Pain, eh? Nature's way of saying 'this'll learn ya' when you do something stupid like fall on your keys in a nettle patch made of razor wire. With salt on it. Videogame-wise, however, there's virtually no chance a game will be able to physically cause you pain. Thankfully, there's a much more cathartic alternative - you get to inflict it instead. ...

It's been a good eight months since the anarchic, Jackass-inspired destruction-porn game PAIN hit the PlayStation Network, and the game is finally getting a second level. The good news is that the game's new playground - a massive, working indoor carnival called Abusement Park - is bigger, brighter and offers many more opportunities for bone-crunching hilarity than its predecessor. It'll also be released alongside two new characters (who we ...

Whether you think games are art -- a nebulous, easily dead-ended debate -- or not, there's no denying that a helluva lot of art goes into making games, at the very least. But with so many governing channels to go through in the creative process, many bigger-budget games become more researched and focus-tested in their appeal, shorn of any greater risks they might have once taken -- aesthetic or otherwise -- along the way. ...

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. ...

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. ...

The art, science, and tragic history of the greatest gaming innovation known to man. ...