As promised a few weeks ago, Microsoft has now released a stand alone client for its Games For Windows Live service. Previously the service was put inside PC games that supported Live but now you can download it and have it ready to go on your desktop without having to start a game up.

At the moment the service is pretty bare bones in terms of content. There's only a handful of game videos to download and just one demo to check out, and it's for the PC version of the year old game Viva Pinata. There's no message center or friends access and there's not even a way to check out your Achievement points. You can add Microsoft Points to your account via the client, however.

Microsoft plans to use Games For Windows Live as a way to offer things like add-ons for titles like Fallout 3 and they have also said that having full games for download (a la Steam and Direct2Drive) is in the works as well. Still this first stand alone client release seems almost like a beta with just a few features implemented.

Update: It looks like the stand alone client was released as a way to update Games For Windows Live for the release of the PC version of Grand Theft Auto IV. Before you can play the game Rockstar's own update client requires that players download the stand alone client before they can play.

So you've bought Left 4 Dead, installed it, booted it up, and began a game with three of your best friends. But you are getting your ass kicked by the hordes of bloodthirsty zombies on the easiest difficulty setting. Not to fear! With our guide to the art (and zen) of zombie killing, you and your friends will be shotgunning Tanks and flipping the bird at Hunters in no time! Just try not to triggers any noisy generators or rusty gates on your way through this guide. You wouldn't want a horde of zombies to attack you out of nowhere, now would you?

You've begun to tire of survivors, and you've decided to move on to the scarier side of the fence and try out the awesome might of those special Infected that keep screwing you over in co-op play. Congratulations! You've graduated to Versus, the only competitive aspect of Left 4 Dead and a great gametype in-and-of itself. You won't have what it takes to kill those pesky survivors the first time you play, but with our details on Versus and how it works, you'll be set for a game of slaughtering unsuspecting humans in no time.

I was moved to make this the topic of this week's Big Ideas column after reading a review of Call of Duty: World at War. My first reaction was "Haven't we mined this genre by now?" Looking at a Wikipedia list of over 150 World War II-themed video games made me realize that this could very well continue on for years to come. My second reaction became "Why haven't gamers (and developers) gotten tired of the WWII setting?" Clearly, there is a reason these games keep iterating, and a reason players keep buying them.

That led me to my third and instigating thought: "Do we, as gamers, need the real-world setting to enjoy a game more?" Perhaps the continuing popularity of WWII as an environment is the real draw to these games, despite any innovations in actual gameplay mechanics. If this is true, I can only presume that players respond emotionally to the events contained in that war -- events that they themselves as a whole could not have experienced directly. This leads me to ask "How would a veteran of World War II respond to Call of Duty: World at War?"

Need for Speed Undercover goes back to the Most Wanted formula by combining illegal street racing with pulse pounding police chases. This time, the twist is that you're playing as an undercover agent whose job is to infiltrate an organized crime ring. The only way to get into the inner circle is to improve your reputation as a wheelman and impress people as you work your way up the hierarchy. However, things quickly drive into a wall, and the game becomes too infuriating to play.

Earlier today we reported that a former Half-Life 2 mod turned commerical product called Garry's Mod had generated over $3 million in sales just by being on Valve's Steam service. Today Gamasutra has an article that reveals how many games Valve itself has sold. There's a big catch, however. The numbers are only for retail sales of Valve's products. They don't include the number of units sold from the Steam service.

Valve has always kept specifc numbers related to its Steam service to itself but there have been hints that those numbers are considerable. Even Valve's own CEO Gabe Newell has said he expects Steam sales of its games to surpass retail sales numbers.

So while these figures don't really give the whole picture here are Valve's own numbers on the retail sales of its games so far. The numbers do not include Valve's just released zombie co-op shooter Left 4 Dead. They also, for some unknown reason, don't include sales of the stand alone version of Day of Defeat which Activision released in 2005. Finally they don't include the retail sales of the PC versions of Team Fortress 2, Portal and Half-Life 2: Episode 2 which were released as separate products several months after the release of The Orange Box.

