We've all seen dozens of lists over the years that recount all the things old-school game designers loved to include in their games for bizarre and unknown reasons, like exploding barrels and wolves that carry gold and chainmail for you to loot upon their death. Yes, these things were weird, and yes, they were ubiquitous in 8-,16-, and even 32-bit games. ...

Perhaps better than any other creative medium, videogames have managed to recreate entire ecosystems of imaginary creatures and presented them in an observable context. Books and movies may offer detailed glimpses of anatomy and behavior, but only in videogames does the observer interact with organisms and experience behaviors first hand. ...

We absolutely know that you've been waiting with eager anticipation for a feature to come along that catalogues examples of new games that share an identical name with an old game. It doesn't happen very often, so it's genuinely exciting when it does. Anyway, we've written that feature, and this is it. Direct all messages of thanks and amazement to the comments thread. K? Cheers.

Afrika | PS3 | 2009

The new Afrika: Is ...

Christmas '09 is cancelled, but early next year looks amazing. ...

The end of summer means the beginning of the game season, and today is the last Friday before the game industry’s big holiday push. Publishers jam the fall with games to challenge the true worth of your credit card – a double dog dare in the uncertain economy of 2009. ...

For decades, the San Diego Comic-Con (SDCC) was only known as the best place for avid comic fans (aka virgins) to waste tons of money on more comic books than they needed. But in the last 10 years, other bits of geekery have been seeping in, including anime, Dungeons & Dragons and even videogames. ...

Now that the dust has settled from the best E3 in years, we can take a moment to process the years’ worth of upcoming-release insanity that we took in over four days – and that means making early, snap judgments based on what we’ve seen and played. ...

Ah, Halloween. Easily one of the most predictable weeks of the year. See, as a content site, we have to come up with ideas every single day, so when a massive holiday comes around, it’s like a free ticket that tempts any and all websites to jump on the festive bandwagon. In fact, holiday-themed internet articles are now the easiest way to tell what time of the year it is. ...

Every gamer goes crazy for the great taste of low prices! As such, Valve founder sent forth a verbal boot to the ass at this year’s DICE summit, decrying publishers for rigid prices and an inability to keep the marketplace in flux. The internet rejoiced. ...

Has it really only been 12 months since the last avalanche of “Best Games of 200X” awards? Well, we all love a good list, and you won’t find a better barf bag of random praises than our own Platinum Chalice awards, the place to have someone else’s gaming opinions shoved upon you. How important are these awards? So important. Real important. What do the other guys have, gold trophies? Screw that. ...