Blizzard Entertainment is better known for Warcraft and Diablo now, but once upon a time, they worked on games far from the PC franchises that have brought them so much fame. Games like the classic Lost Vikings. Frozenbyte has taken inspiration from this old Blizzard masterpiece and crafted Trine, an action-puzzle game that is incredibly different from previous efforts. Frozenbyte has shown that they are not a one-trick pony, and that they can craft games that are wildly different from previous efforts. After all, Trine is about as far from Shadowgrounds as you can get!

The revival of a classic adventure game has apparently become a big success. Telltale Games' bundle deal for all five episodes of Tales of Monkey Island was the number one best selling game on Steam's weekly best selling games list. Capcom's PC port of Street Fighter IV came in at number two on the list, proving that fighting games have an audience on the PC as well:

1. Tales of Monkey Island Complete Pack - Telltale Games/Lucasarts
2. Street Fighter IV - Capcom
3. Fallout 3 - Bethesda Softworks
4. ArmA II - Bohemia Interactive
5. Left 4 Dead - Valve
6. Dawn of Discovery - Ubisoft
7. Counter-Strike: Source - Valve
8. GRID - Codemasters
9. Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood - Ubisoft
10. Trine - Frozenbyte

People who have been enjoying the beta test of the upcoming "There Is Only War" content update for Warhammer 40,0000 Dawn of War II will soon have their enjoyment come to an end. A post on the game's official community site states that the dev team at Relic Entertainment won't be taking any more feedback on the beta after Tuesday, July 15.

The beta itself, which contains eight new multiplayer maps, a new observer mode and lots of other new features, will end on July 19. Presumably a few days after the beta ends Relic will release the final version of the "There is Only War" update but there's no word on an exact date.

In many ways PC gaming is still evolving from a retail box industry to a more downloadable and even browser based type of business. And in our opinion, there's nothing wrong with that at all. However the business-based gaming site IndustryGamers decided to look at some of the reasons why the retail store has become less and less of a factor in gaming.

While there are other factors brought up in the article such as piracy and DRM set-ups that seem to be against the average consumer, IndustryGamers puts the big blame on Microsoft. Their launch of the Xbox 360 console has caused many PC-only game developers to move into console development, often putting the PC version of their games as a low priority. Add to that the dismal launch of Windows Vista and Microsoft's own moves to close down much of their own PC game developers and it's hard to argue with this article's conclusion. Of course Microsoft's own official stance is that they are still big supporters of PC gaming (as our recent chat with the marketing head of Games For Windows Live demonstrated). The next 12 months will show if that claim is real (with the launch of Windows 7) or whether it's just hype.

The development team at Malfador Machinations are best known for their work on the long running Space Empires series. The turn based space strategy game series released its fifth title back in 2006 but now the company is taking a break and working on an all new strategy title, World Supremacy.

Aside from some screenshots which seem to show off a lot of text-based gameplay, little is known about World Supremacy at the moment other than it appears to be exactly what the title hints it will be about; a modern day "conquer the world" game.. The game's official web site said the title is due out before the end of the year
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Update: We received an email from Nielsen Entertainment asking us to remove the image we took from the fourplayercoop.com story due to intellectual property rights issues and we have done so. So instead enjoy this pic of the latest Lara Croft model.

We do love our rumors and this new one on the details of the next Tomb Raider game from Eidos (oh, excuse us . . Square Enix) seems to lean on the side of legit (for now anyway). A web site called fourplayercoop.com claims to have a mole inside the development team that took some pictures of a monitor displaying some info on the latest Lara Croft adventure.

The alleged info shows off some concept artwork and details of the type of game that developer Crystal Dynamics is making. Supposedly the game will have Lara engage in an open-world style of action game on an island. The story is also supposed to reboot Lara's origins because this game will be set early in her life and will show how she grew to be the hard-as-nails adventure babe.

Yep, it's us. We are back again to give you a heads-up on the San Diego Comic-Con's panel schedule for Saturday which was just revealed on the event's web site. The highlights include a panel on DC Universe Online (with artist Jim Lee and writer Marv Wolf man in attendance) and a City of Heroes panel as well.

Other panels include looks at the upcoming WWII action game The Saboteur and the super hero action game Batman: Ark ham Asylum (with voice actors Mark Hamill and Kevin Conroy attending). Console gaming fans will have a lot to look forward to as well with panels on Gears of War, Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2, a planned announcement on a new Darkness game and more.

There's always someone out there wanting to build a better mousetrap. For PC gamers, there also someone out there wanting to give them a better way to control and handle their games. OCZ Technology thinks they have the solution with their just released Sabre OLED Gaming Keyboard.

