Alan Wake was definitely one of the better games of 2010 but it was also one that was incredibly overlooked. Its poor marketing and short length led to low sales for the Xbox 360 exclusive. Luckily Alan Wake is set to get another chance with an appearance on PC next month.

Alan Wake is launching on Steam during February, with no further date announced at this time. As a nice bonus for PC players the Steam version of Alan Wake will include the full game as well as The Signal and The Writer DLC packs for no extra charge. The game can be played using mouse and keyboard or an Xbox 360 controller. Most surprising is that Alan Wake is not Games for Windows Live enabled and is instead taking full advantage of the Steam platform, meaning Steam achievements and cloud saving.

If Alan Wake is a game you overlooked when it hit consoles, or if you just want an excuse to revisit the game, it sounds like the Steam version will be the best version available. We'll keep you posted when we hear a solid release date and any pricing details.

PC gaming is not dead. But you do have to make sure your rig is up -to-date if you wanna keep the gaming going. If you like your Commander Shepard all keyboard-and-mousey then heads up. Bioware has revealed the specs needed to enjoy the upcoming Mass Effect 3 Demo when it's available on February 14.

Minimum Spec:

• OS - Windows XP SP3/Vista SP1, Win 7 *Supported chipsets: NVIDIA 7900 or better; ATI X1800 or better. Please note that NVIDIA GeForce 9300, 8500, 8400, and 8300 are below minimum system requirements, as are AMD/ATI Radeon HD3200, HD3300, and HD4350. Updates to your video and sound card drivers may be required.
• CPU - 1.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo (equivalent AMD CPU)
• RAM - 1GB for XP / 2GB RAM for Vista/Win 7
• Disc Drive - 1x speed
• Hard Drive - 2.5 GB of free space
• Video - 256 MB* (with Pixel Shader 3.0 support)
• Sound - DirectX 9.0c compatible
• DirectX - DirectX 9.0c August 2009 (included)

Recommended Spec:

• OS - Windows XP SP3/Vista SP1, Win 7
• CPU - 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo (equivalent AMD CPU)
• RAM - 2GB for XP / 4GB RAM for Vista/Win 7
• Disc Drive - 1x speed
• Hard Drive - 2.5 GB of free space
• Video - AMD/ATI Radeon HD 4850 512 MB or greater, NVidia GeForce 9800 GT 512 MB or greater
• Sound - DirectX 9.0c compatible

Good news to report today from GameFly.

GameFly has announced that their PC client is now in public beta. The client will allow members to update their queues, watch videos and trailers, catch up on news and organize their own personal collections to display virtually. The main incentive to download the client is the Unlimited PC Play library for members.

"We are thrilled to finally be able to open up the beta so anyone interested in video games can start using the client, and we are hard at work expanding our catalog of PC titles for our users to play for free in the Unlimited PC Play section," said Sean Spector, GameFly co-founder and SVP of Business Development and Content. "Casual to hardcore gamers can enjoy titles like Assassin's Creed, Deus Ex or Saints Row 2 to Earthworm Jim, Jewel Quest or World of Goo at no additional cost to their GameFly subscription."

GameFly will also begin selling PC games at their website and through their mobile app for iOS and Android. There will be over 1,500 Windows/Mac games for sale as well as the ability to pre-order upcoming PC releases.

Continue after the break for the current list of Unlimited PC Play publishers.

Avoiding Steam sales is a problem every PC gamer has had to endure over the years. Steam has a long history of offering great games at such dirt cheap prices that you would be an idiot to not buy. Unless you have extreme discipline your wallet is certainly going to be in danger whenever you check to see what's on sale.

In keeping with the season of everything being ridiculously cheap, Steam has started its Autumn Sale. The sale will run from today through November 27 and is promising new daily deals and "hundreds" of sales over the weekend. To kick off the festivities Steam has dropped the prices of several giant games including Portal 2 for $10.19, Mass Effect 2 for $4.99 and more. Also don't forget that this is just the first day; there is going to be plenty more deals as the holiday weekend continues.

Check out the amazing deals today and every day and hope your wallet forgives you.

Hackers. What was once a fun romp featuring Angelina Jolie back in the 90s has become a scary word to companies today. Hackers crippled Sony's PlayStation Network earlier this year in a widely publicized debacle and now video games have been hit again. Valve has officially reported that Steam has been hacked and not just the forums like originally thought.

At the moment Valve is being very upfront about what's going on. In addition to shutting down the Steam Forums hackers also accessed a database containing user names, passwords, game purchases, e-mail addresses, billing addresses and encrypted credit card information. Right now Valve doesn't have any evidence that credit card information or other "personally identifying information" was taken but they are still investigating.

"We don't have evidence of credit card misuse at this time. Nonetheless you should watch your credit card activity and statements closely."

