Kotaku: Pc Games

NPD's PC Sales Charts June 29 - July 6

Luke Plunkett — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 23:30:00 MDT

Know this before you read on: these charts are from the time that Diablo III was first hyped, then revealed. So seeing the Diablo Battle Chest at #2 is a surprise, because really, we'd have thought the sheer amount of Blizzmania in the air would have seen it shoot straight to the top. Then again, what chance does a collection of some of the finest games on the PC have against an unholy union between The Sims and a Swedish furniture giant?

Oh, and well done, Age of Conan. You're the only game on here not made by Maxis or Blizzard.

1. The Sims 2 IKEA Home Stuff
2. Diablo Battle Chest
3. Spore Creature Creator
4. The Sims 2 Double Deluxe
5. World Of Warcraft: Battle Chest
6. World Of Warcraft
7. Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures
8. World Of Warcraft: Burning Crusade
9. The Sims 2 FreeTime
10. Warcraft III Battle Chest

CD Projekt To Sell "Good Old Games" DRM-Free

Leigh Alexander — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 15:20:00 MDT

It seems that European publisher-distributor CD Projekt (The Witcher) have come up with a new site where you can buy DRM-free games from the '80s, '90s and early millennium. You know, old games. The site promises good ones, though - it's called Good Old Games, the header image lists the Fallout series, the Freespace series and MDK, among others.

You'll have to wait until September - it's currently in beta- but the site's teaser says it'll sell games for $5.99 and $9.99, and promises total DRM freedom:

You won't find any intrusive copy protection in our games; we hate draconian DRM schemes just as much as you do, so at GOG.com you don't just buy the game, you actually own it. Once you download a game, you can install it on any PC and even re-download it whenever you want, as many times as you need, and you can play it without an internet connection.

Whoa, really? Awesome.

Details after the jump.

Time Travel Invented. GOG.com Brings Good Old Games to the Present

CD Projekt Announces DRM-Free Online Store for Classic PC Games

Warsaw, Poland – July 10, 2008. CD Projekt, best known in the Western world for its award-winning PC RPG, The Witcher, is proud to unveil its invention of time travel. The company sent several representatives to the past and they’ve returned with some amazing findings. Quick to capitalize on the incredible treasures of history, the company is pleased to reveal its newest project, GOG.com. The site, whose name is an acronym for Good Old Games, is a new games-on-demand platform that allows old fogies (and young fogies) to buy some of the best PC games of all time – many of which just can't be found in stores anymore – and play them on modern hardware, completely free of intrusive DRM. GOG.com is poised to become the center of the classic-games universe with a huge community section including forums, user reviews and ratings, as well as insightful commentary and editorials from some of the industry’s most beloved writers. A closed public beta of the site is scheduled for launch on August 1st, and excited old-school gamers can sign up for more info and a chance to enter the beta by visiting GOG.com.

The site makes it tremendously easy for gamers to buy, download and install some of their all-time favorite PC games. The games will be sold for $5.99 or $9.99, are guaranteed to work on Windows Vista and Windows XP systems and are available to download as many times as needed. This is very nice, yes? The DRM-free games, low prices, the site’s ease-of-use and the community are some of the main features that make Good Old Games something more than just another digital distribution outlet.

GOG.com has already lined up agreements with such publishers as Interplay and Codemasters to make their games available on the site. Among the titles those companies are bringing to the site are in-demand classics like Fallout, Freespace 2, Operation Flashpoint: Game of the Year Edition and TOCA Race Driver 3. Negotiations are in progress with several other publishers, with the ultimate goal of GOG.com offering a comprehensive collection of classic PC games from the 80s, 90s and 2000s.

“Our main goal is to create a user-friendly site with the best classic PC games for a price that might be considered impossible to achieve,” said Adam Oldakowski, Managing Director of GOG.com. “The people behind GOG.com are gamers and we all know how difficult it is to find a lot of classic games. So we’ve started building a great games catalogue, gotten rid of the copy protection that gamers hate so much, optimized the games to work on modern operating systems, and made them cheap enough that piracy seems like a rip-off. It’s so easy to buy, download and install a game and then get deeply involved in the community; we’re very confident that gamers will absolutely love the site.”

Okay, so that part about inventing time travel was a lie. Sorry.

Any publishers interested in bringing their titles to GOG.com are encouraged to contact contact@gog.com.

NPD's PC Sales Charts June 22-28

Luke Plunkett — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 22:30:00 MDT

Ten spots on the chart, five spots taken up by Maxis games. Dull, yes, but it can only get worse once Spore and Sims 3 are out. As for the rest, Age of Conan hangs on, as does Call of Duty 4, while the Diablo Battle Chest makes an appearance at #10. Next week's charts - the first since the Diablo III reveal - will probably see it crack the top five.

1. Spore Creature Creator
2. The Sims 2: IKEA Home Stuff
3. The Sims 2 Double Deluxe
4. WoW Battle Chest
5. Age Of Conan
6. World Of Warcraft
7. The Sims 2: Freetime
8. The Sims 2: Kitchen
9. Call Of Duty 4
10. Diablo Battle Chest

[Pic]

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky

Luke Plunkett — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 22:30:00 MDT

Stalker had a roughn start to life, but the game managed to scrape together enough charm and innovation to win itself its fair share of fans. But it's the game's prequel - Clear Sky - that's looking to really nail what GSC Game World have been trying to achieve, since it'll have the first game's hook but in what's hopefully a more refined, polished environment.

