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Patch 3.1.1a download mirror
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The Best of Big Download: April 20-26
As we get closer to E3 we are starting to see new game announcements become more frequent in the news. While we still have a few weeks to go before the E3 info dam bursts, we can look back at the previous seven days over at Big Download:Exclusive Features We Love The 90s (for PC Games): We look back fondly at the decade that some consider to be the golden age for PC gaming. Check out 1990-1991, 1992-1993, 1994-1995, 1996-1997, and 1998-1999. Reviews: We give our final verdicts for Demigod and Zeno Clash. Mac Monday: Our regular Mac feature takes a look at two games this week; Pixie and Rubber Ninjas. Boot Disk: Our weekly retro games feature takes a look at the original StarCraft. Big Ideas: Our weekly feature on game themes takes a look back at the text adventure game and if it can make a comeback. Big Iron: Our weekly hardware feature is all about sound and speaker set-ups for PC games. Freeware Friday: Our weekly free game feature takes a look at the free music title osu1.
The Best of Big Download: April 13-19
Tons of interesting news and a couple of big demos and patches were a part of the past week for PC gamers. As always Big Download now looks back at the past seven days:Exclusive features Battlefield Heroes hands-on: We get a chance to play with the upcoming free-to-play FPS from Digital Illusions and EA City of Heroes Mission Architect review: We give our final verdict on the recent mission editor for the NCsoft MMO Mac Monday: Our weekly Mac game column takes a look at the casual game title Westward 2. Boot Disk: Our retro games feature this week is all about the classic action-RPG Deus Ex. Independent Minds: Our weekly indie games feature looks at the need for mod support in games Big Ideas: Our weekly column on game themes is a little different as the column questions how long Penny Arcade can stay popular. Freeware Friday: Our weekly free games column is all about the recent puzzle game DUOtris.
The Best of Big Download: April 6-12
We thought Easter week would be slow but it turned out to be a pretty busy week for news, features and download. As always we have the highlights of the past week for you:Exclusive Features Interviews: We chat with the head of the PC Gaming Alliance again and also find time for an interview with the VP of the upcoming streaming game service OnLive. Mac Monday: We examine the kids game Wandering Willows in our regular Mac column. Boot Disk: Our retro game feature looks at the original release of Unreal Tournament. Independent Minds: Our indie games feature takes a look at time management when making games. Big Ideas: Our weekly look at game themes is all about failing while playing games. Big Iron: Our weekly hardware column is a little different as we review a new Alienware PC system. Freeware Friday: Our look at free PC games takes a gander at the arcade game DUO
The Best of Big Download: March 30 - April 5
It was a rather odd news week for games as we ended an old quarter and started on a new one. There was still quite a bit to report on as well as new downloads to grab. And of course there was April Fools' Day. Let's take a look at the highlights at Big Download for the past week:Exclusive features GDC 2009: We conclude our coverage of the Game Developers Conference with previews of Paradox Interactive's future game line-up and Dragon Age: Origins Big Download's top 10 most anticipated spring quarter 2009 games: We pick which PC games are are most looking forward to in the next three months. The top 10 PC Game News Stories for March 2009: We look back at the stories that most affected the industry in the last month. Reviews: We review the PC version of the Xbox 360 arcade game The Maw along with the Fallout 3 DLC expansion The Pitt. We also review the Paladin F875 PC gaming rig from IBuypower Killer Xeno interview: We chat with the head of Bigfoot Networks about their upcoming next-generation gaming PC network card. Boot Disk: Our retro game feature looks at the classic PC RTS game Total Annihilation Indie Showcase: We take a look at some new indie games in our regular column this week. Big Ideas: Our weekly look at game themes looks at the continuing debate on Diablo III's graphics Freeware Friday: Our weekly look at free games checks out the top-down action game Tapan Kaikki Bloodshed.
The Best of Big Download: March 23-29
The Game Developers Conference generated a lot of news and features, especially for the PC platform. Let' s look back at Big Download's coverage of GDC for the past seven days:Exclusive Features GDC 2009: Big Download coveraged the OnLive press event (along with exclusive reactions from Stardock CEO Brad Wardell) and we have some GDC coverage of games like America's Army 3.0, CrimeCraft, Majesty 2 and Mount and Blade: Warband. We also have coverage of the new features shown at GDC for Unreal Engine 3. Red Alert 3 Uprising Review: We have our final verdict on EA's downloadable RTS game. Mac Monday: Our weekly Mac column takes a look at Parallels 4.0 which allows people to run Window games on the Mac. Boot Disk: Our retro games column returns with a look back at the original X-Com: UFO Defense Independent Minds: Our indie games column takes a look at user interfaces in games Big Ideas: Our weekly look at game themes takes at look at (shutter) cheating Freeware Friday: Our weekly look at free games takes a gander at the puzzle game Blocksum.
