There’s a widespread notion in the videogame industry that game reviews can have a profound impact on game sales, and for the most part the evidence bears that out. But as tempting as it is to gloat about the supposed power that we, the videogame press, hold over the livelihoods of publishers and developers, it’s not always true. In fact, history is littered with countless examples of megahit games that had originally been ripped to shreds by reviewers ...

In real life, everyone knows sharks are perfectly lovely creatures that hold down good jobs, drive responsibly in hybrid cars, and almost never prey on humans. In popular media, however, they’re vicious aquatic bastards who like nothing better than to sneak up on unsuspecting swimmers and devour them as gruesomely as possible, preferably in front of an audience. ...

Sam Fisher’s gone through some midlife crisis-sized changes over the past couple of years. One minute he’s a tortured emo agent on the run, with as little respect for the law as he does for kept facial hair. The next he’s a malicious murderer, who makes Jack Bauer look like Jack Osborne.

Above: From badly groomed to just plain bad

The Conviction of 2007 has heavy influences from ...

How noble, the human species! Once a year we selflessly take a break from wrapping products in toxic plastics and burning piles of old tires to appease this stupid, stupid planet we live on. How dare it demand more trees, breathable air and animals that don’t choke to death on our trash? ...

Another holiday shopping season is here, bringing with it the grim realization that, once again, the game industry has failed to learn its damn lesson. Just like every other year, seemingly every game publisher on the planet has decided to shove its biggest releases onto store shelves for the holidays, confident that they won’t be buried under the avalanche of every other publisher doing the exact same thing. ...

Our weekly Top 7 lists usually cover timeless topics that could probably post any point throughout the year. But this week, with the newly released, critically fellated LittleBigPlanet inspiring countless cases of tiny heroes roaming gigantic worlds, we wanted to be a bit timelier and celebrate the very best of the very small. ...

If you’ve been reading gaming lists - magazine, internet or bar napkin - for as long as we have, then you’ve probably noticed a number of inclusions that seem to always make it. It’s like you can’t have a “Defining Moments”, “Worst whatever” or “Underrepresented blah” list without mentioning what every reader assumes will be the top pick. ...

“We’re in the era of casual games, and it’s time to say ‘this is for the hardcore gamer’,” says Hideo Kojima, creator of Metal Gear Solid 4. “So it’s really, really important [MSG4] succeeds.” Has he got a point? With budgets spiraling (a decent next-gen title costs anywhere from $20-40 million) companies are becoming more risk-averse, keener on pumping out sure things than trying out new ...

With yesterday's announcement that Burnout Paradise is to get motorbikes, we thought we'd see what other big-name games would be like with bikes in them. How? With Photoshop, of course ...