The PC Spotlight 11.27.08: Turkey Day!

Posted by Chris Vicari on 11.27.2008

LEFT 4 DEAD for 20 dollars!?!?! Games for sale!? Free games!? Another Gerstmanngate on the way? Homeworld 3 in development? What’s the future of RTS games? You want answers? Get in here now!

Hail and well met from the PC Spotlight column, and a happy Thanksgiving to you all. I trust you're enjoying the frigid weather indoors with friends and family whilst stuffing your faces with turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, and awesome pies. Let's not forget that all this delicious sustenance goes quite well with beer, and lots of it. If you fancy a quiet evening away from the constant bickering of nieces, nephews, aunts, and uncles, then I welcome you to some hearty PC news, info and random bits, because you're probably the only bunch who'll be reading this stuff today.

I haven't had the chance to play many games this week, as I've been spending most of my time with Left 4 Dead on a near-constant basis. Can't get enough of the game. On the review front, I'm slotted to write about Sacred 2, if I ever get it in the mail. It'll be a quiet remainder of the year for PC releases, as most of the hits have already come out, but there's still a few on the way too. I will also list all the Black Friday sales I could find for PC games, and holy crap there are a lot of them. All set? Let's get to it then.

Also, I once again have Photoshop. Huzzah! Bear witness to my awesome skills! /sarcasm

These sales will freak you out! Shazam!


A short video depicting the insanity of awesome sales. Just put games in place of cars and you'll be fine. SALE! SALE! SALE!

Direct2Drive PC Games Thanksgiving Sale – 20% off select few titles
Story courtesy of D2D Press Release

Direct2Drive.com, the number one destination for digital game downloads, announced this past Tuesday its Thanksgiving Sale, which features a collection of great PC games at 20% off.

The featured games include bundle packs of Titan Quest (including both Titan Quest and Titan Quest: Immortal Throne), Company of Heroes (Company of Heroes and Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts), and Supreme Commander (Supreme Commander and the Forged Alliance expansion), all of which will be sure to make the holiday a little more enjoyable.

Download these games at Direct2Drive.com and be thankful of the savings!

Titan Quest Gold Steam Weekend Deal

Not to be outdone by Direct2Drive's sale, Valve has listed Titan Quest Gold, which includes the original game and its expansion pack, for only $9.99, which is 50% off the original price. Offer ends Dec. 1. Sweet!

More Steam sales with Steam Packs!
Courtesy of press release and myself

The THQ Collector's Pack, which includes 13 titles from top franchises such as Company of Heroes, Titan's Quest, Full Spectrum Warrior, and Dawn of War, is now available via Steam for just $99.99 -- an amazing savings of more than $100. For more information, please visit www.steamgames.com. EEeeeeee!

The Relic Collector's Pack, which includes both Company of Heroes games along with Warhammer 40K Dark Crusade and Gold Edition, is now available via Steam for $49.99. You save 30 bucks.

Get Company of Heroes for FREE by signing up at Fileplanet

Free, free and free. I love this time of the year! Sign up for Fileplanet today and receive Company of Heroes, minus the expansion, for FREE! Only available to residents of U.S., Canada, Mexico and the UK.

Go here!!

Black Friday PC Games Sales!

These can all be bought online starting Friday and NO early bird specials are listed, because I couldn't find any.

Amazon Black Friday PC Game Sales!

Amazon just released a sneak peak into their awesome upcoming sales for Black Friday. Here are a few below! The deals go live 3 a.m. Eastern on Friday morning.

Friday Only
Fallout 3 - $29.95 (Reg. $49.99)
Left 4 Dead - $19.95 (Reg. $49.99)

Friday to Monday
BioShock - $9.95 (Reg. $19.99)
Deadliest Catch: Alaskan Storm - $14.95 (Reg. $29.99)
Far Cry 2 - $29.95 (Reg. $49.99)
Guild Wars - $9.95 (Reg. $29.99)
Guild Wars Eye of the North - $9.95 (Reg. $29.99)
Pure - $19.95 (Reg. $29.99)
Spore Creepy and Cute Parts Pack - $9.95 (Reg. $19.99)
Warhammer Online 60 Day Prepaid Game Time Card - $19.95 (Reg. $29.99)
Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning - $19.95 (Reg. $49.99)
World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Expansion Pack - $25.95 (Reg. $39.99)

Best Buy Black Friday PC Sales

Older games, but still good damnit!

