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It's a rare occurrence nowadays, but every once in a while, a game you’ve never even heard of comes along and absolutely blows you away. Sometimes it's a little indie gem that didn't get enough promotion. Other times, what appears to be a quick cash-in turns out to be an awesome game.

Videogames, like movies and music, live and die by their release dates. A smartly planned launch can make a niche product soar to unpredicted heights or cause a long-respected franchise to slip beneath consumers’ radar.

For whatever reason, you don’t see a lot of video game characters taking time out from shooting dogs or whatever to watch TV. We’re guessing it has something to do with that thing we just said sounding insanely boring, but even so, games that let us watch the characters watching TV have become gradually more common. Here are our favorites...

“Is that your profession or pleasure?” Well, when it comes to jobs in games, it’s usually both. Y’see, your average gaming hero’s nine-to-five is a never-ending stream of employed excitement. Acrobatic plumbers who frolic in magical fantasy kingdoms. Archaeologists with pornstar bodies who can dual wield pistols like everyone’s favourite slaphead assassin. And suspiciously buff scientists who routinely save the human race with nothing but a crowbar. They all enjoy incredible careers we mere mortals could only dream of. Of course, if their jobs were a little more true to life, Mario would probably do himself in when he faced his first backed-up toilet… 

There’s no denying it, Microsoft had a strong press conference on the opening day of E3. With the two surviving Beatles in attendance promoting their new Rock Band game, innovative 1:1 motion-sensing technology in Project Natal, a strong line-up of games and exciting new multimedia and social networking possibilities, Sony has to up its game if it’s to keep up with Bill and his boys. Below, we team up with our colleagues at OPM

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

We’re only a few weeks into 2009, and already we’ve seen what is likely the first of many games shoved from their comfortable 2009 release dates into the uncertain depths of 2010. Scarcely six months after confirming Final Fantasy XIII as a multi-platform release, Square Enix announced that its flagship role-playing epic wouldn’t appear until at least next year.

Way back in January, we did what a lot of other tech and gaming websites do, and published a list of predictions for the then-new year. In this case, we predicted the games that we thought – for a variety of reasons – wouldn’t see the light of day until at least 2010, and published it under the somewhat inflammatory headline No Heavy Rain until 2010?

Just a few weeks ago we firmly held each others’ hands and danced jigs of joy for 2010’s biggest and best games. Yes, our Platinum Chalice awards were once again a festival of finery directed at the year’s brightest stars, but now come the dreaded Anti-Awards, which force a spotlight on all the bullshit games, trends and ideas we had to endure throughout the year.

To commemorate their anti-triumph, we’re awarding each “winner” with Bayonetta’s own Stone Award, the statue of a falling fat man that added insult to injury and nearly made us quit playing an otherwise brilliant game. Oh, what a day indeed...