Gamernode: Latest PC News

Full Steam ahead for Ubisoft

Hot off the sweet deal that was Prey for $4.95 this weekend, Valve announced that video game publisher Ubisoft is the latest publisher to join the Steam ranks.

With a pledge to bring over 40 games to the game delivery service, only two games are available for immediate purchase: Far Cry for $8.95 and Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell for $17.95, remember you save 10% till next Tuesday.

In addition, folks can pre-purchase Assassin's Creed before its release on April 9th. Make sure to check out the beefy system requirements too.

Future game releases include titles from the Tom Clancy series, the Heroes of Might & Magic series, the IL-2 Strumovik series and more.

Past publishers/developers who've signed with Steam include Rockstar Games, SEGA, Codemasters, id Software, THQ, Capcom, Eidos Interactive, 2K...

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Creative gets panties bunched over unofficial driv...

According to a post on Creative Labs' forums, there was a user by the handle of Daniel_K who provided users of Creative's sound cards unofficial driver packs that were optimized for Windows Vista.

Creative's official Vista drivers provided lackluster performance and several lost features that were present in the Windows XP drivers. Daniel_K had actually been producing and distributing these driver packs for quite a while, but it was only a few days ago that Creative Labs finally said enough was enough and asked Daniel_K to cease and desist from further distribution of his custom drivers.

But finally, Creative sees the error of their ways and has atoned for their sins. Daniel_K is allowed to go on creating his drivers as long as no intellectual property of Creative is provided. Quite a mess...

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Blizzard sues WoW bot programmer

Blizzard, creators of World of Warcraft, are suing Michael Donnelly, the creator of the program known as "MMO Glider." This application performs tasks in the game that could be considered motonous such as leveling character--all without player interaction.

Blizzard complains that the bot infringes upon the company's copyrights and has the potential to damage the game. In its legal papers, the company writes, "Blizzard's designs expectations are frustrated, and resources are allocated unevenly, when bots are introduced into the WoW universe, because bots spend far more time in-game than an ordinary player would and consume resources the entire time."

So far, more than 100,000 copies of MMO Glider have been sold to consumers, but more than 10 million people across the world play World of War...

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Get Prey for $4.95 this weekend

Remember Prey? That game that was delayed so often it ended up not quite meeting the expectations we made for it? (If that doesn't help you remember that's fine, because I'd guess at least a quarter of all big releases fall into that category.) If you never got a chance to try it (or didn't want to waste the money on it) you're in luck, because this weekend only, the game is available for the low price of $4.95 on Steam. In other words, you can buy the game for the price of a rental (which is what most people did to play Prey the first time around).

"Here's a deal you can sink your teeth into: this weekend only, pick up the acclaimed first person shooter Prey for just $4.95. In Prey, players enter a living spaceship which enslaves alien races and devours humans for lunch. Prey turns the fir...

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New (and free) Unreal Tournament III maps

Halo 3 isn't the only FPS game releasing three maps for free this week. If you're one of those gamers who owns Unreal Tournament III on PC or PS3 you're in luck, because Midway has released three new maps of their own to download, free of charge. PC owners can grab the new content at the Unreal Tournament III site, while those who have the game on the PS3 can grab the new maps directly from the PlayStation Network. Unreal Tournament III originally shipped with 40 Epic maps, and gamers have been downloading hundreds of user-created ones since its launch last fall.

To compete with some of the awesome user-generated offerings, Epic is banking on hitting the UT players' nostalgia bone; two of the maps, Morbias and Facing Worlds will be familiar to any UT regular. "Morbias is the deathmatch are...

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Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War 2 confirmed

I'm pretty happy today with this news. Originally hinted earlier this month with a tease in the April 10th PC Game UK magazine, today, we can confirm that Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War 2 is officially in-development.

Lucky Belgium magazine PCGameplay spilled the beans. Despite being confirmed today, Dawn of War 2 has been in-development since September 2006. Preliminary details include the game will support DirectX 10 and multiple CPU cores, will debut cooperative campaigns and the first two confirmed races are the Space Marines and Orkz.

Over in this lengthy forum post on NeoGAF, readers who scooped up the magazine jotted a whole lot of details. Some of the juicy ones are as followed:

1. Dawn of War 2 will use the Essence 2.0 engine; it's implemented with Havok physics and has an emphasis on...

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Big TF2 update coming the week of April 20th

A major Team Fortress 2 update for PC is coming down the pipeline during the week of April 20th. If you check out this article, a few of the new additions have been detailed, such as new achievements for the Medic, new unlockable weapons for the Medic and the release of Goldrush, a new gameplay mode.

In addition to all of that new, swank content, the Meet the Scout video will make its debut during the week too. Following on the heels of such hilarious videos based on the Heavy, Engineer and Soldier, I'm sure the Scout video won't cease to impress.

