Blizzard is currently targeting the release of StarCraft II for the first half of 2010 and their next World of Warcraft expansion pack, Cataclysm, is due out sometime in 2010 as well. But what about Diablo III? Blizzard first announced the action-RPG sequel nearly 18 months ago but has yet to give any hint on a ship date for that highly anticipated game.

The newly launched Techland web site (run by Time magazine) has posted up some quotes from Blizzard exec Rob Pardo on that subject. He admits that Diablo III " . . . is not going to be out next year." So why announce a game that is going to take so long to develop? He also admits. "We always announce all of our games too early. We realize that and go, 'You know what? Next time we're not going to do that.' And then we always fail at that." However he says Blizzard would rather be late in releasing a game like Diablo III than releasing a game on time that just doesn't work. In fact going forward Pardo says their attitude when revealing a new title is, "Here's the game we're working on, we're going to start talking about it and who knows when it ships."

As you prepare for next week's long (for some of you) Thanksgiving weekend, some of you may want to play some games in between turkey and watching football on TV. But wouldn't that turkey go down smoother if you had a FREE GAME to play? We think it would which is why we are giving you the chance to win a free game; the just released Left 4 Dead 2 in fact.

Our giveaway contest is giving out five free Steam codes for the Valve-developed zombie shooter to someone; so it might as well be you, right?. If you want your shot at one of them and are eligible to win (always important to find out) head over to our contest site to enter now. You still have plenty of time as the contest ends on Monday night.

Yesterday Kotaku posted up a brief teaser trailer from 2K Games that was supposed to be revealed in full at next month's Spike Video Game Awards. As it turns out, the full trailer has already been released by another source back in August. 1Up.com found the full trailer over at Adland.TV that shows off more of what the game will apparently center on; a military team dealing with a massive sandstorm event in Dubai along with other issues.

This trailer is also looking like it will be announcing the revival of the Spec Ops shooter series that was first rumored way back in May 2008. We should find out for certain in a month but for right now we are going to put all of this in the "rumor" pile until the official announcement is made

In the quest to find a truly great movie-based PC game comes the forthcoming release of James Cameron's Avatar: The Game (yep, that is the full official title) from developer-publisher Ubisoft. The game, which tells a parallel story related to the upcoming (and, it has to be said, truly epic looking) sci-fi movie is due to be released on December 1.

PC game download sites like Steam, Impulse and Direct2Drive are offering their customers an in-game pre-order bonus that is apparently not in the retail version of the PC port. They consist of two weapons unlocks; the Dual Wasp for the RDA faction and the Fighting Staff for the Na'vi faction. In addition, both Impulse and Direct2Drive are selling a downloadable special edition of the game for $54.95 that adds six exclusive weapons and two extra character skins to the game. Again this special edition is not being sold in stores.

This week the GameTap online PC game subscription-download service has added the third person action game Damnation to its list of titles people can play for free with their monthly subscription rate. The game, released last spring, began life as an Unreal Tournament 2004 total conversion before it was made into a commercial game by the developer Blue Omega Entertainment.

In related news, the 2007 WWII action-strategy game Battlestations Midway is still free to play on GameTap until this Tuesday, November 24. Also two more games have been given 64-bit support; the casual game Jewel Craft and the historical RTS game Praetorians. Finally, next week's update on GameTap will come on Tuesday due to the Thanksgiving holiday.

When is a PC game not really a PC game? In the newest franchise to the GoG.com classic PC game download site, it's the Creatures series. This week the DRM-free site has added not one, not two but three games pack in the series that give you control of the weird gremlin-like entities and their evolutionary cycle. Each game pack is priced at $9.99 on GoG.com.

In related news, the site has put the first two games in the Settlers series in a bundle for the weekend and are selling the bundle package for just $9.98. That's a 50 percent savings if you bought each game separately. The sale lasts until the day of the day on Monday.

Tomorrow is the last race of the season for the NASCAR Nationwide Series and in the pack trying to win at the Homestead-Miami Speedway will be driver Joey Logano. His number 20 car will be outfitted with a special Modern Warfare 2-GameStop design that was made specifcially for this race.

Logano will be going for his sixth win in the Nationwide Series this year (which is one step below the main NASCAR Sprint series) during the Ford 300 race event. The race itself is being broadcast on ESPN2 at 4:30 pm Saturday. Too bad there's not a Left 4 Dead 2 race car to go against it.

[Via email press release]

Earlier this week we reported that the web site address seen in Left 4 Dead 2's Dark Carnival campaign for the Midnight Riders band was in fact an actual (and Valve owned) site in the real world. Today that site just got more interesting with lots more info about the fictitious Southern Rock musical group. For one thing we now know the names of the four bandmates (Ox on drums, Smitty on vocals and rhythm guitar, Jake on bass and keyboards and Dusty on lead guitar).

