Many of us know Epic Games for their successful stop-and-pop 360-exclusive shooter Gears of War, but before they made it big on Microsoft’s home console Epic was widely known as a PC-centric developer. Unreal Tournament has been a staple of arena-style multiplayer games on the PC, but Epic’s heyday as a big time PC developer is long gone.
While many of the company’s fans bemoan the studio’s shift in focus, Epic president Mike Capps says that the move from PC to console was one of necessity, citing PC piracy as the major reason for the change. Speaking recently to Edge (via 1up), Mr. Capps said that the studio still loves the PC, but they saw how piracy killed a bunch of great independent developers and lead to a conversion of business models.
Mike Capps isn’t all down on PC gaming, though, and he feels that the platform might eventually see a comeback, possibly through Facebook. While that isn’t the resurgence many of us were hoping for, we have to remember that the often looked-down upon casual games (like Ubisoft’s Petz series) subsidizes the production of larger, more “hardcore” games.
I know that we have a fair few PC gamers on this site, myself included, and I spent a lot of time in my youth playing Unreal Tournament against the AI because I wasn’t allowed on the internet. Although Epic’s console offerings have been mostly decent, one has to wonder how different the market would be today if Gears had launched as a PC title first. What do you guys think? Is piracy actually to blame, and will PC gaming make a Facebook comeback?
Source: 1up
Summer. In the great state of Texas, Summer is more than just a season. It is a way of life. It’s more than just hot, it is like living in a dog’s mouth. Yes, in our neck of the woods we will soon start dealing with temperatures that are greater than 95 to 100 degrees constantly, with 1000 percent humidity to boot. Texas climate is a great and harsh mistress, and we will weep. 
Like many of the PC gaming faithful on this very website, I was a bit dissapointed in Infinity Ward’s decision to use a peer-to-peer matchmaking service for their multiplayer. While it was fun for a bit, the amount of glitchers and hackers I would run into during every single match became a bit much. I quit playing that game in January, and I haven’t looked back (mostly because of how awesome Bad Company 2 is).
Time for some fighting words, methinks.
It seems almost inevitable that all major releases will have a special edition these days. Gone are the simpler times when you could just walk into your local retailer and pick up a plain old box with a manual and the game; these days, you can choose from up to three flavors of your game, ranging from the basic package to some $200 monstrosity that might contain night-vision goggles, a ten-pound statue, or anything in-between.
We’ve finally started releasing GamerSushi podcasts, and we couldn’t be happier. For real, I’ve been obsessing over doing the next edition ever since we recorded the first. Hopefully you guys enjoyed it, too. 
There is nothing quite like the release of a long-standing franchise giant like Final Fantasy XIII to get some great gaming discussions going. Square-Enix’s new entry to the well known franchise has started a slew of discussions from fanboys, haters and regular gamers alike, all armed with their own talking points about a franchise with an esteemed history, and how the newest addition stacks up compared to its long line of ancestors. 
Oh, EA, you were doing so well. You started trying to publish new games in 2008 with Dead Space and Mirror’s Edge, and you took back your estranged children Vince Zampella and Jason West when they got canned by Activision. You even pledged on-going downloadable content support for your titles with “Project Ten-Dollar”, but now the true nature of this initiative rears its ugly head.
Nothing quite brings out the inner jerk in me like a good rousing game of Halo matchmaking. For the last week, I’ve been enjoying Bungie’s new multiplayer offering in the form of the Halo: Reach Beta. Kicking it up with jetpacks, armor lock, Slayer and the like awakens old habits in me at times, it seems, even though much of the gameplay is new or different. Tonight, while playing, I found myself getting irritated at trash talkers. Soon enough, I was engaging in the famed tea bag maneuver at my opponents’ expense and it was glorious.
I was originally going to slap this thing with a “Today’s WTF” prefix, but with E3 around the corner, those things are going to be coming fast and furious. Still, this little bit of news is a head-scratcher for sure. Alan Wake, the upcoming X-Box 360 exclusive by Remedy Studios is catching a bit of flack for the game’s facial animations which apparently don’t match up with the tone of voice the character is using. For such a story driven tale, you can bet this has caused some consternation amongst the game’s reviewers.