous task. Natural dangers are everywhere and competing factions are none too happy about your presence. While a quick trigger finger is a necessity, it's not the only means of survival. In some cases it can actually be a hindrance, as conservation of ammo is a skill that you'll have to master early on.
Like many other FPS titles, STALKER features an impressive array of weapons from simple pistols, to shotguns to full on RPG launchers. On a first run