The big feature in this new keyboard is the nine OLED buttons that you can see in the image. Those hotkeys can take any digital image and convert it to be projected onto one of those buttons and of course they can be configured to command shortcuts and macros for gaming purposes. The entire keyboard is also lit from below via LED lights for some nighttime gaming action. This puppy isn't cheap; the price is a whopping $170.

We have seen mod teams turn their creations to full fledged commercial titles. Some have had great success (Killing Floor) and others not so much (Damnation). Now a team based in the Netherlands called Interwave have announced similar plans for their Source Engine-based title Nuclear Dawn.

The game's official web site has already launched with info, screenshots and concept artwork from the game, which takes place in a post-apocalyptic world. The game itself is multiplayer-oriented with two teams (The Empire and The Consortium of Free States) battling it out on what looks like bombed out urban settings. The game is currently set for a 2010 release date.

We've already reported that BioWare's upcoming MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic is going to go absolutely nuts and have all of the game's NPCs have unique voices. Now a new article on the game's official web site goes into some detail as to how they plan to pull this particular accomplishment off in the final game.

While BioWare itself is writing the massive script for the game, its co-publisher LucasArts is in charge of hiring all the voice actors and recording their dialogue. So far the recording has taken place in five separate cities (Los Angeles , London, New York, San Francisco, and Toronto) and hundreds of actors will eventually be used to record voices for a game that will have a script that is longer than 40 novels. Whew!

Our favorite mail order gaming retail web site is GoGamer.com because they are not afraid of cutting prices on new games. That is certainly true for their latest 48 Hour Madness sale that ends on Tuesday at 3 am ET. Indeed one game that's on sale isn't even out yet; they have put the upcoming NCsoft MMO title Aion on sale for just $39.90 compared to its regular price of $49.99

Another game that hasn't been released in US stores is Blood Bowl but now you can get an imported box copy of the fantasy sports-strategy game for just $27.90. Other older games on sale include Supreme Commander for just $7.90, Homeworld for $9.90 and Homeworld 2 for $12.90.

The official web site for the San Diego Comic-Con has just updated with a list of their panels for Friday, July 24 and yes, gaming is represented well in Friday's schedule as well. Since Friday is traditionally Star Wars Day at the show you might expect some Star Wars related game panels . . .and your expectations are correct.

There will be a Star Wars: The Old Republic panel that Friday with members of BioWare talking about their much anticipated MMO game. Capcom will have two panels on Friday, talking about Lost Planet 2 and their fighting games. There's even a panel centered on the MMO-themed online video series The Guild scheduled for Friday. We will post up news on what gaming panels will be in place for Comic-Con for its final two days this weekend.

Moogles are creatures that appear regularly in Square Enix games. This summer, Final Fantasy XI will be seeing new content expansion called "A Moogle Kupo d'Etat - Evil in Small Doses" where the moogles will rise up and rebel, making way for new adentures.

Download HD Final Fantasy XI 'A Moogle Kupo d'Etat' Trailer (19 MB)

GameTap, like many other PC game download services, has the full PC version of Street Fighter IV available for download and purchase (and no, the game is not a part of their game library that can be played via their monthly subscription service). To celebrate, GameTap is offering one of the older games in the fighting series from Capcom to play for free.

The Flash-based browser game is Street Fighter II Championship Edition and can be accessed if you have a free GameTap account. There's no word yet on how long this promotion for Street Fighter IV will last nor how long we will have to wait until Street Fighter IV is added to GameTap's subscription service.

It's looking like the San Diego Comic-Con is becoming more and more important to game publishers. Witness the news that Valve will be showing up at Electronic Arts' Comic-Con related event to show off a never-before-seen campaign from their zombie co-op shooter sequel Left 4 Dead 2.

The campaign is titled "Swamp Fever" and as you can see from the new screenshot above it definitely takes place in a murky and dark environment. The demo will actually take place outside of the Comic-Con's convention center crowds; it will happen at the EA Gaming Lounge, located at the Hilton San Diego Gaslamp Quarter Hotel at 401 K. Street. You can check the lounge out from 2-9 pm July 22-25 and 12-5 pm on July 26.

A note on the Dragon Age: Origins forums has more info on the EA Gaming Lounge, revealing that people will also be able to get hands-on with BioWare's upcoming RPG along with Battlefield 1943, Battlefield Bad Company 2, and other upcoming EA titles. Best of all the event is free for anyone to attend; you don't need to have tickets to the sold out Comic-Con to show up.