gaming mouse

What are Permalinks?

Permalinks are the permanent links of a post page. In Blogger it automatically generates a permalinks based on the title of you give to the post. Permalinks provides information to the viewer about the content being pointed to.

As you read above that Permalinks are the permanent links, so that they create permanent links to the Blogger posts which are indexed by search engines such as Google. Then search engines use permalinks to categorise posts. Browsers use permalinks to help navigate to your posts. When you hover over a permalink in your browser you can read the post name in the status bar.

Permalink of this article is:

http://blogginghubblog.blogspot.com/2012/08/improved-permalinks-for-blogger-posts

How to make Search Engine Friendly Permalinks in Blogger

While other blogging plateforms such as Wordpress allows the user to edit permalinks, but Blogger has no such feature. For this reason you have to be very careful while creating titles for your posts as the permalinks, once title generated then it can't be changed later. When your article is in drafts you can change the title as many times as your want. But, once it's published the permalinks assigned to it at that point then it can't be changed it remains the same no matters how many times you change the title of your post.

Blogger has one more important issue that it takes only the first 35-40 characters of your title to create permalink if you create longer title you can run into problems. My suggestion is that you design your titles carefully if you want to avoid losing the end characters from your permalink. For instance long title such as the one below would result in a shortened permalink which would lose the important fact that this post is related to working with Blogger:

http://blogginghubblog.blogspot.com/2012/08/how-to-create-user-friendly-permalinks-for-blogger-posts

Fortunately you can fix this problem. You will need to publish and then republish as I did with this post. It means that you publish your article with choosing 35-40 best characters and then republish it with your favorite one. This method involves creating a shorter title that will accurately summarise the content of your post (e.g Improved Permalinks for Blogger Posts) I choose these words to publish my post. Now for republishing i changed the title to "How to Create User Friendly Permalinks For Your Blogger Posts." Now the title is also very long as you can see mine is longer than 40 characters, but it doesn't matter now because the permalink, however remain the same even though the title has changed.

I hope you like this article by using the techniques you can create eye catching and memorable titles. Creating concise permalinks is important for Search Engine Optimisation.

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I hope that this tutorial will helped you alot in "Improving Permalinks" for your blogger blogspot blog. To learn more about Blogger that How to Add Meta Tags to Blogger, Adjust Blogger Title Tags to Improve SEO, How to Submit Blog in directories, how to Add Categories Section, or how to Setup Feedburner follow the links.

Facebook like button is very important for your blog, the reason is that the visitor can easily like it if you have a great content and the second thing is that it plays very important role in building traffic. Below is a step-by-step tutorial on how to add facebook like button on your blogger blog.

How to Add Facebook Like Button?

1. Go to Facebook.com.

2. Besides Home select "Use Facebook as:" and go to your page.

3. Click on Edit Page and select Update Info.

4. Now go to Resources

5. Click on Use social plugins

6. Click on Like Button.

7. Insert your Facebook FanPage URL, adjust your desired Width, and at the bottom click on Get Code.

8. Now open a Notepad document and from the facebook page copy both of the two codes one-by-one and paste it in notepad.

9. Now go to Blogger.com > Design > Add a Gadget.

10. Select HTML/JavaScript.

11. Paste the Code, and click Save.

You're done. Check your Blog.

I hope that this tutorial will helped you alot in adding "Adding Facebook Buttons" to your blogger blogspot blog. To learn more about Blogger that How to Add "AddThis Social Bookmarking Buttons" follow the links.

Bench analysis

Making sense of an awful lot of numbers

Have tested a whole lot of processors in and produced many a group test but few have left us feeling quite so frustrated. Despite being one of the oldest chips in the test the Core i5 2500K is still far and away the easiest to recommend. The Core i5 has got decent multi-threaded chops, and simply incredible overclocking as well as solid gaming performance too.

Of all the AMD chips it's sad to say the oldest chip showed the best performing one hero too. The new Bulldozer architecture has only gone on to show just how good we had it with the Phenom II X6 1100T. That's a proper six-core chip and the multi-threaded benchmarks show that in stark contrast to the tri-module FX 6100.

