If you didn’t already know, Steam is having a big weekend sale. Despite what people may say about it, I think that the platform works extremely well and is a great money spinner.

I was just reading a thread about the sales and someone made the argument that “if they did this more often, there’d be no excuse to pirate (games)”. Immediately afterwards, I read a thread about how PC gaming for this year was lacklustre and that it was only going to get worse (in so many words).

This got me thinking - is PC gaming getting to the point where publishers / distributors have to lower prices to get any sort of volume moving? Is the time of PC gaming actually “dying”? Ergo, is Steam going to go away any time soon?

I, for one, think all this talk of the PC platform going away is rubbish. I can understand the arguments against PC gaming - the high upkeep costs of PC upgrades, the maintenance, the hurdles of compatibility, the numerous DRM issues to curb piracy…hell, I’ve even heard the argument that WASD is too hard to use.

And, despite my heavy PC-gaming background, I enjoy console gaming. I like using my 360 - I’ve had some good times with it, and I think that remembering a handful of buttons is easier than hopping all over my keyboard. I used to abhor FPSes with the controller (admittedly, I still find it amazingly awkward to use) but now I don’t think it’s all that bad.

But now that console gaming is becoming increasingly mainstream, there are more than enough fanboys out there to proclaim the end of PC gaming. While it isn’t as popular, I reject claims that it is dying. Cases in point:

• Many popular mainstream franchises and titles cut their teeth by debuting on the PC platform;
• It would be fair to say that there are more PCs in households than there are consoles, thus increasing market potential;
• The barriers for entry to PC development and distribution are lower, with the emergence of public dev kits;
• Digital distribution can lower costs for all parties in the chain, as opposed to taking a “gamble” with official online console subscription services.

Those are a few that I thought of off the top of my head.

People claim that they game more on their consoles than they do on their PCs, and that it offers an easier, more seamless experience. And that’s fine. That’s one of the main advantages of consoles - it allows those that are not technically literate to enjoy a gaming experience. But to say that “PC gaming is dead” because you now have more console games than PC games is short-sighted. PC gaming is certainly not as popular as it was way back when…but it isn’t going to just “die”.

There is a place for PC gamers…even if it happens to be second place.

Great game. And great longevity, too - I’m still going through the single player (although I have been distracted with other stuff, lately).

Hit the image for the full write up.

If I had to make a list of things in Prototype to whinge about, the ridiculous title styling would make the top five. Because it’s not Prototype - it’s [PROTOTYPE]. Square brackets are back in vogue, baby.

Other than that, I experienced a complete about-face on this game. My first impressions after the linear “tutorial” level and the first few minutes of “parkour” (which…isn’t, as I’ll explain later) were that this game was half-finished. The graphics were disappointingly sub-par; the AI was awkward; and the controls were initially cumbersome. The so-called street running kicks in whenever you hold down the right trigger, which sends your character sprinting up the sides of buildings, tumbling over obstacles, hopping on cars and flying around corners. It’s not the same kind of parkour as you’d see in, say, Assassin’s Creed, Mirror’s Edge or Prince of Persia. Alex Mercer is simply too powerful and too wild compared to the graceful elegance of Altair.

Instead, Mercer looks like he’d be better placed in Crackdown. He can jump several stories, propel himself through the air, and glide between buildings. And if he’s equipped armour, he simply barges through obstacles instead of jumping over them.

But once I got over the initial expectation that he was supposed to be this precise acrobat, I quickly warmed to the idea that he was an untamed animal, summoning weapons at will and dismembering both innocent and guilty alike. I relished in the free falls from skyscrapers that ended in meaty impacts, sending cars flying (although I would have loved to get the same impression of falling as in Mirror’s Edge).

The gritty graphics simply allowed for excessive amounts of chaos to fill the screen. Strike Teams of attack choppers filled the sky unloading payloads into the street, supporting tanks that focused their fire on Hive Buildings. Jarheads rush onto the field of battle, firing at infected civilians that have choked the streets. Hunters emerge from Hives, rushing towards the soldiers as they cut blindly at the air in front of them. Explosions surround you, barely stifling the screams and the radio chatter. And you’re in the middle of it all, with the game hardly skipping a beat.

There is a surprising amount of variety in the side missions to keep you distracted, and there are plenty of upgrades that unlock some vicious attacks. Mercer’s takedowns are brutal and violent, and the game doesn’t let up on action, pace or sweet sweet blood.

