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When it released, Braid blew the entire world away with its art and some of the most amazing, innovative gameplay mechanics anyone had ever seen. And the fact that it snuggled comfortably into the Microsoft Xbox 360 exclusive stable all this time didn’t make the PC gamers all too happy, especially considering the PC version kept getting pushed back with each passing day.
Not anymore. According to Stardock software, the PC version of Braid is coming to their Impulse digital distribution platform come March 31, 2009! According to the pre-orders page on the ImpulseDriven site, the game will cost $19.95, almost $5 more than the Xbox LIVE Arcade version does, which should probably start another rant from the PC camp, but hey, at least you didn’t have to invest in a console, right?
How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice, practice, practice! And if that fails, an inexpensive GPS, Google Maps and front-row tickets could probably do wonders. But how do you get to Jaspreet Bindra, the man holding all the strings to Microsoft India’s Entertainment & Devices Division? Well, after trying for over four months through the usual PR channels, we finally decided to use my Xbox MVP status to try and spend some quality time with the newly appointed Country Manager and ask some really hard hitting questions that were just burning to be answered. So, last Wednesday, with a lot of help from the absolutely adorable Abhishek Kant – Community Program Manager for Microsoft India – we managed to burn up the telephone wires for the better part of an hour with the warm and very approachable Jaspreet and the Assistant Product Manager for the Xbox 360 – Sanjoy John, getting down to brass tacks about the Xbox 360 and the Games for Windows platforms in India.
We were originally supposed to schedule a video interview with him sometime next week, but with Vijay and Reggie rowing the slave galleon pretty hard next week (not to mention how every spare moment in Vijay’s life is now spent playing Gollum And Its Precious with his Leader Class Bulkhead action figure), we decided we’ll just roll with what we have for now and do the video interview when the stars are aligned just right. One note about the following interview, when you see text marked out in italics like this, that’s just me inserting my thoughts on what’s being said or just being the kooky klass klown. Consider yourself warned.
Though a bit late, we finally managed to get our hands on FlatOut: Ultimate Carnage (FlatOut UC) after it made the jump from being a game on the Xbox 360 almost an year back to being a PC port now. Does it manage to retain all the fun the series has been synonymous with while driving down to the PC platform? We gave it a test ride to find it for ourselves.
Know how people talk about history repeating itself, but you still see zidiots running around committing the exact same mistakes as everybody else? Apparently, in EA and BioWare’s case, that’s more than hitting the bull’s eye. In what seems to be a serious case of having gone Rip Van Winkle during the Bioshock / SecuROM SNAFU, Derek French, the Technical Producer at BioWare for Mass Effect (PC) has the beginnings of a fine mess on his hands, especially after announcing a copy protection system that makes the Bioshock activation mess (or StarForce even) seem tame by comparison.
According to Derek French, Mass Effect, scheduled to arrive on the PC this 28th, will employ the same SecuROM online activation system that was initially put into Bioshock, allowing the buyer to activate his copy of Mass Effect for 3 times before politely asking to him / her to go to hell, that is, contact the customer service “helpline” to get it reactivated. And while the game itself wouldn’t require the DVD to be physically present in the drive, it goes one step further and phones home every 10 days and re-authenticates just to make sure legit customers are not the worst form of criminal scum publishers swear we are.
There’s nothing more annoying to a PC owner than having to wait for a game that millions of others are already enjoying. Used to waiting ages for games like GTA, Halo and Fable, it came as no surprise to the PC aficionados that they’d have to endure yet another interminable wait for Gears of War, the game that sold the Xbox 360, to get to their beloved platform of choice. And just about a year later, Gears of War finally arrives for the PC, and to make up for all the lost time, brings along enough candy and flowers to make sure you don’t ever remember being stood up on this grimy, bloody date.
In what concludes our coverage from the Microsoft Xbox LIVE India press event last week, we have a quick two-minute chat with Country Manager Mohit Anand. Just right after Robbie Bach and Alan Bowman decide to hightail it out of the conference hall, those sneaky critters! We discussed with Mohit on whether there’s an expected LIVE subscription target, what GFW Live will mean for India, and the whole deal with Ubisoft. Although that last question doesn’t particularly hold much relevance, especially in light of Tech2’s recent report on Assassin’s Creed, it was something we felt that needed to be addressed. In which case, Mohit doesn’t know the reason himself! So much for that inquiry.
But seriously, do I nod too much in these videos?
It’s no surprise that Games for Windows LIVE isn’t doing too good these ever. Plagued ever since its launch with ShadowRun and Halo 2 Vista, GFW Live has had none of the polish of its Xbox 360 counterpart, nor the tons of “goodies” that make Xbox LIVE such a pleasure, especially the Marketplace and the LIVE Arcade.
All that should change come November, when Microsoft rolls out Vega, the PC version of the LIVE Arcade, along with 10-20 titles at launch, with the promise of 2-4 new games every month. With users being funneled in from various sources including MSN Games and the official Xbox website, Microsoft is hoping that Vega and the LIVE Anywhere cross-platform service offer enough of an incentive for people to pick up more subscriptions to their services. As with the Xbox 360 versions, developers will earn 60% of the game’s price, whereas Microsoft picks up the remainder, and although Microsoft has put its foot down on expanding the 150 MB size restriction for the Xbox 360, Vega should allow developers to exceed the limit, provided they can justify it.
With Vega and Gears of War coming to the PC by the end of the year, it looks like GFW LIVE may evolve into a platform that a lot of us have been wishing and hoping for. Until then, there’s always Steam and Popcap Games!