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Ones to Watch: May 2008 PC Game Releases

Another month has gone by and it is now May, where we are suppose to grow May flowers, but in the gaming world, the flowers are barely coming through the dirt. The landscape for most of May looks rather desolate on the PC, with most of the games backloaded to the end of the month. There are a few gems though to keep you playing, but it just looks like this is the start of another bleak summer release schedule for gaming. I really wish that developers would get back to understanding that there are 12 months in the year, not four.

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PC gaming not dead yet, but pirates are working on it.

The announcement has come from Crytek that they believe they will no longer be making games exclusively for PC. Let’s call this step one, because once they start putting their games out on consoles and nobody buys the PC one, that will be the last of their work on PC, and with good reason. Joe and I discussed copy protection for a little bit in podcast 30, as it relates to the Steam download service. What I didn’t mention at that time is I admire the Steam business model in that the games, which ping home to make sure they’re legit, are all but ensured immunity to piracy. That’s good for the developer, the publisher, and as we will soon see, good for the consumer who wants to play these games. At all.
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GTA IV on PS3 or 360…Where Do You Stand

Here we are, about 13 and a half hours from GTA Day on the left coast, and I am still wondering to myself whch platform will reign supreme, PS3 or 360.  Well that, and I figured I would just add to the GTA IV onslaught that has hit the web in the last week.

I had not really thought about which version would sell better as I am waiting for an unannounced PC version, but last week, we had an impromptu discussion of the versions on the podcast, and it made me think if either version has a boost over one console or another.

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World of Warcraft: My Guilty Pleasure

Alright. I need to explain.

I hate World of Warcraft. But I love to play it. It’s true. I kind of hate to admit it but heres why…

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The End of an Era: Games for Windows Magazine is No More

After 27 years of publication, dating back to a small black and white leaflet in 1981, Games for Windows, formerly known as Computer Gaming World Magazine is no more. The higher ups at Ziff Davis and Microsoft felt that the time had come to pull the plug on the oldest video game magazine still in publication after a long and heralded run.

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Karma Will Get You In the End

We all have heard the sayings behind karma and how it can bite you in the ass if you are not careful. I have faced karma several times with things I have said or done and it has taken more than its pound of flesh out of me. Well, yesterday, a smile came across my face when I saw karma come back to hit Eliot Spitzer dead in the face, with prostitution allegations.

It seems like not too long ago, Eliot Spitzer was outraged and offended at the use of prostitutes in games such as Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto series, among others. He derided the fact that players were allowed to beat women up and have sex with them for money. It amazes me that people feel they can criticize such heinous behavior in a game, but feel it is perfectly fine to go through with the same act in person. Basically, I should not be able to hire a prostitute in a game, but feel free to do it in real life.

Time and time again, I have watched politicians get behind the movement of banning violence and sex in games, only to see them end up getting busted for the very crimes that they are blasting games for depicting. I am just waiting to see one of them put the spin on it and blame games for the very crimes that they commit. As they say, what is good for the politicians, is not good for the voter.

Are Mergers Resulting in Publishers That Are Too Fat?

Anyone with an eye on the industry can see that videogame publishers have been merging quite often in recent years. Squaresoft and Enix became bedfellows. Namco and Bandai joined forces. Sega began making kissy faces with Sammy. However, it wasn’t until Activision merged with Blizzard that the real repercussions of this trend required our utmost attention.

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My History With Metal Gear

Apparently, MGS4 is too big to fit a 50GB Blu-Ray disc. This is why, explained Kojima, a few features had to be dropped from the game.

This is another reminder to me that the Metal Gear series has not exactly aged well since the good ol’ days of the NES.

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Fanboys Are Ruining Our Gaming Sites!

When you spend a decent part of your day surfing around gaming websites you start to notice trends and small differences over time. The one that has become most alarming to me is the amount of sheer fanboy ignorance that has taken over what used to be decent community based gaming sites. I know fanboys have been around since the Atari 2600, but it just seems like this current console cycle we are in has brought forward the worst of the worst when it comes to them.

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Ones to Watch: March 2008 PC Releases

Well, after an extra day of February, we have finally reached March, which still holds a fair amount of gaming for those playing on the PC. I actually heard PC Gamer, coin this first quarter of 2008, Q5 2007, because a lot of these games were holiday 2007 releases that got delayed into 2008. We have Orcs, Humans, a Dinosaur killer that sports a mohawk, World War II, and some guy who goes by the name Kane. So sit back and get the lowdown on the great games coming to the PC in February.

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