Kotaku: pc games

GOG.com Goes Postal

Mike Fahey — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 10:20:00 MDT

CD Projekt's DRM-free classic PC game service GOG.com ditches class in favor of crass with the addition of Running With Scissors infamous Postal series.

The folks at GOG have been quite busy since we last checked in with them, adding new games to the service left and right. The past month's additions include Earth 2150, Septerra Core, and several older Ubisoft titles. Now those more respectable offerings cower off to the side, hiding in the corner as Postal and Postal 2 make the scene. Postal Classic and Uncut is now available on the site for $5.99, with a downloadable manual, wallpapers, and avatars available as additional bonus content. Postal 2 and all of its expansions will be made available in the coming weeks. CD Projekt was so excited about the deal they even let Running With Scissors CEO Vince Desi speak.

"The folks at GOG.com know Kielbasa from Sausage and I love 'em both, so when I got their call I was like ‘let's do it'."

See, CD Projekt is a Polish company, and kielbasa is traditional Polish sausage...you know what? Nevermind.

PC Gaming Alliance: Piracy Has Been Good To Us

Mike Fahey — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 08:40:00 MST

While widespread PC game piracy is generally seen as a blight on the industry, PC Gaming Alliance president Randy Stude contends that the free exchange of games has definitely had a positive effect.

In an interview with Big Download, Stude, president of the non-profit organization formed last year to promote and improve the state of PC gaming, suggests that early piracy actually helped make the PC gaming industry what it is today.

The PC Gaming Industry's history is littered with examples of startups (including Stardock and Valve) that actually benefited from wide spread piracy to grow a market for their future titles. Don't get me wrong, I am not advocating piracy... However, how would Quake, Doom, Starcraft, Counter-Strike, or Half-Life have been able to grow widespread brand recognition without a widespread network of gamers openly sharing these games. These titles (and many more) defined the industry. Personally, my first experience with a first person shooter was with Doom (back in the day) and I did not pay for it. Id Software turned the corner and has a very successful business built on the back of the early free/open source exchange of their games...

Yes, Randy Stude is a dirty pirate, but then again, so was I back then. I too had a non-purchased copy of Doom. Hell, my primitive high school computer programming class was a haven for the exchange of Apple II games of dubious origin. It wasn't right, but those first few "free" titles turned me into the adult I am today, purchasing upwards of a dozen PC games a year.

What I am trying to say here, is the man has a valid point. I probably wouldn't be here writing this article if not for the trespasses of my past. That having been said, the industry is doing fine now, and everyone can stop pirating now. Thanks!

Interview: PC Gaming Alliance's president gives us an update [Big Download via Blue's News]

Far Cry 2 Patch Enables Hot, Sweaty Widescreen Action

Luke Plunkett — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 23:30:00 MST

Far Cry 2 launched on PC sans widescreen. Considering everything else on the PC version was superior to the console iterations (quicksaves!), that was an odd move. Nevermind. It's fixed now.

A patch for the game - which brings it to v1.02 - gives us proper widescreen support, instead of the shifty ol' cropped 4:3 manoeuvre Ubisoft pulled first time around. So the next time you pop in to say hi to your heartless mercenary friends, you'll be seeing a lot more of Africa than you have before.

Download: Far Cry 2 v1.02 Patch [Big Download]

GTAIV On PC Got 32-Player Multiplayer

Luke Plunkett — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 18:00:00 MST

If I've said it once, I've said it 7-8 times: Grand Theft Auto is best when enjoyed on the PC. The fact GTAIV will feature 32-player multiplayer only supports my position.

Yup, 32 players. That's the good news. Bad news is that not every game mode supports that many - others will "only" support 16 - but you'll find ways to deal with that disappointment. Modes confirmed to support 32 players at this stage are deathmatch, GTA Race and free mode, though you'd hope/expect a couple more to be announced between now and the game's release next week.

