Prince of Persia: Warrior Within

Thanks a bunch, Christopher Nolan. Ever since Batman Begins took the universally-reviled cinematic bastardization of a cool character and redrew it in the drab colors and long shadows of The Dark Knight Returns, the “gritty reboot” has been back in fashion. In Hollywood-speak, the term's a nice way of saying “we've screwed this up, can we have a do-over?” Of course, games being a forward-looking sort of medium, players have been wise to this trick for years now – and we're still suckers for it.

Whether it's a deeper-'n-darker sequel or restarting from scratch, rejigging your series with a darker palette and more distorted guitars is a great way to draw attention to what might otherwise be just more sequel-abuse. But how well does it work? From a player's perspective, a gray coat of paint is hardly going to turn gameplay upside down... but from a “cataloguing the tricks they'll pull to sell a new installment” standpoint, dark reboots are just gravy...

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...

Facelifts and other forms of cosmetic surgery aren’t just for aging MILFs, dried-up Hollywood C-listers and 40 stone blobs who have to get forklifted out of their beds. No, sometimes our favourite game stars need a bit of a nip and tuck too. After all, there’s no point battling hordes of the undead or saving the planet from a cult of religious alien zealots if you’re sporting last season’s armour or an out of date

There is no better way to end GamesRadar’s Shark Week than by preying upon sharkdom’s oldest and greatest catchphrase, “Jumping the Shark.” Popularized by the literal jumping of a shark in a 1977 episode of Happy Days, the colloquialism is now used to describe something veering into absurdity or lesser quality.

So many sequels, so much hype, so little time... Let our foolproof guide help you cut through the crap before it's even released

"Even before Prince of Persia was finished, we sat down and discussed what needed improving and how we could make this game even better." This is what we were told by Yannis Mallat, producer of Prince of Persia 2, during a recent visit. Three main areas were identified by Ubi Soft's in-house developers and we caught up with the game to see just how those improvements are coming along on Xbox and PS2.In particular, Ubi Soft highlighted the fighting system, replay value and longevity and, lastly,

What would you do if you could turn back time? Fans of Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time, whether paying punters or industry insiders, have been agonising over that question in recent months. Ubisoft's game generated a great deal of affection as it neared completion and then reached market last autumn, but that never quite seemed to translate into a tangible mass market presence and popularity. If expectations of an instant Vice City-sized cultural impact were a little extravagant, it's still