Assassin's Creed $9.99
Bioshock $9.99
The Sims Double Deluxe $9.99
Command & Conquer III $9.99
Empire Earth II $9.99
World of Warcraft $9.99
Doom 3 $9.99

Circuit City Black Friday PC Sales

World Of Warcraft Battlechest (Contains WoW and Burning Crusade Expansion) $14.99
World Of Warcraft $9.99
The SIMS 2 Deluxe $4.99
SIMS Carnival: Snap City $4.99
SIMS Carnival: Bumper Blast $4.99
MORE Brain Games / Sudoku 2 Pack $4.99
Enemy Territory: Quake Wars $4.99

Head on over to Cheapassgamer for great deals for every system!

No more sales! :(

Plan on giving Tomb Raider: Underworld less than 8/10? Please hold your review until the following Monday. Thank you!
Story courtesy of videogaming247.com and Penny Arcade



It appears Eidos is back to its old tricks again of fixing review scores. Instead of Kane & Lynch with Jeff Gerstmann, it's now with the newly released Tomb Raider: Underworld game. This story was posted last Friday on the popular video game Web site, videogaming247.com. Here's the whole thing:

Eidos UK PR firm Barrington Harvey has confirmed that British sites are being asked not to post Tomb Raider: Underworld reviews with scores lower than 80 percent until Monday.

The game releases today for 360 and PS3.

Gamespot UK journalist Guy Cocker revealed the tactic in a Twitter post on Wednesday that said: "call from Eidos–if you're planning on reviewing Tomb Raider Underworld at less than an 8.0, we need you to hold your review till Monday."
Said a Barrington Harvey rep on the phone this afternoon: "That's right. We're trying to manage the review scores at the request of Eidos."

When asked why, the spokesperson said: "Just that we're trying to get the Metacritic rating to be high, and the brand manager in the US that's handling all of Tomb Raider has asked that we just manage the scores before the game is out, really, just to ensure that we don't put people off buying the game, basically."
British site Eurogamer has already gone live with a 7/10 score, an act the rep said had caused "problems".
OXM UK has also posted a 7.0 score.

The news is unlikely to go down well. Eidos's efforts at controlling review scores are still fresh in the mind: it was a row over Gamespot's 6/10 review of Kane & Lynch that cost popular US journalist Jeff Gerstmann his job.

Tomb Raider: Underworld's Metacritic average stands at 78 percent

I'll tell you the truth, I'm not surprised with Eidos' actions. Perhaps one day someone will do something about this. What? No clue.

Barrington Harvey issued a statement to this story which you can find here.
Penny Arcade, the popular webcomic, also illustrated the ordeal in a new comic. Find that here.

The Future of RTS Games According to Four Top Designers

In a recent series of interviews by Gamespot with RTS bigwigs such as Louis Castle, one of the cofounders of Command & Conquer creator Westwood Studios, Sid Meier, the mastermind behind Civilization, Chris Taylor, designer of the award-winning RTS game Total Annihilation, and his studio, Gas Powered Games, created Supreme Commander, and Will Wright, renowned for Simcity, The Sims, and Spore, all of them attempted to foresee what the future may hold for the RTS genre. All of it is a very good read and I recommend that you hop over to Gamespot and give it a look. Perhaps I'll provide some of my own input for next week's column as well.

Here be the link sirs! – Linky!

Hands-on Company of Heroes Tales of Valor



1UP and several other gaming Web sites – sadly, I was not included – were privy to a hands-on experience with the upcoming Company of Heroes expansion, Tales of Valor. The new expansion, considered a standalone product per usual, adds quite a few interesting changes to game, but don't expect a new faction to play as. Instead of building bases and commanding armies in single-player, you'll play the role of an elite German Tiger tank crew throughout the entire campaign, similar to playing as Rexxar in the Orc mini-campaign packaged with Warcraft 3: The Frozen Throne.