Operation Flashpoint 2 Is "Vast, Merciless"

Luke Plunkett — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 21:00:00 MDT

There's a feeling you get when playing Operation Flashpoint that no game since has managed to capture. Not even Oblivion. The feeling of being a real person, alone, in a dangerous place, and each step you take across the game's huge landscape could well be your last. You agree? Then be heartened by this. The latest issue of PC Gamer runs a preview of Operation Flashpoint 2: Dragon, which can be bust summed up by their calling it "the most mind-bogglingly vast and mercilessly realistic battlefield gaming has ever known". Vast, check, merciless, check, OK, that's enough to get me excited.

Operation Flashpoint 2 blown open [PC Gamer, via CVG]

NPD's PC Sales Charts June 15-21

Luke Plunkett — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 01:30:00 MDT

Few, if any, surprises here. After all, the Sporepedia didn't get to a gagillion monsters entered without people picking up the tools to enter monsters, so seeing the Spore Creature Creator at the #1 spot in the PC sales charts is a given. It also means Maxis have another game to clutter these charts up with. What, The Sims aren't doing enough business for you these days?

1. Spore Creature Creator
2. The Sims 2 Double Deluxe
3. Age of Conan
4. WoW: Burning Crusade
5. World Of Warcraft
6. WoW: Battle Chest
7. The Sims 2 FreeTime
8. The Sims 2 Kitchen & Bath Interior Design Stuff
9. Call Of Duty 4
10. Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures

Limbo Of The Lost Creators Made It Themselves

Mike Fahey — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 10:00:00 MDT

Last week we posted a story about Limbo of the Lost, a PC game from Majestic Studios, who have been accused of lifting large portions of other games and placing them directly into their own. While comments from the developers themselves don't seem to be forthcoming, CVG managed to dig up this little gem from an interview in a local paper with the three person dev team from back in early May.

Mr Francis, a former landlord of The Pilot pub, Upper Stone Street, and now a mature student, said: "It is a sort of comedy come horror. A bit like Monty Python meets Evil Dead. "Between the three of us we researched, wrote, designed, animated, scripted and developed the whole game from home."

Seems like comedy come horror is amazingly appropriate for the situation they now find themselves in. Hit the link for a feel-good story that, in retrospect, doesn't feel quite as good.

Pub pals pin hopes on US game success [Kent Messenger via CVG]

BioShock PC's DRM: Gone

Luke Plunkett — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 21:20:00 MDT

Yup. You asked for it (last year), and now, it's gone! 2K's Elizabeth Tobey has announced on the game's official boards that, as of right now, "all activation restrictions, including install limits, have been removed from BioShock PC". And not only gone, but gone automatically on 2K's end, meaning you won't need to install anything, uninstall anything or even check a box. SecuROM fanboy, you have our sympathies

Activation limits removed on BioShock for the PC [2K]

NPD's PC Sales Charts: May

Luke Plunkett — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 23:30:00 MDT

No weekly PC sales charts this week. In their place: a monthly sales chart. The NPD group have released a list of the ten best-selling (at brick-and-mortars retail) games for the month of May, a list which while still lacking hard numbers does give us an idea of how well certain games performed. Like Age of Conan, which was the month's biggest-seller despite only launching halfway through. Or the bottom-feeding budget compilation "15000 Games", which scrapes into #10 despite failing to make any of the individual top-10 charts for the month. Guess it's a slow-burner.

1. Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures
2. The Sims 2 Double Deluxe
3. Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures CE
4. WoW: Battle Chest
5. The Sims 2 Kitchen & Bath Interior Design Stuff Expansion Pack
6. World of Warcraft
7. WoW: Burning Crusade Expansion Pack
8. The Sims 2 FreeTime Expansion Pack
9. Sim City 4 Deluxe
10. 15000 Games

So What Else Did Limbo Of The Lost Steal From?

Luke Plunkett — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 04:00:00 MDT

To recap: PC adventure game Limbo of the Lost has been busted stealing art assets from nearly every PC game released in the past ten years. The list of games it stole from - and the way it used said stolen assets - is hilarious. Almost as hilarious as some of the entries in a competition held over at Rock, Paper, Shotgun, to see who could come up with the best "mocked up screenshots for other levels that might have appeared in Limbo of the Lost". Who'd have thought Majestic would manage to steal something from Peggle. I've included a few of the entries here, but really, you should check out the full catalogue of entreies over at RPS. Good times.

Compo Of The Lost Gallery [Rock, Paper, Shotgun]

New Starcraft 2 Screen, Art

Luke Plunkett — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 01:30:00 MDT

I know, it's the PR equivalent of water torture with Blizzard and Starcraft 2, what with their "one at a time" release of assets, but it's been a few weeks since we indulged them. They've today released three new images for Starcraft 2: a single screen, and two pieces of artwork. One piece above, the other - and a very busy-looking screen - after the jump.

Cheeky PC Adventure Game Accused Of Grand Theft Assets

Luke Plunkett — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 20:00:00 MDT

To a certain extent, copying in this industry is inevitable. It's a creative industry, built on ideas, and ideas are mostly built on ideas you like that other people had. A nicer way to describe it is the "creative process". But straight-up stealing assets? To the point where almost your entire game - architecture, UI, the works - is built upon other people's work? Less accepted. PC adventure title Limbo Of The Lost, by Majestic Studios - a real, commercial title (hence the legal issues) stands accused of just this, with an original discovery that some locations in Limbo looked awfully familiar to those found in Oblivion leading to discoveries of other parts of the game lifted straight from Morrowind, Silent Hill and Thief, just to name a few. Needless to say, Bethesda's lawyers are now involved. Tri Synergy - the US publishers of the title - have also told us they've "discontinued distribution" of the game, didn't know about the similarities, and are "just as shocked as everyone else" following the revelations.

