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It's been a full week since the recent TF2 "Manniversary" Update. Ever since the release, I have experienced crash upon crash upon crash. I have uninstalled and reinstalled my video driver several times with no luck. I own over 100 other games, all of which are working fine, so I know there is no issue on the hardware side of things. The crashes occur no more than 5 minutes every game, just enough time to get your head in the game before you crash to the desktop.

So, why the delay, Valve? Sure, there have been issues like this after every other major update, but an entire week? It just seems a bit lazy on their part.

On the flip side, I have quite enjoyed the new plethora of hats added to the game, and even acquired my own Surgeon's Stahlhelm and Stethoscope. Complete with my Physician's Mask, I am thoroughly scrubbed in and ready to get my healz on. Now, where did Archimedes fly off to again...

According to a recent PC Gamer news article, Ubisoft has experienced a total of 90% drop in PC game sales over the past 2 years. That's a huge decrease, and one that Ubisoft blames almost entirely on the problem of piracy.

Could PC gamers who pirate Ubisoft games have that much of an influence on sales? Ubisoft implemented its famous DRM (Digital Rights Management) a few years back. Anyone who's played a legit game run by DRM (because pirated copies don't use it, interestingly enough) could agree that at the most it interferes with the game and at worst completely screws up the system it is installed on.

As a gamer who recently purchased Splinter Cell: Conviction in hopes that it would satisfy my Splinter Cell itch, I was grossly disappointed. The game felt half-thrown together, with the same physics and graphics I enjoyed almost 5 years ago. Where's the original story, gameplay and controls that I enjoyed in the first game? Thankfully I didn't buy the game at full price.

I am not a cheap PC gamer. I don't pirate games period, and especially wouldn't if I felt that developer actually poured work into it and was hospitable toward the PC gaming community instead of blaming gamers for their own failures. I preordered Skyrim from Bethesday for this very reason, as well as Battlefield 3.

My suggestion to Ubisoft? Invest in the PC market like you mean it. Create games like you did years ago and stop trying to port things over. And when you're losing 90% sales in the PC market, maybe the problem isn't the community. Something to consider.

According to a recent BF3Blog post, EA and Valve are in the late stages of talks to get the much-anticipated Battlefield 3 to be available through Steam.

Earlier this year, EA had pulled some of its items from Steam including Crysis 2, in what many PC gamers hailed as a very bad move. The decision was also reached around the same time that EA would not be offering Battlefield 3 through Steam in what was apparently a heated argument over DLC betwixt the two software giants.

I am hopeful that we can expect better communication and possibly even some level of integration/content sharing between Valve and EA. It would definitely be a shame to split the PC gamer world into two factions. It makes better sense in my mind to appeal to the largest group of gamers possible.

So, kudos to you, makers of great games.

Before reading this, grab your favorite drink and prepare to yawn a few times throughout! :) --- My love affair with gaming began as early as I can remember. My older bro had an NES () that was all the rage in those days. We played all the greatest hits: Contra, Mario Bros., Zelda, Techmo Super Bowl, Jordan vs. Bird, Roger Clemens, and loads of others. If the console didn't want to read the cartridge, we'd just take the cartridge out, clean the circuit board with a little alcohol, blow in the console to remove the dust, then slap it back in there. If it was real stubborn, we'd slam the cartridge in at an odd angle and that would usually fix it. That old NES lasted many days. Eventually, however, there was a new kid on the console block: the Super NES. This thing wasn't just a new NES - it was Super. I was able to take my love for drawing to Mario Paint, as well as hammer it out with new games like Final Fight, NBA Jam, Super Mario, Mortal Kombat, Battletoads, Donkey Kong Country, Star Fox, Contra, and Link to the Past. The side-scrollers had begun to evolve into the next generation. We also played the SEGA Genesis at our friend's house. I remember a few comic-book type games but nothing stands out. 1996. An epic year in the history of gaming, for it was the year the Nintendo 64 was released. Oh joyous day - with it, and played it for hours waking up as early as possible to be able to play it. It was a blast, and still is. However, not long afterwards I received what history books call the father of the modern FPS - Goldeneye 007. This game was cutting edge, and I ate every bit of it up. This game alone pulled me into the FPS genre, and though I played other awesome games a lot (not neglecting to mention Ocarina of Time), GoldenEye sent me to the next level of gaming. We also played the PlayStation quite a bit during this time. Metal Gear Solid was unforgettable, but one game in particular set me off in the FPS direction as much as or more than GoldenEye 007 did. It was . Keep the title in mind as I continue, because we'll come back to it. My family had a PC back in the day of 64, a Windows 95 machine that had been upgraded to 98'. The tower had to weigh at least 40 pounds and appeared to be made out of mostly metal. We had a CD-ROM drive, but our external data we saved onto floppy disks. My very first PC game I remember distinctly, was . The game didn't let you walk around, but being able to play a 3D game like that on the PC was amazing to me. I began to look at the PC as more of a multi-faceted piece of hardware, something that allowed you to both work and play. I later got into which really sucked me in. I got into SimCity a little bit as well, but Civ was my game. Begin 2001. After having enjoyed the PlayStation and N64 for a few years, gamers were longing for more. I didn't have to wait long, because at Christmas 2001, my brother bought me a PlayStation 2. Not only that, but also outlandish moves. Not long after the initial wear of the PS2 wore off, I got into the Xbox scene. Of course you can't mention Xbox without Halo in the same sentence. I was immediately engrossed in the story and addicting gameplay mechanics. I also got into and ventured into the RPG genre with the added FPS. One game got me back into PC gaming to stay: Team Fortress 2 . I killed over 600 soldiers in favor of the Demoman (scrumpy ftw). Shortly after BC2 was released in 2010, I joined the BC2 Division to help get it on its feet. Duality led the division and did an amazing job. I contributed to the Awards System with the. It was a blast, but due to my PC being a dual-core and not having a great GPU, I decided to head back to TF2 until I could get a decent system. In 2011 I rejoined BC2 Division and have been practicing ever since getting ready for Battlefield 3. Well, that's it folks. Thanks for staying alive long enough to read this. Peace, ~B