Photo: Pablo Bigatti / Flickr

2010 has seen something of a resurgence in the PC gaming industry. Steam, the digital retailer, proved PC users were easily the most savvy in terms of adopting digital distribution, while legendary PC developers showed off why they were the undisputed kings of the platform. Below are the top three PC games of 2010.

StarCraft II

StarCraft II was remarkable merely for the fact that it was finally released. A decade of agonizing waiting for gaming fans worldwide – and the whole SC crazy Korean populous – the sequel mostly lived up to its impossible hype.

The truth is, considering it is a sport in South Korea, Blizzard’s hands were mostly tied with what they could do with the title, in terms of dramatically changing the gameplay or design. As such, they played it safe and refined relentlessly to deliver what is easily the new benchmark in RTS games and one of the best PC games of 2010.

World of WarCraft: Cataclysm

World of WarCraft: Cataclysm, with its dramatic updating of old locations, while also adding several new locations to Blizzard’s popular MMO makes WoW feel like a brand new game. Honestly. And, more than that, with the title blitzing to 3.3 million units sold in no time, World of WarCraft: Cataclysm reaffirmed WoW’s place as one of the most important – if not the most important – PC titles in the world. This one waltzes onto our best PC games of 2010 list.

Call of Duty: Black Ops

We were anxious about adding COD: Black Ops to this list, mainly because it isn’t exclusively a PC game, and it is arguably seen more as a console title. Regardless of all of that, we kept gravitating back to this title, due to it being a technical achievement and, more importantly, an unexpected technical achievement.

Treyarch, who were long considered the B-Team to Infinity Ward, stepped to the plate successfully, particularly in the wake of IW and Activision’s fallout. Nevertheless, the Call of Duty formula is beginning to feel long in the tooth, but even a stalling COD is better than most other games. Suffice to say, this sales behemoth is without doubt one of the best PC games of 2010.

What do you make of this list? Are there any glaring omissions you feel strongly about? Let us know in the comments.

Photo: dfarber / Flickr

Activision Blizzard CEO and video gaming bad guy Bobby Kotick has said that he sees the value in listening to customers and that he cares what you, the gamer, think about Activision products. This is what he told a room full of tech luminaries and media at the Web 2.0 Summit, at least.

Incredibly passionate customers

Mr Kotick said he thinks paying attention to customers needs is more critical now than its ever been before ‘…because you have incredibly passionate and vocal consumers, and they are really thoughtful and articulate about what they would like to see in a game, how you can enhance the experience.’ All true, yes, gamers? He continued, saying: ‘So if you take the time and actually listen to what your customers have to say, you are going to create much better experiences.’

While his intuition about listening to what gamers say being valuable is undeniable, it’s hard to take that seriously from a man who once said he wanted ‘to take all the fun out of making video games’.

WoW support is really good, though

Even though you’re likely treating this sentiment with the pinch of salt it deserves, one has to admit that World of Warcraft support really is unmatched in video gaming. So, when Kotick cited the 2,000-strong customer support team assembled for WoW – the service’s single biggest expense – you can’t turn your nose up at Mr Kotick and dismiss him.

In addition to discussing the value of paying careful attention to customers’ demands, The Activision Blizzard head honcho also spoke on the value of patience in building titles and the huge leg up that’s given the company. Speaking specifically to Blizzard – who take forever to release games due to the amount of polish they add – Kotick pointed out the direct relationship between time and product quality.

StarCraft II fans, who waited for a decade before getting the title this year, will attest to the truth in that statement. Diablo III fans don’t even want to discuss how much it sucks being in the dark about the release schedule of that title, while WoW fans merrily keep plugging the hours away at their title while they wait for the release of WoW Cataclysm next month.

Activision Blizzard is on a roll right now, and maybe Bobby Kotick deserves the benefit of the doubt. Just maybe.

Photo: Bungie

Halo: Reach had a well-documented launch day, bringing in a $200 million revenue in just 24 hours. Between it and StarCraft II, software sales have been dragged out of the slump they were in. Will the gaming industry be able to continue this momentum?

Remembering Reach

Halo: Reach is the final Bungie-developed installment in the hugely popular Xbox-exclusive franchise. Prior to the game launching, executives at Microsoft said they expected the title to outsell Call of Duty: Black Ops, due out in November. But things don’t look good in terms of those predictions, with Halo’s impressive $200 million falling short of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2’s $300 million plus opening day.

Not so recession-proof now, huh?

The gaming industry was once widely considered recession proof, swimming comfortably through the lows of 2007 and 2008, before it began cratering. Now, outside of Halo Reach, God of War III and the recently released StarCraft II, this year has seen an overall downward trend in software and hardware sales.

