Far Cry 2

As we reported a few days ago, Steam has now added a number of library titles from publisher Bethesda Softworks to their line-up of downloadable PC games today.Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind and Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion, the two acclaimed open world fantasy RPG titles and the first person horror action-adventure game Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth are currently available for 20 percent off their usual Steam prices for one week.

Steam has also added four Strategy First games (Ankh 2 - Heart of Osiris, Ankh 3 - Battle of the Gods, BC Kings and Port Royale 2) with all four also available for 20 percent off their normal prices for a week. Two recent Atari games, The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena and Ghostbusters, are also available via Steam today but no discounts for them.

Over at Stardock's Impulse site they have added three Ubisoft games (Assassin's Creed, Far Cry 2 and Heroes of Might & Magic V: Tribes of the East) to their library and are currently on sale for 10 percent off their normal price.

All this week Steam has been placing select Ubisoft games on sale for 50 percent off their normal prices for one day only. So far those sales have covered Assassin's Creed, Prince of Persia and Brothers In Arms: Hell's Highway. Today Steam has put up yet another Ubisoft game for a 24 hour sale. It's Far Cry 2, the recent open world first person shooter title. For one day you can download the game for $14.99 compared to its normal $29.99 Steam price.

Remember this sale lasts only until Friday at 9 am PT (noon ET). The regular weekend Steam sale will also involve at least one (possibly more) Ubisoft games but neither the game nor the discount have been revealed.

PC first person shooter gamers are used to generous amounts of free content for their games. Valve has cranked out several for Team Fortress 2 and recently Epic Games pushed out its massive Titan Pack for Unreal Tournament III. Today Ubisoft released some new downloadable content for PC owners of Far Cry 2 . . . but there's a price.

And we mean that literally. The Fortunes Pack for the fall 2008 released game adds three new weapons, two new vehicles and five new multiplayer maps. It's basically the same DLC that players of the Xbox 360 and PS3 owners got last November. The problem is that the download is a Steam exclusive (at least for now) and that you have to pay up $4.99 to get the new content. Compare that to UT3's Titan Pack which adds far more levels to the game. So if you really want this added to your Far Cry 2 copy, you better have some cash.

The Game Developers Choice Awards are the last major industry awards honoring games made in the previous year. Today Think Services (via their Gamasutra web site) announced the nominees for the 2009 edition of the awards. The winners will be announced during the Game Developers Conference in late March.

Among the multiple nominees are Fallout 3 and Left 4 Dead with four nods each. Spore, World of Goo and Far Cry 2 also got more than one nomination in the awards. You can check out the full list after the jump:

If you have been playing Ubisoft's recent open world action game Far Cry 2 in online multiplayer matches and thought to yourself, "Self, playing online is just too easy," well we have some news for you. Ubisoft's official message board for the game have revealed that an upcoming patch will add a "Hardcore" mode to all of the game's modes

Hardcore mode will include a new increased damage model and all weapons will be rebalanced as well. You will even be able to do things like change the spawn time in multiplayer mode. At the moment there's no word on exactly when the Hardcore patch will be released.

[Via Voodoo Extreme]

If you have always wanted to try to make maps for your favorite first person shooter but were too intimidated to learn how, an upcoming book might help out. Book publisher Charles River Media is teaming up with Ubisoft to publish an upcoming book on making maps for the recent FPS Far Cry 2.

Set to be released this spring, Designing Wargames: The Official Far Cry 2 Map Making Guide is unique in that it will have articles submitted and written by third-party map makers on how to create the best multiplayer maps for the game. The book will have support for both the PC and console map making tools. Many third-party map makers have later found jobs in the game industry so reading this book could be a way to level-making stardom.

This patch for Far Cry 2 updates the game to v1.02. It includes a number of fixes and game enhancements, especially for multiplayer. Continue reading for full patch notes. Steam users should use its automatic update system for this patch.

Download Far Cry 2 v1.02 Patch (52 MB)
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AMD always updates its Catalyst graphics drivers every month and today the company released its final update for the year. The 8.12 update from its ATI division includes a number of new features including performance improvements and bug fixes for games.

