Eurogamer in blog format - PSOne

War's road to redemption begins.

Croteam's high-def update of the PC blasting classic gets a formal release date.

Rock Band gets light-hearted with the minifigs.

Dotnia experiences an expansion into an entirely new dimension.

Wheee! We're suckers for a bit of dog-fighting, especially with those crazy rear-prop driven Japanese planes.

Sneaky tactics and sharp headshots in the sequel to DICE's jolly battlefield romp.

Blood Bowl gets its first new race in the lithe and dangerous form of the Dark Elves.

As an ancient and powerful Umbra witch, Bayonetta has a few handy tricks up her tight sleeves. Here, learn about her flashy, demon-powered killer moves.

Video on demand streaming is coming to the PS3 very soon, with a massive wedge of entertainment waiting at your digital fingertips.

When you're heading into a life or death battle against uncaring robotic overlords, you want to be wearing the right dress.

Ever wanted a zebra-striped AK-47? Of course you have.

The PSP title slips out, somewhat in the shadow of its big brother.

Meet the two opposing forces of the Avatar world, and choose which one you'll be fighting for.

Series creator Chris Taylor discusses his sequel, and what improvements have been made over the original.

Two short CCTV vignettes with those lovable, psychopathic rogues, Kane and Lynch.

Tecmo KOEI offers a first look at Again, a DS game made by Hotel Dusk developer Cing. Story and contenxt are explained in this clip.

A fantastic job of a sequel, building on strengths and addressing weaknesses - AC II hits the shops this Friday.

The perpetually confined simians return in their first balance board title, jonesing for bananas like the dirty little potassium junkies they are.

With social network integration a hot topic, Sony pumps up its Facebook app.

The hub of all starship activity, the bridge is where the important stuff happens. That and engineering, but engineering is far less glamorous and doesn't have the comfy chairs.

One of the earliest titles to be released for the PlayStation console, Jumping Flash was also a strong hint about how the system's line-up would develop. Arguably one of the most important ancestors of every 3D platform game in the following decade, the game combined the aesthetics of platformers from the 16 bit era with the seemingly limitless potential of 3D gameplay on offer on the PlayStation. By itself, this makes Jumping Flash into a slice of videogaming history that's worthy of a revisit - but a couple of unique touches also make it into a game that's still fun to play, even now.

Perhaps the most unusual feature of the game is that rather than the third-person view which would later come to define 3D platformers, Jumping Flash opted for a first person perspective view. It's entirely likely that this was simply a way to get around the difficulty of providing an effective third-person camera - as subsequent games would prove, third person cameras are perhaps the most difficult task in game design - but regardless, the effect was to create a surprisingly immersive 3D world which briefly captured the imagination of players in 1995.

Although Jumping Flash seems very simple by today's standards, it's also effortlessly charming - in a peculiarly scatterbrain sort of way. Enemies are mostly cute animals, plants or anthropomorphic robots; your attacks come in the form of pretty fireworks, and cartoonish touches like eggs in frying pans over tiny volcanoes in the lava world. For the sake of a couple of quid on the PlayStation Store, this is definitely a title worth briefly revisiting; and it doesn't even look too bad, thanks to unambitious graphics which were largely flat-shaded rather than textured. Read more...

Xenogears was Square's other RPG; development commenced alongside that of its sibling, Final Fantasy VII, but it rolled out a year later to a rather more muted commercial response - so muted, in fact, that we never saw the game here in Europe. In some ways, that's understandable. Xenogears was heavy going, with religious imagery and references which saw it condemned as blasphemous in some quarters, and frequent references to the works of Nietzsche, Freud and Jung. It got even tougher on the second disc of the game, which contained an unhealthy and often criticised mass of cutscenes, and somewhat restricted gameplay.

For all this, however, Xenogears remains a stunning game. You have to be prepared to deal with a fairly hefty dose of Japanese pseudo-philosophy and some astonishingly high-concept science fiction - but by and large, it's worth it. A combat system which allocated action points to various different abilities and martial arts moves turned out to be more flexible and entertaining than anything on offer elsewhere at the time, and it was hard not to find a soft spot for the epic drama on display in the storyline, even if the Nietzsche sections and crucifixion scenes left you cold.

What's more, Xenogears today is a title which is - whisper it - an altogether more enjoyable experience than its justly more famous stablemate, Final Fantasy VII. By opting for sprite-based characters and 3D environments, rather than diving headlong into 3D, Xenogears' team created a game which escapes, to some extent, the march of graphical progress. It's still rough around the edges, and the poor pacing of the second disc will never be forgivable - but Xenogears remains videogames' Dune, a messy, high-concept, gorgeous and patently unfinished beast of a game which everyone should try at least once. Read more...

