You remember your first set-piece. They’re exciting to begin with. You’re playing a level, you turn the corner, and – OH MY GOD! – a spaceship has just nuked that building! But... but... but Alpha Team was in there. Commander Jenkins! Michael. He saved my life in the Martian Wars. Good god. We’ve got to get in there, and now. ...

Puzzles aren’t meant to be simple - they’re meant to sell hint books and strategy guides. Obstacles aren’t meant to be obvious - they’re meant to artificially lengthen the adventure! Here are the seven most bizarre, irrational and frustratingly convoluted examples we’ve ever encountered. They don’t just spit in the face of logic... they kick logic right in the balls. ...

Proof that you don’t have to be handy with a paintbrush, a sewing kit, a craft knife or a soldering iron in order to make your mark on the Nintendo world: they’re training surgeons using a copy of Kororinpa. Address all malpractice correspondence to Satoru Iwata, Nintendo Company Limited, Tokyo. Next up: tattoo artists and Mario Paint. ...

We’ve seen some great remakes this year. The success of Bionic Commando Rearmed on Xbox LIVE and Final Fantasy IV on the DS shows that playing old games on new hardware is still fun. But the good folks at The Independent Gaming Source have turned the idea of remaking classic titles on its head with their recent Bootleg Demake competition. ...

We take a lot of things for granted in games. Such as guns that leave nothing but skeletons when they hit the enemy, or that you can hack a computer by playing a simple puzzle game. But no more. PC Gamer wanted to find out how far science was being abused for the sake of our entertainment. ...

Congratulations on finding your way to our Guide to Guides! If you’re on the wrong console page, use our helpful links to figure out what game you would like to become excellent at first. ...

O HAI! I didn’t see you click in. I’m one of the co-hosts of GamesRadar’s super-ific, fantastical podcast, TalkRadar. What started out as an excuse for us to bite back at the internet and industry that feeds us quickly gained a following we weren’t quite expecting. That other podcast you like? This one’s funnier, better even. ...

Invincibility is nice. Infinite ammo and armor are pretty useful, too. Level skipping is a lazy gamer's dream come true...

Cheating, though, can be so much more! Why ask for an extra life when the right code will give you an entire army, or the power of a god? Why settle for a shortcut when hidden humor, violence, sex and evil are waiting to be discovered? ...

There’s probably no genre more reviled than movie-based titles. We think it’s agreed upon that most of these games generally suck. And we get it. With the development team having to hit a specific release date, there is no way programmers have the necessary time to make a stellar title. That’s why we get crap like Enter the Matrix. More often than not, we get titles that take great liberty with the material. ...