Overclocking performance

Stock speed vs max overclock

Overclocked video encoding performance

Multi-threaded CPU performance

Multi-threaded CPU performance

Video encoding performance

CPU gaming performance

Spec analysis The fine details for you fine people

Specs	Intel Core i3-2100	AMD FX 4100	AMD FX 6100	AMD Phenom II X6 1100T
Price	$150	$158	$220	$234
Manufacturer	Intel	AMD	AMD	AMD
Clockspeed	3.1GHz	3.6GHz	3.3GHz	3.3GHz
Cores	2	4	6	6
Threads	4	4	6	6
Cache	3MB	12MB	14MB	14MB
Process technology	32nm	32nm	32nm	32nm
Socket	LGA 1155	AM3+	AM3+	AM3
Memory compatibillity	Dual-channel DDR3	Dual-channel DDR3	Dual-channel DDR3	Dual-channel DDR3
Integrated Graphics	Yes	No	No	No
Score	78%	75%	79%	88%

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Specs	Intel Core i5-2500K	AMD FX 8150	Intel Core i7-2700K	Intel Core i7-3930K
Price	$267	$351	$390	$784
Manufacturer	Intel	AMD	Intel	Intel
Clockspeed	3.3GHz	3.6GHz	3.5GHz	3.2GHz
Cores	4	8	4	6
Threads	4	8	8	12
Cache	6MB	16MB	8MB	12MB
Process technology	32nm	32nm	32nm	32nm
Socket	LGA 1155	AM3+	LGA 1155	LGA 2011
Memory compatibillity	Dual-channel DDR3	Dual-channel DDR3	Dual-channel DDR3	Dual-channel DDR3
Integrated Graphics	Yes	No	Yes	No
Score	91%	78%	84%	83%

In this tutorial we will discuss, how to add meta tags to blogger blogspot blog, to improve Search Engine Optimization (SEO) of blog, and go beyond the limitations of the blogger platform.

You must have been to many articles that are telling, how to add meta tags to blogger

What are Meta Tags?
A meta tag is a line of HTML code that describes your site. It used to be the case that you placed meta tags at the top of every web page; one meta tag for keyword, another for a description. Although they would not be seen by viewers of your web page, search engines (such as Google) used them.

Keywords are those that best describe you business or blog's purpose. The description contains your keywords, but is sentence style. If someone used Google to search for one of your keywords (for example "blogging hub") and you were listed on the search results page, the meta description would appear under your listing providing the user with a brief summary of your blog.

However, because so many people abused meta keywords, many search engines don't use the meta tags in their algorithms anymore. But it doesn't hurt to include them on your blog.

Limitations of Blogger and SEO
Well, by default Blogger is not properly optimized for SEO. Meta descriptions and keywords are not supported. Title tags are also not optimized.

However meta tags and meta description can be inserted into Blogger template to make it Optimized. But make sure that you have done correction of your title tags, but if you don't know anything about title tags then please refer to adjust blogger title tags to improve SEO first.

How to Add Meta Tags to your Blog Home Page

1. Login to Blogger if not already logged in.

2. From the Dashboard, go to Design, Edit HTML.

3. Back up your template as a precaution by downloading full template to your computer.

4. Check the Expand Widget Templates box.

5. Find these lines which will be near the top of your template:

<head>
<b:include data='blog' name='all-head-content'/>
<title><data:blog.pageTitle/></title>

6. Paste the following code immediately below
<title><data:blog.pageTitle/></title>

<b:if cond='data:blog.url == data:blog.homepageUrl'>
<meta content='Place your blog description here' name='description'/>
<meta content='Place your blog keywords here(separated by commas)'
name='keywords'/>
</b:if>

7. The blog description should be more then 120 characters and less then 150 characters including spaces.

8. It's important to use keywords, it is just as important not to overuse them. If you do, your site will be flagged as "spam" and won't show up at all on results pages. My recommendation is to keep your keyword usage to 4-8 percent. So out of 100 words, you should only use a keyword 4 to 8 times.

Example below shows the meta tags i use  for the home page of Blogging Hub:

<b:if cond='data:blog.url == &quot;http://blogginghubblog.blogspot.com/&quot;'>
<meta content='Blogging Hub is about tips, tricks, tutorial about blogger blogspot blog, Technology Review, Photshop Tutorials, Photography, Recipes, and lot more' name='description'/>
<meta content='blogger.com, tutorials, tips, SEO, analytics, blogging hub, technology, photoshop tutorials, photography' name='keywords'/>
</b:if>

9. Click on Save Template button and you are done.

How to Add Meta Tags to Individual Post of Blogger

1. Follow steps 1 to 4 as for adding meta tags for Home Page.

2. Add the following in the <head> section of your blogger template. Enter this code below the Home Page code above you have just entered:

<b:if cond='data:blog.url == "http://url of your post"'>
<meta content='keywords pertaining to your post' name='keywords'/>
<meta content='crafted description of your post' name='description'/>
</b:if>

Here is an example of optimized meta tags for one of my post:

<b:if cond='data:blog.url == &quot;http://blogginghubblog.blogspot.com/2011/12/adjust-blogger-title-tags-to-improve.html&quot;'>

