I've been um-ing and ah-ing a lot recently over whether or not to spend my hard earned cash on the latest Final Fantasy game. All of the reviews suggest that I should get it, and would surely enjoy it, but my ears are drawn to the sounds coming from the internet's message boards and review sites:

"It's not as good as the PSone games"

"I haven't enjoyed any of them since FFVII"

"The series should never have been on the Xbox360"

"It's not a real Final Fantasy game"

These are by no means the majority of the comments being made, most of which are positive, but they are the most frequently bleated on the negative side. These comments are currently plastered all over thar Interwebz, so why did the critics give the game such good scores? Have they gone mad, or simply lost touch with the people who actually play these games for fun? The answer is a resounding neither. It got good scores because they thought it was a GOOD game.

.

It looks pretty exciting to me, anyway. So why all the hate?

It was exactly the same the last time around. And the time before that. IX was too light-hearted and cartoony, X too linear, and XII had the cheek not to have enough of a storyline. The developers at Squeenix have had to fight this unremitting whining for the last 10 years, swerving wildly from one extreme to the other to try to satisfy their so-called fans. Let's get this straight, shall we? Much as we'd love them to, they can't just keep making Final Fantasy VII over and over. It just wouldn't get them anywhere as a developer, and it certainly wouldn't get them sales.

.

Most people agree that Baltheir is Awesome. I am one of them.

As you can tell, I'm probably not the average Final Fantasy fan. While I liked VII a lot, it is not my favourite of the series by a long way. To ignore the constant improvements Square has made to the playability of their games since VII would be frankly pretty insulting. To be honest, my favourite games in the series are IX and XII. I adore the former for its playful and rich story and world, the latter for the fluidity of the gameplay along with the joy of exploration. As you can probably guess, I get shouted down often in the "Best Final Fantasy game" conversation for defending two of the more unfashionable entrants. My other crime is to dislike intensely the second most popular fan favourite, FF VIII.

.

This man is the chief reason for my dislike of Final Fantasy VIII. I wanted to slap him for around 35 hours.

Final Fantasy VIII is a fine game in terms of playability, but it has a storyline so angst-filled that it feels like 40 hours of fingernails caressing a blackboard. I also did not enjoy any aspect of the 5 minute long summon sequences, headache inducing junctioning system and ridiculous "draw magic" business. That aside, I enjoyed it enough to play it to completion, and consider it essential reading for anyone interested in the history of the series. I don't believe for a minute that VIII deserves any of the spite and vitriol directed at the latest iteration of the series.

So what is the cause of all the hatred for the latest game, be it XIII, XII, X, or IX? We all know the answer: Nostalgia. Nostalgia is both a blessing and a curse for game series, ensuring that people will buy your game, but will also probably hate any innovations you make. If developers listened to all of the people making the above (example) comments, the entire industry would stagnate and die under the weight of unsatisfied fans. Certain subsets of people are never happy, but most of us appreciate the hard work put in by developers to update and freshen the more venerable series. No one complains about the wonderful work done to update Mario or Dragon Quest, although Zelda will always be in the shadow of it's Final Fantasy VII , The Ocarina of Time. I haven't played it by the way (having not owned an N64, now or ever), but I did enjoy the less well received Wind Waker a great deal.

I think we all just need to calm down a bit. Yes, developers should listen to their fans, but not those who cal for constant re-makes of a 13 year old game. We all know it would take much more than that to satisfy them, as the relatively poor sales of Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes illustrates. It's important that other series do not fall under the Nostalgia Curse that has afflicted Final Fantasy for so long, as it must affect negatively on developer mindset. If we want good games, we need to phrase it better than "It's not as good as the first one"

Having said that, the main thing that puts me off buying FFXIII is its extreme linearity. So perhaps let us explore a bit next time, Square…just a tip.

Like most gamers who've been at it for a while, I've owned a console or handheld from every manufacturer on the market. From my adored Sega Megadrive, through Playstations 1 and 2, and now onto my Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii; I've seen the ways we game and the games we play change a great deal over the years. And yet, one thing never seems to change; the amount of spite and bile that is thrown around between owners of opposing consoles. It only takes a quick look at the comments threads of Gamespot's harmless graphics comparisons between Xbox360 and PS3 to see the sparks fly; and yet I have to question why. Nowadays, these two consoles are so similar in terms of processing power and graphics that they even share the majority of their libraries. Not only that, but they have so much else in common: Online play, Downloadable games, and Achievements (Trophies). In essence, they provide the very definition of a comparative service; so equivalent that anybody should be happy with either. In these times of relative affluence, when many households can afford more than one console and there is effectively room for everyone, should the hatred and "Fanboyism" that has dominated past console wars persist?

