The Big Round-up: Tuesday, June 24

Posted Jun 24th 2008 12:00PM by Dan O'Halloran
Filed under: Biz, Downloads, Screenshots, Meta BD, Call of Duty 4, Spore

Your daily wrap-up of the hottest stories in PC gaming in the last 24 hours.

	Guide to TF2 Pyro Achievements, Part 1 We want to help you. We love your work. The pile of screaming, burning scouts? Exquisite. That's why we have crafted for you this very guide to ease your attempts to fulfill the strange objectives given to you. Soon you'll be back on the road, setting fire to all the wildlife as you pass by.
	MacMonday: Does Spore force your Mac to evolve? Welcome to MacMonday, a weekly column where we'll talk about issues related to gaming on Apple's platform beyond "Why isn't PC Game X coming out on the Mac?" In this inaugural edition, let's discuss Spore, Will Wright's latest masterpiece.
	Shipping this week: Alone with the glow of a monitor Hitting store shelves this week is the return of Edward Carnby in Alone in the Dark from Atari (aka Infogrames) and the Alaskan fishing simulator we've all been dreaming about, Deadliest Catch: Alaskan Storm. Arguably the one-two shot gamers need this summer to stave off the hot days until E3 rolls around, this week also features the addictive puzzler Roogoo and Ikea branded furnishings for your Sim characters.
	In-Depth: The Political Machine 2008 You'd think with all the mania surrounding the race to the White House that a game like The Political Machine 2008 would fit right in. Yet, when everything is said and done, putting a lighthearted and simplified spin on the political race only makes for a mildly entertaining strategy game.
	In-Depth: Armageddon Empires If you've kept up with the indie scene at all within the past few months, chances are you know about Armageddon Empires. It's a nice mix of board game, trading card game, and turn-based strategy game that the developer, Vic Davis, keeps adding on to with patches and mini-expansions. It's a game with a lot of addictiveness. It's also very frustrating at times. So in that sense, it is exactly like a trading card game. But let's take a deeper look at the game, shall we?

	First Multiwinia preview shows promise (and screenshots) The always reliable folks at the PC game centric web site Rock Paper Shotgun have an interesting exclusive; the first hands-on impressions of Multiwinia, the upcoming multiplayer version of the strategy-sim game Darwinia from Introversion Software. The preview is a bit heavy on the screenshots and you have to scroll down the article some to get a lot of the info but it's still an excellent read.
	Akella reveals E3 2008 game line-up Earlier this month Big Download attended the North American press event for the Russian based 1C Company to check out a number of their upcoming titles. Well, they are not the only Russian based game developer-publisher aiming for a bigger US audience. Moscow based Akella is planning to show a number of upcoming games at next month's invite online E3 event.
	Tomb Raider Underworld: Screens of Lara's latest adventure Hitting PC and pretty much anything that has gaming functionality this fall is Lara Croft's latest adventue, Tomb Raider: Underworld. While sadly the game does not offer any battles versus a vampiric Kate Beckinsale, it will showcase Lara as she visits exotic new locales and tombs that, we can only assume, require raiding.
	Call of Duty: World at War gets official release date; new trailer download Remember when we posted up rumors (via Electronic Gaming Monthly) that Activision might hold off on their next Call of Duty game until February 2009? Well, it looks like that particular nugget is wrong. Activision sent out their official press release today announcing Call of Duty: World at War and the news is that the game is scheduled currently for release this fall for the PC and other platforms.