The Best of Big Download: March 16-22
We are now officially into spring and with GDC starting next week the news front has been buzzing with announcements. Let's look at the highlights for the past seven days:Exclusive features Blacklight: We get some of the first info on Zombie's upcoming shooter and even more info via a chat with Zombie CEO Mark Long. Marvel MMO: We get a heads-up on plans for the latest attempt to turn the Marvel super hero universe into a massively multiplayer game. Unreal Atlas: We find out about how Epic Games China plans to make Unreal Engine 3 easier for MMO developers to use. Tom Clancy's EndWar review: We give our final verdict on the PC port of Ubisoft's console RTS game. Mac Monday: Our regular weekly column on Mac games takes a look at CrossOver Games which lets PC games play on the Mac. Indie Showcase: Our weekly look at indie games takes a look at few of the better tower defense based games. Big Ideas: Our weekly look at game themes questions whether games can truly be educational. Big Iron: Our weekly hardware column looks at hardware failures. Freeware Friday: Our weekly look at free games takes a gander at the puzzle title Boom Boom Driller.
More hints of a Fallout MMO?
We've alternately consulted both our Magic 8 Ball and a Ouija board for answers to the Fallout MMO question. As in, will there be one? We think we've got a handle on the licensing intricacies of Fallout between ZeniMax Media (parent company of Bethesda Softworks) and Interplay thanks to a stellar article written by Daedren for r1ft Gaming. Briefly stated, Bethesda owns the rights to the Fallout IP, but not a Fallout MMO. Interplay holds the Fallout MMO rights, but only if they could raise $30 million and begin development by April 2009. Interplay has mentioned an MMO project with a tongue-in-cheek codename Project V13 (a nod to Fallout) but we've heard little of this game beyond that 2008 announcement that a dev team was being formed. In addition, we reported just last week that ZeniMax Media is hiring for an MMO division, project(s) unknown. While it hints at the potential to bring Fallout into the MMO space, we're still chalking it up to rumor. That rumor got a bit juicier today though when we came across something of interest at our sister site Big Download. The original Fallout designer Jason Anderson, formerly the creative director for Project V13, has parted company with Interplay to work for inXile on a new RPG. We're still not certain if the various bits of news we've found in the last few weeks indicates a potential ZeniMax/Bethesda Fallout MMO or if Interplay's Project V13 will chug along just fine without Jason Anderson, so we're still firmly in the realm of "rumor," albeit an interesting one to fans of all things post-apocalytic.
Blizzard wants to see your creative writing skills, offers amazing prizes
Have you ever completed a series of quests in World of Warcraft and thought, "I could've come up with a better story than that." before continuing to play the game for several days on end? Well, now you can prove it! Blizzard is holding a creative writing contest, and any of its franchises are up for use. If you'd like to enter, Blizzard is looking for a 3,000 to 10,000 word story (set in the Warcraft, StarCraft, or Diablo universes) written in English and given to them by April 12th. Do that and the grand prize of visiting Blizzard Entertainment headquarters, meeting the writers and staff and subsequently begging for a job could be yours for the taking.And even if you don't make the grand prize, seven runners-up will get whole prize packages containing signed copies of the Warcraft Archive, Diablo Archive, StarCraft Archive, and the Warcraft War of the Ancients Archive. Think of the geek cred that would pull in! That, or a whole lot of eBay cash money.[via Big Download] One of Azeroth's millions of citizens? Check out our ongoing coverage of the World of Warcraft, and be sure to touch base with our sister site WoW Insider for all your Lich King needs!
The Best of Big Download: March 8-15
Another week has flown by here at Big Download but now it's time to look back and see what happened to PC gaming in the last seven days. Join us, won't you?:Exclusive features PC games on the slow boat: Some PC games seem to take forever to complete. We look back at some titles that did indeed take a long time to develop before they were finally released. First Look: Eve Online Apocrypha: Get some impressions and developer comments on CCP's space -based MMO expansion that launched this week. Review: Sins of a Solar Empire Entrenchment: We have the final verdict on the first of three expansions for Ironclad Games' space strategy game. Team Fortress 2 Scout Achievements: Check out the six and final part of our look at the new Scout achievements in Valve's multiplayer game, plus a round-up of all six parts. Independent Minds: In our latest column on indie games we look at how developers should support a game after release. Big Ideas: In this installment of our column about big game ideas, we look at some current and possible future game controllers. Big Iron: This week's PC game hardware column reviews the recently released 7 inch touch-screen PC monitor the Mimo UM-719 Freeware Friday: This week's look at free games is all about the strategy-typing (yes, typing) game Typomagia.
