Defense of the Ancients (also known as DotA) just might be the most important mod ever made for a PC game. DotA is one of the main reasons why millions of players still play Warcraft III today, and it has influenced quite a few recently released and upcoming spiritual successors to the team-based/action RTS ...

It’s been about six years since Defense of the Ancients, a multiplayer mod for Warcraft III, was released - and it’s still making waves. It’s one of the main reasons why players still logon to play Warcraft III to this day - and lately, we’ve seen its influence on several recently released and upcoming team-based RTS/action games. But one of the most interesting DotA-like titles is right around the corner. ...

You don’t have to see or play absolutely everything on this list to be a proper zombie connoisseur, but you should at least know them. These are the genre’s defining relics. Some are responsible for the very creation of the zombie mythos, others adapted and advanced it, while the rest simply encapsulate it so exquisitely that they must be experienced. This may not be everyone’s definitive list of zombie lore ...

If Left 4 Dead has any one problem, it’s the sheer bloody length of its campaign missions. With four chapters in a campaign it’s perfectly possible to spend an hour blazing through zombie hordes, but with eight chapters in a versus match games drag on.

So goes Valve’s justification for Crash Course’s half-hour, two chapter length. It all sounds a little suspect, but it turns out they’re on to something ...

Online gaming is completely different to offline play. There's a tangible buzz and quickening of the heart-rate when you're leading a race on the last lap or sniping some guy in Australia, which you simply can't get from a single-player experience. But this experience can be so easily ruined by a few small things ...

Unless you’re an eagle-eyed bargain hunter, the price of videogames can put a serious dent in your finances. Here in the US, $60 a pop means the game in question needs to offer hours of content to offset the steadily increasing cost. ...

Fact: zombie invasions suck. Just ask anyone who’s been through one, and he’ll tell you: “bluurble gurrble braiiins.” Does that sound like the guttural moaning of someone who had a good time? No, it sure as shit does not. ...

And why they'd be the most awesome grandparents in the world. ...

You know the only real problem with downloadable content? It’s typically designed by the same people who made the original game. That’s boring. Why not give other folks, who don’t necessarily worry about whether something is “a good idea” or “sensible” or “legal,” a shot? Sure our ideas might be a little unusual at times, and a couple of them could conceivably land someone in jail. ...

Making games is hard. Making fun of them isn’t. It’s really, really easy, actually. Of course, we wouldn’t be so critical if we didn’t love them so damn much (and if we weren’t, you know, critics). We think games are just the bee’s knees, and that’s why we get so pissed about all the stupid crap they do ...