In the years that followed, gaming PCs were simply crowded out by developer-friendly and standardised game consoles.

As a result, many old-school PC gamers were forced to throw in the towel.

So it is refreshing to see a company that refuses to give up on PC gaming.

That company is Valve, developer of the wildly-successful Half-Life, Team Fortress and other genre-defining games of the 1990s.

Valve does not just make games these days. The company also runs what is probably the world’s most sophisticated digital distribution systems: Steam.

Old-fashioned PC gamers like me will recall Steam’s clumsy first foray into the market. There were frequent crashes, downtime and trouble playing online with other people.

Today, Steam has come of age.

It combines a snazzy digital store where you can buy and download games with a robust community system, complete with friend and group lists, chat rooms and the ability to leap into the same server that your friends are already playing on.

Even Macs, which have traditionally been bereft of good games, are no longer left out in the cold.

Steam has a fantastic Mac version which allows you to play many of the same PC games you bought without paying for a new Mac copy. The Mac versions of games like Team Fortress 2 and Left 4 Dead are not shoddily-ported versions either; they run natively and glitch-free.

And cross-platform play between Macs and PCs is fully supported, uniting gamers on both platforms under a single umbrella. That makes Steam nothing short of a life-saver for Mac users.

The advantages of digital distribution are numerous. You can shop for games from the comfort of your living room, games never run out of stock and you can re-download your games at any time.

By building a platform on which PC gamers can unite as a community, Valve is saying that it still takes the PC seriously.

At the recent E3 video game convention in Los Angeles, Valve founder Gabe Newell stole the stage during the Sony keynote when he announced that Portal 2, the sequel to 2007′s smash hit Portal, will be released for the PlayStation 3 (PS3).

But he chose his words carefully. He said the PS3 version of Portal 2 would be ‘the best version – on any console’, implying that the PC version would still be the superior one.

There was a brief silence as the assembled crowd grasped the subtlety of the statement, followed by the roar of applause.

Newell’s words certainly resonated with an old-fashioned gamer like me. I’ll take the mouse over the gamepad any day.

By Daryl Lim, an intern with The Straits Times

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Tags: Microsoft Xbox, PC Games, Windows 7 Games

Sporting a revamped combat system, Civilization V addressed – finally – the weak battle strategies of its predecessors.

Rather than allowing players to stack up entire armies and simply charge at enemy city walls, only one unit can occupy each tile on the map.

You can now fire from far with ranged units, while terrain plays a bigger role. Your soldiers can see through forests and hills but place them on high ground and they get attacking and defensive bonuses.

All of this means you have to plan your battles more conscientiously.

Also new is the concept of city states. You can choose to befriend cities like Singapore and Kuala Lumpur and receive gifts of ivory and incense, as well as help to score that decisive victory.

Of course, you can attack and plunder these cities instead.

There are no more square tiles, only hexagon ones, which makes it easier to figure out which adjacent tiles your units can move to.

Culture now plays a bigger role. Not only does it expand your nation’s borders, it also lets you impose social policies which comes with bonuses like increasing the speed at which your workers build farms and upping your production.

You play as the leader of one of 18 civilisations, from the ancient Aztec Montezuma to Greece’s Alexander the Great. Some leaders have been changed. Instead of Mao Zedong, you now play Empress Wu Zetian. Oda Nobunaga now leads samurai Japan instead of his ally Tokugawa Ieyasu. Each civilisation has specific strengths and special units.

After weeks of battling Zergs in outer space in Starcraft 2, it was a pleasant change to return to civilisation. With improved graphics and intriguing gameplay changes, Civ 5 looks set to conquer the hearts and minds of PC warlords around the world.

checkout the Civilization V here:
Sid Meiers Civilization IV Beyond the Sword

Sid Meier’s Civilization V

Tags: Computer Games, PC Gaming, Microsoft Xbox

This has been the formula for many games, from the popular Dynasty Warriors series, Samurai Warriors, to Ninety-Nine Nights (N3).

The original N3 added nothing new to the button-mashing genre, in which the aim is to score consecutive hits to unlock in-game achievements.

Alas, the sequel is a painful reminder of how wretched this formula has become.

A sequel should be better than the original. However, N3 II just comes across as a lazy version. It is as if the game’s developers could not be bothered to try for a better game.

The storyline is simplistic: A country is facing annihilation by an invading army and only a hero with the largest weapon in the land can save the day.

As a player, you are thrust into long and tedious battles which offer no variety and require non-stop button-mashing to wipe out the enemies.

While you have some foot soldiers backing you up, these game characters tend to stay out of the way, perhaps worried that your sword might cut them accidentally.

When you make it to the end of a mission, you have to fight a boss (the final enemy in the level) to go to the next level, where the same gameplay is repeated.

To be fair, the boss characters do require some skill to kill.

After an hour of hacking away to get to the boss, my fingers needed a respite.

To my horror, I discovered that the developers had forgotten to include a save-point option, which would have allowed me to stop the game and return to where I left off later.

Instead, the game allows you save at only the beginning of a new level.

Playing through the same level twice is no fun. It means entering a dreary world filled with badly-rendered buildings and cookie-cutter computer-generated soldiers.

To make matters worse, the gameplay can feel silly at times.

For instance, there is a scene where I have to attack a tower. I do this with gusto, hoping its collapse will wipe out the waves of incoming soldiers below it.

The tower falls apart as expected, but the crumbling pieces disappear before they can land on the soldiers.

Die-hard fans of Ninety-Nine Nights will no doubt enjoy the sequel, but if you are new to the genre, try the more rewarding Dynasty Warriors series instead.

