I have been pretty busy on my Xbox 360 lately to bring anything of value to this beautiful PC dominate website so I am just going to ramble on about a few exciting things coming out.

Mass Effect 3 will feature day one DLC that standard edition buyers will need to pay even more cash to play. When u consider the price difference between the standard and the deluxe and all the extra stuff the deluxe gets than add this fresh day one DLC(which will probably be a must have piece of the story) to the standard editions pocket your better off just getting the deluxe!!.

Borderlands 2 got a new trailer yesterday mixed up with the typical sound we have come to expect lately(dubstep,technoish music) but it offers great insight to the new characters and the graphics standard along with the constant flash of “HEAPS OF GUNS” so check that out when u get a chance!!

Alan wake recently got great sales and pleased the creators “Remedy” so much they are now “Excited about PC”. This is great guys but you should’ve already fucking knew that we are an army!! We buy stuff worthy of cash and leave the consolitis trash in the bin.

AMD kicks ass still with its most powerful card on the market the 7970 and it continues to dominate our nerdy dreams with his presence. Maybe when the price tag comes down we can all enjoy this great new tech ?

Well that’s it guys enjoy my rambling!

With the widespread success of Rayman Origins in late 2011, Ubisoft is planning on a reboot for this spring for the popular title. The developers are planning to hit the PC market hard this spring with a March 29 release date planned.

The PC version of the popular title will be based on Rayman, who will be forced to fight an invasion of Darktoons. The game will come with an outfit of other characters along the way as well. The other characters will be available to be controlled by other players at any time, as they can jump in and join along for game play.

It will come with over 60 different levels of play, as well as a number of hidden features as well. While it’s not expected to be your typical PC game, it’s supposed to be enjoyable for all ages. As far as game play goes, there will be the option of having a solo effort or adding in three friends to join or leave at any time. Rayman Origins will also offer an online multiplayer mode that will offer the opportunity to have four different controllers from just the one machine. The game play will be 2D, but it’s sure to bring plenty of excitement still.

Ubisoft has also planned a release for the title on PlayStation Vita, the much maligned handheld console set for a North American release this March. The console has received some positive reactions as it can be used as an alternative for cell and home phone usage. The combination of having an all out gaming console combined with a phone is appealing to many. The Vita version of Rayman Origins has been touted as one of the most anticipated earl releases for the console.

The PC version of Origins will be available for purchases both online and in stores, as some pre orders are said to come with a complimentary copy of Rayman 2. The PC Digital release will use TAGES-SolidShield, which means that there will be an activation limit of 5 different machines in total. It will be available for a number of different operating systems, including Windows operating systems dating back to XP.

Certainly Rayman Origins will offer a unique departure from regular PC games out these days. Despite these differences, the anticipation and early reviews for the release have been overwhelmingly positive for the most part. Ubisoft is likely to see strong success with this planned release of the next installment of the Rayman franchise on two more huge platforms such as PC and PlayStation Vita.

1)  Join our Steam Group and invite your Friends!  Then comment below:  What is your favorite medieval weapon and why?

2)  Enter through Steam Gifts Private Giveaway

3)  Enter through Steam Gifts Public Giveaway

That’s it!  Best of luck.  As we are doing weekly giveaways this one will end on Sunday the 26th sometime in the PM.

Medal of Honor - Matt Lucky Kinswater

“The man that against all odds, went in to save a comrade that everyone gave up on. That is a true hero.”

Crusader Kings II (Airborne Gamer) - simas

“It was a campaign by the pope to gain more power over the European rulers and to improve the position of the church as a powerful secular entity.

The crusades was also a sign of pope becoming more powerful than the Patriarch of Constantinople, which had been a strong competitor for the position of the unquestionable ruler of the Christian faith”

Crusader Kings II (Steam Gifts Private) – HERE

Crusader Kings II (Steam Gifts Public) – HERE

Enjoy your free games everyone!  Next giveaway starting up tomorrow!

