Two more game instalments carrying the ‘3’ suffix also receive extensive preview feature treatment in issue 179 as we take trips through the twisted world of Metroid Prime 3: Corruption and the radioactive landscape of Fallout 3.

We also visit Ubisoft Montpelier to look at its game of the film of the poem, Beowulf, and talk to the speed-running community to discover how they finish games in mere minutes – and why.

Finally, regulars spend extended time with Made In Wario and investigate how Argonaut made Alien Resurrection on the original PlayStation, while Free Radical Design’s David Doak talks about the experience of taking Haze to E3.

Guns feature heavily elsewhere in the issue with a preview of SOE’s MMO The Agency, in which players take on the role of secret agents, and in our feature looking at the parallels between the British Army’s troop-training technology and videogames.

On a more passive note, Neversoft is nearly finished making the next game in the Tony Hawk series, and we visit the studio to see some new tricks.

In regulars, Time Extend takes on the unhinged worlds of Capcom’s Gregory Horror Show, while The Making Of… looks at Knights Of The Old Republic.

We received thousands of votes from Edge readers, with nominations for hundreds of games, spanning across the last three decades.

Another round of voting involved creatives working in the videogame industry.

And then there were the countless rounds of deliberation among the Edge editorial staff…

The result? Edge Presents The 100 Best Videogames, a 260-page special edition which includes 100 new articles, personal testimonies from Edge readers, and a reference section containing the previous Edge 100s, from issues 80 (2000) and 128 (2003).

You'll be able to buy it from leading newsagents tomorrow (July 3), priced £10.

This issue’s cover feature looks at the Nintendo story, and traces its home console history from 1983 to the present day, examining the company’s hardware and software initiatives and highlighting its most successful, and not so successful, ventures to date.

Another stalwart of videogaming is explored in Final Frontiers, which takes an in-depth look at Square Enix and its sprawling Final Fantasy series. And from big games to small, we also assess the Flash gaming scene, picking out some bite-sized highlights from the countless examples out there on the internet.

Finally, in regulars, Time Extend takes on Space Channel 5 Part Two, while The Making Of… tells the story behind unreleased Saturn title Sonic X-treme.

Beginning in the water, we investigate Hydrophobia, the new project from Blade that aims to realise true realtime fluid dynamics in gaming for the first time. Our cover feature brings us back down to Earth and takes on the might of Fracture, LucasArts’ game of near-future war fought with weaponry that can deform terrain to continually change the shape of the battlefield.

There’s more future fighting in Haze, Free Radical Design’s firstperson shooter with a dystopian twist, while Splinter Cell Conviction sees Sam Fisher on the run from his employers and sporting a new look. We also take a look at the methods employed by games to ensnare their players – and how they persuade them to keep playing.

Also, in regulars, Time Extend takes to the skies for Nights Into Dreams while The Making Of… tells the story of 8bit platforming legend Nodes Of Yesod.

[This article originally appeared in the April edition of Edge as 'A Little Big Idea'.]

Let’s start with the little. In this game from Media Molecule, you can make your button-eyed, hemp-skinned, zip-fronted little avatar run, jump… and act. The D-pad selects facial expressions: grin, grimace and frown. The right stick waves its arms around together, but hold down L2 and R2 and the left and right sticks can move them independently. And, in a simple stroke of genius, tilting the Sixaxis controller moves its head. You can assume attitudes, look at things in the game world, dance; if you wear a frown and tilt your head forwards, you’ll move in a dejected shuffle.

Edge Presents The Art Of Videogames (click image for a close-up of the cover) arrives in UK newsagents tomorrow (April 26).

As its title suggests, this new Edge special edition showcases the visual aspect of gaming, its 260 pages adorned with paintings, renders, sketches and more materials from some of the industry's leading artists.

Also included are interviews with key creatives in which they explain the thinking behind their work, with contributions from developers at Bungie (Halo series), Eden (Alone In The Dark, Test Drive Unlimited), Epic (Gears Of War), Maxis (Spore), Ninja Theory (Heavenly Sword), SCEE (Wipeout) and Valve (Half-Life 2), to name but a handful.

