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I like my brain. It has, along with my other primary sensory apparatuses, always allowed me to do lots of useful stuff. Math has always been fun. I love motor skills, and have always found my sense of equilibrium to be particularly useful when attempting to walk. Read more…

Our next, slightly controversial entry on this list has led me to question what exactly constitutes a weapon. The Darkness, the evil entity that spawns from our anti-hero Jackie Estacado in the game of the same name, is a living, breathing thing. It’s biological, despite its supernatural origins. It has a voice and a full range of emotions (anger, malice, rage). Read more…

There are many definitions for the word weapon. According to dictionary.com, it can be “any instrument or device for use in attack or defense in combat, fighting, or war, as a sword, rifle, or cannon”. Or, “anything used against an opponent, adversary, or victim”. Kirkland, Washington developer Valve clearly prefers the latter classification. Read more…

What does BFG stand for exactly? Well if you don’t know then you must be new to this whole video game craze that’s been driving all the kiddies wild. The real name of the BFG is probably the worst kept secret in the history of video games. Read more…

Gears of War did a lot of things right. It finally implemented a decent cover system into the core gameplay of a third person shooter, its graphics put a muzzle on all those cynical high-end PC owners out there and it allowed you to shove a grenade down an enemy’s gullet. Not to mention the fact that the game had a gameplay mechanic that allowed you to curb a downed Locust ala Ed Norton in American History X. If there was another slot available in this list it might have been given to Marcus Fenix’s foot. Read more…

First person shooters get a lot of attention on weapon lists across the board. Developers know the FPS is one of the most popular formats for Western video game consumers. To counter that, production teams try to offer a lot in the way of challenging level design, accessible story, and of course weaponry.

The responsiveness and creativity of a game’s arsenal can make or break a day run-and-guns. So it should come as no surprise that first person shooters dominate in the realm of badass firearms. Read more…

People who play shooters know that there is one thing their bullets could never penetrate: walls. You could try all you want, but that virtual sheetrock might as well have been constructed out of 10-inches of solid steel.

Bazookas, grenades, 30 caliber rounds and high-powered lasers usually just make a nicely shaped black blemish where a gaping hole should be. That’s why our # 7 entry goes to Rare for inventing the Farsight XR-20, a weapon that screams, much like Ronald Reagan before it, “Tear down this wall!” Read more…

I don’t really like Japanese RPGs. I think they show an amazing stubbornness towards evolution of the genre, with recycled story arcs and male characters that are more androgynous than a Ziggy Stardust-era David Bowie.

I thought living in Japan might help me become more tolerant, but the inverse proved true and my disdain has only grown stronger. So, if I can’t stand Japanese RPGs then why did I put Cloud Strife’s sword into the Top 10? Read more…

Kratos is not a nice guy. His hobbies are killing barbarians, killing peasants, killing hydras, and killing his family. He digs tattoos, revenge, and bad girls. He’s every man’s hero. Read more…

Weapons have been a source of pain and suffering throughout human history. Since the first caveman bashed in his buddy’s head with a rock for eying his woman, weapons have played an important role in the decay of society. Alfred Nobel invented the Nobel Peace Prize to counter the moniker of “Merchant of Death” – bestowed unto the genius for his most famous invention, dynamite. Read more…

Well, you knew it was coming. Nintendo has set the bar for gameplay and innovation since 1985, when it released its groundbreaking platformer Super Mario Brothers for the NES. Read more…

The golden era of videogames is a hot topic among gamers, mainly because many game enthusiasts don’t agree when the gaming utopia took place. Read more…

Little known facts about Capcom: Their name is pronounced Kapukon in Katakana, the writing system designated for foreign words in the Japanese language. Megaman is actually referred to as “Rockman” in his native Japan. And the name Capcom is actually a partial acronym taken from the company’s original name, Japan Capsule Computers. Read more…

Our next contender came out of the tangled streets of Osaka, Japan. Osaka is loud, boisterous, exciting, and over the top. It should be no surprise then that this gaming heavyweight at one time called this city home. As anyone who has played one of their signature games can attest, Konami is not one to shy away from theatrics when getting its story across. Read more…

Ubisoft’s name comes from the word “ubiquitous”, which means to be everywhere at the same time. With the many branches Ubisoft has throughout Europe and Canada, there’s a reason for the name. Read more…

Just like its advertising campaign, EA is BIG. The company made net revenue of over 3 billion dollars in 2005 and continues to grow. The recent acquisition of BioWare will only continue to drive this monster forward. This along with its near-monopoly on professional sports games could prove to be a bottomless well for future earnings. Read more…

To think of LucasArts (formerly Lucasfilm Games) is to think of George Lucas, the man who created it all. The pompadour sporting and flannel wearing visionary gave us Star Wars and Indiana Jones, for which he should be canonized. Some would be happy evolving just one form of media, but it appears that forever changing the face of cinema and inventing the Wookie wasn’t enough for Mr. Lucas. He still had to revitalize another form of entertainment– video games. Read more…

Some developers draw inspiration from a particular genre. Electronic Arts built up some of the most successful franchises in the sports world, Id Software concentrated mainly on first person shooters like DOOM and Wolfenstein, and Lucasarts grew its fan base by creating excellent adventure games. Square Enix falls into this category as well. Their area of expertise is the RPG. Read more…

SEGA is a Japanese company, right? Of course they are…aren’t they? Well, you would be surprised to learn that when SEGA was started in 1940, they were actually from the other side of the pacific. Read more…

Anyone who has played video games in the 8 or 16-bit era remembers a genre that has since become the black sheep of 3D gaming culture: the platformer. Platformers made up a huge percentage of all console games and arcades of the day, and would all be started by one game in particular, that put it’s highly pixilated main character through every kind of death trap imaginable. Read more…