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One of my biggest disappointments in 2006 was that my PC was almost too puny to run Neverwinter Nights 2. I’m a big fan of the first one and whether I’m living in northwestern Wisconsin, the Twin Cities of Minnesota or looking into Apex NC real estate, I’ve loved the original Neverwinter Nights since it was first introduced.

In fact, the first game was the reason I bought my current PC; the one I had owned before that was simply too wimpy to run Neverwinter Nights properly. Now, the PC that I bought to run Neverwinter Nights is now on that same edge of being not quite powerful enough to run Neverwinter Nights 2 without a lot of chug-chug-chug and choppy framerates.

I need a new PC. An Athlon 64 dual core would do nicely. *sigh*

It’s been a long time coming, but from what I hear on the indy PC gaming circuit, developer Gary Gorski of Wolverine Studios should soon be unveiling his newest pro basketball sports management sim.

The game, Draft Day Sports: Pro Basketball, runs on Windows PCs and will be one of the most statistically accurate sports sims on the market, when it’s released.

How do I know this? Because Gorski is the guy who made the last title to hold that honor, Total Pro Basketball. While the game lacks the flash-n-dazzle of EA Sports’ NBA Live 2007 or 2K Sports’ NBA 2K7, what the game does well – better than anyone else, really – is keep the results of simmed games believable. Gorski takes every conceivable stat and game dynamic, stacks them up in a virtual truck rack, and drives them into the sunset of a polished, finished game.

Gary’s company, Wolverine Studios, is hoping to release the game sometime soon. It could be January, it could be later. But whenever it’s released, you have to know it’s gonna rob a lot of hours from sports management freaks like me.

One of the coolest things going on the PlayStation 3′s PlayStation Store right now and for the last three weeks or so is the limited-time offer to download Gran Turismo HD Concept for free. Sure, the game is limited right now to about a dozen cars and only one track, but as a “play it now” glimpse into one of Sony’s most-cherished racing franchises and what the PS3 could hold for fans of the game, Gran Turismo HD Concept is an addicting teaser.

Now, it’s not a completely original-for-PS3 build. The game is based on Gran Turismo 4, with an extensive port-up makeover for PS3. And early rumors had it that you’d have to buy 100s of extra cars and dozens of extra tracks to race on via PlayStation Store “microtransactions.” Otherwise known as literally “nickle-and-diming you to death.”

The prospect had some people with dollar signs in their eyes scheming to find ways to make similar micro-transaction schemes involving everything from unofficial game mods to business card printing. Yikes!

So far, that doesn’t appear to be the case. The game is limited, seems to be little more than a tech demo, but is addictive fun for all of that. And it’s free. That’s nice. Now, back to our regularly scheduled time trial.