Are you looking forward to Left 4 Dead, the game that pits four ‘survivors’ against four ‘super zombies’, as well as a zombie horde? You aren’t? Then you haven’t seen the opening cinematic yet!

While it is indeed ‘only’ a cinematic, the actual game is even better, allowing four players to take the roles of the survivors and another four players to take on super zombie duties, trying to outwit each other in a highly co-operative multiplayer experience, while dozens of zombies run about amidst the chaos.

Oh, and it’s from Valve! Left 4 Dead releases on PC and Xbox 360 in the US on November 18th and November 21st in the UK and Europe. Can’t wait!

It’s been confirmed that big-time PC hardware manufacturer, Asus, are set to release PC gaming peripherals that look a lot like (READ: exactly like) the Wii’s Nunchuk control, only there’s two of them, acting together to allow players to control in-game actions with hand gestures. Notably, they work independently of one another.

While their first appearance came about earlier this year, the peripheral pair have now been revealed as the Eee Sticks (after Asus’ diminutive, all-in-one notebook PC), comprising a ‘Navigation Stick’ and an ‘Activation Stick,’ basically resembling the functionality of the Wii’s Nunchuck and WiiMote respectively. Both control wirelessly through a USB dongle, both with vibration feedback, powered by 2 AA batteries each. Hopefully Asus have licensed patents for the vibration functionality, or invented their own…

The Eee Sticks will release with Asus’ Eee PC, Eee Box and specially designed PC games.

Source: www.reghardware.co.uk

Yep, all the rumours were correct. Grand Theft Auto IV, the magnum-opus of a free-roaming game, is to be released on PC later this year. Finally, PC players will be able to discover what they’ve been missing since the end of April when the game released on Xbox 360 and PS3 - a cinematic narrative experience moving the game play along, with production values rivaling those of top Hollywood movies, as well as a fine, fine selection of music to listen to as you cruise around the highly detailed Liberty City…the wonderful graphics and multiplayer (enhanced for PC play) don’t hurt, either.

“We are very excited to be releasing the PC version of Grand Theft Auto IV,” said Sam Houser, Founder of Rockstar Games. “The whole team is dedicated to bringing an amazing gaming experience to the PC. The game looks and plays beautifully on PC and we can’t wait for people to play it.”

GTA IV will be released on November 18th in the US and the 21st in Europe, this time for the PC.

Megarom has announced that the PC version of Rainbow Six Vegas 2 is available across South Africa today. The game is already available on the Xbox 360 and PS3.

Rainbow Six Vegas 2 sees players attempting to rescue Sin City from a terrorist siege. The game boasts new game play features as well as co-op and multiplayer modes.

Megarom has announced that Assassin’s Creed DS will be released this Friday across South Africa.

Assassin’s Creed Altaïr’s Chronicles is a Nintendo DS exclusive. It is a prequel to the console version of Assassin’s Creed. Discover more about Altaïr as you travel through a 3D world, battling through four cities of the Crusade’s Middle East.

South African gamers can also look forward to the PC version of Assassin’s Creed, which will also be released this Friday. The PC version includes four PC-exclusive investigation missions, including the Rooftop Race Challenge and the Archer Stealth Assassination Challenge.

Assassin’s Creed is set in 1191 AD when the Third Crusade was tearing the Holy Land apart, the Assassins were both shrouded in secrecy and feared for their ruthlessness. Players assume the role of Altair, a master assassin as the Assassins attempt to suppress the conflict on both sides and stop hostilities.

You will notice this is a console gaming blog and news site (hopefully that much is obvious). Well, it so happens that we were all big PC gamers in the day. Before the advent of the PlayStation, console gaming in sunny South Africa was limited to buying pirate consoles called Family Computer and to get a new game you visited your local Chinese “importer” down some alley in central Durban. These carts typically came with moon-text (since we had no idea what that stuff really was) or hilariously translated Engrish.

So, if you gamed here before ‘96 you were a PC gamer or a true-blue pirate. Most likely you were both.

That all changed for me - consoles are my platform of choice these days. But, I can’t ignore the fact that Steam has these wonderful little puzzle games that just about any PC can play. The latest is Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords, and it’s a time-blackhole. At only $20 it’s a very, very good deal. My previous affair was with Geometry Wars, available for the giveaway price of $4.

Anyhow, Valve has just announced that Steam has reached a total of 15 million users, and that their revenue from the digital download service grew by 158% over the Christmas shopping season last year compared with the previous year.

That’s impressive. I mean, it’s bigger than World of Warcraft and Xbox Live. I thought PC gaming was supposed to be dead?