Rescuing the industry, bit by bit

What’s particularly strange – or is that sad? – about the gaming industry’s recent woes is that its calendar releases have, arguably, never been better. Usually all the heavy hitter titles get flooded to market between October and November – what is widely known as the holiday season. This reality was predicated on the basis that ‘people spend a lot of money over Christmas time, especially on luxuries like video games’ so releasing the games into that up swell is only beneficial. But 2010 broke with this tradition, with absolutely colossal titles like Mass Effect 2, Splinter Cell: Conviction, Red Dead Redemption, and God of War III releasing during the first half of the year.

But the important take-away is not that Halo: Reach is doing really well, as did StarCraft II, but rather that the gaming industry is in a bad place at present, and unless ensuing months see hits of a comparable (if not exact) size, we may see rapid consolidation and industry-wide shuffling. Unless the great cloud gaming services really come through, though that’s still unlikely for at least a few more years.

Photo: Blizzard

Starcraft II has done impossible numbers – we all know that. And the greatest victory, according to the folks over at Activision Blizzard are the very very low piracy numbers. How did they pull this off? Read on.

Multiplayer baked into the experience

Fans of Blizzard will know that the company has been working on improving its server framework – Battlenet to Battlenet 2.0. This is the core online service that allows gamers to connect to each other and play competitive multiplayer games. The thing is getting into Battlenet 2.0 without an original copy of StarCraft II is very, very difficult. Furthermore circumventing the service takes too much work.  And finally, multiplayer is central to the StarCraft experience, meaning going the piracy route is just not worth it. In short, Blizzard built the game in a way that made piracy unattractive, if not overly difficult.

Persistently streaming connection

Battlenet 2.0 and its success with negating the piracy of StarCraft II may also be revelatory on the future of gaming. Much like Microsoft has used Live as a way to gauge if people are using pirated consoles, thus banning them from Xbox Live, we may soon see a future where all gaming has a persistent online connection. Oh, wait, that already exists in some form, with OnLive and Gaikai.

Though we’re still not completely sold on the viability of streaming gaming this early into broadband technology, there is a sense of inevitability about it all – an always-on connection to confirm you’re not stealing. It’d have to be significantly more sophisticated than present day solutions, but these are the types of problems engineers solve everyday.

Great games always win, though

But the biggest take away from the success of Battlenet 2.0 and the unmitigated success that StarCraft II has enjoyed on the ‘dying gaming platform’ that is the PC is that great games will always sell well regardless if piracy is partially or completely negated. This is a truism. And one needs to understand that the definition of a great game must encapsulate the marketing that goes into it, too.

Photo: Blizzard

StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty was released to wild worldwide midnight launches but there was one glaring omission – official reviews from major gaming publications. Blizzard opted to let everyone play the game at the same time – press, too – to truly get a feel for the game, before appraising a critical score to the title.

Now that some poor souls have gone days without sleep, playing non-stop, the reviews have begun trickling in and needless to say, people kind of like the shoe-in PC game of the year.

Timeless

The good folks at Joystiq had nothing but nice things to say about the game, carefully explaining that not much has changed since the appearance of the original classic. They say: ‘It’s proof that games don’t have to be disposable, that some games are so creative and balanced and fun that they don’t go out of style or disappear over the years. Some games, it turns out, really are timeless.’

Flawlessly executed

Gametrailers briefly criticise the fact that the fascinating story arch will only be seen through over the course of three titles, before heaping the praise on the title. They say ‘…with a production so carefully thought out, masterfully designed, and flawlessly executed, it’s impossible to come away from the game with a negative impression. Starcraft II is the sequel that we’ve been waiting for.’

Doesn’t disappoint

Finally, the folks over at CVG discuss what we all feared – whether the folks at Blizzard could live up to the weight of expectation to a title people have been waiting twelve years for. Needless to say, they think Blizzard pull it off with StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty, saying, ‘As one of the most anticipated games of all time, Blizzard had a great deal on its shoulders with this. We’re pleased to say it doesn’t disappoint.’

We await the heavyweights

Heavy-hitters like Eurogamer.net, IGN.com, and Gamestop.com have yet to release their reviews, but we suspect that’s down to them wanting to take more time to curate their literary pieces on a masterpiece. Regardless of whether you care for the franchise or not, StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty is a ‘very big deal’, in every sense of the term.

That’s it: enough writing about and thinking about StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty for us. From now on, it’s all play and no work. (Hope the people up top who pay the bills don’t see that).

Photo: Stock.Xchng

As PC gamers around the world showed up at a myriad of midnight launches, and independent performance tracker VGChartz packed US pre-orders at an almighty 800,000, StarCraft II has finally launched to an unsuspecting world!

A quick refresher

StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty is the first of the three part sequel to one of the most beloved PC games of all time, StarCraft (the other incoming expansions are Heart of the Swarm as well as Legacy of the Void). Released twelve long years ago, now, PC gamers worldwide are still in a state of relative shock that the sequel has finally seen the light of day.

No reviews

In the build up to the release the folks at Blizzard declined the usual practice of sending gaming publications early review copies of StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty. The company felt it only fair to review the game after extensive and real-world use of Battlenet 2.0, the online protocol the game, has built up.