Limbo of the Lost stole from Oblivion, Morrowind, UT2K4, Diablo, Silent Hill, more? [Bobby1234SI @ NeoGAF]

NPD's PC Sales Charts May 25-31

Luke Plunkett — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 21:20:00 MDT

Last charts, Conan was popular. Conan is still popular, being the first non-Warcraft or Sims title to defend its #1 spot that my human brain can remember. It even held off a respectable debut from Mass Effect, which entered at #2. Goes to show what a conversion, and not a port, can do for sales. I'll also make cursory mention of Call of Duty 4 at #8 and Sins of a Solar Empire at #9, because the rest of the charts are, yes, Warcraft and Sims titles. BORING.

1) Age of Conan
2) Mass Effect
3) Sims 2 Double Deluxe
4) WoW: Battle Chest
5) Sims 2 Kitchen & Bath
6) WoW
7) Sims 2 Free Time
8) Call of Duty 4
9) Sins of a Solar Empire
10) WoW: Burning Crusade

[charts courtesy of NPD]

New Neverwinter Nights 2 Expansion In Development

Luke Plunkett — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 06:30:00 MDT

It's been quietly (very quietly) announced that a new expansion pack for classic PC title Neverwinter Nights 2 is in development at Obsidian. Called Storm of Zehir, it brings some pretty considerable changes to the game, like "full party customization, dungeon crawling, and free exploration of a non-linear game world via an Overland Map". No idea on a release date, but seeing as the game's nearly three years old, I'm sure you can wait it out.

NX2 Anunciada: Storm of Zehir [Neverwintos, via IGN]

Rumor: Casting Call Reveals Portal 2 Details?

Luke Plunkett — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 21:40:00 MDT

A tipster's put us on to this casting call, supposedly available on subscribers-only industry site Breakdown Express (he's a subscriber, you see). It lists a voice-acting job, working for Valve. Working for Valve doing Portal 2 work. Said work begins next month, and in briefing potential actors for the role, a ton of details on what must be one of the game's major characters is revealed. If you don't like having this kind of thing SPOILED, move along. Move along. If you wouldn't mind taking a peek inside the sequel's world, though, click through for the character description, along with some concept art of the guy in question, just in case you're a budding voice actor and would like to get your tone just right.

Snappy portrait! Cave Johnson, now-dead boss of Aperture (who you'll already know of if you ever accessed the Aperture website and had a look around), is playing such a major role that he's described as the "principle antagonist", it suggest that Portal 2 may (may) be a prequel of sorts. Which would make sense from a story-telling point of view, what with the way Portal 1 ends and all. Also interesting that he's described initially as a "sidekick", implying that you may be playing the part of a fellow executive/Aperture employee this time around, rather than a science experiment with a pair of robot chicken legs.

Course, it could also mean Johnson is already dead in this game, with his consciousness living on as a prototypical GlaDOS, but if we start down that imaginative road we'll never find our way back...

Universe At War Patch Lets Xbox 360, PC Players Duke It Out

Michael McWhertor — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 18:00:54 MDT

Sega and Petroglyph's real time strategy sci-fi game Universe At War: Earth Assault was all patched up today, bringing with it an exhaustive list of changes, tweaks and fixes. The most notable? The saucer's build time was reduced from 30 to 28 seconds. Almost as exciting was the addition of Xbox 360 versus PC cross-play in Ranked, Quickmatch and Conquer the World game modes, something that should make it much, much easier to find a game for Universe At War players.

For the full list of changes implemented in patch 3, hit the jump for details.

General Changes:
Implemented Interoperable cross-play between Xbox and PC players in Ranked, Quickmatch and Conquer the World modes.
Team voice chat fixed so that communication between players is on a team basis during tactical combat
Fixed an issue where difficulty for Achievements was not being tracked correctly resulting in cases where Achievements might not always unlock.
Fixed an issue where the Corruptors would not fire on enemies within their attack radius.
Fixed an issue where Defilers would walk in place if the Project Radiation ability was targeted to close to them.
Fixed an issue where Collectors would stop collecting because they were trying to reach resources outside the playable area.
AI players are now added to custom multiplayer sessions with unique color and team settings.
In replays objects should no longer be tinted as if under the fog of war.
Implemented a quality of service check for multiplayer games to improve game matching, especially in Conquer the World mode.
Fixed an issue where Altea's aura would not un-phase enemy units.
Fixed an issue where Avengers would take zero pop-cap.
Fixed an issue where cloaked units that have been in the sight radius of a Sight-linked unit loose their ability to cloak until Sight link is removed.
Fixed an issue that was having a Conquer the World player leave the session if the other player disconnected BEFORE the stats results could be reported, preventing the player who remained connected from getting the win.
Fixed an issue where the light/dark mode was not properly reset during a tactical battle restart.
Fixed an issue where units selected in a group would not respond to orders if some were locked down by a Hacker.
Forged Alliance Achievement Renamed to Peacebringer. Requires the player to defeat 2 ranked game or CTW opponents on the opposite platform.

Xbox 360 Specific Changes:
Performance optimizations.
Fixed a random game freeze issue related to particles.
Fixed a random game freeze related to voice chat.
Fixed several Out of Sync issues, including a high-latency issues which would
cause the game to go OOS instead of correctly waiting for players.
Added Guard mode to the special ability carousel.
Added Patrol mode to the special ability carousel.
Fixed an issue where network selection lag would cause the carousel to never come up.
Fixed an issue where the build queues selected from the Command carousel would randomly disappear in battle.
Fixed an issue with paint select decal selecting units outside its radius.
Mirabel now plays her unit responses.
Fixed an issue with Foo cores not adhering to double-click movement rules.
Fixed an issue where Hackers were able to be built without the Science Center.
Fixed the invisible radar map issue in the Novus Homeworld tutorial.
Fixed an issue where the A button might appear behind something in the Novus patch menu.
If saving a replay to a full memory unit an appropriate error message is now displayed.
Players can no longer incorrectly bring up the pause menu at the battle end screen.
Multiplayer is now properly paused when the Battle End Screen is activated after the game is over, so you don't get continuing sound and rumble effects.
Fixed an issue that was causing the skirmish lobby to force the pop cap *UP* to 60 if you added 3 AI even if your chosen pop cap was less than 60.
Fixed an issue where the Y button prompt appears off the Radar Map and fails to function when maximum build cap is reached.
Fixed an issue with accepting an invite while the attract movie is up.
Fixed issue with white texture showing up for the neutral detection array's scan pulse ability.

