Contests

Hey, would you like to get a chance to purchase some cool new PC games or maybe that new video card for your gaming rig? If so then you had better head over to our official contest page where we are giving away three $200 gift cards for Best Buy to three of our loyal Big Download readers.

We started the contest on Thursday and the response has been huge so far. However, the deadline to enter the contest, sponsored by Intel and the Star Trek Online Architect web site, is tonight at 11:59 pm Eastern time. So if you want in on this cool giveaway, and if you are eligible to enter, you have just a few hours to make your entry official. Good luck.

Time for another giveaway contest at Big Download and this one is particularly nice. Thanks to the combined efforts of Intel and the MMO Star Trek Online, Big Download is giving our readers a chance to win one of three $200 Best Buy gift cards which can be used to buy anything at the major electronics and game retailer. The cards are provided to us courtesy of the Star Trek Online Architect web site where you can play mini-games and enter even more contests to win prizes like Intel Core i7 processors and even a replica of the Captain's Chair from the original series of Star Trek.

How do you get a chance to win one of these gift cards? It's really simple:

• To enter, post a comment on this contest page.
• The comment must be left before 11:59 pm Eastern Time on Tuesday, August 31
• You may enter only once.
• Three winners will be selected in a random drawing.
• The winners will each be sent a Best Buy gift card worth $200
• Click Here for complete Official Rules. You must be a resident of the US or Canada (excluding Quebec) who is 18 years or older to enter this contest

Our thanks to Intel and Star Trek Online's Architect web page for sponsoring this contest. Good luck.

It's been a few days since we have had a giveaway so let's start them up again with a good one. The folks at Stardock are providing Big Download with five copies of Elemental: Destiny's Embers, the prose novel set in the fantasy world of Stardock's upcoming turn-based strategy game Elemental War of Magic. The book from Random House is written by Stardock's Brad Wardell (listed as Bradley Wardell on the book's cover). Wardell will even personally sign each copy of the novel for our winners.

Remember if you get the novel you also get an download code that will provide players of the Elemental game with an exclusive downloadable campaign that will be released starting in September.

How do you get a chance to win a copy of the novel? It's actually pretty easy:

• To enter, post a comment on this contest page.
• The comment must be left before 11:59 pm Eastern Time on Monday, August 23
• You may enter only once.
• Five winners will be selected in a random drawing.
• The winners will be sent a signed copy of the trade paperback novel Elemental: Destiny's Embers (valued at approximately $18).
• Click Here for complete Official Rules. You must be a resident of the US or Canada (excluding Quebec) who is 18 years or older to enter this contest

Much thanks to Stardock, Random House and Brad for the prizes. Good luck.

The map editor for StarCraft II is already being used by the RTS game's community to create some impressive custom maps. Now developer Blizzard has launched its first official StarCraft II custom map contest where the best of the custom maps for the game will be selected to be played at BlizzCon.

The contest is open not just to normal StarCraft II custom maps but maps that can change the gameplay of the title to an RPG, a third-person shooter or something else. Entries must be received by September 11. Three maps will be chosen and the makers of the three winning maps will get a free trip to BlizzCon 2010 in Anaheim, California in late October to see their custom maps played in the StarCraft II demo area at the show. Oh, and the winning map authors will also each get $5,000.

We all knew that StarCraft II was going to become a major game in pro gaming tournaments and it looks like its happening faster than expected. Last week Korean-based GomTV announced plans for the Global StarCraft II League. As the name implies this is a tournament than can be entered by any one in the world (subject to eligibility of course). TeamLiquid.net reports that the total prize money for the 2010 edition of the GSL is $500,00 which they claim "the most amount of money in the history of e-sports." Monthly tournaments will be held starting in late August with the grand prize winner getting $85,700. The tournaments of 2010 will serve to rank the players for the 2011 edition of the GSL. All of the monthly tournaments will be broadcast globally. Presumably we will get some kind of streaming Internet feed.

In related news, the US based pro gaming organization Major League Gaming has announced that StarCraft II has been added to the league's roster of game titles.The first MLG event that will host the game will be held in Raleigh on August 27-29 with $7,000 in prizes to be won

[Via Shacknews]

Just before the release of StarCraft II, developer Blizzard launched its Dominion Propaganda contest where fans were able to submit artwork created in the style of WWII war posters but with a Terran Dominion theme. Blizzard has now revealed the winners of the contest on its web site.

