If the new Steam port to the Mac operating system wasn’t already the greatest step Mac-lovers have seen to date (Haiyo!), then prepare yourself Mac-ers, because you’re about to soil your pants.  Recently announced, Half-Life 2 is now available via Steam for a super low price.

What that means is that if you haven’t had the opportunity to play Half-Life 2 on a PC or any of the dozen or so ported versions, then you need to need to kill yourself purchase a copy while it’s at a super low price.  Did I mention it’s 30% off?  Clever marketing scheme after the jump. Read more… »

Today in a press release Electronic Arts announced that their upcoming PC online racer Need for Speed World will be going live on July 20, 2010.

Need for Speed World is the newest addition to the Need for Speed franchise and offers a massively multiplayer online racing experience, career-progression, and power-ups.  Starting on the 20th, the free client will be available for download at world.needforspeed.com which allows all races and pursuits, but career progression maxes out at level 10. Read more… »

I recently finished playing Rocket Knight, an action platformer game that is easily one of my best experiences with a game on Xbox Live Arcade. After happily writing the review for it, I quickly learned what other people were saying about it: “Fifteen dollars is too much money for just two hours of gameplay. Is it really worth the money? I think maybe my cash is better spent on a longer game.” Even critics give the same opinion. I found a review that gave it an average score when the only bad thing the critic had to say about it was that it cost too much.

At first, this reaction made me fly into a frenzy of nerd-rage so extreme that my mom would have had to come out and tell me to “cool it” if I still lived with her. “How can somebody put a price tag on fun!?” I thought to myself as I smashed the nearest coke can. After having a few days to think about it, though, I realized that I should be asking a different question to gamers (and critics) with the “pricetag on fun” mentality:

“How would your perspective on games change if they were all free?” Join me as I take a theoretical look into how the landscape of gaming would change if developers still received money for “sales,” but all games were free, forcing gamers to think about how they want to spend their time on video games – not their money. Read more… »

[Update: Since the time of writing, IndieGames.com is reporting that the "Give Whatever You Want" Indie Bundle has been taken down. While the original site states technical difficulties, a staffer at IndieGames.com contacted one of the charities involved. The charity stated "we were rather astonished to see our logo on the website 'givewhateveryouwant.com'. We weren't informed about that."

Apparently charities were contacted, but nothing was set in stone. Early yesterday, a staffer for PC Gamer was able to get into contact with the man responsible for the bundle and while his English is broken in the interview, it seems this was an honest attempt to bring indie love to the masses, but the poor execution soured the deal for customers and developers alike.]

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No, no. I know what you’re thinking. “Revenge of the Titans? How could they make Wrath of the Titans any worse!” Of course you’re sad you wasted $24.50 for tickets and a box of popcorn to see such a crappy movie, so how would you feel about paying $13.37 for a completely AWESOME game that bears a similar name to a crappy move? Elite? I thought so.

Revenge of the Titans is an RTS/Tower Defense style game currently being developed by Puppy Games, an independent development studio. The game features a huge research and development aspect and the humor of the game is what you would expect to find in a game developed by Behemoth, or Team Meat. Set in the future in which an alien race known as the Titans are attacking earth, you must plant your guns strategically in order to fend them off.

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If you have been waiting patiently for the Final Fantasy IX to arrive on the PSN Store, then today is your lucky day: it’s yours from now for just £7.99. For the rest of us however who may not be besotted with Final Fantasy, there is still plenty of content to go around, including four full games, a host of minis and and delicious DLC.

As usual, there is also a multitude of special offers – curiously Wakeboarding HD has had its price slashed after only being on sale for 2 months.

A complete roundup of this week’s PSN Store update can be found after the break.

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In the world of cosplay, dressing up as your favorite video game and anime characters is a good excuse to wear a costume outside of Halloween.  But for some, replicating our favorite heroes is more than a hobby, it’s a lifestyle.  And for those who take the time to do it right, they are showered with praise and hymns are sung about their legendary crafting abilities.

Moz, from the 405th Halo cosplay community, crafted himself an authentic Halo Assault Rifle.  The best part about it?  It shoots nerf darts. Yeah-yuh! Read more… »

Today publisher THQ announced that it has created a new program that allows “select” external developers and publishers to access THQ’s “global retail and online publishing network.” Dubbed “THQ Partners,” this new program seems to imitate Electronic Arts’ “EA Partners” program, which allows developers like Valve to publish retail copies of their games.

THQ Global Publishing executive VP Ian Curran stated: “THQ Partners is charged with maximizing the efficiencies of our global distribution network by enhancing our product offerings with quality games from developers and publishers who don’??t have the benefit of our extensive retail and online sales operations.” Read more… »

Update – the game is now permanent at the following address – work be damned! http://www.google.com/pacman/

Last week, Google celebrated Pac-Man’s 30th birthday with a drop of the coin.  On the world’s most famous search browser, the logo was transformed into a retro video arcade.

The popularity spread like a California wild-fire and consumed hours upon hours of hard working individuals.  In theory, we wasted 4,819,352 hours.  Thank you Google for giving us something new to think about. Read more… »

When I first heard the Mario Galaxy 2 announcement, live at E3 2009, I was extremely skeptical. The typical development time on a core series Mario game is around five to six years, so imagine my surprise when Galaxy 2 was announced less than two years after the release of the original Galaxy. The news got even worse as time went on, with Miyamoto stressing the game started out as an expansion, and had a nearly non-existent story.

But as it turns out, all of this worrying was for naught. Simply put, Mario Galaxy 2 is the best platformer of this generation, and possibly of all time. Read on to find out why. Read more… »

It’s hard to think of a game in the last 10 years that experienced more of a penthouse-to-outhouse effect in the court of public opinion than GTA IV. It released to rave reviews from gaming sites of all shapes and sizes, and absolutely crushed the single-day and first-week sales records of its day.

However, after the honeymoon, vocal dissenters surfaced in droves. Some decried the more serious tone the story attempted to take at a time when the Saint’s Row series was rising to take over the tradition of over-the-top absurdist violence that had previously defined the GTA franchise. Others were frustrated at the driving, or having to go out on dates and bro-dates, or with any number of ancillary activities in the game. In less than a year from release, gamers were suddenly all too happy to tell Niko Bellic not to let the door hit his Balkan ass on the way out.

Leading up to the release of Rockstar’s latest opus, Red Dead Redemption, the guarded cynicism in most gaming communities was palpable. While at first it might worry some to hear that many of the things the developer tried to accomplish with GTA IV are also part of RDR, there’s no cause for alarm. Most of the elements that just seemed out of place in Liberty City are, in the context of New Austin, right at home on the range.

Today word got out that the next installment in the Splinter Cell saga will be developed by Jade Raymond (of Assassin’s Creed fame) and her team at the newly created Ubisoft Toronto. Apparently Splinter Cell: Conviction producer Alexandre Parizeau, along with many other Ubisoft Montreal staff members, have moved to the new Toronto studio to help out.

While that team is hard at work making Sam Fisher even more badass, another team at Ubisoft Toronto will be working on an unannounced “triple-A” title. Read more… »