PS3 Features

Diablo III may look awesome, but it’ll be quite some time before the franchise that redefined the dungeon crawling genre hits store shelves. In the meantime, Sacred 2 continues to look like a sweet sequel for lovers of leveling up and loot. We recently scored an exclusive sneak peek at the Dryad, one of the new classes lined up for Sacred 2. Scroll on for some fresh screenshots and a first look at her deadly skills.

Above: The

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

Mario is a cultural phenomenon. Final Fantasy is epic. Resident Evil, Fallout, Diablo... all of these classic franchises will eventually be tossed away, but they won't be stamped with expiration dates anytime in the foreseeable future.

Other franchises started growing mold before they even left the grocery store shelves.

The somehow-less-inspired franchises may sell millions, contain lovable

More than a GTA clone, the original game packed in hours of explosive misbehavior, an above average storyline, and was consistently fun from beginning to end. Lo and behold, it looks as if Saints Row 2 will return with all the Boom necessary for a proper gangland killing spree.

You might want to sit down for this, and if you happen to already be sitting, stand up so you can sit back down and experience our one-on-one talkin’ to with Cliffy B, the man behind all things Gears of War. Then we’re out to guess a series of iconic video game sound effects – those that stump the T-Dar crew are your chance to hop in the forum and win a GR t-shirt.

Some characters are just doomed to die in games. It seems the Nazis were born to wear sharp uniforms and chow down on your bullets like a tasty bratwurst. Cops are always destined to get blown up by your rocket launcher a day before retirement. And the sole purpose of videogame zombies is to have Piñata-style heads that explode with the slightest contact – just replace the tasty treats with festering bits of frontal

Mario is a cultural phenomenon. Final Fantasy is epic. Resident Evil, Fallout, Diablo... all of these classic franchises will eventually be tossed away, but they won't be stamped with expiration dates anytime in the foreseeable future.

Other franchises started growing mold before they even left the grocery store shelves.

The somehow-less-inspired franchises may sell millions, contain lovable

2008 is nearly over, and thusly there aren’t as many new games to discuss. But fear not! We instead recount the prettiest (read: most colorful) games of the year, then ponder aloud how Nintendo was able to sell 800,000 Wiis last month (until we found it was actually 2.2 million) and subject you to an NES song so bizarrely long you’ll wonder how anyone could stand it.

Rest up this weekend kiddies, cuz starting next week there’s a nonstop barrage of quality games coming out, right up until New Year’s Eve. This week we talk about the first games in that wave (Dead Space, Saints Row 2, Wii Music), plus the toughest opening levels of all time, then hit the forums for your answers to last week’s poll.

Be sure to listen for a special appearance by the Dark Lord of the Sith as well.

Saints Row 2 is not a better game than Grand Theft Auto IV. Let’s just get that out of the way now. Its action isn’t too deep, its story is kind of stupid and it’s nowhere near as immersive as the game that its detractors will accuse it of copying. The reality, though, is that Saints Row 2 isn’t trying to be GTA IV at all. In fact, it seems specifically designed for people who hate GTA IV.