We also learn some of the history of the band and their last blog entry indicates that despite the "Green Flu" they still had plans to play a set at the Whispering Oaks Fairgrounds (now identified as being in Griffin, GA). There's also a link to a You Tube channel where two music tracks from the band can be checked out. While you can't buy their latest album, you can get the next best thing; the official Midnight Riders tour t-shirt (via a Valve store link). All of this makes us think even more that we may be getting a new Left 4 Dead 2 campaign before too long.

The folks at Spike have been hyping up the fact that their 2009 Video Game Awards will also be a mini-E3 event in that a number of major games will be revealed for the first time on the December 12 telecast. Today they have put up a brief teaser trailer to one of those reveals which is an upcoming shooter title from publisher 2K Games.

The trailer shows what looks like a massive sandstorm devastating the newly created skyscrapers in the Middle Easter city of Dubai. Some are speculating that this could be the next project from Ken Levine's 2K Boston team. Or it could be something totally different. We have less than a month to find out.

[Via Kotaku]

Welcome to Freeware Friday, a weekly column showcasing excellent games that you can play free of charge!

Most of the browser games that have been talked about on Freeware Friday have been by the esteemed Flashbang Studios. However, it's time to break that trend with a game that is just as good as anything Flashbang can or has come up with. Farbs' Captain Forever was released a while ago to those who have donated, with the promise of it being released for free at a later date. That later date has arrived, and Captain Forever is now available to the general public. It's an excellent game, and one that you can easily lose a lot of time to, which makes it both a great freeware game and an amazing browser game.

This relatively straightforward trailer for Star Trek Online includes plenty of in-game footage and ship battles to keep fans in anticipation of the upcoming MMO. To learn more about the game and how it plays, check out our hands-on feature.

Download HD Star Trek Online Gameplay Trailer #2 (277 MB)
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Read Star Trek Online Hands-On Feature

Valve has yet to release the mod tools for Left 4 Dead 2 (we assume they are coming soon-ish) but in the meantime that hasn't stopped some enterprising mod creators from shoehorning the characters, new zombie bosses and items from the just released shooter sequel into the original Left 4 Dead campaigns.

The L4DMods.com site has the full instructions on how to make this happen. The site puts up plenty of warnings that this kind of thing is not for folks who are unfamiliar with opening up and altering a PAK file but as you can see from the above screenshot it is possible to get Coach, Nick, Noelle and Ellis up north to battle the infected.

[Via Kotaku]

This trailer for the Need for Speed SHIFT Team Racing Pack, an upcoming free content expansion, provides fans with a glimpse of some of the big features to expect. As its name indicates, NFS SHIFT players will have to switch their driving styles from individual strategies to more team-oriented ones as they speed down these tacks. Also included are brand new vehicles to muscle against the competition with. Unfortunately, even though the trailer indicates otherwise, the Team Racing Pack isn't available yet. It releases in Europe on December 1st for the PC and Xbox 360 and on December 3rd for the PlayStation 3 console. North American players across all platforms will have to wait until December 10th, but the Need for Speed SHIFT playable demo can be downloaded right now here.

Download HD Need for Speed SHIFT Team Racing Pack Trailer (305 MB)
Download Need for Speed SHIFT Demo (1.13 GB)
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If you follow Big Download around (and if you do we will consider putting a restraining order on you) you know that we like to post up the big sales deals that the GoGamer.com brings us during their still misnamed 48 Hours sale. Today is no different as a ton of PC game titles are on the list with sale prices that will last until 3 am Eastern time Tuesday.

This week, the deals include recent PC games like Borderlands for $36.90, The Sims 3 for $32.90 and Tropico 3 for $27.90. Older games are cut to the bone such as Bionic Commando for $17.90 and the first Halo PC port for $12.90.

In Dark Void, players are trapped in an alternate dimension after flying through the Bermuda Triangle. In this place, an alien race with a sinister plan to take over human civilization. As demonstrated by this trailer, the aliens come in many different varieties of looks and battle armor. Dark Void is scheduled to release in North America on January 19, 2010 and across Europe on January 22nd.

"Dark Void is an adrenaline-fueled blend of aerial and ground-pounding combat which centers on Will, a pilot who crash lands in the Bermuda Triangle following a routine mission. Will wakes up to find himself in 'The Void,' an alternate world resembling a primitive earth where aliens with superior technology are planning to take over civilization. Together with a faction of humans who have disappeared into the Void, Will takes on the alien race using their own advanced technology including a high-powered jet pack to defeat them and keep order in the civilized world."

Download HD Dark Void 'The Watchers' Trailer (197 MB)
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