Big Download Blog

Download: Tank Universal Demo

Steven Wong — 2008-08-29T11:30:00 00:00

Filed under: Downloads, Demos, Action, Indie, Strategy

Perhaps one of the best indie games to come out this summer, Tank Universal puts you in the seat of a battle tank in a Tron-like world. There, you fight against computer controlled opponents for territory using a massive cannon and a wide array of special weapons. Check out the Big Download review for more information.

Download the Tank Universal Demo (87 MB)

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Big Download heads to PAX 2008

John Callaham — 2008-08-29T11:00:00 00:00

Filed under: Culture, Meta BD

Keep the women and children safe; Big Download has landed in Seattle and will be attending the fifth annual Penny Arcade Expo this weekend. This event looks to be the biggest yet; in an article over at Wired's game site, organizers are already saying they have had 42,000 people pre-register for PAX 2008; that's several thousand more than their entire attendance for PAX 2007. The event will have double the exhibit hall space and 40 percent more space overall to handle the larger crowd.

Big Download team members will be covering the event, taking photos, and checking out all of the PC game related exhibits. It promises to be the best PAX yet and that's saying something.

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Mercenaries 2 launch trailer starts up the mayhem

Steven Wong — 2008-08-29T10:30:00 00:00

Filed under: Downloads, Action, Adventure, Trailers

Those who can't get enough explosions, helicopter jacking, or any of the other reasons to love Mercenaries 2 can get psyched to raise some havoc with this launch trailer. Prepare to cause destruction, and bring a friend along for the ride too!

Download the Mercenaries 2 HD Launch Trailer (93 MB)
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Gas Powered's Chris Taylor feels PC games don't need huge system specs

John Callaham — 2008-08-29T10:00:00 00:00

Filed under: Hardware, Interviews, Strategy, Demigod

PC gaming has prided itself at time for having the potential to wipe the floor with any console game in terms of graphics and hardware needs. But is that time past? Gas Powered Games' Chris Taylor says, "Yes." In a new chat with Gamasutra, Taylor believes that PC gaming doesn't need to have the fastest processor, the most memory or the swiftest graphics card in order to be successful.

Gas Powered Games is currently working on their fantasy strategy game Demigod and Taylor states, "If you look at Demigod, it's still wildly state of the art -- in our trailer, people asked if that was prerendered or from the game, [and] it's all in-game. But it's scalable; there's level of detail [adjustment]." Taylor feels that hardware requirements might become a thing of the past for PC gaming, saying "I think five years from now, you won't even have to ask what kind of computer you have. You'll just ask, 'Do you have a PC?' We'll get right back to that place."

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Will Wright: E3 "feels like a zombie"

John Callaham — 2008-08-29T09:30:00 00:00

Filed under: Biz

You can add Sims and Spore creator Will Wright to the growing number of game industry professionals who are critical of the current "invite only" version of E3. In fact Wright states in a chat for Gamesindustry.biz, "the real E3 died a couple of years ago" and adds, "It almost feels like a zombie at this point; it's the walking dead."

While E3 may not be trying to eat any brains yet, Wright does feel that, "Right now we're in this kind of dicey, do we have an event, what event is it, which one do we go to?" type of situation. He knows that the old E3 was getting too expensive but the invite only event doesn't seems to be any better. Wright feels E3 is currently "struggling for an identity".The event's organizers, the Entertainment Software Association, have announced that a 2009 event is coming but no dates, locations or format have been announced.

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Oddworld PC games now available on Steam

John Callaham — 2008-08-29T09:00:00 00:00

Filed under: Downloads, Action, Adventure

Capcom may not have come to terms with Valve with putting Bionic Commando Rearmed on Valve's Steam service but others games certainly have no issues with getting a new life. Valve has just announced that two PC games in the classic Oddworld side scrolling action-adventure series are now available for download. The games, Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee and Abe's Exoddus, were developed by the now defunct Oddworld Inhabitants and were first published by GT Interactive (later bought by Infogrames).

Both games can now be downloaded for $9.99 each or both for $14.99. Until September 4, Steam users can get these games for 10 percent off their regular prices.

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Comcast to limit Internet downloads beginning October 1

John Callaham — 2008-08-29T08:30:00 00:00

Filed under: Downloads, Hardware

We have been waiting for this day for a while now and in just over a month, residential customers of Comcast will become the first major US users to have a broadband cap on their Internet usage. According to News.com, Comcast will impose a 250 GB cap on broadband usage beginning on October 1. People who violate this policy the first time will get a warning but the second time will get their broadband immediately cut off; it will be an entire year before those customers can use Comcast as their Internet provider again.

Of course 250 GB sounds like an awful lot and most customers should be OK with this new limit but as the article points out Comcast offers no way for people to monitor exactly how much bandwidth they are actually using. Comcast imposed this limit to curtail peer-to-peer downloads (most of which are illegal) for a small percentage of their customers. However we are seeing the PC game industry using the download business model more and more and a cap on bandwidth, even as one as generous as Comcast's, could curtail that business, especially if more ISPs follow Comcast's wake.