In addition, Activision Blizzard has neither confirmed nor denied VG Chartz’ estimation of the number of pre-orders, but the company is set to release its own official sales numbers in the coming days. Reports coming in indicate the title could move 7 million units in this fiscal year, with StarCraft’s spiritual home South Korea gobbling up a huge chunk of those units.

Early impressions

Speaking to a handful of friends and gamers alike, who either played the game extensively during the multiplayer beta, or showed up to work with stinging red eyes because they put in an all-nighter, Blizzard has done well not to disappoint. We expect review scores of StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty (as well as eventual review scores of Heart of the Swarm and Legacy of the Void) to be sky-high when they start trickling in over the coming weeks.

PC gaming lives

The biggest task StarCraft II has is in reaffirming that PC gaming is, in fact, not dead. Many analysts, critics, and gamers alike have proclaimed the economics of PC gaming – where one needs particularly expensive kit just to have the intended experience – just doesn’t make sense. Add to that the rise of the comparatively inexpensive and hassle-free consoles, you’ve had many people proclaim PC gaming is dead.

But between World of WarCraft, Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty (and likely the inevitable expansions Heart of the Swarm as well as Legacy of the Void) and Steam’s ongoing success, it’s proving rather challenging to claim that PC gaming is dead!

I’ve spent all night with the title and momentarily ripped myself away to write about it. Though this isn’t an official review, my feelings for this game are already evident – buy StarCraft II right away!

Have you played it yet, and was it worth the twelve-year wait?

Photo: Stock.Xchng

We’re getting really excited about StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty. With each passing the day, the painful twelve-year wait to the sequel to one of the greatest PC games of all time will sooner be over. And according to the Wall Street Journal Activision Blizzard has spared no expense developing the title, with reports indicating it has cost over $100 million to develop. Yes, to develop only – this excludes marketing and promotions costs.

A fairly safe bet

Given that the first StarCraft, now released over 12 years ago, has sold more than 12 million copies worldwide, making it one of the highest selling PC games of all time, it is a safe bet that Activision Blizzard will recoup this money. South Korea, the spiritual home of StarCraft, alone is likely to take the company a long way towards turning a profit with Wings of Liberty.

The title has been in development since 2003, but was officially announced only in 2007.

A second reason StarCraft II, as a whole, is likely to make heaps of money is because Activision Blizzard has split the sequel into three parts. StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty, followed by quasi-sequel/expansion packs Heart of Swarm and Legacy of the Void. Long story short, Activision Blizzard has cleverly split a very expensive to develop product into three manageable chunks, while charging their customers three times. Good business.

Seven pillars of opportunity

Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick described StarCraft II as one of the company’s seven pillars of opportunity, meaning it has the potential to bring in operating profit of between $500 million and $1 billion. The other six pillars of opportunity for Activision Blizzard are Guitar Hero, World of Warcraft, Call of Duty, Diablo, a new MMO Blizzard are working on, and the new IP by famed Halo developer Bungie. For those keeping score, Blizzard, who are developing Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty, have four titles out of the seven. Crown jewel, huh?

StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty releases 27 July for Mac and PC and we strongly advise you to pre-order your copy now.

Photo: jontintinjordan

27 July is a little over two weeks away, and an entire generation of PC gamers are salivating at the mouth. More so, an entire nation, South Korea, is preparing to come to a stand still. StarCraft II is available for pre-order and it’s safe to assume PC gaming as we know it will come to a dramatic halt.

What is it?

In case you’re either really young, or you’ve been living under a rock, StarCraft is a Blizzard developed RTS game that rose to prominence in the late 90s. And while its popularity waned in the West as time passed, it only gained more and more traction in South Korea where it is a national sport televised on prime time TV. And the best in the nation at that game are considered celebrities. You read that right – a video game as a sport and a gamer as a celeb, it’s that big of a deal.

The basic idea, which pretty much cemented the motif for all real time strategy games, is you have to manage your base and resources so that you have a strong enough attack force to overwhelm your enemies. Naturally, your enemy, whether she be human or controlled by the computer, is rather opposed to being overwhelmed and needs to build along a similar strategy to avoid getting beat. And that is the general dynamic behind this game.

Setting and release schedule

Starcraft II has three character classes from its first game returning, in its classic rock-paper-scissors balancing act. Human exiles from earth known as the Terrans, the Zerg and the Protoss, with Zerg being a bunch of insectoids and the Protos, a psionic powered species.

The release has been divided into three games, with this first one subtitled StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty, and the next two scheduled to be subtitled Heart of the Swarm and Legacy of the Void. Each title will focus on a specific race, starting with the Terran, Zerg and Protoss respectively.

This is a very friendly reminder to pre-order as soon as possible if you don’t want to be left out of the StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty circle of love. If watching competitive South Koreans has taught us anything, you need as much practice as possible if you even want to stand a chance.

Look out for our review closer to the 27 July 2010 release date. StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty is being developed for Mac OS X and PC simultaneously.