The Best of Big Download: March 2-8
The first full week of March hit us with a ton of big news to report along with a couple of pretty huge downloads. Check out Big Download's highlights for the past seven days:Exclusive Features Guide to Team Fortress 2 Scout Achievements: Check out this comprehensive look at the new unlockable achievements in the Scout character class: Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four and Part Five are all available. The BigAss 25 - Spring 2009: It's been an internal list of the top games our site follows and now we reveal the current list to the public with Part One and Part Two. Puzzle Quest Galactrix Review: We have the final word on this sci-fi puzzle-RPG game from Infinite Interactive and D3 Publisher. Mac Monday: This week our look at Mac games reviews two titles: Brainpipe and Ranch Rust. Big Ideas: Our weekly look at game themes takes a look at the history of games with violent content. Indie Showcase: Our weekly look at indie games takes at look at the titles in the Java 4K 2009 competition Freeware Friday: Our look at free games this week is all about the browser based title Blush. Big Iron: Our hardware column this week takes a look at Nvidia's new graphics chip for notebooks.
New Aion video explores the vibrant and beautiful Poeta
Aion consistently amazes us with these video flybys of the various zones in the game world. Poeta, however, is exceptionally jaw-hinge-swinging due to its -- and we say this with a supreme amount of joy -- Final Fantasy XI and Guild Wars influences. Specifically, the music has a certain "Eff Eff" feel to it while many of the more tropical zones took us back to Maguuma Jungle in a wonderful way. Sitting in the most northwestern portion of the world, Poeta is certainly going to be high on our list of "must explore" zones once Aion is released into the wild stateside. Big Download has the video, and you can check it out just above this post, too.
The Best of Big Download: February 23-March 1
We leave the short month of February behind and embrace the long month of March. Big Download had a lot to report in the last week so let's get to it:Exclusive features Quake Live open beta launch: We give our impressions of the beta launch and chat with id Software's Marty Stratton on the issues they encounted in the first hours of its release. The top PC game news events of February 2009: We pick our top 10 biggest PC games news happenings in the past month. Money Matters - Finances and PC games: In these bad economic times, can playing a PC game teach you about how to handle your money? Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II review: We give the final verdict on this long awaited sci-fi RTS game from Relic and THQ. Mac Monday: We check out this Wizard of Oz-themed adventure game Emerald City Confidential. Indie Showcase: This week's indie games column checks out a number of new titles. Big Ideas: Our weekly look at game themes takes another look at storytelling in games. Big Iron: Our regular PC hardware column talks about what to do with your hardware when it has reached the end of its useful life. Freeware Friday: Our weekly look at free games takes a look at the puzzle-platformer Jed.
The Best of Big Download: February 16-22
It's been an extremely busy week, especially for breaking news, over at Big Download this week. In case you missed it here are the many highlights from the past seven days:Exclusive features Unreal Tournament III Titan Pack hands-on preview: We get some playing time with Epic's upcoming free expansion for their 2007 shooter. First look at NASA's MMO project: We have some of the first concrete info on the upcoming MMO project funded by NASA; Astronaut: Moon, Mars and Beyond. Puzzle Quest: Galactrix impressions: We go hands-on with a build of the PC version of Infinite Interactive's sci-fi puzzle-RPG. Burnout Paradise: The Ultimate Box review: Did Criterion Games' first PC title hit the mark? We give our final verdict on the results. Mac Monday: Our latest look at gaming for the Mac takes a look at the kingdom sim KingMania. Independent Minds: Our look at indie games this week takes on the issue of comparing a game concept to a full version Big Ideas: Our look at game themes this week is all about how much developers owe gamers and vice versa Freeware Friday: Our weekly free game is a 2D shooter inspired by Team Fortress 2 called Gang Garrison 2
First look at NASA's Unreal Engine 3 MMO
Big Download took a look (one of the very first, in fact) at the Unreal Engine 3 powered NASA MMO. They came out the the experience with two pages of information. Some of the more interesting facts are that the game is actually set in the year 2035, and is designed to spark a fire of infatuation with space and NASA in those who play it -- similar to what America's Army was all about.So head on over and take a look, if getting your virtual space walk on (trainable at level 40, we hear) is something you'd be more than happy to participate in. Don't say we didn't warn you about those urine packs, though. Gallery: Astronaut: Moon, Mars and Beyond
Aion video tour shows off the Altgard zone
A number of fantasy MMO gamers who are looking for an aerial twist on combat, or simply the ability to soar, are looking forward to Aion: The Tower of Eternity. The latest title from NCsoft is expected to release sometime in Fall 2009, and the developer has been releasing a series of zone tour videos to stoke people's interest in the game. The latest video NCsoft has released shows off the Altgard Zone, with panoramic otherworldly scenes of the world's surface and even its subterranean depths. If you're interested in seeing Aion's Altgard, we've got a YouTube embed of the video for you below the cut.