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Majesco Entertainment gets NASDAQ delisting warning

John Callaham — 2008-08-29T08:00:00 00:00

Filed under: Biz

Atari has its first profitable quarter in some time a few weeks ago, even after being delisted from the NASDAQ stock market. Now yet another game publisher, Majesco Entertainment, is facing the same threat. The company announced late today that their stock has gone below $1 a share for the past 30 days in violation of NASDAQ rules. The stock market has given Majesco 180 days to comply with their minimal stock price.

Majesco used to be a busy PC publisher; a few years ago it released games like Psychonauts, Advent Rising and the Bloodrayne series. For the past few years Majesco has concentrated on releasing budget games mostly for the Wii and DS consoles.

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iRacing officially launches

John Callaham — 2008-08-28T21:00:00 00:00

Filed under: Downloads, Driving, Simulation

Long time PC gamers remember the terrific racing simulation created by Papyrus Racing, the developer behind a number of exceptional and highly popular NASCAR and IndyCar racing games for Sierra. Papyrus shut down in 2003 but a number of its former team members have been working for the past few years to launch a PC-based racing sim game available for download.

That time finally came this week when iRacing.com finally made its public debut. The company, co-founded by Papyrus co-founder Dave Kaemmer and Boston Red Sox principal owner John Henry, has signed agreements with a number of race tracks across the US. People who want to join iRacing can do so for $20; that gets them two cars and access to seven tracks. As players get more experience they will gain access to more cars and IRacing will be adding more tracks to the service. It should be interesting to see if this new business model for racing sims will work.

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PAX attendees can get special edition of Penny Arcade Adventures

John Callaham — 2008-08-28T20:00:00 00:00

Filed under: Culture, Downloads, Action, RPG

It looks like Penny Arcade Expo is starting to get its own special products made just for the show, much like the San Diego Comic-Con offers exclusive merchandise. The latest such announcement comes from Hothead Games, the developers of the episodic adventure-RPG Penny Arcade Adventures. The developer will sell a special edition of the first episode of the game for the PC at the show.

While the regular edition of the game is only available via download, this special edition will be sold at the Hothead booth during PAX for $40. This limited edition will feature a collectible package that contains the game on disk, a game manual, a key chain, a t-shirt and a 20 sided die. PAX attendees will be able to play demos of the second Penny Arcade Adventures episode at the Hothead booth and there will even be info on Hothead's next major game Deathspank.

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Download: Empires in Arms v1.03.14 Patch

Steven Wong — 2008-08-28T19:30:00 00:00

Filed under: Downloads, Patches, Strategy

Matrix Games and Australian Design Group (www.a-d-g.com.au) are proud to announce that another update is now available for the official computer adaptation of the popular turn-based Napoleonic grand strategy game, Empires in Arms. The comprehensive update brings the game up to version v1.03.14. The update addresses dozens more issues that have become evident since the major v1.02 update in addition to adding multiple AI improvements and a few other overall enhancements.

Empires in Arms is the official licensed computer version of Australian Design Group's classic board game. Empires in Arms is a seven player game of grand strategy during the Napoleonic period of 1805-1815. Playable either solitaire against the AI or by e-mail. Corps level with full diplomatic options to allow players complete freedom to fight it out for control of Europe any way they want to.

Download the Empires in Arms v1.03.14 Patch (17 MB)

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Spore PC downloadable pre-loads begin

John Callaham — 2008-08-28T19:00:00 00:00

Filed under: Downloads, Mac, Sandbox, Simulation, Spore

Will Wright's heavily hyped alien life simulation Spore is getting ready for its September 7 launch but if you own a PC and don't want to fool with buying the retail copy of the game you can go ahead and pre-load your copy on your PC right now via a download from Electronic Arts' online store.

The pre-loads will allow you to have nearly all of the game on your hard drive before September 7. When the game launches it will take about 30 minutes to decrypt the game from your hard drive and then you can start evolving your creatures to your heart's content. Keep in mind that this is for the game only; you won't get any of the extras in the retail Spore Galactic Edition. Mac owners can get their copy by going to the Green Tree Online web site where they state that pre-orders will get their download link and activation key via email. There doesn't appear to be any pre-loads for the Mac version.
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BattleForge trailer goes on the warpath

Steven Wong — 2008-08-28T18:30:00 00:00

Filed under: Downloads, Trailers, Strategy

This trailer shows off some of the unique factions and armies featured in BatteForge. Battleforge blends the action of real-time strategy with trading card strategy by bringing epic sized armies and gigantic creatures to life.

Download the BattleForge HD Trailer (167 MB)
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Penny Arcade Expo 08 gets its own limited edition Razer mouse

John Callaham — 2008-08-28T18:00:00 00:00

Filed under: Culture, Hardware

If you are heading up to Seattle to attend the 2008 edition of Penny Arcade Expo and have a few dollars that you don't have any plans on spending, you might want to check out this special limited editon version of the DeathAdder PC gaming mouse from Razer. Only 400 of these will be made and they will be sold only at PAX starting tomorrow at the Razer booth for $60. As you can see from the picture it will have the PAX 2008 logo.