Grand Theft Auto IV's PC Multiplayer Modes [IGN, via Shacknews]

DirectX 11 Won't Repeat The Windows-Exclusive Sins Of It's Father

Luke Plunkett — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 23:00:00 MST

When Windows Vista shipped, it shipped alongside DirectX 10. DirectX 10 would only run with Vista. It wouldn't run with the faster, more stable, more popular Windows XP. This made those running games on XP unhappy. Well, fast forward a few years, and the next release of a Windows OS - Windows 7 - won't be repeating the same mistake. Microsoft's Product Marketing Manager Windows, Ben Basaric, has gone on record saying that while Windows 7 will be shipping with DX11 support (which will add features like allowing a graphics processor to process more than just graphics), it will also run on Windows Vista. So no need to go upgrading. Well...unless you're one of millions still using XP...

DirectX 11 confirmed for Windows 7 - Microsoft revised statement [PCGH, via Voodoo Extreme]

PC Sales Charts

Luke Plunkett — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 22:30:00 MST

Little late this week, sorry. We were waiting on the NPD charts to show up. Guess the chart-trackers were too busy playing Left 4 Dead. Weren't we all? Well, no. Looks like plenty of people were also busy playing Neverwinter Nights 2: Storm of Zehir as well. And Fallout 3. And the $0.98 Half-Life. Oh, that and some Call of Duty game.

NPD Sales Charts November 2-8 [via Shacknews]

1. Fallout 3
2. Spore
3. Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3
4. WoW: Battle Chest
5. Far Cry 2
6. The Sims 2 Double Deluxe
7. The Sims 2 Apartment Life
8. Nancy Drew: The Haunting of Castle Malloy
9. Crysis Warhead
10. World Of Warcraft

Steam Charts November 21

1. Left 4 Dead
2. Call of Duty: World at War
3. Half-Life
4. Fallout 3
5. Football Manager 2009
6. Counter-Strike Source
7. Orange Box
8. Counter-Strike
9. Far Cry 2
10. Team Fortress 2

Direct2Drive Charts November 21

1. Neverwinter Nights 2: Storm of Zehir
2. Call of Duty: World at War
3. Fallout 3
4. Need for Speed Undercover
5. Red Alert 3
6. Spore: Creepy and Cute Parts Pack
7. Everquest II: The Shadow Odyssey
8. Sacred 2: Fallen Angel
9. Civilization IV
10. Neverwinter Nights 2 Complete Bundle

PC Sales Charts

Luke Plunkett — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 21:20:00 MST

The NPD sales charts are traditionally a little...sketchy when it comes to PC sales. But for the week ending November 1, they look right on the money, with Fallout 3 taking not just the top spot, but 3rd and 9th spot as well with the two collectors editions. With the game still charting well on both Steam and Direct2Drive, you can easily see where a lot (least the PC side of things) of those 4.7 million shifted copies went.

NPD Charts October 26 - November 1

1. Fallout 3
2. C&C: Red Alert 3
3. Fallout 3 Collector's Edition
4. Spore
5. Far Cry 2
6. The Sims 2 Apartment Life
7. Nancy Drew: The Haunting of Castle Malloy
8. The Sims 2 Double Deluxe
9. Fallout 3 Survival Edition
10. C&C: Red Alert 3 Premier Edition

Direct2Drive charts as of November 12

1. Sacred 2
2. Call of Duty: World at War (pre-sale)
3. Fallout 3
4. C&C: Red Alert 3
5. Call of Duty 4
6. Spore
7. Civilization IV
8. World of Warcraft
9. BioShock
10. Far Cry 2

Steam charts as of November 12

1. Left 4 Dead (pre-sale)
2. Fallout 3
3. Counter-Strike Source
4. Far Cry 2
5. Sacred 2
6. Football Manager 09
7. Counter-Strike
8. Team Fortress 2
9. Mount & Blade
10. Call of Duty 4

Hands-Free Gaming Comes To The PC (And Looks Awful)

Luke Plunkett — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 02:30:00 MST

Above, a demonstration by Mgestyk Technologies, showing off their webcam-based gesture control system on a bunch of games like Far Cry and Halo. While we admire the effort, all we're left thinking after watching this is: just because you can do something, doesn't always mean you should. Laggy controls that force you to use strange hand gestures won't be replacing WASD and a mouse just yet.