PC Specific Changes:
Added Patrol mode via hotkey: Ctrl+A
Added progress bars to display unit/upgrade production in tactical and global modes.
Added multi-threaded support for systems with multi-core processors providing a large performance increase on those systems.
Research now available in Single Player Campaign.
Fixed an issue where using a laptop with a touchpad containing a horizontal and verticals scroll touch option would break the mini-map.
Fixed an issue where the help text would display off screen.
Fixed an issue where dropdown text would get cut off at extremely high resolutions.
Fixed an issue where tooltips for the capture ability would give an incorrect time.
We now hide the Private Game combo box when hosting, so you must make the decision about hosting a private game when you first create the session ... you can't change your mind later.
Fixed an issue which was preventing disconnected game notices from ever being displayed.
Game now pauses when LIVE dialog screen is up.
Fixed an issue which was causing multiplayer games from ending properly if the game was minimized when the battle ended. In Conquer the World this could prevent a player from being awarded a territory in some cases.
We now check save files to make sure they haven't been corrupted on the PC.
Fixed an issue where the game would crash when holding ALT key while loading and saving a game.
Fixed an issue with the research tree and other menus closing intermittently while in a MP game.

Novus Balance Changes:
Hackers now autonomously lock down targets in range.
Constructors now repair 14% faster.
Increased Constructor’s FOW reveal by 20%.
Reduced Constructor’s build time from 18 to 13 seconds.
Reduced Constructor’s price from 650 to 500.
Increased Constructor’s crush defense from 10 to 30.
Increased Founder’s Prowess health from 900 to 1100.
Increased Founder’s FOW reveal range in Prowess mode.
Increased Founder’s health from 500 to 650 in performance mode.
Decreased Vertigo’s FOW by 10%.
Increased Vertigo’s health from 700 to 775.
Increased Vertigo’s guard radius by 15%.
Increased Mirabel’s base weapon damage by 20%.
Decreased Mirabel’s Snipe recharge from 55 to 52 seconds.
Increased Mirabel’s missile damage volley by 10%.
Increased Mirabel’s missile speed by 10%.
Decreased Mirabel’s missile range by 25%.
Increased Amplifier’s movement speed by 10%.
Changed Amplifier’s armor from light to heavy.
Decreased Amplifier’s global cost from 450 to 400.
Decreased Amplifier’s tactical cost from 900 to 800.
Decreased Amplifier’s build time from 28 to 26 seconds.
Increased Amplifier’s guard range by 15%.
Increased Amplifier’s crush from 6 to 21.
Increased Field Inverter’s FOW reveal by 15%.
Decreased Field Inverter’s global cost from 600 to 500.
Decreased Field Inverter’s tactical build time from 30 to 28 seconds.
Increased Field Inverter’s guard range by 25%.
Increased Field Inverter’s shield mode walk speed by 25%.
Increased Field Inverter’s damage by 15%.
Decreased Hacker’s speed by 15%
Increased Hacker’s guard radius by 20%
Increased Hacker’s cost from 500 to 600.
Decreased Hacker’s max targeting range on lockdown ability by 15%
Increased Ohm’s max attack range by 25%.
Increased Ohm’s run speed by 10%.
Increased Ohm’s health by 15%.
Increased Ohm’s guard radius by 20%.
Decreased Corruptor’s cost from 600 to 500.
Increased Corruptor’s guard radius by 20%.

Hierarchy Balance Changes:
Increased Kamal’s health 900.
Decreased Kamal’s FOW reveal by 20%
Increased Nufai’s health from 700 to 750.
Increased Nufai’s guard radius by 15%
Increased Defiler’s cost from 775 to 850.
Increased Defiler’s build time from 26 to 30 seconds.
Increased Defiler popcap from 3-5 (updated)
Increased Saucer’s guard radius by 10%
Increased Saucer’s popcap from 3 to 4.
Decreased Saucer’s build time from 30 to 28 seconds.
Decreased Saucer’s cost from 825 to 750.
Increased Saucer’s speed by 10%.

Masari Balance Changes:
Decreased Light Mine damage by 50% for standard and upgraded figment mines.
Increased Charos, Zessus, Altea and Disciple’s guard radius by 15%
Increased Zessus’ health from 800 to 850.
Decreased Altea’s walk speed for both light and dark modes by 15%
Increased Altea’s health from 600 to 725

Devil May Cry 4 Demo Now Available On PC

Luke Plunkett — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 02:30:00 MDT

Yup, Capcom have released a demo for Devil May Cry 4 on the PC. It's around 800MB, gives you the option of going through a ten-minute level or taking on a boss, and should give you around ten minutes of good times. They're saying it runs a little faster on PC, which I can kind of see, but I can definitely see that it looks a lot cleaner. Even if you've already played it on 360 or PS3, it's worth a look, if only to let Capcom know that, yes, we appreciate the fact they're still porting games like this to the PC.

