No More Heroes

There are some undeniable badasses in the world, kicking butt in the baddest and assest of ways. Take Final Fantasy X's Auron, for example: a smooth-talking, shades-wearing, longcoat-rocking snarker who can wield a huge sword with his one good arm. He is a badass, and nobody can deny it. With that perfect storm of cool, he has nothing to worry about. Other characters aren't quite so fortunate. They might not have the stylish clothes, the husky voice or tough, asskicking grit of a badass, lacking even the basic swagger found in an Auron, a Master Chief or even a Kratos. With poor dress sense, bad attitudes and physical imperfections, these characters are doomed to a life without badassery ... or are they?

Perhaps not. There are some characters who struggle through their myriad flaws to become something more, something better. Something truly badass. They don't look like they should be, but they most certainly are...

Most of us play games to escape reality. For a few moments, the trials of the material world trickle away and your only concern is how many goddamn gold coins you can collect in an hour. Then, out of nowhere, a friggin' Xbox 360 console shows up in the actual game and all your suspended disbelief goes right out the window. It happens more often than you'd think. So often, in fact, we had little trouble amassing a large collection of these sneaky cameos. Here are the best examples, from zombie-blasting Dreamcasts to a DS floating in space.

Cats are awesome. Of course, if you're a dog person, you probably don't like cats so much - which is actually a great reason to read this article. It will change your mind. That said, being someone who's actually allergic to real cats, virtual ones probably hold a much greater appeal. I'm hoping some of my enthusiasm will rub virtual cat hairs off on you.

Having now disturbed you more than any other intro in recent times, allow me to open the bag and let out the most important cats in gaming.

There are two kinds of good game. There are the good games that come out, get fine reviews, sell adequately, and then fade into well-regarded obscurity: your Vortex, your Space Station Silicon Valley, your Land Stalker (a perplexed, blank stare is the correct response here). And then there are the good games that have a lasting impact on the medium. These games aren't necessarily any better, but they get talked about more often because they defied – and redefined – our expectations. Red Dead Redemption may be such a title. It's the first time a cowboy-themed game has transcended the resolute OK-ness of Sunset Riders, Mad Dog McCree and their ilk, capturing audiences without compromising its sand-and-saddles chops to prove that Westerns were a viable game genre all along.

But now that that point's finally been made, there are plenty of other film genres for games to try adapting next. Some haven't been touched since valiantly failed lo-fi efforts; others have never really been given a day in court. Maybe it's time to put the next Space Marines In Space title on the back-burner and try plugging a controller into one of these under-represented movie styles...

Decca Records famously passing on signing the Beatles because they thought ‘guitar bands were on the way out.’ George Clooney’s suit being given plastic nipples in Batman & Robin. That’s two quick examples of history been plagued by downright ridiculous decisions right there. Video games are no different. And whether it’s Mircosoft failing to give the 360 a feature the Dreamcast enjoyed 10 years ago or Hideo

We’re on to you. We’ve noticed you casting a roving eye over recent announcements of price cuts, seen you ogle the unveiling of lithe younger models. Yes, even you, 360 fanboy, the one who said the PS3 had no games. We caught you looking longingly at LittleBigPlanet’s Sackboy, imagining the things you would do to him if only you could get him online.

In a medium full of perfect teeth, washboard stomachs and breasts that have their own gravitational pull, it’s rare to see characters with disabilities. But they do exist… and they’ve done some badass things. Be it killing gods, eating hardened soldiers or even creating the Nintendo universe; being physically challenged never got in the way of this bunch’s fun.

Disabled and deadly in: Metal Gear Solid 3:

We collect a lot of gaming merchandise at GamesRadar. While we buy some of it ourselves, one of the perks of working in the industry is that a week rarely goes by without some new item of promotional gaming paraphernalia finding its way to our desks. And generally it's a pretty even mix of awesome and crap

Videogames have always been violent. Violence is inherent in the medium, inseparable from the essential experience of playing games. Without competition and conflict resolved by violence, games wouldn’t be games: they’d be screensavers. Gore is a slightly different matter, though. Better graphics and physics have ushered in a new era of explicit gruesomeness.