It's surprising to find myself here, writing this week's Alt-Tab. Not because I'm getting tired of writing about incredibly promising PC titles like Demigod but because I just can't stop playing them. To be specific, I'm speaking of the Beta 1A update for the title that added a new map, a new demigod and several tweaks that prove a little bit more content can go a long way. Continue reading to check out what's new with the ongoing beta experience for Gas Powered Games' Demigod.

When it comes to a particularly good game, what matters most? I'm not talking about the old checklist videogame reviewers used to rely on -- and often still do -- such as music, graphics, presentation, etc. What I'm getting at here are the qualities which make a game stand above the rest in our collective minds. I've boiled it down to five particular areas in which I think a game needs to nail down in order to be more than the sum of its parts.

Somewhere between Popcap's rise to power and Spore's retail release I've found myself both enjoying and being annoyed by the rise of casual gaming. The word "casual" is at best prescribed to games like Peggle or flash-based web games of higher quality. At worst, it's a buzzword, a fallacy and often a crutch. It's because of this that whenever a developer says their game is targeted at more casual audiences, my internal alarms go off in a big way.

You've probably been hearing buzz around the internet about Warhammer Online, and if you haven't then it's likely you will very soon. The game is launching today and with that comes the surge of new game discussion. This isn't anything new, as there was buzz around the Age of Conan launch, too. So why is this particular game so special that you'd want to know about it? Follow the break and I'll give you the low-down.

PC gaming as we know it is dead. That's right, dead. Don't worry though, it's long since been reborn. Now worry again, because it's here for your brains! This week I'll explore the undead realm of gaming. Meaning everything from games literally featuring the undead, to stuff everyone assumed was gone, but has since returned. Click through for the juicy brai- I mean, feature.

There were many PC titles this last weekend at PAX08, but out of everything that I got my grubby hands on, Demigod was easily the biggest surprise. The fine folks from Gas Powered Games and Stardock were there in full force and as much as I love Sins of a Solar Empire, it seems like Demigod is my new favorite real-time strategy underdog.

Just as Sins is a strange blend of RTS and Civ-style games, Demigod is a blend of RTS and various PC RPGs. Given my penchant for games that blend RPGs into a genre I already enjoy, I'd always been interested in what Demigod had to offer. After playing it at PAX08, I'm ready to lay down my pre-order directly to Stardock's Impulse service. Follow the image above for plenty of discussion on GPS's newest creation, Demigod.

Anyone could come up with a lot of reasons for why Valve is such a successful company. Ask any two people what makes Valve so successful and they'll probably point to different things. Some will say their cabal style game design and free content updates. While others will point to the Steam platform, mod support and integration of top mod designers. Some may even call out Gabe Newell himself. Oh and don't forget Doug Lombardi, either. We could go on and on about just what made (and continues to make) Valve so very special. Though I doubt it's any single one of those things as opposed to many of them at the right moments in the right way. Or in other words, a lot of chance, determination and some vision.

What I do think can be gleaned from the success of Valve, is where PC gaming will -- or at least should be -- going over the next few years. Hit the image above to take a look at what I think their model of game design and business decisions has to offer the wider PC gaming market.

One of the biggest problems for real-time strategy (RTS) games has been the detached and disinterested attitude many players exhibit when faced with playing them. More often than not, a lot of people who consistently play RTS games are doing so out of their love for the strategy element. That's all well and good, but there's a caveat: The problem continues. Why? It does so because the cache of players who're highly dedicated to RTS games don't count for much of the PC gaming contingent.

I've considered Relic Entertainment a top-drawer developer ever since I casually sat down to play Homeworld 2, only to discover a game that would absorb several tens of hours of my life. So when initial previews revealed that Dawn of War 2 (DoW2) wouldn't focus on player-built structures, I was intrigued. I continued to read up on the game and subsequently found even more provocative information. Players will only control five or so squads in any one battle? These squads are to stay with you over the course of the game? This was a glaringly unprecedented change, and I loved it.

Click the image above to continue reading "Alt-Tab: Can RPG + RTS = cute baby?"

Have you ever spotted information about a game floating around the Internet, practically waving its hands and jumping up and down for your attention? Did you ignore that friendly, lonely information asking you to just give it a chance? Shame on you! Well, sorry, not shame on you, since you're obviously reading this Fallout 3 preview. Actually, calling this a preview would be a bit misleading. Instead, think of this as a look into the reasoning for you to love Fallout 3.

In the spirit of Fallout 3, we've created our own mutant rats. We call them love-rats, which are foot-sized rats possessing shockingly tiny front-legs and disturbing large hind-legs. We hope that you're highly resistant to love-rats, because we're about to unleash them unto your face so they can skitter and nibble you with their filthy infected love-maws!

