diplomatico

This is great news, PC Gamers most likely deserve it as long as it's not being whored out for the numbers.  I respect Rockstar's work but not releasing Midnight Club III for PC was unforgivable.  I hope Rockstar's PC strategy looks better from hereon in. 

This is not what I had in mind in terms of new characters but the creative effort can't be disregarded outright. 

In this day and age, many PC Gamers are feeling a little worried as to the state of gaming in these console-centric times. When the bottom line is making money off of solid franchises, mastering it with a console seems like the best course of action.

For the most part, Microsoft had missed the mark with trying to move the PC forward as a platform through their Games for Windows Live services. Perhaps they might have dreamt of the PC having it’s own cohesion with online and offline gaming with console-like business models.  Nevertheless, the reality is that the PC has a checkered history, to say the least. If Microsoft was trying to make the PC into a console, to have similarities with the XBOX360 and Playstation 3, it certainly hasn’t happened without controversy.  It has proved to be quite challenging. XBOX360 is basically a PC and as such, titles should port easily; perhaps in a perfect world.  The XBOX360 was certainly touted as some form of benchmark which, however well protected, is grounded as a PC.

In actuality, the PC is the most versatile platform that had been used since the dawn of gaming itself. One of the more unfortunate titles lost to PC gamers is Midnight Club:LA which didn’t see a PC release as it was a console exclusive.

In looking at the bigger picture, if you go high up along the food chain and observe the moves of the big publishers and how they both develop and sell their products, there is a struggle going on. For those of us who love PC gaming, there is a lot of love and care that goes into our setups to truly enjoy what the world of gaming has to offer. Many settle in comfortably downloading games using Bit Torrent versus while paying for some games to play online only.  Many users might not necessarily admit to downloading as much as some developers have been vocal about it.  Perhaps something is lost in translation.

It might also be that some gamers translate the business practices of some of the biggest companies as a methodology for downloading games.  There could be the argument then that is presented by the big publishers who lessen support for the PC platform for lost sales due to piracy almost scrambling to find working alternatives to get gamers to buy. Analysts and the gaming press comment on the level of DRM used in IP’s which might teeter on the opinions that might side with their community or the publishers though some are vocal about some of the practices that inadvertently hurt paying customers.

After the golden age of gaming – the first-gen console wars – and moving right into a future where gaming will soon overcome traditional media, being mainstream means having to adopt business practices that will help one take advantage of making an IP successful. Over the years the formula changed quite a bit but it seems that more needs to be done other than what has worked with others forms of media such as music and now movies seeing online distribution models.

One of the first things to make it's way into the mainstream in larger ways might come with on-demand gaming services. Perhaps this might be a platform that might actually give developers the same freedom the companies in the coin-op business did; they worked with the hardware and even built new boards from the ground up. 

There will be developers who will create games for the PC but it almost seems that a lot of them are at the whims of nervous or headstrong publishers. The biggest players like EA, Blizzard/Activision, Ubisoft and Valve, to name a couple, might run through the gamut of a multitude of DRM solutions as they surge forward into a digital-download world. These solutions could get more salacious and cause more controversy than they’d like to handle.  After all, the money potential is there, they just have to optimize the potential of customers paying for their products. 

Since Giantbomb started, I think it's safe to say that many of us have been inspired to take writing about games to the next level.  Yes, Giantbomb isn't hiring right now but that hasn't deterred us from putting up quality content that could lead us in a direction that could have us taking the combination of gaming knowledge and writing further.  I think that we aspiring writers should band together and put some type of guide or wiki that could both help writers write better content while giving our audience higher quality reading material.  After all, there's no better testing ground than Giantbomb, right?  

I had the same thing happen with me and I put my cursor on the lower-left corner of the screen.  When attempting to tucking it away, the seek-bar will jump but if you play around with it, the bar should disappear.

I caught wind of a demo that was made available on the Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X. website for the PC and tonight I gave her a little spin.  This flight combat sim is probably one of the only new generation combat sims to be available for the PC which should be good news for those who play Flight Simulator wishing that their commercial airliner were an F-16 dodging imaginary missiles coming off a mountain top.  (We could only wish FS would actually be that cool...or not)  

First time I tried to beat the game it crashed on me and I was really upset about it because it crashed after I beat the game and the final cinematic was playing.  I would have to say, patch first and play a save point before the boss fight.  You might have to fight him again and even after he is beaten, you have to be aware that it could crash at that time too as any object could unexpectedly kill you.  I know it's strange and very inconvenient but eventually I managed to get through it.  

"I don't agree that exotics are what make the series. Maybe for you, but I hate exotic cars. Unless you count imported Asian cars (which I don't, exotic to me means $100,000+ European cars)."

The framerate doesn't ruin the experience entirely, most fans I assume bear with the issues as I have.  The lack of polish due to all of the issues collectively really hold this game back.  If you can bear with the techincal issues while enjoying the parts of the game that actually are pretty good, you'll find yourself enjoying the game if you were a long time fan of the series.