Crytek Get All Mysterious Over Future Crysis Support

Luke Plunkett — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 04:30:00 MDT

A few days back, Crysis developers Crytek announced that they were, apparently, cutting off support for the title. That the 1.3 patch that was supposed to be released would not be released. And that they were sorry. Cue loads of upset Crysis owners. But just what does that mean? I think their explanation for the patches cancellation is more interesting than the cancellation itself:

We are aware that this news will disappoint many of you, and we would like to apologize profusely. There is a good reason for this and we hope you understand when you hear more about the reasons why in the very, very near future.

That's awfully mysterious. Hopefully that "good reason" is genuinely a good reason, and there's nothing to worry about, because "we can't be arsed anymore" is not a "good reason".

So, What About Patch 1.3? [Crytek, via Blues News]

NPD's PC Sales Charts May 18-24

Luke Plunkett — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 21:40:00 MDT

That tapping sound you hear? It's the devil, tapping his foot and tut-tutting. He's not happy. Never is when hell freezes over. For the week ending May 24, the top-selling PC game at retail was not a Sims title. Or a Sims expansion. Indeed, the highest-ranked Sims release is in fourth spot. Which for The Sims may as well be #400. So who's on top? Why, Age of Conan, which continues to surprise us with how damn popular it is. And that's just the standard edition. The CE came in at #3.

1) Age Of Conan: Hyborian Adventures
2) World Of Warcraft: Battle Chest
3) Age Of Conan: Hyborian Adventures (Collectors Edition)
4) The Sims 2 Double Deluxe
5) The Sims 2 Kitchen & Bath Interior Stuff
6) World Of Warcraft
7) World Of Warcraft: Burning Crusade
8) Call OF Duty 4: Modern Warfare
9) The Sims 2 Freetime Expansion Pack
10) Crysis

US PC CHART: Conan rules roost [MCV]

Valve Announce Steamcloud, Sounds Great

Luke Plunkett — Thu, 29 May 2008 21:40:00 MDT

Valve have today announced Steamcloud, a new element to their Steam service that will allow the company to store your user data online. What kind of data? Stuff like saved games. Keyboard configurations. Preferences. That kind of thing. So if you're playing on one PC and move to another (say, you're playing in a cafe, or buy a new PC), you can keep all that stuff. Pretty neat. Also announced were some extra services Valve have in store later down the line, like driver auto-updating, and a means for Steam to check your PC, check that game you want to buy then give you a fairly conclusive answer on whether you'll be able to play it or not. Bless you, Valve. Bless you.

Steamworks & Steamcloud - In Summary [Rock, Paper, Shotgun] [Pic]

Deus Ex Free Next Week

Luke Plunkett — Thu, 29 May 2008 01:30:00 MDT

Been a while since a game really worth playing (beyond Super Baseball 2020) turned up on Gametap's free-to-play service, so it's nice to be able to report on one. Deus Ex. Starting next week, anyone who downloads Gametap's launcher program can enjoy the game without paying a cent. There's worse ways to get hold of one of the best PC games of all time. Like, you know. Paying for it.

Deus Ex Coming to GameTap's Free Game Roster Next Week [Shacknews]

Mass Effect PC Ships, DLC Doesn't Quite Ship

Luke Plunkett — Wed, 28 May 2008 22:30:00 MDT

The much-improved PC version of BioWare's Mass Effect shipped on PC today. Should be worth a look not just for PC owners who are yet to play the thing, but for people who already have and would like an all-around...slicker experience. If the free inclusion of the 360's paid DLC - Bring Down the Sky - was going to factor into your purchasing decision, however, you should note that problems with BioWare's "space hamsters" mean it's not quite ready for download just yet. Go register at the page below if you're super-keen, they'll ping you when it's done.

Bring Down the Sky - new downloadable content for Mass Effect coming soon! [BioWare]

Nazis + Tibet + Zombies = UberSoldier

Luke Plunkett — Wed, 28 May 2008 03:30:00 MDT

World War II? Stick a fork in it. It's done. Was done by 2006. Hell, it was done by 2004. But nobody tell Burut Creative, OK? Otherwise they might cancel this cracker of a project. And I promise you. This plot summary is real.

It is April 1945...The fall of the Nazi rule is imminent...Still, a tightly knit group of SS generals and officers, involved in the most heinous and dark deeds, is seeking for a way to save the remnants of the Third Empire. They have conspired to move the leaders of the Reich, together with precious resources and classified equipment, to a remote hideout in the Tibet mountains. There, in the heart of Asia, they can wait for their time, kept safe by the tireless vigilance of zombie monstrosities created in the Nazi secret labs.

From the product page, it looks like one of those cheap, nutty (yet brilliant for it) Eastern European shooters. If the game comes in at under $20 (no price yet) and can play out as corny as that plot outline, it could seriously be worth a look for anyone still stuck on that "can games do B-grade" argument from a few months back.

UberSoldier 2 [Product Page]

Age Of Conan Proves Somewhat Popular

Luke Plunkett — Tue, 27 May 2008 04:30:00 MDT

Age of Conan may be Fahey's new best friend, but its found its way into more hearts than just his over the past week, with Funcom announcing today that 400,000 "gamers have entered Hyboria", which I'm going to suspect - though not assume - means 400,000 individual people, and not just 400,000 accounts. Healthy numbers! Though, as with all MMOs, how many they've got in six months could be the more telling figure.

Age of Conan one of the fastest selling PC games of all time
Over 400,000 gamers have entered game - First 20 reviews with an average review score above 90%

Durham, USA - May 26th, 2008 - Funcom is proud to announce that Age of Conan is one of the fastest selling PC games of all time. More than 400.000 gamers have entered Hyboria over the last few days, with almost half coming from the North American market. This amazing figure for a PC game shows that the positive pre-order trend has transferred into actual sales, and people from all over the world are now flocking to the most savage, sexy and brutal MMO ever created.

