Seems those pesky little folks over at Google want to get into the game industry in a BAD way. As they taught us in school, the shortest distance between two points is a line, and Google has made a beeline right over to VALVE and STEAM (with their 15 million subscribers). What better way to get immediate street cred than to acquire a developer known for making great quality titles and the fact that they have STEAM, the PC leading digital distribution platform. Microsoft’s jugular is ever so slightly exposed. Representatives from Google have stated that they do not reply to rumors and speculation; however, Forbes did run an article guesstimating that this move wouldn’t seem as crazy at it might sound. Shhhh! Microsoft, SONY and Nintendo are about to get an unwelcomed visitor - maybe?

- Ralph Tricoche

You have to respect developer CD Projekt. They came from seemingly out of nowhere, used an aging Aurora engine (developed by Bioware) and created a tight, well made, entertaining adult RPG (The Witcher) that sold somewhere in the vicinity of 100,000 copies. Not bad for PC numbers. CD Projekt has been hard at work, and after releasing patch 1.3, they put their shoulders to the wheel and started working on their Director’s Cut version of The Witcher.

Improvements over the original vanilla are quite numerous: over 200 new animations; additional NPC models and recoloring of generic NPC models as well as monsters; vastly expanded and corrected dialogues in translated versions; improved stability and load times reduced by roughly 80 percent; all bugs are said to be fixed and the game manual completely overhauled; added two new adventures available for players to play through; added a new option to mix and match eight different languages of voice and subtitles; plus MANY more box extras.

To those of you that registered the game in their official forums you can download the update by itself. The update will be roughly 2 gigs in size. And the best part: OLD SAVED GAMES WILL BE BACKWARDS COMPATABLE!

- Ralph Tricoche

Name the last game that you died and then you continued the main story. Done? Can’t think of any, right? That’s because there aren’t any; they don’t exist. Well, until now, that is. From the developers that brought you the innovative Indigo Prophecy, Quantum Dream, comes a PS3 developed game called Heavy Rain. In Heavy Rain, if you die the story continues; the death of the main character won’t prevent you from completing the main story. By way of an explanation, David Cage of Quantum Dream said, “I can’t really tell you too much about what the story’s about or how it’s going to work with the characters. All I can tell you is that your character — the main character — can die and the story will continue. You can continue to play without this character.” Innovation. Imagine that!

- Ralph Tricoche

Microsoft and Spike TV have teamed up to offer diehard gamers the opportunity to be among the first to play the highly anticipated Gears of War 2. Winners will participate in a real-life televised Gears of War 2 adventure. Prospective participants are required to download the questionnaire, answer all the questions and also submit a 150-word essay explaining why they should be chosen. Participants must also include a picture and all submissions must be received Friday, September 19, 2008 at 5:00 p.m. PDT. Details can be found at the official Gears of War 2 Web site, including the list of eligibility requirements. Check it out.

- Patty Estill

Eager to drink from goblets of gold and eat from plates of platinum, developer one2tribe and CD Projekt RED are excited to announce plans to introduce premium content to the browser-based game, The Witcher: Versus. Okay, that’s a joke. The reality is that operating and continually developing a game with more than 60,000 players tends to cost a bit of money.

Later this year, one2tribe will add premium content to the gameplay of The Witcher: Versus, based on the PC RPG from CD Projekt RED and the fantasy books from Andrzej Sapkowski. To avoid riots and hate mail, one2tribe reassures cash-strapped gamers that they won’t be shafted by this new content, as those who indulge in premium content will not gain an advantage within the game. The core gameplay of The Witcher: Versus will remain free of charge, and will continue to evolve.

Premium content will be added gradually; the first premium access package will contain new features intended to ease account and character management, including a rucksack for items that aren’t equipped, a history of fights against a certain player as well as a private duels archive. The designers will reveal additional details over the next few months.

Future changes in The Witcher: Versus will not focus on premium content only, and will serve to make the free-to-play game even more enticing; leagues, tournaments, challenges, a full-featured RPG world and much more will begin to find their way into The Witcher: Versus in the later part of the year.

Visit versus.thewitcher.com to get in on the action.

Ever want to try your hand at maneuvering the banking turns of Daytona or tackle the challenge of keeping a car intact in the demolition derby that is Darlington? NASCAR’s 2008 season may be speeding to the checkered flag, but even if your driver is already out of the chase, you can get an early start on the 2009 season with EA’s NASCAR ‘09. Jeff Gordon (no need to stand up and cheer/boo) is standing by to be your tour guide and mentor in the world of the NASCAR big leagues.

The autosave feature is the first option that presents itself, and I highly recommend its selection to prevent the loss of a great position in a 500-mile race that you find yourself without the stamina to finish in one sitting. Next, Jeff will ask you to choose your driving style: normal or pro. He recommends normal, but those familiar with the NASCAR series will want the options available to them with pro. Finally, you get to give Jeff’s car a test run to become familiar with the controls, and so it’s off to Michigan in the number 24.

