24/7 Player

Filed under: Mac, PC, Meta (about Joystiq)

The Spike TV Video Game Awards were the source of a lot of new game announcements and reveals last night, but they weren’t the only source of major news items in PC gaming this week. Let’s look back at the past seven days at Big Download:
Exclusives

• Big Versus: In our latest Big Versus, we pit Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare against Modern Warfare 2.
• Interviews: We chat with the people behind the upcoming shooter The Scourge Project and also with the head of Smoking Gun Interactive.
• Star Wars: The Force Unleashed PC review: We give our final verdict to the PC port of LucasArts’s action game.
• The State of Mac Gaming: Part 3: It’s the third part of our four part series that examines Mac gaming.
• Boot Disk: Our retro games feature checks out X-Com Apocalypse.
• Freeware Friday: Our free PC game column checks out the unusually titled Magic Planet Snack.

Continue reading The Best of Big Download: December 7 – 13

The Best of Big Download: December 7 – 13 originally appeared on Joystiq on Sun, 13 Dec 2009 23:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Posted on December 13th, 2009 at 11:59pm by Joystiq Staff
Filed Under: big-download

Filed under: Mac, PC, Meta (about Joystiq)

We may be running out of 2009, but there was still a ton to report and talk about in PC gaming in the last week. Let’s check out the big stories from the past seven days at Big Download:

Exclusive Features

• PC Game Multiplayer Holiday Gift Guide: Check out some gift ideas from Big Download from the current year and also some budget titles from past years that are still available.
• Left 4 Dead 2 Game Guide: Check out the last two campaign guides for Valve’s zombie shooter (Flood of Hard Rain and Flee The Parish). Plus go back and check earlier entries in the series.
• R.U.S.E muliplayer hands-on: We check out the multiplayer beta test for the upcoming and different WWII RTS game from Eugen and Ubisoft.
• Unreal Tournament and Quake III Arena: 10 Years Later: We look back at the release of two of the most influential multiplayer shooters of all time.
• The Wake of Guybrush Threepwood: Is the hero of the Monkey Island series really dead? We try to find out in this preview of the fifth and final chapter of Telltale’s downloadable adventure series.
• Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter Review: We give our final verdict to Croteam’s FPS graphical remake.
• The Top 10 PC Game News Stories For November 2009: We give our picks for the biggest PC game news stories for last month.
• The State of Mac Gaming – Part 2: We continue our look at the current stats of games on the Mac platform in this second part of a four part series.
• Big Ideas: Our regular look at game thmese continues with an examination of death in games and possible alternatives.
• All You Need To Know: We give you the 411 on Ubisoft’s upcoming stealth action game Splinter Cell Conviction.
• Freeware Friday: Our look at free PC games checks out the indie game title Probability O.
• Contests: You still have time to enter our Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter giveaway and check with Big Download next week for even more giveaway contests.

Continue reading The Best of Big Download: November 30 – December 6

The Best of Big Download: November 30 – December 6 originally appeared on Joystiq on Sun, 06 Dec 2009 23:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Posted on December 6th, 2009 at 11:59pm by Joystiq Staff
Filed Under: big-download

With original Fallout IP holder Interplay currently embroiled in a legal battle with new Fallout IP holder Bethesda Softworks, it’s no surprise that the most recently “leaked” images from Interplay’s Project V13 are said to be from an “anonymous, but reliable” source. The Vault Wiki even goes as far as to claim that the images are directly from Interplay, saying “These screenshots were actually submitted by Interplay as court evidence to show that the game is in full production already.”

Putting on our super sleuth detective caps, a Nuka-Cola billboard and the inclusion of a supermutant in these screens certainly confirms they are from some form of Fallout game. Big Download points out that these screens look awfully similar to concept art released by Interplay not too long ago. Without any solid confirmation from Interplay as to the origin of these screens though, we’re gonna have to keep it filed strictly under the “rumor” category for now.