The grand prize winner is above this news post as "Sia" created a highly detailed visual of a Space Marine with lots of activity in the background. "Sia" wins a boatload of prizes for the winning piece of artwork including a nice Alienware M11x gaming laptop. You can check out the other winners and the honorable mentions on the StarCraft II Dominion web site.

All good things come to an end and so it does for our StarCraft II giveaway contests. But today we end our contest week with a bang as we have one more prize to give to a very lucky reader. We have one copy of the Collector's Edition of Blizzard's RTS sequel to give away today. This puppy normally sells for $100 but one lucky Big Download reader will be chosen to get her or her hands on it.

It contains the game of course, a behind-the-scenes DVD, a hardcover art book, a "0" issue of Wildstorm's StarCraft comic book, some exclusive in-game content for the game, a in-game StarCraft related pet for World of Warcraft and a USB drive in the form of dog tags that contain the original StarCraft game from 1998 and its Brood War expansion. The Collector's Edition is provided to us by GameStop which of course is selling StarCraft II right now in its stores and on its web site.

How do you win this very cool Collector's Edition? It's very simple

• To enter, post a comment on this contest page.
• The comment must be left before 11:59 pm Eastern Time on Monday, August 2
• You may enter only once.
• One winner will be selected in a random drawing.
• The winner will be sent a Collector's Edition of StarCraft II (valued at approximately $100)
• Click Here for complete Official Rules. You must be a resident of the US or Canada (excluding Quebec) who is 18 years or older to enter this contest

Our thanks once again to GameStop for sponsoring this contest. Good luck.

We took a one day break from our StarCraft II giveaway week on Wednesday but today we are back with the third of four planned giveaways based on Blizzard's just released sci-fi RTS sequel. Today we got two copies of StarCraft: Heaven's Devils, the recent hardcover novel written by WilliamC Dietz, to give out to two of our readers. The novel tells of the early history of StarCraft character Jim Raynor and serves as a prequel to the events in StarCraft II (you can check out an interview we did with Dietz right here). We will even throw in a copy of World of Warcraft Stormrage, the recent hardcover novel from author Richard A. Knaak, to the winners of StarCraft: Heaven's Devils.

How do you win? It's pretty easy

• To enter, post a comment on this contest page.
• The comment must be left before 11:59 pm Eastern Time on Sunday, August 1
• You may enter only once.
• Two winners will be selected in a random drawing.
• The winners will be sent a hardcover copy of the novel StarCraft Heaven's Devils (valued at approximately $25) and a copy of the hardcover novel World of Warcraft Stormrage (valued at approximately $25)
• Click Here for complete Official Rules. You must be a resident of the US or Canada (excluding Quebec) who is 18 years or older to enter this contest

Our thanks to publisher Gallery Books for the donation of the prizes for this giveaway. Good luck. And stay tuned on Friday for our final and very special StarCraft II-related giveaway

If you are not aware that StarCraft II has been released this week, well, you are just not paying attention to this web site. Blizzard's RTS sequel is finally out in stores and this week Big Download has been celebrating with some giveaways. You still have until 11:59 pm Eastern time tonight to enter to win one of three copies of the game itself provided by GameStop. Also you have until the same time on Thursday to enter to win one of three StarCraft II Zboards and a StarCraft II mouse pad provided by SteelSeries.

Today we are taking a small break from introducing new giveaways but stay tuned as we will have another StarCraft II related contest on Thursday and yet another one for Friday.

StarCraft II finally launched last night and we know that lots of you are using your mouse and keyboard furiously to play Blizzard's sci-fi RTS sequel right now. But wouldn't you want to play the game with a keyboard specifically designed for the game and on a mouse pad with some StarCraft II imagery? Of course you would.

That's why Big Download wants to offer three StarCraft II editions of SteelSeries' Zboard PC gaming keyboards as a giveaway to our readers. These keyboards have special keys and software designed especially for use in StarCraft II. We will even throw in a SteelSeries OcK mouse pad with StarCraft II character Tychus Findlay staring up at you. You can check out an image of the mouse pad after the jump.

How do you get a chance to win the keyboard and mouse pad bundle? It's actually pretty easy:

• To enter, post a comment on this contest page.
• The comment must be left before 11:59 pm Eastern Time on Thursday, July 29
• You may enter only once.
• Three winners will be selected in a random drawing.
• The winners will be sent a SteelSeries Zboard StarCraft II edition (valued at approximately $70) and a SteelSeries StarCraft II OcK mouse pad (valued at approximately $15)
• Click Here for complete Official Rules. You must be a resident of the US or Canada (excluding Quebec) who is 18 years or older to enter this contest

Our thanks to SteelSeries for the donation of the prizes for this giveaway. Good luck. Don't forget that we are still giving away three copies of StarCraft II with the deadline of Wednesday at 11:59 pm Eastern time to enter. And stay tuned all this week as we will have even more StarCraft II related prizes to win.

