Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence

Week of Hate 2011 officially begins today, giving us yet another opportunity to spew venom and whine like babies about the industry that we love the remaining 51 weeks of the year. And in keeping with past tradition, we’re trotting out some of gaming’s most beloved, venerable franchises this week for the sole purpose of picking apart their flaws and upsetting their fans. We’ll start with Metal Gear, a series that has spent roughly the past 10 years turning itself into one of the weirdest, most divisive, love-it-or-hate-it propositions in modern gaming...

The UK GamesRadar team returns for the weekly minigame challenge. After last week's pin on a foam sword Jousting Challenge, things get a bit silly. It's time to see who can kick Justin's toy monkey the farthest. Will it be Dave H, who insists as long as the monkey feels pain everyone wins? Will it be Justin, with his unfair and totally non-relegation 'moon boots'? Or will it be Matt Cundy, the Cornish Pasty-powered kicking machine, fresh off the back of two minigame victories? Let's kick the monkey and find out!

With a storyline so baffling even Kojima doesn’t understand it, it’s only prudent we set straight the events leading to Metal Gear Solid: Rising. Be prepared for detail so utter, it may cause brainlock. Here is the complete timeline, including events not occurring directly in any of the games...

After the mixed reactions to Metal Gear Solid 2, MGS creator Hideo Kojima and his development crew decided to that the follow-up would be a more traditional prequel that starred a Snake, which was very preferable to a Raiden. But the team still took risks, with Metal Gear Solid 3’s Cold War-era espionage and the addition of a continually decreasing stamina gauge. The setting gave it a ‘60s vibe and the stamina meant Snake needed to be eating throughout the game. But how do you express those aspects in one succinct opening? With the song Snake Eater composed by Norihiko Hibino and sung by Cynthia Harrell...

Sony seems to be on something of an HD remake kick lately. This week finally brought us long-awaited confirmation that the Ico and Shadow of the Colossus Collection will head our way sometime next year; with last year’s God of War Collection and the upcoming Sly Collection, that brings to three the number of classic PS2 series Sony’s retrofitting with 1080p visuals and Trophies, before re-releasing as budget-priced PS3 games.

This is a trend we can really get behind; as much as we love our old PS2 games, we can barely stand to look at them anymore. Give them a makeover so they don’t look crap on our new TVs, though, and we’re all over them. With that in mind, here are a few other series from the last generation we’d love to see resurrected for the modern age of HD consoles...

Pac-Man and Mario owned the 1980s. Sonic, Lara and Snake took over for the 1990s. Their games are considered classics. Their names are timeless and iconic. Their images are burned into the memory of every gamer, even those who were born after the characters themselves.

Now we have another ten years worth of heroes, villains, sidekicks and love interests to occupy our imagination. Which, however, will remain there?

For too long, political correctness has choked expression much like smoking might choke someone’s lungs. Back in the good old days, it was common for prominent pillars of society to be seen smoking: baseball players, gangsters, Popeye. Now it’s incredibly frowned upon, because “smoking may slowly kill you,” if you believe “proven medical facts.”

VIDEO: A soundtrack mash-up so epic it could put you in hospital.

Hide and seek is one of the oldest playground games in existence. It only makes sense to translate the thrill of escaping your friends’ clutches into a digital form. After all, “don’t get caught” is a parameter gamers can instantly recognize.

It’s a simple premise that has expanded from outwitting a single enemy unit into outthinking collective AI.

To celebrate Independence Day (the holiday, not the movie), we’ve scoured our encyclopedic minds for the most patriotic games to be developed. But that wasn’t funny enough. So, we dug deeper to find the most rabidly patriotic games every developed. Ya know - the ones with so much love for Old Glory that it starts to get a little ridiculous. Behold - our results!

America's ArmyUS Army | 2002Any game can add the word