It wasn't always like this. The first time that two consoles battled for that coveted space under your telly, they were so expensive you were lucky to own even one. Not only that, but the general lack of acceptance of gaming as mainstream meant that it was very difficult to persuade your hard-working parents to part with the cash. I speak, of course, of the great war that happened A Long Time Ago, In a Living Room Far Far Away: "Consoles: Generation IV". When the mighty Nintendo SNES fought the Sega Genesis (or Mega Drive here in Europe), the gloves were off and neither company pulled their punches. Marketing and reviews were shameless on either side, and a whole generation of Fanboys and Fangirls were spawned. I adored my Mega Drive, despite its ultimate status as the loser of this particular war. When you're 7 years old, this stuff doesn't matter to you; the only thing that does is making Sonic go so fast he briefly leaves the camera behind (thank you Chemical Plant zone!). SNES vs. Mega Drive had all the hallmarks of today's battle; similar graphics, hardware, and price; and I believe this is the root of the current rivalries between console owners. The aggressive marketing and development of mascots and icons made it easy to pick a side, and then get behind it. In the end, though, neither side really won the kind of devotion that you can find amongst modern console owners. I believe the next generations hold the key to this escalation, as soon everything would change.

The fifth console generation consisted of 3 very different beasts, the original Playstation, the Nintendo 64 and the poor, ill-fated Dreamcast. The Playstation was a roaring success, by far outstripping anything that had come before; adding to the mix a note of smug superiority. Playstation owners single-mindedly got behind their consoles, convinced they had made the correct and only choice. For many, this was amplified when they bought its successor; the magnificent Playsation 2 (until a few weeks ago it had sold the most units of any console, ever). Nintendo fans who purchased the 64 and Gamecube then had to fight their console's corner even more viciously in the face of all this smugness. Finally, in the overlap between generations 5 and 6, the spectacular failure of the Dreamcast nearly bankrupted the once mighty SEGA. Console wars were no longer a "game"...people were getting hurt. It was a painful cautionary example; even the giants can fall if they make the wrong move.

The SEGA Dreamcast has been the only major casualty of the console wars to date, serving as a cautionary example.

Like the Playstation fans, the new Xbox owners in the latter half of generation 6 would continue to look down on Nintendo due to the Gamecube's perceived lack of power. Interestingly, the Xbox actually had little impact on the generally polite generation 6 war, despite its vocal Fanboys, as it failed to curb sales of either opposing console. While it had good games and hardware, the simple fact was that most people in the Xbox target market already owned a PS2, meaning that they were unable to dominate the market. While Xbox fans were adamant that their console was the best, this largely fell on deaf (PS2 owning) ears.

Which brings us to today. I believe that the racial memory of all these consoles colour the way modern consoles are perceived, and is the root of current hostilities;

- The Wii has the niche charm and fun of the SNES, the wonderful games library of the 64, and the cheap and cheerful price-tag and family friendliness of the Gamecube. Unfortunately, it also has its graphics chip as well. This re-enforces the stereotype of Nintendo console as graphical underachievers, despite the fact that the Wii's focus is squarely on gameplay. While no-one ever thought that the Wii would be a failure, its enormous success has been irksome to the more hardcore graphically focused among us, leading to undeserved undercurrents of resentment. In truth, the Wii does not really compete for the same market as the other two consoles, and as a result the hostilities around it have largely subsided...a sigh of relief for those of us who own one.

- The Xbox 360 is a very different beast. Seeking to make up for it's predecessor's lateness out of the gate, and general lack of impact on sales; it was the first release of generation 7 (probably before it was ready). This impetuousness lead to hardware failures and general bad feeling surrounding the console, which soured its otherwise impressive graphical capabilities and great game library. The Xbox 360 also built on its predecessors pioneering online service, providing a million 15-yer olds the ability to gun-butt each other in the face on Halo 3. Most who were waiting for PS3 initiated a "Point and Laugh" protocol, but this thankfully impacted little on sales as the console was actually pretty inexpensive. With the release of PS3 and it's mammoth price-tag, many Sony fans sidled over to the "dark side" (myself included) and bought one. This led to even greater resentment among remaining Sony-ites, and a general air of smuggery in the Xbox camp. The tables were effectively turned with the release of PS3 Slim, however, with most re-evaluating the PS3 and finding it to be a strong competitor. Naturally, Xbox-ers found having their position as top hardcore console eye-ed up by a younger competitor disturbing, and have been annoyed ever since.

