Manhunt 2

You devious son of a bitch, box. You promised me woman, explosions, grizzly bears! And now I’m tediously flicking through menus in a glorified micro management sim. That’s right, some covers like to oversell the experience of their actual game. Screw giving potential players an accurate depiction of what the title’s about, there’s bi-quarterly sales figures to hit.

Wait. It's not as boring as it sounds. We've taken half-a-dozen video game franchises and turned them into frankly awesome spin-off products that we would absolutely definitely buy. Who wouldn't want to have a jar of NBA Jam on their breakfast table in the morning? It makes perfect sense.

Interactive cutscenes. “Cineractive” sequences. “Press X to not die” moments. Whatever you call them, quick time events are those mostly non-interactive moments peppered throughout videogames, nearly all of which ask you to tap a button on cue – or hammer on a button, or twitch an analog stick, or whatever – in order to enable your character to do something that’s way cooler than anything they can do while you're in direct control

A lot can happen in 10 years. And it has. As part of this week's post-mortem of the last decade in gaming, we now present for you some of the weirdest, depressing, arousing, significant, entertaining and amusing events, happenings and milestones that have occurred in the wonderful world of games during the soon-to-be-expired Noughties.

In the second day of our 'Decade in gaming' mega-feature, we're looking at the most downright abominable gaming moments of the last 10 years.

Incestuous. That’s the best way to explain the ongoing relationship between horror films and games. First games stole from films in early licenses like Halloween and Texas Chainsaw Massacre, then horror films stole from games, most obviously in the ‘works’ of Uwe Boll like House of the Dead and BloodRayne.

Games are banned in two primary ways. The first is by corporate policy. When a company refuses to sell or distribute an unrated game, it is effectively censoring the game, but they can’t be entirely lampooned for attempting to maintain a positive image. Nintendo has every right to prevent “Sextrobes: Pornigins” from being released on the Wii

What’s the best part of any car race? The mad crazy wrecks. Hockey game? When a 6’5” Czech man-beast levels a lesser player with a right hook. Ultimate fighting? The whole thing. We like seeing people destroy each other; it’s in our blood. Or maybe it’s in their blood, and the way it spills everywhere and inspires unanimous ‘YEAHs from stadiums full of adrenaline junkies too timid to risk their own

Pain, eh? Nature's way of saying 'this'll learn ya' when you do something stupid like fall on your keys in a nettle patch made of razor wire. With salt on it. Videogame-wise, however, there's virtually no chance a game will be able to physically cause you pain. Thankfully, there's a much more cathartic alternative - you get to inflict it instead.