PC PC GAMES

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 2:20:17 — 47.4MB)

I hit a raw nerve last week when I wrote about an experience with a game demo. The game might have been pretty and great, but the DEMO got more in the way of the presentation or made things overly difficult, than showing me the cool things. So we took some time this week and talked about the purpose of a game or software demo, what it should accomplish and what good or bad experience we had in the past with them.

The other talking points are:

• RIP All points Bulletin (Dirty Laundry Included)
• Why you shouldn’t get a Tattoo for a game
• New Flight Sim from Microsoft?!
• Pirates of the Buring Sea more content
• Activision CEO in the news again
• Intel now sells unlock codes?!
• STEAM now updates your AMD (ATI) drivers
• SC2 cheaters, watch out!
• STEAM Wallet
• Battlefield Vietnam DLC
• Let’s talk about a Date… errr… DEMO
• Mafia 2 and another DLC
• Hardware Talk (AMD, Intel and Video Cards)
• Corsair Obsidian 800D Computer Case
• And a heck of and “Outtro”

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:57:38 — 58.9MB)

How can we not talk about one of the biggest news that hit PAX. So we stroll down memory lane and take a look back on good times and what Duke Nukem means or meant to us. But not just that, we also look at what Duke promisses or rather should promise to a whole new generation that does not come laden with grand memories of Duke.

Other things we touch on:

• Brink
• APB
• Firefall
• Borderlands expansion
• Need for Speed Online now ALL for free
• STEAM adds you a wallet (add money now in anticipation of the Christmas and New Years sales)
• Elemental War of Magic on the way to recovery
• Civ 5… a week from release
• Duke Nukem Memories and Expectations
• More community gaming in planning
• Battlefield Vietnam Tokyo reveal
• Win a game or two, submit some sounds!
• Torchlight II
• What will WOW look like after the expansion
• We are down on Chris Taylor (what happened to you man?)
• Whats the deal with Diablo III Beta pop ups (be careful!)
• Amnesia The Dark Descent
• Waiting for Tim to buy RUSE

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:48:29 — 31.0MB)

Markus (Markee Dragon) gave us a in-dept report of what it is like traveling around the world for cool interviews with game dev’s sake. While he sounded a tad tired, and who can fault him for that it was great to hear about GameCom in Germany and then even more about PAX in Seattle. I wanna go to PAX now…

• GamesCom Germany
• PAX West
• Terra (MMORPG)
• Firefall
• Tron Evolution
• Red Orchestra 2
• The EVE Party is the party you want to be at
• How big can PAX get?
• World of Tanks
• Duke Nukem is alive!!! (Pigs do fly)
• RUSE and why it won’t do well (no, it’s not the DRM)
• StarCraft 2 talk
• Company of Heroes Online now live for everybody
• RealTime World troubles continue
• Elemental saga continues
• A little XBOX love…. NOT

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 2:29:25 — 42.7MB)

As you will listen to this weeks podcast you will also notice that it went quite a bit over two hours. Lots of fun talking about games and diving deep into hardware and hardware purchase experience. Wonder if you should buy the Best Buy warranty… (or any other extra warranty offered at different stores), we give you a good idea!
Last but not least Curlen will get you all hyped up for what AMD and Intel have coming up with the next generation!

• StarCraft2 Replays… not just for the pros!
• Our first meet and game with the Steamgroup
• Simon needs a gaming Laptop
• Steam News (no Linux, AI director and a Movie?!)
• Cryptic to MMO, or not to MMO
• Elemental War of Magic (Fail Launch)
• Elemental War of Magic (Fail CEO and why you should not blame DRM for a sucky game)
• APB… how long can it last?
• A little touch of Bioware
• Mass Effect DLC
• BlizzCon Stream
• Big dive into the mailbag
• Hardware talk (The wisdom of the Wizzle)

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:35:33 — 27.3MB)

There was quite a bit of news this week, mainly coming out of GamesCon in Germany. We bucked the trend and hardly talked anything GamesCon. We rather focused on what we played and took a closer look at STEAM’s top 10 for the week. Here is the list:

• The Witcher 2
• Call of Duty talk
• Steam top 10
• Deluxe Editions… how much are they worth?
• Some Mail
• Funny Game Questions
• Left 4 Dead (2) DLC
• Bioshock 3 and no Multiplayer is an asset
• Josh got some new Hardware
• Some more SSD talk
• HP Envy follow up talk
• Some mobile phone talk
• Some people need to learn how to control their life
• Farcry 3… do we expect much?
• APB… buy it now… no, not a subscription… the WHOLE MMO!
• UBI… DRM or not DRM?
• City’s in motion
• Shout-outs

