Did you know that you can wirelessly stream PC games to your television? Here’s how it works
Can you connect a PC to your TV without wires? There’s enough interesting display technologies around now that stream video directly from a graphics card onto a TV screen over the air, and when Alienware’s new M18x appeared in the office armed with the latest version of Intel’s Wireless Display technology (WiDi), we had to give it a go.
And in other PC gaming news…
Today on PCGamer.com: boobs, romance and UNLIMITED DRAGONS. Everything a PC gamer needs, apart from bionic arms, but after seeing today’s Sarif Industries trailer, we’re not sure we want those anymore.
Only joking. Of COURSE we want bionic arms. They’ll go really well with our cold, bionic hearts. Here’s your daily dose of PC gaming news.
Guild Wars 2 beta coming “in the second half of this year,” 2012 release likely
NCSoft chief financial officer Jaeho Lee has announced that “Guild Wars 2 will go into beta testing stage in the second half of this year,” confirming a statement that appeared in the FAQ section of the Guild Wars 2 a couple of months ago. Lee also dropped heavy hints that Guild Wars 2 is heading for a 2012 release.
Play Flash games on Duke Nudem site to earn a glimpse of real-life boob
Duke Nudem, a promotional website for Duke Nukem Forever has been launched by 2K. It features real women’s breasts and a mediocre Flash game where you compete against the owners of said breasts. Get a decent score on the NSFW version and you get to download a wallpaper of each lady – nipples and all!
Duke Nudem is part of the “Boob Tube” suite which includes The Hall of Hotness, Duke Alien Autopsy, Duke Nudem, and the upcoming Duke Sound Board.
I recently previewed Duke Nukem Forever’s multiplayer. A lot of people read it. They seemed sad. As always, let us know how you get on with Duke Nudem in the comments.
Fable 3 dev: PC piracy “less problematic than second-hand sales on the XBox”
A Lionhead developer has voicing his thoughts on piracy, saying that he sees second hand sales on consoles as a bigger problem than piracy on PC. “There are a lot of honest people out there,” he says, “if they like your game they’ll buy it.”
Mass Effect 3′s romance options have changed
After a few days of feeling like robots incapable of comprehending love, we’ve had a statement from BioWare on clarifying the confusion over your romance options in Mass Effect 3. Last month executive producer Casey Hudson told us there’d be no new love interests, but more recently he tweeted that there’d be ‘wider options’ for them, including a same-sex male relationship the series has never had before. Here’s what’s going on.
Atari to sell Cryptic studios
Atari’s yearly financial report shows that they are parting ways with Cryptic, the studio behind Star Trek Online, Champions Online and the upcoming Neverwinter MMO. The official reasons given for the split include Atari’s intentions to release “fewer but more profitable” titles and expand into “casual online and mobile games,” but it more likely has something to do with the reported $25 million Cryptic have lost Atari in the last couple of years.
A Game of Thrones: Genesis will be a PC exclusive set centuries before the books
Game designer at Cyanide Entertainment, Regis Robin, has been speaking to PC Gamer about the upcoming RTS based on A Game of Thrones. Genesis will be set many centuries before the events of the acclaimed fantasy novels and HBO TV series. It’s also set to be a PC exclusive – just the way we like it.
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim to have an “unlimited number of dragons”
Anyone who saw the dragon in the Skyrim trailer could be forgiven for thinking that dragons would only feature as occasional boss fights. That is not the case. Game director Todd Howard tells Norwegian magazine Gamer.no that there will be “an unlimited number of dragons” in the game. They’ll be dynamically generated, and will be able to attack you almost anywhere.
Plants vs. Zombiesville? China gets exclusive adaptation from Popcap
Popcap have revealed a “Social Edition” of the superb Plants vs. Zombies. The adaptation was handled by Popcap’s Shanghai studio, and is launching on Chinese networking site Renren.com. There’s no news of an English translation yet, sadly.
Read on for screens and the details.
Deus Ex: Human Revolution trailer sells Sarif Industries
“It’s like a real arm, but better!” says Trevor, 44, of his new bionic arms. The guy delivering his testimonial for Deus Ex: Human Revolution’s premiere augmentation company, Sarif Industries, seems delighted with his new limb. He can throw a football further, hug his son harder, and carve up a thanksgiving turkey real good with his retractable arm blades. Sadly, they don’t show the last part. We’ve played the first ten hours of the game (a lot), read all of our impressions here.
Bioshock 2: Minerva’s Den release date announced
On May 31 we’ll finally be able to get our hands on the Minerva’s Den DLC for Bioshock 2. The expansion pack will go live on the Games for Windows Marketplace for $10.
The announcement, made on the Cult of Rapture, follows the recent release of the Protector Trials DLC for free. 2K Games originally never planned to port the DLC over to the PC, but changed their minds at the request of Bioshock 2 fans. As a bonus, 2K have put up the first part of a developer diary by lead designer Steve Gaynor that fills in some of the backstory surrounding the new DLC.
Minerva’s Den provides a new single player story centred around the increasing insanity of the AI system that controls Rapture. With Bioshock Infinite taking to the skies, this could be our last chance to explore the underwater city.
Portal 2 – The Final Hours now on Steam
Do you crave more Portal 2 development insight? Enough to pay for it? Fret not: Portal 2 – The Final Hours is now available on Steam as well as iPad. It’ll set you back £1.49/$2.00
The 15,000 word multimedia experience/interactive documentary/digital book was created by Geoff Keighley during Portal 2′s development. Valve gave him “fly on the wall” access to their offices, resulting in a “gripping and dramatic story brought to life by exclusive photos, videos, interviews, interactive experiences, and other surprises.”
Read on for the details and Craig’s mini-review.
Crysis 2: Retaliation map pack out now
EA announce that the first Crysis 2 map pack is out now. For the price of 800MS points ($9.99 in real money) bumslide your way across four new maps, including Park Avenue, Transit, Shipyard and Compound. Retaliation doesn’t seem to be available to buy on the Games Windows Marketplace, Steam or the EA store just yet. Hopefully it’ll turn up soon. You’ll find four new screenshots and the Retaliation trailer below.
Friends on different WoW servers will soon be able to run dungeons together…for a price
World of Warcraft US community manager and floating candle Nethaera just announced on Blizzard’s official forums that they’re adding a much-requested feature to the Looking For Group tool: cross-realm queueing. After the feature is implemented (it’s just now entering testing phase on the current PTR), players will be able to form a party with their Real ID friends, no matter what realm they’re on–although they will still need to be on the same faction.
The update is being tested on the PTR alongside patch 4.2, but it’s unclear whether Blizzard plans the new feature with the major content patch or not.
Nethaera also warns that “certain elements of the cross-realm Real ID party system will be premium-based,” which is a nice way of saying that you’re gonna have to hand over some money to unlock parts of it. She went on to clarify that only the player sending out the invitations will need to have those premium features. It seems likely that you’ll have to pay the premium fee in order to create a cross-realm party and invite friends, but that it will be free to accept the group invitations of those that have paid. What do you think?
