Kane & Lynch: Dead Men

One in five Americans are born with some sort of personality disorder – something that makes them zag when everyone else zigs. It might be as subtle as a nervous tic, as confusing as Asperger's or as overt as psychopathy. But mentally unstable individuals are part of the real world – and part of the world of videogames as well. Sometimes their damage leads them to be horrible, monstrous villains, and other times it can make them loyal friends, or complex protagonists. No matter what it does to them, though, it's usually hard not to be sympathetic to their problems, and to, in a way, fall in love with them... even if they're murdering sociopaths...

If there were a list of Rules for Videogames, the #1 rule would have to be, “Always make cutscenes skippable.” But the number two rule may very well be, “Don't play games based on movies.” It's a truth that's been self-evident rarely without exception ever since ET stunk up the Atari 2600.

But Rule #2's been in for some revision lately, as GoldenEye-shaped aberrations and Butcher Bay-escaping anomalies defy the “movie games are crap” truism. Maybe the way to make a non-terrible adaptation is to hold off until you're sure you have a classic property on your hands. Given movie games’ review history, the simple act of getting them to a stage where people say they’re “well-executed” or “worth the price” is a pretty big step...

A lot can happen in 10 years. And it has. As part of this week's post-mortem of the last decade in gaming, we now present for you some of the weirdest, depressing, arousing, significant, entertaining and amusing events, happenings and milestones that have occurred in the wonderful world of games during the soon-to-be-expired Noughties.

Anyone want to take bets on how long Bioshock 2’s multiplayer will last? If a multiplayer mode isn’t hugely popular, it isn’t at all. They either prosper or die, especially on consoles, where the community that can develop around dedicated servers isn’t present.

What's in a name? Well, when it comes to video games names, usually a lot of tiresome buzz words, clichéd phrases and way too much use of the letter x. We're tired of titles chosen by marketing men, which are more concerned with selling us an idea than telling us about the actual game. The following games are all guilty of these naming shames, so that's why we've given each a new moniker to more accurately sum up either what each one is about or the legacy each one has left.

Whatever you may think, no developer ever tries to make a bad game. So how does it feel when several years of work are met with bad reviews and internet snark?

Friday 6 October 2006 IO Interactive's psychotic adventure Kane & Lynch: Dead Men is leading the way for next-gen gaming. The infamous nightclub scene, featuring a hundred-strong crowd of dancing, writhing people, blew us away when we were treated to a recent close-up viewing. So, to get a deeper view on Kane & Lynch, we sat down with executive producer Neil Donnell and gave him the interrogation treatment. What's the reaction been to Kane & Lynch? In general it's been extremely positive.