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:52:46 — 32.3MB)

Because we had a mini Lan last weekend and also had some scheduling issues the days after we all sat together this Wed. and just did our first live round table show. It’s quite a different animal when you sit in the same room and talk. We all had a great time and figured this format will make an occasional appearance. That we don’t have pro gear to record such a live event will be apparent when you listen, but I think you will get quite some entertainment out of this podcast. Since I want this to be up quick I also kept the editing to a minimum, so forgive the occasional Kommie rant!
Here are the main issues we talked about:

• Lan Recap
• John Carmack… and other high profile Developers
• BFG not taking anymore RMA’s… there goes that lifetime warranty
• How good is Starcraft2 in the strategy aspect?
• Quake Live
• Guild Wars 2
• APB… not so good news
• MMO talk in general
• It will be released when it is ready… big publishers and small developers
• UBIsoft… will R.U.S.E. use the UBI DRM or not?
• Listener Mail
• Mafia II Demo impressions
• Joe’s new PC and impressions
• Hardware Questions and Answers
• Small Movie Review “The Expendables“
• The Female perspective (Luna shoutout)
• Join the Steam Group of PCPCGAMES
• Reader Mail… Our Top 10 Games?!
• Crazy Josh (Fascinator) outtakes

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:39:13 — 28.4MB)

Few news this week had us as exited as Torchlight 2. We are great fans of anything MultiPlayer and it looks like the new year will start well with Torchlight 2. Heck, we got so exited that we got in the sharing mood and if you pay attention you can join SkippyDog and win a classic game or two! Our other talking points are:

• Our playlists
• World of Tanks
• Torchlight2
• A few words about Starcraft 2
• Borderlands Rumors
• Defense of the Ancients rumors
• Steam Top 10 and what we think of it.
• The old Republic Space Combat
• DC Universe
• Big Joe’s PC rig
• Solid State Drives fail too
• Reader Mail
• Win 2 Games
• A little Droid talk

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:57:12 — 33.5MB)

• Just Cause 2… the game you should really own by now!
• World of Tanks BETA impressions
• StarCraft 2
• Company of Heroes Online Beta impressions
• Need for Speed’ssss
• Kane & Lynch 2 DEMO impressions
• Hard Ware Advice
• Another Screen Size vs Video Card resolution
• Dragon Age DLC
• Richard Garriot aka Lord British is getting some money
• 5 Issues with PC Gaming?

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:45:04 — 30.1MB)

Staying within my delayed release schedule. This week I blame it all on Blizzard and you know why! We talked quite a bit about Blizzard this week. What does it mean for PC gaming, how big is Starcraft2 going to be and is Blizzard going to be contending with STEAM for the Digital distribution crown?
Also talked a bit hardware. After Nvidia made a bit of waves with the GTX460 what will ATI do to answer? And on the CPU side, is AMD going to challenge Intel with it’s next generation of CPUs? Competition, it’s a wonderful thing, so let’s hope so.

And this is what else we talked about:

• Alien Swarm
• Magic the Gathering
• Midnight opening for Starcraft 2
• CGI in Blizzard games
• What makes a real gamer
• BIOWARE and  DLC
• AMD CPU talk
• Mail call
• Monitor size and video card relation
• Digital distribution, what would it take to compete with STEAM
• Blizz-Con, now you too can be there

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:40:37 — 28.8MB)

This week on time and with lots of different topics. Some more in detail look at World of Tanks and some insight into APB from a players perspective. Also looking at some of the crazy headlines this week, all sorts of people calling each other by name…

• World of Tanks
• APB, a players perspective
• E3 a special look (The PC is back baby!)
• Bobby Kotick is a D***
• Mark Rein is a bully and got on Cliffes bad side
• Pachter is off his rocker. Yet again!
• Why Valve does it right, and TF2 is still in the top 10 selling games
• Alien Swarm, a Valve freebie
• StarCraft 2 Requirements
• UBI in the NEWS
• More GTX460 info
• Is ATI releasing a new Video Card this year? (6000 series)
• Intel is making major MONEY
• Kommie is looking forward to a game
• Tim Sweeney is apologizing for EPIC
• If you missed the Old Spice on YouTube…you missed a good one
• Don’t miss the opportunity to win a free game! 

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:25:47 — 24.5MB)

Technical difficulty caused this podcast to be late by a couple days. Sorry for that folks. Let me know if you have any issues from here on out.

