Playing a racing game on your computer might be fun, but don’t you think the experience is elevated to a whole new level when you throw in a steering wheel accessory? For those with discerning tastes, why not check out the Ferrari Wireless GT Cockpit 430 Scuderia Edition from Thrustmaster? After all, with the Ferrari branding attached to it, you can be assured of paying top dollar for high end performance. This new racing wheel was specially designed to cater to Sony PS3 and PC gamers, where it will help you feel as though you were in the cockpit of said vehicle as you attempt to capture pole position. The Ferrari Wireless GT Cockpit 430 Scuderia Edition is fully wireless, and will definitely need enough space in your living room to be placed, which means small apartments are ruled out completely. Measuring 11″ in diameter, this racing wheel has been touted to be an exact replica of the one on an actual Ferrari 430 Scuderia. June would be the release date for this drool-worthy gaming peripheral. Do polish your shoes as you don’t want to soil those all-metal pedals.

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There’s pretty much no need to write this next story, especially if you’re a fan, but… Valve, darling developers that they are, have released the very first DLC for Left 4 Dead 2, The Passing. I was supposed to mention this fact this morning, forgot about it, then logged into Steam to see something downloading. “What the heck is downloading? I don’t remember authorizing this? Oh, it’s the L4D2 DLC. Wasn’t I supposed to write about that?” As you can see, I live a very exciting life.

The DLC, which is free for PC users—Xbox 360 users have to pay 560 Microsoft Points (around $7.00)—adds the original Left 4 Dead cast to the game, along with three new maps, a couple new weapons, a new zombie type, and Achievement Points.

Additionally, Valve employees will be playing the game 7pm-11pm PDT (10pm-1am EDT) on the Xbox 360 version under the following GamerTags: L4D2 DEV 1, L4D2 DEV 2, L4D2 DEV 3, L4D2 DEV 4, L4D2 DEV 5, L4D2 DEV 6, L4D2 DEV 7, L4D2 DEV 8, L4D2 DEV 9, L4D2 DEV 10.

The PC version play-along is wrapping up as I type this, so yeah, oops.

But man, what’s the deal with Xbox 360 owners having to pay for the DLC while PC gamers don’t have to? Presumably it’s some sort of 360 licensing thing. Still, lame.

Maingear announced their latest today, the Quantum Shift workstation. Designed more for the content developer then the gamer, the Quantum Shift definitely brings the heat. Of course, you customize exactly how much power the Quantum Shift is packing, but it’s designed around Nvidia’s Quadro FX GPU technology.

What that means is that you can have up to 3 Nvidia Quadro FX based cards, giving you a GPU accelerated system that can pretty much take whatever you can throw at it. This workstation was conceived and designed specifically for the new Adobe Creative Suite, and allows up to 30 FPS in Premiere Pro. Expect to pay a premium for a machine this fast though, the Quantum Shift starts around $3,399, and goes up from there depending on how you want it customized.

From the press release:

Union, New Jersey – April 12, 2010 – MAINGEAR Computers, award-winning builders of custom computers for PC gamers, enthusiasts, and creative professionals, unveils the Quantum SHIFT Workstation, an everyday super computer that exceeds the demands of the most power hungry graphics professionals. Fully optimized for Adobe CS5, the SHIFT employs up to three NVIDIA Quadro FX graphics cards to enable a GPU accelerated Adobe Creative Suite that allows you to design with creative precision. SHIFT’s unique vertical heat-stack design ensures that your Quadro equipment remains cool and quiet no matter how intense your tasks may be.

With Adobe CS5 powered by MAINGEAR, you can navigate images like never before with GPU-accelerated scrubby zoom, bird’s eye zoom, and 3D modeling. Also, GPU-accelerated color picker, color dropper and real time brush resizing give you immersive interaction with your canvas. The CUDA-accelerated Mercury Engine in Premiere Pro gives post-production houses the power to edit more than 3 layers and multiple effects in real-time. With Quadro’s GPU acceleration in Premiere Pro, playback of two layers HDV and effects can be accelerated in real time on the GPU. At nearly 30 frames per second. Compare that to 2.2 frames per second on the CPU only.

