gaming

Just as there's more to racing than showing up at the drag strip, there's more to gaming than booting up your rig.

I'm sure I'm not alone when I say that Assassin's Creed 2 is one of my favorite games of this generation. There was a pure sense of exploration and discovery that I haven't found in any game since, not even the semi-sequels Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood or Revelations. Since that experience, I've been looking for a game to revive that feeling, and, while things have changed in games since Assassin's Creed 2 was originally released back in 2009, I found that feeling while exploring the frontier in Assassin's Creed 3, and it feels good.

Times are tough. We're all looking to stretch our budgets, so the thought of paying $20 or more for a PC game from a commercial development studio is, well, a tough download to swallow. But in your effort to save money, you need not sacrifice winning gameplay. Independent gaming studios are releasing awesome titles--many with an addictive retro vibe--and their prices range from free to next-to-nothing. Here are five you must check out today.

A gaming Kickstarter raising six figures in less than a day is barely even newsworthy these days. But even if the new Homestuck Kickstarter isn’t breaking any funding records, it’s still unusual enough to comment on because it shows just how much Kickstarter has changed fundraising for games and how that’s making games that never would have existed before possible.

Valve, the developer best known for creating such games as Half-Life and for running the Steam PC gaming service, recently posted a job listing for a hardware industrial designer that doesn't mention video games even once.

PC fans of God games had plenty to be excited about when publisher Ubisoft announced From Dust for PC last year. The game's designer, Eric Chani, is well known for his abstract early 90's masterpiece Another World, so the project seemed in capable hands. Moreover, he cited Peter Molyneux's classics Populous and Black & White as his primary influences, so the provenance couldn't be better. After a successful console release, it seemed little could go wrong. Unfortunately, that's not what happened. The PC port was badly botched with low framerates, no anti-aliasing support, video card compatibility issues and an overzealous DRM system riddled with bugs that plague users to this day. There's an alternative to the console version if you want to play frustration-free,

This week’s games are all about constant motion. From a technicolor open-world skating game to an almost impossible Flash game that mocks you as you fail, this week’s games are all about making sure you get in motion and stay there.

When Dell refreshed its lineup of Alienware gaming laptops earlier this year, it discontinued the littlest of the bunch, the 11-inch Alienware M11x. As a result, the Alienware M14x is now the entry-level Alienware laptop, which Dell recently refreshed with an IvyBridge processor and a new graphics card. Like many more-typical ultraportable laptops, the M14x has a 14-inch screen, but it's chunkier and more powerful than the other computers in its category.

For more than two decades, Will Wright’s city-building simulator has sworn in millions of virtual mayors around the world. The SimCity franchise has sold over 30 million copies worldwide. With its return in 2013, SimCity will engage an entirely new generation of PC gamers as they take charge of their own customized cities and build a world that co-exists alongside friends. Jason Haber, producer on SimCity at Electronic Arts’ Maxis Emeryville, talks about what’s in store for PC gamers in this exclusive Gamescom 2012 interview.

Electronic Arts used the annual Gamescom convention in Germany to reveal the multiplayer experience for Crysis 3. Developer Crytek, which is based just an hour train ride from Cologne, was on hand to explain how the Hunter mode changes multiplayer up. Rasmus Hoejengarrd. director of creative development at Crytek, talks about what’s in store for PC gamers in this exclusive interview.

This week’s games will have you helping out with cutting edge science and using one of earth’s largest repositories of knowledge to make your own RPG. Plus, there’s a platformer.

This week we’ve got one violent game about constant destruction, one puzzling exploration game about spelling your way to discovery and one game that splits the difference, letting you shoot your way out of danger or puzzle your way into a non-violent solution to your problems. Let's go!