Half-Life: 9.3 million units
Half-Life Opposing Force: 1.1 million units
Half-Life Blue Shift: 800,000 units
Counter-Strike: 4.2 million units
Counter-Strike Condition Zero: 2.9 million units
Counter-Strike Source: 2.1 million units
Half-Life 2: 6.5 million units
Half-Life 2 Episode 1: 1.4 million units
The Orange Box: 3 million units

Normally we don't mention news stories about in-game ad deals because, well, they are usually boring. That's not the case today as Microsoft-owned in-game ad company Massive just announced a major deal with Blizzard that will give them control of ads running on all of Blizzard's web sites, including their popular Battle.net site.

No you won't be seeing in-game ads for World of Warcraft, Diablo III or Starcraft II but this new deal does give Massive a major account since all of Blizzard's sites are among the busiest web sites in the world. In a separate deal, Massive will also be handing in-game ad support for Blizzard's other half, Activision, for 18 of their current and upcoming games. Specific financial terms were not disclosed.

The latest free content update to NCsoft's long running super-hero MMO City of Heroes has now gone live, according to a note on the game's official message boards. As we have previously reported Issue 13, titled Power and Responsibility, adds a number of new features, including the concept of Day Jobs to the game. Basically it means that locations in the game when players log out determine their "secret identity" (log out of City Hall and your offline character becomes a city official, for example). Each job can unlock new rewards once you spent enough time at it.

Other new features include allowing two build-outs for each character, a Leveling Pack that lets you and a friend make characters and have them have the same experience points (even if your buddy plays more than you) along with new Power Sets and other new additions. Our sister site Joystiq has a quick interview with NCsoft's Matt Miller about today's update. NCsoft is also signing up folks to test out the upcoming Macintosh version of City of Heroes. The sign-up page for the beta test announces that the Mac version will have its own exclusive costume set and a Mission Teleporter that will allow players to instantly go their active mission.

Why is the G-Man smiling? Maybe he's happy because of all the money that has been made by the commercial version of Garry's Mod, the Source Engine-based sandbox game that started life as a small but innovative Half-Life 2 mod. Garry's Mod, created by UK-based Garry Newman, finally turned into a full fledged downloadable commercial title just over two years ago via Valve's Steam service (it still requires at least one Source Engine game be installed to work).

On his personal blog site, Newman reflected on the very recent two year anniversary of the commercial version of Garry's Mod (it was launched on Steam Nov. 29, 2006), saying, "The popularity took me and Valve by surprise. As soon as it went on sale the Steam servers were temporary knocked out, due to the demand. On the first day it sold 5,729 copies. Wowzer." But even Newman admits he was not prepared for the game continuing to sell well even to this day. Newman states, "...over the next 2 years it went on to sell 312,541 copies. Which has totally knocked my socks off."

Since each copy of Garry's Mod sells online for $9.99 that means the game has generated over $3 million in revenue since it became a commercial product. That's pretty impressive for a game that has gotten little publicity outside the game community. Newman thanks both Valve and Team Garry for their work on on Garry's Mod in his blog post, adding, "And it's my hope that it has inspired other people to do stuff. I mean, I'm a fool like you, I've just got more experience in pretending I'm not, and I did it.. So why can't you."

You are a hard core first person shooter gamer. You enjoy taking that mouse and keyboard and inflicting all sorts of property and human destruction on the screen. But just what makes a good FPS game experience. A new article over at Gamasutra (reprinted from a recent Game Developer print magazine issue).has the results of a study by a group called EmSense who used EEG and bio-feedback to monitor the response of gamers who played a number of FPS titles, including Battlefield 2142, Half-Life 2, and F.E.A.R.

According to the study, FPS gamers prefer their tutorials be intergrated into the game and don't care for more overt tutorials like a boot camp scene. Gamers like FPS titles that vary well between intense battle scenes with times to recover and reflect. They don't care for repetition or battle sequences that may overshadow what happens later in a level. FPS fans like close combat in their titles but don't like weapons beyond the normal ones that could be too powerful and as a result don't give the gamer much of a challenge. The article should be very interesting reading for both gamers and FPS game developers.

Despite having some financial issues lately, Electronic Arts apparently sees the need to grow in certain markets. Late on Tuesday night the publisher announced that it has acquired Korean based developer J2M. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

J2M creates free-to-play online games with micro-transaction based revenues with titles like RayCity, TAAN, and Debut. In its press release EA says J2M has other unannounced games in the works. EA already has a number of games released in Asia and has plans for more, including an Asian version of Warhammer Online and the release of EA's own in-house micro-transaction game Battlefield Heroes.

