Gamernode: Latest PC News

First footage of StarCraft 2 Zerg

I was never really a big StarCraft guy back in the day. There was just something infinitely more appealing to me about the faux-history that Age of Empires brought to the table, however StarCraft II is really getting me interested--this game is absolutely gorgeous.

Now if only I actually had a PC that could run this.

It's very modest in comparison to PC juggernauts like Crysis, but my PC would still chug-a-lug on this. Feel free to express to me what a mindless idiot I was for prefering AoE to StarCraft in the comments.

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TF2 Pyro class update and history of patch notes

In the world of round-the-clock Team Fortress 2 updates, an email response to a player from Robin Walker of Valve mentions that attention to the Pyro class has yielded only mediocre results and changes haven't been finalized yet. In addition, no details were given regarding the Pyro's unlockable weapons.

Despite the lack of new Pyro information, Walker revealed that one of the "rumored" unlockable weapons for the Medic, the Overhealer, won't be making an appearance in Team Fortress 2.

"We're still thinking about the relationship between the Pyro & the core combat classes, in particular that of the Pyro & the Soldier. We've tried a couple of things in our internal playtests, but haven't found anything we like enough to ship yet. The recent update to the flamethrower with the audio cue played...

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Huxley still alive and kicking

The idea of playing in a world specifically built for MMOFPS gameplay sounds terribly intriguing, which is why those who've been keeping their eyes on Webzen's Huxley have been wondering they'll be able to pop the game into their Xbox 360 or PC to go forth on their epic, foe fragging quest.

Here's the problem: the game was announced two years ago with a serious lack of information being shared with the public since then. That's a fairly long wait, no?

However, there's good news, for IGN was able to discuss the title with its producer Kjong Kang.

While the site's two page progress report doesn't include the real reason why it's taking so long to get the game in our hands, it contains information that assures us that 100 on 100 battles are still in its feature set.

"We are paying careful attenti...

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Digital distribution and more coming to GFW Live

Microsoft's Games for Windows (GFW) initiative got off to a rocky start two years ago, mainly due to being busy with the Xbox 360. By the end of 2007 though, more than 50 games were released under the GFW moniker but controversy still arose, namely with the GFW Live service.

But here to relieve some angst is Kevin Unangst, senior global director of Games for Windows, as he spoke with Eurogamer.

One of the big bombshells Unangst dropped is that digital distribution may be in the future for GFW Live. Other digital distribution services like Steam has garnered plenty of acclaim and popularity, especially with helping PC gaming sales recently so to see Microsoft embracing the service certainly makes me feel comfortable.

Unangst said, "We'll continue to invest in it. We've heard about a lot of ...

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Valve on poorly reported NPD Group stats

Video game sales usually only come from two places: the publishers themselves or The NPD Group. Doug Lombardi, vice president of marketing, Valve, made some comments (again) on Gamasutra regarding the state of PC gaming and partly shifted the fear and anxiety on The NPD Group.

Regarding the monthly PC gaming sales reports released by The NPD Group, Lombardi stated, "That totally ignores the money changing hands, and properties like World of Warcraft with their monthly subscriptions.

That totally ignores Steam sales, and any other MMOs and online distribution systems and a host of others... it also ignores things like PopCap games. Peggle's not in that number."

He went on saying that if those figures were counted within the NPD's numbers, PC gaming sales would appear to be the fastest growing...

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Are you ready for The Sims 3?

The time has finally come folks; mothers hide your daughters because Armageddon has come. The best selling PC game series (we're talking over 70 million copies sold) is getting its second sequel: The Sims 3. If you head on over to the game's official website, you'll be treated to a splash page teasing more information coming on March 19th.

If you can't wait two weeks, 1UP features the upcoming April/May issue of Games for Windows with The Sims 3 adorning the cover page. They mention brief details for the game; such as a big change to the Sims' motives system along with that the game will take place in a gigantic sandbox-like dynamic neighborhood.

"The biggest change to The Sims 3 is that it takes place in a wide-open, constantly changing neighborhood -- a much bigger sandbox, if you will, a...

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No in-game ads for SC2 or Battlefield Heroes

Gamers were in an uproar recently when Activision CEO Robert Kotick made comments suggesting that StarCraft II may contain in-game advertising. Thankfully, Blizzplanet received a follow-up statement from Blizzard stating that there are no such plans, yay!

