The PC version of GTA IV will hit the retailers’ shelves on 18 November in the US and 21 November in the UK: That’s official, it’s surprising and the date is around six months sooner than we expected. According to Rockstar founder Sam Houser, ‘The game looks and plays beautifully on the PC.’ We’re also promised a newly expanded multiplayer mode exclusive to the PC, but Rockstar hasn’t elaborated on that.

As if we weren’t banking on cramming enough into that particular issue of Total PC Gaming - yay!

Blizzard has released another new batch of concept art for Diablo III. We’ve been treated to a relatively large number of screens and art for its long-awaited action RPG already, so we feel it’s safe to assume this will be the trend leading up to the release next year. You won’t find us complaining.  Check out the website here.

Ubisoft has revised the release date  of their forthcoming arcade flight sim - it’s now set to arrive at the beginning of next year. With ‘real’ planes including the F-22, Eurofighter, MIG-29, Su-37 and F-16 we’re keen to see quite how this dog-fighting combat game is going to stack up. Do you really want it or should arcade-style shooters stay in the console domain? Get on our forum at www.totalpcgaming.com/forum and let us know!
“The setting is 2012. As the era of the nation-state draws quickly to a close, the rules of warfare evolve even more rapidly. More and more nations become increasingly dependent on Private Military Companies (PMCs) – elite mercenaries with a lax view of the law. The Reykjavik Accords further legitimize their existence by authorizing their right to serve in every aspect of military operations. There goes the neighbourhood”

Publisher Atari has announced plans to re-release last years rather good RPG The Witcher with all sorts of enhancements. Whilst this probably won’t do much to attract those who have already bought and completed the game, it might attract some who were put off by a few of the game’s flaws last time around.
“The Witcher: Enhanced Edition brings the game even closer to perfection with a number of technical and visual improvements jammed into the value-packed retail box. The enhancements introduced in this version include more than 5000 lines of re-written and re-recorded dialogue, more than 200 new dialogue animations, a new character differentiation system for NPCs, an enhanced inventory with improved alchemy, reduced loading times, improved combat responsiveness and much more.” Read more on the official website.

Total PC Gaming has arrived in LA! The city of gang violence, hardcore pornography and, lets not forget, angels. We may have just endured a grueling 12 hour flight - sat next to a man who insisted on giving us a smell of his colon every 15 minutes - but we’re now in the LA Convention centre to bring you news and ramblings from this year’s E3 (the video game trade show that’s kind of lost its magic, but is going to stick around for a little while longer until someone starts-up something better).

For our latest coverage of the event you should direct yourself to our Blog page here

Unless you have been living under a rock for the past year, Spore needs no introduction. Will Wright’s evolutionary blockbuster isn’t cited for release until early September, but publisher EA has released the Creature Creator segment of the game early to garner some not-really-needed interest. A free trial is now available from www.spore.com/trial . The question is, will Spore live up to the hype? Not long to wait now…

CD Projekt, developer of award-winning PC title The Witcher, is taking a retro step into distribution future with GOG.com, a digital platform that allows you to download classic titles for a very modest fee. These will be optimized for Windows XP and Vista, and will be available for a modest $5.99 or $9.99. More significantly, they’ll all be DRM free and once paid for, downloadable as many times as needed - giving GOG.com a clear advantage over Steam. CD Projekt has already secured licences for games from Interplay and Codemasters’ back catalogues and hopes to add Lucasarts titles such as Sam & Max and the Monkey Island games in the near future. Currently CD Projeckt have a tantlising line-up that includes Fallout, Fallout 2, MDK, Freespace 2, Operation Flashpoint: Game of the Year Edition and TOCA Race Driver 3, with their ultimate goal being to offer “a comprehensive collection of classic PC games from the 80s, 90s and 2000s.”

Check out our GOG.com competition on the TPCG forum.

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Lizard Interactive has announced that the first expansion pack for free to play MMORPG Sho Online is just around the corner. Entitled “Two Emperors”, the expansion brings with it a host of new features, one of the more interesting being a pet training system whereby players can raise creatures to assist them in battles or provide speedier forms of transport.

Get the lowdown here

Get yourself over to the Total PC Gaming forum here, sign up (its free) and log in either at 1:30pm or 8pm on Monday 14th July to be in with a chance of winning big courtesy of the mag.

In case you don’t already know the TPCG forum is the place to be if you want to discuss you’re favourite hobby, ask and answer gaming and hardware related questions and talk directly to the magazine team about whatever’s on your mind.

So what’s on offer? 4GB of Corsair’s awesome DHX DDR2 RAM for the top prize and a bundle of PC games and the Gamer Edition of Guinness World Records 2008 for two lucky runners up.

Tell your friends and family, rope in your neighbours and call the cops! Actually, scrap the last one, that would just be silly.

Full details can be found here!