Yep, it's yet another entry in the free-to-play FPS trend that we have seen explode lately. This time its for Parabellum, a title that was announced over two years ago by Germany based developer Acony. The game was originally announced as a typical retail game (console ports and all) but now it seems Acony has decided to give the free online PC genre a try.

The game itself takes place in the year 2018 where your player can pick from one of two mercenary teams that are fighting in various locals around the world, from New York City to South American jungles. Acony promises that as you play you will gain experience and points that will allow you add new weapons, items and more to your character. The title used Epic's Unreal Engine 3 and is currently taking applications for its closed beta test. Parabellum is due to launch in the first quarter of 2009.

The latest top 10 best selling PC games in US retail stores are out (courtesy as always from the NPD Group) and it's no shock to see that the list, covering the week ending Nov. 22. has Blizzard's and Valve's latest titles taking the top two spots. The MMO expansion pack World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King and the zombie co-op shooter Left 4 Dead are number one and number two on the list, respectively. The collector's edition of Wrath of the Lich King came in at number nine this week.

Activision's WWII shooter Call of Duty: World at War is right behind at number three on the list this week and the latest Everquest II expansion pack, The Shadow Odyssey, makes an apperance at the number five spot.

1. World Of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King - Blizzard
2. Left 4 Dead - Valve/EA
3. Call Of Duty: World At War - Activision
4. The Sims 2 Mansion & Garden Stuff - Electronic Arts
5. EverQuest II: The Shadow Odyssey - Sony Online
6. Spore - Electronic Arts
7. Fallout 3 - Bethesda Softworks
8. The Sims 2 Double Deluxe - Electronic Arts
9. World Of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Collectors Edition - Blizzard
10. The Sims 2 Apartment Life - Electronic Arts

Valve developed the recent hit zombie co-op shooter Left 4 Dead and released the PC version via Steam. However retail copies of both the PC and Xbox 360 versions were distributed by Electronic Arts, a company that has been slammed by a vocal number of gamers for its use of DRM set-ups in its recent PC titles.

On a personal blog site a gamer named Paul Reisinger posted up an email he sent to Valve's CEO Gabe Newell where he expressed some concerns about Valve's involvement with EA due to the publisher's use of DRM in their titles. Newell wrote back, letting the gamer know what Valve's involvement with EA is and pretty much slamming most uses of DRM in games. Here is Newell's full statement:

Left 4 Dead is developed entirely by Valve. Steam revenue for our games is not shared with third parties.

Around the world we have a number of distribution partners to handle retail distribution of our games (i.e. make discs and boxes). EA is one of those partners.

As far as DRM goes, most DRM strategies are just dumb. The goal should be to create greater value for customers through service value (make it easy for me to play my games whenever and wherever I want to), not by decreasing the value of a product (maybe I'll be able to play my game and maybe I won't).

We really really discourage other developers and publishes from using the broken DRM offerings, and in general there is a groundswell to abandon those approaches.

[Via GamePolitics]

On Monday, NetDragon announced plans to launch Dungeon Keeper Online, an upcoming MMO for the Asian market based on the classic PC strategy game. Today NetDragon announced yet another Asian based MMO based on a Western property. This time its for Disney Fantasy Online based on the classic Walt Disney cartoon characters.

Due for release this spring the game will allow players to interact with Mickey Mouse and other classic Disney characters, build virtual castles for their personal use, engage in turn based battles and explore virtual worlds based on Disney's most famous stories. Again this game seems to be strickly for the Asian market for now; there's no word on a US release date.

Telltale Games' season season of their episodic adventure series Sam and Max will be getting a new lease on life soon, courtesy of Atari. The publisher announced today that they will release the entire six episode season to stores in a retail box collection sometime in 2009.

Of course, Telltale has already released all six episodes of the dog and rabbit detective team's adventures via direct PC download and have also released a DVD collection of the second season (shown on the right) on their own though mail order. Atari will also release Season 2 of Sam and Max for the Wii console as well.