The PC as a gaming platform is at the top of it’s game, with a myriad of game developers, from the big names like EA and Ubisoft, to small indie developers and to the classic and iconic developers like id and Valve Software that have always backed the PC as a solid and reliable gaming platform.

The PC has always been a forerunning in gaming, swapping affordability for flexibility. Power can have it’s advantages if the gamer is willing to put a bit more time and effort into chasing down their favorite hobby. It can certainly get pricey and you’ve got all the overhead and more that comes with any personal computer, but it’s well worth the investment of time and money, specially with products like Steam, and now Valve’s new expansion into their own Operating System and specially branded “Steam Box.” Very soon, gamers won’t even need to drop a small fortune to get a high powered, PC running a new version of Linux. Yes, no doubt, that the up and coming 2014 is going to be an excellent year for PC gaming.

Note: List is in random order.

Eden Star:

Are you into Minecraft, but may want something a bit new? Or may be you are really big space nerd as well. Did you happen to enjoy the hell out of games like Portal and Portal 2? Well then, Eden Star may be a game for you. This first person, survival and world manipulation title, is the ultimate sandbox with a twist. The player can manipulate the environment with what looks like an anti-gravity glove, as well as explore a new mysterious and content with its native population.

Project Eternity, an upcoming fantasy role playing game for Mac, Linux, and PC, had its named changed today to Pillars Of Eternity, rendering the former name the “original working title.” Pillars Of Eternity has gained quite a bit of notoriety from its humble crowdfunding roots, having amassed a total of $3,986,929 from its Kickstarter page, making it–at the time–the must successful Kickstarter project in the history of the site. Since Kickstarter it has gone on to reach a total of $4,163,208 through additional PayPal funding.

In addition to the name change, a new trailer for Pillars of Eternity seas released today onto All Games Beta. The trailer is more of a teaser than anything else, but it certainly looks epic. And it’s always appreciated when a trailer utilizes actual game play as opposed to a customized cinematic. It shows true faith in the product, and thats what you want to see in a game that’s going for epic. Consider me excited.

Obsidian Entertainment’s Project Eternity, the Kickstarter-funded RPG that aims to combine the best parts of Icewind Dale, Baldur’s Gate and Planescape Torment into a delightful 2D RPG package, is now Pillars of Eternity. The developer also revealed the first gameplay trailer for the game, which you can check out above. Though snippets of the same have already been seen, this is the first trailer meant for the public.

The crowd-funding for the game began in 2012 and shocked the developer and fans alike by exceeding its $1.1 million goal and earning $3,986,929 in funding from backers. It helped lead a boom for such campaigns, and for good reason. Obsidian originally announced that the game would be arriving in 2014 for Linux, Mac and PC. With this first gameplay trailer, it’s at least a sign that we’re getting closer and closer to a release announcement.

What are your thoughts on Project Eternity? Let us know in the comments below.

Chris Avellone has said how challenging his career was in an interview with GI.biz. He also revealed why he hasn’t reached the same status as Warren Spector or Ken Levine.

“I suspect that what Levine and Spector do is more akin to what a project director at Obsidian does; they’re the visionary responsible for the guiding of a project and everyone else on the team looks to them to set the tone and the goals of the project,” he said.

“Since we have multiple projects going on at once, having someone dedicated to each rather than overseeing both is ideal.

“In my role as a creative director at Obsidian, my goal is to help project directors, designers, and other studio owners design and make ‘fun’ better at the company. I give advice and critiques when I can to help the process.”

You can read the rest of the interview over at the link. Tell us what you think in the comments section below.

The trailer showcases the exterior environments in particular. Obsidian is lookign to set a high standard for the art utilized here. And they’ve done a bang-up job with dynamic water, foliage movement, day and night cycles, dynamic lighting and much more. Interestingly, despite all the dynamic elements, Project Eternity is a 2D game. Obsidian is aiming for a style not unlike the classic RPG Icewind Dale.

A lot of refinement is still needed with the overall flow, but so far, the efforts of lead environment artist Hector Espinoza and rendering programmer Michael Edwards are showing through splendidly. Stay tuned for more details as the game comes to life before our very eyes.

Avellone co-founded Obsidian Entertainment, where he is currently working on Project Eternity as Creative Director. On Torment: Tides of Numenera, he will review and contribute to the story, characters and overall gameplay of the game along with scripting an eighth companion alongside Colin and Monte Cook.

With the addition of Avellone, inXile will now be holding stretch goals for a ridiculous $4.5 million. This include an even more complicated morality system, additional new locations and personal stronghold for the player will be included should backers reach the goal in the next, oh, 55 hours.

As it stands, inXile has achieve more than enough. Now all that remains is to see the final product, and judging by screenshots, it looks great already.

