PSP Features

It's everyone's favorite time of the year again, when thousands of overcaffeinated journalists descend upon E3 with their live-blogged, 2000-word diatribes on the most minor of details. The objects of their unending speculation? The biggest games of the show, which, oddly enough, have been known to the gaming press for months and will surprise literally no one.

That's why we're interested in games that haven't been seen, announced or

You’ll often hear about games lauded for their exceptional soundtracks. Some succeeded with NES-style bleeps, others had orchestral scores or fully licensed songs that lent credibility to a medium struggling to be more than a toy.

It's everyone's favorite time of the year again, when thousands of overcaffeinated journalists descend upon E3 with their live-blogged, 2000-word diatribes on the most minor of details. The objects of their unending speculation? The biggest games of the show, which, oddly enough, have been known to the gaming press for months and will surprise literally no one.

That's why we're interested in games that haven't been seen, announced or

Greetings! The time has come for your weekly dose of TalkRadar UK, so open wide your hungry ears. This week's team features Mr Cundy, Mr Towell and Mr Irvine - all of whom feel sufficiently qualified to talk things they have almost no information on. Like China.

More after the jump or...

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We've all seen dozens of lists over the years that recount all the things old-school game designers loved to include in their games for bizarre and unknown reasons, like exploding barrels and wolves that carry gold and chainmail for you to loot upon their death. Yes, these things were weird, and yes, they were ubiquitous in 8-,16-, and even 32-bit games.

Today, we’re taking a timeout to break through the fourth wall of online features about games to highlight the seven worst games set in the worlds of great games. Why? Because these minigames are a special breed of boring. We’re tired of tacked-on gambling activities, awful fictional sports, and stale satires of classic arcade hits that dwell in the bowels of some of the best games ever.

Why does this happen?

Like comic books and movies, videogames tend to present an exaggerated representation of men and women. Dudes are typically muscle-bound meatheads with powerful jaw lines and a thorough understanding of all forms of combat, while women generally have back-breaking chests and dress like strippers regardless of their profession.

Before we dunk our collective heads into the salty man-pool that is E3 2009, let’s take a moment to reflect on the events and images of E3 2004. Just five years ago Nintendo was struggling, Sony was unquestionably on top and Microsoft only had Halo 2 to keep fans attentive. Today… well, it’s a little different, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves

Gallus gallus domesticus. The humble chicken. Scratcher of dirt. Layer of eggs. Clucker of clucks. As if the indignity of intensive farming and being perched at the wrong end of the Kentucky Fried food chain isn't enough, this stoic, domesticated fowl now finds itself the most hated, ridiculed and victimised animal in video games.

This cruel turn of events - the story of which we are charting in this article - has to be seen as

Gamers are an excitable lot, prone to getting emotionally invested in a game during the very early stages of development thanks to hype alone. Unfortunately, all life is fragile, especially a life constantly threatened by budget constraints, callous publishers, encroaching projects and creeping deadlines. Any videogame that even makes it to store shelves is very lucky indeed, for there are many that fall by the wayside.

Take for example publisher Nibris' Sadness, the Wii game that never was, and most gamers had assumed never would be. Fair play to Nibris, they strung us along for quite a while before the curtain finally dropped, but was anybody surprised by its cancellation? Not really.

In honor of these aborted might-have-beens, join us for a list of canceled games from this generation that we find particularly tragic. Some of their deaths were shocking, some of them predictable, but their miserable, lonely deaths were most certainly a cause for sorrow...