I picked it up yesterday... the version with the DVD... with demos of almost every Warhammer game in existence. :D
The highlights:
News on WH40K: Dawn of War 2. True, all of it is old news by now, but really, it just doesn't get old. Destructable environments, Havok physics, updated graphics, a departure from the traditional base-building model... it's a whole new kind of RTS, and I cannot wait to see it in action.
New screenshots of SC2: Um, no... I haven't gone over to the "Blizz-side" *cue asthmatic breathing*. Rather, being able to put the Zerg preview side-by-side with DoW2's screenshots just reinforces my belief that Blizzard had better watch out... Relic's gunning for their crown.
The PC Gaming Alliance: You can find more information about it here... basically, it's a coalition of PC game developers who are aiming to standardize certain things about the industry, like minimum PC specifications. "This is a good thing?" you might ask. Consider that the top 50 sellers of last year had 50 different minimum requirements... it makes it very difficult for devs to know how to program for their target audience under those conditions, much less for the consumer to know what to upgrade.
OK, enough about the magazine...
On a whim, I picked up Hellgate: London after the price has dropped to $30 US. After installing it, and patching it (surprisingly small patch, considering all the bad press its bugginess got), I proceeded to charge into the post-Apocalyptic London landscape, and WOW!!! Even with its supposed minimum requirements being slightly more than my PC should be able to handle, I'm running it at medium with no choppiness. It looks good, it plays good (shooting zombies? chopping them up? frying them with magic? oh the possibilities!!!) and I'm wondering why the bad press?
I'm currently researching parts for a new PC for the house, because a.) only one PC in the house is seriously causing problems, because everyone wants their time on it, and b.) there's no way I can justify trying to install DoWII on my poor, suffering machine (CoH won't run at anything but the lowest settings). I'm sticking with my usual AMD CPU/nVidia GPU setup, but I may decide to up my sound card to something a little more muscular (on-board sound is definitely out!).
And no, I have no plans on buying a console for GTAIV... I have no objections to the game, it's just not my styIe of play. I'm more of a fantasy RPG/ strategy gaming guy. Stealing cars and shooting criminals? No.
I still haven't looked into how to put up a video chapter of the strategy series, but I have an entire weekend ahead of me with nothing to do, so I'll keep you all posted.
Until the next time... hasta luego.