The statement said, "We have no plans to have in-game advertising in StarCraft II. We believe Bobby was actually referring to Battle.net, which has always included ads." So there we go folks, no Mountain Dew or Red Bull ads during your midnight Zerg rushes.

In somewhat related news, Shacknews confirmed that Battlefield Heroes, EA's upcoming free to play shooter, won't contain in-game advertising either, despite early initial reports. Instead, advertisements will be featured on the game's official website, which you have to visit before laun...

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Crytek releases Crysis 1.2 patch

Crysis hasn't had the best of runs. Myriads of people have had problems with the game crashing, freezing up, having texture and model issues and much more. In the multiplayer component of the game there were many balancing issues, problems with damage levels and countless other concerns with gameplay.

Well, the lads at Crytek have been working hard over the past few months, and at long last the Crysis 1.2 patch has finally been released, and it's one hell of a patch. Weighing in at around 360MB it's full of so many bug fixes and additions that the change log alone is impressive.

Here are the main fixes and additions found in the patch:

- Added mod loader to main menu- Increased damage of most player-fired weapons and decreased damage of most AI-fired weapons

- Added auto team balance - Added ...

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PC Orange Box dismantled on April 9th

Remember when GamerNode told you that Valve was planning to break up that uber bundle of gaming known as the Orange Box and redistribute each game individually? Well, we weren't lying.

Valve has confirmed that the package will indeed be separated into its constituent parts and sold off like a stolen car at the local chop shop. On April 9th, Portal will retail for $19.95, while Team Fortress 2 and Half-Life 2: Episode 2 will cost $29.99 each.

Doing the math in this equation will reveal that the whole package will soon cost a total of 80 dollars. That's not even including the two other games currently included in the Orange Box (but they don't count, do they?).

So far, this divorce will only apply to the PC version of the game, but I'd imagine the 360 version can't be too far behind. In e...

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U.S. top 10 best selling PC games in February

The NPD Group released the top 10 best selling PC games in the U.S. during the month of February today. Despite only making up 5% (as of January 2008) of the reported 7 million copies sold worldwide, Call of Duty 4 emerged as the best selling PC game last month. Combining an awesome single-player campaign with an intense multiplayer landscape will surely make Call of Duty 4 a top player for months to come.

The game that came in second is an excellent example of true and innovative PC gaming. After receiving plenty of critical acclaim upon release, Sins of a Solar Empire snatched the #2 spot on the list. To combat the ongoing 'PC gaming is dying' argument, the game sold over 100,000 copies in just under two weeks, where most were sold through Stardock's online content delivery system.

The res...

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More PC Assasssin's Creed details revealed

I've only had brief gameplay sessions with Assassin's Creed on a friend's Xbox 360 so you can guarantee that I'm eyeballing the upcoming PC edition of Assassin's Creed, which is now due on March 28th in Europe and April 8th for North America. Some more details were revealed today, so here they are.

As we've already reported, the PC edition will include four new investigation types: archer assassination, rooftop race challenge, merchant stand destruction challenge and escort challenge. Will these new investigations head to consoles in the future? Unfortunately, Ubisoft is not talking about that now.

The new investigation types are detailed as followed, "The archer assassination requires the player to assassinate the archers in a dedicated zone without being seen. In the rooftop race challeng...

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StarCraft II is Blizzard's best work ever?

The folks over at Blizzard are really setting the bar high for themselves when it comes to their work on the hugely anticipated sequel to their beloved new-classic, StarCraft.

In Blizzard's second podcast, Chris Metzen (he's the guy responsible for the WarCraft, StarCraft, and Diablo storylines, by the way) claimed, "we're all doing the best work of our careers." He went on to say:

"It's been very, very rewarding to see this thing take shape. Just getting back to that Blizzard of yesteryear where it's not all about WoW - don't get me wrong, I love WOW! But we're so much more than that."

That's great to hear, because I had almost forgotton that the company ever did anything other than create and operate World of Warcraft...and practice world domination.

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Early NVIDIA 9800 series benchmarks

NVIDIA is set to release it's new GeForce 9 series of video cards in a few months, and already information is starting to filter out about the lineup's power.

VR-Zone has gotten it's hands on some preliminary 3DMark06 scores for the upcoming 9800 GX2 and 9800 GTX cards. The rig used in the benchmarking was an Intel Quad Core Q6700 2.66GHz processor on an unknown P965 board with Forceware 173.67 drivers and Catalyst 8.451 drivers.

The results can be seen below. Remember, these are pre-release figures and NVIDIA isstill tweaking the clock speeds and drivers, so things can change before you can get your hands on the actual card and give it a go yourself.

