With the massive release of "GTAIV" a much-loved title amongst many may just arrive unheralded: "Alone In The Dark". Having had a good run at the game as I've seen it, it's, well, great. But will it unfortunately slip by due to its' release date coinciding with GTAIV?
In AITD, you have the entirety of Grand Central Park in New York to play in...free to roam anywhere. Your inventory is listed on the lining of jacket for easy access (a great new feature)and this gives rise to multiple paths of achieving objectives. The setting now is present day, whereas the original was the 1920's and it is going to be an Action/RPG par excellence (on all platforms). Looks great, plays great...but did they look at Rockstar's release timetable? This just may be a great game that passes many by...please don't let it.

If one were to take all existing technologies with the aim of building the ultimate Beast these would be the items now available. The price would be inestimable and will not obviously be for sale, but its' still fun to lok at the specs and what would be required to run such a beast. These components were all manufactured by the way, and are not just on someone's design board.
1/ Intel's 80 Core CPU
2/ NVIDIA's Quadro FX 5600, each running at 384bit, 1.5 GB DDR3 Memory, and a bandwidth of 76 GB/sec. Imagine that in SLI mode
3/ 22.2 surround sound using Bluetooth 3.0 with upwards of 15 speakers
4/ Monitor - 3 metres in circumference with a resolution of 3840 x 2400
5/ Optimus Keyboard, completly programmable with screens on each key
6/ Nanocool's Liquid Metal Cooler (or one made by Sapphire Labs)
7/ 128 GB DDR4 Ram

Summing up the rig would be 80-core Intel 3Ghz, dual Quadro FX 5600, huge monitor, 24 speakers, 2.5 terabytes of ram and 128 GB DDR4 Ram.

Its' been finally announced that DeepSilver will be the Publishers of the Prequel to "Shadow of Chernobyl" and will be available on PC and console at the end of August. They say worldwide, but I'd go with mid-August to late October here in Australia. The price is what interests me, as they are basically just polishing the old Engine and squeezing out a new story with gameplay that should've been available in the first. So the price of an expansion, or indeed released as an expansion as "Forged Alliance" was to SupCom would be nice to see. Hopefully we'll see more MP going this time around, and that it will be Mod-friendly.

A couple of years ago I joined an Aussie Clan dedicated to "CoD2" and "Vietcong" called Australian United Marauders (*AUM*). Some of you might have played against the Clan online as they rose to be Number 1. I resigned as an active member, along with the original founders (reasons left unsaid here), but remain a refular contributor to the Military Discussion Forum started by Red Coat. He and I are now Moderators of the Forum and have had many visitors comment on the content provided (debates on all wars in history, questions answered, hypothetical scenarios presented etc). All pertaining to games that are based on military history, sometimes straying into Sc-Fi as well. My question after all that is whether a Camp here dedicated to the same sort of thing would be worthwhile. With so many Nationalities represented by the Membership I believe a great deal of good writing and reading might be presented. I hold a degree in Military History and have been a Reservist Officer so I have a vested interest in keeping history alive and fresh today. Wonder if any others feel the same way. No point in starting a Camp if it's just for self=gratification, so any feedback would be very welcome (and no, it would not just be PC-themed nor restricted to dry fact). Just a thought...

For all STALKER fans looking foward to this one, I've heard news that it is about 3/4 complete and will demand no more than the original as far as PC specs go (a sigh of relief from many wallets). Given that this one unlocks the original codes from the first game, apart from graphics and gameplay I don't yet see an awful lot extra they had to do. I would like to see it as a possible addition if you own the original so that it will unlock the coding that GSC locked on release (free gameplay, driveable vehicles etc.). I know many Mods have done this, but each time a Patch is released, the Mods become incompatible...and you can't play online. The latter is a feature that, despite 6 patches, is still unrealized and player-unfriendly. With the multitude of patches focusing mainly on the MP aspect to the game, it remains to be seen whether GSC will pay more attention to this so that players will once again return to Chernobyl for some online mayhem. They were good maps in the original and the gameplay felt different to other games. Unfortunately too many bugs, and top rate Mods lost much of the online community. The Australian Servers are empty, but I hope to see them fire up again when Clear Sky is released...CoD4 and TF2 might lose a few players temporarily, but competition is always a good thing.