Welcome to another installment of, "Coming Soon to TotalGaming.net," where my sanity is slowly torn to shreads by the digital flotsem. So, if you're still reading this post, I should probably get to the point before I lose the few still around.... Here's what we're working on for the very near future (like 7-14 days): World War II Panzer Claws from TopWare Interactive: Gamers can play through four campaigns consisting of over 40 missions in this real-time strategy war simulation....

For those wondering about the 1.2 GB update that may be showing in Stardock Central, this is a glitch caused by daylight savings time. There is no Etrom update at this time. Please update to the latest version of Stardock Central (out today) to correct this problem.

Since several of our TGN members have asked for previews of what's upcoming on TotalGaming, I figured now would be a good time. Coming in October/November on TotalGaming.net: - Tribal Trouble from Oddlabs: In this fast-paced 3D RTS, players will pit themselves against either island natives or Viking raiders. Trible Trouble has been programmed entirely in Java and features remarkable 3D graphics, a single-player campaign, Internet multiplayer, and massive battles with up to 900 tribesman....

Duke Ferris over at Game Revolution has posted an article that takes a factual look at violence and video games. With the recent mania taking place over Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas' Hot Coffee easter egg causing politicians and lawyers to once again call for new laws and sanctions, the government's own FBI statistics show quite clearly that violent games don't translate into violent gamers. In fact, since the PlayStation and video games appeared on the scene, youth v...

Stardock Entertainment has just relaunched its TotalGaming.net electronic distribution service with new features, games, a redesigned website and more. As part of the relaunch, we have transitioned all of our current TotalGaming.net subscribers to our new Token-based payment system in an unprecedented upgrade program. In the following article you'll find details on everything you need to know about the next evolution of the TotalGaming service. What Will Curr...

At E3 this past May, Monica Hafer from GamesFirst! and her colleagues interviewed us about TotalGaming.net , Galactic Civilizations II and Society . Monica has recently published her article about Elitism in Gaming where Stardock is prominently mentioned.

Marc Saltzman, whom I've known for a number of years, has written a head-to-head style interview with Jack Thompson (an anti-gaming advocate & trial lawyer) and Henry Jenkins (Director of Comparitive Media Studies at MIT and a gaming advocate) for 1up.com.  Marc asks the tough questions of both men as he delves into the issue of video game violence, the ESRB and its rating system, and more.

In what I consider a damnable move and one that was "slipped" in, Intel has apparently integrated DRM into its new Pentium D and 945 chipset. The new feature - which Intel thus far refuses to give details on - gives the RIAA, the MPAA, and other DRM-enthused organizations control over purchased content at the hardware level for the first time. It certainly appears to strike a heavy blow for consumer's fair-use rights, though it's certainly too soon to throw up the red flag just yet (a yellow fla...

A very good article today by Paul Hyman at the Hollywood Reporter brings up a topic I've been thinking about for years - inefficiency in game creation. The U.S. has seen a steady increase in worker productivity for years now, thanks in large part to greater efficiency in the workplace. One area where this hasn't translated, however, is in game development, which Paul's article tackles. The most striking part of the article appears near its end when something that the media has known about for...

On the flight home from E3 this year I couldn't help but notice one of the flight attendants walking down the aisle:  she had streaks of grey in her hair, but was otherwise a youthful looking woman; only the grey betrayed her age.  The same could be said of the PC games industry which is starting to show grey, but is still vibrant to behold. Anyone at E3 couldn't miss the fact that PC games are now second class citizens in the industry. While Microsoft obviously spent millions on it...

PC Gaming has been under fire from politicians and other groups practically since its inception. While the initial criticism was that video games somehow rotted your brain, in recent years they have been called "murder simulators," with numerous failed attempts to ban their sale to minors. In what can only be viewed as a radical step, Activision now requires visitors to their website to enter their date of birth and a valid credit card number in order to simply view the pages of M...

There has been a notable decline in the PC gaming industry in recent years, with flat or declining sales reported from many publishers/developers. In response, many developers have announced plans to abandon or scale back their work on the PC, instead opting for the more lucrative console market (like it or not, games are a business). As a former gaming journalist, this came as no surprise to me at the time, but what is becoming alarming is that practically nothing has been done about the proble...