The story was standard “Gubmint-conspiracy” fare, bogged down by the bizarre emotional delivery of Mercer’s lines, but it’s good for some mindless enjoyment.

And that’s the aim of the game, here. Other than the upgrades, there is nothing to truly aspire to in this title. There is no high learning curve, nor reward for time invested. (Those “stealth” missions would be a dead giveaway.) It’s to fulfil your dreams of being both ridiculously agile and near omnipotent. It’s the reason why media producers make things with big explosions and bad-ass characters - to appeal to the baser emotions in us.

Playing [PROTOTYPE] (sigh) is like eating copious amounts of average quality chocolate. It’s not good for you, and it’s not even the best stuff out there…but it tastes damn good. Not bad for a sandbox title.

It’s not so much a review as it is a recount of my early experiences with the game, but I thought I’d share it anyway. For a guy that doesn’t normally play fighters, it’s great fun

So I’m getting back into my DS (and by “my DS”, I mean “the DS that is on indefinite loan to me”). I figure that it’s probably just as easy maintaining balance on public transport with a DSLite in my hands as it is with a giant ass book.

At the moment, I’m passing the hours on my commute with GTA: Chinatown Wars. As expected, I’m enjoying my train trips a whole lot more nowadays, possibly due to the sole fact that I can trade drugs in game.

For a minigame based on supply / demand, it’s amazingly addictive. Receiving notifications on bargain prices for the flavour of the week will see you taking trips out of town to seal the deal, then head on over to the area where demand is high (thanks to the Turf Map) where you can sell for a tidy profit. Random drug trade busts break the monotony of deals, and it hurts when you lose a satchel full of powder.

After a few good deals you’re suddenly hitting 5 figures, which makes your story mission rewards look like peanuts. Then you can go around looking for apartments, get tooled up from Ammunation, and all the good things that come with having too much money.

Oh, and everything else about the game is great too. Especially the additional touch screen interactions.

Okay, player. It’s just you, me, and Mr. Ryu over there. The odds are stacked against us; that’s fine, I’m cool with that. Keep the timing tight, manage that space, and punish when you can.

Alrighty, skipping the character intros, that’s good. You’re keen. You’re ready to go. Round One. Now…make me throw a fireball.

What are you doing? Stop making me punch the air! Do it now…now!

ARGH! Oh Christ, those fireballs…they hurt so much.

Quick, make me throw fireballs back at him! No, you fucking moron - Down-Forward-Punch! Down-Forward, not Wrench-Stick-From-Side-To-Side…honestly, you’re killing me with these whiffs, man.

Okay look, just…block. Get me blocking. Move that stick back. That’s it. WaitnononononononoIcan’tblockthatFUCK.

Oh, I’m stunned. Tweet, tweet, tweet. You can’t exactly say “no throws or mercy” to the CPU, can you? Well, here comes Ryu to introduce me to some pavement. Great.

So now I’m on about 20% health, and Ryu hasn’t been touched yet. Come on - at least end this with some dignity.

Wait…what are you doing?

Oh no…my Ultra meter is full. Please. Please don’t make me do it. He’s on the other side of the screen, you douchebag! DON’T DO IT!

SHINRYUUUUKENoooohhh God, I’m dead.

“What, round’s over?” Yeah, that’s right. I’m dead thanks to you, scrub.

And just think - there’s a whole extra round of this to come.

When I first fired this up, I thought to myself, “Oh great, Bejeweled. Haven’t seen this before.”

And yes, it is indeed (in some small way) a rehash of the popular casual game with a shiny veneer of space exploration, mining and barely-there plotline. Seems like the prime candidate for a throwaway title.

But for some bizarre reason I keep firing it up after work. The combat, at first, seems utterly random and it feels like the computer is cheating half the time. It took me several tries to win my first skirmish. But as you craft special weapons and start noticing patterns in the board to take advantage of, you find a depth in combat that wasn’t there previously. The other minigames of hacking Leapgates, mining asteroids, haggling with traders and crafting ship add-ons are all loosely based on the same principle of shifting tiles, but each is subtly different in its own way.

It’s not something that I could play for hours on end, but it’s a good distraction to whittle away an hour you’ve got on your hands. Otherwise you might drive yourself batshit insane.

On another note, I’ve got a personal blog up and running, so feel free to keep track of it if you’re interested.