For the uninitiated, still no official confirmation on the release date for Epic Games’ PC revitalization of Gears of War (UPDATE: Scratch that, it’s November 6th). But for those still pondering how the controls will fair on the trusty ol’ keyboard and mouse, Joystiq’s Andrew Yoon has news for you! After getting his hands-on a build from the DigitalLife Convention in NY, it seems the “A button” - which is normally used for a variety of functions in the X360 version - won’t have any sort of equivalent to it.

Double tapping a directional button will trigger the appropriate animation, such as running, dodging and taking cover. For example, double tap W to jump forward. If a wall is in front of you, Marcus will cling to the wall and automatically take cover, as in the Xbox 360 version. Once in cover mode, spacebar will perform a context-sensitive action, as indicated by the icon on screen. It doesn’t have the same fluidity of a controller, but for WASD fans, this is a perfect solution, as nothing is lost in the translation. Heck, even the “look at cool stuff” button returns as well (this time, mapped to Q).

And if even this idea doesn’t appease skeptical newcomers, all that juicy extra content could more than make up for it. New missions in the single player campaign, new multiplayer maps, a bundled game editor… the works!

Patience, Iago. Patience.

Looks like Microsoft is finally waking up to the fact that its Xbox 360 almost hammered the nail into PC gaming’s coffin and now they want a piece of this big pie as well. While the recently launched Games For Windows program did good, the G4W Live service blew up big time with both Halo 2 Vista and Shadowrun doing horrendously in the markets. Not to be outdone, Microsoft is stepping up to the plate with even more bats, all of them G4W Live enabled, including:

• “The Club” (SEGA)
• “Gears of War” (Microsoft Game Studios)
• “Juiced 2: Hot Import Nights” (THQ)
• “Kane & Lynch: Dead Men” (Eidos)
• “Universe at War: Earth Assault” (SEGA)
• “Viva Piñata” (Microsoft Game Studios)

In addition, the games at E3 that will bear the Games For Windows banner include:

• “Age of Empires® III: The Asian Dynasties” (Microsoft Game Studios)
• “Bee Movie™ Game” (Activison)
• “BlackSite: Area 51” (Midway Games)
• “Clive Barker’s Jericho™” (Codemasters)
• “The Club” (SEGA)
• “Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts” (THQ)
• “Empire Earth® 3” (Sierra Entertainment)
• “Fallout® 3” (Bethesda Softworks®)
• “Flight Simulator X: Acceleration” (Microsoft Game Studios)
• “Gears of War” (Microsoft Game Studios)
• “Hour of Victory” (Midway Games)
• “John Woo Presents Stranglehold” (Midway Games)
• “Juiced 2: Hot Import Nights” (THQ)
• “Kane & Lynch: Dead Men” (Eidos)
• “Nancy Drew®: Legend of Crystal Skull” (Her Interactive Inc.)
• “Operation Flashpoint™ 2” (Codemasters)
• “Rise of the Argonauts” (Codemasters)
• “Rogue Warrior” (Bethesda Softworks)
• “SEGA Rally Revo” (SEGA)
• “Sid Meier’s Civilization IV®: Beyond the SwordTM” (2K Games)
• “Sid Meier’s Civilization IV: Gold Edition” (2K Games)
• “Spider-Man™: Friend or Foe” (Activision)
• “Star Wars® Empire at War®: Gold Pack” (LucasArts)
• “The Witcher” (Atari)
• “Thrillville™: Off the Rails™” (LucasArts)
• “Turning Point™: Fall of Liberty” (Codemasters)
• “Universe at War: Earth Assault™” (SEGA)
• “Viva Piñata” (Microsoft Game Studios)
• “Zoo Tycoon® 2: Extinct Animals” (Microsoft Game Studios)

So what if Gears and UE3.0 have G4W enabled in them? I pay for Xbox Live anyway and I get this free! I don’t have any troubles. Its my sans Xbox 360 friends I am worried about.

And the information just pours in.. Barely hours after the E3 announcement that Gears of War will be coming to the PC this September, Microsoft has gone all out to promote the game with a slew of new details. Here’s all the official information straight from the horse’s mouth. Yes, you heard right, I said DirectX 10! So you can bet your bottom that the PC version will stomp all over the Xbox 360 when it comes to visuals, and thanks to the new content, even Xbox 360 owners who were simply looking at a better looking port job with Lost Planet last month now have a reason to pick this up for their PCs as well.

Check out more features, the first PC screenshots, the PC video and the larger box shot after the jump.

(more…)

We’ve all heard about how “convergence” is what will drive future technology. And it looks like we may be closer to that idea than most imagined. A new Xbox could be coming our way as a patent reveals (rather complicatedly) some of the features that could be available on the next generation of a Microsoft console. Although it cites Xbox as an example of how the patent describes a “gaming device”, it’s not completely clear if that is what the patent is for:

“A gaming system including handheld devices and console devices has variable functionality and processing performance as determined by the number of components in the system. Gaming components can be combined wirelessly, by wired connections (e.g., via a docking station), or a combination thereof. The processing capabilities and functionality of each gaming component in a combination are augmented by the processing capabilities and functionality of other gaming components in the combination. To take advantage of another gaming components processing capabilities and memory capacity, each gaming component is capable of utilizing another gaming component to process gaming applications. Further, each gaming component is capable of rendering audio and/or video information provided by another gaming component.”

The rise of the ultimate home entertainment device is here! Expect to see errors across all your Windows devices, from phones, to consoles, your MP3 players, PCs and even your car, if it will tie in to the system! Looks like Microsoft is already hard at work creating the successor to the Xbox 360, considering it’s market life of about five years! One thing’s for sure though, that patent’s probably got the largest use of the word “gaming” in all that have ever been filed. I wonder whether the next generation of the Microsoft console could “lend” its processing power to an Xbox Portable Gaming device, at least that would somehow allow me to play Fable on a handheld. Boy, how I would like something like that…

via [UnwiredView]