Final Fantasy XIII

This weekend, GamesRadar wants to give you the chance to win a copy of Final Fantasy XIII as we prepare for our upcoming Final Fantasy-friendly reader meet-up next week. Enter today for a chance to win, and join us in San Francisco for more good times, free food, prizes, and hands-on time with Final Fantasy XIII-2…

If there’s one thing nerds love to do, it’s argue about our favorite things and which one is better. SNES or Genesis? Batman or Superman? Mike or Joel? Amongst the myriad of geeky topics than can spur internet flamewars, there’s a particularly contentious one: which Final Fantasy game is the best?

Anyone who has attempted to engage in such a debate has discovered something: your favorite FF game is somebody else’s least favorite FF game – and oftentimes for the very same exact reasons that you love it. With that in mind, we’ve set out to settle the debate once and for all. We’ve taken a long, hard look at all the mainline, numbered FF games – no spinoffs, no direct sequels ala X-2 – and have decided to end all arguments once and for all by describing why each and every one is simultaneously both the best and the worst Final Fantasy game ever. In the face of such irrefutable evidence, all arguments are certain to cease now and forevermore… right?

Is there such a thing as an actually funny videogame-themed joke? You may snort like a humourless pig at such an outrageous suggestion, but this week's TalkRadar UK team - along with the help of their stalwart listeners - prove that comedy and gaming can be compatible. So if you're looking for some killer gags to help you woo that special lady/gentleman gamer seeking a BFF with a GSOH, then this week's TalkRadar UK is for you.

There's all the usual juvenile stupidity, rambling nonsense, sexual repression and occassional outbursts of gaming-centric conversation, with additional disturbing recurring references to 'Cleveland steamers'. Regular host Nath is out of the country 'on business', so Cundy parks his ass in the Big Chair and makes futile attempts to control the irrepressible talkative force of Dave H and Meiks. Do your ears have balls big enough for Episode 71 of TalkRadar UK?

Mario, Kirby, Samus and Donkey Kong will not appear on these pages. Neither will Ezio, Sam Fisher or Commander Shepard. While we spent plenty of time with these videogame stars in 2010, they're old. Familiar. Expected. Lovable yet predictable.

You certainly can't say that about the following 10 characters, first introduced to us over the past 12 months. They're new. Surprising. Exciting. We'd barely heard of them at the start of the year, but by the end, we couldn't stop talking about them. Or wanting to see more of them...

Much like the latter missions in Red Dead Redemption, it's time to round up the cattle, or in this case guides, and wrangle them into the corral, this article. See, it's that kind of fantastic writing that gets me the respect I deserve. All joking aside, GamesRadar has put up a huge number of guides this year, and  this handy article is here to highlight some of the biggest and best from 2010. If you don't see a game you're looking for here, use our search function at the top of the page to find what you want, then click the cheats or guides tab on the page.

Looking for categories like Best PSP Driving Game? Greatest Achievement in Control Layout, Artistic? Eastern European Developer Most Worth Watching in 2011? Then our end-of-year awards might not be for you.

GamesRadar's Platinum Chalices are different. We're not interested in checking off a massively tedious list of genres, platforms and technical subdivisions… we'd much rather focus on the stuff that makes this hobby, you know, fun. And reward whichever games delivered the most of that stuff.

So if you're looking for the best fan service, most satisfying gore or greatest achievement in old-school kickassery in 2010, you've definitely come to the right celebration. Let's get it started…

How often do you examine videogame logos? Not regularly, we’d suspect, as there’s not a lot to look at beyond letters and possibly an emblem. But in the case of Final Fantasy, each logo has a distinct message to convey, and with XIII fresh in our minds and XIV on the horizon, we figured it was time to go through all the info tucked away in each game’s logo...

You've read this sort of feature before. Website X points out that Character Y looks a whole lot like Celebrity Z. Readers agree or disagree. Publish and repeat. The articles are always fun, but eventually, the same obvious choices show up again and again.

So what makes mine any different? I didn't decide these matches – an all-knowing, face-recognizing, database-searching, algorithm-crunching computer did!

The results were… unexpected.

 
Above: lonlonjp does classy acoustic guitar covers of great JRPG songs. He recently posted his 200th video

You’ve probably never heard of lonlonjp. But this YouTube user has posted tons of videos of him performing glorious guitar covers of some of our favorite videogame songs of all time. In fact, he’s just posted his 200th video. That’s why we wanted to take some time to congratulate lonlonjp on his recent milestone and to thank him for his contributions to the videogame music scene…

2010 is special. Normally, when we choose the best games from the first half of the year, we're taking time to recognize and celebrate stuff that will be forgotten by December. Take a look at 2009's winner, for example, and then check how many Platinum Chalices that title received just a few months later. From number one… to only one mention.

This Top 7, however, could easily serve as a blueprint for our eventual end-of-year awards. Six of the games received "10/10" from GamesRadar, and total countdown combined, almost 150 perfect scores from the industry as a whole. What follows, then, aren't merely the best of 2010 so far. Judging by their quality and by the rest of the release calendar, these might be the best of 2010 – period.