Publisher: Hi-Rez Studios
Developer: Hi-Rez Studios
System requirements: Windows XP SP2/Vista/Win 7, 2.4 GHz Core2Duo/2.7 GHz Athlon X2 or better CPU, 2 GB RAM (XP)/3 GB RAM (Vista/Win 7), 512 MB graphics card with Shader Model 3.0 support, DirectX-compatible sound device, 10 GB hard-drive space
Genre: FPS
ESRB rating: Teen
Release date: 2012

My my, what an exciting time to be a gamer. The Internet has created a host of independently developed games, digital distribution and F2P are chipping away at the $60 price point, and Kickstarter is busting up the traditional publishing model. Now, developer Hi-Rez Studios has rescued the Tribes license. Tribes 2, featuring class-based team play and pinpoint-accurate weapons, was a game before its time. Even now, years after officially being shut down, you can still find players skiing around base defenses on community servers. As unique as it is, Tribes has never truly been emulated. Soon it will come to the masses in the form of a free-to-play online shooter. Thankfully, this release is looking to be more second coming than blasphemy.

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Publisher: Mumbo Jumbo
Developer: Mumbo Jumbo
System requirements: Windows XP/Vista/Win 7, 1 GHz CPU, 512 MB RAM, DirectX 9.0c-compatible graphics card with Shader Model 2.0 support, 150 MB hard-drive space
Genre: Puzzle
ESRB rating: Everyone
Release date: May 1, 2012

There are many genres of games that seem to be content to never change. Match-threes, hidden-objects and time-management games seem to cater to a market that likes their games predictable and easy. Luxor Evolved, however doesn’t want to fall into that pit. As its name suggests, it wants to take that same universal game and turn it into something even core gamers can appreciate. Hold onto your moonstones; Luxor’s evolving!

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Publisher: THQ
Developer: Illfonic
System requirements: Windows XP/Vista/Win 7, 2.0 GHz Core2Duo or better CPU, 2 GB RAM (3 GB for Vista), 512 MB GeForce 8800 GT/Radeon 3850 HD or better graphics card, DirectX-compatible sound device, DirectX 9.0c, 3 GB hard-drive space.
Genre: FPS
ESRB rating: Teen
Release date: May 10, 2012

The other day I was standing in the shower when suddenly I was stung with an awareness of my mortality. I wondered that, if I died today, would I have left anything of worth behind? My life’s achievements, the friends, the debt, that nice thing I did once, what did they mean? But one stood out: that one time I dominated so much at a UT2K4 LAN party that I wasn’t invited back. I smiled, basking in the glow of my former glory, until I realized that I was about to be late for my retail job. I might withhold these deep personal truths from my counselor, but that’s only because he doesn’t understand. Developer Illfonic, however, has an uncanny understanding of my pains and desires. Their latest game, the oddly-titled Nexuiz, seems tailor-made to let you relive your better times, assuming those times involve classic FPS action.

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Publisher: Paradox Interactive
Developer: Turbo Tape Games
System requirements: Windows Vista/Win 7, dual-core CPU, 2 GB RAM, 512 MB GeForce GT 240 or better graphics card, 4 GB hard-drive space, DirectX 9-compatible sound device, DirectX 9.0c
Genre: Simulation
ESRB rating: Not rated
Release date: Available now

I’m not cut out for Navy life. Being crammed into poorly-lit metallic rooms filled with smelly people in the middle of nowhere reminds me too much of my college experience. There’s also my problem with authority. While I don’t think I’m cut out for taking orders in a tuna can, sitting in a climate controlled C&C bunker giving orders is entirely different. Turbo Tape Games is there to fulfill my curiosity with their new strategy game, Naval War: Arctic Circle. Featuring a depiction of modern naval combat so detailed it borders on simulation, Naval War has more than enough depth to drown in. But is it worth braving the cold?

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Linux gamers are a hardy bunch. One can only play Nethack and BZFlag for so long. After years of rumors, the unthinkable is finally happening: Steam is coming to Linux. Along with it, Valve is porting their Source engine, so you’ll be able to play your favorite Valve games without dual-booting. Can Valve do for Linux gaming what it did for Mac? Valve hasn’t talked about release dates, but you can expect it “when it’s ready.”