- The PS3, on the other hand got off to a bad start. Much like Frank Sinatra Jr, it seemed to fail to match up to the legend of it's all-dominating father. When its huge form was unveiled, along with its bloated price-tag, many pointed fingers and shouted "Behold, the next Dreamcast!". But the PS3 struggled on, thanks to loyal fans and great games. This provoked fierce loyalty from those who'd owned all 3 of the Sony consoles, and they decried the upstart Xbox for its dodgy hardware. Recently, the PS3 has been on a diet, slashed its price, and become the console it always should have been; a true heir to the Playsation name. This has left Xbox owners feeling a bit left out, and eager to tout any small advantage over the seemingly unstoppable black beast. The core of the rivalries lies here, the Xbox's early lead being destroyed by an unexpected return to form by Sony.

So, as you can see, the anger seen in forum threads runs much deeper than better graphics or hardware. The true causes are injured pride, prejudice against those perceived as weaker, and jealousy. If only we could forget all about these things, and the histories our consoles have, and just enjoy playing games again; be it Mass Effect 2, Uncharted 2, or No More Heroes 2. I intend to, and save up for a PS3.

P.S. Apologies for the length of this essay!

In most games, characters like merchants or quest givers are often blank, mindless zombies. While the trend in recent games is towards depth rather than breadth, this wasn't always the case and quite often lead to whole towns of these auto-pilot people. Some of the best games I've played have chosen to buck this trend, however, and endow even their humble bit-player NPCs with a character and a soul. I find that even after my memories of the game fade, I still remember these momentary flashes of character , and am surprised at what a small role the characters had. In their honour, I'd like to do a run down of all the NPCs who made me smile, remember, and often like them more than the main character.

Stan

Game: Monkey Island Series

He may not have had many pixels on his side, but Stan had heaps of personality. His trademark grin, giant hat and outrageously horrible tartan jacket make it clear that you're dealing with a salesman, and not just any salesman! Stan's the ultimate pro at selling useless junk, usually in the form of the world's most decrepit and dilapidated ship, and he saw you coming a mile away. So much care and attention has been put into this character, that even Guybrush Threepwood (usually the sardonic star of every in-game conversation) seems outshone by Stan's skillful and hilarious sales patter and hyperactive hand gestures. A crook, cheat and shyster through and through, it's a credit to Stan's writers that he's one of the series's fan favourites.

Burns Flipper

Game: The Longest Journey

Although a particularly minor character in TLJ, this hovering, paranoid drunk was hard to forget. Living in a deserted but heavily armed warehouse on the outskirts of Stark's dockyard, Flipper's paranoid delusions led him to erect a system of security cameras to protect himself and his illegal activities. His dialogue is very well written, with a hard-bitten, sarcastic and bitter character coming across perfectly. Although initially reluctant to help central character April, Burns eventually lays down his life to protect her, which is a lot to ask of the humble NPC. Ultimately, Burns leaves you with the feeling that he'd be great fun to have a drink with, but should be kept away from sharp objects.

Mio

Game: Rogue Galaxy

In a game filled with talking cats, mad dictators and JarJar-Binks-esque aliens, it's a wonder that receptionist Mio stands out at all. And yet, Mio not only has her own fanclub within the game (complete with 2 hapless Mio Fanboys), but actually asks your character "Don't you know who I am?!" Responsible for getting your party thrown in jail through air-headed vindictiveness, Mio really should be infinitely hate-able, but instead comes across as lovably dense. Her spot on flirtatious accent and wonderful body language really bring the character to life, and she gets some of the best one-liners in the game (once again outshining the supposed main characters in every scene) as she blows you kisses and hands you a fanclub card.

The Merchent

Game: Resident Evil 4

As mysterious as they come, the Merchant appears at certain odd locations in Resident Evil 4 carrying enough artillery to "start a small war". Although he plays no real part in the story other than as a weapons vendor, and can even be killed at each location, the Merchant delivers his every line in an accent with such a bizarre mix of cockney/farmer/pirate (not to mention a weird bubbling relish), that it's hard not to love him. While clearly a foreigner, the also Merchant seems to have a super-human knowledge of the local area, as he always appears in each location ahead of you as you journey through the infected countryside. The slightly disturbing thought hit me half-way through the game that there's no way of knowing whether the Merchant has been infected, is immune to infection, or most likely (from the vaguely ill sounding way he delivers his lines, and his posture and clothing), is slowly dying from parasite infection. Better just to take the goods and run.