Before I get into trying to teach anybody anything via the tutorials, I want to ensure that everyone understands what XNA is and how it is structured. A good understanding of what you are working with is key to how well you will utilize it.
This is more for the straight up beginners of games programming, but you will need some programming experience in order to understand what is going on. I would highly recommend making some basic programs in C# before you come anywhere near XNA, or any other languages for that matter.
If you think you have got what it takes, I aim to make this as informative and easy to understand as possible.
I also must stress that any code I ask you to write in these tutorials are actually written by you. Copying and pasting will do nothing for you, you need to type it up, it sinks in better that way. I would also suggest you type up the comments as well, for future reference.

I won’t be including any screenshots for this part as it is unnecessary, everything is straight forward and “see-able” on your screen.

What is XNA?
XNA is not a programming language as you may suspect. It is purely a library created by Microsoft within the C# language (that’s why I suggest you learn some of it). It purely takes things that are already imbedded deep within C# and C++ and makes them easier for the user to manipulate.
XNA introduces a whole bunch of new commands that you will probably have no idea about, therefore knowledge is key. The more tutorials you follow, the more you will learn of and the broader your knowledge will become.

It is used for the creation of Xbox Live Indie Games, as well as some full releases. Terraria is one of the more popular examples.

There is nothing holding you back with XNA (only performance based things that C++ is needed for). 2D and 3D games are both possible to make. A word of warning, do not even go anywhere near 3D until you have mastered 2D. I don’t even bother with 3D, primarily because I am rubbish at making models and textures!

How do I get XNA?
XNA is accessible through Visual Studio. I am using XNA 4.0 (the latest as of writing) and I suggest you do the same. Visual Studio 2010 is available for free through the DreamSpark program (https://www.dreamspark.com/), so I suggest you go that route, if not you can get the express edition, free of charge.
If you install all the updates and such, XNA should be available, if not. A little Google search will lead you to the download. Alternatively, you can just download the Windows Phone Tools (http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=13890) XNA 4.0 is included.

Setting up a new Project
1. Open Visual Studio
2. New Project
3. C#
4. XNA
5. Windows XNA 4.0 Game

Done!

Just make sure you name your project something suitable!

Game1.cs
You will now come to the coding screen, first of all you will be greeted by Game1.cs. This is the base XNA class for handling your game.
It may seem like a bit of an overwhelming mess, considering you have not even done anything yet, but it is simple enough.
You have 5 functions, Initialize(), LoadContent(), UnloadContent(), Update() and Draw().
In Initialize() you place initialization logic, this is what you want to happen when you start the program. So this would include things such as screen resolution.
In LoadContent() you are loading in the textures, sound, objects and anything else that needs to be put in the game.
In UnloadContent() you are removing the objects that are no longer needed.
In Update() you are defining what you need to update, this would be things such as the position of objects and collision detection.
In Draw() we are taking our content and drawing it to the screen via the spritebatch.

You do not want these 5 functions to be clogged up, so we often keep classes for each of our objects and keep the code within the class and then just define it within these functions. It keeps everything cleaner. I will explain this further in our game tutorial.
It may seem rather complex at the moment, but when you start seeing things happen, it will be a lot easier to understand.

What’s Next?
Ok, so now that you have a very basic understanding of XNA (Better than before you read the above right?). We can move onto the tutorials. The game I have chosen to mimic is Space Invaders (this is a challenge for myself as well!) We will try to flesh it out as much as possible and make it a complete game. I will supply all of the graphics and such.

Obviously, the problem is that I need to create the game and get my code in line before making a tutorial. This will take time. Hopefully I can get it done quickly and then drip-feed the content whilst I make a new tutorial, so that constant information is being passed, as oppose to massive gaps!

If you have ANY questions about XNA or how to do something within it, please just ask. I would be glad to try and help and possibly educate myself in the process!