EA, Activision Dominate PC Charts

According to numbers from NPD Group for the week ending Jan. 24, The Sims 2 Double Deluxe was the top selling PC game in North America. More importantly Electronic Arts and Activision dominated the week’s charts, with only Bethesda’s Fallout 3 and 2K Games’ Civilization IV. EA had four titles on the charts, while Activision had four -0 three of which were World of Warcraft SKU’s. The complete list after the jump, along with digital sales numbers from Direct2Drive and Steam:

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Meet The Portal Prelude Mod

If you’re growing tired of waiting for some official Portal, you may be interested in this mod, Portal Prelude, which gives players a story set prior to the events of the popular action adventure puzzle game from Valve. According to its developer, Portal Prelude is an unofficial prequel to the game Portal. that revolves around the pre-GlaDOS epoch before the entertaining AI was plugged in. During this timeframe, tests were monitored by real Aperture Science employees, who are apparently so lazy that they need to create A.I. so that don’t have to handle a number of mind-numbing work-related activities. What a bunch of slackers..

So can players expect to from Portal Prelude? Portal Prelude offers 8 new chapters, 19 test chambers, 48 challenges, 6 advanced maps, a brand new storyline and more than 400 lines of speech with English and French subtitles.

We are not sure whether Valve Software is flattered by this project or upset because someone outside the company is trying to write the back-story in the Portal universe, but Portal Prelude sure does sound like something worth downloading. Look for it to be released at the end of the month or early October..

Source: Official Site

2007 Game Critics Awards GotY Winners

The 2007 Game Critics Awards were announced today, revealing the top 10 very best games of 2007 as chosen by this year’’s crop of judges from leading publications including Games for Windows Magazine, EGM, GameSpy, Newsweek, Wired and many others. This is the very first time that the Game Critics awards have been given out Game of the Year awards; the group usually reserves that distinction for E3.

This year’’s judges for the Game of the Year awards began the process by submitting ballots listing 10 of their favorite games of the year. Judges were then given 100 points to spread out across their favorite games, which were then compared and audited by two outside sources. The end result is what you see below:

2007 Game Critics Awards: Game of the Year
BioShock (464 Points)

2. The Orange Box (387 Points)
3. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (361 Points)
4. Rock Band (349 Points)
5. Super Mario Galaxy (323 Points)
6. Halo 3 (232 Points)
7. Mass Effect (213 Points)
8. God of War II (103 Points)
9. Assassin’s Creed (88 Points)
10. Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune (87 Points)

Valve Gives Away SteamWorks

In a generous move to the development and publishing community, Valve Software today offered its SteamWorks suite of publishing and development tools for free. This suite, which has already been tested on a number of Valve titles including The Orange Box and Half-Life 2, features a number of tools including copy protection, social networking services and server browsing. There are also plenty of other features under the hood of this software including multiplayer matchmaking, data collection, patch testing and distribution, auto updating, voice chat support and more.

The point of releasing SteamWorks, according to Valve president Gabe Newell, is to give developers and publishers a way to the hassle of developing these services from scratch out, allowing them to focus on more important things…like game development.

Developers and publishers are spending more and more time and money cobbling together all the tools and backend systems needed to build and launch a successful title in today’’s market, said Gabe Newell, president of Valve. Steamworks puts all those tools and systems together in one free package, liberating publishers and developers to concentrate on the game instead of the plumbing.

Developers interested in this new set of free tools or gamers just curious about the technology can learn more about it at www.steamgames.com/steamworks.

Interactive Achievement Awards Nominees Announced

The Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences issued a press release today revealing the nominees for the 11th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards, with two games taking the lion’’s share of the nominations. The nominations for these peer-based awards have been dominated by two titles: BioShock (2K Games) and Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Activision) by receiving over 10 nominations from its peers. Finalists in close lead with top nominations include The Orange Box (Electronic Arts and Valve Software), Rock Band (MTV Games) and Super Mario Galaxy (Nintendo of America), all up for the Overall Game of the Year Award. Below is a partial list — the full list of categories and nominees can be found at the AIAS Web site:

Overall Game of the Year:
BioShock
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Rock Band
Super Mario Galaxy
The Orange Box

Computer Game of the Year:
BioShock
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Crysis
The Orange Box
World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade

Console Game of the Year:
BioShock
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Mass Effect
Rock Band
Super Mario Galaxy

Handheld Game of the Year:
Drawn to Life
Jeanne d’Arc
Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords
Ratchet and Clank: Size Matters
The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass

Outstanding Innovation in Gaming:
Assassin’s Creed
BioShock
Rock Band
Super Mario Galaxy
The Orange Box

The awards ceremony will take place during The D.I.C.E. (Design, Innovate, Communicate, Entertain) Summit 2008 on Feb. 7 at the Red Rock Resort in Las Vegas, with comedian Jay Mohr returning for his third year to host the award ceremony.