Scooter

Game: Borderlands

Scooter, purveyor of all things vehicular on planet Pandora, is immediately memorable if only for his completely unintelligible dialogue. Delivered in a perfect Boomhauer-esque southern accent, the garbled gibberish spouted by scooter over your radio never ceases to be entertaining. While it's damn near impossible to work out what he's saying, the humorously relevant words always come through clearly, exposing the care that has been put into his voice-work. As with many supporting characters, his appearance is extremely generic (I doubt I could tell him from any of the other Borderlands NPCs), but the personality that has been invested in him is one-of-a-kind.

These are my personal favourites, but what other Bit-players will you always remember? As with a good film, it's often the minor characters that add depth and personality to a good game, so it's important that we don't forget them!

In a perfect world, we'd all be able to tailor our gaming experiences to our tastes exactly. Instead of an all dominating mainstream of games which receive the majority of the purchases (such as last year's super juggernaut Modern Warfare 2), there would be freedom of choice from a huge range of great games for however you want to play. Although the mainstream can offer us the best graphics and the most polished gamepley, this often comes at the cost of originality and restriction to a few genres of gameplay. If you thought that games hit their peak with the release of Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Final Fantasy Tactics or The Grim Fandango, then a lot of games on the current market are likely to leave you cold. Personally, while I really enjoy a lot of the popular titles I buy, there's often something missing in them that doesn't quite satisfy my tastes for the weird, the bizarre and the creative. Because of the restrictions placed on major titles designed to ensure they please everyone, I often feel there's something lacking where they could have taken a risk. I don't deny that the mainstream studios produce excellent titles, but sometimes I want something irreverent, cheap, and totally outside the box. Thankfully, for me, 2009 was the year of Indie Gaming!

I wanted to showcase a few of the great games I've come across in the last year, all of which have made me realise that I want a little more weirdness in my life. With the growth of the XBLA, Apple App Store, Playsation Network, Steam, Android and Wii and DSiWare, there are now too many games for sites like Gamespot to keep track of, so you may not have heard of them before! Inevitably, since I don't own a PS3, DSi or use my Wii at all, this list has unfortunately ended up skewed so feel free to add your own favourites to the list!

Abduction

Format: Android

Price: Free

A great little puzzler for Android phones, this comes pre-loaded with some android phones, like the HTC Hero. It's premise is that a herd of cows has been abducted by aliens, and the surviving cow must bounce up a series of floating platforms to the spaceship if he ever wants to see his adorably square friends again. While it's simplicity is apparent from the outset, the brilliant integration of the phone's tilt sensor means it controls beautifully and treads the line between intuitively and difficulty perfectly. The clean but cute graphics also add to its charm, making you feel like your playing in a child's drawing. The randomly assigned power-ups and power-downs polish of a ludicrously addictive experience that can't be beaten for free.

Azkend

Format: iPhone/iPod Touch

Price: £2.99

Azkend may seem like any old match 3 puzzle game, but it has more than enough innovations to put it above the rest. The premise is basic: match 3 or more symbols together on the brown parts of the board to turn the tiles blue. When the whole board becomes blue, part of a talisman appears and you must destroy all of the symbols underneath it to make it drop off the bottom of the board. This is all done against the clock, and the difficulty ramps up quickly as the game goes on through the introduction iron panels (flip twice), ice panels, locks, oddly shaped boards etc. You are also armed against these obstacles with the accumulation of powerful talismans that unleash a special effect when four or more are linked, and aided by a lightning meter that fills when brown tiles are abolished. The game also has a story of sorts, following a traveller as he re-traces a mysterious journey through the Himalayas and helping him recover his memory as he goes. The overall quality of the game is superb, and the atmosphere of mystery is brought to life well through music and sound effects.

Time Gentlemen, Please!/Ben There, Dan That

Format: PC

Price: £2.99/Free

Free Adventure game "Ben There, Dan That" and it's sequel "Time Gentlemen, Please!" have been my favourite finds of the last year by far. A bizarre sense of humour filled with in-jokes (Ben refers to Dan as "quisling" at one point, now that's obscure!), and endearing banter between the two main characters lead to a great overall experience, even if the game is simplistic in its gameplay A traditional adventure game through-and-through, puzzles are the order of the day, but are constructed so well that solutions can be worked out logically rather than randomly. Dan is always on hand to be unhelpful if you require hints, although Ben will mostly comment on how things can be used in a helpful and amusing manner. These games are a self-referential must if you've ever enjoyed an adventure game, and are guaranteed to take you places you certainly didn't expect.

Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor

Format: iPhone/iPod Touch

Price: £1.79

I really can't say enough in praise of Spider, a game with an unlikely premise to say the least. You play as a spider, making your way through a house that has long been abandoned by it's owning family. Although your main focus is catching and eating as many bugs as possible in order to earn points and clear levels, the gradual unfolding of the story of the absent family is both compelling and chilling. This game epitomises how mysteries should be told, with subtle hints and hidden secrets driving you to know what happened to the missing Bryces. The touch controls are very polished and intuitive, leading to one of enjoyable experiences I've had on my iPod.

I hope you can find your way to seeing things the indie way, as sometimes life is better on the wierd side of life! If you have any indie favourites this year, don't hesitate to let me know! I know these games will never win against the likes of Modern Warfare 2, but they don't have to, it's enough that they're there to buy for our pleasure.

Since the late 1990s and the arrival of sparkly 3D graphics, Adventure games have been steadily retreating further and further from the gaming spotlight. As great games like Beneath a Steel Sky were released as free open source software, and copies of The Curse of Monkey Island and The Longest Journey mouldered in bargain bins, most of us though thought we'd never see Adventure Games return to the mainstream. Throughout the Adventure Gaming dark ages there were always a few underground titles appearing (such as Farenheit or Dreamfall), but the game mechanics never really sat well with all of the 3D dual-stick control malarkey that was expected from modern games. The games felt a little like adults dressed in teenage clothing in order to make them more "down with the Kids".

It may have had an emotional and atmospheric story, but Farenheit had fugly graphics and weird mini-game fighting tacked on.

As I received my very first laptop in 2005, I was most disappointed to find that a lot of the older games wouldn't play without severe patching, and that their shiny 3D successors wouldn't play on my inferior hardware. I remained trapped in a corridor of the adventure game timeline that contained games that were not-so-old that they needed Windows 95 to play them with (excluding such gems as The Secret of Monkey Island and Day of the Tentacle) but not-so-new that my 256MB of RAM could handle them. Thankfully, The Curse of Monkey Island, The Grim Fandango and The Longest Journey all hang around in that self same corridor, so all was not lost. Irritating though this situation was, hope was in sight!

Recently, Adventure games have been slowly returning to the spotlight. This resurge is due to the release of two excellent touch-screen consoles in the past 5 years, both of which favour clean 2D graphics over awkward 3D. They are, of course, the DS lite and iPhone/iPod Touch. The genre took its first cautious footsteps back towards popularity with the brilliantly mad Phoenix Wright series on DS, allowing us to use our DS styluses to search for clues and intimidate witnesses until they gained anime-angry-hair. The whimsical Professor Layton series also won our hearts, with traditional puzzles in place of item-combining and pixel hunting. Hotel Dusk: Room 215 also proved to us that Adventure games don't all have to be about laughs or complicated puzzles, but are perfectly suited to conveying drama and tension. Last year, the DS also hosted the re-release of the legendary original Broken Sword, this time with hints included and unnecessary deaths removed.

You wouldn't call him if you had an injury claim, but Phoenix may have saved the Adventure game from obscurity.

Although the DS Lite has recently won the honour of selling the most units of any console in history, these games were sadly not the system's bestseller blockbusters. With the exception of the ever popular Phoenix Wright and Professor Layton series, few other Adventure games have been produced for the DS in recent years, leaving the iPhone in prime position to take up the baton. In many ways the iPhone is unique as a games console, not least in that some people deny its status as one. The low-low pricing of games in the app store is also a point of contention for some, although at £4.99 The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition is hardly cheap. Whatever you think of apple's touch screen wonder, its low priced store with cheap development costs and easy distribution (coupled with its great touch screen) has made it the perfect home for Adventure games. To this date, only 2 major games released of this genre have graced the app store, but both have done superbly.

The aforementioned Secret of Monkey Island:Special Edition gave me the opportunity to experience this titan of a game with improved graphics and a spot-on voice-over from the now well known cast. It's been one of the most highly rated games on the app store, and also one of the most popular (despite it's hefty price tag). Beneath a Steel Sky has also been released, and at only 59p is an absolute steal of a game. It's my hope that the Apple and Andriod app stores will encourage the development of new games like these, as the costs of making and distributing them are now much lower than ever before. I'd also love to see the return of more influential older games, like Day of the Tentacle or Full Throttle.

Back on PC, the original home of Adventure Gaming, this trend also seems set to continue. I recently came across a wonderful and completely free game entitled "Ben There, Dan That", created by Dan Mashall and Ben Ward of British based Zombie Cow Studios. The game is bizarre, creative, relentlessly self-referential fun, and has a wickedly rude sense of humour. While I appreciate that its hardly that new (nearly 2 years old now), both the game and last year's sequel have unfortunately received next to zero coverage on Gamespot, which is puzzling considering the 84% Metacritic score that the follow-on game "Time Gentlemen, Please!" has garnered.