<meta content='Title tags for SEO is about how to adjust title tags to improve search engine results and high rankings. Title tags play very important role in search engine optimization. Popular search engines like Google gives more importance on title tags.' name='description'/>
    
<meta content='search engine optimization for blogger, blogger title tags, improve seo, get higher in search results' name='keywords'/></b:if>

3. Add your post URL, keywords and description. To find the URL of your post navigate to the post's page and copy the link showing in the address bar of your browser including the http:// prefix

4. Click on Save Template button

5. To check your description you can use the view source in your browser by simply pressing Ctrl+U.

Troubleshooting and Tips

• Observe Character Limits
To avoid problems ensure that you keep within the maximum character limits:

Title Tag - Maximum Character is 60

Site Description - Maximum Character is 150

Keywords - Maximum Character is 200

• Title Tag Tweak
If you haven't inserted the title tag tweak then it is highly recommended that you do so then you will need to add the code above after the title tag adjustment in the section of your template. Read more about adjust title tags.
• Keywords

As you have seen that meta tags are very important for home page and for every other page of blogger, and in this article you have learned both the ways of adding meta tags to home page and each post of blogger.

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I hope that this tutorial will helped you alot in "Adding Meta Tags to Blogger and Individual Post of Blogger" for your blogger blogspot blog. To learn more about Blogger that How to Adjust Blogger Title Tags to Improve SEO, How to Submit Blog in directories, how to Add Categories Section, or how to Setup Feedburner follow the links.

I actually like to call this effect the “J.J. flare,” because no one in Hollywood goes crazier with optical flare than J.J. Abrams. Anyone who has seen his films knows exactly what I mean, although the reason he uses it is because it looks cool. Well, here I’m going to show you how to create a flare from scratch, and then define it as a brush to be used anytime you want. In fact, you’ll see me use this several times throughout in Photoshop section.

Step 1

Start by going under the File menu, choosing New, and creating a new blank document to create the brush on. It’s going to be a wide brush, so create a document that is 10 inches wide by 4 inches tall at 100 ppi.

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Step 2

Next, select the Brush tool (B) from the Toolbox and then click on the brush thumbnail in the Options Bar to open the Brush Picker. Then, click on the right-facing arrow in the upperright corner and, from the fly out menu, choose the Assorted Brushes preset. You can choose to append it to the existing list or replace the existing list altogether. I chose to append it. Locate the brush called Tex ture 4, which looks like a cluster of little lines. Select it, then open the Brush panel by clicking on the small folder icon to the right of the brush thumb nail in the Options Bar.

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Step 3

Click on Brush Tip Shape on the left side of the panel, and set the Size to around 45 px. Then, for Roundness, type in 75%. This will squash the brush down a little bit.

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Step 4

Press D to set your Foreground and Background colors to their defaults of black and white, then press Option-Delete (PC: Alt-Backspace) to fill the Background layer with black. Now, press X to switch your Foreground color to white. Click on the Create a New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers panel to create a new blank layer. Then, press-and-hold the Shift key and click-and-drag to paint a short horizontal stroke in the middle of the canvas, as seen here.

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Step 5

Now, go under the Filter menu, under Blur, and choose Motion Blur. Set the Angle to 0º and the Distance to 500 pixels. This will give you a nice horizontal streak effect. Click OK.

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Step 6

Make a duplicate of this layer by pressing Command-J (PC: Ctrl-J). Now to stretch it a bit further, put the shape in Free Transform mode by pressing Command-T (PC: Ctrl-T), then press-and-hold the Option (PC: Alt) key to anchor the transformation to the center, grab any of the corner handles, and squash the flare down and stretch it to near the edges of the canvas. Press Return (PC: Enter) when you’re done to commit the change.

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Step 7

To enhance the glare on this part of the flare, we are going to add a Bevel and Emboss layer style. That’s right: Bevel and Emboss. I have discovered over the years that by playing around with the various layer styles, you can achieve some interesting effects in ways that these features weren’t necessarily designed for. For instance, here I want to generate a more stylized glow on the streak. So, with the duplicate layer selected, click on the Add a Layer Style icon at the bottom of the Layers panel and choose Bevel and Emboss from the pop-up menu.



In the Layer Style dialog’s Bevel and Emboss options, in the Structure section, set the Style to Emboss and increase the Depth to around 490%. Keep the Direction set to Up and increase the Size to around 54 px. At the top of the Shading section, set the Angle to 176° and the Altitude to 21º (you can also just grab the small target inside the circle and move it around to change the angle of the effect). Then, go to Highlight Mode, set it to Hard Light, and leave the color set to white. Increase the Opacity to 100%. Then, for Shadow Mode, also choose Hard Light, but then click on the color swatch, and choose a really light gray color (but not white). Leave the Opacity at 75% and click OK when you’re done.

