Here is a recording of our first live show, minus the Railworks 2, which is what we were playing during the broadcast for the extreme viewing pleasure of those who watched the broadcast at justin.tv/charlaxian.
Congratulations to ⱤEDЯUM on winning the trivia contest on December 28th and receiving a copy of Audiosurf!
We picked a trivia contest winner for December 29th live on the show. Liminality won a copy of Trine! Congratulations.
Previous trivia question:
What game is Fallout the spiritual successor to?
 |
| Introduction to Wasteland |
Answer:
Wasteland by Interplay Productions.
Interplay created Wasteland in 1988, and it was published by Electronic Arts. Later on when Interplay became its own publisher it wanted to do another game like Wasteland. They couldn't make a sequel to Wasteland because EA owned the rights to it. Instead, they made a spiritual successor: Fallout. Fallout was so influenced by Wasteland that it can really be thought of as an unofficial sequel.
Wasteland was a unique RPG for the time. Not only was it set in a post apocalyptic world instead of a fantasy one, it also gave the members of your party their own AI so you weren't in control of everyone. Your companions could even refuse orders you gave them. It was also one of the first games to feature a persistent world.
To help save space the story was provided in a booklet that came along with the game. The game would instruct you to read specific paragraphs within the booklet. To punish people who read ahead to try to spoil the game, there were fake stories included in the booklet, such as a story about a mission to Mars.
Live Fallout Trivia Question!:
Although it came out before Fallout and Wasteland in 1975, what movie staring a former Brady Bunch actor is often regarded as the closest thing to a Fallout movie?
Bonus question: Who was the former Brady Bunch actor in this movie?
Answers:
 |
| A Boy and His Dog, starring Tiger. |
Movie: A Boy and His Dog
Actor: Tiger, the dog!
View the entire movie here! It's of historical significance!
Or you may want to view the trailer first, to see what you're getting into.
Alternate Titles:
- Psycho Boy and His Killer Dog
- Mad Don
- Apocalypse: 2024
Live Fallout trivia contest winners:
ⱤEDЯUM
Pliky
Steam Sales:
Arcadia is $1.70 (66% off).
Hegemony: Philip of Macedon is $3.00 (85% off).
Shatter is $2.50 (75% off).
Grand Theft Auto IV: Complete Edition is $10.00 (75% off). This includes Grand Theft Auto 4, The Lost and Damned, and The Ballad of Gay Tony.
However, the Rockstar Collection is $39.99 (71% off). This deal is also very good.
Star Trek Online Digital Deluxe Edition is $7.50 (75% off). This is an MMO and will cost you $14.99/month after the first 30 days. Or, you can purchase a lifetime subscription for $299.99.
Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit is $29.99 (40% off).
R.U.S.E. is $33.49 (33% off).
Left 4 Dead 2 is $6.79 (66% off). Or $4.99 (75% off) if you own Left 4 Dead.
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion: Game of the Year Edition is $9.99 (50% off). The deluxe edition is $12.49; this includes the Knights of the Nine & Shivering Isles expansions, as well as several DLC.
Other Sales:
Tomb Raider Underworld is $14.99 (50% off). Steam already has it for this price as part of the Holiday sale: Tomb Raider Holiday Sale.
Direct2 Drive has Tom Clancy's HAWX for $9.95 (50% off). This is better than the current price of $14.99 (25% off) on Steam.
Good Old Games still has almost every game they have on sale.
And GamersGate still has a large amount of their games on sale.
 Giveaway to a random viewer! And it was ⱤEDЯUM! Someone was unusually lucky the last couple of days.
News:
Good job PC, you unlocked the fifth multiplayer map for Battlefield: Bad Company 2: Vietnam. Currently, the Xbox 360 is just over half way done and the PlayStation 3 is even further back.
If anyone is interested in the new Tomb Raider game or just the new Lara Croft, Game Informer posted a gallery of screenshots and concept art.
Boring statistics portion of the podcast, courtesy of ABI Research:
"The overall online game market is expected to eclipse $14.5 billion in 2010 and grow to just over $29 billion by 2015, a 14.8% CAGR. Of this revenue, casual gaming is expected to account for nearly $7 billion of the 2010 revenue and over the course of the five year forecast window it is forecast to grow at a 16.8% CAGR to eclipse $15 billion. The MMO market is expected to be larger in 2010 at $7.6 billion, but will show a lower CAGR of 12.8%, reaching almost $14 billion by 2015. The casual market is expected to grow faster due to the wider audience appeal, but the Asia-Pacific region in particular will help drive the MMO market."
The final clue for the Fallout: New Vegas puzzle was given, and it appears that JDCapo solved it. Congratulations! You really earned it.
The trivia contests aren't over! We have a few more daily podcasts to do. Additionally, we're going to continue to give away prizes for each episode when the podcast moves to its new schedule in January. Keep listening, and if you appreciate what we do, share it with your friends, co-workers, social network, or anyone who will listen!
Send your answers to today's trivia contest to PCGamingisDead@gmail.com. Today's contest closes on December 31st at 6pm PT (2am GMT, January 1st).
Happy New Year!
The live show is now scheduled for December 30th, 6 - 7pm PT, at http://justin.tv/charlaxian.
To easily see what time this is in your part of the world, go here: WorldTimeServer.com.
Details:
- The live podcast will start at about 6pm Pacific time.
- We will draw the winner for the trivia contest ending that day.
- One of the trivia contest games will be given away to a random attendee.
