PC Gaming Roundup - February 18, 2009

Here are a few PC gaming nuggets to chew on, including news of a Men of War demo, a chance to win a Sacred 2-themed gaming rig and more.

Penumbra Collection Now Available
Paradox Interactive announced that its "critically acclaimed and innovative" horror trilogy Penumbra Collection has hit North American retail shelves, costing gamers a mere $19.99. The trilogy includes Penumbra: Overture , Penumbra: Black Plague, and the recent expansion pack Requiem, offering the complete story of Philip Buchanon and his "journey through terror."

The Path Gets Dated
Tale of Tales said that the upcoming PC game The Path will hit online retail outlets such as Direc2Drive and Steam on March 18th, 2009. In celebration of this joyous event, the company launched a new website for The Path located here, containing new screenshots, gameplay videos, and downloadable material. The Path is a short horror game inspired by old versions of Little Red Ridinghood, set in modern day. The player controls not one, but six incarnations of the red protagonist. " There is one rule in the game, and it must be broken. There is one goal, and when you attain it, you die. The Path is a psychological trip which will be highly unsettling to some and gloriously revealing to others."

Midway and Ubisoft Get Cozy with Wheelman
Midway said that it has entered a "strategic" relationship with Ubisoft to publish the upcoming open-world driving game Wheelman from action-film meat cake Vin Diesel. According to the company, Ubisoft will handle sales, marketing, and distribution of the title in North America, South America, Australia, New Zealand, France, Germany, Austria, Ireland and the United Kingdom. Midway will continue to direct the development of the title and retains all future rights to the franchise and will sell the title in all other European territories. Wheelman is scheduled for a March 24, 2009 ship date for the PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Also expect a pre-launch demo to surface on both console networks.

Win a Sacred 2-Themed PC
If racking in a free gaming rig is your thing, then CDV has your ticket with its latest sweepstakes. The first prize comes from GameRigs, and consists of GameRigs' aluminum ATX case with custom artwork, AMD's Phenom X4 2.5GHz Quad-Code AM2+ processor, 2GB of Crucial Ballistix memory, the Nvidia GeForce 9800GTX+ 512MB, and NEC's Accusync 24" LCD display. The PC also comes equipped with Razer mouse and keyboard, and other Sacred 2 goodies.

Men of War Demo Available
1C Company made available a single-player demo of the upcoming World War II strategy game, Men of War. The demo features the entire opening stage of the Russian campaign, which sees a small unit from the Red Army taking on the might of the Germans. This initial mission helps players to come to grips with the controls before culminating in a tightly fought battle between a Russian tank and a convoy of German vehicles. Men of War will be released exclusively on PC in North America by Aspyr, in association with the 1C label, in Q2 of 2009.

Merchants of Brooklyn Invade Steam
According to Paleo Entertainment, the upcoming FPS Merchants of Brooklyn will hit Valve's Steam service on March 17, offering dark humor and presented in a unique graphic novel art style. The game also features "frenzic combat" in a massive vertical world, as the New York population has moved upwards, building a massive network of bridges to avoid toxic streets. “We really wanted to portray everything that makes Paleo Entertainment different and unique with our first title, Merchants of Brooklyn,” said Troy Latimer, President of Paleo Entertainment, “M.O.B. offers a truly distinct and warped gameplay experience that embodies our overall design philosophy. Creating fresh entertainment concepts will always be at the forefront of our products.”

Team Fortress 2 Scout Update Next Week
Yesterday Valve's Doug Lombardi sent over a little reminder that new Scout Update is scheduled to hit Team Fortress 2 on Tuesday, February 24. Until then, gamers can access the official Scout Update section for daily nuggets of TF2 news. Today's update features two community maps: Arena_Watchtower and CP_Junction. Additionally, the Steam website reports that an update will be applied automatically to Team Fortress 2 when the Steam client is restarted. Today's fix addresses a loadout exploit. Thanks to kyeana for kicking me back off the couch.