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Step 8

Now, let’s move on to the next part of the flare. We need to create a point of origin for the light itself, with intense light beams. So, start by creating a new blank layer, then get the Rectangular Marquee tool (M). We need to create a perfect square in the middle of the streak, so press-and-hold Option-Shift (PC: Alt-Shift), click in the center area of the streak, and drag a square selection out from the center, stopping just short of the edges of the canvas.

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Step 9

Press Shift-Delete (PC: Shift-Backspace) to open the Fill dialog. Then, choose 50% Gray from the Use pop-up menu and click OK.

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Step 10

Press D to set your Foreground and Background colors to their defaults of black and white. Then, go under the Filter menu, under Render, and choose Fibers. Set the Variance to 16 and the Strength to 10. Click OK.

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Step 11

We need to run a motion blur on this, but I’ve noticed that the blur is applied more smoothly and evenly by locking the transparency of the layer, rather than using a selection. So, deselect by pressing Command-D (PC: Ctrl-D), then click on the Lock Transparent Pixels icon near the top of the Layers panel. Now, go to the Filter menu, once again, under Blur, and choose Motion Blur. Set the Angle to 90º and the Distance to 400 pixels to give the flare a streakier look.

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Step 12

Now we need the streaks to fade to black at the bottom. We’ll do this using a gradient, but in a slightly different way than you might be used to. Get the Gradient tool (G) from the Toolbox, then click on the down-facing arrow next to the gradient thumbnail in the Options Bar to open the Gradient Pick er, and choose the Foreground to Trans parent gradient (the second one in the top row). Also, make sure the Linear Gradient icon to the right of the gradient thumbnail is selected. Lastly, change the Gradient tool’s blend Mode to Overlay.

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Step 13

Make sure your Foreground color is set to black and, starting at the bottom of the square shape, press-and-hold the Shift key, and click-and-drag up almost to the top edge of the square. Notice that some streaks remained more prominent than others. This randomness is due to the Overlay blend mode, which affects the varying gray tones differently, resulting in streaks of more random lengths, as opposed to what you would get just using a plain black gradient. Simply apply the gradient one or two more times (dragging a shorter distance) to take care of any other streaks that might be still going to the edge (as shown here).

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Step 14

Reload the shape as an active selection by pressing-and-holding the Command (PC: Ctrl) key and clicking on the layer’s thumbnail in the Layers panel. Then, go under the Filter menu, under Distort, and choose Polar Coordinates. Choose Rectangular to Polar. This will wrap the streaks around a center point, giving the effect of a light burst. Click OK, then deselect.

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Step 15

Now, to blend the burst with the streaks we already created, change the burst layer’s blend mode to Screen. Then you can adjust the positioning, if necessary.

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Step 16

The flare is really taking shape, but it needs to be a bit brighter in the center area. Go ahead and create a new blank layer and, with the Gradient tool still selected, keep the Foreground to Transparent gradient, but change the gradient type to Radial (the second icon from the left) and change the blend Mode back to Normal. Press X to swap your Foreground and Background colors, making white your Foreground color. Start at the center of the burst and draw a small white radial gradient.

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Step 17

Then, press Command-T (PC: Ctrl-T) to go into Free Transform, grab any control handle, and scale the gradient so that it is less circular and more oval by scaling more horizontally than vertically. When you’re done, press Return (PC: Enter).

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Step 18

Next, click on the Add a Layer Style icon and choose Outer Glow. In the Structure section near the top of the Layer Style dialog, click on the color swatch and change the color to white. Then, in the Elements section, increase the Size to around 150 px. This will add an enhanced ambient glow to this element. Click OK.

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Step 19

Now we are ready to make the brush. When defining a brush in Photoshop, the darkest areas of the image will be the most opaque areas of the brush. Up until now, we have been building this graphic on a black background for the sake of visibility and it’s how a flare would look, but now we need to invert these values to create the brush. So, start by selecting the topmost layer in the Layers panel, then press Command-Option-Shift-E (PC: Ctrl-Alt-Shift-E). This will create a merged version of all your layers (the overall flare) on a new layer at the top of the layer stack.

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Step 20

Go under the Image menu, under Adjustments, and choose Invert (or press Command-I [PC: Ctrl-I]). This will make the flare black and the background white. Once the image is inverted, you may notice some areas that are a little gray and need adjusting. Simply apply a Levels adjustment (press Command-L [PC: Ctrl-L]) to increase the contrast a little bit. Now we are ready to define the brush.

