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

This is a first for me. Over the past few months, I have espoused the virtues of a wide variety of freeware games, from shooters to strategy games. Never, however, have I talked about a browser game. This week marks the first, and definitely not last, time that I'll be showcasing a browser game. When a game is as good as Off-Road Velociraptor Safari, one must share it with everyone. Plus, with most of our staff at E3, Off-Road Velociraptor Safari is perfect for them! Just don't expect many browser games to make it onto Freeware Friday.

Vin Diesel is one handsome actor (cue Saturday Night Live sketch memory). Hey, the person behind the Riddick series of movies (and the game) continues to work in movies but he's also got the upcoming Midway action-driving game Wheelman on his docket. Diesel isn't just in the game; much like his work on the Chronicles of Riddick title he is actively involved with the development team in the design of Wheelman.

Midway recently sent out some new screenshots of the game where Diesel will lend his voice and likeness to a character described as an law enforcement agency who goes undercover as a "wheelman" getaway driver to expose crime in Barsalona, Spain. The game is due for release later this fall for the PC and other platforms.

So have you been itching for a game that recalls the Easy Rider era of the 1960s? Well, it's good news for you lot today as Deep Silver has just announced Ride to Hell, a new title from their own internal development studio that's set to be released in the second quarter of 2009.

While no screenshots have been released yet, Deep Silver claims that Ride to Hell will attempt to bring an authentic 1960's biker feel to gamers. Players will drive several vehicles in the game's version of the American West in a free roaming world. The promise of dealing with biker gangs, hard drinking and experiencing the 1960's hippy music scene is also promised. It sounds different but specific gameplay details are still lacking.

The folks at Codemasters have released a new PC patch for their recent racing sim game GRID and we have it ready to grab right here at Big Download. The 1.2 patch has a number of fixes and changes for the game which we have right here:

• Fix for sessions list overflow and missing characters in front end.
• Fix for errors generated on game shutdown
• Support for TrackIR
• Online experience points: more points awarded for completing longer races
• Assists on/off toggle added to session creation and browsing
• All offline events (apart from head-to-heads and touge) are now available online (event voting screen now scrolls to see additional championships).
• Fix for failure to recognise some devices in user-created action map presets, including Logitech Cordless Rumblepad 2.
• Fixed GRID startup issue where it appears as a process in Task Manager but fails to run.
• Additional experience points are awarded for not colliding with other cars whilst racing damage on or forward sessions

Grab the new GRID 1.2 patch at Big Download right now

Since releasing a few, oddly sized, screenshots and gameplay footage of Burnout Paradise for PC, Criterion Games has been quiet about the upcoming version. However, as the team is hard at work creating fresh content (including motorbikes) for the console versions, its official site has teased the developer is experimenting with adding planes to the title. When the PC version of Burnout Paradise was announced, Criterion promised the version would include additional content, expanded modes and community driven content which leads us to believe the latest console updates will be included when it hits PC. As for the idea of planes in Burnout Paradise. We'd be interested to see where and how it would work.

As part of a video series on the United Kingdom's struggling video game industry, the BBC visited Ubisoft's Newcastle studio to take a look at the skills used in the creation of video games. While it was there, it got a peek at the next game in the Driver series, which has not yet been announced.

There's not much to see in the video besides a couple of character and car models, and about 8 seconds of ambiguous footage displayed on an HD PC monitor. The news here is simply that the game exists. It looks like it's in a pretty early state though, and there was nothing in the segment to suggest when it might be coming out, or what the gameplay is like.

Well, apart from the fact that you get to drive a car. Gasp! Who knew.

[Via Shacknews]

Finally, EA is beginning to learn. Tired of a torturing single team doing monthly installments, they have put into place two teams working on 24-month development cycles. What does this mean? It means that while the iterations will continue to be annual, they will be much higher quality than previously seen. Speaking to an investor's meeting, John Riccitiello had this to say:

"We were torturing a very talented group of people up in Vancouver, which makes it harder to be as innovative every year. So, I think we are going to get better from here."

