Posted 03/10/10 at 09:41:54 PM by Nathan Grayson

Every year, PC gaming “dies.” But every year we just end up feeling silly. We buy a nice black suit and a lavish coffin, only to have PC gaming wreck it all by continuing to live. And so it was with 2009.

According to a report by the PC Gaming Alliance, PC game revenues increased to $13.1 billion in 2009 – a three percent increase from the previous year. Also of interest is a sharp drop in boxed PC game sales, which – at a whopping 20 percent – could very nearly be considered a freefall.

“The most notable trend in recent years has been the movement to digital distribution and payment for subscriptions, and the growing popularity with consumers of online games as a service,” said PCGA president Randy Stude.

“In 2009, we saw North America and Europe experience a rapid uptake in purchasing virtual items. This model is what drove growth in Asia, and we think it is just starting to come to Western markets,” he added.

PC gaming is dead. Long live PC gaming! Now then, on that note, anyone in the market for a slightly used coffin?

Read More

Posted 03/10/10 at 08:47:09 PM by Nathan Grayson

After months of doubt followed by more months of nothing, OnLive’s finally back in the limelight. During this week’s Game Developer’s Conference, the streaming videogame service finally deployed its landing gear with a June 17 release date. Now then, onto the potentially – depending on how long the service lasts – million dollar question: how hard is it gonna hit your pocketbook?

Well, honestly, that part’s got us a bit worried. The on-demand platform carries a $15 subscription fee, which would be fine on its own. Unfortunately, you’ll also have to pay for individual games, which could definitely get pricey in a hurry. So far, actual prices for launch titles – which include Assassin’s Creed II, Metro 2033 and Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands – haven’t been announced, but they’ll apparently be “competitive.”

Thankfully, there’ll also be an “a la carte” rental service for use with some games. Which, combined with the subscription fee, sounds a bit like GameTap’s Gold service – only without that crucial little “unlimited access” bit. But let’s be honest here: OnLive’s servers aren’t going to pay for themselves. And you’ll be getting a suite of social networking features for your rapidly dwindling buck, so… yeah, it’s still a whole lot of money.

Meanwhile, when competing service Gaikai launches, it’s going to be free-to-play and ad-based. Unless OnLive’s got some crazy tech-based tricks up its sleeve that put it head-and-shoulders above Gaikai quality-wise, we just don’t see ourselves subscribing. How about you?

Read More

Posted 03/10/10 at 08:42:50 PM by Ryan Whitwam

Get ready to toss your gaming console out a window. Well, maybe not, but according to Imagination Technologies you might be carrying a phone as powerful as a PS3 in three years. Imagination makes the PowerVR mobile graphics chips found in phones like the iPhone and the Droid among others. The chips are licensed to hardware makers that must incorporate them into hardware. This takes about three years from start to finish. That bit about the PS3 level graphics? They know because they’re developing that chip right now.

Imagination claims that this level of performance will be possible with the usage of multiple processing units. In theory, three to four can be added to a phone without causing too much more power draw. Current PowerVR chips have the theoretical potential to do hardware accelerated Flash and GPGPU computing. Imagination say that internal tests have shown a 300% increase in Flash performance when hardware accelerated. Yeah, we’ll take that.

Let’s hope that Imagination Technologies was being straight here. Of course, much of this relies on hardware makers using the chips. But if the near future holds 720p gaming on our mobile phones, flying cars and jetpacks can’t be far behind… right?

Image via Gizmodo

Read More

Posted 03/10/10 at 10:31:45 AM by Paul Lilly

You're not likely to find a bona fide rock star on stage pounding a series of colorful buttons rather than strumming away on real guitar strings, so as fun as Rock Band and Guitar Hero are to play, they're not very faithful recreations of the real deal. Looking to bridge that gap is Seven45 Studios and the company's upcoming game, Power Gig: Rise of the SixString.

Like other musical videogames, you'll follow on-screen beat sequences, only you'll have to strum the right string rather than mash a button. There will also be a "Power Gig" mode in which players have to hit specific strings to produce chords. When you're finished chasing achievements, you can then plug the guitar into any standard amp and start playing for real.

"The leap to (playing) guitar will be seamless," said Jeff Walker, vice president of marketing at Seven45.

While price could end up an obvious prohibiting factor, Seven45 promises it will be comparable with existing music games. Look for Power Gig to ship this fall for the PS3 and Xbox 360 consoles. And if you get attached to the included guitar, Seven45 says it will also work with Rock Band and Guitar Hero. Groovy.