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Step 21

Go under the Edit menu and choose Define Brush Preset. You don’t need to select the flare first, as Photoshop will automatically ignore all the white areas, leaving only the black area in the shape of the flare. Just give the brush a name and there you have it. You can access the brush from the Brush Picker and use the Brush panel to modify its appearance. As you will see, this brush can have many uses. Have fun!

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Final Image

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Here, you can see some different uses for the flare brush. Remember, you can add to and modify the layer style to get a different color. Once the flare is on a layer, you can scale and rotate it with Free Transform, like any other graphic element.

Game description: Tom is your pet cat, that responds to your touch and repeats everything you say with a funny voice. You can pet him, poke him or grab his tail. It's extremely fun!

Game controls: This game is played with mouse only. 

When it's uncorked, 2011 will be looked back on as a vintage year for gaming. It will have heady aroma of Portal 2, the full body of The Witcher 2, the tang of FIFA 12 and the technicolor of Bastion. The year will be served from a bottle built into Adam Jensen's augmented arm, and will almost certainly be quoffed by one of Skyrim's dragons, while Renegade Ops and Battlefield 3's main players engage in a bar fight in the background.

What I'm trying to say here is that there were many really, really good games released in 2011; so many in fact, that 2012 is looking like a bit of a dud in terms of gaming. But, with each game often taking up more than 40 hours of your precious gaming time, it's hard to know where to begin. In fact, by my estimates, if you played each and every game back to back you'd be aged 70 by the time you finished them. But then, I don't know how old you are. You could be 69 and three-quarters.

It's also all too easy to miss last year's essential releases, games such as Frozen Synapse, LIMBO and The Ball that may have slipped under your radar. So we've made sure even indie games get their own shouts outs. This is on top of all the best games in each genre, from football's most beautiful games to exhilarating racers, and the obvious PC stalwarts of roleplaying games and first person shooters.

It's also a testament to PC gaming, which has gone from strength to strength. Despite infinitely cycling rumors of its death as a platform, it's currently toe-to-toe with current-generation consoles. Need for Speed and FIFA's comfort on the PC prove this, and we're beginning to accept that an Xbox 360 controller is a necessary PC peripheral.

So pull up a comfy chair, light the fire and polish your favorite glass as we give a tasting session of 2011's PC gaming finest.

Batman Arkham City Game of the year

Bats is back! Following 2009's monstrously good Arkham Asylum, Arkham City gives the Dark Knight a whole city to explore via Just Cause 2 style physics.

It's hugely impressive use of the Unreal Engine 3, which to date has only given us tight, if shiny, play areas. Developer Rocksteady has given its Batman a separate identity to his cinematic incarnations, somewhere between the much-loved animated TV show and Frank Miller's reimaginings. We're looking forward to wherever Rocksteady takes Batman next - presumably, it's going to be Arkham World.

Crysis 2 Game of the year

Crytek's original Crysis was the best reason to stick an Nvidia GeForce 8800 in your machine and enjoy the wonderfully rendered topics, and its system-pushing engine made it a constant presence on the test.

The sequel relocates the action from a fictional archipelago to a dystopian vision of New York City, and it's Crytek's first title to be co-developed on the consoles. The result is a game that lacks the original's deft open-world play area and eye-popping vistas, but still offers lots of shooty fun and suit based powers. We're thankful, too, that the game has now been upgraded to DX II.

Deus Ex Human Revolution Game of the year

Deus Ex parts one and two were a media theorist's dream come true, combining intelligent story telling with innovative, RPG-lite gameplay.

Human Revolution foreshadown the original with its tale of Adam Jensen, a security guard who gets hit with the wrong end of a cybernetic stick. While the free-roaming city hubs are amazing to explore, the combat becomes tiresome and the boss fights are the stuff of nightmares. Still, it's nice to know that games can be thoughtful and though-provoking, and we're looking forward to Square Enix's takes on the Tomb Raider and Thief franchises.

Renegade Ops Game of the year

Just Cause 2 developer Avalanche Studios proves that mental chaos 'em-ups work just as well from a top-down viewpoint.

As a downloadable game it's - naturally - fairly slight, and Gordon Freeman's cameo makes about as much sense as him appearing in Masterchef cooking Headcrab soup. But it's also got pleasingly retro tang, like something 1995's teenagers would imagine 2011's games to be like. Avalanche's lush engine is put to good use, rendering the warm tropics and azure skies as well as many, many explodey things. Best of all, it's cheap, and you get a lot for your 10 bucks.

Dead Space 2 Game of the year

An Aliens to Dead Space's terse Alien, the sequel features unluckiest-man-in-the-universe, Isaac Clarke returning to fight those pesky Necromorphs in a spooky abandoned human colony.