Over the weekend an astounding amount of concurrent gamers were logged on to the game, making Age of Conan one of the busiest MMOs in the western hemisphere. With stock flying out of several retail chains, Funcom expects the number to increase in the days to come. In addition to the many gamers logging in, there was also substantial traffic to the Age of Conan websites, with more than 2,2 million unique visitors during the last ten days.

As a result of the great launch, players and press have been raving about the unique qualities of the game, and the first 20 reviews give Age of Conan an average score above 90%. The first US reviews are also live, with Gamezone.com giving the game an Editor's Choice Award, a 9.4 of 10 score, while heralding Age of Conan as a "Benchmark MMO". Sci-Fi.com was also an early mover and gave the game a straight A, stating that "If Robert E. Howard had been a game designer.., this is the Conan he would have invented."

"The initial sales and reviews are very encouraging, and it's great to see that so many are enjoying Age of Conan," said Funcom CEO Trond Arne Aas. "This is just the beginning, and we already look forward to massive updates and cool new features. We believe our focus on making Conan unique and groundbreaking is a key reason for the initial success. This is a focus we will keep and reinforce, and players can expect continued quality and innovation as we enter a new era for the game."

For more information about the game, please visit www.ageofconan.com.

These Are Supposed To Be Starcraft 2's System Specs

Luke Plunkett — Thu, 22 May 2008 21:20:00 MDT

Could be. Then again, even the most official system specs are liable to have their goalposts moved a little this far out from release, so consider these unconfirmed ones more of a rough guide than a definite listing of all the new hardware you may or may not need later this year.

Minumum Requirements
GFX: GeForce 7/8 Series or Radeon 1000/2000 with 256 MB RAM
CPU: Pentium 4
RAM: 1 GB
Internet: ADSL 1 Mbit

Recommended Requirements
GFX: GeForce 8000 or Radeon 2000 series with 512 MB RAM
CPU: Core 2 Duo or Athlon X2.
RAM: 2 GB
Internet: ADSL 3 Mbit

These were obtained by Spanish mag Micromania, after a visit to Blizzard's offices. As such, I'm just going to class them as "official estimates", confirm my PC can run the recommended specs, then get on with my "waiting for Starcraft 2" candlelight vigil.

StarCraft 2 Minimum Requirements [Micromania, via Voodoo Extreme]

Go Grab The Penny Arcade Game Demo

Luke Plunkett — Thu, 22 May 2008 06:20:00 MDT

In case you missed it, Penny Arcade's first foray into the game-making world, On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness, is out now. I've been playing it all day. It's great. Notsomuch for the gameplay, which is standard stuff, but definitely for the charm. If you're not the type to trust my recommendation, however, (though really, you should, I'm a nice guy) anyone with a PC (Linux included) or Mac can grab a demo of the first episode, take it for a spin, see how it feels. Even if you hate smashing item boxes and turn-based combat, it should at least put a smile on your face.

On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness Demo [Windows, Linux, Mac]

NPD's PC Sales Charts May 4-10

Luke Plunkett — Wed, 21 May 2008 22:30:00 MDT

For the week ending May 10, the top-selling, boxed-copy PC game in the US was...The Sims 2 Kitchen & Bath Interior Design Stuff. The second best-seller? The Sims 2 Double Deluxe. You can see where this is going. Seven spots for Sims and Warcraft titles, leaving naught but scraps for the rest to fight over. Good news for 13 year-old girls and those coming late to the Warcraft party, kinda sad news for everyone else.

1. The Sims 2 Kitchen & Bath Interior Design Stuff
2. The Sims 2 Double Deluxe
3. World Of Warcraft: Battle Chest
4. The Sims 2: FreeTime
5. World Of Warcraft: Burning Crusade
6. Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
7. World Of Warcraft
8. Sins Of A Solar Empire
9. Hoyle Card Games 2008
10. Warcraft III Battle Chest

[via Big Download]

First Proper Details On Warhammer 40K MMO

Luke Plunkett — Tue, 13 May 2008 02:00:00 MDT

We know a Warhammer 40K MMO is coming, we know it's "years away", and we know I'm terribly excited about the whole thing. Aside from that, though, we don't really know squat. Do now! Last month's PC Gamer ran a big feature on the game (of which we've already posted some scraps), which finally got us some answers to some of the more burning questions surrounding the game. Like what kind of game it was, exactly. Vigil's David Adams:

Let me say that this game will be an RPG. That needs to be said, because when someone thinks of a Warhammer 40,000 MMO there is definitely some question as to the style of play: will it be an FPS, an RTS, or some other genre altogether? Relic has the RTS angle covered with the awesome Dawn of War series - we are making an RPG.

Got it? It's an RPG. Though, thankfully, not a terribly traditional one, as its combat sounds more Brothers In Arms than World of Warcraft, with the use of ranged weapons meaning you'll have to pay attention to things like cover, suppression fire, etc. Also touched on were the game's races ("...all of the races important to Warhammer 40,000 lore (not to mention the fans) will be represented"), it's setting within 40K's massive storyline and also NPCs and possible vehicle use.

Warhammer 40,000 Online [PC Gamer]

NPD's PC Sales Charts April 20-26

Luke Plunkett — Mon, 12 May 2008 04:30:00 MDT

Three Sims titles, three Warcraft titles. That's fairly standard practise these days, a practise which leaves only four spots open for other non-Sims, non-Warcraft games to make some inroads. These week, those four games are Call of Duty 4, Assassin's Creed, Rainbow Six Vegas 2 and, yes, Sins of a Solar Empire, which has kept on keepin' on to the continued (but pleasant) surprise of, oh, everybody.