After the test run, you have the option of repeating in the same mode, trying the other mode, or returning to the garage. Jeff had asked me to bring it back in one piece, but he didn’t seem to mind that I’d managed to remove most of the paint from the right side. Stepping from the rather beat up 24, it was time to build my own ride, but I was disappointed to discover that all of the cool numbers were unavailable, and I was thus forced to choose a three-digit identifier between 100 and 199. In the paint booth there are numerous options from which to choose to achieve just the right look, but don’t get too attached to your sponsors. If you intend to play in Career Mode, you’ll lose them as soon as you get started.

Once your car is ready, it’s off to the races. There is an option to play as one of the Cup series superstars in Race Now mode, but you can only build reputation (used for acquiring upgrades and better sponsors) if you race as yourself in your own car. In Race Now mode, you can then choose which series you want to compete in. I opted for the Sprint series, and was immediately on my way back to Michigan. On arrival, Rusty Wallace chimes in with a one lap walk through of the track, and just like in real life, race week consists of practice, qualifying and the race itself. Practice and qualifying are not required to compete, but unless your rep is really high, I recommend that you at least try to qualify well, or suffer starting the race at the back of the pack. To exit practice, simply click the start button. In addition to Race Now mode, there’s a campaign-style Career mode, and the Sprint Driver Challenge, where you must perform a specific task (follow a certain line, pass a determinate number of cars, etc.) to earn both reputation and performance points. After coming in a respectable 28th in Race Now mode, I opted to try my skills in Career Mode.

Ever want to try your hand at maneuvering the banking turns of Daytona or tackle the challenge of keeping a car intact in the demolition derby that is Darlington? NASCAR’s 2008 season may be speeding to the checkered flag, but even if your driver is already out of the chase, you can get an early start on the 2009 season with EA’s NASCAR ‘09. Jeff Gordon (no need to stand up and cheer/boo) is standing by to be your tour guide and mentor in the world of the NASCAR big leagues.

The autosave feature is the first option that presents itself, and I highly recommend its selection to prevent the loss of a great position in a 500-mile race that you find yourself without the stamina to finish in one sitting. Next, Jeff will ask you to choose your driving style: normal or pro. He recommends normal, but those familiar with the NASCAR series will want the options available to them with pro. Finally, you get to give Jeff’s car a test run to become familiar with the controls, and so it’s off to Michigan in the number 24.

After the test run, you have the option of repeating in the same mode, trying the other mode, or returning to the garage. Jeff had asked me to bring it back in one piece, but he didn’t seem to mind that I’d managed to remove most of the paint from the right side. Stepping from the rather beat up 24, it was time to build my own ride, but I was disappointed to discover that all of the cool numbers were unavailable, and I was thus forced to choose a three-digit identifier between 100 and 199. In the paint booth there are numerous options from which to choose to achieve just the right look, but don’t get too attached to your sponsors. If you intend to play in Career Mode, you’ll lose them as soon as you get started.

Once your car is ready, it’s off to the races. There is an option to play as one of the Cup series superstars in Race Now mode, but you can only build reputation (used for acquiring upgrades and better sponsors) if you race as yourself in your own car. In Race Now mode, you can then choose which series you want to compete in. I opted for the Sprint series, and was immediately on my way back to Michigan. On arrival, Rusty Wallace chimes in with a one lap walk through of the track, and just like in real life, race week consists of practice, qualifying and the race itself. Practice and qualifying are not required to compete, but unless your rep is really high, I recommend that you at least try to qualify well, or suffer starting the race at the back of the pack. To exit practice, simply click the start button. In addition to Race Now mode, there’s a campaign-style Career mode, and the Sprint Driver Challenge, where you must perform a specific task (follow a certain line, pass a determinate number of cars, etc.) to earn both reputation and performance points. After coming in a respectable 28th in Race Now mode, I opted to try my skills in Career Mode.

It seems EA and SecuROM (developed by Sony DADC) are at it again. EA states that there have been over 500,000 illegal pirated versions Spore downloaded, and they’re mad as all heck about it. So what do they do? They flog us, the paying customers with SecuROM, secret installations of “listening” software and three-limit installs.

Mariam Sughayer of EA’s corporate office states, “EA has not changed our basic DRM copy protection system, we simply changed the copy protection method from using the physical media, which requires authentication every time you play the game by requiring a disc in the drive, to one which uses a one-time online authentication.” We all know that ANY PC gamer enthusiast worth their weight in salt mods, fixes and tweaks their PCs so often that any given game has a real potential to reach that three-install limit quickly.

However, all is not lost. No worries. EA’s answer to this is simple. As soon as you hit that install limit, just call on your friendly Bangladesh EA representative and they’ll gift you with graciousness and allow perhaps one more install. Not bad for software you purchased. If however you can’t reach over their reps, you can always call tech support… Oops — EA HAS NO TECH SUPPORT. Well, good luck. In the meantime, while paying customers have nightmares, leeched copies are running perfectly fine.

