Gaikai CEO says streaming PC game service will launch in about 60 days

While the OnLive streaming PC game service has been on and, well, live for much of the summer one of its biggest rivals is prepping for its own launch. The Alistdaily.com web site reports claims from Gaikai's CEO Dave Perry that its service will launch in about 60 days.

As we have reported before the "launch" of Gaikai will actually use free game demos with the full game streaming to be made available in 2011. OnLive, however is already streaming a number of full games to its customers. Perry, however, slammed OnLive, claiming that its system of three service centers handling the entire US is "impossible". Perry said Gaikai will launch with 15 servers with plans to increase the amount to 50 servers.

[Via Blue's News]

Irrational Games' Ken Levine wants a moment of your time

Tomorrow, the moment we and a lot of other people have been waiting on for about three years will finally be here as Irrational Games reveals the next game from the Boston-based developer. But before that happens, Irrational's head man Ken Levine wants the many fans of the developer's games to prepare for the announcement correctly.

In more specific terms, Levine wants people to check out the CGI trailer that will premiere at the whatisicarus.com web site tomorrow at 1:45 pm Eastern timebefore the rush of media reports from Irrational's press event for the game starts at 2 pm. Levine doesn't say why we should do this but does say, "Trust me, there's a reason." We only hope the web servers for whatisicarus.com are prepared for the massive amount of traffic they will surely have to deal with on Thursday. We would hate to be the system admin for those web boxes at 1:44 pm.

Download: Victoria 2 Demo

This is the playable demo for Victoria 2, a historical strategy game that takes place during the 19th century colonial era. Players take control of a nation and lead it through industrialization, political reforms, military conquests and colonization. The demo covers 15 years and players take the role of the USA.

"Carefully guide your nation from the era of absolute monarchies in the early 19th century, through expansion and colonization, to finally become a truly great power by the dawn of the 20th century. 

Victoria II is a grand strategy game played during the colonial era of the 19th century, where the player takes control of a country, guiding it through industrialisation, political reforms, military conquest, and colonization."

Download Victoria 2 Demo (355 MB)