PC PC GAMES

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:40:44 — 34.5MB)

This was another big week for PC Gaming. Yet again a midnight opening around the US and maybe even in some other Countries for a Blizzard PC exclusive. We recorded just a little while before the release of Cataclysm and Josh was ready to go to the store to pick up his copy. So the first half we hear of the hopes and dreams of the ones that sell their Soul to Blizzard (yet again). It will be interesting to follow and see how much stamina this latest expansion has. Here is the list of topics:

• Cataclysm
• Deux Ex
• Why are Rockstar Games not on PC anymore?
• Retail vs Digital Distribution
• Black Friday Deals and Stories
• Blizzard bans Asians
• How not to pay for University
• PS3 move impressions
• MiniLan
• The Walking Dead Season Finale
• Consoles holding PC gaming back
• Where will we be in 5-10 years?
• Why PC’s make more sense (right now)
• Why small Devs need to be supported
• Battlefield DLC
• We need your Audio Files for the One Year Anniversary Edition

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:39:20 — 34.3MB)

One can hear our anticipation of the STEAM Thanksgiving sales in this podcast. We talked about quite the range of things that did keep us busy while we waited for that oh so sweet weekend. If you outside the US… I am sorry!

• Getting ready for Thanksgiving
• Risen sold like MAD
• How low is low enough for a game you want?
• Sniper Ghost Warrior
• Fallout: New Vegas
• Minecraft
• Microsoft has a way to go with digital distribution
• Wikipedia got Kommies support
• League of Legends
• Black Ops Impressions
• Tripwire and Red Orchestra 2
• Blizzard Tournament fail
• Are we done with WWII shooters? (Comments welcome)
• Little more RISEN
• The Witcher 2
• How many hours of Source can you play in a week?
• Cataclysm talk
• Retail Cains threaten boycott of PC game sales
• Will coming Consoles have a media drive / slot?
• Fallout MMO confusion
• Guildwars 2
• New Steam feature – Recommended for you
• Apple talk
• Dell Inspiron DUO
• New ATI Video Cards… lets see them already!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:52:31 — 38.9MB)

League of Legends made a HUGE splash after the Lan Party. So we took a little more time and talked about it. But not just it but LoL but also about last weeks big release “Black Ops”.

Again my appologies for running late, for that you will get another episode in just a few days

We are getting close to our first Birthday and we want your input! So make sure you listen an participate. We will give away a ton of stuff around Christmas to celebrate our anniversary.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:48:40 — 44.4MB)

• GIGABYTE woes…
• New Vegas and the Spinning Head Bug
• Minecraft Admin
• WOW Cataclysm looms large
• Call of Duty BlackOps
• FIFA 11
• Microsoft going after STEAM with the LIVE reboot
• How awesome can a SC2 match be
• R.E.D the Movie… go watch it!
• LAN Parties are not easy to organize, be friendly to your host!
• Vietnam DLC gets a price
• ATI6990 is in Tim’s future
• Size Matters (Monitor Size
• 3D…
• Gunnar Glasses, we all will have them
• Blizzcon Streaming FAIL
• Diablo III
• SC2 Tournament
• It’s about the fun when you get together!
• A lot of BlizzCon talk
• PvP in D3

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:42:23 — 42.5MB)

Was it Minecraft that made this podcast so late… close, but no. Sorry to all that waited till the end of the week for our 40th episode.
We did however talk a little about Minecraft and if you listen till the very end you will hear Fascinators live first impressions as he purchased and logged in for the first time while we recorded. Other things we touched on are:

• Sins of a Solar Empire
• Civ V
• Minecraft
• AION
• Microsoft and the commitment to PC gaming
• Tim’s top 15 list of PC gaming
• GOG (Good old Games) is not dead… funny fail!
• Is Bungie making an MMO?
• STEAM top 10
• Josh is discovering Minecraft
• What Curlen is using his new computer for

Ran across this last night.   Looks pretty cool.  For anyone that is interested, here is a link.

http://www.impulsedriven.com/blacklight

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: 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: 1:57:12 — 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?

