Long read: The beauty and drama of video games and their clouds

"It's a little bit hard to work out without knowing the altitude of that dragon..."

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PS2: 12 Games of Christmas

I'm not dead!

GrimGrimoire

Quirky Japanese titles are a forte of the PS2 and a speciality of the most idea-rich developer around at the moment, Vanilla Ware. GrimGrimoire then, shows little regard for convention and flattens real-time strategy into side-scrolling 2D environments, with beautiful hand drawn characters and animation illustrating a witty, well-translated story.

Underneath, however, its core values are familiar; you collect resources to build an army, researching stronger units as you go along. Your strengths lie in coordinating attacks using troops with different movement speeds and abilities, battling overwhelming odds by using that silly old thing some people call a brain. It is a little repetitive and wanting of more variety, but if its core appeals to you then it is a thorough recommendation. Who says you have to play by traditional rules? Exactly; so if you could explain to my boss why I am not wearing any trousers I would appreciate it.

Actually: don't say anything, I shall surprise him instead!

RealPlay Range

You can fill the white space with your imagination.

Having an installed base of 120 million humans means you can take a risk, which is what the RealPlay Range of games is all about. Each is based around its own wacky peripheral, you see. Take Puzzlesphere, a Monkey Ball-like game where you roll around by tilting a silver sphere controller in your hand, pressing a button on top to pump the air brake. Both brilliantly bizarre and strangely addictive.

Others are not initially as impressive, such as a baseless racing wheel with built in accelerometers, or a Pool cue controller that still aims using button input and only gets you involved when you thrust to shoot. I say. Still, with Golf, Tennis and Bowling all in development there should be something to take your fancy and light up your smile as if you were picking a Wiimote up for the first time.

Speaking of Wiimote, In2Games - the bonkers outfit behind the RealPlay series - is creating its own version of the famed Nintendo controller for 360 and PS3. Dubbed Freedom, it is due to be available next year and we're promised will be even better than its rival.

No, nay, never: how are free range eggs ever going to turn a profit? Sorry.

Stuntman: Ignition

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Ooh, oh, I have been shot and I am precariously high up and might just tumble out of this window onto the flaming wagon below before running around like a giant firework and doing a somersault into the river that has a shark in whose nose I will emerge doing a handstand on as the crowd cheer and scream and maybe throw their knickers at me or roses not fussy. Not even scary. Not for me. I am a stuntman.

What a great idea to make a racing game based around being the ballsy driver you see in films who thunders around rooftops, jumps bridges and hurtles towards oncoming traffic, then. And in this sequel the potential has been realised, with drastically shortened restart times as you try to nail the tricky driving scene for a fussy director, as well as improved visuals and generally tidied-up mechanics. Little in the way of innovation over the first, then, but a better and more enjoyable experience on the whole. If the idea grabs you, and it should, then so should you grab it in return.

Relight my fire: would you really buy tickets to see Take That?

Pro Evolution Soccer 2008

Stealing a quick glimpse, Cristiano?

Thelma and Louise, George and the Jungle, Robson and Jerome, Bangers and Mash, Pro Evolution Soccer and PlayStation 2; couplings so renowned you assume one goes with the other. The series as we know it began here on PS2 back in 2001, and has spawned seven follow-ons in the years since - widely regarded as the leader in the genre up until recently. And even now you may find yourself cooked in a Christmas pudding for suggesting it isn't.

The biggest changes this time were an adaptive AI that learnt your tricks and tactics and changed the way it played to counteract them, hopefully keeping the challenge fresh and preventing you from following a set routine for banging goals in. It is fast, fun and fluid, an improved and revamped version of Pro Evolution Soccer 6. Perhaps more of an incremental update rather than stand-out successor, but worthy of your sporting coins nonetheless - maybe for the last time ever.

Arsenal, Arsenal, Arsenal: Christmas number one? Let's hope so.