- Ralph Tricoche

Microsoft, the unstoppable juggernaut, the colossus that devours all and takes on all comers, has taken a decidedly big hit to their collective corporate face and its left quite the shiner. What was meant to be a new vision, a new beginning and a new direction for Microsoft turned out to be quite the nightmare. Yes, for all intents and purposes, Vista was a mess. Together with the much hyped and talked about Crysis, Vista had earmarked that most sacred of PC user: the gamer. Quick to adapt to anything new, Vista was meant to get gamer’s juices flowing about Microsoft’s new platform. Make a gamer a Vista apostle and they will spread your gospel.

Who cared that there was, like, 110 versions of Vista? Why worry about clumsy, online activation for your OS? Hey, what IF you had to take out that fifth mortgage on your home? It was all done for the sake of being first and tasting this new treat. However, everything was not well in Vistaville. Broken drivers, incompatible hardware and poor support to flat out NO support from companies that have been hallmarks of the platform since its inception where absent. Needless to say Vista failed to impress not only the everyday user, but also gamers.

So, Microsoft looked into the future and decided to cut short its three-year life expectancy plan for Vista and is now poised to unveil their new vision for their up and coming operating system, named simply Windows 7. Microsoft has made it clear that they won’t go as far as to say Vista’s days are numbered, but in the Professional Developer’s Conference on October 27, Microsoft will reveal ONLY “in-depth technical information” about Windows 7 and nothing else… Hopefully they’ve taken away a valuable lesson from all this: don’t alienate your customers. Who knows? With smaller, HUNGRY giants like Google looming about, it wouldn’t be wise to leave your bread and butter unattended.

- Ralph Tricoche

Game, of course.

But since your power might be off and your water may not be fit for consumption, some modificaitons to your normal habits might be in order. Here are some tips from my recent experience in the hurricane.

Note: My experience isn’t technically over, as we are still boiling water here in Pasadena. But we have power, Internet and food. We’ll be fine.

1. Make sure you’re safe.

This should be obvious, but someone, somewhere, is likely to try and score some points in Call of Duty 4 while the roof is flying off their house, and then they’ll blame me. Therefore, let me make this clear: don’t worry about doing anything fun until you’re really okay. For example, don’t set up a generator to run your PC or console until the actual hurricane is finally over. It’s bad for the equipment and bad for you.

2. Get a generator if you stay in place.

Generators cost some money, but having one around ensures that you can keep the refrigerator running, some lights and your preferred gaming platform. For those on PCs and Macs, I’ve heard that flatscreen monitors use much less power than older, big monitors. That means you can run everything and not worry. We were using a 5,000 watt generator and had no problems running a refrigerator, air conditioner, two PCs, a wireless router, charged a laptop and charged cellphones. With very little problem, we could also use the microwave if we unplugged one other appliance briefly.

3. Get a wall-unit air conditioner if you have a generator and live in a hot climate.

Aside from keeping electronics cool, it can be an actual life saver if you have anyone with medical problems staying with you. 100 degree heat is dangerous to everyone.

4. Use a UPS or Surge Protector when using a generator.

Generators are great; however, they don’t always produce the cleanest current. The last thing you want is a power spike killing your sensitive electronics. In this recent disaster, about once an hour, the UPS we were using would give a warning about voltage coming from the generator.

5. Power up all electronics sequentially.

Don’t just go flipping on appliances and electronics all at once with wild abandon. That’s a great way to pop circuit breakers, start fires and fry PCs. Turn things on one at a time, paying attention to your surroundings. Extension cords and whatnot might require rearranging, so be prepared to unplug and replug things in until you get a setup that works properly. Remember: extension cords can only carry a finite amount of current at a time, so use more than one and spread out the load.

6. If you evacuate, take your PC or console with you, and take any networking stuff you have.

Even if you don’t have Internet access where you evacuate, you can play in splitscreen on consoles or network your equipment up and have a LAN party.

7. Don’t put a generator indoors.

This should also go without saying. Carbon Monoxide poisoning is bad. Leave the generator outside. If it gets stolen, you’ll know about it. Besides, they’re as loud as a lawn mower, so you can’t hear your game over them.

8. If you use cable Internet or DSL, check your connection periodically.

Yeah, fixing these is a low priority, but you might get lucky and have the cable lines be fine even as the water and power remain damaged. If so, your generator can get you on the Internet. And since cell reception is spotty during a disaster, it might give you an extra way to get information to people you know or find information you need.

9. Budget your fuel.

Don’t go hog wild on the first day after a disaster and run your generator for 24 straight hours. When the power is out, gas stations can’t refuel anybody. As such, it may be four days or more until you can get more fuel for your generator. Even then, it may be rationed. Just be prepared and only run your generator for 8-12 hours a day. You’ll just have to clean your yard, clear the street, or stand in a food line the rest of the day instead of owning your neighbor at AOE3.

10. Invite the neighbors when you run the generator.

They might not be very good at playing games, but it’s the neighborly thing to do. Besides, they might not have much to do themselves as they wait for roads to clear and power to be restored. No point in not entertaining them with the impressive graphics of Crysis. Besides, they might share their stockpile of beverages, and then everyone wins.

Here’s hoping everyone is okay. Since the Internet is now up, I might even see some of you online.