Since having a full time job I’ve had to do one thing that I regret the most – stop playing SimCity. It’s a game that can quickly eclipse all other games, jobs and social interactions. Gone are the weekends where I spent 30 hours straight building my perfect city to then attempt to destroy it – gone are the weekends feeling like a god of my mighty city – well at least I thought they were gone.

The genre defining city builder that stole many gamers free time has hit Steam in the form of SimCity: 4 Deluxe Edition. The deluxe edition contains both the original game as well as the expansion [What did ever happen to expansions?] Rush Hour. So get your construction gear on and be ready to take control of thousands of Sims. The game is on Steam right now for $19.99 or £9.99.

Simcity 4 was one of the best games in the series - plagued with performance issues on release this could be your chance to play it on a more modern system - and let’s face it with the underwhelming Simcity: Societies and Cities XL we might not be seeing another any time soon.

So thank you EA & Maxis – thank you for trying your best to get me addicted again after all the hard work I put in going Cold Turkey. You and Steam are working together better than a drug pusher with an excess of stock. The deluxe editions seem to be the standard one rather than a localized version such as SimCity 4 Deluxe Edition UK which you can grab on Gamersgate for £9.95. 

Today news is breaking that Disney is aiming it’s potatoes gun at social gaming with the movie studio planning on spending $600m to acquire game developer Playdom, one of the core Facebook game developers and a couple of places behind only Zanga. If the news turns out to be true – and at this stage it’s just a credible rumour, then it means it could just weeks after Disney grabbed hold of iPhone music game master Tapulous.

Disney has had mixed luck in the gaming space previously so it certainly sounds like a wise decision to buy up giants at this stage, rather than invest in building a team to complete in what can be a very competitive environment. Disney has recently made its intention of becoming a video game powerhouse well known and this is just another stepping stone – but it’s a big step.

Playdom, currently employees 600 people and has produced critical mass games such as Social City – which comes in at a little more than 9 more month active users. We’ll keep you updated as more news breaks about this story.

It should be given than when a game is due to have a demo on the consoles the PC version should also get a demo – but in the current market of defecating on PC gamers it’s never a certainty, however 2K this morning indicated PC gamers should expect a demo alongside the console counterparts.

If you’ve not played the first Mafia II now might be a great time to preorder the sequel on Steam as those who preorder get the first to play right now. For many the sequel has been long awaited since the original games release to universal acclaim in 2002. 2K Have given some indication on what the demo will contain, stating:  

"The Mafia II demo invites gamers to dive into the “Buzzsaw” level, where Vito and his buddies, Joe and Henry, are sent to take out a mobster known as “The Fat Man”. While the epic game spans two decades, the Buzzsaw demo takes place during the summer of the ‘50s – a time considered the “Birth of Cool”, and with it, rock ‘n’ roll, hot rods, and rebellious attitudes. The demo showcases the type of vibrant edge-of-your-seat action, as well as a slice of the expansive city of Empire Bay in the colourful era."

It’s proving to be the movie that wasn’t to be, World of Warcraft is due to have an Epic film adaption and Sam Raimi was supposed to be working on it – however he’s now decided he would rather make a futuristic Wyatt Earp movie instead. Since the news that Raimi wasn’t working on the film many were left wondering what has happened to plans of the Warcraft Movie – well fear not it’s not quite dead in the water yet.

Blizzard Entertainment boss Chris Metzen offered a small but much craved for update today at Comic Con, noting the film is still in “treatment stages” and Blizzard are “still feeling it out” and “getting ducks in a row”.

Blizzard have gained a reputation of ensuring anything that contains there product names is polished so it’s no shocker than Blizzard have been working since 2006 to bring the movie to life. Just don’t expect it any time soon!

Great news my fellow gamers. The iconic Oddworld Universe is set to return, headed up by Just Add Water, the studio behind the fantastic Gravity Crash. The studio has just confirmed that is is working on with the original developer studio Oddworld Inhabitants on "multiple projects, across multiple platforms". Now we don’t know for certain that the titles will hit the PC and indeed Gravity Crash was mainly a Sony systems release, but here to hoping.

We don’t know much else right now – however the PS Nation podcast is expected to have some more details that we can sink our adventure happy teeth into. If this does hit the PC then you will have one very happy writer – however if like the studios previous game it’s a console exclusive – expect a rampage. Meanwhile on the JAW blog Add Water’s Managing Director Stewart Gilray states:

“To work with the team at Oddworld has been amazing; being able to tap the minds of Lorne Lanning, Sherry McKenna and others has been fantastic It’s almost symbiotic in that when something moves forward on any of the projects we just start chatting about new items, or what if we do this. We’re all extremely excited to breathe life into the Oddworld universe and indeed to let it breathe life into us.”

 If you're looking for an Oddworld fix till more details come out you can grab both the first and second Oddworld for as little as £6.95 on Gamersgate – with 12% off right now. (Or buy each individually for £3.95 - Thats £1.05p cheaper per a game than Steam Gives!)

Buy The Pack From Gamersgate Right Here

When it comes to getting your games from Digital Distribution it’s more than likely only a couple of services will come to mind: Steam and Gamersgate, however you may be surprised to know that Microsoft itself entered the market a few months back with an application allowing users to get Games For Windows Live branded titles straight from the internet – however because of the restriction of being GFWL titles only the service hasn’t exactly exploded with usage, however that may be set to change soon.

Microsoft has just started to enable 3^rd party titles that are not GFWL branded onto the service; this in turn means some highly rated games are starting to show up, including the likes of Borderlands and Stalker.

However the client itself is still very sterile and has none of the community features that PC gamers have come to expect – Anything short of revolution will result in Steam keeping its crown as the leader of Digital Distribution, and unfortunately Games For Windows Live still is a long way off.