Games that will show performance improvements with the new drivers include Fallout 3 (between 6 and 12 percent), Far Cry 2 )20 percen on Crossfire systems with slower cards and 70 percent with faster cards without AA enabled). Left 4 Dead (2 to 4 percent) and S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky (5 to 10 percent)

This patch, sponsored by Intel, adds two new missions to Far Cry 2 and extends gameplay by about three hours. The two missions include:

Mission 1: The Morrocan - This mission sends you into the most heavily guarded region of the Leboa-Sako territory. Hiding out at the old Legion fort is a Moroccan who might be able to help you locate the Jackal. Your objective is to locate him and find out what he knows.

Mission 2: The American - Your predecessor has tracked down the American informant to the Dogon village in the rocky northern ranges. Your objective: follow his trail and find out what the informant told him.

Download the Far Cry 2 Intel Bonus Mission Pack (6 MB)
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Intel wants all of you to know about its newly launched Core i7 Extreme Edition processor and they are doing it in a rather big way. Working with Ubisoft the PC company is running a contest all through December where they will be giving away an Intel Core i7 965 Extreme Edition processor every day this month.

But that's not all. Intel will be giving away a whopping 50 copies of Ubisoft's recent first person shooter Far Cry 2 every day this month as well. Yep, that means there are still well over 1,000 copies of the game still to be won so if you haven't tried out the game yet this might be a good way to pick up a copy for free.

Yep, we know. This is not exactly the best time of the year right now for many folks. The economy is on the skids and lots of people are looking for work. However, it's been proven that while many people will skip buying things like shoes, TVs, clothes and other items this holiday season, they do seem to gravitate to games.

If you know a hardcore PC gamer who has to have the latest and greatest titles, then Big Download has some help for you today. We have picked out 10 recently released games that we think will please most any hardcore PC gamer on your list. These titles are all great in our opinion (and a few are just outstanding) and will be most welcome holiday treats.

If you do want to get one or two (or all 10 if you are really rich) for your PC gamer this season, you might want to ask him or her beforehand their PC rig's hardware specs. A few of the games on the list are pretty hefty in terms of their system requirements so it's always a good idea to know if your gamer's rig can actually play the title you are going to give them

Click on the image above to continue reading Big Download's 2008 PC Game Holiday Gift Guide

The National Institute on Media and the Family has attacked the game industry for years and has also issued their annual "report card" on both the industry and specific games. In the past they have generated a lot of publicity for their report card by holding press conferences in Washington DC with various national lawmakers also taking part.

However, the game industry has taken huge steps in the last few years to police itself through both its ESRB ratings system and enforcement of those ratings in retail stores. So this year's report card by the NIMF is very low key with just a media announcement and no press conference or senators around. Indeed, the actual report card on the industry has the industry getting almost straight "A"s (they got a B+ for ratings enforcement). So the organization is now focusing on getting parents involved in making sure they know what games their kids are playing.

The NIMF has also issued a list of games children should avoid playing. All of these games are rated "M" for Mature so the industry has already done its job in labeling them as not appropriate for kids. They include games released for the PC platform like Fallout 3, Left 4 Dead, Dead Space, Far Cry 2, Silent Hill Homecoming and Legendary (another game, Saints Row 2, is due for release on the PC this January).

It looks like the tanking economy isn't affecting the sale of some game titles. Today Ubisoft reported that their open world first person shooter, Far Cry 2, had sold a total of over 1 million units worldwide less than three weeks after its launch in late October. The sales cover all three platforms it was released for (PC, PS3 and Xbox 360) but as Gamasutra reports Ubisoft did not break down the sales each platform received.

Even though the game has almost no connection to the original Far Cry (developed by Crytek), Far Cry 2 seems to have found its own audience thanks in part to its more open world gameplay features and graphical effects like fire burning and expanding more realistically than most games. A few months ago an Ubisoft dev team member announced that preliminary work on the next Far Cry game was already underway and that it would keep Far Cry 2's Africa setting.

Thanks to everyone who entered our Far Cry 2 PC giveaway contest. We have now picked the three winners, each of which will receive a boxed copy of the PC version of the recent FPS game from Ubisoft. Congrats to Timothy Rebstock of Liberty Lake, WA, Erik Stroud of Kinston, NC and Daniel Turnbull of Colorado Springs, CO for being picked as the winners. All of you will soon be receiving your free copy of the game. Thanks again to Ubisoft for providing the prizes.

This patch updates Far Cry 2 to v1.01, fixing bugs and enhancing gameplay. Continue reading for full patch notes.

Download Far Cry 2 v1.01 Patch (42 MB)
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