Microsoft today released a new Games for Windows Live update, which improves the interface. A separate update will arrive in two to three weeks, adding support for video, demos, and DLC downloads through a Marketplace application.

Microsoft has definite plans to distribute full PC titles through its Marketplace application in the future.

Via: CrunchGear

Steam Cloud support, which was announced last May, will be released in tangent with Valve’s co-op zombie shooter Left 4 Dead demo later this week. Steam Cloud is expected to be compatible with all other Valve Steam releases (including the back catalog) after receiving support updates. Valve has also been providing other developers with the tools to make their own titles compatible free of charge.

Steam Cloud support is seamless, meaning any changes to a users game configuration such as graphics options and key settings, and best of all, save games, will propagate to the Cloud automatically. Upon logging into your Steam account from another PC, these settings will be synchronized down from the Cloud and automatically loaded by the game. Any changes to the configuration on this second machine are then synced to the Cloud for future sessions.

The simplicity from the perspective of the user of this new capability is quite brilliant.

The Linux demo for Part 2 of the Penny Arcade Adventures, developed by Hothead Games, is now available to download on Filefront.

If you like the demo and want to support a great developer that targets Linux as a gaming platform, you can purchase the game at playgreenhouse.

From article at Reuters:

“Rising development costs might force console makers Microsoft and Sony to publish more video games themselves, as independent studios avoid exclusive deals for blockbusters.”

An experimental build of CrossOver Games is now available for the BSD platform. This edition is unsupported by CrossOver, but it is a great opportunity to test out playing Windows games on BSD.

pcbsd.org notes that Jeremy White from CodeWeavers has issued a challenge to the BSD community to show their support for this release by signing up with CodeWeavers, and voting for BSD support as a requested feature.

Although premature and entirely speculation, this is a possible opportunity for a BSD port of CrossOver Professional (which includes CrossOver Games) to be developed, pending enough interest and pledges in the project.

You can download CrossOver Games here.

An article on Gamers With Jobs expresses concerns about not getting the most out of games.

From the article:

“I play games to escape. To go somewhere else. But our industry has so ingrained this concept of ‘earning’ our fun that the best is somehow always saved for last. Like modern day Puritans, we’ve convinced ourselves that we are not worthy of that for which we’ve already paid. Sinners in the hands of an angry god, we don’t deserve our fun until we pay in blood.”

Too many “unlockables” in games and it ends up work. Not enough “unlockables” and it’s 30 minutes of gameplay.  Apart from some titles forcing unnecessary grinding, many games were becoming more and more difficult to play for older gamers that have less time to play with daily life commitments.