1. The Sims 2 Kitchen & Bath Interior Design Stuff Expansion Pack
2. The Sims 2 Double Deluxe
3. The Sims 2 FreeTime Expansion Pack
4. World Of Warcraft: Battle Chest
5. World Of Warcraft
6. Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
7. Sins Of A Solar Empire
8. World Of Warcraft: Burning Crusade Expansion Pack
9. Assassin's Creed: Director's Cut Edition
10. Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas 2

NPD's Top 10 Best Selling PC Games [IGN]

Classical Gaming: A Roman Retrospective

Maggie Greene — Sun, 11 May 2008 15:30:00 MDT

Rock, Paper, Shotgun linked to this nice retrospective of Roman-themed games over the years, starting with Legionnaire (1982) and ending with Rome: Total War (2004). The series of musings includes wrap ups and discussion, strengths and weaknesses. I began my academic life as a classicist with a knack for lyric poetry — while I hopped ship to history (East Asian at that), I still have many reminders hanging around of those halcyon days spent with Horace and Livy. A nostalgic look back at how and why these classically-themed games have succeeded (or not) is a welcome reminder of many games I played as a youngster:

... SimRomes stick around for a reason. As much as I loved the alien nature of the Egypt in Tilted Mill's Children of the Nile, Rome remains the most accessible ancient city. A century of movies and books have primed us for gladiators, togas, legions on the march...much moreso than, say, Sophoclean drama, chitons and peltasts.

Oh, sure, they're generally wildly historically inaccurate (what else is new?), but panem et circenses, people - who needs realistic class conflict, slavery, and rioting when you've got red-caped legions and chariot racing? The wisdom of Roman satirists still holds true today. Anyways, it's a fun look back at one popular theme if you're a closet (or not) classics geek, or just a fan of some of the titles.

A History of the Ancients Game [Flash of Steel via Rock, Paper, Shotgun]

Americans Now Spend $1 Billion A Year On Game Subscriptions

Luke Plunkett — Thu, 08 May 2008 23:00:00 MDT

Whenever a developer who works for a company that doesn't make MMOs pipes up and says "PC gaming is dead", they really mean they just can't make money selling what they're selling. Maybe it's because of piracy, like many say, but hey, maybe it's also because they don't make MMOs, because NPD figures released today show that Americans spent over $1 billion on online subscriptions last year. That money came from an estimated 11 million subscribers, the majority of whom were obviously playing WoW, with RuneScape, LotRO, FFXI and City of Heroes following (in that order) in its wake. NPD say "it's clear that there is a sizable chunk of revenue being generated by PC gaming beyond what is reflected in retail sales", and really, none of us are in a position to argue with that.

Online subscriptions exceed $1 billion a year, says NPD [GI.biz]

Fallout 3 Lead: "We're Console Players Now"

Luke Plunkett — Wed, 07 May 2008 01:30:00 MDT

Worried that Fallout 3 may be a little too dumbed down for your tastes, PC fans? Course you are. The same allegations were levelled against Oblivion, if I remember correctly. Bethesda would have heard your cries, but the sound of millions of dollars in Oblivion sales kinda drowned you out. As for Fallout 3, no, they're not worried about dumbing down a PC game for console gamers at all. Well, they are, but they're equally worried about making a game too complex for console gamers! Classic rock/hard place scenario. Fallout 3 lead Emil Pagliarulo isn't worried about rocks or hard places, however, telling Next-Gen:

People like myself and some people that work here actually grew up as hardcore PC guys, and now we're older, we have kids, we don't have that much time, so we've transitioned. We're console players now.

But we still have those PC game sensibilities. Those are the games we like. So I think BioShock has a little bit of that too. You can definitely feel the old System Shock roots in that game. So hopefully there's a trend there.

You mean the same cross-platform trend that, despite complaints from a vocal minority of trigger-happy console gamers and uppity PC types, brought in Oblivion's aforementioned millions? Think you'll be OK, Emil.
Bethesda: We Don't "Dumb Down" Franchises [Next-Gen]

Happy Birthday, Wolfenstein

Luke Plunkett — Tue, 06 May 2008 02:00:00 MDT

Yes, other games came before it, but that's just nitpicking: for 99% of gamers, the first-person shooter genre kicked off with Wolfenstein 3D, which turned 16 yesterday. Happy birthday! Having played through the original only a few months ago, it's funny how, sixteen years on, I still had more fun with Wolfenstein than I do with most modern FPS games. Maybe that says something about the pure, arcade pleasures of the game. Or (more likely) it says something about the appeal of mowing down a mechanised Hitler with a chaingun while stuffing your face with plates of bbq chicken.
[via Wired]

Perhaps The World's Only Kingpin Retrospective

Luke Plunkett — Mon, 05 May 2008 04:00:00 MDT

Ever raved to strangers about a game they've never heard of? I have! About Kingpin. Yeah, I don't know what it was about it...it was a good shooter, but there were better shooters, it was violent, but there were more violent games...something (probably the Cypress Hill - who did the soundtrack and some of the thug's voice-acting - connection) just clicked with me, and as a bored 19 year-old uni student I played the shit out of it. So you can see why I blew a good 10 minutes on the weekend reading this excellent retrospective on the game. Why's it excellent? Because long-winded look-backs on obscure, yet heart-warming old games are always excellent.
Retro: Kingpin: Life Of Crime [Rock, Paper, Shotgun]

Brothers in Arms: Hells' Highway -- New Trailer and Screens

ogood — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 12:00:00 MDT

Alright, time for the eye candy. Ubisoft and Gearbox send us a 90-second trailer showcasing Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway, due for release in August on the 360, PS3 and PC. This simulation involves Operation: Market Garden, the largest paratrooper operation in World War II, which set the stage for the Allies to cross the Rhine and advance into Germany.

