I’ll be glad when the word “save,” as a verb, is no longer used when speaking of PC gaming. While not without its problems, the platform is no longer in danger. Regardless, Brad Wardell is making some valuable observations here.

Speaking of Stardock and digital distribution, Impulse Phase IV has just launched. The new website design is much easier to navigate, and I appreciate being able to filter by price. Ready To Play appears to be Stardock’s answer to Steam Community; I’m interested to see if Impulse will capitalize on what I think is a unique opportunity to one-up Steam on community features.

On a related note, EA has just partnered with, and added several games to, Impulse. Among them is Dragon Age: Origins (pre-order), The Sims 3, and Red Alert 3 along with its expansion, Uprising, which was previously exclusive to EA’s own digital distribution service.

Although Peter Moore’s view is probably limited to consoles, technically, the PC platform should be credited with having “laid the ground” for online multiplayer, communication, and content distribution.

News of this acquisition came as a relief to me because, due to 3D Realms’ tenuous existence, I’ve had concerns about Prey 2′s status. There is no telling if Human Head is still developing it, but the Prey IP should be in good hands now, at any rate.

This is nearly 30 minues of Jeff Gerstmann and Tim Schafer walking around at PAX while talking and letting their humor play off each other. Also, nerds.

Last time I heard from Shank it was being shown as an Xbox Live Arcade game. Now, fresh from the Penny Arcade Expo, GameTrailers has an extended gameplay video that they’ve filed under the “PC” category. This is great news, if it’s not an error, as the game looks wonderful.

At last, a zombie game that isn’t a first-person or twin-stick shooter, but a sim/RPG — and from a reputable developer, no less. By the look of those screenshots, the zombies may even be shambling.

It’s refreshing to see a someone in the press willing to play and cover the PC version of a multiplatform game. It’s not even a staggered release, which is usually the only time we hear about a PC version from anyone other than PC-centric outlets.

Although I’m wary of putting stock in non-announcements, I want to believe that publishers are coming back around to treating this platform right.

By now I hope you’ve noticed common theme in the items I’ve picked this week: the PC is getting its just deserts. News like this is so plentiful lately that it’s on the verge of becoming non-news; I’m okay with that.

Well played.

Just in case you don’t have enough reasons to not buy Guitar Hero, here’s another one.

Right on, Capcom: this may well be the first decent PC port of a Resident Evil game. It has mouselook and everything, though that doesn’t seem to be doing Brad Shoemaker any favors in this video.

Ah, oops. It’s Brad Shoemaker, again. Well, this video is too important for me to worry about the Brad-to-not-Brad ratio of this post. Knowledge is power.

This isn’t news, just in case anybody was confused.

This is not okay. It’s uncalled for and it’s setting a bad precedent. They’re going to get away with it, but that doesn’t make it okay.

I very much enjoyed getting a look at Randy Pitchford’s office; he seems like a really cool guy. I can’t wait to get at a Borderlands demo, but Gearbox has recently said there won’t be one until after the game releases in October.

This may be my favorite trailer since the World in Conflict: Soviet Assault trailer from earlier this year. ArenaNet gives us a background on Guild Wars 2′s story, the races, some fantastic looking animated concept art, and finally, several minutes of in-game footage; those city designs are bananas. Also, BEARS! There are links to 720p and 1080p versions of the trailer at GuildWars2.com.

If I hadn’t been fortunate enough to snag a code for it from Ben Kuchera’s Twitter feed, I probably wouldn’t be paying attention to Trials HD right now. I had written it off as a port-and-rename of the PC version, Trials 2: Second Edition, but there is actually more to it than that. There are a bunch of mini-games, unlockable bikes (with varying performance), and a level editor. The bike physics also feel markedly different — not necessarily better, but heavier. These heavier physics have made climbing easier, but it’s now harder to pull off flips and wheelies.

Although Trials HD’s features are a strong argument for choosing it over Trials 2, Trials 2 is no less of a good game than it was before, and it’s cheaper. There’s also the possibility that Trials HD will come to PC (where it would be HDer). A thread on the Trials 2 Steam forum has a developer response saying, “At the time is only for Xbox 360.” If I didn’t already win a free code, I would be waiting to hear more about that.

Unless “configure and run their own private servers” means mod support — which would be great news for players if true — I hope they have more than just private servers planned for subscribers. I say this because I want to see Quake Live succeed; it’s unfortunate that selling ads isn’t working out for them.

Don’t let them think crap like this is okay: stop using Digsby. I recommend Pidgin or Miranda IM as alternatives.

I skimmed this. Not because it’s so long, but because I realized that I don’t want to know everything about Rage before I play it. I don’t need to know anything else. No matter what happens, I’m going to buy it, and I’m going to play it. I did watch the trailer, though, and it made me happy.

Beginning next week and continuing on through Christmas, a lot of high-profile games are going to come out. Naturally, this means information about delays (FREAK OUT!!), pre-order bonuses, and special editions is occupying news sites. This is wonderful if you’re a person who buys new games at release, but that’s not me. As such, news this week has been a let-down.

That is, except for this:

Geek-out on some Rage screenshots with me; these aren’t your daddy’s skyboxes. The PDF is worth a look as well, if you can make heads or tails of it.

It’s justice, and it wants to eat your brains.

Ah, so it’s “BRINK.” I’ve been saying it wrong. There’s a lot of technical language in this interview with Splash Damage’s Technical Director Arnout van Meer. In summary: BRINK is building upon the Quake Wars tech; these revisions should, among other things, allow BRINK to take advantage of multi-core processors on PC. Finally, there’s talk about things that Splash Damage isn’t doing, such as moving from OpenGL to DirectX 11.

“… it says on the box: ‘No Hispanics’.”