Source: Phoronix.com

Publisher: Paradox Interactive
Developer: Turbo Tape Games
System requirements: Windows Vista/Win 7, dual-core CPU, 2 GB RAM, 512 MB GeForce GT 240 or better graphics card, 4 GB hard-drive space, DirectX 9-compatible sound device, DirectX 9.0c
Genre: Simulation
ESRB rating: Not rated
Release date: April 10, 2012

Not since Jane’s Fleet Command more than a decade ago have we had a good naval warfare simulator. Turbo Tape games felt that it was high time that someone fix this, and Paradox agreed. Set in the frigid expanses of the North Atlantic, Naval War: Arctic Circle aims to bring all the complexity of modern aquatic killing to your desktop with an almost slavish attention to detail. Schedule those sonar buoy drops and warm up the Thales MMR 3D — it’s time to hunt down some red outlines!

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After the first wave of Kickstarter funding projects, even more classic game designers are washing up with some of their own. The creator of Shadowrun, Jordan Wiesman, needs some cash to make a true sequel to the classic RPG, and it won’t be a multiplayer shooter this time around. Replay Games might’ve yanked the Leisure Suit Larry rights out of the fetid hands of Big Software (creators of the last two terrible games) and dragged the original writer, Al Lowe, out of his tropical retirement home, but they’ll need your help to make a new Larry sequel. And if that wave of adventure nostalgia doesn’t make your inventory senses tingle, then news that Jane Jensen of Gabriel Knight fame wants to make a series of dark adventure games should do it for you. Community funding for games might be a fad, but it could yield some very exciting projects.

Publisher: Focus Home Interactive
Developer: Pendulo Studios
System requirements: Windows XP (SP2)/Vista (SP1)/Win 7, 2.0 GHz CPU, 1 GB RAM Win XP (2 GB Vista/Win 7), 256 MB GeForce 6800/Radeon X800 or better graphics card with DirectX 9 support, DirectX 9-compatible sound device, 4 GB hard-drive space
Genre: Adventure
ESRB rating: Not rated
Release date: Available now

My aunt lives on a farm in the middle of the Wisconsin countryside. Like Keepers of the Citadel, innumerable cats run around, performing secret but essential tasks. As needed as they are, no one’s taken care of them in years. Once you could wonder into a barn and be greeted by a furry tribe of cuteness, but now you find a swarm of hideously inbred monsters. Adventure games are like those cats. Leave them alone in a vacuum for a decade and what comes out is a sickening mixture of all the recessive genes of 1990s point-and-clicks. Yet, where there’s a will, there’s a market. Some studios actually manage to craft fun games out of inventory puzzles. Adventure vets Pendulo think they can straddle the line with Yesterday and still deliver an approachable yet hardcore classic adventure game. Wrapped up with the styling of a horror thriller, is Yesterday a cute and cuddly kitten, or a mangled, inbred beast?

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Publisher: Evolved Games
Developer: Trickstar Games
System requirements: Windows XP (SP2)/Vista/Win 7, 2 GHz Core 2 Duo/Athlon X2 4000+ CPU, GeForce 6800/Radeon X1600 graphics card with Shader 3.0 support, 2 GB RAM, 1.5 GB hard-drive space
Genre: Simulation
ESRB rating: Teen
Release date: Available now

Once upon a time, Jane’s was a title that meant something. Being the foremost producer of military analysis, they once licensed their name to produce a series of well received, highly detailed military simulations. Longbow, F-15, Fleet Command; if it had the Jane’s logo on it, chances are it was the best you could find. Today, after a decade of lying dormant, the proud logo once again appears, this time on Jane’s Advanced Strike Fighters. However, it ends up being more Bay of Pigs than Normandy Invasion.