- There will be a trivia contest taking place during the event and the winner can select one of the $5 Steam indie packs of their choice as a prize.
- The final clue for the New Vegas puzzle will be given out at the end of the event, around 7pm.
Congratulations to Monolight on winning a copy of Lead and Gold in the Dec. 27th trivia contest.
Previous trivia question:
What game is BioShock the spiritual successor to?
Answer: The System Shock games by Looking Glass Studios & Irrational Games.
System Shock was released in 1994. It was one of the first FPS games to feature a true 3D environment. The player is a hacker that is on board a space station taken over by a hostile AI named SHODAN.
Although the game is considered innovative for the genre, System Shock was only a moderate success.
System Shock 2 came out in 1999 and was created by Looking Glass Studios and Irrational Games (an offshoot of Looking Glass that was founded by 3 ex-employees).
The System Shock games served as inspiration for many other great games, such as Deus Ex, BioShock. The character of GLaDOS in Portal was inspired, in part, by SHODAN.
Steam Sales:
Archon Classic is $2.50 (75% off).
Amnesia: The Dark Descent is $6.80 (66% off). Or $4.80 (76% off) if you own any of the Penumbra games.
The Ball is $4.99 (75% off).
Swords and Soldiers HD is $2.50 (75% off).
Greed Corp is $2.50 (75% off).
Plants vs. Zombies: GOTY Edition is $4.00 (60% off).
The Quake Collection is $10.20 (66% off). Due to the fact that the collection lacks Quake 4, it's hard to recommend someone buy it. Especially when you can play Quake for free in your browser at http://quakelive.com.
Dead Space is $6.80 (66% off).
City of Heroes: Going Rogue Complete Collection is $10.00 (75% off). This collection contains the full City of Heroes and City of Villians games as well as Going Rogue expansion pack.
Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days is $4.99 (75% off).
Sniper: Ghost Warrior is $7.50 (75% off). Avoid this game!
Games for Windows daily deal:
Cubis Gold 2 is $4.99 (75% off).
You can play Cubis 2 for free at the MSN Gaming Zone.
Popcap has 50% off on all games except Bejeweled 3 and game bundles. Steam currently has a better deal on Plants vs Zombies, where it is currently 60% off Steam.
News:
Stewart Gilray of Oddworld Inhabitants stated on the Steam forum that once the PS3 version of Stranger's Wrath is completed, they will be looking into bringing the updated graphics to the PC version.
Since December 22nd, Battlefield: Bad Company 2: Vietnam has been having a competition between the different gaming platforms to unlock a 5th multiplayer map. Each platform needs to complete 69 million team actions to unlock the map. The results of this are interesting: the PC has almost double the team actions of the Xbox 360 and is currently only 5.5 million away from unlocking the map. Good job PC!
Thanks to everyone who wrote in to us with your times and suggestions for the live show.
Send your trivia question responses to PCGamingisDead@gmail.com. Today's contest closes on December 30th, at 6pm Pacific time, and the winner will be announced live on the stream at http://justin.tv/charlaxian.
Good luck!
Congratulations to Vango for winning the trivia contest for December 24th and receiving a copy of Audiosurf!
Previous trivia question:
What was the first stealth game to use light and sound as gameplay mechanics?
Answer: Thief: The Dark Project by Looking Glass Studios.
Thief was released in 1998, and unlike other first person games at the time, it was about avoiding confrontation.
Lighting and sound played important roles in Thief. You would hide in the shadows to avoid being seen by guards. Guards would hear you and you could hear them. You could tell many things about your environment from sound, make noises to act as distractions, and sound was dynamic. Additionally, Thief had very complex AI that was unscripted and could detect visual and audio cues from the environment.
Thief has inspired many games, including the Splinter Cell and the Assassin's Creed series.
The third game in the Thief series is currently on sale on Steam for $9.99 (50% off). It's also part of the Square Complete Pack for $74.99.
Today's indie deals:
ProtoGalaxy is $2.49 (75% off).
RUSH is $1.69 (66% off).
The Mount & Blade games are 75% off. Mount & Blade is $4.99, Mount & Blade: Warband is $7.49, and a bundle containing both games is $9.99. We only recommend purchasing Warband because it contains the same content as Mount & Blade, plus multi-player and upgrades.
SimCity 4 Deluxe is $4.99 (75% off). This version includes the Rush Hour expansion.
The Doom Complete Pack is $8.74 (75% off). If you like first person shooters and you haven't played Doom, you should try it just to see where it all started. This isn't the best sale that Steam has ever had on Doom, however.
The Crysis games are 75% off. Crysis is $7.49, Crysis Warhead is $4.99, and a bundle containing both games is $9.99.
Section 8 is $4.99 (75% off).
Global Agenda is $7.49 (75% off).
Dirt 2 is $4.99 (75% off).
Lost Horizon is $9.99 (50% off).
However, Amazon has a digital copy of this game on sale for $5.
And continuing with Amazon sales:
Amazon has 192 digital games on sale for 75% off.
Some of the other games they have for $5 are:
- The Witcher
- Grand Theft Auto 4
- BioShock 2
- Star Trek Online: Digital Deluxe Edition
- Alien vs Predator
- Ghostbusters: The Video Game
- Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena
- Velvet Assassin
- Blood Bowl
- Trine
- Haunted House (perfect for the holidays)
Amazon also has Medal of Honor as their Deal of the Day. It is currently for $37.99 for all platforms, including PC.
Clearance:
Star Trek Online Collector's Edition for $6.99.