The graphics have a certain "stylised" charm, but the game is genuinely funny, and having two protagonists is genius.

I can't wait to get my teeth into "Time Gentlemen, Please", which costs just £2.99 on Steam. Add this to the recent Tales of Monkey Island series (rumoured to soon be heading to XBLA), and it looks like our old friend the Adventure game is secure for now. I'm glad we live in a time when older forms of games, like 2D Platformers, simple Puzzle games and retro Shooters can all co-exist peacefully with the HD graphics juggernauts. What will happen next for these games, however, as the graphical processing capabilities of modern handhelds start to rise, mirroring the 32bit-128bit revolution that once spelled death for them in the mid 1990s? Are they here to stay, or will they be discarded once more? For our sakes, (not to mention Ben and Dan's) I hope they stick around forever.

If you're interested in getting hold of "Ben There, Dan That", then you can find it for free here: http://www.zombie-cow.com/?page_id=17

Age ratings have always been somewhat of a thorny issue between gamers, but with games like Modern Warfare 2 surely topping the the Christmas lists of many kids this year it's become a slight concern for us older generation of gamers. Games are pretty much the only toy around with an age rating unrelated to how swallow-able their small parts are, but they have rapidly become must-have Christmas presents. This doesn't surprise me at all, but it has begun to make me a little...uneasy.

There can be no doubt that the shops are doing their bit with regards to ID-ing teenagers of indeterminate age before selling them games, (2 were turned away while I fought the crowds in GAME last week), and I was even ID'd when I tried to buy Assassin's Creed II - before the clerk examined the 15+ rating sticker more closely and decided it probably wasn't necessary. However, my concern isn't with the shops themselves, but with the parents. I wonder how many of them will submit to a young gamer's pleas for MW2 or God of War and inadvertently set themselves up for an 18-rated Christmas?

Assassin's Creed II: surprisingly, this is what a 15+ rating means these days (at least in the UK, anyway).

Unfortunately, the media attention around games these days is so all-encompassing that even gamers who can't play the big games of the year will inevitably want them anyway. It's an incredible burden to put on a parent to expect them to refuse a game that their child desperately wants - especially if their friends already have it - when the fleeting nature of games means that the same game will be old and irrelevant by the time they are old enough to play it legally. But does the age rating really matter? Is the disconnect between games and reality so large that the age rating doesn't have the same weight that it carries for film?

Obviously there are some things that it's best not to expose your 13 year-old son or daughter to on Christmas day, in front of Gran. Swearing, nudity, racism and scenes involving torture (physical or psychological) are best given a wide berth - I'm certainly not suggesting younger gamers should be allowed near Bioshock. But violence is usually the one that newspapers pipe up in objection to, and I don't think it holds the same disturbing-factor as the other things I've mentioned. The violence seen in some games today is so over the top, it doesn't compare at all to the simple shock and horror of seeing a real person be beaten up or shot on the silver screen. I think that the fantasy element present in games like Gears of War or Prototype means that they bear little relation to real life, and probably won't upset younger player so much as make them go "Ewww...cool!". Obviously, though, some people don't want their kids to see too much gore.

Prototype may be very violent, but does it bear any relation to reality?

Ultimately, it's up to the parents to decide, and I'm sure most of them strike the right balance between letting young gamers have what they want, and deciding what they probably won't like. After all, an 8 year old who asks for Batman: Arkham Asylam is probably going to enjoy a Ratchet and Clank or Zelda game more, purely because those games are designed for them. However, it's worth bearing in mind that the age rating doesn't mean the same as it once did - like film, it's constantly changing - and it surprised me that the neck-stabby Assassin's Creed II was awarded the same rating as the original Tomb Raider: a 15+ (interestingly, the PEGI rating is an 18+, so I have no idea why the UK has a different one). I wasn't surprised when the clerk ID'd me, but I was when I examined the age rating.

Once upon a time, games released under the "Creative" or "Arthouse" label were doomed to failure. Often beloved by critics, games like Okami, Shadow of the Colossus, Psychonauts, or We Love Katamari wouldn't even make a ripple in the charts, let alone make it onto people's Christmas lists. To me, this has always seemed a crying shame (as these are often my favourite games), but in recent years this trend seems to have been reversed.