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It all started with Tim Schafer’s Double Fine studios raising more than $3 million in a Kickstarter campaign to fund…something. We don’t know what, but with Brutal Legend out of their system, it’s gotta be good. Now, a host of classic developers are asking you to help fund their latest big ideas. Brian Fargo (of Interplay fame) wants to make a sequel to Wasteland, the stump from which Fallout sprang. Chris Jones wants to continue the adventures of everyone’s favorite space detective, Tex Murphy, with Project Fedora (something I’m required to support for religious reasons). Christian Allen (Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter) has decided that tactical shooters have become too soft, so he’s founding his own company with the expressed purpose of making a hardcore tactical FPS, like before Rainbow Six went to Vegas. These designers want to make games just as badly as you want play them; they just need the cash. Today you get to be the publisher. Let’s use the power of crowd-sourcing and bring life to dead genres!

The classic BioWare RPG series Baldur’s Gate will soon be getting a facelift, thanks to Beamdog Studios. Both Baldur’s Gate games will be released as PC-exclusive Enhanced Editions, complete with the expansion packs. While there will be new content and the graphics are getting a touch-up, Beamdog is reminding everyone that the more things change, the more they stay the same. BGEE will be 2D-isometric, they’ll use the original AD&D second-edition rule set, contain all the original music and voice acting files, and even run on a beefed up version of the original Infinity engine. Not only will you be able to import saves between the enhanced editions, but they’ll also support the original saves. Expect an enhanced trip through the Forgotten Realms later this summer.

Publisher: Perfect World Entertainment
Developer: Zombie Studios
System requirements: Windows XP/Vista/Win 7, dual-core CPU, 256 MB DirectX 9-compatible graphics card, DirectX 9.0c-compatible sound device, 2 GB RAM, 8 GB hard-drive space, broadband Internet connection
Genre: FPS
ESRB rating: Not rated at press time
Release date: 2012

The future might be a hellish, war-torn landscape, but it can still be a fun, if violent, romp. Having corporate-sponsored high-tech toys can make even the bleakest outlooks feel like a McDonald’s birthday party if done right. That’s what Blacklight Retribution is all about. The sequel to Blacklight: Tango Down, Retribution is a free-to-play FPS that’s all about insane customization options and x-ray vision. That’s right; the main gimmick in Tango Down returns, and it’s just as awesome as before. For a short time, you can activate your super peepers and locate enemies through walls. It worked really well in the first Blacklight, and it works just as well here. It keeps the game flowing very fast and prevents any sort of camping and cheap kills. It’s a good mechanic around which to build a game, but there’s a lot more in Retribution.

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Publisher: To be announced
Developer: Kot-in-Action Creative Artel
System requirements: Windows XP/Vista/Win 7/Linux, 2.0 GHz dual-core CPU, 512 MB GeForce 8600/Radeon HD 2600 graphics card, 2 GB RAM
Genre: Action RPG
ESRB rating: Not rated at press time
Release date: To be announced

Tomes of Mephistopheles has the body of a first-person dungeon crawler and the blood of a rogue-like. To find the titular Tomes, players have to descend into the dark, atmospheric depths of randomly generated dungeons, finding magical artifacts, ancient weapons of lore, and true love along the way. OK, maybe not that last one. But it does feature a wicked melee system, which is as close to true love as you’re going to find in a dungeon with rotting corpse monsters.

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Gettysburg: Armored Warfare, the upcoming hybrid multiplayer game from Paradox Interactive and Radioactive Software, will feature something cooler than Civil War-era tanks. Steam Workshop, the service that lets players download mods directly through Valve’s digital platform, will integrate with the game. Blending third-person action, real-time strategy and a dose of tongue-in-cheek history-bending, Gettysburg certainly doesn’t skimp on the creative ideas. Paradox and Radioactive knows that they’re not the only crazy people out there, so they’re embracing the community and officially integrating their custom mods through the Steam Workshop. I expect to see an entire category related to Mecha-Lincoln populated within hours.

Rumors are flying that Valve might have it’s own hardware system in the works. According to sources cited at The Verge, the Steam Box would come equipped with a Core i7 CPU, 8 GB of RAM and an Nvidia GPU. Reportedly, the idea behind the Steam Box is to create a standardized baseline for PC hardware so developers can plan for clear product lifetimes, with upgrades scheduled every few years. In addition, the system would be completely open, allowing standard PC software (including games from competitors such as Origin) to run free of licensing fees. As outlandish as it sounds, such scuttlebutt fits with the USB controller patents Valve filed last year, and the announced Steam TV mode. Could this be the future of PC gaming?