PC Features

You know, I was really enjoying Dead Space 2. Really, really enjoying it. When I started playing it a few months ago I hadn’t yet found a game of 2011 that had really clicked with me, but Dead Space 2’s improved narrative, nigh-perfect pacing, and beautifully judged, cranked-up set-pieces struck one hell of a chord. It was a big, ominous, bassy chord, like the kind that plays when something looms up out of the darkness behind an unsuspecting soon-to-be-meat-pile in a horror film. And I loved it. But I’ll probably never finish it.

The reason? A game-killing glitch that turned up at the start of chapter 12, a few hours from the end. An unfixable, go-back-to-the-start glitch that vetoed my last ten hours of gameplay, and which I know has been documented all over the internet but never patched out. And that got me thinking about the issue of glitches. Which are acceptable? Which aren't? Do they really matter? And who's fault are they anyway? And I actually surprised myself a bit. So I wrote something about it.

Sometimes we’re let down by big, blockbuster games failing to live up to their potential. In fact, it happens at least a few times a year, and we’re sure to see a few of 2011’s big holiday releases fall flat on their faces.

Other times, however, the exact opposite occurs; that rarest of occasions where a game that looks absolutely, positively dreadful ends up being good… or great. It’s less frequent, that’s to be sure, but it’s exciting when we go in with low hopes and leave with a smile on our faces. In 2007 we took a list of games with strange, seemingly uninteresting concepts and got together a list that succeeded our wildest dreams, and now we’re taking another look—this time at a different list of games that rose above the rest and proved us all wrong...

Pokemon Monday is back this week to catch up on all the latest news in the Pokemon world, including discussion on the 2011 world championships, the Trading Card Game Online beta, and a roundup of our favorite Pokemon webcomics. Plus, we say goodbye to Brett one last time. Download link inside!

Can’t be in LA for the biggest multiplayer party ever thrown? Well there’s still time, man! Okay, assuming you can’t hop on a plane on a moment’s notice, we’ve got you covered. In our exclusive little photo gallery we'll show you the whole shebang from end to end. From the recreated IRL Burgertown and Scrapyard paintball course, to the FOUR HUNDRED or so Xbox 360s running one of the most anticipated games of the decade, your chance to see everything Call of Duty XP has on display is only a click away…

Goodbyes are never easy, but at least we made it funny...

Call of Duty, it's not unfair to surmise, gets a bit of a bad rap these days. Yes, it's understandable that many dislike the series' arguable Michael Bayifying of recent years, and of course, as we all know, increased popularity and commercial success is inherently inverse to the continuing quality of anything. But cut through the current popular opinion and you'll remember that the CoD series has thrown out some absolute stormers in the past. And none moreso storming than Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. Which you can currently get for a tenner.

Click on for the details of this, as well as a couple of other low-cost downloadable treats this week.

Jesus Christ, you guys. This isn't even the holiday season, and look at how many games are coming out. This is unreasonable. Publishers can't realistically expect to make money in September, can they? Ah, hell, who are we kidding? We're gonna buy almost every friggin' one of these releases before claiming bankruptcy. Just in time for October's similarly unfair set of releases to overwhelm us all over again. Well, until then…

I could harp on about the original Deus Ex, how great it was, its legacy and all that, but I already did that in my review. Instead I’ll focus on what makes Deus Ex: Human Revolution this month’s winner. DX:HR lets you figure out how you want to play the game, a huge departure from the endless hand-holding corridor slogs that compose a frighteningly large portion of the current gaming landscape. There’s a lot of stuff in DX:HR you won’t see on your first time through, and the way the story shifts and secrets get revealed according to how you play will bring you back again and again.

Standing in front of a giant Mass Effect 3 graphic at the BioWare booth at PAX Prime, Jennifer Hale seems out of place. In a sea of mostly young male gamers with eyes glazed over from either standing in line or staring at screens most of the weekend, Hale looks bright eyed and exudes excitement at being surrounded by, in her own words, “my people”...