Get the N3II: Ninety-Nine Nights here.

Tags: PC Gaming, Wii, Video Games

Singapore gamers will be among the first in the world to get their hands on the much- anticipated PlayStation Move on Sept 15.

Last week, Digital Life took a first look at Sony’s answer to Nintendo’s motion controller for the Wii console.

In essence, the wand-shaped Move senses human motions and gestures and translates them into on-screen actions.

From mimicking a table tennis paddle to a bowling ball and an archer’s bow, the PlayStation Move – when combined with the PlayStation 3 (PS3) game console – is expected to bump up the realism of games without the need for dedicated game peripherals.

The Move is said to be more precise than the Wii remote, or Wii-mote. It is also wireless. For the Wii, a wire connects the main Wii remote to a different and less responsive secondary controller, known as the Nunchuk.

So in games where you need to use two controllers, say in a duel where one acts as a sword and the other as a shield, the Move allows for more natural gameplay as there is no cable that hinders movement.

Also, since the Move uses two main controllers, it follows that there should be greater control in such two-handed games compared to using the Wii-mote.

This is evident when comparing archery games available for the Wii and PS3, in which a pair of Moves beat the combination of the Wii-mote and Nunchuk in sensitivity and gameplay realism.

For fans of shooting games, the Move with its trigger button on the rear, can be used as a highly precise virtual gun when coupled with a shooting attachment. Using it to play Time Crisis: Razing Storm beats any shooting game on the Wii.

It must be noted, however, that the PS3 has a faster processor and more realistic graphics compared to the Wii.

The Move allows gamers terrific control of the speed of virtual objects, such as a volleyball during a serve, pass or spike. However, the lack of force feedback means it still has some ways to go before it can deliver truly life-like gameplay.

The Move works with the PlayStation Eye camera, which tracks the colour sphere on top of it.

Up to eight wands can be connected to a single console for games that support up to four players, with two wands for each player.

One caveat: at $69 for each Move wand, a full set of controllers without the Eye camera and other accessories will set you back $552 – more than the price of the PS3 console itself.

click to checkout the move:
PlayStation Move Controller

Tags: Computer Games, , Gaming System

PC game StarCraft II to rack up sales of 721,000 copies in North America to top sales there for July, according to research firm NPD.

Games sales tracking website VGChartz.com estimates that 1.3 million copies were sold worldwide last month.

This figure is over six times more than the second-placed PlayStation 3 game, Sengoku Basara: Samurai Heroes, which sold over 240,000 copies.

Sales of PC games have been hit by piracy and poor support from game publishers who are turning to game consoles.

It is rare these days for a PC game to top the sales charts but Blizzard Entertainment, maker of the Warcraft and StarCraft franchises, proves once again that a good PC game can be a winner.

StarCraft II Signature Series Guide

Tags: , PC Games, PC Gaming

With five USB ports, a 250GB hard drive and built-in Wi-Fi, the new Xbox console is superior to the original in many ways, including being faster and 15 per cent smaller. Plus it has a port ready to connect to the upcoming controller-free Kinect sensor bar.

If you have an older Xbox 360, moving your content from the old hard drive to the new one requires some planning.

There are several reasons why you would want to do this and here are two possible scenarios.

Transfer everything from old to new Xbox 360

Microsoft is selling a cable for direct hard disk to hard disk copying. However, you can save money with your existing external USB flash drive.

Once you format it on your console, you can start transferring content onto the flash drive, then copy it over to your new console.

However, with all the security features and digital rights management, is it really that easy?

All content obtained on the Xbox Marketplace is linked to your gamertag, so the first thing you need to do is move your gamertag to your flash drive.

This way, the system recognises that the content you are moving belongs to you and you should have no problem moving them.

With an older 20GB console, it took me three transfers with an 8GB flash drive and all of 40 minutes to make the transfer.

Now, there is a trick here. If you choose to transfer content wholesale under System Management, the software will copy everything, including gamertags belonging to your friends or family created on your original console.

Transfer only your own games to the new Xbox 360
The second scenario may be when you want to hand your old Xbox over to, say, your sibling, who already has some content in your console.

As there are things you do not want moved, select the files to transfer. While it is a longer process, it gives you more control over what you want to shift.

If you have purchased items, another way is to go to your purchase history and download them again.

Once I moved my gamertag over to the new console, all my existing content was recognised and accessible to me.

All transferred content will work, as long as your Xbox is signed on to Xbox Live. To play games you buy in offline mode, you have to transfer the game’s licence as well.

This is a two-step process and more details can be found here: www.xbox.com/en-us/support/systemuse/xbox360/licensemigration/.

After I transferred everything, I discovered that I lost one saved game and had to start replaying platform game ‘Splosion Man.

However, it was a small price to pay for a do-it-yourself transfer that took no time at all.

checkout the Microsoft Xbox Console

Tags: , Gaming System, PC Gaming

Product Description
FILM SYNOPSIS The creators of the beloved “Toy Story” films re-open the toy box and bring movie goers back to the delightful world of our favorite gang of toy characters in “Toy Story 3”. As Andy prepares to depart for college, Buzz, Woody and the rest of his loyal toys are troubled about their uncertain future. Directed by Lee Unkrich (co-director of “Toy Story 2” and “finding Nemo”), “Toy Story 3” is a comical new adventure in Disney Digital 3D(TM) that lands the toys in a room full of untamed tots who can’t wait to get their sticky little fingers on these “new” toys. It’s pandemonium as they try to stay together, ensuring “no toy gets left behind.” Pixar veteran Darla K. Ander… More >>

Toy Story 3 The Video Game

Tags: PC Games, Video Games, PC Gaming