There was a new operating system roll-out and it was completely ignored. The biggest launch in entertainment history included a game on the PC that played like a console title.

But that doesn't mean there weren't games worth picking up for your computer. Here's a run down of a few of those that we reviewed. Which would you suggest?

Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood

Price: $29.99
Rating: Mature
Genre: First-person shooter
Subject Matter: Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood is a Civil War era first-person shooter.
Value: With an engaging story, wide open maps and plenty of mulitplayer options, this game will take up quite a bit of your time.
Buy it for: First-person shooter enthusiasts, fans of the Wild West and Civil War buffs.
Read the Full Review

Dawn of War II

Price: $40
Rating: T
Genre: The Waging Of Endless War
Subject Matter: Control a handful of Space Marines against the worst the Orcs and Tyranids can throw against you, your men and the Immortal Emperor.
Value: Fairly lengthy singleplayer campaign is bolstered significantly by a handy, and more traditional multiplayer component.
Buy it for: Warhammer fans who wanted Dawn of War to be more intimate, and anyone who likes a bit of RPG in their RTS.
Read the Full Review

Dragon Age: Origins
Price: $39.99
Rating:Mature
Genre: Roleplaying
Subject Matter: An epic action roleplaying game set in a world besieged by evil inside and out.
Value: Dragon Age: Origins packs more than 100 hours of gameplay into this action RPG, with branching story paths that encourage multiple play throughs in order to experience it all. BioWare designed the game so it can be played by RPG gamers of any skill level, but mature content and strong sexual situations mean you might want to keep it in the high teens.
Buy it for: Anyone who has ever conversationally mentioned hit points.
Read the Full Review

Empire: Total War

Price: $40
Rating: T
Genre: 18th-Century Musket Drill
Subject Matter: Take control of a European, American or Indian power of the 18th century and control every aspect of their military machine across both a strategic campaign map and tactical RTS battles.
Value: Even a single campaign play-through will take weeks. And there are dozens of available factions across three continents. It'll last for years.
Buy it for: Anyone who loves strategy, history or the smell of grapeshot in the morning.
Read the Full Review

Fallout 3: Broken Steel

Price: $10 (Requires a copy of Fallout 3)
Rating: M
Genre: Post-apocalyptic role-playing game
Subject Matter: Fallout 3 expansion involving missions with a high-powered fighting force.
Value: High because it extends the level cap to Fallout 3, changes the game's ending and allows the adventure to be played infinitely once the story has "ended"
Buy it for: Fallout 3 fans who want to play more; essential for anyone getting any Fallout 3 downloadable content
Read the Full Review

Fallout 3: Mothership Zeta

Price: $10.00 (Requires a copy of Fallout 3)
Rating: Mature
Genre: Still a post-apocalyptic RPG
Subject Matter: It's Fallout 3 in space!
Value: Mothership Zeta gives the Fallout 3 player an entire spaceship to explore and make their own, some futuristic new weapons, and tacks a good five hours onto the regular campaign, making it a relatively fair value for your money.
Buy it for: Fallout 3 fans.
Read the Full Review

Fallout 3: Point Lookout

Price: $10 (Requires a copy of Fallout 3)
Rating: M
Genre: Post-apocalyptic role-playing game
Subject Matter: Fallout 3 in microcosm, set on a spooky island.
Value: Tons of content, and widely seen as the Fallout 3 downloadable content that best shares the strengths of the base game.
Buy it for: Fallout 3 fans.
Read the Full Review

League of Legends
Price: Free to $30
Rating: Teen
Genre: Real-time strategy
Subject Matter: Once a spin-off of famously fun Warcraft III, League of Legends is a simplified, highly-addictive strategy game of warriors, magic and monsters.
Value: The free-to-play game only charges if you want to pay for upgrades or to lock in your favorite characters. A fantastic deal for what you get.
Buy it for: people who enjoy strategy gaming and fans of games like Warcraft III.
Read the Full Review

Mass Effect: Pinnacle Station

Price: $5 (requires a copy of Mass Effect)
Rating: M
Genre: Bonus missions for third-person shooter/role-playing game
Subject Matter: Mass Effect gets a battle simulator to allow goal-based shooting challenges.
Value: High for those looking for something new in the original Mass Effect while awaiting the January sequel; low for people looking for what made the first game popular.
Buy it for: Mass Effect completists, though you'll only be able to buy them download points for this game or give them a small check.
Read the Full Review

Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising
Price: $39.99
Rating: Mature
Genre: Realistic military first-person shooter
Subject Matter: Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising is a relatively open-world tactical shooter that has players trying to take the fictional island of Skira from China.
Value: Plagued with problems this shooter doesn't deliver much for the premium price you pay.
Buy it for: hardcore fans of realistic shooters that offer no chance for mistakes or do-overs.
Read the Full Review

Torchlight

Price: $19.99
Rating: Teen
Genre: Action RPG
Subject Matter: One of the most blatant Diablo clones ever created.
Value: Torchlight is one of the most blatant Diablo clones ever created, but it's also one of the most capable. There's a main quest with a good 10 hours of gameplay, with multiple side quests, random dungeons, and three different character classes, so the replay value is through the roof. For the price, Torchlight's value is downright amazing.
Buy it for: Diablo fans waiting for Blizzard to get the next installment out
Read the Full Review

Wolfenstein

Price: $49.99
Rating: Mature
Genre: First-Person Shooter
Subject Matter: World War II First-Person Shooter with Occult Tendencies
Value: While Wolfenstein is an excellent first-person shooter from a technical standpoint, the story is a bit far-fetched and the multiplayer is disappointing, especially in the face of games like Modern Warfare 2.
Buy it for: First-person shooter fans looking for a little something different.
Read the Full Review

Zuma's Revenge
Price: $19.95
Rating: E
Genre: Puzzle
Subject Matter: A color-matching, marble-shooting game for people with fast mouse reflexes.
Value: A massive amount of content compared to the original Zuma; the first playthrough of the game's main campaign levels alone lasts more than six hours.
Buy it for: Moms who need a new obsession for their PC; hardcore gamers who want an addictive diversion they wouldn't admit has hooked them.
Read the Full Review

Police say a North Carolina woman used several stolen credit cards to buy up a Playstation 3 and four video games at a local Target before moving on to a Best Buy to purchase a computer and four more games, along with an iPod Touch.

You see that Sony, Playstation and iPod in the same sentence... um, paragraph.

Police: Suspect used stolen cards to purchase PlayStation, iPods [News 14]

UPDATE: Microsoft Takes $12M Stake In Chinese Game Maker [CNN Money]

Best way to learn Japanese? Move to Japan and study like hell. But, those of you just starting and looking for study supplements, here's a computer RPG called Slime Forest. It's still a work in development, and the graphics are pretty rocky. The game is divided up in different chapters called Dreams that focus on things like writing katakana, hiragana and kanji. My advice? Move to Japan and study like hell. Brian Ashcraft

Learn Japanese With Slim Forest [Dark Diamond]

It's YouTube for your Wii. The interface is Wii-mote pointer friendly. Meaning it looks like those telephones with big numbers that they make for old people. Combine with WiiAIM and, well, you've got two applications that really work better on computers. Brian Ashcraft

YouTube For Wii [The Last Boss]

I finally got around to re-ordering the missing CPU for my soon to be built computer. A few months back I ordered a bunch of pieces and parts to build a new PC. I went with NewEgg for everything but the CPU. And wouldn't you know it, WiredZone decided to screw me on my CPU order. I had ordered an AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+ Dual Core S-AM2 from them because it was listed for so little, but after waiting for a month they emailed me to say that the order had been canceled. When I contacted them they claimed that the chip has been canceled by AMD.

Hello Brian,The AMD shipment never came to us. AMD is not providing us with ETAs. We have several backorders for this processor and your order will be one of the first to ship when this arrives. Unfortunately we depend on AMD to ship the products and they haven''t been able to keep up with the demand.We value your business and look forward to answer any questions you may have.

That's right, AMD had decided to stop making their top of the line CPU for their brand new socket a month after launching it.

I'm not sure exactly what happened, but I suspect the truth is that AMD is having trouble meeting demand and everyone is price gouging because of it.

WiredZone, I suspect, wanted to take part in the fun.

So I went back to NewEgg, head in hands and shamefully ordered the 4600+ CPU instead.

I expect it to him my house later this week.

I've put everything else together, so in theory this should be a pretty quick operation.

Speaking of computers: A funny thing happened last month.

You may recall my post about Microsoft's decision to hand out free computers to review publications as part of their launch of Vista.

At the time I said I understand the reasoning, that it's a lot like giving out consoles to reviewers, but that it still left me feeling uncomfortable.

