Alright, we know there’s bound to be some crossover here, with the console nominations, and maybe even with the indie nominations, but now the Kotaku awards is moving into the PC gaming realm. We want your nominations for the best PC games of 2010! More »
Far Cry 2 launched on PC sans widescreen. Considering everything else on the PC version was superior to the console iterations (quicksaves!), that was an odd move. Nevermind. It’s fixed now.
If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it 7-8 times: Grand Theft Auto is best when enjoyed on the PC. The fact GTAIV will feature 32-player multiplayer only supports my position.
When Windows Vista shipped, it shipped alongside DirectX 10. DirectX 10 would only run with Vista. It wouldn’t run with the faster, more stable, more popular Windows XP. This made those running games on XP unhappy. Well, fast forward a few years, and the next release of a Windows OS – Windows 7 – won’t be repeating the same mistake. Microsoft’s Product Marketing Manager Windows, Ben Basaric, has gone on record saying that while Windows 7 will be shipping with DX11 support (which will add features like allowing a graphics processor to process more than just graphics), it will also run on Windows Vista. So no need to go upgrading. Well…unless you’re one of millions still using XP…
DirectX 11 confirmed for Windows 7 – Microsoft revised statement [PCGH, via Voodoo Extreme]
The NPD sales charts are traditionally a little…sketchy when it comes to PC sales. But for the week ending November 1, they look right on the money, with Fallout 3 taking not just the top spot, but 3rd and 9th spot as well with the two collectors editions. With the game still charting well on both Steam and Direct2Drive, you can easily see where a lot of those 4.7 million shifted copies went.
Above, a demonstration by Mgestyk Technologies, showing off their webcam-based gesture control system on a bunch of games like Far Cry and Halo. While we admire the effort, all we’re left thinking after watching this is: just because you can do something, doesn’t always mean you should. Laggy controls that force you to use strange hand gestures won’t be replacing WASD and a mouse just yet.
The tinkering continues! The official NPD charts were interesting, but fundamentally flawed. So we added Steam’s charts as well. Steam painted a much clearer picture of the actual purchasing habits of PC users, but was still incomplete, because we’d left off the other major purveyor of digital distribution, Direct2Drive. So this week, they’re included as well, giving us not one, not two, but three PC sales charts. If you can’t get a clear idea of what’s been selling on the PC after that, well, you’re probably asking too much of your sales charts.
I’ve been watching the movements of Beijing Perfect World with some interest; in comparison to some of the up and coming companies, they’ve certainly kept a reasonably low profile lately. Until, of course, they launched the ‘international’ version of their original MMO, Perfect World. Now they’re eying another go with the Japanese market, bringing their Chi Bi (‘Red Cliff’) MMO to Romance of the Three Kingdoms-mad gamers. I’ve heard tell Perfect World will be releasing another of their games to the US market in the near future, and we can only hope that it’s Red Cliff — I’m all about some classical Chinese fiction renovated for a 21st century audience. The Three Kingdoms gaming phenomenon is fascinating to me, and one that I hope to write on formally at some point in the not-too-distant future. Press release after the jump.
Here’s your PC gaming good news story for the day: CD Projekt Red have announced today that, since the game was first released in 2007, The Witcher has sold over a million copies. That’s including both versions of the game, the original as well as the “Enhanced Edition”. For a traditional PC RPG, made by an obscure Eastern European developer with a silly name, those are great, great numbers. Congrats!
The Witcher Sells One Million Copies In A Year [Gamasutra]
