Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep

We've already ranked our Top 7 favorite Final Fantasy games but now it's all about the spinoffs. With the release of Final Fantasy XIII-2 this week, we decided to go back and look at all the games that were not part of the main series...

Do you own a PSP but have no idea what games you should play? It can be tough choosing from the huge library of games available, but we’ve got you covered with a list of our 10 most highly acclaimed, must-play games on Sony’s portable…

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…

Well it's that time of year again, the dog days of summer have just wrapped up and you're either headed back to school or you're grinding away at work, except now it'll be darker sooner, and colder to boot. If there's one upside to the lack of sun and incoming miserable weather, it's that you can feel less guilty for locking yourself in your room and tearing into a stack of games. This week we've got a FAQ for  Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep (make sure your room is properly ventilated before blowing all the dust off of your PSP), and some helpful strategies from Tyler Nagata and Matt Keast about Starcraft 2 and RTSes in general. Also, Mafia 2!

This unusual-but-awesome episode features a rapid-fire first segment with post-PAX impressions, the worst game ports, new releases, game deals, and more, followed by two very special 'lost' segments which we recorded with a live, drunk audience at PAX last weekend...

Happy 10th episode! Tons of trailers came out of Gamescom 2010 last week, and we went and hand picked the awful ones just for you. Tyler Wilde makes a triumphant return in this episode as we make fun of some of the worst trailers to come out of the conference.

Video after the jump!

Last year, we ran a feature where we turned popular videogames into chocolate bars. The comments on that feature were so choc-full of great ideas, we thought we'd revisit it and give them the same treatment. We've given each contributor a shout-out, so you can tell them how witty and clever you think they are.

And so to the chocolate - which one would you eat first?

Above: Suggested by

Have a seat, children… Now, I know you thought Mickey, Ariel and Pinocchio would last forever, but the harsh reality of gaming is that all characters must eventually die. Often it seems like God is being cruel, yet it’s a fact that anything with a health bar will eventually perish.

We hear you kids in the back: “Disney is nothing but kiddy bullshit! There’s no way Kingdom Hearts can be hardcore with Mickey Mouse in it.” Really, mister? Then you have no sense of history and you’re about to get some. Wipe away those knee jerk images of princesses and dancing cats - we’re about to expose the bloody, black powder underbelly of Disney’s hardcore legacy of sheer brutality!

There’s an ancient and oft cited survey floating around the web that claims that Mario is more popular than Mickey Mouse. Sure, sounds believable. Even if the source of the poll has gone unaccredited since 1990. So, in order to present the following article in terms our audience can understand: Mickey is basically the Mario of everything else.