There's a reason I won't buy any games unless they're released on Steam, and that's because the retail PC market in Toronto is a pile of shit.

Every time my wife and I make a trip to the mall I make sure to check out the EB games, just to see how abysmal their PC offerings are, especially compared to how they stock their console games. Is it any wonder that popular perception in North America is that PC gaming is dying?

In this first picture we have some empty slots and some really trash looking boxes. Quake Wars is there twice, in two different slots, and one of the boxes looks like it's been through a wood chipper.

See that Bloodrayne 2 box? It's torn to shit.

Here we have the end of the rack. Where the lowest alphabetical games are supposed to be. So, we can see WoW: Burning Crusade, but no WoW. Where is Warhammer Online, or The Witcher: Enhanced Edition? Where is STALKER, or Clear Sky?

Here's the start, the A's. Notable exclusions: Crysis, Crysis: Warhead. It's a good thing they have CLUE and Sudoku though.

Wow, they've actually got Left Behind stocked.

It's pretty upsetting, that if I want the new PC releases I can't even find them in a game store. Hell, there weren't even any posters advertising it or any kind of marketing at all. Digital Distribution for life yo!

They're pretty boring. Me running around, conversation with a fence and that's about it. I'll see about recording some combat later on.

Wow.

September has been an awesome month so far for games. Two releases I've been looking forward to were out within a day of each other, and another game was released on Steam that I really never expect.

I'm talking about S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky, Crysis (and Warhead) and The Witcher: Enhanced Edition.

I didn't expect to see Crysis on Steam but I'd always wanted a copy and this was a perfect opportunity. I know this release had more to do with Crytek than EA, but hopefully this will open the door to more EA releases on Steam.

I've only spent about 5 hours or so in each game so far. Crysis is a lot of fun, and the two variants feel different enough to be interesting. Clear Sky is just fucking amazing, I can't ever say enough good things about STALKER and this one just makes the series even better.

The real gem for me is The Witcher. I had played a copy of the original release a while back and I didn't like it at all. The voice work seemed forced, the graphics were blah and I was spending all my time looking at loading screens. All those things are gone and the game is simply fantastic. I'm completely and utterly hooked.

I've been taking some Fraps videos of my gameplay experiences that I'll be putting together and posting here in the future, but until then, enjoy these screenshots.

Ha ha! Get it?

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Have at it ye mangy dogs!