A band of tiny men has been stealthily carving out a tunnel to Steam right beneath our feet, while we were none the wiser. Suddenly the new game Dwarfs!? just popped up on Steam this afternoon with the full game, demo and launch trailer, taking us all by surprise.
Oh, so YOU’RE the one person who hasn’t played Plants Versus Zombies yet? Well, I guess that Steam has put it on sale at $3.40 just for YOU. Be polite and go buy a copy of it from them. Everyone else, take a look at Steam’s other sale. Today only you can get several Need For Speed games at big discounts, NFS: Hot Pursuit is $14.99, Shift is $6.80, and Undercover is a mere $2.50.
Normally, we PC gamers get to lay claim to most of the indie titles in the gaming industry. Amnesia? Check. The Ball? Check. This is mostly due to how easy and cost-efficient it is to develop for the platform. Now, it is understandable when an indie developer releases a game for multiple platforms, since everyone has to make money, and expanding your audience is a smart way to do that. What isn’t as understandable, is when independent developers bypass the PC market completely.
PC gaming is great. When you play the PC version of a game you get customizability, graphics, and (normally) superior controls. However, there are times when the PC port is a tad rushed, and we end up with an inferior version of a game. OK, fine. We can live with that. What’s worse, though? When a port for the PC isn’t made at all! There are plenty of games that should exist on PC, yet do not.
The biggest piece of news in years is that Osama Bin Laden is dead. I’m as happy as anyone to hear it (USA!! USA! USA!) but with the head of the snake that is Al Qaeda dead, will modern military shooters be left without a default bad guy for gamers to fight? If we’ll be spending less time avenging 9/11 on virtual terrorists, who will be the new go to gaming bad guys?
I hadn’t had much experience with the Mount and Blade series before, but as I eased into Sich Studio and TaleWorlds’ With Fire and Sword, I discovered a game with great scope, but also deeply flawed with poor gameplay mechanics and low production values. Jumping into the skin of a nameless character in 17th century Eastern Europe, it is up to the player to develop himself in a variety of different fields and negotiate politics to achieve dominance. Unfortunately, lots of flaws drag down the experience to result in a very deep game with a focus on freedom, but also regrettable frustration.
IL-2 Sturmovik is an award winning ten-year old flight simulator series that, unlike other sims, focused mainly on aerial engagements on the Eastern Front during WWII. Released in 2001 with 31 craft available from both the Allies and the Axis, along with 40 non-flyable enemy craft, IL-2 has blossomed with several sequels, culminating with over 340 aircraft in the game, including both active-duty planes as well as experimental prototypes. Breaking from the more or less Eastern battles and Soviet-bloc focus, a new sequel is set to be released, titled Cliffs of Dover, which takes place during the 1940 battle over Britain, with British(obviously), German and Italian planes taking part.
