PC-Categories

While EA has cornered the market on NFL games (by default, really), 2K has appeared to do the same with NBA sports simulations. While publisher Take-Two Interactive has been accused of just releasing roster updates with these annual releases, their series has been known to take risks and tweak major gameplay elements on occasion. NBA 2K14 continues this tradition to a degree, but it's not as crafted and accessible as it should be.

Valve have trademarked Half-Life 3, a move that will no doubt excite millions of fans of the series. This has so far only happened in Europe and there's no more information about it available, so it's probably far too early to be saying "Half-Life 3 Confirmed" but, at least of the surface of it, Half-Life 3 seems at least semi-confirmed.

It's a bit odd that the Resident Evil games have become synonymous with Survival Horror. After all, they're about heavily-armed police officers who kill zombies by the hundreds. Real fear comes from facing an army of unstoppable monsters and not having any means to fight them off. Outlast locks players inside an abandoned mental institution, arms them with just a camcorder, then leaves them to creep around in the darkness, thus combining a horror storyline with stealth gaming mechanics for a genuinely terrifying experience.

There was one major complain that I had about the PC re-release of Final Fantasy VII, which was rather good otherwise. That was that Square Enix had decided to include the original PC music rather than revert to the better known, better appreciated PS1 version. An update late last week now fixes this problem.

Lost Planet 3 is quite different from its predecessors. Opting to take a more Western approach to the series, Capcom turned to the American developers over at Spark Unlimited in an attempt to make this third installment more appealing. The franchise doesn't have a great track record, receiving low marks from both critics and gamers, so it's no surprise this game hasn't been getting much attention. It's a shame, really, since it has some pretty good stuff to offer.

Square Enix have today announced a special “Master Thief” edition of its next-gen Thief game. The “Master Thief” pack is a PC exclusive digital bundle and contains a number of pretty cool items that any Thief fan will no doubt be excited to get their teeth into. The pack contains a digital art book, a digital comic, the soundtrack and a bundle of in-game consumables which will boost your abilities. The digital art book contains a collection of concept art,…

Steam have announced that they'll be releasing a set of hardware solutions in 2014. Although no specifics have been revealed today, they've promised a variety of PCs, each covering a different area of cost and power needed. Naturally, all of the Steam Machines will run SteamOS.

Valve have announced their very own Steam operating system, based on Linux. Those of you that have used Linux will know one of its biggest flaws - one that has been really improved upon in the last few years - is its lack of gaming support, and Valve hope to change that. By having the openness of Linux and the ease-of-use of Steam, SteamOS hopes to be a fun, free alternative to current operating systems in widespread use.

Ever since Steam announced that they'd be announcing three things very shortly, there has been a lot of theorizing. Some of it has been based on actual evidence - Left 4 Dead 3 showing up in a picture from Valve HQ for instance - and some of it has been a little less... scientific - OH MY GOD, THERE ARE THREE ANNOUNCEMENTS, HALF LIFE 3 CONFIRMED. It seems those ideas are wrong, however, as Marc Laidlaw confirms that the three announcements are specifically about Steam.

A new console is to be announced next week, this time from PC giant Steam. Rumours of a Steam Box have been prolific over the last few years and it appears there's no smoke without fire. A countdown timer went up on the Steam website today, promising a new way of "connecting the dots" for gamers in the living room.