As a bonus, The Art Of Videogames also features 15 stunning, original pieces of game-inspired art from the i am 8-bit collections of 2005–2007.

There’s more future gazing in Hype, which features Manhunt 2 and the next Stuntman game alongside EA’s Skate, and we take extended looks at The Club, the next title from PGR developer Bizarre Creations, and EA’s MySims.

Naturally, Time Extend and The Making Of… look to the past, tackling the fractured chronology of Second Sight and the spirit-sucking gameplay of Ghostbusters respectively.

Providing the answers are Karl Hilton (director), Derek Littlewood (creative lead on HAZE) and Rob Yescombe (scriptwriter).

Thanks to everyone who contributed questions. Look out for a new 'You interview...' later this week.

With a cover featuring the stars of upcoming PS3 game LittleBigPlanet (a game so new it had no name as we went to press), this is a difficult edition to miss. Inside, we probe the creative minds behind the game that wowed audiences at last week's Game Developers Conference.

Also in issue 174: we pay another visit to Crytek to monitor progress on Crysis, the PC FPS that’s breaking the mould (and may also break your PC); meet with Valve's Viktor Antonov, the man behind Half-Life 2’s City 17, who tells us about his vision of a steampunk Paris that’s being realised for The Crossing; and talk to the likes of Harvey Smith and Peter Molyneux in a look at the art of videogame avatars.

In regulars, Time Extend takes on Robotron: 2084, and we look at the making of Operation Flashpoint.

PlayStation Home, which will launch from the PS3 XMB, will reshape the console’s online profile, allowing users to create The Sims-style avatars and environments in which they can interact to socialise, arrange multiplayer sessions in PS3 games, share audio, video and photos from their hard drives, and more. To get a more complete picture of how it will shape up, take a look at the official briefing video.

Weighing in at 260 pages, the third volume covers Edge issues 25 to 36 (1995–1996), and includes:

• Hardware features, with stories focusing on 3DO’s now-complete M2 platform, videogame controllers of the past and the future, and Nintendo's N64.
• Developer features, including visits to Psygnosis, Sega AM3, Ocean and Scavenger
• Interviews with luminaries such as Phil Harrison, Shigeru Miyamoto, Howard Lincoln, Tetsuya Mizuguchi, Tom Kalinske and Bill Gates
• Reviews of games including Super Mario 64, PilotWings 64, NiGHTS, Virtua Fighter 2, Command & Conquer, Sega Rally, Resident Evil, Yoshi's Island and Wipeout
• The gaming world's 50 most powerful players, Chris Crawford on the way games ought to be, internet newsgroups, videogame violence, Microsoft's game ambitions, the future of artificial intelligence, 'nuGame culture', how to get a job in the videogame industry, Nintendo's Dream Team, and lots more…

Edge presents File volume 3 will also be available in selected retailers throughout Europe and North America. A limited number are also available for purchase via the internet at myfavouritemagazines.

If you’d like to ask a question of the company (whose founders also worked on GoldenEye and Perfect Dark at Rare before setting up Free Radical Design in 1999), send us an email by using this link.

(Please send no more than three questions, and be sure to include your full name or preferred online moniker because we’ll be printing it alongside your question, if it's used. The deadline for questions is 9:00 GMT on Monday, March 5.)

The revelation, 28 days before the hardware arrives in Europe, means that playing PS2 and PS1 games on PS3 will be handled by a software-led emulation solution, which has the knock-on effect of reducing the amount of legacy PlayStation titles that will function on PS3 at launch.

David Reeves, president of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, said: “PS3 is first and foremost a system that excels in playing games specifically designed to exploit the power and potential of the PS3 system. Games designed for PS3 offer incredible graphics quality, stunning gameplay and massively improved audio and video fidelity that is simply not achievable with PS and PS2 games. Rather than concentrate on PS2 backwards compatibility, in the future, company resources will be increasingly focused on developing new games and entertainment features exclusively for PS3, truly taking advantage of this exciting technology.”

Edge is expanding its editorial team, and is seeking a new writer and deputy editor.

Full details of the requirements for applicants can be found here (writer) and here (deputy editor). You'll need to be quick, however, because the vacancies' closing dates are February 26 and March 1 respectively.

Good luck.