Fallout 3

In honor of the New Year, here's a look at the franchises that rose from their own ashes to become something completely different. If they could reinvent themselves, why can't you?

Game music has been a passion of ours roughly since, oh, 1985, but in the past 10 years, it’s come to mean something more. Don’t get us wrong, we still love the beepatronic music of the 8- and 16-bit periods (and the wave of chiptune artists it inspired), but the past decade has also seen licensed music become a surprisingly important part of gaming. Sometimes, this just means a selection of familiar hits to accompany our music games, but every so often, a game will use licensed tracks to careful, brilliant effect – and in the process, will expose legions of gamers to music they might never have heard otherwise.

What follows are the games and franchises that have been the most influential in bringing strange and terrifying new musical styles to gamers’ ears – and in the interest of making this our most self-indulgent Top 7 since that other one, we’ve asked a handful of our editors to explain what made each one important to them personally...

NO! We’re not talking about frigging hockey masks! Nobody has ever strapped on this mouthless, empty-eyed, bone-colored facial façade with the intent of instilling a victim with the fear and intimidation that comes with facing down a goaltender. No, virtually every game character not playing for the NHL who’s ever put on a hockey mask is doing it for one reason, and one reason only: to crib from Jason Voorhees. And that’s our incredibly loose criteria here.

With that in mind, we tried to find as many instances of characters dressing up as Friday the 13th’s hero (yes, he is the hero) in honor of Halloween. So turn out your lights and put the lawyers to bed... it’s time for Jason Masks. Let’s start with the obvious...

You don’t HAVE to read this feature to play and love Fallout: New Vegas. In just a few hours wandering its vast, open world, you’ll already have seen a mutant hulk wearing sunglasses, drunk babes dancing in a fountain, and possibly geckos the size of a pool table. It’s going to hook you deep, trust us. But if you want to truly appreciate the game, you SHOULD read this feature. Why? Because you’ll learn a megaton of critical information about the franchise’s history, both in the real world and in its in-game universe. And that’ll make you love it even more.

So when did the end of the world begin? Back in 1997…

Gaming hoaxes are nasty things. People spend hours searching in the woods of San Andreas looking for Bigfoot, trying to unlock Sheng Long in Street Fighter II and looking for the blood code on the SNES version of Mortal Kombat. They simply aren't there. But that doesn't stop idiots from perpetuating the myths, adding 'evidence' to new rumours and watching the forums light up.

The latest is a corker - Fallout 3 is predicting the future. Will the Queen die on March 19, 2014? Will Britney win an Oscar in 2023? All signs point to no. But then you hear the story...

There aren't many things that everyone in the world goes through in life. Being born is one of those things. But, strangely, this most natural of bodily functions is very rarely tackled in video games. Maybe it's because babies come from a part of a woman that you just can't show in a game (unless you're rendering character statues in Resident Evil 5, apparently). Or maybe there just aren't enough virtual clean towels and hot water to go around.

So, clearly, when a game does tackle this subject, it's almost always memorable. So here are the top 7 births in gaming.

Ah, Easter time. When rabbits run around leaving little chocolate presents for us to find and we get two of our bank holidays all at once (don't worry about spreading them out or anything... grumble).

But wait! Easter eggs are not only of the lovely chocolate variety - the term also applies to cool secrets found in videogames. So here are some of our more recent favourites along with links to more Easter Egg articles - just remember to brush your teeth afterwards!

Looks like there are some serious health and safety issues over at the home of the Fallout 3 developer. If you thought the Wastelands were hazardous, just check out these photos taken inside the Bethesda building.

The characters and environments of the gaming world are so colourful and exciting, it’s little wonder they inspire many of us to pick up our crayons and coloured pencils and have a go at recreating them – or even reimagining them – ourselves. The numbers of drawings we've seen of your favourite characters just goes to show how popular it’s become to take the game art world into your own hands.

In the context of a game, Achievements and Trophies are harmless. They're just carrot-dangling tactics that we're happy to indulge for our greedy pursuit of intangible virtual rewards. We wouldn't think twice about nail-bombing a kitten orphanage if it meant five more gamer points.

But, let's say, purely for the purposes of this here article, that we take Achievements and Trophies out of their virtual world settings and reconsider them