Well, the day I received the parts for my new computer (sans the CPU) I also received a big-ass box from Microsoft.

I opened it up to discover a top of the line Voodoo computer inside.

Turns out that I was among the 25 or so reviewers they sent the computer out to.

After a longish conversation with a Msoft rep and Chris Donahue, director of Windows graphics and gaming, I went to my editor at the Rocky to discuss whether I should return the PC.

The final decision was that I should keep it as a loaner, meaning it remains the property of Microsoft and not mine partly because it was loaded with an advanced copy of Vista and there were no rules about my reviewing or writing about the operating system early. Msoft also said I would be getting software updates for the computer as time went on. So I went ahead and ordered the new CPU for my personal computer and hooked up the Voodoo computer to my big screen downstairs. My desktop will be my personal computer and home to an immense stash of illegal music and video files.

Hahahaha, just kidding Microsoft, you know I love you.

I will be keeping my personal computer and its contents separate from the loaner sent me by Microsoft.

Later this week I'll be posting up a feature about my lengthy interview with Donahue about their push for Vista and the issues that I think could be caused by loaning the main PC reviewers in the country identical computers.

So here's the computer I'm looking to build:

I've decided to get the Cooler Master Centurion ATX Mid Tower case and the Antec TruepowerII 550W power supply.
I'm going to use a Gigabyte mother board (Gigabyte GA-M55SLI-S4 Socket AM2 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX AMD Motherboard), and install an AMD Anthlon 64 X2 4600+ Windsor CPU.
I'm going with the OCZ Gold matched pair of two 1GB memory sticks (pc2 6400) and the eVGA version of the nVidia GeForce 7950GX2.

The whole kit and kaboodle will run me about $1,269. Yes, I know, my damn price keep floating up and up and up. Brian Crecente

Loyd Case from ExtremeTech discovered some cool soundproofing foam and decided to use it to build a super fast, super quiet computer. The end result is a silent but deadly gaming rig for less than $2,500.

Case: Antec Sonata II $100
Power supply: Seasonic S12 600W $155
CPU: Athlon 64 FX-57 $811
Memory: Corsair Twinx2048-4000PT $217
Motherboard: Abit AN8 32X $185
CPU cooler: Zalman CNPS 7700-AlCu $35
Hard drive: Western Digital WD4000YR $185
DVD drive: Pioneer DVR-108B $69
Graphics card: eVGA GeForce 7900 GTX 512MB $520
Sound card: Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS $72
Sound Insulator: AcoustiPack Pre-Cut Sonata Kit $69
Total: $2,418

Build a Quiet Gaming System [Slashdot]

Here's the skinny: twenty-one buttons, four-way track point, up to 144 programmable commands, blue backlight and ergonomically arched pad. All impressive, but Saitek's Pro Gamer Command Unit still looks freakazoid.

Full Story [PC Launches]

kkarmkh: Dude, it is unquestioned fact that in FPS, keyboard/mouse is the way to go.
kkarmkh: You think there's a reason why multiplayer for FPS is never on the same server? It's because keyboard/mouse people would wipe the floor with the console players.
kotakujapan: okay. in fps. sure. ill buy that. but, gaming in general, controllers seem far more natural.
kkarmkh: Really? Also for RTS? Name one RTS for console.
kkarmkh: :-)
kotakujapan: okay. think of about it this way. would you rather play the 360 with a mouse and a keyboard or with the controller?
kkarmkh: If I were playing PDZ, defo keyboard.
kkarmkh: If I were playing Quake 4, keyboard.
kkarmkh: If I were playing King Kong, keyboard.
kotakujapan: LOL
kkarmkh: In fact, Madden, keyboard.
kotakujapan: that, my friend is wack.
kkarmkh: Sorry, consoles are good for platformers, RPG.
kkarmkh: And those are my least favorite genres.
kotakujapan: what about pgr?
kkarmkh: Heh. Good one.
kkarmkh: Well, ok, controller.
kotakujapan: there ya go.

Finally, a strategy game that lets you build stuff and then blow it up in a cool way. The upcoming and fully three-dimensional Age Empires III, for Mac and P.C., has a Havok physics engine, which is found in Xbox, GameCube and PS2 games. The whole thing may sound like gibberish, but the Havok renders amazing detail when cannons hit ships and forts. It even allows for "ragdoll physics," which is essentially an anatomical sketch for characters. This means more realistic, ragdoll-like deaths. Cool indeed.

Age of Empires Preview [Game Cloud]