[via Gizmodo]

Company Of Heroes Expansion: Some Details

Luke Plunkett — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 20:20:00 MST

Earlier this week, THQ got around to formally announcing the long-known-about Company of Heroes expansion pack, Tales of Valor. Problem is, that's about all they announced. No details. Well, Relic have since spoken with Edge, and now, we have details. Seems the game will come with three "mini campaigns", which instead of being centred around a single, long story like the existing campaigns, will be shorter affairs. One of those three will revolve around the exploits of SS Panzer commander Michael Wittmann, who at the Battle of Villers-Bocage destroyed over 20 British vehicles in only 15 minutes.

The other two "mini-campaigns" are still a mystery, but we'd be surprised if there wasn't one each for the Americans and British. In keeping with the smaller, more intimate feel Relic are going for, Tales of Valor will also introduce a feature called direct-fire. It's described as a feature "in which a tank's turret...will follow the player's mouse cursor, allowing a tank's turret to move and control independently from the vehicle's path.". Anyone worried this will break the game should know that in singleplayer, you can turn it on and off, and it won't be making its way into multiplayer.

Good Company [Edge]

PC Sales Charts (Now With Added Direct2Drive)

Luke Plunkett — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 20:20:00 MST

The tinkering continues! The official NPD charts were interesting, but fundamentally flawed. So we added Steam's charts as well. Steam painted a much clearer picture of the actual purchasing habits of PC users, but was still incomplete, because we'd left off the other major purveyor of digital distribution, Direct2Drive. So this week, they're included as well, giving us not one, not two, but three PC sales charts. If you can't get a clear idea of what's been selling on the PC after that, well, you're probably asking too much of your sales charts.

NPD Charts Oct 19-25

1. Far Cry 2
2. Spore
3. Nancy Drew: The Haunting of Castle Malloy
4. WoW: Battle Chest
5. The Sims 2 Apartment Life Expansion Pack
6. Dead Space
7. The Sims 2 Double Deluxe
8. Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning
9. World Of Warcraft
10. Colonization

Steam Charts (as of today)

1. Left 4 Dead (pre-sale)
2. Fallout 3
3. Far Cry 2
4. CS: Source
5. Vampire: Bloodlines
6. Team Fortress 2
7. Counter-Strike
8. Call of Duty 4
9. The Orange Box
10. X3

Direct2Drive Charts (as of today)

1. Fallout 3
2. Red Alert 3
3. Far Cry 2
4. Hinterland
5. Dead Space
6. Spore
7. BioShock
8. Warhammer Online
9. Sims 2
10. Vampire: Bloodlines

Chinese MMO Chi Bi Heading to Japan

Maggie Greene — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 10:30:00 MDT

I've been watching the movements of Beijing Perfect World with some interest; in comparison to some of the up and coming companies, they've certainly kept a reasonably low profile lately. Until, of course, they launched the 'international' version of their original MMO, Perfect World. Now they're eying another go with the Japanese market, bringing their Chi Bi ('Red Cliff') MMO to Romance of the Three Kingdoms-mad gamers. I've heard tell Perfect World will be releasing another of their games to the US market in the near future, and we can only hope that it's Red Cliff — I'm all about some classical Chinese fiction renovated for a 21st century audience. The Three Kingdoms gaming phenomenon is fascinating to me, and one that I hope to write on formally at some point in the not-too-distant future. Press release after the jump.

BEIJING, Oct. 29 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ — Perfect World Co., Ltd. ("Perfect World" or the "Company"), a leading online game developer andoperator in China, today announced that it recently signed an agreement withC&C Media Company Limited ("C&C Media"), an online game operator in Japan, tolicense "Chi Bi," the Company's 3D massively multiplayer online role playing game ("MMORPG") based on the Three Kingdoms period in Chinese history, to the Japanese market. "Chi Bi" is Perfect World's fourth MMORPG licensed in Japan after "Perfect World II," "Legend of Martial Arts" and "Zhu Xian."