Games for Windows:
Deal of the Week: Dead Rising 2 for $19.99.
Deal of the Day: Prototype for $14.99.
News:
Indiedb.com recently announced their Editor's Choice and Player's Choice award winners for 2010.
Discussion:
An excellent and informative article from Gamasutra on accessibility in games, and the value of focusing on this in designing a game.
Write to us to let us know what time you'd prefer the live show to be! This will be the show where we give the final clue to grab the copy of Fallout: New Vegas that we're giving away.
We'll make the final decision about when to have the show on December 29th, and announce the time on that day's podcast.
Send times and trivia question responses to PCGamingisDead@gmail.com. Today's trivia contest closes on December 29th at 6pm PT.
Hope everyone has been enjoying the holidays.
Congratulations to Edpeterson1 on winning a copy of NyxQuest in the December 23rd trivia contest!
 |
| Stalin was leader of Russia for thousands of years. |
Yesterday's trivia question:
Although it was not the first 4X game, which game is credited for popularizing the genre and influencing it so much with its level of detail that it is now a staple of the genre?
Answer: Civilization, by MicroProse.
4X video games have been around since 1983, but the term was not used until 1993 when Alan Emrich was talking about Master of Orion, another MicroProse game. Although the genre has been around this long it did not become what it is today until Civilization.
Sid Meier was not the first person to attempt a video game version of the board game Civilization. Danielle Bunten Berry attempted it in 1983 and Don Daglow in 1987, but Meier was the first one to finish it in 1991.
Steam's daily indie sale:
Power of Defense is $2.50 (75% off).
Other daily sales:
Machinarium is $2.99 (85% off).
Everything for Killing Floor is 75% off. The game is $4.99, the four skin packs are 49¢, and the bundle with everything is $6.95 (the same price as buying everything separate).
Serious Sam HD: Gold Edition is $3.99 (90% off). It contains the HD version of The First Encounter and The Second Encounter as well as the original versions of both games. If you own any of the HD versions you will be able to gift the extra copy to a friend. We highly recommend this deal.
EVE Online is $4.99 (75% off).
Mirror's Edge is $4.99 (75% off).
Cities XL 2011 is $19.99 (50% off).
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic is $2.49 (75% off).
Neverwinter Nights 2 Platinum was added to steam today and is 50% off as one of the daily deals. It contains Neverwinter Nights 2 and the two expansion packs: Mask of the Betrayer and Storm of Zehir.
Lost Planet 2 is $19.99 (50% off) or $15.99 (60% off) if you own either version of Lost Planet 1.
Other sales:
Jewel Quest: The Sleepless Star is $9.99 (50% off) on Games for Windows.
News:
The Humble Indie Bundle #2 has ended and made a total of: $1,823,381.62
Discussion:
Inspired by this discussion on Slash Dot, we discuss whether "pay what you want" is a practical business model for game developers to use on a regular basis.
We give some more details on the puzzle to win Fallout: New Vegas.
The final clue will be given on a live show. Write to us at PCGamingisDead@gmail.com and let us know what time is best for you.
Send your responses to today's trivia question to the same address. The contest closes on December 28th at 6pm PT.
Congratulations to Nabeelburney on winning the trivia contest for December 22nd and receiving a copy of Defense Grid: The Awakening.
Yesterday's trivia question:
What genre defining game series was inspired by the level editor for Raid on Bungeling Bay?
 |
SimCity had several realistic scenarios to play,
including Godzilla attacking Japan. |
Answer: SimCity by Maxis.
While he was working on his first game, Raid on Bungeling Bay, Will Wright found that he had more fun using the level editor of his game than actually playing the game itself, and this inspired his creation of SimCity.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SimCity
Will Wright had a difficult time getting publishers to accept the idea of a game that was not "winnable." Finally, Jeff Braun of Maxis decided to publish the game as one of the initial games for the company. SimCity was a hit and created a new genre: City-building games
Will Wright showed that a game doesn't need to be about winning or losing to be fun, and that games can be about creating and managing things. He also showed how games can teach people things in an intuitive way.
Micropolis is a free, open-source game based upon the source code for SimCity.
Steam Daily Deals:
Indie: Tommy Tronic is $2.49 (-50%)
Several Borderlands titles are on sale:
Borderlands: $9.99 (-50%)
Borderlands DLC: $4.99 (-50%) - There are 4 DLCs.
Borderlands: Game of the Year Edition $24.99 (-50%) - Save $5 over purchasing everything separately.
Fallout: New Vegas is $29.99 (-40%)
Torchlight is $4.99 (-75%)
Battlefield 2: Complete Collection is $4.99 (-50%)
Amazon's download store has 75% off of 191 PC games, including some notable titles, like Bioshock 2, Ghostbusters, Trine, Star Trek: Online, The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena, Blade Kitten, Blood Bowl, and The Witcher.
Ubisoft has 33% off of PC games in their store. Some are downloadable, others aren't.
Telltale Games has 50% off of many of their titles, excluding recent releases Poker Night and Back to the Future: The Game.
News:
Team Fortress 2 has a holiday special: double drop rate from Dec. 23rd-30th. Also, everyone gets a gift from Miss Pauling!
We discuss this article on the cancellation of the Wolfenstein mod, Superkommando Revolt, particularly Kotaku's role in stirring up controversy over a game that shouldn't have been controversial. Thanks to this Reddit thread for highlighting Kotaku's actions.
While on the subject of Kotaku, we discuss how they and other tabloid-like sites use sensational headlines to misrepresent stories of disturbed "gamers" committing violent acts, such as the recent case of a "gaming" and "internet addicted" woman killing her child, as reported in The Daily Mail.