They didn't come much more innovative than Okami - but its commercial failure was the death of Clover Studios

Now, these games ride in on waves of hype, and trumpet calls from game shops signal their arrival. This isn't isolated to one platform, either, with Sony championing LittleBigPlanet, the Wii supporting No More Heroes, and the handhelds and XBLA funding any number of bedroom-programmer designed bizarre-ity. The big titles of the past few years have been dominated by new IP's and genre-bending weirdness, building up to a few weeks ago - when I went to pick up a copy of cel-shaded RPS Borderlands and it was SOLD OUT EVERYWHERE.

Another cel-shaded game, Borderlands was weird-as-they-come, but sold in it's thousands on day one.

It's fantastic that the market - once so dominated by endless sequels - now accepts the creative types for their vision, and accepts them with life giving sales. So why has this change come about? Here's a short list of why I think it has:

1. People are listening to critics.

Gone are the days when most gamers wander into a shop without any prior knowledge of the game they are about to buy. It used to be that the only way to read reviews of games was by buying a costly magazine, and even then you'd only get one opinion on the matter. But with websites like Gamespot and Metacritic, you can not just read a review for free, but also see what all the reviewers on the internet think in one place. This freedom of review info availability has led to people checking sites more often, so when a game like LittleBigPlanet comes along and scores a 9/10 - people find out about it, and take notice.

2. Portal.

It seems odd to credit this phenomenon to a single game, but the rise in development of creatively minded games seems to have been helped along a great deal by the success of 2007's Portal. At the time it was unique - a creative mechanic, a twisted personality, and a sales juggernaut. This success partly due to it's bundling with the latest episode Valve's perennially popular Half-Life 2 series, giving gamers who normally played mainstream games an opportunity to play something completely leftfield. And what a success it was - a triumph, in fact.

Portal - Not just a game, a cultural phenomenon.

3. Creative mechanics now make it into mainstream titles.

Take one of the biggest hits of the year so far - Batman: Arkham Asylum. Given the popularity of the Dark Knight film, the game was always going to sell well. But the publishers took it upon themselves not just to make it good, but also innovative. The combat is great, the gadget implementation done with flair, and the graphical creativity is through the roof. The game blends genres like fighting, platforming and stealth with ease. The "Decade's biggest hit", COD Modern Warfare 2, is also a step into the innovative when compared to its dowdy WWII ancestors. This trend is hopefully set to continue, as developers realise that also-rans don't satisfy their customers any more.

Rejoice that our Sackboy friends are not an endangered species!

Hooray, then, that the Industry is finally taking notice, and injecting a little weirdness into their games. Long may it continue to support games like Mirror's Edge, LittleBigPlanet, Borderlands, Brutal Legend, and Portal.

The iPod Touch/iPhone has become a huge surprise hit as a gaming console, much to the shock of the more mainstream gaming industry. In contrast to the shiny corporate image of Apple, most of the best iPhone games are from indie developers and small startups, and can cost as little as 59p. This means that there's no familiar developer names attached, and no way of judging if it's going to be your cup of tea. On buying my iPod touch last week, the first toe dip into the app store was more than a little overwhelming! With over 80,000 apps to buy (not all games, mind), where do you start?

These are some of the best indie games I've bought, and why I think they should make it onto your purchase list for your shiny new device!

Tap Tap Revenge 2.6

Price: FREE

Tap Tap Revenge plays out like Guitar Hero lite with only 3 tracks instead of 5, making it easily manageable for 2 thumbs. As a free app, you'd expect it to be a little rough around the edges, but developer Tapulous has polished the game to a mirror shine and added free downloads for around 30 songs. Some of these even come with custom skins or "themes" that change the usual glowing lines to a themed background. The songs available are a reasonably good selection of genres, and for free, who can argue? For fun, this game wins hands down against some of the paid apps, and comes with a hilariously self aware track called "Tap Tap Domination" that will stick in your head for days. (N.B: The 3rd edition now requires a 59p payment, so I'd try out 2.6 first).

Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor

Price: £1.79

This game is based on the seemingly barmy idea that crawling around a deserted house eating flies makes for a fun game. Surprisingly, it does. The gameplay involves guiding a touch controlled spider around the 2D landscape of a mysteriously deserted manor house, making webs and eating insects in order to open up the next room. While the puzzle gameplay of figuring out how to catch as many insects as possible with limited web (and later on, surfaces that can't be stood on and insects that need to be herded into webs) is great fun and works beautifully, the real magic in this game comes from figuring out what happened to the missing Bryce family. Where did they go, and what happened to them? This game will make you hungry to find out.

