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As internet speeds and digital storage gets cheaper and cheaper every year, downloadable games get closer and closer to matching the experiences provided by their retail counterparts. They also offer the chance for smaller development teams to experiment or stray off the beaten path; we doubt that EA would ever publish a game featuring a dead fetus is a power-up. They draw the line at killing unbaptized babies in hell thank you very much. And hey, there’s no better way to detox from a 100 hour Skyrim binge than with a quick, fun 5 hour game. In anticipation of our year end Platinum Chalice awards, we’ve compiled a list of our favorite 2011 downloadable titles across all platforms to help you separate the w00t from the chaff...

At the end of every year we get a new year – one that is numerically superior to its predecessor and brimming with new stuff to buy. But how do you know what to buy if all the shiny “best of” awards are given at the end of the year? You could spend your precious 365.24 days reading game reviews, but what are they compared to shiny metallic awards?

The secrets of their success in their own words.

Gamescom is unquestionably more low profile than E3’s explosive LA shindig. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t plenty of reasons to get pumped up for the upcoming event in Cologne. Hell, we can think of, oh, at least 23 examples why you should give a damn about the ‘European E3.’ And they all take the form of potentially amazing games. Below you’ll find a line-up of some of the most exciting titles due to

With E3 2010 barely 24 hours behind us, it’s hard to clear our minds and think about the biggest and best things we saw and played. In fact, the past four days are such a blur it was hard to nail down just four pages worth of all the awesome stuff on display. But, rather than sit around all weekend and wait for Monday, we dragged our tired asses in for one more meeting, figured out the most memorable stuff and got this thing ready to go.

The best part is, the result is so different from even our usual E3 awards lists. It’s full of a wide variety of games instead of shooters, shooters, and more shooters. So while we know Black Ops, Bulletstorm, Medal of Honor and Killzone 3 will be great games, the abundance of creativity from other sources stole the show. So, here’s what we loved...

We didn’t need to play UK Truck Simulator (totally real) or whatever before declaring our picks for the best games of 2010. We have common sense and expectations. We’re not robots. Well, maybe we are, but if we are then we’re really advanced robots - like Data’s brother in TNG.

This human (or evil android) common sense also gives us the power to make educated guesses as to which games of 2011 will get award-giving gamz jarnlists like ourselves all riled up...

Your wallet and your social life may be hurting from the year-end buffet of AAA games, but that doesn’t mean you should ignore some of the more noteworthy games from earlier in the year. To that end, we recommend making the time and scraping together the coin to experience these games, even if just for a weekend...

2011 was an excellent year for gaming, but it wasn't without its dark spots, some of which were pretty huge. And now that the dust has settled and the accolades have been handed out, it's time to shift our focus to tearing apart the worst of last year in the annual GamesRadar institution that is the Anti-Awards. Get ready, because the gloves are coming off...

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…