There are some screens after the jump, too.

From the trailer we can see this game intends to impress upon us the bonds formed by soldiers, as well as the real confusion and blood-pumping terror that attends to live combat. There's a quality of suffering in the fighting scenes that is painstakingly detailed, down to a stray round dislocating someone's fingers. It sounds engrossing, and I love period pieces and historically accurate simulations. But could I feel good about myself telling someone I had a hell of a time playing this game? Dunno.

There's a huge list of rumored and confirmed features on the game's Wiki. And here are 5 more screens.

PC Sales Charts March 16-22

Luke Plunkett — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 23:30:00 MDT

NPD have seen fit to release some more weekly sales data for the PC market. We must have all been nice, rather than naughty, over the past seven days, because for some reason these don't exactly turn up like clockwork. And yes, I know, it's nigh-on useless without online sales data, but nigh-on useless isn't the same as useless, so bear that in mind. And keep on bearing when you see Sins of a Solar Empire at #3!

1. The Sims: FreeTime
2. The Sims 2 Deluxe
3. Sins Of A Solar Empire
4. Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
5. Warhammer 40,000: Dawn Of War Soulstorm
6. World Of Warcraft
7. World Of Warcraft: Battle Chest
8. Cake Mania
9. World Of Warcraft: Burning Crusade
10. Diner Dash 2

Top 10 Best Selling PC Games For Week Of March 22 [Firingsquad]

PC Gamers Get A Stranglehold Demo, Too

Michael McWhertor — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 18:40:53 MDT

Gamers who find themselves sans PLAYSTATION 3 and Xbox 360, but in possession of a beefy PC may want to check out the new Stranglehold demo, now available on FilePlanet. You'll need a FilePlanet account to download it sprinkled with a dash of patience, as the demo weighs in at over 2 gigabytes.

The game's recommend—unfortunately mislabeled as the minimum specs—are available here, in case you don't feel like waiting for the download and installation to complete before finding out your PC can't handle it. For those of you itching to see what a $30 million game looks like, have at it.

Stranglehold Demo [FilePlanet]

Title Update 3 For Shadowrun

Mike Fahey — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 11:00:35 MDT

And so the Shadowrun beta continues well into the retail release, as details of Title Update #3 are posted at the Official Shadowrun Community Forum. The update, which should be ready sometime this weekend, addresses various balance issues, adds new functionality to multiplayer game setup, improves overall network reliability and fixes 'numerous' crashes, exploits, and glitches. IF these updates keep up, one day the game might be worth the $60 I paid for it! Woot! Hit the jump for the full update details.

Title Update 3 Contains:
Gameplay

Dwarves can no longer be unawared with the katana or Artifact.
Elves' regeneration ability has been tweaked:

Increased time before Elf begins to heal by a quarter second.
Increased essence cost of healing by ~15%.

Audio

Enemy footstep audio will now be easier to hear in Live games.

Bots

Bot difficulty will scale with players' average Trueskill in Public Match games.

UI

Added "Advanced Settings" screen when setting up a Private Game, which contains the following options:

Max players - Ability to determine the maximum number of players that can join the game
Preferences - Ability to use the preferences of all players to determine the map rotation
Handicapping - Ability to turn Karma on or off

Fixed "stop" functionality for when a game-start countdown has begun in the lobby.
Improved messaging for when your party is split or rejoined due to team balance.
Improved messaging about Artifact clearing bodies in Attrition.

Network

Improved server reliability.
Dedicated Server
Improved voting reliability.
Improved network reliability.
Improved error messaging.

General

Local Match games can now be played without a profile.
Fixed numerous crashes.
Fixed numerous exploits and glitches.
Improved Vista multi-monitor functionality.

Announcement: Title Update #3 [Official Shadowrun Community Forums via Xbox 360 Fanboy]

X07 Canada Kicks Of August 28th (And You're Not Invited)

Michael McWhertor — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 19:20:40 MDT

With no plans for a European X07, why not hit up the next best thing? Say, the Europe of the north, Canada, for example. That's exactly what Microsoft is planning to do, as invites for the exclusive event have already been delivered to an unknown number of attendees. On August 28th, Toronto will host the Canadian X0 event, open to the public the previous year, but now strictly invite-only.

Microsoft promises plenty of Xbox 360 and Games For Windows titles on hand from itself and third party publishers Electronic Arts, Ubisoft and Activision. Going down just a few days after the end of the Leipzig Games Convention, I have to wonder if MS will hold off anything of importance for the Canadian game show but maybe they'll provide delicious maple whiskey to make it feel more exciting.

Microsoft still holding X07 in Canada [Canada.com via Gamespot]

Hellgate: London "Elite" Subscriptions Revealed

Michael McWhertor — Tue, 08 May 2007 20:20:00 MDT

Flagship Studios' released-any-day-now PC game Hellgate: London was revealed to have a monthly pricing scheme earlier this year, but details on exactly how hard the Diablo-like title is going to nail you in the wallet have been scarce. According to fansite Hellgate Guru, specifics on what that fee is and what it'll get you are contained within the latest issue of Games For Windows magazine.

Simply, if you don't pay the monthly fee, purported to be $9.95 USD, you're going to be flying coach in Hellgate: London. Folks who pony up for the "Elite" tier will see a number of benefits which include, but are not limited to, additional character slots, a Hardcore difficulty level, VIP shuttles, and visual distinction from lower-class players.

More potentially contentious are restrictions on forming guilds for the non-Elite and server queue prioritization for subscribers. The full details are linked below. I'll wait patiently for my copy of GFW to show up in my mailbox in the meantime. Michael McWhertor

Elite Subscriptions - $9.95 a month and other details! [Hellgate Guru via Shacknews]