gears-of-war posts

It was the last retail PC game that Microsoft published back in December 2007. It's the PC port of Gears of War, the third person sci-fi shooter from developer Epic Games. PC gamers who didn't pick up the game in stores can now purchase and download the title for the first time via Games For Windows Live's On Demand service for $19.99 or 1600 Microsoft points.

Also added to Games For Windows Live's PC game download service is the original BioShock, also priced at $19.99. Finally the original Max Payne game is available for download on the service for $9.99.

[Thanks TheWeaponeer]

Just a few years ago, Epic Games was thought of as mostly a PC game developer. However the massive success of the developer's Gears of War franchise for the Xbox 360 console has turned that perception around for many gamers. Indeed some recent comments by Epic President Mike Capps said Epic has moved more into console games "because the money's on console." However, Rock Paper Shogun has a brief chat with Epic Games VP Mark Rein who assures the interviewer that the company is still committed to the PC game industry.

Rein points out that Epic released and continues to update the free Unreal Development Kit, saying, "If you look at all the UDK games they're PC only at this point." And of course there's Bulletstorm, the upcoming first person shooter that Epic is developing with People Can Fly. Rein states, " . . . you'll see when it comes out, it will be a full-blown, oh-my-god amazing PC game." Ultimately Rein states, "So now the opportunity is swinging back the other way, the opportunity to show that we're still the PC company. And honestly I think Bulletstorm and UDK are firmly establishing us in the PC realm as still the big player there."

So what is Epic Games up to lately? We could get an inkling very soon. The developer of the Unreal game franchise and makers of the Unreal Engine sent over word that they will be showing off new Unreal Engine 3 features at their booth during the Game Developers Conference next week.

Epic plans to show off a new outdoor foliage demo during their GDC event that will put the spotlight on their new engine features. That includes a new procedural tool that will allow for easier development of city-based game. The demo will also be shown via stereoscopic 3D and will also feature a live presentation of the upcoming Unreal Engine 3-based MMO All Points Bulletin (APB). In addition Epic's sister company Epic Games China will also show off their MMO-themed Atlas technology at GDC. Don't look for an announcement concerning Unreal Engine 4, though. As we reported recently, the next big version of the engine is still a long ways from being revealed. However its possible we could get some hints about their upcoming game projects.

The annual Toy Fair is underway in New York City and alongside the typical new and upcoming action figures shown at the show for things like Marvel and DC super heroes, Star Wars, G.I.Joe and the like, there are quite a few new action figures based on games.

Figures.com has images from the show floor on many of these toys, including new entries in the Halo series from McFarlane Toys and Gears of War from NECA. The latter company is also showing off a number of other upcoming figures from games like Dead Space and the upcoming Prototype (show above) and Dante's Infermo. We are still waiting to see some Team Fortress 2 action figures; we might actually buy them.

On Monday we posted up a feature showing off a number of notable games that have been turned into comics by various publishers. Today we have the second and final part of our feature that takes a look at even more comics that are based on either current or upcoming games.

Many of these comics have been released recently by Wildstorm, the division of DC Comics that's also responsible for the art direction of the upcoming MMO DC Universe Online. They also have several comics in the works and rumors are they will be doing even more games-to-comic adaptations.

Click on the image above to continue reading From Games to Comics: Part 2

"A new update is available for Gears of War for Windows. This update fixes an expired digital signatures issue that prevents all earlier versions of the game from launching. This is a required update. Please download and install the update before launching the game.

This update incorporates all previous updates and bug fixes for Gears of War for Windows, where applicable." Continue reading for update notes from previous patch.

Download Gears of War Certification Patch (6 MB)

Last week fans of the PC version of Gears of War were miffed to discover that their copies of the game could no longer be played. So what happened? IGN contacted Epic Games' VP Mark Rein to find out. As it turns out, the error was all about how the game takes care of multiplayer cheaters.

Rein told IGN, "The online cheat detection features in Gears of War for Windows are based on digital signatures. Well, we made an embarrassing mistake: we signed the executable with a certificate that expired in a way that broke the game. We're working with Microsoft to re-sign the binaries properly, and hope to have this fixed very soon. We know how much this situation sucks, and we apologize for the inconvenience." There's a simple workaround; simply set your PC's clock back to sometime before Jan. 29. So far there's no word when the game will be fixed.

If you like your games to have full co-op mode in the single player campaign then this year is a good time to be a fan of PC first person shooters. This week developer Treyarch and publisher Activision release Call of Duty: World at War, which finally adds co-op support for the first time in the series. Next week is even bigger as Valve finally releases the full version of Left 4 Dead, a game designed from the ground up to be a co-op shooter.

Today we look back at the history of co-op gameplay in first person shooter titles.The genre actually had quite a few games that supported such features when it first started but the last few years have seen a decline as FPS have emphasised more popular multiplayer features like deathmatch, CTF and more recently big team based gameplay. But with Call of Duty: World at War and Left 4 Dead out this month co-op gameplay may be coming back.

Click on the picture above to continue reading Playing Together: Co-Op in PC FPS Games.

Developing PC games just by themselves can be challenging. You have to deal with not one but thousands of different hardware configurations along with updating graphics drivers, the unique keyboard-mouse interface and more. But what about when you develop a PC game that was originally made for a console like the PS3, the Xbox 360 or others?

Some PC ports of console games have been embraced by PC games like Gearbox's superior port of Bungie's first Halo game and more recently BioWare's PC version of Mass Effect. Yet so many other consoles games either don't translate well to the PC formula or fail to reach a wide audience even if they add content that is not in the original version. Today we take a look at the many console games that either failed as a PC game translation or failed to reach a high PC gamer audience.

Click on the image above to continue reading "The College Try: Failed PC Ports Of Console Games"