It’s unbelievable: Star Citizen fans have helped us reach the $15 million mark without any special promotion! Ten years ago, big publishers decided space games weren’t profitable… and you are proving them very, very wrong!

The $15 million unlock adds another flyable ship class to the game, the oft-discussed escort carrier. Every backer will also get a free digital 42-page Upgrade Handbook manual with their game which goes through the process of customizing and overclocking ship systems! We’re excited about putting this one together, since it goes right to the heart of what’s going to make Star Citizen unique.

The previously-announced $16 million stretch goals are:

Arena mode: Arena mode is a simulation within the game, although it is not the simulator itself. Players will have access to an actual training simulator in their hangars, which will be used for the dogfight alpha. The Arena is something bigger. It is a galaxy-wide event, where players come to specific locations, pay their entry fees, and jump into space battles to prove who is the best dogfighter of all. Think of it as a combination of a sports tournament and modern-day gaming contests. Each winner will receive credits for the victory, and the best of the best will meet in higher and higher rounds until a grand champion is crowned.
A laser pistol for every pledger before this point. Keep your ship safe from boarders with a pistol by your side.
With today’s achievement, we’re happy to unlock the $17 million rewards:

$17 million

Ship upgrade package for every pledger containing an engine modifier.
Additional flyable ship class: battlecruiser
Thank you all for your continued support. Tell your friends, Star Citizen is coming!

https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/transmission/13159-15-Million

I have some Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed Steam codes if anyone is interested

100 posts baby!

I played the Beta of War of the Roses but never really got into the full game, Chivalry kinda upstaged it. Might jump into this as I do like Vikings lol, hopefully it will come out a bit more polished than War of the Roses since it will reuse the same engine and stuff.

For Struggling PC Market, It's PC Gamers To The Rescue

IDC Insights Research dropped some doom and gloom earlier this year, reporting that Q1 2013 PC shipments were down a drastic 13.9% globally, compared to the same period in 2012. This represented the worst decline in the US since 2006, despite Windows 8 and some inspired hardware to accompany it from the likes of Lenovo, ASUS, and Dell DELL -0.15%. Apparently no one told PC gamers about this decline, as a new report from Jon Peddie Research illustrates.

Now more than ever, we’re seeing a decisive separation of so-called “casual” and enthusiast or “hardcore” PC gamers. JPR president Jon Peddie explains that a growing number of users are migrating to tablets and smartphones as the specs of these devices continue to mature. With that shift, the remaining PC users are going considerably high-end. In fact, Peddie confidently states that his research group is “forecasting growth in the most expensive discrete graphics products.”

I couldn’t help but wonder if Peddie knew just how expensive those “discrete graphics products” are (he does). NVIDIA’s GTX Titan boasts 6GB of GDDR5 memory, and averages a $1000 price tag. AMD’s Radeon HD 7990 is currently retailing for approximately $900.

Looking for answers, I reached out to Kelt Reeves, founder of the venerable Falcon Northwest, a company who’s been building custom PCs since the early 1990s. What he offered backed up Peddie’s claims.

“The Nvidia NVDA -0.14% GeForce Titan is our #1 selling graphics card by far – despite it being the most expensive,” Reeves reveals. “What’s more, our customer for this card is actually buying an average of 1.3 Titans per PC. In other words, a huge number of them are buying two and even three of these monster GPUs in a single system.”

Perhaps Falcon Northwest has a more affluent clientele? I needed at least double confirmation on this, so I spoke to Wallace Santos, CEO and founder of MAINGEAR. “We notice that when it comes to graphics, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770, 780 and Titans are our most popular selections,” Santos confirmed. NVIDIA’s GTX 770 starts at about $400.

Continuing, Santos tells me that “on average most of our customers that are high-end gamers spend around $4k or more.” Surely that’s an anomaly, right? Back over to Reeves at Falcon Northwest: “Our ASP [average sale price] this year is $4,100. An interesting data point: we’ve seen a 16% increase in customer spending on the GPU this year over last.”

So what’s driving these purchases? What bleeding edge tech is causing PC gaming enthusiasts to gleefully hand over wads of cash? Both men offer equally believable answers.

Reeves believes that “the real game-changer for PC gaming this year is the introduction of 4K displays. Games can give you 4K resolution right now, so you don’t need to wait for Hollywood to bring you movies to enjoy [it]. But with 4 times the number of pixels to drive than a 1080P display, 4K demands at least two of the top graphics cards to be able to play 3D games smoothly. Once you’ve seen a PC game running at 4K, no console can even come close.”

Falcon Northwest's Tiki is the poster child for a growing trend toward smaller systems packed with high-end components | Image credit: Falcon Northwest

Over at Maingear, Santos attributes the rampant growth to “online gaming, e-sports tournaments and having the PC gaming community able to connect more with media outlets such as twitch.tv, PC gaming enthusiasts will always be looking for more performance from their hardware to get the experience and  speed they are looking for.”

That sentiment actually mirrors a great point made in JPR’s report. Peddie says that PC gamers continue to “buy and build with a fervency that could be compared to motorcycle, 4×4, and sports car enthusiasts.”

One final note that should leave you agape: Peddie estimates that upcoming PC exclusives like ARMA 3 from Bohemia Interactive will influence $800 million in PC builds.

As always, a friendly reminder that PC gaming isn’t dead, and is nowhere near dying.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonevangelho/2013/08/07/for-struggling-pc-market-its-pc-gamers-to-the-rescue/

Also it looks like AMD's 9000 series GPUs are set for an October launch. New architecture, same 28nm process.

http://semiaccurate.com/2013/08/07/amd-to-launch-hawaii-in-hawaii/

Also the glut of PC fighting games contunues to grow KOF XIII looks to be set to release on Steam

http://store.steampowered.com/video/2029019

And I still have a Sonic Racing Steam code if anyone wants it

Yes Transformed I bought a 4 pack from GMG and I have a left over code

This Civilization MMO sounds pretty crazy

You're welcome

Yea we should do that some time, I am kinda bandwidth constrained at the moment so thos games may have to wait a bit untill I can get round to downloading/updating them lol.

And for those that haven't seen the Civ Online news

http://www.pcgamesn.com/civilization-online-puts-you-boots-citizen-and-lets-you-wage-war-other-players