He also announced the newest game in the series, Need For Speed Undercover, with a TBA release date. Stay tuned in for more information as we get it!

Midway's action-driving game Wheelman is coming out this fall and will be the second game from the mind of action and major game fan Vin Diesel. Since the first game he had a hand in designing was the impressive The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay we are looking forward to this sophomore effort.

While not based on a movie this time round, Wheelman might as well be with Diesel lending his voice and likeness to an undercover cop posing as a getaway driver in Barcelona. A couple of new screenshots just released for the game show off some of the action you can expect in the game; namely lots of sheet metal being pressed around.

Codemasters just dropped a patch, which takes the game to version 1.1, onto the Information Super Highway for their gorgeous racing game, GRID. The patch squashes several bugs on the windshield (i.e., other player's progress/positions are now correctly updated when you enter the race results screen; track and route options no longer change when host gets back to lobby in private/LAN) and fills the tank with numerous game-play enhancements (i.e., you can now look left and right while in bonnet camera; fix for missing Force feedback on Vista). There's plenty more still under the hood, so be sure to download the GRID 1.1 patch from Big Download now!

If you are really an old-school gamer you might remember a car combat game called Deathtrack. It was released in the late 1980's by Activision and was developed by the now defunct Dynamix (yep, the same team behind the original Tribes series). Now publisher 1C Company and developer SkyFallen Entertainment are working on what might be called a spiritual successor to Deathtrack titled Death Track: Resurrection (and yes, they have split up the title in two). Big Download got to play through an early demo of the game during 1C's US press event this week.

As we have mentioned before, there seems to be a glut of off-road racing games on the PC and other platforms lately. However, most of these games tend to be of the "move as fast as you can" variety. Some offer some car customization features but for the most party they don't have a lot of realistic features.

That's what the upcoming Hummer 4x4 title is aiming to provide. Developer Avalon Style Entertainment and publisher 1C Company are trying to make this game not just an advertisement for the giant GM vehicle brand nor just another arcade style racing game but a full fledged vehicle sim title. During 1C Company's press event this week we got behind a Logitech wheel and drove through a build of the game.

As we mentioned last week, Disney Interactive is making a concerted effort to attract hard core gamers. But shaking the 80 year old image of cartoon mice, ducks, and dogs is a very difficult task. Just ask Black Rock Studios, the development company behind the upcoming off-road ATV game, Pure.

Tony Beckwith, General Manager for Black Rock, concedes that their greatest hurdle has been erasing the stereotypes and preconceived notions associated with the kid-friendly Disney brand. Pure is an adrenaline charged, vertigo-inducing off road racing spectacle with photo-realistic real-world locations. There isn't a single talking animal cartoon to be found.

Beckwith told GamesIndustry.biz that yes, Disney was the force behind High School Musical and Hannah Montana, but Pure will push the Disney brand further. This could occur because of the unexpected benefits of working with the mighty Disney. Black Rock's development team has spent time with many of Disney's sister divisions, including the famed Imagineers (they're the guys and gals who design and build all of the theme park rides). When asked about the importance of the Imagineers' input Beckwith compared their one minute theme park rides with the one minute exhilaration of their racing game. Based on the stunning images... Pure looks like it will be a pure joy to play.

In Big Versus we tackle multiplatform releases that land on PC and console and weigh the pros and cons of the PC version against its console sibling. In each installment we compare games based on included content (such as single and multiplayer features), visuals and everything in between. While our mascot may show an admiration for PC gaming, we're all about telling you the truth in Big Versus.

This week in Big Versus we're tackling Codemasters' latest entry in the Race Driver series, GRID, which hits retail for the PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 today. Shying away from its more realistic racers like other TOCA racing games and the recently released Dirt, Codemasters hopes to capture some of the underground scene with their latest arcade style racing title.

Which version of the beautifully crafted racer crosses the finish line first? Strap in, and shift those gears. This is Big Versus.