PS2 Features

History’s filled with exciting people and events, which has made it something of a goldmine for videogame premises over the years. However, not a lot of people actually pay close attention to history – and even if they did, sketchy records and opinionated historians have large chunks of it fairly murky. That means games, like other forms of history-exploiting media, can get away with bending the truth, leaving out key details or just creating wildly fictionalized versions of factual events.

Sometimes, though, they take it a little too far, and portray real people as slavering, irredeemable monsters for the sake of entertainment. So let’s take a loot at a few of the most egregious examples and try to set the record straight...

A few new options in the menu and we'd all be having more fun playing games. What new options? These new options...

Game manuals used to be more awesome than the actual games they described. They had pictures and charts and words about monsters and everything else that is cool and good. And sometimes they had pages for notes, but you’d never write on them (the manual must be kept pristine).

Most of today's manuals are short and boring and tell you nothing. They're flimsy, pathetic leaflets, and their only purpose is to make game boxes feel a little heavier, because they just feel weird otherwise...

Yesterday the rumour dropped that some of us have been waiting for since the PS3 launched. And when I say 'some of us' I mean anyone who's finished Ico and Shadow of the Colossus three and seven times respectively <cough>. That's right, it looks like two of the most beautiful, evocative games ever <sniff> could be hitting PS3 in shiny Blu-ray form in full HD some time next year. And inside, you'll see just how purdy they'll look.

In September 2009 two Left 4 Dead fans, under the pseudonyms of Walking Target and Agent of Chaos, were taken on a guided tour of Valve’s HQ and treated to an exclusive sneak peek of Left 4 Dead 2, by Valve's Gabe Newell. The pair had been invited to the studio as special guests after they boycotted L4D’s sequel over concerns that promised DLC for the game would be dropped.

2008's Alone in the Dark can be summarized in two words: poor execution. The game was a technical mess, wrapped within a ridiculous story, but its ambition and attempt at innovation are impossible to deny. In fact, Alan Wake – which released last week to mostly positive reviews – shares many of the same ideas and concepts.

The one very distinguishable difference? Alan Wake is actually good, while Alone in the Dark is clearly not. Here's how two surprisingly similar games ended up so far apart in quality...

This week's release of Red Dead Redemption has put us on something of a Western kick lately, and with good reason: it's an amazing game. As amazing as it is, however, there's one thing from its predecessor, Red Dead Revolver, that we really miss: the soundtrack. While it wasn't heavily advertised at the time, one of the original Red Dead's coolest features was that its music was licensed from old spaghetti-western and exploitation films. And while we don't normally cover licensed tunes in this feature, the game had such a uniquely badass sound - and used such relatively obscure tracks - that we think we can get away with it, just this once.

Isn't living in the future sweet? We can trade gameplay videos in Halo 3 and Forza 3, race open-world style with Burnout Paradise, screw over our compatriots in EVE Online, or wreak havoc on bustling cities in Grand Theft Auto. Except, most of the aforementioned features have been around for decades. You see, the games that actually pioneered these mind-blowing features that we take for granted today have been unjustly forgotten. Well, we're here to remedy that with the unsung heralds of progress: games that were truly ahead of their time...

The eject button is an integral part of most game consoles. Without the eject button we wouldn't be able to get games back out of the machine again. So it's pretty important. In celebration of this often neglected feature, here are the 5 console ejections that have satisfied me the most over the years.

After all, it's not just about what you put in. It's about how you get it back out again.

TalkRadar UK is a weekly podcast from the gentlemen of GamesRadar UK. If you're looking for insightful, witty and considered game conversation, interspersed with serious debate about the pressing game issues of the day - you might as well click back and moonwalk the hell out of here.