BioWare head honcho and EA VP Ray Muzyka spoke with IGN in a video interview about the PC gaming industry and his company's upcoming projects for the platform. He had positive things to say about the state of PC gaming.

"I think the PC market right now is a very strong place. It's stronger than it's ever been," he said. He talked a bit about microtransactions, digital downloads, and other new developments, but added: "You know at the end of the day it all comes down to can you make a really great game really fun for your fans? And if you can do that and you understand who your fans really are, I think it's an incredibly great opportunity to develop for PC."

He also commented briefly on BioWare's mysterious new Dragon Age IP, saying it's the next generation of and the spiritual successor to the Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights tradition. There's some discussion of Mass Effect in the interview, as well -- reassurance about the DRM controversy, talk of the PC version's interface enhancements, and speculation about future games in the franchise.

DICE and EA's Mirror's Edge trailer debuted a week ago, and wowed the gaming community with its immersive first-person perspective, interesting visual style, and Assassin's Creed-esque free-running, city-scaling gameplay. During your first viewing, you'll probably come to believe the game has the makings of a cult hit, and maybe more.

But there are a lot of things you might not notice on your first viewing. That's why GameTrailers put together an excellent HD analysis video. It's packed with observations of hints about the gameplay, the graphics engine, and the setting, and it's all brilliantly edited to match the game's ultra-classy visual je ne sais quoi.

Did you notice the dynamic depth of field effects? How about the police cars circling the buildings Faith is scaling? Or her shoes' obscure Indonesian brand? All that in more in the video.

[Via Rock, Paper, Shotgun]

There are a lot of interesting innovations in Eden Games and Atari's Alone in the Dark reboot. There are so many, actually, that we worry that it's too ambitious -- that it could end up more like Omikron: The Nomad Soul than a successful revolutionary work like Half-Life 2.

Next Generation played a chunk of the game, and expressed some of the same worries, suggesting that "a hint of a masterpiece is most definitely there, but beneath some problems." That said, Next Gen dedicated quite a few words to an innovation it believes might stick -- Alone in the Dark's episodic story structure. Eden Games admitted that the approach was inspired by serial television shows -- 24 and "the big HBO dramas," to be specific. There are several quotes and explanations by the devs in the article.

Eden Games has split the game up into twenty "episodes," each with its own narrative arc and cliffhanger conclusion. Here's the kicker, though: you can skip an episode -- or several of them -- if you want. Eden Games is doing this to throw a bone to gamers who often don't finish games because they get stuck at a certain puzzle or encounter. Each episode starts with a "Last time, on Alone in the Dark" sequence to catch players up to the action. Don't think you can read the last page first, though; you'll have to complete a certain number of episodes before the ending becomes available.

Lethal Weapon co-star and all-around-revered-actor Danny Glover has joined the board of directors at Colourblind Entertainment, a United Arab Emirates-based studio developing video games for several world regions. The company is working on a game called Sharq Warriors.

Sharq Warriors' protagonist is an Arab man named Sami, who will fight to save his country and his sister. "Many existing games feature Western soldiers shooting Arabs, Afghans and other ethnic 'enemies'," said fellow board member Riz Khan. "We're introducing different types of heroes and 'Sami' is the first of them but he fights corruption, not people of another race."

This is an admirable endeavor, and we're looking forward to seeing how it turns out. The game is primarily intended for the Middle-eastern market but a demo is on its way to the internet. Glover also heads up the activist film studio Louverture Films, which will be working with Colourblind to expand the Sami franchise into other media.

JoWood Productions (known for the Gothic series) and The Adventure Company (publishers of Syberia and the recent Sam & Max reboot) acquired from Simon & Schuster the rights to produce a series of games based on the classic Hardy Boys book franchise.

Today, they announced that teen celebrity idols Cody Linley (best known for his recurring roll on the TV series Hannah Montana) and Jesse McCartney (musical artist and Emmy nominee) will voice the famous, crime-solving brothers in a forthcoming Hardy Boys game called The Hidden Theft.

Nothing has been said about the gameplay, but we're betting it will be fairly traditional adventure genre stuff. What's that you say? That genre is dead? It's a thing of the past? Well, so were the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew franchises. A comeback is always possible!

[EDIT: We had said The Adventure Company developed Syberia and the Sam & Max episodes. This was an error; The Adventure Company published those games, but did not develop them. Thanks to reader smitty for pointing it out! We apologize for the mistake.]

A couple months back, the Discovery Channel spent an entire hour of its 5 part documentary "Rise of the Video Game" analyzing the relationship between the United States military and the video games industry. It's been a long and profitable tradition, with military simulations making up a big chunk of video game sales, and with recruitment games like America's Army proving to be very effective for the military.

Australian military officials must have been inspired by that example, because their online recruitment initiative DefenceJobs has launched a website full of military-themed Flash games. The games are designed to pitch a 12-month, post-secondary-school stint in the army as a viable choice to teens. So, far, over 300,000 users have signed up at the site.

The games aren't nearly as complex as America's Army, but they're still fun, and there are several of them. Some of them even have multi-player options. The blending of military and gaming culture is a complex subject, and a lot can be said both in criticism and acceptance of the trend, so mull over that if you like. Or, if you're more the shooting type than the thinking type, just play the damn games.

