Braid - Xbox Live Arcade

Jonathan Blow is famous for a few things. Almost single-handedly designing, programming and funding the puzzle game Braid. Raising awareness for the indie development scene through lectures, columns, workshops and events. But, perhaps most of all, for having opinions and – unlike many in the industry – not being afraid to share them...

Listening to pundits, parents, and politicians, you'd think that videogames were the worst plague ever visited upon humankind. They make us dumb. They make us violent. They make us perverted. They make us twitchy and impatient. They make us disconnected loners and social misfits.

Here's the antidote to such overblown criticism – seven games that will make you smarter. Next time someone's trying to tell you that your hobby is stupid, show them one of these and see if they can solve even a fraction of its brilliance...

Limbo, then. It’s pretty great, eh? If you’ve not yet experienced its incredible sensory experience and mind-bending puzzles, click here to find out why you should buy it yesterday. For those who are either getting to grips with its bleakly dark world or have finished the game, we’re curious to know how highly you rate it. Namely, do you prefer it to the brilliant Braid?

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...

Earlier this year we posted a video of our extremely handsome mugs chattering on about the most important games of the past decade. Did you miss it? Were you so distracted by our handsome facial hair that our words washed across you impotently like waves over rocks? Good news everyone!

“We find ourselves in a bewildering world. We want to make sense of what we see around us and to ask: What is the nature of the universe? What is our place in it and where did it and we come from? Why is it the way it is? When will we get to the cowboy level?”

– Professor Stephen Hawking, A Brief History of Time

Time travel and videogames are a perfect fit.

What happened to gaming? The past two years haven’t been about blockbuster games. The most exciting, most innovative, most playable games aren’t from the usual suspects. Instead, they’re being made by coffee-shop artists who are absolutely outclassing the establishment. Who are these heroes? Where did they come from? How did they do it? And, anyway, what the hell is indie gaming?

Earlier this year we deduced that Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Eye of the Beholder II – The Legend of Darkmoon is the longest game name out there. Reader comments quickly proved there were a few names out there just as long or even longer, but will you be able to find a name that’s shorter than those on this list?

Collected here are the simplest, monosyllabic game names we could dig up

Gamers are a diverse and extremely opinionated bunch. If you love something with all your heart and soul, we guarantee you that someone else hates it with an equal amount of passion. Chances are good, in fact, that the person who despises your precious favorite is a person you know, like or even trust. Your favorite GamesRadar editor, for example…

Astrophysics are a touch bewildering. And love is a bit of a noodle-scratcher. But a convoluted, multi-layered plot about a genetically engineered pensioner; now that’s really complicated.

The following game endings are all either vague, slightly ambiguous or just downright indecipherable without advanced degrees in picking up on minuscule - but vastly important – plot details. In an effort to make things a little easier,