A few more details regarding the Goldrush gameplay mode were revealed too, including that the first map for the mode (called Payload) will feature the cinematic physics technology first featured in Half-Life 2: Episode Two.

In various Medic news, or...

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S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky, Far Cry 2 dated

With over 1.65 million copies sold under their belt, GSC Game World is already set to crank out the first stand-alone expansion pack to S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl. Titled S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky, the developer confirmed a release date today for August 29th worldwide. In addition to a retail release for PC, Clear Sky will be released over Steam.

Among other things, the expansion will include DirectX 10 support, enhanced AI, about 50% of new areas to explore, the ability to command one of eight different factions, some new mutants and repairable weapons and armor.

In somewhat related news, Ubisoft quietly revealed a delay for Far Cry 2. Previously hosting a tentative release of somewhere during Ubisoft's 2009 fiscal year, the game now is expected this fall. While the new release date...

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Warhammer Online delayed till fall; CE revealed

EA revealed today that the upcoming PC MMORPG Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning has hit another delay; this time it's expected to hit retail this fall. The game has already hit two separate delays; first confirmed for release last year, the game was delayed till Q1 2008 and then again till Q2 2008.

Reasons for the delay include required additional polish and more tinkering with a few of the game's "key innovations" - namely public quests, tome of knowledge and realm vs. realm combat.

In related news, Videogamer reports that EA will release a European exclusive Collector's Edition of the game. Limited to only 55,000 copies, eager fans who are planning to plop down 80 Euros will receive a copy of the game, a 224-page book called "Art of Warhammer Online", two miniature and paintable figures, ...

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TF2 Medic class update, Goldrush mode coming

Still waiting for the Medic class update, such as new achievements and unlockable weapons/customizable loadouts, like me? Robin Walker of Valve dropped some more hints regarding unlockable weapons, balance issues and the impending release of Goldrush, a new TF2 gameplay mode.

To start off, the Medic will be given the first update by the adding of 36 new achievements; by earning these achievements (in multiples of 12, 24 or 36), you can unlock three separate and new weapons, which can in-turn reflect new weapon loadouts. Note that while the Medic changes may be up first at the plate, Valve is working on changes for all TF2 classes.

While Walker didn't fully divulge all the new weaponry (the rumored Overhealer was canned), he hinted that one of new unlockable Medic weapons that's being tested...

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Fallout 3 to feature over 200 endings, wowza!

According to the latest Official Xbox Magazine podcast, Bethesda Softworks executive producer Todd Howard dropped some more details regarding Fallout 3. First and foremost, the game will feature over 200 endings, that's right folks, 200 endings.

Remember when we reported that Fallout 3 would have 12 endings? Looks like the Bethesda crew got plenty of ideas over the past few months.

Last month, we mentioned that Fallout 3's world would roughly be about 50 to 80% the size of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion but Howard mentioned that the game is now twice as big as they originally planned. What does that mean in comparison to Oblivion, we'll have to wait and see.

Other lingering details are in regards to NPCs; at all times, you will have at least one "humanoid-type companion" along with another N...

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Solid-state fan to change how CPUs are cooled

Depending on what type of fans you have installed on your PC, you either hear the whisper quiet whirr of your components spinning happily away or experience a sound coming from your PC case similar to a miniature jet turbine engine.

However, if you want complete silence for your laptop or PC, the egg heads at Thornm Micro Technologies have developed a solid state fan that has no moving parts and is only a bit bigger than a dime.

The new technology is based upon the same principle as home air purifiers, which utilize something called a corona wind effect. Fast moving ions move from conducting wires to non-conducting wires and this results in pushing air molecules along--hence a "fan" which can cool a CPU or the innards of a laptop.

Dan Schlitz and Vishal Singhal worked on the project of the ...

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Blizzard Worldwide Invitational 2008 details

The Blizzard Worldwide Invitational is like a Blizzard fan's wet dream. Imagine being in a huge convention hall surrounded by something you spend most of your day engaged in, everything Blizzard related--specifically World of Warcraft.

Well Blizzard recently announced their 2008 event slated for the 28th and 29th of June at the Porte de Versailles Exposition Center, Paris, France.

If you are lucky enough to attend it, expect to see a lot of different events unfold before your eyes as the biggest names in Blizzard come out and show you some pretty exclusive content for their upcoming games; World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King and Starcraft II. However we all know Blizzard loves their fans, so be expected to have some hands on time with these two games to whet your gaming appetite.

Oth...

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Full Steam ahead for Epic Games

Following Atari's pledge to join the Steam catalogue last week, Valve announced today that Epic Games is the latest developer to join the Steam ranks.

