5. Graphics card naming conventions
In which an nVidia 280 is faster than an 8800.

19. Creepy ragdolls
Our inner child still giggles when a goon dies with his hand on his friend's bottom. Sometimes we'll shoot them again and again and again, just so their face edges a little closer to their partner's crotch. Don't mock. We've all done it.

30. FEAR's Slow-mo
What the f-u-u-u-u- whunk.

37. The '~' key
It's called a tilde, and it lets you turn the gravity off. Win.

44. No corporate overlords
If you want to make a game, Microsoft, Sony or Nintendo aren't going to tell you that you can't. And with 196 million games-capable PCs in the world, if it's good enough, you will find your audience. That's the clear power of the PC as a platform: anything is possible. And everything eventually finds an audience.

46. 196 Million PC Gamers worldwide
We're not a hobby. We're a nation

52. Voxels, texels, Megatextures, et al
The more buzzwords, the better the game. Fact.


57. Football Manager
Because nothing captures the magic of football better than a wall of spreadsheets.

58. Morals defined entirely by killing
Because "I was good person. I let Anna Navarre live" is a great way to get funny looks on the train. Also, she was kind of hot.

61. The end of A : /
Now our PCs begin at C. This amuses us.

63. The eternal hope of Duke Nukem Forever
Duke's perpetual delay means we've always got something to look forward to other than death.

64. Overclocking
Voiding your warranty for extra frames per second gets easier every year. It's almost like Intel want us to burn through our processors.

77. Minsc
"Go for the eyes, Boo!"

95. Epic manuals
Remember the doorstops that came with elderly simulators such as Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe? Or the amazing training manual-cum-short story that came with TIE Fighter? Today's special editions are about plastic figures and soundtracks. Rubbish. You can't take a pewter Big Daddy to bed.

97. One healthkit per crate
It seems like you could maybe package healthkits in something smaller. Like a shoebox.