The Best Of Big Download: February 9-15
Did you get what you wanted for Valentine's Day? Whether you did or not you can't deny that once again Big Download had a busy week. As we always do on Sunday let's look at the highlights for the past week:Exclusive features F.E.A.R. 2 review and feature: We give our final word on Monolith's first person shooter sequel. We also take a look back at the original F.E.A.R. to see how the story's events in that game set up the sequel. PC Gaming Alliance president interview: We chat with the organization's head man Randy Stude to get an update on their efforts to improve and promote PC gaming. Turning Games into Comics: We examine the growing trend of video and PC games being adapting into comics with part one and part two of our feature series. The Actors of Red Alert 3: Uprising: We look at the many live action performers recruited for the upcoming EA downloadable RTS game. Mac Monday: Our regular Mac game column takes a look at the kingdom building sim game Be a King. Independent Minds: Our regular look at the indie game scene gives some opinions on how to create a good story. Big Ideas: Our regular look at game themes talks about if there is room for new genres in games. Big Iron: Our weekly hardware feature takes a look at AMD's new Phenom II chips. Freeware Friday: Our weekly feature on free games takes a look at the newly free RTS-FPS title Savage 2. Contest: Want to win one of 10 copies of the PC version of Mirror's Edge? You can by entering our contest before Feb. 18.
Patch 3.0.9 Mirror [Updated]
Mirror, mirror on the wall... who has the bestist mirrors of them all?Big Download has mirrored patch 3.0.9 for everyone. We've got localizations up for the EU WoW as well (English, German, Spanish, French, and Russian). Remember that you need to have WoW updated to patch 3.0.8a in order to install patch 3.0.9. Big Download also has those files available.Patch 3.0.9 contains a few changes, and is a postscript to patch 3.0.8 and patch 3.0.8a. We're expecting the patch 3.1 PTR to drop anytime.Updated 2:24 p.m. EST: You can also now get the Mac client (enUS only).As usual, please do not post links to other mirror sites in the comments. We cannot verify their integrity. We do this for your safety!
The Best of Big Download: February 2-8
Yet another busy week for PC gaming and we were all over it here at Big Download. Let's check out the highlights from the first full week in February:Exclusive Features The 20 Most Influential PC Games: We pick our choices for the top 20 PC games that have had the most influence on other games that have come since. Check out our picks for the games we rankied in the 20-11 spots and for the top 10 games on our list. 10 Things We Know Will Improve PC Gaming: We know there are things that can be done to improve the PC game industry. Here are 10 such ideas (plus one extra). Previews: We go hands-on with a build of the upcoming sci-fi game The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena. Reviews: We check out a new voice command software package for PC gamesl Say2Play. IGF Finalists Showcase: We conclude our series of spotlights on the nominees for the 2009 Independent Games Festival with a look at the games that are the finalists for the Seamus McNally Grand Prize. Mac Monday: Our weekly Macintosh column goes to the fishes in its look at the fish store sim FishCo. MODMonday: Our mod column this week is about the Max Payne 2 mod Mona: The Assassin. Big Ideas: Our weekly column on game themes takes a look at if modern games are just too easy to play. Big Iron: Our weekly hardware column returns with a preview of some cool 7 inch USB powered PC monitors Freeware Friday: Our weekly column on free games has a look at the unusual shooter title Tag: The Power of Paint.
The Best of Big Download: January 26-February 1
Wow...everything is so different here. We love what you have done with the place. It's so....you, you know? Well, Big Download hasn't gotten a new site design but we have been extremely busy in the last week, especially on the news side of things. Check it out, check-in-outers:Exclusive features Independent Games Festival: We go over a number of the nominees in the 2009 edition of the biggest indie games awards event. Check out the games in the categories of Technical Excellence, Innovation, Design Excellence, Visual Art Excellence and Audio Excellence. Zeno Clash impressions: We go hands on with a preview build of this upcoming first person action-melee game Mac Monday: Our regular Macintosh column takes a look at the action shooter Caster. Big Ideas: Our column on game themes takes a look at when the virtual world will take over the real world. Freeware Friday: Our look at free games this week takes a look at the action shooter TUMIKI Fighters.