For pre-release figures they are promising. Here's hoping with further tweakage the cards can go above and beyond even NVIDIA's expectations. 

A...

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Valve pitches and talks Counter-Strike 2 ideas

You may think with all the recent attention Valve has given to Team Fortress 2, they may have forgotten its first child, Counter-Strike. Despite not receiving a major game update since the release of Counter-Strike: Source in 2004, the Source remake constantly remains in the top played games on Xfire everyday.

In an interview with GameTrailers TV, Doug Lombardi, vice president of marketing, compared updates to Counter-Strike with updates to any online game.

"We will never abandon Counter-Strike. It's a little bit unfair to compare Counter-Strike, I think, to your classic game that's gonna have these sequels. It looks a little bit more like an MMO where it's constantly [being updated]."

In the least bit, Valve is thinking of how to reinvent Counter-Strike. "With Counter-Strike 2, there's a big...

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Champions Online debut trailer

Champions Online, the latest MMORPG from Cryptic Studios was announced back at GDC in February, but until now we didn't really know much about the game other than it's based in a comic book style setting, and is presumably heavily influenced by NCsoft's City of Heroes. This trailer clears things up a little bit though. In a rare move for a debut trailer, you'll actually get a sneak peek at some gameplay. It's not much, but it's a nice alternative to the industry standard thirty seconds of CG that really don't have anything to do with anything (e.g. Fallout 3, Gears of War 2).

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How To Get 80 Dollars From Microsoft

Buy Windows Vista. Microsoft, the worldwide leader in including operating systems on computers, has announced a price drop for their newest OS child, Vista.

Later this year Vista will be dropping from 399 dollars to 319 dollars for the full Ultimate version while the Home Premium version will drop from $159 to $129. And if you act now I hear they're throwing in a set of steak knives absolutely free.*

If the savings aren't enough to get you to jump to the Vista side of the fence consider this; these price drops will come hot on the heels of the highly anticipated Service Pack 1. According to WindowsVistaBlog the service pack will be "addressing specific reliability and performance issues we've identified via customer feedback, supporting new types of hardware, and adding support for se...

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Pray to the Conan gods for beta keys

When I was a kid, I remember praying to God for a new Nintendo 64 for my birthday. Even though I did get the N64, it was eight months after my birthday and I had a lot of catching up to do.

Then I remember talking to Santa, asking for that sweet KNex rollercoaster set for Christmas and lo and behold there it was under the tree. Yet somehow I had the creeping suspicion that there was a middle man involved in all this.

Funcom community manager Tarib is doing a first--asking fans of the upcoming MMORPG "Age of Conan" to write down their "betaprayer" to any of the Hyborian gods.

"The funniest/best/most creative/outstanding entries will be rewarded with a key for the General Beta." Overall 200 keys for the beta will be awarded to those who take part in this competition over at the Age of Conan ...

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Battlefield Heroes trailer

Here's the debut trailer that gives a first-hand look at the upcoming, free-to-play shooter Battlefield Heroes. With an emphasis on cartoony graphics and its pick up n' go gameplay, here's a casual shooter for all PC gamers to enjoy.

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US Government to search for terrorists in WoW

If real life terrorists weren't enough for the regular US citizen to worry about, the United States Government seems to think that these extremists also have a second home in World of Warcraft. The Reynard project is the defense against these terrorists.

While only in the beginning stages of development, the project is claimed to be able to detect abnormal behavior in the World of Warcraft environment, which will then translate in being able to find any odd actions on the online world in general. While World of Warcraft is the testing area, the world wide web and all of it's subsections are the ultimate goal. While this is all well and good, it is odd and confusing why World of Warcraft is the target to be tested.

One could argue the ten million subscribers is a great base to test on, but...

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Steam to experiment with video and music?

Steam is a force to be reckoned with; I use it practically every day and I join the 15 million other folks around the world who use the service too. With plenty of games available at my fingertips, Steam is a forerunner in the upcoming/current age of digital distribution.

Over on Tom's Games, Doug Lombardi, vice president of marketing for Valve, answered a question regarding what's next for Steam this year. Lombardi said, "...And we're also looking at other types of content like video and music. We're definitely having those conversations and meetings, and we're reaching out to folks with other types of digital entertainment.

I think before the end of the year, you'll probably see some pilot programs with other digital entertainment on Steam."

Considering Steam has dominated PC gaming over t...

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