Eurogamer gets through hundreds, even thousands of news stories every year, and quite a lot of them aren't just about games and how many polygons they've got in them - some of them are about whether they have motorbikes, too.

But, as you'll soon see, those aren't the only topics that capture your interest - you're just as keen to read about barefaced liars, demented German film directors, the plight of the Chinese, Paris Hilton and Wonder Woman.

So here's to you, the Eurogamer reader. For your amusement, here's a selection of the most popular stories of 2006, as voted for by your fingers and faces. Click the links for the original stories.

Nobody would be able to buy it for about 11 months - and we're not sure whether anyone eventually did - but the year began with the announcement of an Xbox 360 HD-DVD drive. Microsoft then had to repeatedly explain that it wouldn't be used to play games, because no one ever believes you on the Internet. More interesting, inarguably, was Bill Gates' assertion that Halo 3 would be released whenever Bungie finished it, and not whenever he most wanted to crash his moneyed fist into the wheezing face of his enemies.

This of course was back in the days when ever...