[Via Joystiq]

So little has changed in recent months -- The Sims 2 and World of Warcraft still completely dominate PC game sales. Sure, now and then something usurps them for a short time, but they always come back. The top 10 PC games in the NPD sales report released this past week:

1. The Sims 2 Kitchen & Bath Interior Design Stuff Expansion Pack
2. The Sims 2 Double Deluxe
3. The Sims 2 FreeTime Expansion Pack
4. World Of Warcraft: Battle Chest
5. World Of Warcraft
6. Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
7. Sins Of A Solar Empire
8. World Of Warcraft: Burning Crusade Expansion Pack
9. Assassin's Creed: Director's Cut Edition
10. Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas 2

That makes four years that The Sims 2 and World of Warcraft have been fairly consistently pwning the industry. The only other PC exclusive on the list is Ironclad/Stardock's runaway 4X RTS hit Sins of a Solar Empire. The others -- Call of Duty 4, Assassin's Creed, and Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 -- are multi-platform titles. WoW's position is no surprise, given the NPD's research with regards to online game revenues. The Sims 2's domination of the charts, however, speaks to a vast, silent market of gamers to whom hardcore games like Rainbow Six don't appeal.

EA Redwood Shores' Resident Evil 4-esque sci-fi game Dead Space has a shot at being a compelling genre title. The genre in this case is Survival Horror, which carries some remnant elements of classic Adventure games. Deep, psychological storytelling (as in Silent Hill 2) is the most prominent of those remnant elements, and the Dead Space team has produced a preview video declaring its dedication to that tradition. Gameplay footage is laced in as well.

According to the video, Dead Space takes place on a derelict mining spacecraft. The ship's crew mine distant planets on behalf of Earth's desperately resource-starved human population. When they crack open yet another planet, they apparently found hostile lifeforms.

There will also be a lot of personal back story information regarding the protagonist and other characters across the narrative arc. For more details, watch the video.

Ubisoft deployed a German press release announcing that it will be the distributor of Bethesda's ultra-anticipated RPG Fallout 3 in several European countries. Those countries include: France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland and Iceland.

Fallout is one of gaming's most prestigious intellectual properties, and this iteration is under development by the people behind the wildly successful The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Ubisoft has probably struck gold with this deal. With a new studio, new internal IPs, old stand-bys, and massive deployment over Steam, this is shaping up to be an exciting stretch for Ubisoft.

[Via No Mutants Allowed]

Ubisoft released a three minute "introduction trailer" (also available in HD) for Far Cry 2 today, embedded above. It includes glimpses of the Montreal development studio, a small amount of gameplay footage, anecdotes about the team's African research safari, and commentary by the developers (one of whom looks suspiciously like Paul Rudd) about their vision for the gameplay and setting.

Note that the studio behind the original Far Cry -- Crytek -- is not involved with this sequel. Instead, the team that put together the Far Cry Instincts games -- the Xbox and Xbox 360 iterations of the series -- is cooking this one up. Those games were a little more focused than the original title, but also less progressive.

We witnessed a live presentation of Far Cry 2 on the floor at GDC this year and were impressed by the technology. The open-world approach to gameplay sounds exciting, but past attempts at open world FPSes have been hit-and-miss in terms of quality. We'll see if Ubisoft can pull it off when the game launches this fall.

In its most recent issue, The Official Xbox Magazine revived a rumor that 2K Boston (Ken Levine's team, known for its work on BioShock) is working on a game that will reboot the X-Com franchise. Since OXM exclusively covers the Xbox 360, there was no word about a PC version. Nevetheless, X-Com is a PC franchise and since BioShock saw a PC release, we're hoping that we can safely assume the new X-Com will come our way too.

BioShock 2 is under development at the new 2K office in Marin, and that means Levine and friends are working on something unannounced. 2K bought the rights to X-Com last year.

If you're not up on your history, the X-Com games were highly acclaimed and popular tactical combat titles developed by legendary strategy developer MicroProse. MicroProse was originally founded by Sid Meier and also produced Pirates!, Civilization, and Master of Orion.

[Via Kotaku]

Wolfenstein 3D -- the groundbreaking game that brought the First Person Shooter genre into the light of day -- celebrates its sixteenth birthday today. It can legally drive a car, drop out of high school, and maybe even get married with parental consent now.

Wired celebrated the game's Sweet Sixteen with a brief summary of its history and some quotes about how revolutionary it was. "The key to the whole Wolfenstein thing is that its success -- which was massive -- paved the way for ... thousands of games that mimicked them, transforming the PC into a gaming system best known for FPS titles," said Wired blogger Earnest Cavalli. And it's true -- whether your favorite FPS is BioShock, Call of Duty 4, or even Portal, the genre as we know it today began with good ol' WOLF3D.EXE.

But if you want a reason to hate the masterpiece then think of it this way -- sick to death of World War II games? Wolfenstein 3D started this whole killing-Nazis-in-the-first-person-perspective spree! Yikes.

[Via Joystiq]

GameDaily has compiled a list of the top 25 PC games of all time. It's quite a list. It includes everything from The Secret of Monkey Island to Doom to World of Warcraft. It's hard to argue with the contents of the list, although everyone will have his or her own opinion about the order in which the titles are ranked.

This list is a lot better than a similar list of games on one of the consoles would be. Why? Because the PC has 30 years of historic titles -- six times the life cycle of any given console. With that kind of history, you know that 25 is too small a number in which to encapsulate the illustrious PC tradition.

Oh, and the number one choice could be considered rather controversial, but we won't spoil it for you.