Read More

Posted 03/10/10 at 03:44:16 AM by Nathan Grayson

Be still, our beating hearts. No seriously, be still. We’re sure that headline’s got your head swimming with dreams made real and wishes fulfilled, but we’re going to send all of that crashing down around you with one phrase: browser-based MMO. Heart sinking yet? No? Ok, try this one on for size: a list of the games developer Bigpoint Games has headed-up. Recognize any of them? Yeah, us neither. Which is not to say we’re writing this one off completely – quite the contrary, in fact. But neither are we getting our hopes up too high. For now, though, Bigpoint’s description of the game is certainly speaking our (extremely geeky) language.

“Players will be able to choose to play as cylons or humans in a constant struggle to control the universe or just survive its perils. A blend of tactical space combat, exploration, and mission-based gameplay will provide a diverse experience. The dramatic missions will define the game's overall storyline, enabling the player to delve into mysteries of the Battlestar universe.”

“Battlestar Galactica Online will create a new standard for web games, with beautiful 3d graphics and innovative game mechanics bringing a new level of game play to browser based MMOG. Assets from the television production will be integrated into the game to deliver an even more authentic experience.”

Bigpoint’s definitely not lacking ambition, but it remains to be seen if the developer can pull it off. We don’t know about you, but we’ll certainly be praying to the Lords of Kobol that BSG Online’s more fun than a game of Pyramid on a non-irradiated Caprica. And if you understood any of that last sentence, we’re pretty sure you’ll be doing the same.

Read More

Posted 03/10/10 at 03:32:02 AM by Nathan Grayson

Hey there, beleaguered Battlefield Bad Company 2 players. Feel like you’ve been tricked into paying to be part of an extended beta test? Well, sad to say, the storm’s not over yet. At 12 PST tonight, EA brought the servers down yet again for more maintenance. This comes, of course, after a weekend of more ups and downs than a botched entry of the Konami Code. But, if it’s any consolation, there is a silver lining to your sufferings.

“PC currently has more people playing and are in game servers than both the consoles,” said associate producer Gordon Van Dyke.

Don’t break out the confetti just yet, though. We’ve won the battle, sure, but we haven’t quite won the console war.
 
“The PC had more players than either console not more than both consoles combined,” Van Dyke added. “You'll need to work to beat both consoles’ combined effort.”

Still though, that’s certainly something. See, publishers? If you build it with PC gamers in mind, they will come. So learn from EA and DICE’s example – well, minus the server part, obviously. And speaking of servers, maybe Ubisoft might be willing to take a few pointers from DICE once it gets out of this DRM-heavy rebellious phase. We sure hope so, anyway.

Read More

Posted 03/09/10 at 03:31:31 PM by Gordon Mah Ung

There are two things we think of when we hear the word “supercomputer.” The first is the failed 1970s NBC show Supercomputer (now available on DVD from Shinehart Wigs). The other is a massive room full of HAL9000-like scary boxes just two MIPS away from declaring thermal nuclear war on humanity.

So, what was Gateway thinking when it decided to call its FX6831 a Gaming Super-computer? This is, after all, just a simple desktop housing a single 2.8GHz Core i7-860. Surely, that’s not the stuff of supercomputing, is it? OK, we know that in January, Fabrice Bellard used a single Core i7 to smash a record set by, umm, a supercomputer for calculating pi. Still, Gateway’s gone way over the line, right?

Continue reading this review after the jump.

Read More

Posted 03/09/10 at 10:18:19 AM by Paul Lilly

We don't often post Mac-centric news (being primarily a Windows PC-based site and all), but every once in awhile, we can't help ourselves. This happens to be one of those times.

Valve yesterday announced plans to bring Steam, its gaming service, and Source, Valve's gaming engine, to the Mac platform.

"As we transition from entertainment as a product to entertainment as a service, customers and developers need open, high-quality Internet clients," said Gabe Newell, President of Valve. "The Mac is a great platform for entertainment services."

Valve said its library of games, including Left 4 Dead 2, Team Fortress 2, Counter-Strike, Portal, and the Half-Life series, will all be available next month, though the company didn't specify an exact date. And these won't be run through emulation, but natively.

"We looked at a variety of methods to get our games onto the Mac and in the end decided to go with native versions rather than emulation," said John Cook, Director of Steam Development. "The inclusion of WebKit into Steam, and of OpenGL into Source gives us a lot of flexibility in how we move these technologies forward. We are treating the Mac as a tier-1 platform so all of our future games will release simultaneously on Windows, Mac, and the Xbox 360."

In addition, Cook said that Mac and Windows players will be part of the same multiplayer universe, so it will be entirely possible to settle the debate between PC vs Mac in head-to-head matchups.

Read More