The biggest intrusion seems to be on the forums and Valve is requiring users to change passwords the next time they login to the forums. It should be noted that the forum login and Steam login are different although some might use the same password for both. Either way it's probably a good idea to change your password for both. You can find the full statement from Gabe Newell past the break and as always we'll let you know of any changes in the situation.

It has been confirmed that even purchasers of physical, retail copies of Battlefield 3 on PC will require an Origin (a relaunched version of the EA Store) account to play their game.

Daniel Matros, DICE's global Battlefield Community Manager confirmed the news via Twitter. When asked about the rumor that DVD purchasers would still need an Origin account, Matros replied:

@BF_Triton Yes those "rumors" are true :)

It has been confirmed that Battlefield 3 will not be available on Steam. EA has stated that this is because of restrictive terms of service. Battlefield 3 will be available through Direct2Drive and Impulse but like their boxed-retail brothers, any customers who download through these services will also require an Origin account to play.

Console players can rest a little easier though. All you need to play on Xbox 360 or PS3 is an EA account. If you've ever played an EA game online, you probably have one already.

The Old Republic is, without a doubt, the most anticipated MMO on the horizon. The successor to last generation's Knights of the Old Republic, it is aiming to be a true Star Wars experience offering plenty of choices and dialog along with standard MMO requirements like raids and loot. While we still don't know when in 2011 The Old Republic is launching, you now have the ability to pre-order your copy.

You can pre-order either through your local retailer or on-line exclusively through EA's Origin. There are three different versions of the game to tempt your wallet. The Standard Edition will run you $59.99 and there's also the Digital Deluxe Edition that costs $79.99 and includes five virtual items: the Flare Gun, Training Droid, personal HoloDancer, HoloCam and the STAP vehicle.

For the biggest Star Wars fans there is also the Collector's Edition which costs $149.99 and includes all the in-game items of the Deluxe Edition as well as a Darth Malgus statue by Gentle Giant, the journal of Jedi Master Gnost Dural from Chronicle Books, The Music of The Old Republic Soundtrack, a security key, a map of the in-game Star Wars galaxy and access to the Collector's Store, which has exclusive in-game items for buyers of the Collector's Edition. Each version also comes with 30 days of game time.

Bioware is also apparently limiting supply at launch in order to "ensure that players easily transition into the servers." In other words you might want to get that pre-order in as soon as possible. They also announced that there will be Beta Test Weekends starting this September what will be open to selected players worldwide.

Valve has announced support for Free To Play (F2P) Games on Steam with the launch of five F2P games today.

The launch games are Spiral Knights, Forsaken Worlds, Champions Online: Free for All, Global Agenda: Free Agent, and Alliance of Valliant Arms (AVA). Each game will offer exclusive in-game content to those who try the "F2P game of the day" on Steam beginning with Spiral Knights on Wednesday and concluding with AVA on Sunday. In game transactions in all of the titles will be supported by Steam's micro-transaction backend system that is available to Steamworks partners.

"The introduction of Free to Play games is another example of the constant evolution of Steam," said Jason Holtman, director of business development at Valve. "Free to Play games offer new game genres and game experiences for customers, while offering developers and publishers new revenue opportunities and the ability to reach customers in areas of the world where the traditional packaged goods model is less popular than F2P."

For specific details on the F2P game of the day and their exclusive in-game content, log in to your Steam account or head on over to www.steamgames.com in the coming days.

This might be the saddest news I've seen all week. Maybe all month even.

IGN is reporting that they have received word from Valve that they will not be making an appearance at this year's E3. According to Doug Lombardi, Valve's VP of Marketing, news outlets shouldn't make any E3 appointments because "[Valve is] not showing any titles at this year's show."

Valve is best known for the Half-Life series and it was widely speculated that this would be the year that they showed us the latest installment in the franchise. Here's to hoping this is all a clever twist and at least an announcement is made.

Gamer's inboxes were flooded yesterday with a cool offer for Bioware fans. EA is giving away free copies of Mass Effect 2 on PC for owners of any version of Dragon Age 2. In order to redeem your free copy you need to have the Black Emporium Online Pass content that came free with new copies. Visit http://social.bioware.com/me2offer, log in with your EA account and input the Online Pass code. There are reports that EA has saved the code online for users that already activated and threw out their code.

This deal runs until the end of April which means that anyone who's been thinking about picking up Dragon Age 2 just got a little bit of extra incentive. Of course the real question is how many people out there have or want Dragon Age 2 and haven't played Mass Effect 2?

At a press event last night Telltale Games showed off some footage from their upcoming Jurassic Park game as well as giving more information for titles we already knew about. However they also announced five brand new titles that they are currently working on.

