Feed aggregator

The Konami Code and the Game Genie may be relics of another time, but there's one corner of the gaming space where cheating still runs rampant. John Szczepaniak looks at how certain game reviewers are encouraged to cheat, and what the consequences may be.

Red Faction: Guerilla lets players level entire city blocks with little more than a sledgehammer, yet players must still worry about health bars and limited ammo. But Jaz McDougall has had enough of this developer oppression, and he's decided to throw off his shackles the only way he can: by rewriting the rules of the game.

The line between a clever use of game mechanics and a blatant abuse of a programming error isn't always clear-cut. But many developers could be doing more to help police their games' communities. Murray Chu takes a closer look at how Valve has responded to exploits in Left 4 Dead and Team Fortress 2.

Most people play computer role-playing games in order to find out what happens at the end of the story, but one gamer chooses to exploit every digital loophole in such games to create his own wacky narratives. Alan Au shows us the man behind the anti-walkthrough.

Just as speculative fiction foretold computers and the Internet, some of the weapons in today's shooters might just end up in tomorrow's armies. C J Davies profiles some of new military advancements that may have been inspired by videogames.

Despite the near daily advances made in science, the knowledge we have of the way our world works is staggeringly incomplete. Lauren Admire looks at four phenomena that scientists haven't been able to explain in spite of their best efforts.

Long before "physics engines" or "AI ecosystems" were familiar to gamers, a couple of British programmers created a game that practically defined those concepts. John Szczepaniak speaks with Peter Irvin, co-creator of the BBC Micro game Exile.

Videogames have always been children of science: From games played on university mainframes to current technologies like Project Natal, gaming will forever be indebted to science. But what are they giving science in return? Jacob Aron examines how videogames can better portray both scientists and science.

James Bond is an icon of escapist literature and the silver screen. Bond's influence spreads into gaming as his mission briefings, weapon upgrades and suave car-jacking skills are apparent in any AAA action title. Graeme Virtue takes a look at what videogames owe Bond.

Russ Pitts talks to the developers behind the upcoming games Splinter Cell: Conviction and Alpha Protocol about what makes spies tick - and why playing as them is so much fun.

Long before Ryu versus Ken, Scorpion versus Sub-Zero or Mario versus Wario, there was Spy vs. Spy, the videogame adaptation of the long-running Mad magazine comic. Peter Parrish examines what made Spy vs. Spy such a fun (and frustrating) experience.

Most videogames about espionage present highly stylized accounts of what it's like to be a spy. But one mid-'90s gem had the guts to offer an unflinching simulation of real CIA operations. Anthony Burch revisits Activision's Spycraft: The Great Game.

Leveling up your in-game cooking skill is often as simple as gathering up some ingredients and clicking a button a couple dozen times. But Nova Barlow has more ambitious plans: to max-out her real-world cooking abilities with a series of videogame-inspired recipes.

Fable 2 is a game about choices: If you rescue villagers from bandits, you'll earn a halo and a saintly glow; if you sacrifice them to a dark god instead, you'll grow horns and draw flies. But some decisions are a little more superficial. Susan Arendt recounts her time spent dieting in Albion.

Cooking is time consuming, enraging and frequently dangerous. But if you have a mind for details and an obsessive focus on self-improvement, you may find the hobby a natural fit. Rob Zacny explains how gamers and cooks have more in common than you may think.

When Brendan Main and his wife got stuck in a slumhole apartment in an unfamiliar city with Cooking Mama as their only entertainment, they both had the same hare-brained idea: to assemble a makeshift kitchen and try their hands at a few of Mama's strangest recipes.

World of Warcraft lets you choose between siding with the noble, heroic Alliance and the dubious, downtrodden Horde. But what kind of player would want to play as the anti-heroes of Azeroth? Jon Glover speaks with a number of Horde players about their faction of choice.

Batman is one of the most fascinating, multifaceted superheroes in all of comics ... as long as you don't think about him too much. Allen Varney digs a bit too deeply into the Batman Mythos and unearths some rather unpleasant character traits in the process.

Roleplaying games give you an opportunity to act out the part of the hero in a world that desperately needs one. But what happens when, after a few costly mistakes, you end up with a hero that is less than heroic? Will Hindmarch examines the angst of roleplaying a character you grow to despise.

2007's The Darkness wasn't just a competent first-person shooter - it told a powerful story about love and the loss of humanity through gameplay alone. Logan Westbrook takes a closer look at Starbreeze Studios' oft-overlooked diamond in the rough.