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.

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!

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.

Razer specifically mentioned the upcoming line of StarCraft II peripherals, which makes sense in light of the fact that Blizzard has always released a Mac version of their games at the same time as their PC versions. From the press release:

RAZER™ REAFFIRMS COMMITMENT TO SUPPORT MAC® USERS

Game Developers Conference, San Francisco, Calif. – March 10, 2010 – Today at the Game Developers Conference, Razer, the world’s leading manufacturer of high-end precision gaming and lifestyle peripherals, announced an effort to increase support for Mac users by issuing driver support for all upcoming Razer products, including the Razer StarCraft® II peripheral suite.

“I’m very proud to say that at Razer, we are committed to supporting both Mac and PC gamers,” said Robert “Razerguy” Krakoff, president, Razer USA. “We are constantly working to increase driver support for Mac with our existing Razer products and have plans to release all of our new products with dedicated Mac and PC drivers. This is a really exciting opportunity to expand the gaming industry and make it more inclusive for Mac users by providing the same level of support that we give to our PC users.”

In April of 2008, the Razer DeathAdder™ for Mac was revealed, crafted specifically to provide Max OS X users with the same legendary ergonomic form factor and precision enjoyed by the PC gaming community. Complete with lunar white accents to accentuate the crisp, clean lines customary to Apple® products, the Razer DeathAdder for Mac is loaded with 1000Hz Ultrapolling™ technology and five independently programmable Razer Hyperesponse™ buttons.

Today, Razer is proud to offer several options for the Mac gaming community, providing full Mac support for the Razer Naga™, the world’s best selling MMO gaming mouse, as well as the Razer DeathAdder, a cult favorite among the right-handed gaming community. Razer is completely committed to supporting Mac users and will be releasing drivers to equip existing products with Mac compatibility. Basic Mac support is already available for the Razer Orochi™, Razer Mamba™ and Razer Imperator™, with further updates scheduled for later this year.

Fellow PC gamers: it’s time to freak out. You’re familiar with Ubisoft’s newfangled DRM scheme that requires you be online in order to play its games, right? It’s 100 percent as awful as we had thought it would be. PC Gamer recently played Assassin’s Creed II, and discovered what a pain the in the ass the DRM really, truly is. Get this: every time you lose your Internet connection the game boots you to the main menu, and all progress made from the last save point is thrown out the window. This isn’t an MMO, mind you, but a plain ol’ single player game. In other words, no Internet, no game. Bravo, Ubisoft.

Off the top of my head, here’s a list of people who won’t be able to play Ubisoft PC game from now on:

• People with rubbish Internet connections, like Devin

• People with rubbish Wi-Fi (or wired) networks, like me. My Wi-Fi cuts out at least three or four times per day, just because. Clearly it’s a piece of junk router, but it’s my piece of junk router.

• People without 24/7 Internet access. Maybe you’re in the military and play games on your laptop to kill an hour or two? Sorry, you lose!

Off the top of my head, here’s a list of people who will have no problems playing Ubisoft PC games from now on:

• Pirates

Yeah, that’s about it. You show me someone with a flawless Internet connection and I’ll sell you a bridge for a dollar, or some other cliché that I can’t think of right now

The point is, the DRM is completely overbearing.

Let’s be conspiratorial about this for a moment. Maybe Ubisoft is sick and tired of having to devote resources to making PC games. So what it does it, make the DRM so completely ridiculous that nobody buys the game. Then Ubisoft can turn around and say, “See, nobody buys PC games anymore, clearly piracy is to blame.” (Never mind that console piracy is pretty rampant, too.) So then they pull out of the PC market for good.

Good riddance, then. Take your DRM nonsense and become just as irrelevant as the music industry is today.

I already bought Assassin’s Creed II for the Xbox 360 last fall, but I never finished it. I was planning on buying the PC version to actually beat the game this time around, and see how it benefits from a proper GPU (an ATI 5850), but now? There’s no chance of that happening, even if Ubisoft predictably retracts the DRM from the game before it comes out. Too late, the damage has already been done. Be sure to promote the suit(s) who came up with the idea in the first place!

Wankers.

/end nerd-rage

via Rock, Paper, Shotgun

It’s time we start implementing DRM on console games. I mean, look at this nonsense. The Xbox 360 version of BioShock 2 leaked yesterday, a full five days before its official release. The same thing happened with Mass Effect 2, which leaked something like six days for the Xbox 360 before its official release. Since publishers are so keen to treat PC gamers like filthy thieves, I say we start implementing annoying DRM on console games, too.

Granted, the differences between PC games and console games are such that you’d need to implement different forms of DRM, but here’s a few ideas.

• Game discs will be permanently linked to consoles. No taking that new game you just bought to your friend’s house to play there!

• On every disc is a special phone number that you need to call to get permission to play the game (phone centers open only from 9-5pm EST)

• To prevent online cheating, all game saves will be stored on, and only on, the publisher’s servers

• You need to sign up for four different “value enhancement” accounts in order download any and all DLC, which will then be linked to your social security number (or equivalent)

• Any game discs inserted into a console before the approved release date will result in a temporary console lockout, rendering your video game console inoperable until publishers’ technicians come to your house to verify that you are, indeed, a legitimate owner

These are just a few measures that can be taken to prevent console piracy. I mean, if we’re going to keep pretending that all PC gamers are pirates because the games are easily available only, well, why not take the same stance with console gamers? Surely, in 2010, it’s just as easy to burn an Xbox 360 game to a blank DVD as it is to mount an ISO of a PC game? Or do publishers think that flashing an Xbox 360 disc drive so it can run pirated games is beyond the abilities of your average 16-year-old kid?

Whoa. Rockstar just announced that the two DLCs for Grand Theft Auto IV, The Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony, will be released for the PS3 and PC on March 30. That’s March 30 world-wide, mind you. The games will be sold separately (as downloads on PSN and Games for Windows Live) as well as in the familiar Episodes from Liberty City double pack.

This marks the first time that either of the DLCs will be available for anything other than the Xbox 360. (The rumor was that Microsoft gave Rockstar several sacks of money for a timed exclusivity deal.)

As far as extras go, the PS3 version looks to be pretty much a straight port of the Xbox 360 version(s). PC gamers can look forward to expanded multi-player options (such as a 32-person limit) and “an advanced video editor,” to quote the masterfully worded press release.

PC gamers are invited to complain about needing Games for Windows Live (near universally hated) and the Rockstar Social Club.

No word on price. Sorry.