PC

I’ve been using a Lenovo IdeaPad S10 since December last year, and I absolutely love it - when I’m not wishing it would play HD video without dropping frames like crazy, and modern 3D games. While there’s a small number of games that work fine on netbooks, sometimes it’d be nice to have a bash of Team Fortress 2 on the couch.

Fortunately, it’s not going to be too long until I can. Although I’ll need to upgrade to the IdeaPad S12 first.

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Virtua Tennis took a few years off and is returning this year with Virtua Tennis 2009. With a tentative release date of May, there is a slow amount of information being released. Recently a developer diary video has emerged on the official website and we learned a few new tidbits.

For different modes, Sega brought the World Tour Mode back. The World Tour Mode includes both an amateur and professional level. The crowds are bigger as one progresses through the game. Also returning are the mini-games, titled Court Games. The mini-games include crocodiles, feeding zoo animals, fruit, pool, and pirates as part of the collection. They are available to play as single player, multiplayer and online. Most mini-games should be playable for 4 players online. I recall reading about Virtua Tennis 3, back in 2007 being pretty strong online, but only for the 360 version. Hopefully, the PS3 version will get online interactivity.

One new section is the Tennis Academy. As the name makes obvious, professional trainers will help the player to learn different aspects of tennis and control. Players will also have the opportunity to sharpen their skills in different areas (like speed).



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Playing fighting or other arcade style games on a computer keyboard or PS3 controller sucks, and Hori/Mad Catz joysticks are in awfully short supply. Luckily, there is one decent option you won’t have trouble getting your hands on. Check out my X-Arcade Dual Joystick review over at Gizmag.

Sometimes I really love my job. Like when I spend a day playing games on my new Lenovo IdeaPad S10 and write an article about it. So if you’re wondering what games are going to work on your GPU-less, Atom-based netbook, just head over to Gizmag and take a look. And yes, World of Goo is one of those games.

Games that work on a netbook [Gizmag]

Famitsu has broken the news that Street Fighter IV won’t just be an arcade game - with ports under development for the PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. No dates have been announced, but you’re probably immune to waiting by now thanks to the still-dateless Street Fighter HD Remix.

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Free online first-person shooters are typically lackluster affairs - built on ancient engines by enthusiastic, but ultimately talentless teams. Combat Arms looks to change all that - sporting production values equal to that of many recent full-price titles.

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According to JoWood (that always sounded dirty to me), an expansion for Gothic 3 will hit the streets in Q4 2008. Entitled Gothic 3: Forsaken Gods, the add-on supposedly answers “many open questions and guarantees a seemless step to Gothic 4.” The company really didn’t spill the beams regarding the expansion, however there was mention that they troll the Gothic 3 message boards daily, and will incorporate fan-based suggestions (or as many as they can implement) when possible into Forsaken Gods (and probably G4).

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Today CDProjekt released a few goodies for its uber-popular RPG for the PC, The Witcher. Today’s sacrificial offerings include a new downloadable adventure called “Price of Neutrality” along with the English version of the D’jinni beta adventure editor. The new adventure is but a sample according to the company, offering an addtional two hours of gameplay, taking players into the outskirts of Kaer Morhen. The editor, on the other hand, allows players to create new adventures using the pre-existing graphical assets, maps and environments.

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Mike Masnick over at Techdirt posted an interesting article on the emotions that first person shooters evoke in players. The part worthy of mentioning is the possibility that players actually enjoy getting killed. Apparently, hunting other players increases players’ stress and dying acts as a sort of relief mechanism.

Check out the original post for the rest of the story.

[H] Enthusiast posted an article on Nvidia’s new GeForce 9600 GT graphics card. The card is up to par with (if not a little better than) Nvidia’s 8800 GT and ATI’s latest offerings, but it’s main selling point, in my opinion, is it’s sub-$200 price. Starting at $169 MSRP, it will help open up the high-end gaming market to those not willing to dole out $500 for a top-of-the-line video card.

NVIDIA GeForce 9600 GT