Kotaku isn't the first site to post a headline that makes it sound as if gaming was connected to the violence, but it's particularly bad when an alleged gaming blog does this.
I'm not rewarding Kotaku's sensationalism by directing traffic to their site, so here's a Google cache of the article instead.
Bafflingly, EverQuest II adds a vampire race. Why? Should vampires be a "race" in a fantasy MMO?
Send your trivia contest responses to PCGamingisDead@gmail.com. Today's contest closes at 6pm PT on December 25th.
Congratulations to the winner of the December 21st contest, Marko, who won a copy of Lead and Gold: Gangs of the Wild West on Steam.
Yesterday's trivia question:
Before The Sims became the best-selling game in 2002, what was the best selling PC game of all time?
 |
| Mysterious. |
The Answer: Myst by Cyan.
Inspired by The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne, Myst was one of the games that pushed CD-ROM sales in the early 90's. The game used 2,500 images to create a world for the player to explore in first person.
RealMyst is a recreation of Myst set in a actual 3D world instead of using images. It is currently $2.99 (-50%) during Steam's holiday sale.
Myst was also adapted into a book series.
Selling 6 million copies, Myst was the best selling PC game of all time until The Sims. And it is still the best selling PC adventure game of all time. Although StarCraft did sell more copies than Myst over time, it did not before the The Sims came out, and The Sims still sold more than StarCraft.
Today's Steam news:
Back to the Future is on Steam today, with a 10% off sale, making it $22.49.
Steam's Daily Indie Deal:
Doc Clock: The Toasted Sandwich of Time is $2.50 (-75%).
Other Deals:
Mass Effect is $9.99 (-50%)
Mass Effect 2 is $9.99 (-50%) - I don't recommend the digital deluxe, didn't really add anything worth the cost.
Wings of Prey is $6.00 (-80%)
Darksiders is $10.00 (-75%)
Alpha Protocol is $7.50 (-75%)
Blur is $14.99 (-50%)
Good Old Games is still having its sale, with 290 games (almost all of theirs) on sale.
GamersGate is on week 4 of its holiday sale, with over 500 games on sale right now.
Games for Windows is having a holiday sale on horror games.
Direct2Drive is having an Indie Game Sale.
Impulse has almost 300 games on sale until January 2nd.
Discussion:
An article on Ars Technica, "Low prices, low expectations?" brings up some good questions about whether low prices hurt indie games. We discuss pricing of games in general, and whether bringing down the price of PC games through digital distribution sales is a good thing.
Team Meat posted on their blog about upcoming plans for Super Meat Boy on PC, including a level editor and an innovative community portal.
A few people wrote in to tell us about Super Meat Boy adding the Goo Ball from World of Goo to the game. Unlock it by typing "ballgoo" on the character selection screen. Unfortunately, my contest that would have given a prize to someone for discovering this turned out to be invalid, because the Goo Ball was only recently added to Steam version of the game (it appears), and then the code to unlock it was announced, and not discovered. Thanks to everyone who wrote in, though.
On this subject, we discuss how the challenge of games in general has gone down, more games are giving "hand-holding" hints and walkthroughs, and how games no longer have difficult to unlock secrets anymore.
Send your trivia contest responses to PCGamingisDead@gmail.com. Today's contest closes at 6pm PT on December 24th.
Congratulations to InvisibleMan for winning a copy of Defense Grid: The Awakening in the December 19th trivia contest.
Thank you to Link777 for the gift!
Yesterday's trivia question:
What was the first adventure game to use SCUMM?
Answer: Maniac Mansion by Lucasfilm Games, now known as LucasArts. Although it wasn't the first game made by Lucasfilm, it was the game that made them known as a creator of fine adventure games.
Maniac Mansion was the first game to be created using SCUMM, the Script Creation Utility for Maniac Mansion. It was the game engine that LucasArts used for many of its adventure games after Maniac Mansion, and it's what turned adventure games into point and click adventure games.
The Humble Indie Bundle's special surprise: for those that donate more than whatever the current average donation is, you get the Humble Indie Bundle #1 included.
Steam keys for the Humble Indie Bundle #1 are limited to 150,000.
Steam's daily indie deal:
Clones for $2.50 (-75%)
Other notable deals today:
Railworks 2 for $6 (-85%)
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare for $14.99 (-50%)
Assassin's Creed 2 for $14.99 (-50%), and AC2 Deluxe Edition for $17.49 (-50%). If you already own Assassin's Creed, you get a bonus discount of -60% for either version.
Just Cause 2 for $7.50 (-75%).
Videos and details released today for The Sims Medieval.
Telltale has announced that Back to the Future is coming to Steam, sometime, they're working on it. It's currently available from Telltale's site, and only a trailer is available on Steam.
Apox, a post-acocalyptic RTS, is having an open beta. The game can be downloaded from Steam, and will release on January 6th.
Eric Ruth, the maker of the 8-bit NES DJ Hero game, released a trailer for an 8-Bit Halo game.
A company called Commodore USA has purchased the licensing rights to Commodore and Amiga computers, and is making new Commodore 64 shells that house PCs.
According to Microsoft, Microsoft is committed to making Windows 8 more PC-gaming centric in an attempt to make Windows relevant to PC gaming again. But Microsoft also said that they were focused on making the Xbox 360 the gaming platform of choice, so which Microsoft do we believe? Does one division know what the other is saying?