Download the latest Fallout 3 HD Trailer

Several screens from Treyarch's Call of Duty 5 have found their way to the internet by a few German websites. This NeoGAF thread has them all in one place for your viewing ease. The screens give us our first glimpse of the World War II Pacific Theater setting in all of its jungle-y glory. While the WWII setting is a bit of a letdown after CoD4's much-appreciated move to the modern era, the Pacific Theater is at least a little interesting. We have a feeling that guys hacking around with machetes will be an ongoing theme in CoD5. Oh and don't forget the samurai swords, there's even a screen showing off some possible melee action.

One other thing we can easily derive from the screenshots is that there's going to be a big, nasty flamethrower featured in the game. Whether or not players will actually get to use the flame-gushing weapon is of course unknown. We only hope that for the sake of everyone involved there is some flamethrowing action coming our way.

[via ars technica]

Robin Walker is a Valve game designer who most notably worked/works on Team Fortress 2. He recently spoke at an event about how he sees Valve -- and other developers -- as service providers. It's certainly an interesting thesis to read through and well worth your attention. Walker goes on to explain his thesis, but he also dishes out discussion on Team Fortress 2 as well. The three main goals the team had for TF2 were long-term fun, indefinite free-content and rewards for player investment. Walker goes on to explain how the team reached these goals and their effect on the community and the game. There's some talk about how the medic update affected the player base, which is always an interesting topic for a TF2 player.

For Walker it all comes down to developers thinking about their roles from a community-orientated angle. He also says that it's important for a developer be able to dictate how much of what data from players they want to examine and that having a close relationship to the player base is the best way to do this. It's not an entirely new concept, but one we think developers should continually remind themselves about.

The newest wave of news about Dawn of War II is coming out of Relic and 1up.com has not only a three page interview with the game designers up, but a podcast discussing the game and even a short gameplay video. One of the biggest pieces of new information is that the strategy game will not feature base building. Instead players will control up to about five squads that stick with them throughout the singleplayer campaign. Of course Relic is keeping their lips sealed about whether or not a similar structure exists in the online mode.

Another subject that they're not speaking on is additional races beyond Space Marines and the Orks. Relic has said in the past that they would consider doing Tyranids Zerg Tyranids for DoW2. We're sure that by this point fans of the "Great Devourer" have become an extremely vocal crowd considering their race was the only one never to be officially featured in the original Dawn of War, even after numerous expansions. Maybe we'll see a new playable race revealed at this year's E3 and if fans are lucky they'll finally get .

If you just can't get enough of those super-cute Zerg, then let us direct your attention towards the newest Blizzcast where lead designer Dustin Browder gets chatted up on everyone's favorite carapace menace. Specifically this discussion starts out being all about the Zerg Queen unit and how when playing with her it feels a lot like a game of cat and mouse. Dustin goes on to say that you can think of her as a classic science fiction monster.

Then the discussion moved onto the Ultralisk unit, which is still in a state of flux. It seems like the dev team hasn't quite figured out just what they want the unit to play like and that's to be expected for a late-game unit that doesn't see as much playtime as the rest of the Zerg. There's quite a bit more beyond even that, so if you're a diehard Starcraft II junkie we'll just point you to the page so you can listen in for yourself.

When The Sims first made its foray into the online space via The Sims Online things didn't turn out so good in the end. Even with its less-than-stellar performance the game and its publisher Electronic Arts kept the online world around for a long time. Electronic Arts recently attempted to re-brand the game as EA-Land, although that venture's lifespan was far shorter than The Sims Online's original jaunt into the multiplayer space. So when the head of EA's Sims division Nancy Smith talks about future possibilities with online content in The Sims series, we're a bit skeptical.

Granted, there's apparently a lot ton of money to be made in said online space. So maybe it's not too crazy to think that Electronic Arts could be reassessing their options for a spiritual successor to The Sims Online. Who knows? Maybe The Sims 3 has some online features yet to be divulged. Although we would wager that such an online component would probably be featured in an expansion pack, as per the series' standard stratagem.

Eternal Silence may not be the newest Half-Life 2 mod around but it's certainly one of the more compelling projects. We're always up for some epic space battles, which his what Eternal Silence is all about. ModDB recently ran a preview of the newest beta build (the 3.0 build, if you're curious) and gave their overall impressions.

It seems as though the space environments have been markedly improved, especially the lighting and shading elements. However, being a beta build means there is still work to be done and in the case of Eternal Silence the interiors have yet to be finished. It should be mentioned that indoor visual improvements have been promised by the development team, Crank Shaft, for the next beta build. It's all part of the mod experience and means we have something to look forward to in the near future. There's plenty of screens and even videos towards the bottom of the preview, so check it out if you'd like to see the game in motion.