Okami

The twilight days of the venerable DS may have already begun, but that’s not to say that there won’t be anything worthwhile coming out for the long-lived handheld now that the 3DS is set to enter the arena. Capcom’s awesome-looking Okamiden, the follow-up to their PlayStation and Wii classic and all-time GamesRadar favorite Okami (by the way, you should play Okami), is set to release on March 15. We sat down with Okamiden’s producer, Motohide Eshiro, to talk about the origins of the game, its release timing, where all of its new gameplay ideas were spawned, and just what it takes to bring back a fan favorite for another go. Some of the answers might just surprise you...

Some games kick off with an almighty bang. God of War, for example, let's the dog (the player) see the rabbit (colossus-sized boss) before the pad has even had time to warm in the hands. But not all games commence with such lightning speed and dramatic gusto. These are seven such stellar software experiences that take their time to move through the gears. 

So, movie critic Roger Ebert is at it again, stirring the hornet's nest and upsetting the demagogues of gaming with his definitive statement that videogames can "never" be art. In a recent editorial, Ebert defends his long-running belief that interactive entertainment does not deserve to be considered an artistic pursuit and, predictably, gamers lost their minds...

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.