We got together a day late since we all still recovered from the LAN. We had a lot of fun, sorry you had to miss it! If you never been to a LAN see if you can find a place local to you. Yes, you will meet some strange folk, but you can also make some great friends.

Here are the other things we talked about:

• Dragon Age DLC
• TF2 new updates
• ARMA2 and Operation Arrow Head 
• Blizzard Real ID issues and resolution
• Just Cause 2 MultiPlayer?!
• Apple
• Dragon Age 2
• WOW slowly waining even with the core
• NVIDIA GTX460
• Our Multi-Core CPU predictions
• Josh wants my 30″
• Physx not working on purpose?
• Racing Game promise
• Due WhiteOut wins! (Josh Rejoyced)
• Friends don’t let Friends hate on themselves!
• Game Giveaway NEXT WEEK!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:33:51 — 26.9MB)

Will is taking a commanding lead in being part in all sorts of BETA’s. Funny, since he is the guy with the least time among us. And so it is that we talk quite a bit about Beta game-play, what is new, what is coming up and what we are looking forward to. I can seriously see us picking up LOTR once it goes free to play. I can’t wait to see what the pricing structure will look like.

Here is what else we talked about:

• Lord of the Ring Online Free to play Beta
• ARMA2: Operation Arrowhead
• Josh builds a Monster System, and then some
• HP EVNY17 Heat issue FAIL
• Cryptic is loosing their Executive Producer (In how bad a shape is StarTrek Online?)
• Super Heroes all sorts of MMO’s
• Metal of Honor Beta Impressions
• New laptop pet peeves
• Some Apple talk (Don’t hold it wrong… and then some)
• StarCraft 2 is not very much off
• NVIDIA 3D implementation, a listeners question

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:30:53 — 31.2MB)

Talking about a wide area of topics, but the STEAM sale this week is just crazy. So we all played some new games, or rediscovered some classics. I hope you picked something up… or still will! PC Games for $3 ROCK!

• Steam Sales are back, what did we pick up
• Company of Heroes Online
• DLC can be soooo much fun
• Dragon Age DLC… The Wizzle speaks
• A quick talk about Company of Heroes
• Metal of Honor Beta impressions
• Counter Strike gets major patches… Kommie doesn’t like it
• Yes, we touch on the Iphone issue too
• CIV V
• Cataclysm
• What is Blizzards new MMO gonna lock like?
• Global Agenda totally revamps
• APB will have Audio Commercials
• OnLive, how many bad decisions before they fail?
• MDK HD… fail
• Bioware and Activision give some much needed PC love!
• Is the PC Gaming Crowd less likely to put up with bad Games?

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:45:42 — 36.3MB)

A glance back at what we played this week (APB sticking out) and then some talk about E3. What we liked, didn’t or if it was even important. Here is the list:

• APB Beta impressions
• Civ 5, Jump gate Evolution, Dark Prophesy (BeerJedi)
• Homefront
• Starwars Knights of the Old Republic
• Lego MMO
• MMO and kids
• The New XBOX360
• A look at the Console news coming from E3
• On-Live (now charging full retail price for games)
• Metal of Honor Beta impressions
• Sniper: Ghost Warrior Demo
• Magic the Gathering
• HP Envy… waiting for some cooler times
• Some SSD talk
• Why do some games stay so popular
• Starwars Galaxies (Why to stay away from Sony MMO’s)
• The Playlist
• Go see The A-Team

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 51:17 — 17.6MB)

A quick and short look at what waits for PC gamers this week. E3 should have some interesting stuff and we speculate or talk about what is coming, we think is around the corner or we would like to see.

• Trailer Talk
• XBOX Slim
• Battlefield: Vietnam
• All Points Bulletin
• What are Betas… Demos
• Battlefield Bad Company 2 Servers are drying up
• StarWars Games everywhere
• Red Dead Redemption shuns the PC (for now)
• What will be the killer app for Kinect?
• Portal 2 and other Steam speculation
• Fallout New Vegas
• World Cup Talk (Sorry)

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:45:22 — 36.2MB)