[Via Big Download]

Rumor: Interplay’s Fallout MMO in-game screenshots leaked by … Interplay originally appeared on Joystiq on Sat, 14 Nov 2009 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Posted on November 14th, 2009 at 3:30pm by Ben Gilbert
Filed Under: bethesda, bethesda-softworks, big-download, fallout, fallout-mmo, interplay, rumor, screenshots, vault-wiki

Wow. We had a ton of original features this week and it doesn’t look like it will let up anytime soon. Let’s take a look at what transpired on Big Download in the past seven days:

Exclusive features

• Reviews: We give our final verdicts to Tropico 3 , Eufloria and Cities XL along with impressions of the Left 4 Dead 2 PC demo
• Orson Scott Card Interview: The best selling novelist talks about his love of games and reveals a dream game project he would like to make.
• Natural Selection 2 Interview: We chat with Unknown Worlds about their upcoming and long awaited FPS-RTS game on the occasion of the release of the game’s first screenshots.
• Guide to Team Fortress 2 Scarechievements: Valve released a new Halloween themed update to Team Fortress 2 and we have the skinny on the five new achievements added to the game.
• How 10 US cities would fare in the zombie apocalypse: Left 4 Dead 2 is set in New Orleans, but what if it was set in other major metropolitan areas? We speculate on what might happen.
• An Open Letter to Infinity Ward: We give the Modern Warfare 2 developer our feelings on how we think the PC community has been marginalized by their recent actions.
• The Top 10 PC Game News Stories for October 2009: We look back in the past 31 days for the big stories that affected the PC game industry.
• Mac Monday: Our weekly Mac game feature this week looks at two titles: Grappling Hook and The Three Musketeers.
• Playing for Free: Our latest look at a free-to-play online game is with the RPG La Tale.
• Boot Disk: Our latest retro PC game column takes a look at the FPS title Uprising.
• Big Ideas: Our weekly look at game themes checks out if games are less challenging now than they were in the past.
• All You Need to Know: Our latest 411 article on upcoming games gives all the info on EA’s WWII action game The Saboteur.
• Freeware Friday: Our popular weekly look at free PC games checks out the odd platformer We Want YOU!.

Continue reading The Best of Big Download: October 26 – November 1

The Best of Big Download: October 26 – November 1 originally appeared on Joystiq on Sun, 01 Nov 2009 23:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Posted on November 1st, 2009 at 11:30pm by Joystiq Staff
Filed Under: big-download

Filed under: Mac, PC, Meta (about Joystiq)

Windows 7 is now out and about, but what will it mean for PC gaming? That was our main theme this week at Big Download. Let’s look at the features, downloads and news items from PC gaming for the past seven days:

Exclusive features

• The launch of Windows 7: On the occasion of Microsoft’s launch of its latest OS, we examined if PC gamers should upgrade to Windows 7, gave some advice to Microsoft on how they can help PC gaming with their new OS, and chatted with a number of game developers on their opinons of Windows 7.
• Lucidity Review: We give our final verdict to LucasArts’ recent downloadable puzzle-platformer.
• Mac Monday: This week’s Mac gaming column checks out two games: Bullet Candy Perfect and Avenue Flo.
• Boot Disk: Our regular look at retro games checks out the classic Dungeon Keeper.
• Big Ideas: Our look at game themes this week examines why game developers should set more games in modern times.
• All You Need To Know: Just in time for the game’s demo release, we examine all we know at the moment about Left 4 Dead 2.
• Freeware Friday: Our popular column this week looks at this mix of retro and rogue game in DoomRL
• Contest: You still have some time to enter our Order of War giveaway contest.

Continue reading The Best of Big Download: October 19 – 25

The Best of Big Download: October 19 – 25 originally appeared on Joystiq on Sun, 25 Oct 2009 23:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Posted on October 26th, 2009 at 12:30am by Joystiq Staff
Filed Under: big-download