Ragdoll Blaster

Price: 59p

Like many free physics puzzlers for the PC, ragdoll blaster involves firing a projectile past several obstacles in order to hit a target. The little ragdolls fired from your cannon waggle their limbs humorously on impact, and pile up nicely when you frustratedly try to beat a level by throwing dolls at it. Helpfully, you can use as many as you like, but only about 10 show up on screen at once. The targets themselves are fiendishly placed in mazes of springboards, movable blocks, boulders, and spinners, and with over a hundred levels of puzzley goodness and a skip function in case you get stuck, it's hard to say no.

Rolando 2: Quest for the Golden Orchid

Price: £3.49

This little gem is pure, bonkers, quality. The little rolandos exude weapons-grade levels of charm as they roll around in what appears at first to be a straight rip-off of LocoRoco. But this is a slightly different animal, with it's charmingly English little characters, such as Sir Richard and the Spiky Commando, shepherding around wayward royal rolandos who refuse to be controlled by you (who they refer to as "Finger"). The game is controlled by tilting the iPhone, and rolandos will jump at the swipe of a finger. With a cute storyline, nice 2.5D graphics, and crystal collecting and time trial challenges for each level Rolando 2 is the complete package.

Glyder

Price: 59p

This game reminds me a lot of the old Spyro the Dragon flying sections from the PSone era, controlled through the iPhone's tilt sensor. The game is extremely chilled and new-agey, with a lot of relaxing music and peaceful flying. In order to get all of the hundreds of cystals scattered throughout the seamless world, many death defying swoops and dives will be needed, but crashes are not punished so it never feels stressful. Great for spending a few minutes relaxing and marvelling at the lovely (if low polygon) world at your disposal for just 59p.

Dungeon Hunter

Price: £3.99

Counting Gameloft - who've been banging out phone games for years now - as an indie developer may be pushing it a little, but I struggle to think of any games of theirs that have been huge hits before. It'd be a crime not to include Dungeon Hunter in this list anyway, because it's one of the finest games for the iPhone full stop. With amazingly smooth and high quality graphics, accomplished Baldur's gate/Diablo combat, and an accomplished storyline, it's my favourite purchase so far. If you like a good half hour of hack-and-slash gaming look no further.

Of course, this list has omitted major releases like The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition, and Crash Nitro Karts, but that's the point. You know and love these series already, so give the little guy a chance as well (and buy his weird game about spiders).

We PAL territory gamers have missed out on a lot over the years, from the 16bit days of Earthbound and Policenauts to the relatively modern Katamari Damacy. Poor old Europe has continually suffered for it's diversity of languages, and at the hands of those who deemed these games "too out there" for our tastes.

But surely, with the dawn of digital distribution networks such as the PSN and XBLA, games companies finally have the chance to make things right, to bring us up to date with the fabulous content we've missed out on? Right? Unfortunately, Wrong.

The PSN should, by all rights be awash with such games...and yet they have still failed to appear. Games like the cult gems Xenogears and Chrono Cross seem noticeably absent, especially with the success of Final Fantasy VII proving that the market for these games is still hungry for a slice of retro RPG action. So where are these games we're clamouring for?

Policenauts - Made by Hideo Kojima, no less

Xenogears was a cult ****c RPG - but only in the US and Japan

The short answer is that games companies are holding out on us. The fact that the games were never translated into French, German etc should not stop the release of them on the PSN as "English Only Titles". The sad truth is that these games are cash cows simply too good to waste all at once. Instead, they'll be carved up for re-makes, then released as supporting material for those looking for the "Old School" experience, or worse, only bundled with their modern counterparts.

This is not to say that a remake of Chrono Cross, Xenogears, or Seiken Densetu 3 would be bad, just that they will inevitably be hyped to the nines, take ages to produce, and cost a premium. It May seem from my choice of games that I'm picking a teeny bit on Square Enix - But in truth they are not one of the worst offenders.

Never Mind the Boxart - Chrono Cross was the stellar sequal to Chrono Trigger

Squeenix have released 2 separate attempts to sell us the underwhelming Final Fantasy I and II, and have made a great deal of remakes in the past 2 years....however, most of these have been great (Final Fantasy Tactics, for one). The extensive back catalogue they have just makes it easy to pick out the ****cs that never made it over here. The remake strategy seems to be working out for them, and to some extent for us. So what may be the best compromise is for Squeenix to hurry up and get these remakes made!

To be fair, Nintendo have actually bucked the remake trend - by offering games like Super Mario RPG to us poor Europeans - and provided a surprisingly complete library of 16bit games, including Chrono Trigger for DS. Kudos to Nintendo for not withholding on us!

Super Mario RPG hits Europe at last!

But don't expect to see big budget, "Never Before Seen In Europe" PSone games appearing on the European PSN - the legendary mythos around them, and the fact we've never played them, make them too good to blow on a single £7.99 download.