Humble Indie Bundle 2 now includes Humble Indie Bundle 1 games
The Humble Indie Bundle 2 went on sale last week, and has already raised more than $1.3 million for the developers, Child’s Play and The Electric Frontier Foundation. Now, in a final push, they’re also throwing in all of the games from last year’s Humble Indie Bundle for those who pay more than $7.39. That adds six extra games, including World of Goo, Aquaria, Gish, Lugaru HD Penumbra Overture and Samarost 2.
CCP’s technical officer: PC hardware is “Many, many generations beyond consoles”
CCP’s chief technical officer has directly compared PC technology to its console equivalents.
Talking to PC Gamer, Halldor Fannar said: “We’re in a great position on PCs. The hardware just keeps getting better. The consoles, the computers inside them, are getting a little long in the tooth. The basic graphics chip in PlayStation 3 is equivalent to a 7 series card from Nvidia. Meanwhile we’re many, many generations beyond that with PC hardware.”
CCP are responsible for sci-fi MMORPG EVE Online, which currently has over 350, 000 subscribers. Check the most recent issue of PC Gamer for the full story of Rich’s visit to their Iceland and see examples of the new technology here.
Hah – we win!
DC Universe Online beta key giveaway
Are the two weeks between now and January 11th just too long of a time to wait to get your superhero action on? Jump into the DCUO beta right now as a hero prancing about Metropolis or a villain scheming in the dark recesses of Gotham’s Ace Chemical plant! Details inside.
The Minecraft Experiment, day 17: A Ghast
When I first started playing Minecraft a few months ago, I played with a rule: if I die, I have to delete the entire world. Now I’m trying to get to hell and back. The diary starts here, and over Christmas new entries will go up weekly on Wednesdays.
Oddboxx release marred by bugs and crashes, fixes on the way
The recently released Oddboxx, a pack containing the first four Oddworld games, has been experiencing some serious technical issues. Players booting up Munch’s Oddysee and Stranger’s Wrath, both ports of original Xbox releases, are experiencing crashes, control issues, resolution problems and more. Oddworld Inhabitants have announced that they are working on a patch to fix the issues. Read on for details.
UK Christmas bonanza – Day 9: Win a Razer headset
Welcome to day nine of the PC Gamer UK Christmas bonanza. Given the freezing weather we’ve devoted today’s competition to keeping your ears warm. We have two headsets to give away, both of which will keep your ears nice and toasty for the winter. As an added bonus these cutting edge cans also come packed with technology that will make your games sound amazing. A Razer Carcharias gaming headset and a set of Razer Orca gaming and music headphones are both for grabs, so read on for your chance to win.
EA say in-game advertising in decline, microtransactions the way forward
EA’s general manager of free-to-play gaming has said that in-game advertising is in decline and microtransactions are proving to be much more lucrative. Ben Cousins was talking of Battlefield4Free when he suggested the days of advertising billboards in games may be over.
Free, amusing PC Gamer Christmas wallpapers now available!
We love Christmas at PC Gamer. Well, that’s not entirely true. We love playing PC Games, and we end up doing a lot of that at Christmas. We love Christmas by association.
To celebrate, we’ve created three bespoke Christmassy wallpapers for you to download. Unless you’ve got three monitors (as discussed in the most recent PC Gamer US podcast) you’ll only be able to use one at a time. Set your wallpapers to rotate if you can’t decide. Don’t know how to do that? Just use the first one.
PC Gamer UK January issue – Eve Online
Those lucky subscribers already know because they’ve heard the pleasing sound of an issue of PC Gamer UK sliding through their letterboxes, but the remainder of you will be delighted to discover that our latest issue hits shelves today. Read on to discover its secrets…
StarCraft 2 demo is out now
Blizzard have released a demo for StarCraft 2 giving us a free taste of the singleplayer campaign and skirmish mode, and you don’t even need to a Battle.Net account to download and play. Read on for details.
Activision lassoes EA and ex-Infinity Ward staff in $400 million lawsuit
Earlier this year, founders of Infinity Ward, Jason West and Vince Zampella left Activision to form a rival studio with EA called Respawn Entertainment, taking 40 other Infinity Ward staffers with them. Activision are now seeking damages for breach of contract to the tune of 400 million bucks. Accusations against the Infinity Ward founders and EA include claims that the publisher flew West and Zampella to secret meetings, and that West and Zampella covertly copied documents and stole trade secrets from Activision.
Aion players “killing everything they see” post-patch
Continuing towards their goal to eliminate (or at least reduce) the grind in Aion, NCSoft has been implementing changes to the game over the past few months aimed at increasing the XP and loot gains from quests and other activities that involve more than mindlessly grinding an area for hours. The lastest upgrades launched with patch 2.1 in the middle of November. I called up Associate Producer Sean Neil to find out how the latest patch has worked out so far, and if he thinks Aion is finally where it needs to be.
Dawn of War II: Retribution trailer brings the noise
THQ has released a new trailer for the upcoming Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War II expansion, Retribution, in which the narrator seems surprised about more fighting, despite the WH40K franchise slogan. Still no hints about the new faction, but it does show some new units, including the Chaos Noise Marines. (I’m pretty sure the guy in the apartment next to mine has one of those guns.)
Have Aion’s recent patches fixed its problems? [Giveaway]
Like many players, I got burned-out from Aion’s grind not too long after launch. But NCsoft promised more fun and less grind with the latest expansion pack, Assault on Balaurea, so I strapped on my wings and flapped my way back into the fray to find out whether or not the game kept that promise.
Contest: Win an Aion plushie! Details at the bottom of the post.
Minecraft is now in beta, leaf decay is back, “you can now throw eggs”
It’s been a long road, but Minecraft has finally entered beta. The transition comes with an update and a rise in price, marking the beginning of the next era of Minecraft’s development. Read on for a list of the new updates.