• Blur Talk
• Cliff Harris asks “Why did you NOT buy GSB?”
• Supreme Commander 2 already in the bargain bin
• Lord of the Rings going FREE to play
• In game advertisement, how can or should it look like
• APB rumors
• Company of Heroes will go Free to play
• Valve mystery… Portal2?
• Namco/Bandai will not follow the UBI lead
• NVIDIA 3D… worth it?
• Kevin joins late
• Alpha Protocol
• Sins of a Solar Empire Multiplayer
• Big Joe Gaming Rig
• Need for Speed: World Beta Continues
• Retro Suggestion of the week: Psychonauts
• CA goes off the rocker with Game Censorship
• Will get’s a ticket in CA
• Purchasing Lions Online???
• Crysis 2 talk

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 2:11:04 — 45.0MB)

Because of the Holiday (and my hardware) this came a bit later than usual. Here is a shout out to all Veterans, not just in the US. Thanks for giving us the opportunity to speak our mind freely. Hard to imagine what it would be like if we couldn’t go on a random rant about this or that having to mind what toes we could step on.

We talked plenty about all sorts of games this week. Blur stuck out and nearly all pcpcgames.com regulars have purchased it. Mario Cart on crack sounds about right… here are the other things we touched on:

• Blur
• StarTrek Online
• Login Conference (MMO)
• Another look at APB (All Points Bulletin)
• New MMO Subscibtion Models are coming
• Stolen MMO accounts and the economy behind it
• Why you should not try to steal games at a gaming conference (PAX East)
• Some people spend way to much money on Digital items
• DRM News
• Pachter is wrong again… why not
• SEGA on the bad DRM wagon?
• Another 360 bites the dust
• New 360′s this Christmas?
• Valve dominating future PC sales
• STEAM ramblings
• Some cell phone talk
• BIG Foot Network News (Josh Called It)
• Are gamers really tired of certain time periods (WWII)
• Need for Speed World only $20… but…
• Steve Jobs
• Micro ATX and CrossFire don’t mix

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:53:07 — 51.8MB)

What is this, Epic talking about piracy… one would think they know what they talk about… well one would think!? We give you plenty of reasons why it isn’t so, even go so far and quote someone that has to know better… Cliff Harris.

Our other talking points are:

• Epic developer on piracy… epic fail!
• Visit Cliff Harris and buy at least one of his games, do it NOW!
• Split Second, or how not to release a demo
• The looking glass… Blur is due this week
• A look back “Flat Out” so much fun but oh so unstable
• APB pre-purchase sale or how not to “entice people to preorder
• Alpha Protocol pre-purchase goodies, that’s better
• Apple in the News
• Google in the News
• We recommend a TV show, go watch some “Community“
• Torchlight… to MMO, or not to MMO?!
• Square Enix.. has mucho profit
• Bioware… DLC promise made again (in the past and not kept)
• Red Dead Redemption… we miss it on the PC
• Pachter is wrong again… we are not surprised
• PC Gaming Alliance… what alliance?!
• Now not just EA is charging for resold games, more reasons not to buy console!
• Vote your Mountain Dew Flavor (apparently “White Out” is the one to vote for)
• HP ENVY17 is on order
• BFG is out of the video card market
• What does Eyefinity look like in games
• Sears in need of someone that takes pics for them
• Another look at EPIC’s piracy statement
• PC’s looking better the longer there is no new console
• Curlen has two 5870′s and what that means for his current motherboard

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:48:05 — 24.7MB)

Some crazy news this week. EA wants to charge $10 for used games… and developers saying that used game sales are a bigger problem than piracy… yup you heard that right. No wonder we had plenty to talk about!
We had quite a panel this week, so some of the opinions are all over the place as you can imagine. Here are the talking points:

• The play List – The Saboteur, Need for Speed: World, Bioshock 2, Starcraft 2, Napoleon Total War, Bad Company 2, Dirt 2,
• The World Cup is Coming (It tops the European sales charts!)
• Need for Speed World Beta
• MMO talk
• All Points Bulletin
• Hacked Max Payne .exe used on STEAM release
• StarTrek Online
• Blizzard region lock
• Entertainment Software Sales are WAY DOWN
• Steam on the MAC
• Dead Space 2 on PC
• We recommend a Movie or two
• Dedicated servers for Call of Duty: Black Ops
• Where are the Co-Op games?
• Thanks for the Community reviews!
• Wired or Wireless Mouse?
• Fable 3
• UBI still sucks!
• IPAD
• ARMA 2 Q&A

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:24:54 — 19.4MB)

Dedicated gaming mice… special keyboards and mousing surfaces the size of a sweater. Headphones and maybe even gaming monitors. Is all that stuff worth it? Do they enhance your game time or is it just for show? I am sure you will get some good information in this podcast!

As always there was lot’s of other gaming news and info to talk about. Here is the list: