The Best of Big Download: April 19 - 25

Spring is in full bloom, which means more game announcements, more downloads and more hints about what megatons might be dropped at E3 in June. Let's take a look back at some of our biggest stories from the past week:

Exclusive features

• Reviews: We give our final verdicts for Metro 2033 and Sam and Max The Devil's Playhouse: The Penal Zone.

• Heroes of Newerth interview: We chat with S2 Games about their soon-to-be-released multiplayer RTS-action game.

• Boot Disk: Our retro games feature checks out Interplay's shooter Descent 3.

• All You Need To Know: We give you the 411 on the upcoming indie-made shooter Miner Wars.

• Freeware Friday: Our look at free PC games checks out the strategy game Intrepid.

Downloads

• BitSquid Stone Giant Benchmark Tech Demo: Check out this tech demo for the new game graphics engine

• A Kingdom for Keflings Demo: Try out this sample of this sim game originally released for the Xbox 360

• Nail'd Trailer: Check out the first gameplay footage of this upcoming Techland ATV racing game.

News

• Square Enix admits to shutting down Battlestations developer Eidos Hungary

• MMO developer Turbine acquired by Warner Bros.
  

• Blizzard bans over 320,000 Diablo II and Warcraft III accounts

• MechWarrior 4 getting close to its free release

• Has Ubisoft's DRM set-up finally been cracked?

• Project Ravensdale announced

• Techland announces new ATV racing game Nail'd
  

• R.U.S.E. delayed again until late September

• InstantAction.com to offer rent-to-own downloadable PC games