As with the first, it's more icky than scary, and the necromorphs 'jump-out-and-say-boo attack patterns soon wear thin. But developer Visceral Games has tightened the experience, resulting in one hell of an intergalactic ghost train ride, complete with breathless excursions into the zero-gravity vacuum of space. Plus, that mini-game involving an eyeball and a hypodermic needle is without a doubt the most stomach-churningly gruesome thing you'll ever experience in any game.

Bulletstorm Game of the year

Every year need a dumb-as-bum action title, and 2011's Bulletstorm proved to be quite the treat. The scene is set when Grayson Hunt drunkenly crashes his spaceship into a tropical planet populated by mutants, plants and mutant plants.

The vaguely Mass Effect setting is more than made up for by seriously potty-mouthed dialogue, mum jokes and a combat system which encourages shooting people in the balls. A lot. Developer People Can Fly (they do, when dead) was previously responsible for the Painkiller series, and its partnership with Epic Games resulted in Bulletstorm's willfully immature spoof of first-person tropes.

Battlefield 3 Game of the year

Battlefield 3's incredible multiplayer put it a gnat's willy above 2011's other blockbuster manshoot, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.

As is expected from an combat-oriented FPS, the single player campaign is a tacked-addendum, and best ignored. Those multiplayer maps make the game what it is, complete with 64 players and a host of vehicles and aircraft. It's the best fun we've had online for a long time. The game was buggier than a pushchair showroom at launch, but fortunately developer DICE has got things up to speed. The Back to Karkand DLC is worth picking up, too.

Operation Flashpoint Red River Game of the year

Codemaster's take on Operation Flashpoint lore may have divided audiences, but we got a kick out of its latest title, Red River.

Get past the nauseatingly jingoistic intro movie and you'll find a lot to set Red River apart from the current glut of FPS titles. The character development is exceptional, and the outdoors-y world is elastically rendered. There's a fairly steep learning curve - which could explain why some people find it frustrating compared to the likes of Modern Warfare - but once mastered you'll be ordering troops around and, importantly, caring when they get hit by enemy fire.

Saints Row The Third Game of the year

We can't imagine any other games where sending a three-foot purple dildo into the office is considered part of an acceptable PR campaignm but it's indicative of Saints Row: The Third's brash and over-the-top approach to the open-world shooter.

Developer Volition gleefully packs the game with virtual representations of said phalluses, as well as strippers, airstrikers and the ability to play the entire game - including dialogue sequences-as a grunting zombie. It's a big improvement on the previous two Saints Row episodes, and a high-point in lowbrow gaming. Just don't let your mum see you playing it.

Portal 2 Game of the year

Portal was something of an experimental game on publisher and developer Valve's part, and came packaged as an added extra title in 2007's Orange Box.

It's success was enough to justify a whole game unto itself, and Portal 2 features the return of CHell, nemesis (or is she?) Glados and the introduction of West Country bumpkin in-bot Wheatley. The sheer amount, and complexity, of puzzles makes us wonder if Valve has a giant brain in a tank dedicated to designing them. Although the mid-section sags a little, it's worth sticking with it for one of the best game conclusions you'll ever play. Co-op is a hoot, too, and it's nice to play a game that doesn't involve shooting other players' heads off.

FIFA 12 Game of the year

Contrary to just about every game ever, the PC experience of FIFA has always been a crippled rendition of the console version - until now.

Finally, EA has got over its apparent phobia of multicore processors and given us the same package that's appearing on consoles.

And it's belter into the back of the net. The AI and physics both occupy cores, resulting in a game that's surprisingly tough but highly realistic. Add to that the PC's higher resolutions, and it makes you wonder why EA didn't go full-PC before. It's a bit of a shame that it's knocked out beloved Pro Evolution Soccer off the pitch, though.

Football Manager 2012 Game of the year

The annual update to the football management simulation adds proper support for giant widescreen monitors, as well as a much-improved engine for rendering the matches, which adds depth of field and real-time weather.

The result is a game that's even more compelling and realistic than its predecessors, even if at its core it hasn't changed too much since 1992. If in ain't broken, why fix it?

Admittedly, the game itself takes a little getting into, even for fans of the series who may be a little put off by the intricacies of the new user interface. But underneath all that it's still the Football Manager we know and love.

Need For Speed Shift 2 Unleashed Game of the year

The arcadey racing franchise has shifted up a gear into thoroughly sim-based territory, and is all the better for it. Shift 2 packs a plethora of telemetry into the cockpit, such as tyre temperatures, suspension readouts and g-force.

