1stSamurai.net - The Exclusive Gaming Source

Those who bought Red alert 3 during Steam's holiday sale are finding themselves with a partially useless game purchased at an admittedly excellent price. Steam users report that the downloaded copies of Red alert 3 don't include serial numbers, which the game requires for online play.

A similar issue occurred recently through Steam with the digital sale of Spore. That problem seems to have been resolved, and at least one Red alert 3 player has been able to rectify the current error, though the solution required the game to be re-downloaded directly from EA (complete with SecuROM DRM). Still, EA's eventual intervention in Steam's Spore issue is a possible sign that these Red alert 3 woes will be alleviated in a more timely manner.

[Thanks, Reid]

Update: Reader Tom suggests verifying the game cache in Steam (right click in "My Games," and find it under Properties > Local Files), which apparently identifies the files that need to be replaced to enable the game to work properly. Maybe that will help!

Source:
http://www.joystiq.com

The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals don't hand out many video game awards, but when they do, they're generally about games that favor eating vegetables and tofu over meat. PETA's choice game of 2009? The Sims 3.

The organization has lauded EA's life simulator as the "most animal-friendly game" of the year, otherwise known as PETA's Proggy Award. The animal-rights group praises The Sims 3 for its option to let players "choose a vegetarian lifestyle," making Sims, "like their real-life counterparts, live longer, age more slowly, and feast on cruelty-free delights-from tofu dogs to ratatouille."

"EA's compassionate update to its perennial favorite shows commitment not only to animals but also to the game's players," writes PETA, claiming that the previous iteration was only vegetarian friendly by way of mods.

I'm curious what PETA would consider 2009's least animal-friendly game. My best guess is Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus for the Wii, but that seems almost too obvious.

The Sims 3: Most Animal-Friendly Game of 2009 [PETA via Gamasutra]

Source:
http://www.kotaku.com

According to TorrentFreak, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 has been downloaded illegally nearly 4,100,000 times for PC in 2009, topping the list after only releasing just two months ago.

Provided these numbers are indeed accurate, Activision has potentially lost more than $245 million in sales on the PC version alone.

The Sims 3, Prototype, Need for Speed Shift, and Street Fighter IV help round off the top five for the year, all of which appeared on the PC platform.

New Super Mario Bros. Wii was the highest downloaded Wii title with 1,150,000 downloads.

The report notes the total download figures for this year double that of last year's numbers, and that PC remains to be the target for torrent downloads, with more than three times that of the Wii and Xbox 360.

Source:
http://www.ps3.ign.com

Final Fantasy XIII hits the PS3 and Xbox 360 on March 9, 2010.

Source:
http://www.blorrent.com

Love Demon’s Souls? Then decorate your PlayStation 3 with the Nexus.

Sony’s Demon’s Souls dynamic theme shows the Maiden in Black in an empty Nexus, perhaps waiting for you to join her. Currently, the theme is only available on Japan’s PlayStation Store and it costs 200 yen ($2.25). Demon’s Souls has been pretty successful in North America so I imagine Atlus or Sony will release this theme here too.

Source:
http://www.siliconera.com