Okay, hands up admission - Thunder Force V wasn't as good as Einhander, and it certainly wasn't as good as Treasure's utterly fantastic Radiant Silvergun, whose rave reviews somewhat overshadowed its release. However, the last instalment in the venerable Thunder Force series was still bloody good; and thanks to the decision to stick with 2D backgrounds for much of the game (while keeping foreground objects in 3D), it still looks damn pretty even now.

In essence, it's a side-scrolling shooter not unlike many you've played before, but any shooter can really be judged on two qualities - level design, and the combat "hook". Thunder Force V's developers had been doing this for a decade, and it showed; the level design was almost flawless, the bosses perfectly tuned, and the attack patterns ideally balanced between challenge and frustration.

The hook, too, was interesting; collecting "CRAW" power-ups that floated outside your ship essentially gave you limited shields and extra weapon turrets, and you could deplete the power of one of your CRAWs to fire a powerful Over Weapon shot and take out nastier enemies. A very solid shooter, in other words, which deserved far more credit than it received - not least because any shooter with bosses called Deep Purple and Iron Maiden is alright in our book. Read more...

The success of Final Fantasy VII fuelled Square's development efforts on the PlayStation, and 1998's Parasite Eve was viewed at the time as a massive step forward for the gameplay of the company's titles. Aside from the modern-day setting, which in itself was a departure for the company, the game was also an RPG with no separate battle screen - all battles took place in the main environments, a twist to the RPG mechanic which Square hadn't used since Chrono Trigger on the SNES.

As it turned out, Parasite Eve was more of a side excursion than a major change of direction. Square's games remain firmly rooted in fantasy worlds, and subsequent RPGs from the firm returned to turn-based, separate-screen battles - until this year's Final Fantasy XII, anyway. However, that doesn't change the fact that Parasite Eve was an extraordinary and hugely enjoyable game - and exactly the kind of RPG which haters of spiky haired boys with massive swords could get their teeth into.

The plot, based on a novel by Hideaki Sena, had an entertaining Japanese horror implausibility about it, and was crazy as a bag full of angry cats. The concept of a "rebellion" by the mitochondrial creatures which are present in every human and animal cell gave rise to a Resident Evil style caper around New York, and an excuse for superb showdowns on locations like the Statue of Liberty and the Chrysler Building - throw in a tomboyish, no-nonsense heroine, pre-rendered graphics that still look great and a stunning soundtrack, and you've got yet another Square title we'd love to see hit PlayStation Network sooner rather than later. Leave the sequel, though; unlike the first game, it was released in Europe, but unlike the first game, it stank. Read more...

The Oddworld games occupy a rather curious part of the gaming spectrum. Their humour and relatively straightforward play mechanics made them highly prized by the casual gaming sector which was really only winking into existence in the late nineties, while those same play mechanics caused a lot of more hardcore gamers to turn their noses up at what was on offer. Their loss; Oddworld was great, and has stood the test of time remarkably well.

The decision to stick with pre-rendered graphics and animations rather than delving into the PlayStation's limited 3D capabilities may have seemed backwards at the time, but with hindsight, it was the right decision. Oddworld's inhabitants (sorry) have more nuanced personalities than could have been possible with blocky 3D models, and in Exoddus, the game uses this to wonderfully convey status effects like anger, sadness or giddyness for the player to deal with.

Combining platform game sensibilities with Lemmings-like concepts and the skill of true character creators, Abe's Exoddus outdid its predecessor, Abe's Oddysey, in almost every way. The ability to quick-save and the addition of status effects for the characters whom Abe gently shepherds through the levels made for a far more rounded, enjoyable game - and one which, viewed now through the lens of an industry more accustomed to mass-market success, looks ahead of its time. Read more...

As crazy Japanese-English names go, "Elemental Gearbolt" is right up there with Treasure's awesomely-named "Radiant Silvergun", to our minds. More than just a pretty name, though - it's also by far the most interesting and most gloriously presented lightgun game we've ever played. Unfortunately, for all the wonderful craft on display here, it had the unfortunate gall to combine anime cutscenes before anime was cool, a fantasy story before Peter Jackson filmed a short little ditty about hobbits, and gameplay that required a peripheral. Cue instant commercial oblivion.

That's tragic, because Elemental Gearbolt is brilliant. It's got intriguing play mechanics which turn the lightgun into a magical weapon with three different effects, rather than a conventional gun - so no reloading is involved, but some of the spells are quite slow or have different areas of effect. At the end of each level, you divide your points up between the "Score" pile and the "Experience" pile, and your character's attacks level up as you progress through a variety of pretty, imaginative environments and boss encounters.

Perhaps the greatest triumph of the game, though, is that it's got something no other lightgun game has ever offered - a superb plot. The whole game is framed by lovely 2D animated cutscenes, which follow the narrator - a future historian - through the various environments as he recounts the epic, tragic tale which unfolded in these locations in the past. A great storyline and RPG-style, high fantasy gameplay in a lightgun game? We have no idea how you'd make this work on PSP (or on the currently lightgun-lacking PS3), but by god, we hope someone works it out. Sadly, it was a Sony-published title, so a Wii version is out of the question. Read more...