All the games will have 10% chopped off the regular price till March 24th so the following listed game prices will reflect that: Unreal Tournament 3 for 44.95 USD, Unreal Tournament 2004 Editors' Choice Edition for 13.45 USD, Unreal II: The Awakening for 8.95 USD, Unreal Tournament 8.95 USD and Unreal Gold for 8.95 USD. If you're particularly daring, you can pick up all these games in the Unreal Deal Pack for 53.95 USD.

Future game additions weren't mentioned, but here's to hoping that Jazz Jackrabbit gets added, though I'm going to admit I've only played the sequel, not the original game. Heck, I remember playing ZZT by Tim Sweeney, but the g...

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Save XP petition supporters ask for more signature...

The dodo bird pictured to the left became extinct sometime in the 17th century. But if things continue the way they are going right now for Microsoft's XP, it will be just as dead as the dodo bird unless steps are taken to prevent this from happening.

A petition, Save Windows XP, continues to garner supporters and InfoWorld is trying to change the situation by appealing for more signatures in order to convince Microsoft to keep XP a viable alternative for PC users.

Windows XP will see the last rays of light on June 30, 2008. From that day on no OEM shrink wrapped copies of XP will be sold by Microsoft. What this means to computer builders is that Vista will be replacing XP in new PCs; XP will be gone forever.

So how much impact could a mere petition have? InfoWorld says:

"Don't think Microso...

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Firefox 3 Beta 4 is sweet

I certainly can't go back to use Internet Explorer after plenty of years with Firefox. For the past few months, Mozilla Corporation has been releasing periodic open betas for Firefox 3.

Now on Beta 4, a whole new set of features have been implemented. Overall, Firefox 3 will be using the Gecko 1.9 Web platform, which provides Firefox more stability and security.

Here's the official word, "Firefox 3 Beta 4 includes more than 900 enhancements from the previous beta, including drastic improvements to performance and memory usage, as well as fixes for stability, platform enhancements and user interface improvements. Many of these improvements were based on community feedback from the previous beta."

Here are some of the new improvements in Beta 4:

1. New Download Manager: the revised download ma...

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Atari releases its classic games on Steam

Some Atari goodness is coming to PC fans as Valve has announced that it will be bringing a bunch of titles from Atari's back catalogue of games to the Steam online download service.

You can expect games such as Indigo Prophecy and others but the big news is about the back catalogue of classic original Atari games found in the collection-- Atari: 80 Classic Games in One.

Vice president of Atari Online Entertainment, Nizzi Renaud said, "Atari is excited to team up with Steam and deliver great games through a digital platform that our fans have asked for. We look forward to making an extensive collection of games, across many genres, available to Steam's extensive, globally-connected community."

Playing Atari 2600 games like Super Breakout, Missile Command and 78 others should be a hoot for ol...

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Wondering why your MMO isn't working?

Did you wake up this morning expecting to play some Everquest, Pirates of the Burning Sea, Legends of Norrath, Vanguard, or any of the other MMORPGs published by Sony Online Entertainment, only to discover that they are completely non-functional?

Well, the reason you're out of luck is that SOE is performing universal server maintenence operations, after giving but a single day's notice over at the official Sony Station forums. Community Relations Coordinator Ashlanne Barefoot had the details:

Beginning at 1a.m. PDT / 8 a.m. GMT on Wednesday, March 12 all SOE services including game servers, forums, game websites, and subscription services will be unavailable due to system maintenance.

We expect this maintenance to take approximately six hours. We apologize for this interruption and will r...

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Vista SP1 put to the gaming test

Microsoft have really been pushing Vista as the OS of choice for gamers, but benchmark after benchmark after benchmark show that XP still runs the majority of games available at a higher FPS rate on identical hardware.

With the release of Service Pack 1 for Vista, many are hoping that the performance of games on the system will improve and it looks like they may be in luck.

ExtremeTech ran some test comparing games running on vanilla Vista, Vista with key hotfixes and Vista with Service Pack 1, and the results, while mixed, are looking very good. From the graphs below you can see that in some cases there is quite a large jump in performance, even at higher resolutions.

Will all this good news entice PC gamers to finally give Vista a go? Considering all the negative press and reports regardin...

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33 Thermal Paste products benchmarked

Yes you read that title correctly, thermal product benchmarking. Something tells me these guys have a little too much time on their hands.

The folks over at Benchmark Review have got together 33 different brands and types of thermal paste, grease and compound and put them to the test to see which offerings will give overclockers and enthusiasts reliable performance and which offerings don't live up to their reputation.

Thermal paste and compound is very important when it comes to keeping your PC running smoothly, acting as an interface material between hardware components and the cooling devices attached to them.

In order to find the best of the best, the lads applied each of the products to a test rig and then hammered the components to see which pastes, greases and compounds would hold up.

A...

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