Send your trivia contest responses to PCGamingisDead@Gmail.com. Today's contest closes at 6pm PT, 2am GMT on December 23rd.
Congratulations to the December 18th trivia contest winner, Taylynne, who won a copy of Audiosurf!
Yesterday's trivia question:
What was the first RTS that was completely 3D where units could move on all 3 axes?
Answer: Homeworld by Relic Entertainment.
Because it took place in space it was able to do something no other RTS has done before: let the player move units on an X, Y, and Z axis. This is still a rare thing to find in an RTS game.
Here's a Homeworld gameplay video.
Sale News!:
The time on the Humble Indie Bundle #2 was extended so that it now ends on Christmas. The people behind the Humble Bundle are also saying to look for another surprise to be added to the pack. They've surpassed their revenue of $1,273,613 from the original Humble Bundle.
Natural Selection 2 is having a get two for the price of one sale. If you pre-order now, you can play the closed beta on Steam.
Natural Selection 2 also released a gameplay trailer.
We've all been waiting for it and here it is, just released today, Farming Simulator 2011 Equipment Pack 1! Only $9.99 on Steam!
Steamgamesales.com clearly shows all of Steam's sales, and sorts by price and savings.
Highlights from Steam: 11 packs of 5 indie games for $5 each, one pack of 8 of the most popular for $20.
The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom is $0.49 (-90%).
Lots of developer packs with complete (or almost complete) libraries of their games for one low price, or sales of up to 50% off most of their titles.
Unreal Deal Pack for $14.99 (-79%)
THQ Complete Pack for $49.99 (-87%)
Valve Complete Pack for $49.99 (-72%)
Bethesda Pack for $69.99 (-55%)
1C Complete Pack for $74.99 (-87%)
Square-Enix-Eidos Complete Pack for $74.99 (-88%)
The 2K Mega Pack for $79.99 (-81%)
Paradox Complete Pack for $79.99 (-86%)
Sales in Valve's merchandise store continue, including some discounts on new merchandise.
Get a free Oddboxx Soundtrack Sampler as a gift from the makers of Oddworld.
Minecraft is now in beta, with some fun new glitches!
DC Universe Online has been announced for a January 11th release for North American, January 14th for the UK.
Hacked Kinect has potential for sign-language recognition.
Joystiq announces that there are no noteworthy PC releases this week. The Oddboxx isn't noteworthy? Or a new Back to the Future game by Telltale?
As reported by NPR, there is another study of the effects of video games on cognitive abilities. Conclusion: "It turns out that action video games are far from mindless." Participants in the study found that playing action games had a significant effect on many mental abilities that are significant to "real life" applications.
Also of note in this study: both women and men who played games had similar spatial cognitive skills, something that sets them apart from the average population, where a gender-gap exists.
Send trivia contest responses to
Congratulations to Barney on winning the December 17th trivia contest, and receiving a copy of NyxQuest!
Yesterday's question:
What was the first real time strategy game to feature 3D units and terrain?
Answer: Total Annihilation by Cavedog Entertainment.
Although some real time strategy games before Total Annihilation may have had obstacles like cliffs, their height wasn't used by the game's combat mechanics and they just acted like natural walls. Total Annihilation was the first to take things like elevation into account.
If you were a fan of Total Annihilation or think the game might interest you, take a look at the Supreme Commander games. They are the spiritual successor to Total Annihilation and were designed by the same person: Chris Taylor.
According to the latest Serious Sam trailer, the Serious Sam HD games on Steam will be 75% off during Steam's sale.
Humble Indie Bundle #2 can now be activated on Steam and Desura. There are less than two days left to purchase! Steam keys may be limited in number.
On his blog, Notch mentions that there's only one day left to purchase Minecraft for the alpha price of about $13.50. Get it at Minecraft.net.
Pay what you want for Beat Hazard plus a music album, with 25% of the proceeds going to Save the Music.
Bible-themed free MMO Godstoria is getting some updates. Read more about them on the Joystiq article.
Goldeneye: Source released a fun gameplay trailer that is a homage to the old N64 game.
An article from Anbugaming.com giving statistics on Steam's sales:
"Steam, run by US studio Valve, serves a massive 80 percent of the PC download sector."
"PC gaming revenue grew in 2009 even as retail PC game sales shrank. In 2009, 21.3 million PC games were downloaded to computers in the U.S. via online game services such as Valve’s Steam, compared with 23.5 million purchased at stores."
In 2009:
47.5% of all PC game purchases were digital.
38% (17.04 million) of all PC games were purchased on Steam.
Other discussion topics:
Are some subject matters "too serious" for games?
Hacked Kinect being used to make PC games.
Recent game purchase discussion:
Civilization V
Just Cause 2
The Undergarden
Chime
Minecraft
Send your trivia contest entries to PCGamingisDead@gmail.com. Today's contest closes December 20th at 6pm PT, 2am GMT.
Congratulations to KILMO for winning the December 16th trivia contest and receiving Defense Grid: The Awakening.
Yesterday's question: What was the first RTS game to feature competitive online play?
Answer: Command & Conquer by Westwood Studios. Sometimes called Command & Conquer: Tiberian Dawn.
Each retail box of Command & Conquer came with two copies of the game instead of one. Westwood used the advertising slogan: "A second copy, so you and your friend can destroy each other." This resulted in Command & Conquer becoming the first RTS game with competitive online multiplayer.
Command & Conquer was also creative with its installation. The Command & Conquer games are also known for their "wonderful" cutscenes.
