Running down the mountain in Strider, catching Mewtwo in Pokemon and facing your first Cyberdemon in Doom all make Nowgamer’s exhaustive list of gaming’s most standout memories.

Japanese studios have a patchy history with Western collaborations but Kojima Productions and Mercurysteam’s Castlevania: Lords Of Shadow gets it right first time. Find out why in the games™ review.

New issue on sale now, featuring an exclusive in-depth look at this year’s safest bet, Call Of Duty: Black Ops. Elsewhere, we go big on Marvel vs Capcom 3 and speak to David Jaffe about his plans for the future, plus there’s a rare insight into what Nintendo got up to before Mario was ‘born’.

As Gamescom comes to a close the exhibitors, press, retail and gamer hordes begin to pack up and go home, and the final bits of news trickle out. Join use as we round up the biggest headlines from the third and final day of the event at Cologne.

New issue on sale now, featuring an extensive interview with the team behind Castlevania’s rebirth as we sink our teeth into Lords Of Shadow. Elsewhere, there are in-depth looks at Dead Space 2 and Fallout: New Vegas, a chat with Bungie about the future for the studio and games™’s tenth 10/10 review…

In the concluding part of our mammoth interview with Konami’s Dave Cox we get down to the real details of Castlevania: Lords Of Shadow, including concessions to the modern gamer, references to the classic games, the inspiration behind the boss battles, RPG elements, co-op gameplay, PlayStation Move, vehicle sections and why the Xbox 360 version will come on two DVDs.

When we sat down with Konami’s Dave Cox to discuss the upcoming Castlevania reboot, Cox had so much to say that we’ve had to split his interview into two parts. In this instalment we take an overarching look at the new game’s development and examine the unprecedented collaboration between Spain’s Mercury Steam and Japan’s Kojima Productions.

As the dust settles on another vintage year for gaming, we cast our eyes forward, forever engaged in the hunt for the Next Big Thing. How will you spend your time in over the coming months? games™ selects the best and most significant releases in 2010, and explains why life just wouldn’t be the same without them.