We hinted last week that we would have some StarCraft II giveaways this week, and guess what? We are going to start things off with a bang. We have three copies of the standard edition of Blizzard's long awaited sci-fi RTS game that are just waiting to be one by three of our loyal Big Download readers. These copies are provided to us by GameStop who are holding StarCraft II midnight launch events tonight at 3,000 of its retail locations. We will even throw in a StarCraft II GameStop T-shirt for the winners.

How do you get a chance to win a copy of perhaps the most highly anticipated PC game sequel of all time? It's actually pretty easy:

• To enter, post a comment on this contest page.
• The comment must be left before 11:59 pm Eastern Time on Wednesday, July 28
• You may enter only once.
• Three winners will be selected in a random drawing.
• The winners will be sent a boxed retail copy of the standard edition of StarCraft II (valued at approximately $60) and a StarCraft II GameStop T-shirt (valued at approximately $10)
• Click Here for complete Official Rules. You must be a resident of the US or Canada (excluding Quebec) who is 18 years or older to enter this contest

Our thanks to GameStop for the donation of the prizes for this giveaway. Good luck. And stay tuned all this week as we will have even more StarCraft II related prizes to win.

If you want a chance to get your hands on one of the best military shooters in some time you only have a few more hours. Today is the last day for our ArmA II: Combined Operations giveaway where we will give two boxed retail copies of the Bohemia Interactive game and its Operation Arrowhead expansion to two of our readers. If you want to enter and if you are eligible, head over to our contest page before 11:59 pm Eastern time today.

Oh and next week there's a new PC game that's being released. It's from an up and coming developer named Blizzard who are releasing a sequel to their acclaimed but little known sci-fi RTS title StarCraft. We might just have some giveaways related to this PC game available for you to win (maybe) next week. Stay tuned.

We told you we had another contest to talk about and we keep our word around here. Today Big Download has two boxed retail copies of ArmA II: Combined Operations to give away to two lucky readers. This is the retail release of both the original ArmA 2 military shooter from developer Bohemia Interactive and the newly released expansion pack ArmA 2: Operation Arrowhead. The retail boxed copy of the game is published by Meridian4.

How do you win? As with most of our contests it's pretty simple to enter.

• To enter, post a comment on this contest page.
• The comment must be left before 11:59 pm Eastern Time on Friday, July 23
• You may enter only once.
• Two winners will be selected in a random drawing.
• The winners will be sent a boxed retail copy of Arma 2 Combined Operations (valued at approximately $40)
• Click Here for complete Official Rules. You must be a resident of the US or Canada (excluding Quebec) who is 18 years or older to enter this contest

Our thanks to Meridian4 for the donation of the prizes for this giveaway. Good luck.

Download Arma II: Operation Arrowhead Demo (2.5 GB)

It's Monday and we all know how crappy Mondays can be. So we figured we would cheer you up with this little reminder: You still have a few hours to enter our Elemental: War of Magic giveaway. We still got five digital download copies of Stardock's upcoming fantasy themed turn-based strategy game to give away to five lucky readers.

Simply head over to our official contest page by 11:59 pm Eastern time tonight to enter. As always make sure you check out the official rules to see if you are eligible to enter. Oh and if you don't win this contest don't worry; we've got another giveaway with another cool PC game that should start on Tuesday.

Ready for another giveaway? We sure are. This time Big Download wants to give five of our readers a digital download version of Elemental War of Magic, the upcoming and highly anticipated fantasy turn-based strategy game from developer-publisher Stardock. Getting a digital download copy also means you get into the currently running beta test of the game before Elemental officially launches on August 24.

How do you win? As with most of our contests it's pretty simple to enter.

• To enter, post a comment on this contest page.
• The comment must be left before 11:59 pm Eastern Time on Monday, July 19
• You may enter only once.
• Five winners will be selected in a random drawing.
• The winners will get access via the Impulse PC game download service to a digital download version of Elemental War of Magic (valued at approximately $40)
• Click Here for complete Official Rules. You must be a resident of the US or Canada (excluding Quebec) who is 18 years or older to enter this contest

Our thanks to Stardock for the donation of the prizes for this giveaway. Good luck.