"Chi Bi" has been popular with online game players since its launch inChina in early 2008 because of its unique system settings, aesthetic graphicdesigns and vivid representation of the history of the Three Kingdoms. The Company has since succeeded in signing agreements to distribute "Chi Bi" toMalaysia, Taiwan, Hong Kong and other countries and regions. The recent launch of "Horseback Fighters," an expansion pack for "Chi Bi," has introduced newin-game experiences to online game players with its large number of updatesand exciting new content.

Mr. Kensuke Chikaishi, President and Chief Executive Officer of C&C Media,said, "The Three Kingdoms period in Chinese history is not only famous in China but is also well known to many online game players in Japan. With its high quality, I believe 'Chi Bi' will be able to bring a memorable game experience to Japanese online game players. I'm confident that 'Chi Bi' willbe a success here in Japan given our good and long-time partnership with Perfect World."

Mr. Michael Chi, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Perfect World, commented, "We have a great long-term relationship with C&C Media and we arevery pleased to cooperate again on bringing 'Chi Bi' to Japanese online game players. We believe that C&C Media's proven experience in operating games in Japan will help make this release another success."

Witcher Sells A Million

Luke Plunkett — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 02:30:00 MDT

Here's your PC gaming good news story for the day: CD Projekt Red have announced today that, since the game was first released in 2007, The Witcher has sold over a million copies. That's including both versions of the game, the original as well as the "Enhanced Edition". For a traditional PC RPG, made by an obscure Eastern European developer with a silly name, those are great, great numbers. Congrats!

The Witcher Sells One Million Copies In A Year [Gamasutra]

The Best And Worst Of Widescreen Gaming On The PC

Luke Plunkett — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 22:30:00 MDT

While it’s fairly common these days for console games (Wii excepted) to launch with widescreen/16:9 support, PC games aren’t so fortunate. Even in 2008, with widescreen monitors becoming so popular that even the Xbox 360 natively supports many of their resolutions, a ton of PC games don’t ship with proper widescreen support. Widescreen Gaming Forum to the rescue!. If there’s a workaround, you’ll find it there. If there’s complaining to be had, it’ll start there. So it’s great seeing that the site have just held their first “Widescreen Gaming Awards”, to both honour and shame the best and worst in supporting widescreen gaming on the PC.

Awards were handed out in three categories: Field Of Vision (for devs who work hard to implement proper support for widescreen), Narrow Minded (for devs who fail to support, or even actively discourage, widescreen gaming), and an overall Game of the Year. And the winners were:

Field of Vision: Valve, Introversion

Narrow Minded: DICE, EA Sports

Game Of The Year: Call Of Duty 4

As someone who does the bulk of his gaming on my 24” widescreen monitor (got both my PC and 360 hooked up to it), I can only say…DICE & EA Sports, you’re doing it wrong.

HOUSTON, TEXAS, October 22, 2008 - Widescreen Gaming Forum (WSGF) announces the recipients of its first annual awards.

Field of Vision - This award recognizes developers for implementing proper support of widescreen and Surround Gaming displays.

* Valve Software (Half-Life 2) - For their 100% track record of producing games that become WSGF Certified for perfect widescreen support. Their Source engine provides perfect widescreen and Surround Gaming support, enabling any developer to embrace widescreen.

* Introversion Software (Darwinia and Defcon) - The indie developer, which bills itself as “the last of the bedroom programmers,” proves that studio size does not preclude technical excellence. Both Darwinia and Defcon are WSGF Certified.

Narrow Minded - With tongue firmly planted in cheek, the WSGF recognizes developers who actively discourage or prevent support of widescreen displays.

* DICE (Battlefield 2) - While always describing their Battlefield games as “cinematic,” DICE forcibly limited the aspect ratio to a decidedly non-cinematic ratio of 4:3. Additionally, they helped foster the idea that playing in widescreen constituted “cheating.”