Sales:
Last weekend for Steam's Treasure Hunt!
Empire: Total War is $14.99 (50% off)
Flight Control HD is $2.49 (50% off)
Lost Planet 2 is $19.95 (50% off) at Direct 2 Drive.
The Oddboxx, a bundle containing Abe’s Oddysee, Abe’s Exoddus, Munch’s Oddysee and Stranger’s Wrath, is coming to Steam on December 20, 2010. For the first 24 hours, the game will be sold for 50% off, and 25% off after that, until January 3rd.
From the game's site: "Check www.Oddworld.com on December 20th to receive some special treats we’ve been preparing for you guys."
The Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences is inducting BioWare co-founders
Dr. Ray Muzyka and Dr. Greg Zeschuk. This will be the first time that two honorees were inducted in one year.
We get side-tracked talking about game developers.
If you check EA's online store, you can see that EA is raising the price of PC games to $60 in 2011. Raising the price while the cost of publishing games goes down thanks to digital distribution seems like price-gouging.
Activision's Publishing CEO fails to defend Activision, and makes some bizarre statements where he unsuccessfully attempts to compare the hatred of Activision to initial skepticism of the PS3. Our response: "What?" How can the numerous grievances that gamers and developers have against Activision be compared to the PS3's launch?
Peter Takacs, a physicist in Brookhaven Lab's Instrumentation Division, is working on resurrecting one of the world's first video games: Tennis for Two.
Send your trivia contest responses to PCGamingisDead@gmail.com. Today's contest closes December 18th at 6pm PT, 2am GMT.
Congratulations to Fly, for winning the trivia contest for December 14th and receiving Trine.
Yesterday's trivia question:
When 3dfx was trying to bring video cards to the consumer market, what game did they specifically write their driver for so it could take advantage of hardware acceleration?
Answer: Quake by id Software.
Quake came out in 1996 and was id Software's next big game series after Doom. Quake is credited with popularizing "free look" in 3D games, although it wasn't the first game to have it.
Two months after Quake was released, id Software held the first QuakeCon. QuakeCon continues to be a yearly event and is now the largest LAN Party in North America and the largest free LAN Party in the world.
The game engine from Quake has been modified and turned into other game engines which have been modified and turned into even more game engines. This results in a large family tree of game engines that can all be traced back to the original Quake engine, including Valve's Source engine.
Here's a graphic of the Quake Engine Family Tree.
Here's a Quake gameplay video.
Sales:
Games for Windows has Mahjong Wisdom on sale for $2.49 (75% off).
Direct 2 Drive is having EA Games week. Right now SimCity 4 is $4.95 (75% off).
Steam Treasure Hunt:
Bob Came in Pieces is $2.50 (75% off)
Zombie Driver is $2.50 (75% off)
Civilization V is $37.49 (25% off)
Check out my review of Zombie Driver and Zombie Driver: Blood Race (the free DLC that is included).
The new DLC for Civilization 5 containing Spain and the Incas has been released on Steam.
The pre-order beta for Monday Night Combat is now out.
Steam released patch notes for the update to Call of Duty: Black Ops on PC. This patch will allegedly improve the game's performance.
BIG NEWS!!! Demolition Company is now available on the Mac.
Section 8: Prejudice is going to be released early next year on Steam and GFWL.
They have a beta sign-up on their site, that started back in October.
Lord of the Rings Online plans to remove radiance checks from the game next year. Also, Moria and Mirkwood Epic quests are becoming available to free players, and level caps on them will be removed as well, meaning a free player can reach the max level. They're also looking at adding non-combat pets for all classes.
Bioware says that Mass Effect 3 is being developed natively for the PS3, and that it will be the best version of their game. We discuss how this will effect fans of the games.
Episode 1 of Telltale Games' Back to the Future will be released on Dec. 22nd. If you pre-order, you get Puzzle Agent for free. If you buy the game direct from Telltale, they will send you an exclusive collector's DVD at the conclusion of the season, if you pay S&H on it. Read about it on Telltale's blog to learn more, and find links to wallpapers.
There's still time to register to receive the first episode free.
Send your daily trivia contest entries to PCGamingisDead@gmail.com. Today's contest closes on December 17th at 6pm PT, 2am GMT.
Congratulations to TestZero on winning a copy of NyxQuest for December 13th's trivia contest.
Yesterday's trivia question:
What was the first FPS game to have competitive deathmatch over an ethernet network?
The answer: Doom by id Software.
Although Wolfenstein 3D (another one of id's games) may have made the first person shooter known, it was Doom that turned it into an obsession to the point that even Bill Gates used it to help sell Windows by having Microsoft port it to Windows 95. Doom allowed up to 4 players to compete against each other over an Ethernet network.
Article on the making of Doom.
Video of Doom's gameplay.
Doom can be credited for popularizing many things that are common in gaming today. It was one of the first games to have a large modding community, and it also was one of the first games to have an online community for speed runs.
A massive Civilization 5 patch has been released.
Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit has been released on steam and is currently available to buy for $49.99
ATI has released their new enthusiast video cards, the Radeon 6970 and the Radeon 6950. They both come with 2 GigaBytes of memory. Neither have two GPU's.
Here are some reviews with benchmarks:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-6970-radeon-hd-6950-cayman,2818.html
http://hothardware.com/Reviews/AMD-Radeon-HD-6970--6950-GPU-Reviews-Enter-Cayman/
http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=27983
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4061/amds-radeon-hd-6970-radeon-hd-6950
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/graphics/2010/12/15/ati-radeon-hd-6970-review/1
South Australian Attorney-General John Rau talks about wanting to remove the MA15+ rating if an R18+ rating is added.