While that'll keep the gearheads happy, the rest of us can enjoy adernaline-pumping rides through the streets of London and Shanghai and courses such as Bathurst and Suzuka. Realistic braking and a first-person camera heighten the feeling of being in a car that's going really fast. Add to this the remarkably pretty engine, and Shift 2 is an essential for drivers - even those who don't have a licence.

DiRT 3 Game of the year

Dirt developer, Codemasters claimed 'rally is back' with the third incarnation of its muddy racer. We found that this wasn't quite true, with the focus on unrelated gymkhana-style events taking pride of place over proper off-roading.

Still, there's a lot to level here, and we were constantly reminded of Codies' mastery of the genre in big 3D letters. A force-feedback steering wheel is a must-have, but a decent graphics card makes everything look gurt lush. Retro rally racers, like Audi Quattros (ask your dad) and Mini Coopers round off what is a solid - if mildly uninspiring - racer.

Test Drive Unlimited 2 Game of the year

Hello party people! The second Test Drive Unlimited moves the action from the lush tropical island of Hawaii to the less tropical but equally lush island of lbiza, improving the graphics and experience along the way.

You're no longer dumped in the middle of paradise with only four wheels for company - now there's a perfunctory story involving your abilities as a driver and some woman. The Al is abysmal, but it doesn't really matter - Test Drive Unlimited 2 is a persistent world, so any only player is only a flash of the headlights away from across-island race.

Total War Shogun 2 Game of the year

Creative Assymbly's uber-RTS franchise leaves medieval and roman europe and travels back to the Land of the Rising Sun where it began.

It's and immaculately polished game, building on CA's microcosmically detailed knowledge of the period, and adding RPG elements, with decent AI always providing a suitable challenge. If that's not enough, there are fully integrated multiplayer co-op campaigns, and friends - or enemies - can drop into your single-player battles to up the ante even more. We described as "the finest Total War even made," and it is.

Anno 2070 Game of the year

While we have to question the logic of a game which encourages heavy industry in a world where the polar icecaps have melted, Anno 2079 provided just enough fresh ideas to keep us interested in its take on resource management.

It's basically a join-the-dots wit buildings, but the option to go to war with neighbouring countries and headhunt your citizens makes things more engaging. Anno 2070 may not live up to all its promises, but sim fans will find a lot to enjoy, including a persistent online world and standalone missions.

Frozen Synapse Game of the year

We've followed the development of Mode 7's Frozen Synapse for a few years, even dropping into the Oxfordshire house where the game was being created by a handful of guys.

The end result is an innovative take on turn-based strategy, combining Tron-style neon visuals with intricate, compulsive top-down strategy. Mode 7 built the game from the ground up to run on a notebook, and its turn-based nature means that turns can be sent via an email-style system-which makes the game truly portable.

Bastion Game of the year

Just when we thought games had run out of new ideas, a game like Bastion comes along and provides a metric shedload of them.

At its core, it's an isometric RPG in the style of 2009's Torchlight, albeit with less emphasis on dungeon crawling. Where it stands apart is in its playful level and character design, in which the world is created before your very eyes, as if being assembled from fragmented memories. Add to this the narrator's gravelly Marlborough Red voice, and you've got a unique and compelling experience. You can even play it in Chrome's App Store.

Trine 2 Game of the year

More of an upgrade to Trine's wonderful menage-a-trois platform mechanic than a sequel, Trine 2 is still the perfect way to experience the game.

Choose the Wizard to conjure boxed and levitate objects, switch to the Thief for the ranged combat and Lara Croft-style leaping, and then jump into the Warrior's shoes for the inevitable brawls. It's perfectly planned, and the addition of accessible multiplayer only adds to the joy. Although the sequel shows a lack of innovation, the original provided enough to power at least three games.

LIMBO Game of the year

LIMBO may rely on age-old platform mechanics, but the harsh, unforgiving nature of its world makes it feel far removed from colorful 16-bit titles.

Rendered in flickering monochrome, it follows a small boys as he makes his way through a disturbing land populated by tricksters, giant spiders and brain-sucking worms. The spectre of death haunts every screen, and the game itself continuous plays with your expectations and actions. But there's a heart-warming tale of survival and redemption behind its spine-chilling aesthetics, and it feels as if it would be as at home in a gallery as it in on our monitors.

The Ball Game of the year

Created as part of the Make Something Unreal contest, The Ball heralded in a new era of indie gaming where graphics needn't look like something a five-year-old had drawn.

Influenced by Half-Life 2's physics jun and Portal's titular device, The Ball gives you a huge sphere and a gun with which to manipulate it. Although it sounds slight, developer Teoti Studios has created a tight experience. You know a game's doing something right when you feel a paternal connection to virtual circular object.