* Electronic Arts (EA Sports). Beyond publishing the Battlefield series, EA consistently removed widescreen support from the PC versions of its EA Sports titles - while including full support in console versions.

Game of the Year - Call of Duty 4 was voted by the members of the Widescreen Gaming Forum as 2007 Widescreen Game of the Year. Only releases certified by the WSGF as having perfect widescreen support were considered.

For additional details visit http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/awards

About the Widescreen Gaming Forum The WSGF is the world’s leading resource for information on widescreen displays, widescreen gaming, and Surround Gaming. It works tirelessly to analyze how games operate in widescreen and Surround Gaming resolutions, and provides custom solutions where the developers' efforts fall short.

The WSGF website features detailed game reports, a comprehensive collection of widescreen monitor and notebook specifications, and an excellent support forum. Additionally, the WSGF provides screenshot and gameplay video comparisons to showcase the benefits of widescreen and Surround Gaming. The WSGF offers pre-release Certification services to game developers to ensure their games properly support widescreen and Surround Gaming.

PC Sales Charts

Luke Plunkett — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 21:20:00 MDT

Last week seemed to go pretty well, so we'll keep on running with the NPD/Steam tag-team. The NPD charts, they're as...predictable as ever, with plenty to please Maxis and Blizzard fanboys the world over. The Steam charts, they're a little more fluid, with Far Cry 2 shooting straight to #1, closely followed by pre-sales of Fallout 3.

NPD charts for the week ending October 18

1. Spore
2. World of Warcraft Battle Chest
3. Nancy Drew: The Haunting of Castle Malloy
4. Warhammer Online
5. The Sims 2 Apartment Life
6. The Sims 2 Double Deluxe
7. Civilization IV: Colonization
8. World of Warcraft
9. World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade
10. Crysis Warhead

Steam's "Top Sellers" (as of today)

1. Far Cry 2
2. Fallout 3 (pre-sale)
3. Left 4 Dead (pre-sale)
4. The Ship: Complete Pack
5. Counter-Strike: Source
6. Counter-Strike
7. Team Fortress 2
8. Call of Duty 4
9. X3
10. The Orange Box

Even Germany's Box Art Is Censored Now

Luke Plunkett — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 01:30:00 MDT

[UPDATE - EA contacted us to let us know the German version has two covers; a paper sleeve and the actual DVD case. Only the paper sleeve features this edited box art]The Unterhaltungssoftware Selbstkontrolle, or USK, are Germany's classification board. And as you may already be aware, they're a conservative bunch, banning games that even Australia let slide. But this, this is new. Witness Germany's box art for Valve's upcoming zombie co-op shooter, Left 4 Dead. Notice anything, uh, different?

That's right. We don't know whether the USK had a say in this, or whether Valve/EA just felt like playing it safe, either way, that's a different box. While every other region's cover art shows a left hand with the thumb bitten off - zombies feast on the flesh of the living, you see, it's a joke - on the German version, the thumb's simply tucked in behind the hand there. No gore. How humourless.

Left 4 Dead Specs Revised Downward

Luke Plunkett — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 06:30:00 MDT

Meet the new Left 4 Dead system specs. Same as the old Left 4 Dead system spe-waitaminute. Feeling the need/desire to mix things up a little ahead of the game's release, Valve have unveiled a revised set of system requirements for the PC version of Left 4 Dead. They're identical to those released in September except for one thing: you now only need a 128MB graphics card instead of a 256MB one. Sure, that's only one change, but I'm sure it's one that'll bring smiles to a lot of people out there with dusty old rigs and an aversion to system upgrades.

Valve Updates Left 4 Dead Requirements [IGN]

PC Version Of Street Fighter IV Cops Delayed Release

Luke Plunkett — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 23:30:00 MDT

While Street Fighter IV is definitely coming to consoles this "Winter", the future of the PC version's not looking so rosy. While a PC iteration of the hotly-anticipated fighting game is still on the cards, Capcom can't commit to even the vaguest of release windows, instead saying only that the "PC version is in the works, but will come post-console release". Disappointing, but really, how many of you are really going to be playing a Street Fighter game on PC?