OK, I just read an article over at “GAMEZONE” that raises 5 issues of PC gaming. And all I can say is… are you sure you are a PC gamer?! But I digress and let you take a look. Is he right? Since most of the people that comment on their site seem to be console guys why don’t you folks take a stab and let me know what you think. Here is how he starts and the 5 issues he has:

As a PC gamer, I love my platform of choice. I love that I can customize my machine, that I can mod my games, that I can download a mod from another user, that my games have the potential to look better than on any other platform… However, I also recognize the PC’s many shortcomings, a few of which I’ll examine in more detail here.
Digital Rights Management (DRM)
Competing Platforms
Lack Of Killer App
Hardware
Lack Of Split-screen

I kind of want to ask him to hand his true PC gamer members card in. But I would really like to hear what you guys have to say. Should make a great next podcast

Alien Swarm is a top down shooter multi-player co-op game. It’s a free game that Valve released that is shaping up to be very promising. I’ll put up some videos of game play sometime tonight, so you can see it’s goodness. Right now it’s a two gig download and if you loved classics, like, Smash TV or any other semi-frantic shooters – this will be right up your alley. It’s also fairly pretty as well.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/630/

or the official site:

http://www.alienswarm.com/

BioWare spoke with Computer and Video Games about the state of PC gaming, saying it continues to be their lead platform following what seems to be a mini-trend of vocal support for the PC as a gaming platform. “Every two or three years we hear the announcement of fantasy being dead, PC gaming being dead and RPGs being dead. And yet, all of the biggest games that ever come out – that set the records – are nearly always PC games, and a lot of them are fantasy games,” says Bioware designer and writing director Daniel Erickson. “The biggest game in the world is a fantasy, PC, RPG MMO. We all know the drawbacks of PC. We all scream at our boxes and try to make stuff work. But at the same time, the interface is made for games. The mouse/keyboard interface allows so much less restriction [than console].” He concludes noting that this is not lip service, as they are walking the walk: “There was not a question when we started Old Republic – or any of our games, for that matter – [what the lead format would be]. There’s a reason the lead SKU for Dragon age was [PC] as well. When we’re developing an RPG, it’s a natural place to be

In the last couple years E3 has struggled quiet a bit. The new face of gaming overall does not wait for E3 anymore. More and more quality titles release at other times than the big rush time after Thanksgiving and before Christmas.

But E3 has changed a lot over the years too when one looks at the hardware. Consoles are the heavy hitters and even top titles have a simple mention that it will be released on PC as well.

So the question is… what do we PC gamers expect from E3? Any surprises or special releases waiting in the wings for us PC fanboys? What are you waiting for?

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

Ok, Just Cause 2 is awesome. And GoGamer.com has it for a great price, so if you are in the market, check it out.

Just Cause 2 at GoGamer.com

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:56:55 — 26.8MB)

Episode 8 of the PCPCGAMES.com Podcast. Curlen is back and caught us up on the finish of Mass Effect 2. Don’t worry, no spoilers but a good insight! We missed Tim this episode so we put our Eyefinity questions on hold and focused on Games, Games, Games. March is coming up and you better make up your mind who gets your money… it feels like Christmas release season all over again. 

• Mass Effect 2 finished
• Global Agenda FAIL
• Battlefield Bad Company 2
• AvP
• Tiberium Twilight
• Dawn of War
• Josh has Dogs
• Starcraft 2 Beta soon
• Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2… yes… again
• Curlen XBOX360 update
• Build in Voip into game… leave it off by deafult PLEASE!
• Game we keep on playing
• A look at Valve
• Team Fortress
• Left for Dead 2
• Are we done with Zombies?
• World War Z
• A closer look at Starcraft 2
• Days of Old and whats coming down the pipe
• PC Modding
• Guild Wars
• MMO shutdowns
• Microsoft aproach to Sales
• Allen Wake
• Match making pain…. Borderlands shame on you!
• Dead Space 2
• A look at PC Hardware (steam survey)
• A little Sniper advice

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 2:24:26 — 33.1MB)

A long but great Podcast. We had the pleasure of talking with Cliff Harris, the man behind Positech Games. Chris was kind enough to share about his programing background, what drives his love for the games he produces and what it is like to publish independently. Other highlights we touched on are:

• Who is Cliff Harris
• What is his programing background
• Why do his games have the names they have
• How long did it take to develop GSB
• What is it like to be your own boss
• Is DLC worth it
• Relationship with Impulse, Steam and other publishers
• 3D or not to 3D
• What does Cliff play
• What about current MMO’s

Please give us some feedback and let us know how we did, what you would like to hear next and rate us on Itunes!

EXTRA SPECIAL WIN A COPY OF GSB

Cliff was also kind enough to give us a code for Gratuitous Space Battles. We will give it away randomly if you either write a review on Itunes (still need your contact info) or send us a mail to: mail@pcpcgames.com

Digg the Podcast!

Now this on the other hand is commitment to PC Gaming…. hats off Gentleman, wherever in the world you are!