The Witcher 2 Assassins of Kings Game of the year

Following the patchy (and subsequently patched) The Witcher, developer CD Project RED went all out on its sequel, in which the immaturity is toned down and the graphics is firmly turned up.

Combine this with a storyline with more branches than a chain of tree shops, and you've got an astonishingly rendered RPG that completely won us over. Combat has been vastly improved, too, and the difficulty levels make a difference to how you play the game.

Genre stalwarts BioWare and Bethesda certainly have a new challenger to their throne, which is ironic given that CD project started out localising western RPGs to its native Poland.

Two Worlds 2 Game of the year

Like The Witcher 2, Two Worlds 2 is a step in the right direction for a muc-loved, if shabbier, franchise.

The emphasis here though is on good ol' fashioned RPG mechanics like looting and crafting, with upgrades to the combat and graphics engine. While its Teutonic roots mean the numbers game and inventory management can be a little overbearing, there's much to love here, and it proved the perfect tie-over until Skyrim's inevitable thundering release. It's nice to see a well-rendered - if convolutedly full of canyons - world which didn't make our graphics card fall over, too.

RIFT Game of the year

While other-MMOs-that-aren't-WoW(OMTAW) have come and gone, RIFT has all the makings of a keeper. Building on ten years of MMO experience, RIFT packs in everything that makes MMOs compelling, while creating its own distinct universe.

Unpredictability makes that universe all the more compelling: it's a dangerous place that seems crafted towards side-swiping WoW vets with surprise attacks. It's (finally) an MMO that looks rather spiffing, too, with enough scalability to ensure it runs on lower-end systems. Above all, it's got Dexter out of his WoW habit, and that has to be a good thing.

Star Wars The Old Republic Game of the year

While other gushed about Star Wars: The Old Republic, we saw it for what it was: A WoW in Stormtoopers' clothing. Taking the 'if it ain't broke' mantra to the next level.

It doesn't try too hard or do anything particularly new - it's content to regurgitate the old MMO tropes and clinches with the George Lucas-approved universe. Not that this is a bad thing, and the majority of Star Wars and WoW geeks will lap it up. But it would be nice if SW:TOR developer BioWare had given us just a tad of something original.

DC Universe Online Game of the year

A fanboy's wet dream come true. DC Universe frolics through comic book territory without you even realisint you're playing an MMO.

Thanks to a hugely contrived backstory, your average guy or gal is able to get their hands on superpowers and ifght alongside the men Super and Bat, as wll as formidable enemies, such as The Joker and Circle. Its PS3-centric nature (it was developed by Sony, after all) lets it down a tad, the wonky controls don't feel quite right on a mouse and keyboard. We're not sure about the longevity of it, too, but it's certainly fun while it lasts. Like a fanboy's wet dream.

Elder Scrolls V Skyrim Game of the year

We knew The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim was going to be good, but we had no idea it would be this good. While predecessor Oblivion was a constent presence on machines, its graphical and technical shortcomings meant that we never quite felt at home in its Cyrodiil setting. Fortunately, developer and publisher Bethesda Softworks has takes something of a leaf out of its parallel Fallout series, and delivered one of the best games we've ever played in any year since history began.

Key to Skyrim's greatness are the dragons. Your character has mystical link with the sky lizards, and their looming presence combined with bass (and bum) quaking sound design makes teh quasi-Nordic setting of Skyrim a beleivably perilous place. Of course, there are other threats, too, like giants, witches and frost trolls, but the stateliness of the dragon's design and power will stay with us until we die.

It would all be for nothing without Bethesda's open-world game design expertise. In the weeks after Skyrim was released, we'd hear many players say exactly the same thing: I've played this for 40 hours, and i feel like I've only just started. 'It's testament to how much Bethesda has packed in, with even the smallest of sub quests packing more content than many standalone games.

It's the best-looking game Bethesda has produced, too, and from the word go it's been hugely tweakable for high-end rigs. It's worlds apart from even Fallout: New Vegas' muddy textures and, er, 'special' character animation and design. Skyrim's real people, and their interactions are a marked improvement over Oblivion's one-of-three-voice-actored peeps.

Given that it's such a huge game world, there are naturally a few bugs, such as non-player characters engaged in conversations with horses, and, er, backwards-flying dragons. But finding them is like looking for peeling paint on the Mona Lisa, with the added advantage that Bethesda has patched out most of them recently.

Skyrim sets the high watermark for really, really good triple-A games, and we can't imagine anything coming close to it for very long time. If 2012 is looking like a less exciting year for games than 2011, it's probably because Skyrim is just so bloody amazing and will continue to be with the release the official Creation Kit modding tool and Steam Workshop support.