“Adobe CS5 fully leverages the advantages of NVIDIA’s Quadro FX GPU accelerated technology,” said Wallace Santos, CEO and Founder of MAINGEAR. “Quantum SHIFT optimizes both technologies with enhanced performance and airflow, providing creative professionals with the most advanced workstation PC ever created.”

In addition, the new GeForce GTX 480 brings an unprecedented amount of professional power to the table. If you’re looking for the ability to playback three layers of HD, and twice the performance of a GTX 285 in CS5, the SHIFT with GeForce GTX 480 is a powerhouse editing product.

“Adobe CS5 powered by GeForce GTX 480 hardware has enabled us to achieve same-day edits with our in-house video production,” said Chris Morley, CTO of MAINGEAR. “In seven years of designing and selling high definition post production workstations, I’ve never seen so much get done in so little time and for so little money. The ROI with SHIFT powered by NVIDIA running Adobe CS5 is amazing.”

Last week at PAX East, Nvidia showed off for the first time its GTX 480. Reviews were kind, but noted that the card runs at approximately 8 million degrees, and that the performance isn’t as crazy as you’d expect for the $500 you’re going to pay—an ATI Radeon 5870 is nearly as good, for $100 cheaper. So, make your own decisions! That’s part of the fun of PC gaming: spending weeks on Newegg worrying over motherboard combinations and the like. Anyhow, ATI has a new card on the block today, the Radeon HD 5870 Eyfinitiy 6 Edition.

You already know what Eyefinity is: it allows you to hook up your PC to several monitors using only one GPU. This edition of the card also adds 1GB of memory, bringing it up to a solid 2GB. I think that’s as much memory as my laptop has!

TomsHardware ran the card through its paces, and the general consensus is this: really good card, but Eyefinity isn’t so great for gaming right now. You’d need monitors with incredibly thin bezels, lest good parts of the action be cut off. Samsung has a new monitor en route that will, indeed, be super thinned bezel’d.

I don’t know, speaking as an average gamer, it seems like Nvidia and ATI are grasping at straws trying to come up with ways to make their cards unique. Nvidia has 3D Vision, which I personally don’t think is all that and a bag of chips. Maybe my eyes are broken, I don’t know, but the 3D never seems “real,” you know? And Eyefinity—I barely have enough room on my desk for the one 24-inch monitor I have on it now—six monitors is totally out of the question.

Again, as an average gamer, I’m more than happy to see Nvidia and ATI continue to fight over raw power rather than all these little side things.

As long as both companies are healthy, then I think PC gamers will be fine. The last thing we need is for one company to dominate in such a way that it makes the other guy nothing more than an also-ran.

And now I head back to Newegg, looking to upgrade a few components! The Intel Core i7 930 looks pretty great, but then I’d need a new motherboard! Woo!

Battlefield 1943 is now the quickest game in Xbox LIVE’s history to reach 1 million games downloaded. But PC gamers don’t care. We want to play Battlefield 1943, too. It is after all a remake of classic PC game.

The official BF:1943 blog states this,

Soon our PC fans will also be able to get in on the action that Xbox 360 and PS3 users have been enjoying since July 2009.

Now “soon” could mean tomorrow or four months from now, but at least it’s something. Hopefully we’ll be commanding Tiger tanks and P-51 Mustangs with modern graphics real soon.

So what to make of this latest Call of Duty rumor? The seventh game in the series will be named Call of Duty: Black Ops, and will take place between the end of World War II and the present day. It won’t necessarily “be” a Vietnam War game, but will have missions that take place all over the world. Remember: it’s being developed by Treyarch (i.e. not Infinity Ward), the same dudes who developed Call of Duty 3 and Call of Duty: World at War.

That’s what the latest rumors suggest, with various Web sites citing “undisclosed sources at Activision.” In truth, you might as well talk to a cup of water, but what are you gonna do?

Setting the game exclusively in Vietnam would have been tricky. You’ll recall all the nonsense surround the release of Battlefield: Vietnam. THIS GAME IS ANTI-AMERICAN, an so on. Great soundtrack, though.

Oh, and good news for PC gamers: dedicated servers may be coming back. Victoire!

I thought the whole point of “black ops” was that they were black? Now we’re making a video game about them? Madness. Yes, this sentence is supposed to be small.