The announcement that is easily the most exciting for me is the return of King's Quest. It's been over twelve years since we've seen a King's Quest game (not counting The Silver Lining) and with Telltale recent success with resurrecting the Monkey Island series it will be very interesting to see what they do with this reboot.

Telltale is also adapting two comic series for upcoming games: The Walking Dead (based on the comic, not the recent AMC series) and Fables. Not to be confused with Lionhead's Fable, Fables is an award-winning comic book where characters from fairy tales and folklore are taken in "wild, brutally violent, mature, and often un-expected directions."

They also announced a sequel to the critically acclaimed Puzzle Agent and revealed their upcoming participation with Hector: Badge of Carnage. Episode 1 of this series was previously developed by Straandlooper for iPhone and iPod Touch and Telltale Games is assisting them for the remaining episodes and also plans to bring the series to PC, MAc and iPad.

Telltale Games has seen a lot of success with episodic games like Sam & Max and this latest announcement bodes will for fans of their games.

During last fall's PAX Prime there was naturally a lot of cool games to play and even some big announcements. One of the most talked about games at the show was Red 5 Studios' Firefall, a free to play shooter releasing later this year. The game features a persistent world with players working cooperatively to defend cities, hunt for resources and much more. At the same time there is also full competitive multiplayer for the title.

The PAX Prime demonstration showed off mainly the cooperative play and character progression in addition to introducing gamers to the brand new world of Firefall. At PAX East, Red 5 Studios is going to show off the competitive side of Firefall by allowing players to get their hands on the team based multiplayer. Their goal is to "give gamers a taste of how army vs. army can work in a competitive arena format, and just how fun combat can be."

If you are planning to attend PAX East make sure you stop by and check out the Red 5 Studios booth to get your hands on this much anticipated title.

Games for Windows LIVE has been getting a little competitive lately on the PC download front. Last week it had some great deals (Bioshock for $2) and some insane ones (Age of Empires III for .10 cents) too. It seems they are going to continue busting out some deals for this weekend also.

First up is Viva Pinata. Rare's cute, kind of creepy garden pinata breeding simulator is on sale for .99 cents. Down from $19.99, this deal is valid today only. According to Joystiq, tomorrow will bring another one-day discount; this time on Blacklight: Tango Down. This sci-fi FPS should be selling for .99 cents also, down from $14.99.

I have to admit, the insane deal on Age of Emipres III had me fire up Games for Windows LIVE for the first time in a long time. It's nice to see Microsoft getting competitive with the likes of Steam and other digital retailers on the sales front. If only they could also match the amount of titles available. Then things would get a whole lot more interesting.

Civilization V is one of the biggest titles released this year and in order to reward the "legions of Civ fans" 2K Games announced that they will be releasing two add-ons for the popular, turn-based strategy game. In a bonus that is surely going to excite all players one of the add-ons is going to be 100% free.

The first add-on is the Mongols Civilization and Scenario Pack. This free content adds Genghis Khan and the Mongols as a new playable civilization. The new scenario included will task players to "lead their civilization from humble beginnings on the steppes of Asia, until all under heaven tremble at the might of the nation."

The second is the Babylonian Civilization Pack. This add-on was originally only available to purchasers of the Digital Deluxe Edition but now is being made available to all Civilization V players for $4.99.

Considering that each civilization has unique units and a special bonus, these two new factions should help to broaden even more the diversity and choices available in Civilization V. Look to download both of these packs next Monday, October 25.

I know what you all are thinking when you read the title of this article: "So, when's Half-Life 2: Episode 3 supposed to come out, Valve? Huh?" Well, folks, we just have to be patient for Mr. Freeman's return and get excited for Valve's newest game that they announced today, Defense of the Ancients 2 for the PC and Mac. Valve has described DotA 2 (get used to that acronym) as "a massive sequel to one of the most played games in the world." In retrospect, DotA 2 will be a continuation of a popular real-time strategy game (a mod of Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos) that focuses on players controlling their herds of minions. The game will run on Valve's popular Source engine, which will further implement the title's multiplayer competition.

Game Informer was the first to break the news of Valve's unveiling, citing that voice chat and Steamworks-based achievements will be available when the game releases sometime in 2011. In addition, DotA 2 will also be helmed by one of the series' lead designers abtly named, IceHog. IceHog, who was hired by Valve last year, is currently maintaining work on the series' most recent iteration, DotA: All Stars. Ever since IceHog's introduction at Valve, rumors have run rampant the past few months about a possible DotA sequel developed by Bellevue, Washington-based company. During that time, fans of the DotA series were also upset when Valve wanted to trademark the DotA acronym. Hopefully, within the hands of Valve, the DotA series will reach new heights. At this time, no further information (aside from what Game Informer has reported) has been announced, but we'll sure to have screens and videos online at TAG when they become available.