The mid to late nineties were a time when Square - flushed from its newfound international success - played away from home quite a bit. Sometimes, its forays outside the RPG genre didn't work quite so well; the somewhat risible beat 'em up Ehrgeiz being a good example. However, as we saw with Bushido Blade, there were moments when Square demonstrated true genius in its non-RPG titles. Einhander was, unquestionably, one of those moments.

The premise is simple; it's an R-Type style side scrolling shoot 'em up, rendered entirely in 3D (which is still surprisingly good looking). The catch is that your ship has a grasping manipulator which can grab weapons dropped by destroyed enemies and fire them either from an above or below position. These weapon pods are scattered like candy around the game's gorgeously appointed stages, and they offer the player a unique variety of options for approaching any given situation.

As well as being good looking, fast and very, very slick, Einhander also boasted some of the best electronic music to be found in any videogame of the era, courtesy of Square in-house composer Kenichiro Fukui. While it was arguably the most successful of Square's expeditions into non-RPG territory, Einhander never made it to Europe, and enjoyed only a limited audience abroad. A follow-up seems eminently unlikely; but PlayStation Network would be a fitting home for such shoot 'em up brilliance, surely? Read more...

Okay, it was no Zelda - but with the world still faced with holding its collective breath for Ocarina of Time for another six months, Matrix Software's incredibly charming and well-designed action RPG did rather more than just fill a gap. Pulling inspiration from Sega's Landstalker as well as Nintendo's Zelda, Alundra mixed solid storytelling, lovely graphics and fantastic puzzles to make for a game which deserves far more recognition in the action RPG annals than it actually gets.

The reason for that, perhaps, is that Alundra was hard - arguably too hard. The combat in the game was responsive and relatively straightforward, but the aforementioned puzzles could leave players completely stumped for hours, if regular complaints on forums at the time are to be believed. We're not sure that the game's reputation as one of the hardest ever made is deserved, really, but it was certainly no slouch in the difficulty department.

For all that, Alundra was compelling as hell. A storyline which started off with a boy washed up on a beach after a storm (how original!) rapidly spiralled into a dark, fascinating and occasionally incredibly cruel plot - while Alundra's key power, the ability to enter people's dreams, lent welcome variety to the environments and the action. Unlike many RPGs, Alundra did make it to European shores - but good luck finding a copy of the game, which was produced only in tiny quantities. Read more...

If you weren't a fan of 2D beat 'em ups by the time the PlayStation rolled into town, you were probably never going to be a fan of 2D beat 'em ups. With Tekken, Soul Edge (latterly Soul Calibur) and their likes dominating the fighting game market, it looked like 2D games were destined for the scrapheap of history. Certainly, there were (and always will be) plenty of ardent devotees of the King of Fighters and Streetfighter titles, but for the mass market, 3D was a must-have for any face-kicking enterprise.

Enter stage left; Pocket Fighter. Or Super Gem Fighter: Mini Mix to give it its altogether less snappy international title. Nicking some of its art inspiration from Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo, the game pitted "super-deformed" (i.e. tiny, cute and insanely Japanese) versions of your favourite fighters from a variety of fighting games against one another. Tongue firmly in cheek, the game was a hilarious swansong for beautifully detailed, wonderfully animated backgrounds and fantastically imaginative special moves.

Moreover, the game was accessible on every level, relying on collecting gems to power up easily executed special moves. After all, what's the point in having a move which sees Chun Li transform into a traffic police uniform and direct a stream of cars over her opponent if you then make the move hard to pull off? A solid set of Capcom cameos, beautifully balanced move sets and garishly over the top presentation were the finishing touches on an everyman's light-hearted beat 'em up which has yet to be rivalled on any platform. Read more...

This is a rare entry for this list - a 3D action title. While the PlayStation had plenty of those, few of them have stood the test of time - or held their own against the march of technology. However, Colony Wars was no ordinary 3D action title. In fact, even ten years on, it still stands out as one of the best space shooters we've ever played on a console, and a startling reminder of just how damned talented the boys and girls at Psygnosis' studios in Liverpool (by 1997, entirely owned by Sony) really were.

Like any 3D PlayStation game viewed a decade later, you have to forgive the graphics to some extent. That, however, proves surprisingly easy to do when you're confronted with great handling and a fantastic variety of missions - many of which swap straightforward dogfighting for tightly designed episodes in which you take part in stealthy infiltration, guard capital ships and supply lines, or hold perimeter defense lines from waves of enemies.

Best of all, the game actually drags you in with a compelling approach to its mission structure. Failing your objectives doesn't mean game over; it just means that you've thrown the game down a different and not necessarily pleasant branch of the plot. How many games allow you to fail every mission and still give you an ending - albeit a nasty one? Now that's what we call replayability. Read more...