Razer will also be holding a mod contest at their booth during PAX, teaming up with Modders-Inc.. According to their press release, "They were given the SilverStone TJ10 ESA case, the Razer Lachesis, the Razer Lycosa, the Razer Piranha and the Razer Destructor to mod, with the finished mod being showcased at the Razer booth. Attendees will be able to vote for their favorite out of three at the Razer booth and those who voted for the winning case will have a chance to win the case. Attendees can also vote for their best modder at www.razerzone.com.

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Lara greets local wildlife in Tomb Raider Underworld trailer

Steven Wong — 2008-08-28T17:30:00 00:00

Filed under: Downloads, Action, Adventure, Trailers

We last saw Lara Croft running into a jungle toward some ancient ruins in the last trailer, now we actually get to see what happens when she gets there. The trailer shows off some spectacular graphics and animations that will be found in Tomb Raider Underworld, and a first encounter with some exotic wildlife. The only question is, which is really the endangered species here?

Download the Tomb Raider Underworld HD Trailer #3 (47 MB)
Download the Tomb Raider Underworld HD Trailer #2 (46 MB)
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Lego Batman CGI cartoon in early development

John Callaham — 2008-08-28T17:00:00 00:00

Filed under: Culture, Action

Lego Batman may be heading to retail stores in September but is a CGI Lego Batman TV series possible? It is, according to Rich Ear, the game's producer at developer Traveller's Tales. Speaking to Gamesindustry.biz he states that a 20 minute Lego Batman short is in the works.

While the UK based Traveller's Tales won't be involved with the production of any such TV series (it's being handled by a US based company), Earl states, "they're basically able to utilize the assets, because our team has brought Lego characters to life." It should be interesting to see the final product, especially since there's been a ton of Batman animated shows in the past (the newest one, Batman: The Brave and the Bold, come to Saturday mornings this fall).
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Spore evolves into a Civilization Phase

Steven Wong — 2008-08-28T16:30:00 00:00

Filed under: Downloads, Sandbox, Trailers, Video, Spore

We're fast approaching the final phases before Spore finally releases. The developers give us the low-down on the Civilization Phase, which looks a lot like a trimmed down and Sporified version of SimCity. In this phase, players will need to build up their civilizations based on different themes like war or economics to compete with other rising tribes across the world.

Download Spore Civilization Phase HD Video (292 MB)
Download Spore Tribe Phase HD Video (55 MB)
Download Spore Creature Phase HD Video (28 MB)
Download Spore Cell Phase HD Video (225 MB)
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Five reasons why we think we will love Mercenaries 2

John Callaham — 2008-08-28T16:00:00 00:00

Filed under: Features, Action, Screenshots

We have a ton of PC games to play in the next three months or so and the first one out of the gate (we hope) is Mercenaries 2, the sequel to developer Pandemic's open world playground of death and destruction (While the original was published by LucasArts, Pandemic's new owners Electronic Arts will handle the sequel). Mercenaries 2 got a lot of attention when it was first announced at E3 2006 (and sometimes for the wrong reasons) but ahead of the game's release for the PC next week we wanted to pick five reasons we think we are going to love playing the game.

This isn't a review, by the way; just some reasons why we are eagerly awaiting to have this title in our hard drives this week. Some of the reasons are obvious while one or two are surprises.

Click on the image above to see more of "Five reasons why we think we will love Mercenaries 2"
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Mercenaries 2 trailer calls in airstrikes

Steven Wong — 2008-08-28T15:30:00 00:00

Filed under: Downloads, Action, Trailers

This Mercenaries 2 trailer starts the way any good game should. This guy yearns for a mission that goes, boom, boom, and boom! Love the smell of napalm in the morning? The day just isn't complete until building explode with huge mushroom clouds? This trailer calls in the air strikes to satisfy those cravings.

Download the Mercenaries 2 Airstrikes Trailer (78 MB)
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Alt-Tab: Is Valve the future of PC gaming?

Kyle Horner — 2008-08-28T15:00:00 00:00

Filed under: Features, FPS, Opinion

Anyone could come up with a lot of reasons for why Valve is such a successful company. Ask any two people what makes Valve so successful and they'll probably point to different things. Some will say their cabal style game design and free content updates. While others will point to the Steam platform, mod support and integration of top mod designers. Some may even call out Gabe Newell himself. Oh and don't forget Doug Lombardi, either. We could go on and on about just what made (and continues to make) Valve so very special. Though I doubt it's any single one of those things as opposed to many of them at the right moments in the right way. Or in other words, a lot of chance, determination and some vision.

What I do think can be gleaned from the success of Valve, is where PC gaming will -- or at least should be -- going over the next few years. Hit the image above to take a look at what I think their model of game design and business decisions has to offer the wider PC gaming market.%Gallery-30612%

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