I’ve heard nothing but good things about Darksiders. I’m glad that I passed on the console version now.

I use the Complete Mod when I play Shadows of Chernobyl. I imagine the Clear Sky edition is also worth using.

Perhaps I felt so few things were worth sharing this week because The Onion set such a high standard on Monday.

I got a new dog. Her name is Flipsy and I adopted her from a rescue. I’d almost forgotten what it’s like to have a dog. I’d almost forgotten what my previous dog even looked like. Saya was afraid of cameras; Flipsy doesn’t mind them. I only hope I don’t get tired of taking pictures.

I’ve been playing Battlefield: Bad Company 2. I wrote a story about the multiplayer. I keep forgetting single player’s even there. I default to the Engineer kit because I like the M2 Carl Gustav recoilless rifle. I can’t hit helicopters with it yet, but it has a larger blast radius and less regard for gravity than other launchers. This makes it good against infantry and lightly armored vehicles. Players say Carl is overpowered. I think they’re forgetting the 40mm grenade launcher, the M60 light machine gun, and the mortar strike. Rock, paper, shrapnel — every kit has its gimmick.

I only wish DICE would fix auto-team balance. Many games are ruined when a team loses and half its players quit, leaving the remainder overwhelmed. And then the server’s dead. It happens every day and it’s terrible. But I love this game.
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Good show. Third party DRM in Steam games makes no sense.

I could follow my instinct to disbelieve Ubisoft, but I think if Valve were taking a moral stance against DRM by removing games from Steam, they’d do it in all territories.

I clicked this headline in my Google Reader expecting to be taken to an article at The Onion.

$5 per new map? Who else is glad they didn’t buy Modern Warfare 2? Phew.

Good one here; I’ve been enjoying the mini-series. I hope it’s in for as good a run as the Knights of The Old Republic comic was.

Perhaps Microsoft and EA weren’t the villains we thought? Ah, probably they were.

I’m more excited for Skate 3 than ever. Graded challenges, landing feedback, and hardcore mode are longstanding features of the Tony Hawk games. Jason Lee was in the last good one (Project 8), too. They should fit well.

Midnight Brown is a Hip hop duo based in Petaluma California and composed of Jeff Gerstmann (GameSpot, GiantBomb) and Chris Henderson. Summer of Angst, featured below, is from the album Deadly Electric. It and Midnight Brown’s three other albums are available for free at MidnightBrown.com.

True. I might have bought Assassin’s Creed II if it weren’t for Ubisoft’s DRM. Maybe not at $60, but eventually. Now I won’t, not until the DRM is gone.

This is too bad for people who bought the game, but this is good for those of us who abstained because of the DRM. Keep making noise.

How’d he make his beard so pointy?

I think InstantAction and OnLive are too different to make any fair comparisons. OnLive render the game remotely and stream the video, whereas InstantAction streams the game itself and processes locally. GameTap is probably a fairer comparison in that regard as many of their games can be played when only partially downloaded. That functionality coupled with the 20 minute demos make InstantAction sound more like a 21st century shareware service.

This product couldn’t appeal to me less.

Preach.

I take this as confirmation of what we PC evangelists have been saying for a long time: the market isn’t dying, it’s changing.

And I expect Steam on Mac will make PC gaming’s growth this year even stronger.

And I thought I was going to make it to May without buying another new game.

Crouched, my squad and I crept along a low ridge, calling in enemy positions to the other squads. Brittle, wintry trees provided cover as we moved behind our objective, taking the slow approach. We had time, and we had an angle. We were invisible.

And then Kozlov slipped.

The snow hadn’t settled around our sniper before he had seized the enemy’s attention. He hastened to find cover, but found only bushes and the trees that, when on the ridge, gave him adequate protection from enemy eyes, but offered none from enemy fire. The three of us still on the ridge watched in still silence as gunfire caused the trees, and Kozlov along with them, to fall. We were exposed.

The explosives came next, flung, propelled, and dropped from the sky. Popov, our medic, jumped right into the shit, hurrying to resuscitate the unsure-footed Kozolv. But he didn’t see the grenade in his way — the shit overcame him.

Sokolov and I were left on the ridge. I struggled with my fight or flight instinct as he mastered his, and flew. Torn, but thinking it the nobler thing to do, I dove into the white hell below. My AUG made two short bursts and let go of six rounds which made their new home in an enemy sniper. I searched our departed medic’s gear and scrambled to ready the defibrillator as I, like Kozlov, Popov, and so many trees before me, fell.

But death did not take me. Instead I lay in the war-stained powder contemplating our missteps. We had all made some. And then my vision went white; when it cleared I saw Sokolov, who held two whining paddles, moving for cover behind a rock. I joined him there and dropped a box of ammo at our feet. Moments later, the instigative Kozlov and Popov redeployed next to us, and we partook of medical supplies. All without a word, we prepared to have another go.

I’ve already written about Portal 2 and the build-up to this formal announcement, but there’s one thing I didn’t know then: Portal 2 has co-op. Besides that, I’m considering the creative marketing campaign as the PC version announcement; this press release and Game Informer cover are for Xbox 360 players.

Hopes fulfilled.

Bad Company producer Patrick Bach talks about what makes Battlefield Battlefield, and the differences between designing for console players and PC players.

Despite reports to the contrary, yes, Silent Hunter 5 is cracked.

Probably the worst thing Activision did this week.

They also did this. I’m less interested in what’s happening now, though, than I am in what’s happening in a year or two when West and Zampella have a new game.

This is several weeks old, but I’ve only just seen it this week. And it’s relevant again. It’s educational and entertaining, even though it’s from the Xbox 360 perspective.