We suspect it’s very difficult to work in game advertising. Videogames are a scary new artistic medium, and as such, not everyone knows how to market them – even to their target demographic. More than with anything else, videogame ad-makers love to target their audience with sex and sexy imagery, but that’s nothing surprising – advertisers have been using gender dynamics to sell products on TV since the folgers coffee days. ... » Read More

27 Nov 2009

All that glitters: A gold farming report

PS2 Feature | PlayStation 2

For millions of MMO players, there was no love lost. In fact, last July’s widespread report, that the Chinese government had banned gold farming, was met with giddy rapture. For years, gold farmers had been the worker ants in games like World of Warcraft and EverQuest, trading virtual loot for real-world profit. ... » Read More

25 Nov 2009

Best of the Black Friday deals

PS2 Feature | PlayStation 2

Given the current state of the economy, and the vigor with which store are going after what’s left of your dollar, we’re going to go ahead and declare this post-Thanksgiving Shopstravaganza of November 27th, 2009… The Blackest Friday. Retailers are well aware of your finiancial plight, and are dropping the prices on games so fresh off the press the cellophane is still melty. ... » Read More

19 Nov 2009

The secret shops of Akihabara

PS2 Feature | PlayStation 2

Whether you’re looking for electronics, hardware, anime, games, or anything remotely geeky, you’ll find it in Akihabara, a bustling shopping district in Tokyo, Japan. Located just north of Tokyo Station, Akihabara is really three towns in one. It’s a haven for tech hobbyists, a paradise for anime fans and gamers, and a popular tourist destination. ... » Read More

17 Nov 2009

Fanboys: 8 reasons why they deserve some respect

PS2 Feature | PlayStation 2

To be called a 'fanboy' is one of the worst insults in gaming. It suggests a misguided person characterised by an irrational devotion to a piece of software or soulless mega-corporation. A person incapable of intelligent thought. A person that is a despised twat.But wait. Let's cut them some slack for a moment and think what purpose fanboys actually serve (beyond being a dumping ground for derision). We fancied a bit of a challenge, ... » Read More

6 Nov 2009

50 iPhone games you need to play

PS2 Feature | PlayStation 2

Is there anything better than a bag of popcorn, a cushy sofa on which to recline and an iPhone or iPod Touch loaded with games? Well yeah, there is, especially considering what popcorn fingers can do to a touchscreen. But when you’re on a bus on your way to work, being able to punch up a bloody gorefest like Alive 4-ever or kick it through the uprights in a football sim does help while away the commute time. ... » Read More

6 Nov 2009

100 A buttons

PS2 Feature | PlayStation 2

How many times in your life have you pressed “A” on a NES controller? Though we may not specifically remember every single occurrence of A-button pressage, we are left with a lingering sense of what that little red dynamo could do. Jumping, mostly, and sometimes shooting or punching or maybe some other stuff if it was one of those weird games. ... » Read More

30 Oct 2009

50 3D milestones in gaming

PS2 Feature | PlayStation 2

All this week our friends at 3D World have been looking at the landmark 3D titles in gaming, starting in the arcades and charting the most cutting-edge advances in 3D technology all the way to the games that we play on home consoles today.Night Driver (Atari, 1976)Generally held to be the very first 3D video game, Atari’s Night Driver managed to conjure a 3D experience out of very little computing horsepower by ... » Read More

26 Oct 2009

The Top 7... Scariest games you've never played

PS2 Feature | PlayStation 2

We fear the unknown. Psychologists have proven that nothing troubles the human mind more, in fact, than that which cannot be predicted. Our phobias of death, darkness and strangers all stem from this single, simple truth. Apparently, so does our predictable taste in horror games. ... » Read More

20 Oct 2009

The top videogame controller buttons - Part 1

PS2 Feature | PlayStation 2

Back before you were a gamer, we didn’t have the multi-button, clickable-thumbstick, solar-powered controller gizmos you have today. We used to have to invite friends over and work together to push down the A-button because it was too stiff to move on our own. If we were lucky, we’d get two, maybe three good presses in before it got stuck and Mario just had to hope the rest of the level was flat. ... » Read More

15 Oct 2009

Scandal! 10 true scare stories about videogames

PS2 Feature | PlayStation 2

Let’s pretend, for a second, that everything bad anyone ever said about videogames was true. Why, we’d all be suicidal pixel-junkies, protected from our desperate self-hatred only by our own slovenliness! The world would be safe from our sociopathic, car-jacking, handgun-happy death wishes merely because we were too busy installing an IV drip to provide us with the powdered-cheese sustenance necessary to gain another level in World of Warcraft! ... » Read More

13 Oct 2009

10 amazing 'one-button' iPod Touch and iPhone...

