In case you haven’t noticed we are absolutely crazy about the Steam platform around here. So, when we hear that a top shelf games such as Grand Theft Auto IV is coming to Steam, we tend to get a bit excited. Anytime minute we can get one of the absolute best games of the year in the best digital format possible that is great news for the entire gaming community. (more…)

As part of the release of Left 4 Dead, Valve is offering a pretty sweet deal. If you buy three copies of the game you get one free essentially. Since the game is designed for cooperative play this makes a lot of sense. Also since you can gift games on steam it makes it entirely possible that three people could go together and buy it on one account and then give them back to the other accounts. (more…)

Normally we don’t get too excited around here about a new driver release but apparently Nvidia has been hard at work at their new under an 180.48 driver set. Most driver releases only promise a modest boost in speed but they usually focus on compatibility. This time around Nvidia is claiming a huge performance boost and some games.

Nvidia is calling this “Big Bang II”. If their performance numbers are actually accurate then this is quite the upgrade indeed. According to Nvidia, you can expect to see a 10% performance increase in Crysis Warhead, a 13% performance increase in Assain’s Creed, a 38% performance increase in Far Cry 2, and even an 80% performance increase in Lost Planet Colonies. These drivers are for the GeForce 8800, 9, and 200  families of graphics cards for Windows XP and Vista.

I came across a bizarre bit of news the other day. Apparently at the yearly FanFest for EVE Online, there was footage of some king of FPS set in the EVE Online universe. Supposedly it was very halo-esque, but with a EVE Online art style. That sounds pretty interesting, but ultimately I think there are maybe too many first person shooters out there as it is. After all, with so many other games innovating, why try to copy a game style if it’s not what you are great at?

I think a smarter manuver on the developers’ part would be to create more of a stand-alone single player RPG in the vein of Mass Effect. That would let them flesh out the story and universe of EVE Online in a much more intelligent way. Doing a FPS would be booooring. Also, maybe a space shooter would be fun too.

Just when you thought Fallout 3 couldn’t have any more posts on our site, you’re wrong because guess what? The game sold like hotcakes for the couple days in October when it was available. In fact, it even beat out the ever-popular titles of Spore and Nancy Drew: The Haunting of Castle Malloy. Yeah, it beat Nancy Drew! Take that teen girl mystery. See the full October PC Game Sales below: (more…)

Big news here if you love a good FPS. Valve’s soon-to-be-classic Left 4 Dead is now pre-loading on Steam. It’s also gone gold and will be heading to retailers as soon as possible. The game itself will be available on November 18th. In the meantime, the free demo will be available to play until November 17th. Sounds like a lot of fun to be had if you are into the whole killing zombies thing. Me, I’m still knee deep in Fallout 3 and so I’m blissfully ignorant of the rest of this year’s gaming deluge.

In a fascinating bit of news, the newly merged Activision-Blizzard posted its first quarterly financial results. Merger costs led the company to a $108 million loss on $711 million revenue. The results beat analysts expectations. Activision Blizzard also announced a plan to buy $1 billion in stock. Luckily for them, World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King and Call of Duty: World at War and a tiny little franchise called Guitar Hero coming out. Something tells me they are poised to make a whole heckuva lot of money this quarter. Go Blizzard.

Stardock is still workign on its space strategy game Galactic Civilizations II. Today the company announced that they have released a massive update to the game which they are calling “version 2.0.” This is a great update to a fantastic game. There is an official tour of all of the new features the updates includes on the game’s website. Among the updates are new ship design from the main menu, new setup options, updated options for diplomacy, automating the building of planets and starbases, graphics updates and more. This update is absolutely massive and is just one more reason to love Stardock. Great going Stardock, you rule!

While Spore has held a sales stranglehold on the whole PC game industry since it launched, this week marks the day when Far Cry 2 takes its place on top. It’s especially impressive given the onslaught of great games starting to roll out. Soon we’ll be seeing Fallout 3, Left 4 Dead, and Red Alert 3 showing up on the charts. In the meantime, it’s nice to see the sequel to Far Cry living up to its pedigree.

Of course when Wrath of the Lich King comes out, we know who will be on top then.

1. Far Cry 2 – Ubisoft
2. Spore – Electronic Arts
3. Nancy Drew: The Haunting of Castle Malloy – Her Interactive
4. World of Warcraft: Battle Chest – Blizzard
5. The Sims 2 Apartment Live – Electronic Arts
6. Dead Space – Electronic Arts
7. The Sims 2 Double Deluxe – Electronic Arts
8. Warhammer Online – Mythic/EA
9. World of Warcraft – Blizzard
10. Civilization IV: Colonizaton – Firaxis/2K Games

(week ending October 25th)

Just when you thought everybody and their brother is playing Wolrd of Warcraft and there couldn’t be any growth for such a massive game, well you’re wrong. I just saw that World of Warcraft has now crossed the 11 million subscriber mark. 11 Million. That’s just plain ridiculous. Seriously. (more…)