Eurogamer and Rock, Paper, Shotgun have joined hands to bring back the PC and Indie game show Rezzed for another year. The show is being organized by the same team that brought us the Eurogamer Expo, and will take place on Saturday 22^nd and Sunday 23^rd June at The NEC, Birmingham, which can accommodate up to 10,000 gamers.

The show floor will feature some of the most anticipated AAA titles, as well as the most innovative indie games that are on the horizon. A complete list of attendees will be disclosed in the coming weeks, with SEGA and GetGames already confirmed to showcase their games.

Some of the most notable exhibitors include Red Thread Games who will be showcasing Dreamfall Chapters at their developer session, Big Robot’s Tom Betts will show off  Sir, You Are Being Hunted, a special session featuring Ridiculous Fishing developer Vlambeer and Hotline Miami creator Dennaton. And perhaps most exciting of them all, Chris Avellone from Obsidian Entertainment will be debuting Project Eternity which was overwhelming positive response on Kickstarter.

“Rezzed 2012 was a wonderful mix of high-profile, big-budget titles and quirky indie games, which helped foster an incredible atmosphere. We were delighted to enable UK gamers to get hands-on for the first time with blockbusters such as Borderlands 2 while also acting as a springboard for indie games such as Hotline Miami,” said Rupert Loman, Founder and CEO of Gamer Network. “The NEC in Birmingham allows us to replicate this success while enabling an extra 6,000 gamers to attend the event.”

“The PC and indie games markets have continued to blossom over the last 12 months. Rezzed represents an ideal opportunity for both large publishers and indie developers to showcase their latest works to 10,000 hardcore PC and indie gamers.” added David Lilley, Events Director of Gamer Network

Tickets are already up for grabs at the official site for £12 for one day, and £20 for both days. With such an impressive list of exhibitors already,we can’t wait to see what Eurogamer and RPS has in store for us. Let us know what you think over at the comments section below.

The great thing about Kickstarter is that it really insures the developers from an imminent flop since there’s no publishers to answer to. Most of the fans have paid for the game so even if the game doesn’t perform all that well, the backers will still get their games and the studio will make a decent profit from remaining sales with no worry of breaking even on the budget.

The project is basically risk free, said Chris Avellone, who is the designer of Project Eternity and a well-known name.

People paid $3.9 million for the game which is set to release sometime in 2014, and considering the amazing response to the project on Kickstarter, the team has decided to add a bunch of additional stuff to improve upon what was originally planned.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s a flop, although I don’t believe that it will be. The nice thing about Kickstarter is that people have already paid for the title,” he said to Gamasutra.

“So anything else that happens after that is great, but we know what our budget is, and practically speaking, that’s all we’re really focused on: ‘We’re going to make a game for this amount of money.'”

It is a great thing to see developers confident and only focusing on development, because that could really result in a fantastic game.

Project Eternity was emphatically funded with over 4 million in the bank, and during a recent AMA on Reddit, Josh Sawyer from Obsidian mentioned that Fallout: New Vegas’ reputation system and Alpha Protocol’s dialogue system are great examples of what he wants in Project Eternity.

He revealed that Fallout: New Vegas’ reputation system was something he was “definitely” considering for Project Eternity.

“F:NV’s reputation system is something we definitely want to bring over in some form,” he wrote on Reddit. “We feel that it allows the world to react to the player in ways that the player understands. Instead of making the game be about arbitrary good and evil actions, the player becomes concerned (or chooses to not care) about the reactions of individual characters and factions.”

He’s also a fan of Alpha Protocol, and who wouldn’t be? That game was awesome and an underrated gem.

“Personally, I think AP’s dialogue system did a lot of things very well. Specifically, I really liked the idea of tying attitudes to responses and being very consistent with rewarding and penalizing each way through a conversation in equal measure. I’d like to emulate that level of free player choice in PE.”

These are good examples, surely, now let’s just hope these things make the cut for Project Eternity. That would be quite something. Do you agree? Let us know in the comments section below.

Obsidian’s Project Eternity crossed $3 million funding over the weekend, and is now nearing $3.3 million. If it crosses $3.4 million, it will become the highest funded Kickstarter game ever.

Obsidian has also added some updates to the game. The game will now include strongholds, which you can defend properly with proper equipment. Obsidian is also releasing a documentary for the game after much demand. Backers at the $20/$25 will be able to stream the documentary. Backers at the $35 level will be able to download it. While backers at the $140 level will get a DVD or a Blu-ray.

Playing cards for Project Eternity will also be available for $10, and these, designed by the game’s technical artist Scott Everts, will feature characters from the game and more.

Obsidian has also released a new concept art. Have a look above. You can also check out the first ever screenshot of the game here.