There's also a big difference with controlling the tank itself allowing you to manually control the turret and fire whenever you'd like. Also, as you complete objectives and demolish enemies, you can give bonuses to each individual crewmember such as faster reloading for the gunner, or more speed as the driver. It's a new and refreshing direction for the Company of Heroes series, and with three new campaigns on the way, I'm excited about the storyline as well. Thankfully, multiplayer hasn't been left out either

Company of Heroes' multiplayer is in line for some big upcoming changes too. Each of the four current factions will receive a few new units, but there is so much more than that. Tales of Valor will also bring a new multiplayer mode to the table, and it's something I've been waiting for as a lot of games, especially strategy games, don't usually have this particular mode. Although it has yet to be named, developers described it as "COH meets tower defense," allowing four players to team up and defend against wave after wave of enemies, gauntlet style. While the match can and will eventually end, the difficulty is ramped up severely when approaching the finish line.

I am very excited for this upcoming expansion, and it will definitely be a day one purchase for me.

Rumor: Fable II unofficially announced for PC
Story courtesy of German Web site Gamona and blurb from Worthplaying.com

In a quick blurb on worthplaying.com, an announcement on the German gaming Web site, Gamona, claims to cite reliable sources about a potential PC release for the hit title, Fable II. Here's the post below:

Fable 2 will offer even more choices and features, while building on the core gameplay theme of the original Fable where every choice continually defines who you become, allowing you to truly live the life you choose. Citing "reliable sources," German site Gamona claims to have received word that Fable II is in development for the PC and might arrive as early as Feb. 2009.

Again, this is unconfirmed and a rumor, so take it as you will. Would be cool if it were true though.

Homeworld 3 in development you say?
Story courtesy of Eurogamer and IGN



In a recent interview with Eurogamer, Relic's lead designer for Dawn of War II, Jonny Ebbert, discussed the possibility of an upcoming to sequel to the award-winning space-based strategy series. "We're really happy the [intellectual property] has made its way home, and yeah, we're definitely looking at it. We'll see what happens in the future," Ebbert told Eurogamer. When asked if the game is currently in development, Ebbert responded with, "There's always that chance," and continued, "Homeworld's always been dear to our heart; it's what put us on the map, it was our first product, and I think it will always have a special place in our hearts."

When the same line of questions were directed to Chris Degnan, Relic's designer for Tales of Valor, he responded by saying, "As it always has - behind closed doors. Blacked off. Homeworld 3, obviously, I'm not at liberty to tell you anything about." IGN was also able to get in touch with a THQ representative on the potential for a Homeworld sequel, but no progress there as it was said to be all speculation.

Nonetheless, the potential to finally get my greedy hands on a Homeworld sequel will be a grand day indeed.

Spotlight Briefs

Tabula Rasa going bye-bye Feb. 28

Not long after NCsoft's executive producer Richard Garriot jumped ship to pursue other ventures a few weeks ago, word spread last Friday that Tabula Rasa, the sci-fi MMO, will close at the end of February. The game is barely a year old. As of January 10, 2009, Tabula Rasa will be free to play to its remaining subscriber base.

Tabula Rasa's upcoming cancellation does not surprise many, including this writer, as the game's release last November was marred with technical issues at launch. The game was in development for six years too, you'd think they'd fix some of that stuff.

Midway given NYSE delisting notice

On Nov 21, Midway was threatened with stock exchange removal after failing to meet $1 minimum share average for 30 days straight. While some of blame can rest on the current economic client, but looking at games such as Fallout 3, Far Cry 2, Gears 2, and WoW setting or breaking sales records, it's hard not to throw most of the mud in Midway's direction as well.

And that be it for the news



Weekend Deals
Titan Quest Gold(Germany: Titan Quest Gold DE) - $9.99, regular $19.99 (50%) Ends on Dec 1

Current Offers
Depths of Peril - $17.99, regular $19.99 (50%) Ends on Dec 3

Pre-Purchase Opportunities
Empire: Total War - $49.99/$54.99 Free copy of Rome: Total War Gold, Available on Feb 3
Grand Theft Auto IV - $49.99 Free Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Available on Dec 2 or Dec 3
Prince of Persia - $49.99 Free Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Available on Dec 10

That's it! Have a happy Thanksgiving!!!