IBM's Watson supercomputer is going to challenge Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter on Jeopardy!, in three episodes that will be broadcast Feb. 14-16, 2011.
Development on Ender's Game: Battle Room has been halted.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upholds a ruling against the makers of Glider, a World of Warcraft leveling bot, saying that it violates the DMCA because it circumvents technology that protects access to copyrighted software.
Ridiculous patent story of the day: Google is granted the patent on the browser "highlight all" button.
Send your trivia contest entries to PCGamingisDead@gmail.com. One winner will be chosen to receive a game on Steam. Today's contest closes on December 16th at 6pm PT.
Congratulations to ^BoXeR^ for winning the trivia contest for December 12th and receiving a copy of Osmos.
Yesterday's trivia question:
Although some previous games had elements of an open world environment, what game is considered the first true open world game?
Answer: Elite by David Braben and Ian Bell. Elite was released in 1984 for the BBC Micro, and was ported to many other platforms, including the NES. The game featured open world gameplay in a randomly generated universe of 8 galaxies with 256 planets in each of them.
Here's a video of Elite, and another of 100 BBC Micro games in 10 minutes.
The latest in Steam's Treasure Hunt!
Metro 2033 is $9.99 (75% off)
Just Cause 2 is $7.49 (75% off)
Beat Hazard is $2.50 (75% off)
Steam's Midweek Madness: Killing Floor and the Killing Floor Bundle are each 66% off, making them $6.80 and $9.50. They've also introduced a free update, the Twisted Christmas Event. If you already have or buy Killing Floor and Team Fortress 2 before January 4th, you can get a special pyro skin in KF, and pyro items in TF2.
Steam's Weeklong Sale: Football Manager 2011 is $27.99 (30% off)
Direct2Drive has FIFA Soccer 11 for $19.95 (50% off). Which one is better? We don't know.
Games for Windows Live Deal of the Week:
Zuma's Revenge is $7.49 (25% off)
Plants vs Zombies is $7.49 (25% off) Don't know if this is the Game of the Year edition.
Bookworm is $7.49 (25% Off)
If you're really into PopCap games, don't forget that Steam has the collection of 30 games for $99.99.
Gamer's Gate is still having it's big holiday sale, with 79 games currently on sale.
Good Old Games has 290 games on sale. We added their latest sales feed to the left sidebar.
Tyrian 2000 added to their free games.
Beneath a Steel Sky is also free.
Humble Indie Bundle #2 is on sale. It includes: Braid, Cortex Command, Machinarium, Osmos, and Revenge of the Titans. The games will work on Windows, Mac, and Linux. Currently, Revenge of the Titans is exclusive to the Humble Bundle. Other items included are the Machinarium OST, and a bonus Osmos album. You have a little over 6 days left to take advantage of this.
Goldeneye: Source is no longer in beta.
Here's a video of Realistic Forest, a mod of the Crytek 2 engine.
The goal of this mod was to create the most realistic looking forest possible.
A video for Warface has also been released. This is a mod developed by Crytek for the Asian market. Here's a press release on their site describing it.
ATI is giving Catalyst an overhaul by making the interface more user friendly and providing weekly updates.
OnLive has acquired a patent for the generalized concept of cloud-based gaming. Here's another article on the subject, which includes their press release.
Send your trivia contest entries to pcgamingisdead@gmail.com. Today's contest closes at 6pm PT on December 15th.
Congratulations to Pliky on winning a copy of Lead and Gold for the trivia contest of December 11th.
Yesterday's trivia question:
Although it wasn't the first multi-player online virtual world, what game is credited for popularizing the massively multi-player online role playing game?
 |
Lord British was invincible in the Ultima games,
so players often found creative ways to try
to kill him. This assassination is from Ultima Online. |
Answer: Ultima Online, released by Origin Systems in 1997. This game, of course, was a successor to the Ultima series of games by Richard Garriot, which included 9 games that were released between 1980 and 1999.
Ultima Online is still going today, it is currently being cared for by Mythic Entertainment.
Civilization 4 is on sale for $4.99 on ImpulseDriven.com. This is only for Civilization 4 and none of it's expansions. If you purchase from Impulse you will only be able to buy the expansions from Impulse as well. And we cannot recommend buying from ImpulseDriven, as they are owned by Stardock, a company with a bad reputation.
Monday Night Combat is coming to the PC on January 17th, and currently has a pre-order special on Steam. Pre-order now to receive 10% off (making it $13.49) and get access to the upcoming beta.
Here's their trailer.
The BIG Fallout: New Vegas patch was released today for PC.
World of Warcraft: Cataclysm set a new PC sales record by selling 3.3 million copies in the first 24 hours. The two previous record holders were also World of Warcraft expansions.
Mass Effect 3 is launching simultaneously on PC, PS3, and Xbox 360. This news is interesting, considering that Mass Effect 2 is not yet out for PS3, and Mass Effect is not planned for release on the PS3.
The Supreme Court of the US ruled that Costco could be held liable for selling goods without the consent of the over-seas manufacturer. This is a notable case because of the repercussions it could have on the resale market of games and electronics. In US copyright law, there is something called the "first-sale doctrine," that allows those who purchase copyrighted work to resell it without the creator's consent. The Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling stating that US copyright law, including the first-sale doctrine, does not apply to foreign-made goods. Although this case does not set precedent because it is simply the Supreme Court upholding a previous ruling, there are questions of whether it still leaves the door open for more suits like this to follow, perhaps going after stores that resell any product made overseas.
Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen's ridiculous lawsuit alleging infringement by several major corporations on patented concepts such as using a browser for navigating content was thrown out on a technicality. The suit will likely return to court later.
Discussion: Is this a good example of why technology patents should expire sooner, especially if not in use? Do long lifetimes of patents stifle innovation, or protect the research and development investment of patent-holders? How have patents affected game development?
A listing of the lifetimes of patents in several countries.
Send your trivia question answers to pcgamingisdead@gmail.com. Today's contest closes on December 14th at 6pm PT.
Congratulations to TheBigScarySeaBug for winning the December 11th trivia contest and receiving World of Goo.
Yesterday's trivia question: What game is largely considered the first god game?
 |
Populous had a large variety of themes for the
maps, everything from a world of computer bugs
and viruses to a world made out of cake. |
Answer: Populous by Bullfrog.
Before he founded Lionhead Studios, Peter Molyneux co-founded Bullfrog Productions and created the game Populous. He also made Black & White which has been called the "spiritual descendant of Populous."
Here's the game-play video of Populous.
You might've noticed that the website has a different look today. We redesigned it to be cleaner and easier to navigate.
Today's Steam Treasure Hunt:
Shatter is $2.50 (75% off)
Left 4 Dead 2 is $4.99 (75% off)
Call of Duty: Black Ops is $59.99 (0% off!)
The price of a Treasure Hat just went way up, thanks to Activision's generous sale.
Does Steam's objective for today of "send a gift to a friend" goes against their "no purchase necessary" promise?
Bethesda has stated that Elder Scrolls V will be using a completely new engine.
Fans uncovered the "devmode" in Super Meat Boy, and have figured out how to create custom levels using it. Team Meat was nice enough to release some tutorial videos in response.
IndieDB is counting down to its Indie of the Year Awards Player Choice award where visitors vote for the best indie games.
One that just released a trailer is Primal Carnage, the indie dinosaur FPS! Take a look at their alpha gameplay trailer. According to their site, they'll have sign-ups for beta soon.
The history of dinosaur games: Nanosaur.
According to EA, Star Wars: The Old Republic will aim to have a 10 year life span.
Some questions this brings up:
How realistic is it for them to predict that? What kind of lifespan should an MMO have? Will people trust this game after what happened with Star Wars Galaxies? What MMOs have been around that long? Have they held up well?
Ten years old or older:
- Ultima Online
- Asheron's Call
- Everquest
- Lineage
- Tibia
Other major release dates:
- Runescape - 2001
- Dark Age of Camelot - 2001
- Anarchy Online - 2001
- Star Wars Galaxies - 2003
- EVE Online - 2003
- World of Warcraft - 2004
- Everquest 2 - 2004
- GuildWars (if it counts)- 2005
- Dungeons & Dragons - 2006
- Lord of the Rings Online - 2007
- Tabula Rasa - 2007 (lasted for 11 months)
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_MMORPGs
Anecdotal discussion from Massively on how EVE makes players better at other MMOs.
Today's trivia contest closes at 6pm PT on December 13th. Send your responses to pcgamingisdead@gmail.com.
Congratulations to [CW]Herbis for winning the trivia contest for December 10th and receiving Osmos.
Yesterday's trivia question:
Although it wasn’t the first Real Time Strategy game, what game was the one that got everything right that other games copied and is credited for creating the genre?
Answer: Dune II by Westwood Studios.
A lot of you may know of Westwood Studios for their Command & Conquer games, but before that they made the Dune games.
Video of some Dune II gameplay.
Today's news:
Direct 2 Drive has Civilization 4: The Complete Edition on sale for $12.99.
On December 20th, Minecraft will move from alpha to beta status. This means that the price will be raised from 9.95 euros to 14.95 euros. This also means that future updates (aside from bug fixes) will not be free for anyone who purchases the beta or later.
Star Trek Online received its “Season 3” update, which included some new content that might be worth taking a look at. Notably, they're introducing a "holodeck" for replaying completed missions, getting rid of "Tron space," and introducing a tool for players to create their own missions.
Another song written for a game, Megadeth’s “Sudden Death,” written for Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock, has been nominated for a Grammy in the Best Metal Performance category.
A video of a comedy routine by Dara O Briain that actually brings up a very thoughtful point on gaming: it's the only form of entertainment that requires you to be skilled at it in order to enjoy it.
Other comedy from today: The Video Game Awards!
Were these trailers actually worth waiting for?
Batman: Arkham City
Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Mass Effect 3
Prototype 2
Portal 2
Their categories relevant to PC gaming:
Best PC Game award went to StarCraft II.
Bioware received the Studio of the Year award for Mass Effect 2.
The best Xbox 360 game (which has sometimes been a port of a PC game, looking at the history of the VGAs; last year’s was Left 4 Dead 2) was Mass Effect 2. This game also won Best RPG.
The Best Independent Game award went to Limbo. This beat out The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom and Super Meat Boy.
Most Anticipated game was Portal 2.
If you’re unfamiliar with the history of the VGAs and some of their odd choices for categories and winners, the Wikipedia article on the Video Game Awards is worth taking a look at.
Today's trivia contest closes at 6pm PT on Dec 12th. Send your responses to pcgamingisdead@gmail.com.
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Giveaway to a random viewer! And it was ⱤEDЯUM! Someone was unusually lucky the last couple of days.
