PC Game News

Stardock today announced the addition of science fiction writer Dave Stern to oversee creative storytelling and lore implementation for future titles.

"Stern, author of numerous books including the novelizations of Lara Croft: Tomb Raider and The Blair Witch Project and former editor of Pocket Books Star Trek and science fiction lines, was responsible for putting together the Hiergamenon lore book for Elemental: War of Magic Limited Edition. Stern will head up all further integration of the Elemental: War of Magic lore into the increasingly popular strategy title as Stardock continues to offer unparalleled post release support for the game. "

In addition, BigDownload.com has confirmed the hiring of Jon Shafer, who was most recently the lead designer on "Civilization V" at Firaxis.

"In his new role, Shafer will be helping with the design and increasing mod support for Elemental. At some point in the future he will also be leading his own team at Stardock on an unnanounced new stand alone game for the developer."

The list of new PC game releases, DVD and Blu-Ray releases, and movies opening the week of January 3, 2011.

PC Games:

• Emergency 2012
• Venetica

Movies Opening This Week:

• Season of the Witch

DVD and Blu-Ray Releases:

• Backdraft [Blu-Ray]
• Big Love: The Complete Fourth Season
• Blade Runner [Blu-Ray]
• Broken / Butterfly Effect 3 – two pack [Blu-Ray]
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 8 Motion Comic [Blu-Ray]
• Camille
• Case 39 [Blu-Ray]
• Catfish [Blu-Ray]
• Coraline [Blu-Ray]
• Dinner for Schmucks [Blu-Ray]
• Doctor Zhivago – deluxe ed.
• El Mariachi / Desperado – double feature [Blu-Ray]
• Gone With the Wind [Blu-Ray]
• Good Neighbor Sam
• Howl [Blu-Ray]
• iCarly: Season Two: Vol. Two
• Last American Cowboy
• Machete [Blu-Ray]
• Make It or Break It: Season One, Vol. Two
• Once Upon a Time in Mexico [Blu-Ray]
• Phfft
• Ricky Gervais Show: Complete First Season
• Rocky & Bullwinkle & Friends: The Complete Series
• The Devil's Rejects / House of 100 Corpses – two pack [Blu-Ray]
• The Leprechaun Movies – four film collection
• The Sarah Jane Adventures: The Complete Third Season
• Under the Yum Yum Tree [Blu-Ray]
• Visa Dream
• Yellow Handkerchief

Valve posted the results from the December Steam hardware survey, allowing anyone to follow the component trends among the PC gaming community. The results also include Mac hardware this time around.

• NVIDIA leads the GPU market
• Intel continues to dominate the CPU market
• Windows 7 64 bit is now at 36.66%

"Participation in the survey is optional, and anonymous. The information gathered is incredibly helpful to us as we make decisions about what kinds of technology investments to make and products to offer."

Wired's vaporware list for 2010 has been posted, which includes the obvious "Duke Nukem Forever" again and "Black Mesa" for a second year.

The good news for Duke Nukem fans is, of course, that the long promised sequel should actually be released this year now that 2K owns the rights and Gearbox took over development from 3D Realms. Hopefully, it will be the last time this long mocked title makes the list.

If you want to be the ultimate troll, head on over to the Black Mesa forums and ask when the mod will be released. Impatience is breeding hostility (that wasn't posted by us) within that community so we suggest you steer clear until there's something solid to go on. This Half-Life 2 modification was at one point supposed to be released in 2009 but it was pushed back. We haven't heard much about the mod since 2009 and have nearly forgotten about it.

Tyler Smith, an Albertan Morrowind fan has released a collection of several graphical modifications for "The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind" as one big pack, which is gaining some buzz around the community. He posted the following description on his site:

"My name is Tyler Smith and I’m from Calgary Alberta. I have played Morrowind since it first came out over the years I have seen many guides posted on how to upgrade Morrowind. I find that many of them changed to many aspects or messed up the order for the data to be extracted. So, I have spent the past few weeks since December 2010 taking what I had and rebuilding a mod compendium, that anyone can take follow a few setups for setup and be done to play."

The collection is available to download as a torrent at MediaFire and there are installation instructions at: https://morrowind2011.wordpress.com/

A sample video has been released, which notes that FRAPS made the video darker than the actual modified game.

We should also note that there is an Impulse holiday sale going on, in which over 300 games are discounted through Stardock's digital distribution service. Their sale end on January 3.

"Some highlights of the sale:

• 50% off Paradox Interactive games
• 25% off Ubisoft titles
• Splinter Cell Conviction for 25% off
• 50% Kalypso catalog
• 60% off Meridian cataglog
• All Sims 3 Games are 50% off
• 50% off entire Tilted Mill catalog

All sale items can be found here – https://www.impulsedriven.com/explore/onsale"

"Call of Duty: Black Ops" is Amazon's Gold Box deal of the day at 33% off for both the PC and console versions.

"The follow up to the Best Selling Game of All Time, Call of Duty: Black Ops is an entertainment experience that will take you to conflicts across the globe, as elite Black Ops forces fight in the deniable operations and secret wars that occurred under the veil of the Cold War."

Bohemia Interactive today released a new patch (1.57) for "ARMA 2: Operation Arrowhead", which fixes a number of issues and adds a new single-player mission to the Private Military Company DLC.

"Included alongside several improvements and stability tweaks detailed in the attached change-log files, this update also brings new engine improvements, such as improved netcode (better locality handling), new scripting commands as well as four brand new scenario missions for owners of A2:PMC. One showcase and three distinctive single-player missions add extra weight to PMC's substantial co-op campaign playable content:

• Infiltration: Sneak under the cover of darkness to destroy a rocket artillery test site.
• Reaction: Battle through the mist to recover missing clients.
• Provision: Take to the air to deliver a crucial cargo drop for UN troops in central Takistan.
• Showcase: Enjoy the diversity of the PMC faction in a showcase mission.

