Today we have a special guest writer for our monthly "On the Download" column. Me. As you can probably tell by our Release Date Calendar, there's not a whole lot to look forward to in the month ahead. Way to drop the ball, January! For this edition of "On the Download" I'll be offering my thoughts on PC gaming, or more specifically, my experience with a handful of co-op games I recently purchased from this fairly popular digital distribution site called "Steam."
As you may or may not know, I'm a bit of a PC gaming novice. Okay, I'm not really a novice. That would imply that I dabble in the dark-mouse-and-keyboard-arts. I don't dare to dabble. I don't play games on a PC. I've never had a gaming PC, and the last time I was exposed to PC gaming was in college, which was way back when years started with the numbers "1" and "9." I actually embarrassed myself at E3 last year when I was at a behind-closed-doors session of Battlefield 3. I had to ask one of the developers how to move my character forward. I'm not kidding.
Screw it. Go on without me.
This edition of "On the Download" is for those not-so-computer-savvy console gamers who may want to try out some PC games, but they don't know if their system can handle it. I'm in the same boat as you. I decided to spend a few bucks and try my luck with my Windows 7 HP Pavilion g4 Notebook. I'm just making this up as I go, so PC gurus, feel free to point and laugh, if you want.
As this current console generation cycles to an end, I've noticed many of my friends are neglecting their twin-sticks and triggers for a mouse and keyboard. I can't blame them. Quite a few PC games caught my eye this holiday season. Three titles in particular stood out to me, mostly due to high recommendations from the Co-Optimus staff. Magicka, Jamestown, and Serious Sam 3: BFE each scratched a different itch, and I was left wondering if my meager laptop could run them. System requirements be damned! When I saw these games on sale I had to see exactly what my little baby could do.
I spotted Jamestown packaged with a Humble Indie Bundle a few weeks ago. I plopped down $15 bucks for it, because, hey, I like doing nice things for charity, especially if it involves something as simple as clicking a mouse button. I looked over the system requirements, and I didn't see any numbers higher than my own mysterious "System Properties" digits. I started it up, and lo a behold, my little-laptop-that-could managed to run the game without a hitch. I was in local co-op heaven.
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This is a stock screenshot of Jamestown...