NewsTop 20 Best-Selling PC Games of February: Want Some Dawn of War II with Your F.E.A.R. 2?

Posted 03/13/09 at 02:24:17 AM by Nathan Grayson

Big-name sequels charting well in their first month of sales? No way. Also clown-in-your-cake surprising is Fallout 3’s staying power (the game first launched in October!), for which we use the only portion of Left 4 Dead that didn’t also claw its way into the top 20 to give a hearty thumb-up.

Check out the full list:

1. World Of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King / Blizzard / $38 (Average)
2. The Sims 2 Double Deluxe / EA Maxis / $19 (Average)
3. Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War II / Relic / $49 (Average)
4. World Of Warcraft: Battle Chest / Blizzard / $37 (Average)
5. F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin / Monolith / $50 (Average)
6. Spore / EA Maxis / $45 (Average)
7. World Of Warcraft / Blizzard / $18 (Average)
8. The Sims 2 Apartment Life Exp. Pack / EA Maxis / $20 (Average)
9. Fallout 3 / Bethesda / $47 (Average)
10. World Of Warcraft: Burning Crusade Expansion Pack / Blizzard / $28 (Average)
11. Call Of Duty: World At War / Treyarch / $46 (Average)
12. Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 / EA LA / $30 (Average)
13. Left 4 Dead / Valve / $46 (Average)
14. The Sims 2 Deluxe / EA Maxis / $3 (Averge)
15. Civilization IV / Firaxis / $21 (Average)
16. The Sims 2 Mansion & Garden Stuff Exp. / EA Maxis / $18 (Average)
17. StarCraft Battle Chest / Blizzard / $20 (Average)
18. Spore Creepy & Cute Parts Pack / EA Maxis / $18 (Average)
19. Diablo Battle Chest / Blizzard / $34 (Average)
20. The Sims 2 Pets Exp. / EA Maxis / $19 (Average)

As usual, these sales pertain only to retail stores and probably just pull up next to the Internet playing their loud music in a sad attempt to make online retailers feel jealous.
 
So, what’d you buy last month?

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NewsF.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin Demo Now Encountering and Assaulting PCs

Posted 01/22/09 at 09:48:21 PM by Nathan Grayson

“Huh?! Oh – hello there. Sorry if we seem a tad shaken; we’ve been playing the newly released F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin demo, and the default control scheme must’ve jammed our pretzeled fingers right into an alt-tab. Guess we should have seen that coming after the first F.E.A.R.’s somewhat cumbersome default controls, but then, we can’t lean around corners anymore, so forgive us for our lack of vision.

Now then, we’re just going to hop back into the game and—hey! Is that crying? Oh my, we think it’s a little girl. And she’s all alone, her tears softly landing atop the spilled jars of strawberry jam she was clearly trying to sell. Talk to you later, everyone; we’re off to become some little girl’s hero!”

--Nathan Grayson (1989-2009)

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NewsExclusive: F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin Interview

Posted 12/18/08 at 06:37:50 PM by Nathan Grayson

F.E.A.R. was, without a doubt, one of 2005's best first-person shooters -- deftly mixing balls-to-the-wall, head-exploding action with pee-your-pants level horror. Even better, its sequel, F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin, is poised to top its award-winning older brother in every conceivable way. We were lucky enough to engage in a quick email exchange with Craig Hubbard, F.E.A.R. 2's Principal Game Designer, and we're posting it here for you today. 

MPC: Is this the end of the F.E.A.R. story? Are we going for a trilogy?

Craig Hubbard, Principal Game Designer: As you’d probably expect, our immediate focus is getting the game done. Beyond that, who can say?

MPC: Was the story arc planned from the beginning, or has it evolved as it’s moved along?

CH: It evolved quite a bit, but that’s normal. What works on paper doesn’t always pan out when you implement it, so you have to make adjustments and do what’s right for the game. We also decided to take out the subplot about the unicorn who lost its horn. It was very emotionally resonant, but didn’t really fit the tone.

MPC: What’s the biggest problem you had with the original F.E.A.R.? How do you aim to correct it in the sequel?

CH: The biggest complaint people had with F.E.A.R. was that the environments were repetitive and bland. The sequel has much more varied and interesting settings.

MPC: Are you developing the game simultaneously for consoles and PC? What’s the game’s lead platform?

CH: The team knew how to make PC games but hadn’t done a console title before, so it was easier to ensure that decisions made for the consoles would work on the PC rather than the other way around. When the project started, we didn’t have our tech up and running on PS3 yet, so Xbox 360 ended up being the lead platform by default but we are still developing for all three platforms at the same time.

Continue reading for Hubbard's opinions on DRM, game engines, AI, and the British Empire. 

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