SFIV PC Releasing After Console Versions [IGN]

Far Cry 2's Widescreen Is All Cropped Up

Luke Plunkett — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 21:00:00 MDT

Seems Ubisoft's free-roaming gun safari has "done a BioShock" and fudged its widescreen, with gamers on the trusted widescreengamingforum quickly noticing that rather than render the game in true 16:9, all Far Cry 2 does is crop the top and bottom of the screen. See pic above for reference. Disappointing, Ubisoft; we buy widescreen monitors to see more of the game, not less. Hopefully they can copy 2K a second time, and get a patch out to fix this.

Far Cry 2 [WSGF]

PC Sales Charts

Luke Plunkett — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 20:20:00 MDT

Gonna try something new this week. Something a little...fairer. While we appreciate the lengths the NPD Group go to in providing us with weekly sales data for the PC gaming market, the fact they cover only bricks-n-mortar sales skews the data somewhat, what with so many people buying their shit from Steam these days. So this week, we're going to run two charts. The NPD charts, and the Steam charts. Give you a clearer overall picture of how the PC market's shaping up.

First, the NPD data for the week ending October 11:

1. Spore
2. Nancy Drew: The Haunting of Castle Malloy
3. Warhammer Online: Age Of Reckoning
4. Civilization IV: Colonization
5. The Sims 2 Apartment Life Expansion Pack
6. WoW: Battle Chest
7. The Sims 2 Double Deluxe
8. World Of Warcraft
9. Brothers In Arms: Hell's Highway
10. Crysis Warhead

And now, Steam's top sellers (as of today):

1. Left 4 Dead (pre-sale)
2. X3: Terran Conflict
3. Counter-Strike: Source
4. World of Goo
5. Team Fortress 2
6. Counter-Strike
7. Call of Duty 4
8. Red Orchestra
9. The Orange Box
10. Peggle Nights

September PC Sales Charts (With Bonus Office Software Comparisons!)

Luke Plunkett — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 22:30:00 MDT

No weekly PC sales charts this...week, as the release of NPD's monthly console data also lets us take a look at the PC market's September sales figures. Unsurprisingly, Spore was the biggest-selling game of the month, though by how much we don't know, as unlike the console charts, PC figures don't include hard numbers. Warhammer Online came in at #2, beating out WoW, while the most heartwarming entry has to be at #14, which is where the timeless Civilization IV placed. Also included - possibly just for shits and giggles - were the overall PC sales charts, showing how well games fared against less exciting fare such as Microsoft Office and Norton Antivirus.

PC Game Sales

1. Spore
2. Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning
3. The Sims 2 Apartment Life
4. Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning Collector's Edition
5. Spore Galactic Edition
6. World Of Warcraft: Battle Chest
7. Crysis Warhead
8. The Sims 2 Double Deluxe
9. World Of Warcraft
10. Spore Creature Creator
11. World Of Warcraft: Burning Crusade
12. Civilization IV: Colonization
13. Warcraft III Battle Chest
14. Civilization IV / Firaxis
15. The Sims 2 IKEA Home Stuff
16. Diablo Battle Chest
17. StarCraft Battle Chest
18. Hot Wheels: Beat That
19. Crysis
20. S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky

Overall PC Software Sales

1. Spore
2. MS Office 2007 Home & Student
3. Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning
4. Trend Micro AntiVirus 2008 Plus Anti-Spyware
5. Spy Sweeper
6. Norton 360 2.0 3User
7. The Sims 2 Apartment Life
8. Norton Antivirus 2008
9. Trend Micro Internet Security 2008 3User
10. Spy Sweeper w/Antivirus
11. Norton Internet Security 2008
12. MS Office 2007
13. Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning Collector's Edition
14. Spore Galactic Edition
15. World Of Warcraft: Battle Chest
16. Windows Live OneCare 2.0
17. Crysis Warhead
18. VirusScan Plus 2008
19. MobileMe
20. The Sims 2 Double Deluxe

[via Shacknews]