The update is available for immediate download from project´s homepage at www.arma2.com"

Codemasters today released the first of a series of gameplay biography videos that focus on key soldiers in "Operation Flashpoint: Red River's" narrative.

"Staff Sergeant Knox explains his role in Tajikistan as the USMC are shown taking on deadly insurgent enemies. The trailer demonstrates some of the wide range of combat scenarios which players will encounter in the game’s diverse new battlefield of Tajikistan, with Knox’s narration detailing his personal take on the conflict. From defending bases to sweeping through mountains, villages and towns to flush out entrenched enemies, Knox and his Marine Fireteams are shown engaging insurgents at range and close-quarters, supported by ground and air support. In an awesome display of power, A10 bombers are shown obliterating an insurgent stronghold with a strafing bombing run before the marines sweep in."

The list of new PC game releases, DVD and Blu-Ray releases, and movies opening the week of December 20, 2010.

PC Games:

• Back to the Future Episode 1
• Operation Blitzkrieg France

Movies Opening this Week:

• Country Song (limited)
• Gulliver's Travel's
• Little Fockers
• Somewhere (limited)
• The Illusionist (limited)
• True Grit

DVD and Blu-Ray Releases:

• Ages of Man – John Gielgud
• Billy the Exterminator: Season 1
• Bleach Uncut Box Set 7
• Bounty [Blu-Ray]
• Caprica: Season 1.5
• Classic Adventures Collection 2 – set
• Devil [Blu-Ray]
• Easy A [Blu-Ray]
• Family Guy: It's A Trap!
• Futurama: Volume Five
• Gilmore Girls: Complete Season 1&2
• Laugh it up Fuzzball: The Family Guy Trilogy
• Mega Shark vs Crocosaurus
• Once An Eagle [Blu-Ray]
• Orlando – special ed. [Blu-Ray]
• Salt [Blu-Ray]
• Sesame Street: Old School, Vols 1 and 2
• Shaw Brothers Triple Threat – set
• Step Up 3 [Blu-Ray]
• The Films of Rita Hayworth
• The Guild: Season Four
• The Heavy
• The Matador [Blu-Ray]
• The Secret Life of the American Teenager: Volume Five
• The Virginian – The Complete Season Two
• Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps [Blu-Ray]

Valve today announced that the annual Steam Holiday Sale has begun and will run through January 2.

"Gamers may save up to 80% on select titles, with daily and week-long savings on featured titles, publisher game packs, and compilations.

In addition to the usual savings specials, each day of the sale will feature a special Holiday Bonus on one select title. The twist: Players must qualify for the Holiday Bonus by owning another Steam game.

For example, the first Holiday Bonus is Portal – save an extra 10% if you own Half-Life 2. If you already own the title, Steam will automatically detect this and offer you the 10% savings during check out.

Steam is a leading platform for PC and Mac games with over 30 million accounts worldwide and over 1,400 games. For more information, please visit www.steamgames.com"

Electronic Arts announced the launch of "Battlefield: Bad Company 2: Vietnam", the new expansion pack in the FPS war series by DICE. The game is currently available from the online EA store and through Steam. The retail version will be in stores on Tuesday.

"In Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Vietnam, gamers will find themselves in an entirely new theatre of war, fighting as either the U.S. Marines or North Vietnamese Army (NVA). The punishing jungles of Vietnam are brought dramatically back to life via the award-winning Frostbite™ engine, where players can take advantage of Battlefield’s classic sandbox environments in five all-new multiplayer maps using powerful air invasions or close-quarter guerrilla tactics.

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Vietnam takes all of the intensity, action and addictive gameplay of the multi-million selling Battlefield: Bad Company 2 and ups the ante with new weapons, vehicles, achievements and trophies. Featuring five all-new maps playable in four different modes including Conquest, Rush, Squad Deathmatch and Squad Rush, Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Vietnam will continue to deliver exceedingly intense vehicular warfare, destruction and squad play.

The fifth map, Operation Hastings, will be unlocked as part of a worldwide community challenge, where players will work together to reach 69 million team actions on each respective community – Xbox 360® videogame and entertainment system, PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system and PC. The challenge begins on December 21.

For more information about Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Vietnam, please visit the Battlefield website at www.battlefield.com. "

A new trailer for "Crysis 2" was released today, giving viewers more of a look at the upcoming sequel by Crytek.

"In Crysis 2, the aliens have returned with a full invasion force bent on nothing less than the total annihilation of mankind. In New York, terrifying alien invaders stalk the streets and a nightmare plague strikes down the city's myriad inhabitants with brutal epidemic speed. "

Square Enix cut its full-year net profit forecast by over ninety percent and delayed "Deus Ex: Human Revolution" and "FInal Fantasy 14" (PS3).

"Square Enix said in a statement it is delaying the rollout of the latest installment in its "Deus Ex" game series until the financial year starting in April. It had initially planned the launch for the January-March quarter.

Square Enix cited slow sales and industry criticism of some of its major game titles launched earlier this year, and said it wanted to concentrate on achieving high quality for its upcoming titles.

It chopped its operating profit forecast to 8 billion yen, from 20 billion yen previously and below market expectations for 20.4 billion yen."

Valve today released a new co-op teaser trailer for "Portal 2".

"The video shows Atlas & P-body as they prepare for testing. Portal 2 is due for launch on Playstation 3, Xbox 360, PC and the Mac the week of April 18. For more information, please visit www.thinkingwithportals.com"