PC

E3 ’10: The Old Republic Trailer

E3’s hit the ground running and within this marathon of games is another CG trailer for Star Wars: The Old Republic. Once again, absolutely, 100% not representative of how the game will play, but is absolutely, 100% freakin’ amazing to watch. 

It’s 5 minutes of the Star Wars you wished George Lucas could’ve rendered onto the big screen. Until then, we’ll have to depend on BioWare to make it happen, with maybe a little Obsidian on the side for a Knights of the Old Republic III? I digress. Enjoy this:

Free APB Beta Code Giveaway

The PC, open-world game, APB: All Points Bulletin, is getting closer and closer to its June 29 launch date, but APB’s developer, Realtime Worlds, is giving players a chance to get into the game now by now giving away 20,000 beta codes as part of their “Key to the City” event. I was lucky enough to snag one of these keys, and since my computer can’t run it, I figured I’d give it away to our Player Affinity followers! Or as I like to call them, PlayAffOwers! Rolls off the tongue doesn’t it?!

Alpha Protocol Review

The power of choice – it seems like that’s been one of the biggest selling points for really any game these days. Choices in how you can kill a guy, choices you in how you can go about a level. Those are easy, but what about choices that shift a narrative, change up relationship dynamics between NPCs and affect the world around you in a tangible, convincing way? Harder. Whatever it may be, may it be time constraints, the increased costs of developing a video game, or whatever, when a developer promises choices and consequences these days, they rarely ever consist of nothing more than either a “Hey, this isslightly different now.” or a slap on the wrist for choosing the ass-jock dialogue option.

This is where Alpha Protocol is different and where Obsidian absolutely succeeds in.

Steam In-Game Strategy Guides

Steam, in it’s ever increasing effort to have as much information as possible within one program, now has in-game strategy guides. It won’t be free, though. Each strategy guide will cost $20 standard, just like the books. To celebrate the first set of game guides, though, there is a sale for $10 a guide.

Split Second Demo for PC Available

The new explosive racer from Blackrock Studios now has a demo for the PC platform. The demo is around 1 gigabyte to download, which includes a tutorial and the airport terminal level. You can download the demo at Big Download here:

StarCraft II Beta Ending Soon; Patch 13 Notes

As you may have heard already, Blizzard announced that StarCraft II’s beta will end on May 31st, and then start back up again just a bit before launch. That gives us a little over a week.

Yep, it’s sad to hear, but you know, the game’s coming out sooner than most expected.

Constant feedback, constant updates and constant bickering and complaining about overpowered this and underpowered that, it’s been a hell of a lot of fun. I’m relatively inexperienced with StarCraft in general due to just how the game demands you to always be doing… something. All the time. If you’re sitting there waiting for your build of siege tanks to come on in, you’re doing something wrong.

Call of Duty: Black Ops has Dedicated Servers

The next game in the Call of Duty franchise, Call of Duty: Black Ops, is said to have dedicated servers for the PC release. The head of Treyarch, Mark Lamia, did an interview with a UK magazine, PC Zone, and announced their title would have dedicated servers. Lamia said, “I think dedicated servers are excellent. I don’t see any reason not to see them unless… well, I just don’t see any reason not to.” Trying not to insult Infinity Ward, Lamia continued, “We do work very hard to reconcile the desire to manipulate and modify those dedicated servers with offering them the persistent experience and benefits that the console system provides … so people can run dedicated servers and also participate in the communal experience the console players get to have, given they’re all on first-party servers.” So it’s nice to know that Black Ops will have dedicated servers, but at the same time, it doesn’t really affect the PC gaming community’s opinion of Call of Duty. Everyone who would care about dedicated servers in the first place will probably keep playing Modern Warfare 2 instead of Black Ops. I know I will. What do you think? Do you think that this is too little, too late, or is this a sign of goodwill to you?