PS2 Feature | PlayStation 2

Apple’s iPhone and iPod Touch have no tactile buttons at all for gaming. But it doesn't matter. The ‘prod mechanic’ is ideal for a platform sometimes problematic when it comes to precision controls and the simplistic, single finger approach has given us a whole bunch of addictive, immediate, accessible games. Here are 10 of the best.CanabaltBuy it from the App Store The Flash sensation makes a ... » Read More

6 Oct 2009

6 things about games that aren't true

PS2 Feature | PlayStation 2

Anything new and relatively untested will be subject to more misconceptions than facts. Ridiculous and sensational news reports about the seedy underbelly of Animal Crossing and batshit-insane lawyers like Jack Thompson have diluted the truth about gaming. Combine their ignorance with our own misconceptions as gamers, and there’s a lot of nonsense to sort out. We can’t sort it all out, but we can at least hit some of the bigger points of confusion with our hammer of truth and brief internet research ... » Read More

6 Oct 2009

Five Tokyo Game Show titles you may never see

PS2 Feature | PlayStation 2

The Tokyo Game Show used to be filled with eccentric Japanese titles, destined to be locked away from all but the most hardcore collectors. Those days are over. Almost every major upcoming title on show this year was confirmed for release outside of Japan. ... » Read More

1 Oct 2009

10 game ads that are horribly up their own ass

PS2 Feature | PlayStation 2

Most game ads are usually a bit rubbish. But we can forgive them, because whether pushing Z listers ‘enjoying’ entertaining interactive products or offending our ears with a cheesy, booming voiceover, most of them are just charmingly clueless. The following ads are guilty of a much worse crime, though. They all utterly adore themselves. Self-indulgent, self-loving bullshit, below you’ll find cynical commercials that have ... » Read More

30 Sep 2009

13 iPhone RPGs with some bite

PS2 Feature | PlayStation 2

Waiting sucks. Period. Fortunately, there is a cure. While many iPhone games lean towards the short, cute, and casual end of the spectrum, we’ve consulted the dark tome of Baphomet to summon forth a demonically delicious sampling of portable RPG gems capable of consuming voluminous amounts of time and possibly a few souls. Not afraid to geek out in public? We’ve got your back ... » Read More

30 Sep 2009

Absolutely terrifying 'sexy' images of 8-bit...

PS2 Feature | PlayStation 2

Women in games are, generally speaking, made to be pleasing to the eye. They're perfectly formed pretty-faced beauties. But game makers haven't always had the necessary tools to create such impossible visions of lovely. Back in the day, coders and artists tried their hardest to make sexy using nothing but a cripplingly limited colour palette and a bunch of hard-edged pixels. Some did an admirable job, others made images that were nothing ... » Read More

29 Sep 2009

TGS 09: Cosplayers and booth babes

PS2 Feature | PlayStation 2

The booths are closed, the fans have gone home, and now there’s nothing to do but sit and wait for the inevitable blitz of games to arrive this holiday. This was a transitional year for the Tokyo Game Show. Major companies, like EA, were missing, new game announcements were far and few, and show attendance was lower than previous years. Some developers openly talked about the death of the Japanese game industry. Others simply viewed ... » Read More

29 Sep 2009

9 Facebook games worth playing

PS2 Feature | PlayStation 2

Question: what gaming platform has a userbase that rivals the entire current generation of consoles? If you answered Facebook, well, you're partly right. It may not have been originally designed for games, but the social networking platform has steadily built up a library of titles that are sure to distract you when you should really be getting some work done. The problem is, the games section is filled with so much crap that it can be tough to find a good game ... » Read More

17 Sep 2009

QOTW: What's the first game you bought on your...

PS2 Feature | PlayStation 2

It could be the first game you bought after escaping the bonds of your parents with your very own driver's license, or the first game you bought with money you earned from your first job. In other words, what was the first game you acquired without having to beg for a Christmahanaquanzika present? ... » Read More