starcraft

We almost lost Jeff last year to Batman: Arkham Asylum, the hugely popular video game based on the popular bat-mythology. Good news for gamers: The Dark Knight will return next year with a sequel called Batman: Arkham City. According to inside sources, Arkham City will debut on the Xbox 360, Playstation 3, and PC next fall, but you can watch the teaser trailer and even preorder the game right now!

Images of the next-generation Apple iPod Touch have been popping up on the Internet, and it looks like the next version will feature an updated camera with a LED flash … Read more

The past several years have seen a steady drumbeat of negative prognostications for PC gaming, both as a creative medium and as a viable business. High-profile releases were steered to living room consoles, with perfunctory PC ports at best, and messy DRM and hardware incompatibility made many of the remaining PC games more trouble than they were worth.

Magazines such as Computer Gaming World shut down (after an embarrassing sponsored name change to Games for Windows Magazine) and the only bright spot seemed to be the online multiplayer game World of Warcraft--even if other MMO entries found it hard to bottle that lightning twice.

No one was more at the forefront playing Taps for PC gaming than myself, having gone from a cheerleading booster to sober realist in the space of a few short years.

Yet, for the first time in a long time, I find myself much more interested in what's going on the PC side of the video game industry than the console side. My office and home laptops are suddenly buzzing with new and upcoming games, including StarCraft II, Civilization V, and OnLive's various streaming-game offerings--whereas this year's big list of holiday season console releases elicits a shrug at best, filled by the annual installments of mass-market cash cows. How did this potential reversal of fortune take place?

First, the companies that make PC games and the consumers who play them all seemingly decided it was OK to stretch the boundaries and leave their respective comfort zones. The seeds were planted over the past few years as game publishers opened the door to new ways to distribute their wares, losing the most frustrating parts of the DRM equation with services such as Steam and Battle.net (say what you will about online authentication, it works a lot better than discs, especially for those of us who like to install games on multiple PCs).

The next step was online stores like Good Old Games that offer classic games for less than $10, completely DRM-free. It's amazing how much goodwill one can build up by not treating customers like criminals.… Read more

The release of Starcraft II not only signifies what's arguably the most notable PC game release in a while, but also marks one of the longest periods of time in between two franchise releases (not counting expansion packs). After 12 years, developer Blizzard Entertainment is finally set to release the follow-up to the 1998 real-time-strategy instant classic, Starcraft.

Set in a far-off galaxy in the 26th century, Starcraft II has three chapters, the first of which (Wings of Liberty) will release July 27. Later on, two expansion packs will add on to the game, fleshing out the fate of … Read more

Dong returns from Vietnam--the land of $2,000 iPhone 4s--and picks up on girls in shorty shorts and sweats...a lot. We then discuss the draconian-like Facebook rules in the old country and dole out our required amount of Blizzard love.

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Thursdays are always special on The 404 Podcast because Natali Del Conte drops by to help us discuss stories, but today we say TTFN to our Loaded friend as she takes time off to take care of our little co-host-to-be. Since today is the last time she'll be on the show for awhile, we make a solemn oath to leave pickles, Inception, and iPhones out of the day's news rundown.

Remember Chatroulette, the Web site that uses your webcam to put you in a video chat sesion with a person on the Internet? It might be so three … Read more

Game developer Blizzard has backed down on a plan to require users of its official online forums to register with real names, just days after announcing the move.

The shift, announced Friday in a message posted to the company's forums, followed a firestorm of criticism from users expressing privacy concerns.

"We've been constantly monitoring the feedback you've given us, as well as internally discussing your concerns about the use of real names on our forums," Mike Morhaime, CEO and co-founder of Blizzard Entertainment, wrote in the Friday post. "As a result of those discussions, we've decided at this time that real names will not be required for posting on official Blizzard forums."

Morhaime stressed that the real-name requirement was not to be confused with the optional in-game Real ID system that's now live with World of Warcraft and launching soon with StarCraft II. That system is a voluntary, optional level of identity designed to keep players connected even outside of games with features such as cross-game and cross-realm chat and real names on friends lists.

Forum users met Morhaime's announcement with hundreds of pages of messages, many of them thanking Blizzard ("Fantastic. Thanks for restoring my faith in you guys," read one post typical of the mood on the boards. Read another: "The little guy wins!").

Some, however, tempered their relief with caution. "Although I certainly am grateful for the announcement, I...am concerned about the use of 'At This Time,'" wrote another poster. "This is definitely code for "At some point, we may consider trying again." … Read more

They print anything and everything on aircraft these days. Following Pikachu and the recent Gundam mecha skins on Japan's All Nippon Airways, StarCraft II has also joined the sky high club, with two Korean Air planes--a B747-400 and a B737-900--wrapped with the image of terran hero Jim Raynor from the game. These birds will fly both the domestic and international routes in the U.S. and Europe for six months from June 24 and early July, respectively.

Back on the ground, four Korean Air limousine buses skinned with StarCraft II characters will also be in service throughout this period. … Read more

This week, we go on and on about incredibly difficult-to-pronounce product names, which is just every product Dong comes in contact with. No, I kid! Actually, no I'm not kidding. No, of course, I'm joking! Um, no, it's true, he really has a problem. Oh, come on, you guys fall for the easiest jokes. Seriously, he needs help.

Then, we talk about games. Dong's playing Starcraft 2 and brags about how he's beating beginners; and I'm knee deep in Super Street Fighter 4 and getting my hat handed to me.

Finally, power-line adapters and … Read more

Starcraft II fans who want to tout their strategies and winning scores will soon be able to conveniently do that in the usual place: Facebook.

Blizzard Entertainment announced Wednesday that its next-generation online gaming platform, called Battle.net, which hosts the upcoming and highly anticipated RTS StarCraft II, will integrate with Facebook to offer players an enhanced social-gaming experience.

The first step in the integration will enable StarCraft II players to quickly add Blizzard gamers who are their friends on Facebook to their Battle.net friend lists, facilitating their social-gaming experience on the service. This means you can forgo the … Read more