Is Accessibility Killing PC Gaming?When I write a feature like this, I like to get emotional over it and I try to avoid just giving a dry re-listing of my favourite games complete with the hows and whys. I’m passionate about games, so I try to get passionate about my games writing.

Passion however didn’t make my approach to writing this article easy. Instead, it made it harder because there is so much I want to talk about that can stem from the idea of a gaming retrospective. I could spend pages and pages just looking back at any one of a hundred games.

Tom Clancy's End War Interview: Julian GerightyWhile we were at i34 absorbing the unprecedented levels of geekery and hardware lust, we also had time to take in some of the many upcoming game presentations on offer, one of which was Tom Clancy's End War.

Joe already had a good look at the game back at Ubidays in June, and the 3D action-RTS is still on target for a winter 2008 launch. Looking very much like a shrunken down World in Conflict, this multi-platform title has one very serious ace up it's sleeve - the crucial use of voice control to command all your units.

On Our Desk – 12It has happened again. The tide of gizmos and gadgets and thingymabobs and whatyamacallits has risen and flooded the bit-tech offices with a barrelful of assorted tics and tacks.

And what do we do when the high water mark starts to get dangerously near to head height and we come close to drowning in the ocean of bits?

We round ‘em up, that’s what. We corral them together in a pen, dump them all on my desk and then enjoy the unusual once-in-a-while turnaround where Tim’s desk isn’t the messiest thing on the face of the planet and mine is. Everything gets sifted through, nothing is left behind.

Space SiegePublisher:Sega
UK Price:£17.99 (free delivery)
US Price:$49.99 (free delivery)

Chris Taylor is something of an oddity in the games industry and I don’t just mean because he can lick his own elbow or has a passion for cow-tipping. No, what sets Chris Taylor slightly apart from the unwashed, unashamed and unanimous masses is that he is recognisable as a name.

If we were in Hollywood and this were the movie business then that wouldn’t be anything of nothing; most anyone on the street could name at least a handful of famous movie directors. This isn’t Hollywood though, this is southern England and we’re in the tech trade, not showbiz.

Code of Honor 2: Conspiracy IslandPublisher:City Interactive
Platform: PC
UK Price:£16.99 (inc. Delivery)
US Price:$19.99 (inc. Delivery)

First things first – yes, I know that in the UK we spell the word ‘Honour’ with a U. I know this is a UK based site and yes, I am English. Still, out of a need for consistency and respect for the developers of this game, we’ll be using the American spelling for this article.

BraidPublisher:Microsoft
Platform: Xbox Live Arcade, PC (at a later date)
Price: 1200 MS Points

There are just three things you need to know about Braid, which is quite remarkable when you think about how many games there are out there which pile on extra levels of needless complexity.

First, you should know that Braid is beautiful. Not just pretty, but beautiful. It isn’t like Crysis where you play it for a bit and occasionally go

BraidPublisher:Microsoft
Platform: Xbox Live Arcade, PC (at a later date)
Price: 1200 MS Points

There are just three things you need to know about Braid, which is quite remarkable when you think about how many games there are out there which pile on extra levels of needless complexity.

First, you should know that Braid is beautiful. Not just pretty, but beautiful. It isn’t like Crysis where you play it for a bit and occasionally go

Fallout 3 Interview: Pete HinesWe got a chance to go see Fallout 3 in action recently, and obviously we couldn't turn it down. Though the event itself was the usual blur of excitement and curiously small burgers on cocktail sticks, we bemusedly came to the next day to find that not only had we done a hands-on preview of Fallout 3, but we'd also done an interview with Bethesda's Pete Hines.

How had this come about? Had we managed to make it through the interview without making utter tits of ourselves or fainting like 18th century bodiced ladyfolk?

The Winter Games PreviewThere are a lot of good games coming up this year. Maybe not as many as last year admittedly where we had massive hits like BioShock and The Orange Box and Mass Effect, all of which managed to make it into our Top Ten Game of 2007, but big nonetheless.

So, we’ve scrawled down this tidy little guide to the best games coming out in the madness of the pre-Christmas rush.

We’d love to say that this article is for you – that we’ve lovingly created this article so you can be fully prepared to spend your hard earned cash, but that would be a lie. The truth is that Joe is just awful at remembering release dates, so hopefully this should help keep him on track.

Soulcalibur IVPublisher:Ubisoft
Platform:Playstation 3, Xbox 360
UK Price (as reviewed):£39.99 (free delivery)
US Price (as reviewed):$59.99 (free delivery)

In days of old, when nights were cold and consoles weren't invented, the only place to get your gaming fix was at the local arcade. We were enthralled by the little blobby aliens moving from side to side in Space Invaders, we thought that the vector graphics in the

Fallout 3 Hands-on PreviewPublisher:Bethesda Softworks
Platform: PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
Release Date: Autumn 2008

I'm typing this introduction in the brief interlude I have for lunch, having spent most of the day up 'til now being ferried from one room to another. Demonstrations and introductions. Hands-on time. Embargo briefings. I have an interview scheduled in about fifteen minutes and then it's back to the hands-on.

Crysis: Warhead InterviewPublisher:Electronic Arts
Platform: PC Exclusive
Release Date: Q4 2008

When we went to see Crysis: Warhead we were lucky enough to get a special guided tour of the game as well as some hands-on time. As we sat down to plough through bad guys and destroy as many Korean tanks as we could, we asked questions and got some commentary from Ben O’Donnell, producer on the game.

If you’ve missed our extensive re-telling of our experience with the game or haven’t got chance to looking at the

Mercenaries 2: World In Flames PreviewPublisher:Electronic Arts
Platforms: PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3
UK Pre-order:£39.99 with free delivery
US Pre-order:£58.99 with free delivery

Back when the original Mercenaries came out, I was just finishing off my dissertation for the last year of my university education. It was a rather thrilling piece about the types of language used on the back of cereal packets.