PC Features

Ever wanted an inside look at how GR does its beeswax? HEY! LISTEN to our behind-the-scenes podcast special! Go balls deep inside our hated character selection process, then on into our riveting battle royale. Who will emerge as the best worst character? No idea, but you should listen anyway…

Remember back when the summer used to be a barren wasteland for game releases? Dark days. This month kicks off what looks to be the busiest summer break in years, with more games coming in May than we can reasonably get to. We're getting a healthy mix of surefire hits and potential surprises across PC and all consoles - even the 3DS is picking up some steam. Pour one out for your bank account, a true friend who simply can't survive the overwhelming demand of May...

We know that all the Portal 2 love is getting tiresome for the less-enthused, but bear with us for another moment, because we feel that the praise is not only well-deserved, it's important. Valve has released yet-another game that's innovative, well-written, well-paced, bug-free, beautiful, charming, and refined. What are our primary complaints about modern games? They're repetitive, poorly-written, buggy, contain unnecessary fluff, and pander to made-up bags of testosterone. Valve makes showing the rest of the industry how it's done look effortless...

In a world with fancy spaceships, lightsabers and the awe-inspiring power of the Force, it's no surprise that useful upgrades come wrapped in colorful cube-shaped holocron packaging. Picking up these cubes in Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2 will net you a health bar increase, Force bar increase or a new crystal for your lightsaber. When tapping into your own midi-chlorians isn't enough for the Force to lead you to each of the game's 45 holocrons, don't sweat; we'll show you the location of every last cube of knowledge.

Make it through Medal of Honor's campaign in record time with our handy walkthrough. Strategies and help for every level.

Having trouble finding some of those pesky Minikits? In addition to netting you a ton of studs, collecting all the Minikits in a level unlocks a special character, a coveted Gold Brick, and a higher level of completion...

To celebrate the five-year anniversary of GamesRadar, we’re bringing back some of our favourite features from the past. This is one I have a particular soft spot for. I'm pretty damn passionate about my game music, you see, so I find it frustrating that some of my favourite sounds often fall by the wayside when it comes to widespread recognition. Certain games and composers are (deservedly) lauded on a consistent basis, but other, equally good music never seems to be mentioned. Sometimes the game was too obscure. Sometimes the music was too leftfield. Sometimes the tunes were just overshadowed by rival works, and sometimes other elements of the games themselves became better remembered.

So I decided to put that right with this feature. And I've also added a little bit of content to this new version. I discovered a rather amazing and little-spoken-of soundtrack after publishing the article the first time round, and ended up kicking myself as a result. So it's tagged onto the end as a bit of bonus content. Just think of this as '23 amazing game soundtracks you don't remember: Turbo Edition'.

On the internet, character battles are nothing new – and all too frequently, they’re little more than popularity contests, with fans voting in online polls to determine which of their favorite characters would “win” in a “fight.” While we’re fans of democracy, some hypothetical situations are better decided by experts. So for Week of Hate 2011, we’ve pulled together some of GamesRadar’s most foremost experts (on… stuff) and used our patented scientific methods to come up with a list of 32 of gaming’s most hated, incompetent, annoying characters, and then decide who would win in a fight based on names drawn from a hat.

The brackets are set, the combatants are ready, and the fights are probably fixed. It’s anyone’s guess who’ll win, but one thing is sure: whoever comes out ahead, you’ll probably hate them...

This week's giveaway includes two mighty mugs fresh from Undercity and Orgrimmar. But these are no run of the mill mugs - the Orgrimmar conveyance hath serviced the maw of Garrosh Hellscream while the Undercity tankard hath had only the finest undead meads sipped through the lips of Sylvanas Windrunner. At least that's what the Wiki tells me, because I have no idea what any of that crap means.

Nothing is perfect. Everything is flawed. Your favorite game? My favorite game? GamesRadar’s best games of all time? In some way, either small and very specific or immense and impossible to ignore, they ALL suck.

To prove that point for our 4th Annual Week of Hate – the magical time each year when we wholeheartedly celebrate our cynicism – I’ve compiled a list of 55 fantastic games and game franchises, then focused only on what they did wrong. These are such glaring weaknesses and obvious missteps, in fact, that I’m confident you can recognize most if not all of them through a single symbolic image – no text necessary. Once you’ve tested your aptitude for hatred, keep it going in the comments by posting your own personal pet peeves...