Fighting

Capcom's release of the PC version of Street Fighter IV got us hopeful that other fighting games would be coming to our platform. Now comes word that a European publisher called Tradewest (made up from people who previously worked for Midway Europe) has claimed they will be releasing a PC port of the cult hit 2D fighter BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger in 2010.

BlazBlue is a highly complex and deep fighting game from Arc System Works, best known for their Guilty Gear series. BlazBlue is an unusual choice to bring to the PC and quite frankly we are wondering if this might be a typo. We've emailed Tradewest to find out some more info.

It's "earnings season" which means the vast majority of publically traded companies reveal how they did financially in the last quarter. In Capcom's case, the situation is excellent as the Japanese publisher announced a whopping 58.4 percent increase in its profits in the first half of its fiscal year. Higher-than-expected sales of its games were the main reason although much of that sales increase came from its home country. Sales in the US were not as strong due to the lower-than-expected sales of Bionic Commando and the delay of Dark Void from a fall 2009 to a January 2010 game.

In related news, Capcom is selling the downloadable PC version of their hit fighting game Street Fighter IV for just $19.95 in their online store. That's 50 percent off its normal price. The sale price last through Thursday.

Nexon is getting close to the launch of its next free-to-play game Dungeon Fighter Online. The Online 2D side-scrolling fighting game will begin its early access beta on September 15 but you can win one of 25 beta keys for the game right now at Big Download.

All you have to do is post a comment on this page (one comment per person please). Comments must be made by 11:59 pm ET on Wednesday, September 16. After that we will pick 25 random commentors and each will be mailed a beta code to play Dungeon Fighter Online. Thanks to Nexon America for the donation of the beta codes.

Steam's regular weekend sales deal is, as always, a good opportunity to get one or more great PC games at a highly reduced cost (which we guess is a definition of a "sale") This weekend Steam is cutting prices on the recent PC port of Street Fighter IV.

Capcom's port of the terrific continuation of the console fighting game series is still a rarity since PC players have never really embraced the fighting game genre. You can purchase and download this great fighting game port (including some new art style graphics options) via Steam for a mere $19.99 until the end of the weekend.

If you've ever wanted to see Liero kill the guy from Bonesaw, or Naija from Aquaria tear into the both of them, here's your chance. The TIGSource community has been hard at work on a fighting game reminiscent of the Super Smash Brothers games, only with indie characters, and have released their first milestone out into the world today. Indie Brawl contains three fully functional character, several semi-functional characters, and four stages to duke it out on! We'll keep you updated as more releases are put out there.

The goal of Indie Brawl is to kill or ring out your enemies on a 2D stage. There's some excellent music and spritework on display here, and the controls are good as well. The only problems with controlling seem to be in the stiffness and rigidity, as well as a little imbalance in the power of characters. There is also support for gamepads, if that is your thing.

We had a feeling that Capcom's recent PC release of Street Fighter IV would get the mod community to create some new looks for the various characters in the fighting game. The Shoryuken web site's forums have a list of all of the character mod that have been created by various third parties.

While the majority of mods are basically modified costumes of the already existing characters one enterprising mod team has decided to go all out and create new skins based on Hulk Hogan and Mr. T. With this mod you can now set these former allies in the wrestling ring against each other. We like the nice touch of adding The A-Team music to the YouTube video that shows off the two modified characters. Now all we need is a Rocky skin and we will be all set.

As they usually do, the game retail web site GoGamer.com has taken out the scissors this weekend to cut the prices of a number of both new and older PC games. The sale, which end at 3 am ET on Tuesday, has the newly released PC port of Street Fighter 4 for $33.90. The PC port of Prototype is now available for $36.90 and the racing game Fuel is now priced at $24.90.

There's lots of other PC games involved in the sale including some for just a few bucks. For example you can grab Red Faction II, Mirror's Edge, and Prince of Persia for just $5.90 each.

Next week's San Diego Comic-Con is getting bigger and bigger in terms of game news by the minute. Today we received word that Nexon America will be attending the show via the Gaming University booth. Nexon will be there to promote their online fighting-RPG game Dungeon Fighter Online. Booth models will be dressed as characters from the game and will be giving out disks with $5 in Nexon cash as well as the clients for Nexon's currently running titles and a new Dungeon Fighter Online trailer. In addition there will be presentations at the booth each day about the game.

Also, the Fusion Publishing booth will be giving out Dungeon Fighter Online posters (like the one you see above this post). The publishing company will be releasing the latest issue in their Girls of Gaming magazine which will feature six pages of Nexon game character artwork.

Gamers that bought Street Fighter IV for PC via digital download outlets like Steam, Direct2Drive and Impulse were left to figure out the game's intricacies on their own, since none of them came with a user manual. Capcom is working to fix that problem by offering a downloadable SF4 manual in PDF format. Real warriors don't need a stinking manual, but we won't judge you for keeping a copy around just in case.

Download the Street Fighter IV Game Manual (13 MB)
Check out all Street Fighter IV downloads
Read the Street Fighter IV Review

The developers at Timegate Studios talk about some of the features that will be included in the upcoming shooter, Section 8. One feature includes the ability to drop straight into combat to immediately join up with squad mates or the heart of battle, and hopefully take out an enemy upon landing.

Download HD Section 8 Developer Diary (136 MB)
Check out all Section 8 downloads

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.

If you have been dying to know when the second chapter in the Watchmen: The End Is Nigh downloadable brawler game franchise was going to come out, your prayers are answered today. Publisher Warner Bros. Interactive announced that the PC port will be made available on June 29 for $14.99 from various download outlets.

The second chapter isn't getting nearly as much publicity as the first episode did when it was first released back in March, perhaps because the game didn't get the best reviews. Another factor; the game's developer Deadline Games has reportedly gone into bankruptcy protection which means this second chapter may be the last game from the European developer.

Have you always wanted to beat the snot out of other girls? And only girls? No, I'm not talking about Arcana Heart, I'm talking about Vanguard Princess, an extremely professional and free fighting game released recently. The art is phenomenal and the gameplay is reminiscent of Street Fighter 2 in its execution, with a focus around extremely technical play. Did we mention the art is phenomenal? Because it really is. I mean, look at that screenshot up there. Absolutely stunning, assuming you enjoy the detailed anime style.

To play this masterpiece, you'll need a Windows OS with the East Asia language support installed, and be willing to sit through a long download from a Japanese download site. There is also no online multiplayer, but fighting games are the sort of game that you really need to play against somebody in person. There is just something about murdering somebody in head-to-head and then dancing around in real life over your victory. No translation as of yet, either. But with this high a quality graphics and gameplay, who needs to know the translation?

After a fairly busy couple of weeks, things cool down a lot on the new PC game release front as we enter a slow period before things perk up again in August.

Street Fighter IV: It's been a long, long time since a major fighting game franchise was ported to the PC but Capcom is taking a risk by turning its hit console title to the PC platform. There's no new content compared to the console versions but players can switch between different graphics shaders to give the game a more unique look.Capcom is also selling the game in a bundle with a custom PC controller.

July is not exactly going to be a great month for PC gamers in terms of new releases. We have the first installment of the Tales of Monkey Island downloadable game due out next week and the PC port of Street Fighter IV and, well, that's really about it. Thankfully people who want to download and purchase Capcom's latest fighting game can do so via Steam and Impulse.

The nice thing about that route is that you can get a 10 percent discount from its regular $39.99 price when you pre-order the game from either download outlet. Those prices are only good until the game itself is released on July 7.

Update: You can also pre-load Street Figher IV via Steam with your pre-order.