FPS

Just a reminder that we are running yet another giveaway contest here at Big Download. Some of you reading this have a chance to win a free download code via Steam for the just released Shattered Horizon, the multiplayer zero-g space based first person shooter.

Do you want a chance to check out this new and innovative game from developer Futuremark Games Studio? Of course you do. Then head over to our contest page, make sure you are eligible to enter our contest and if you are put down a comment on that page. You still have until 11:59 pm Eastern Time on Monday to get your entry in place.

Many members of the media have been trying to get a hold of Infinity Ward to clarify their decisions regarding the PC port of Modern Warfare 2. Kotaku managed to get the developer's community manager Robert Bowling on the horn but unfortunately he didn't address the issues PC gamers have had with the upcoming shooter directly (no dedicated servers, no word on mod support, etc).

Instead Bowling generalized their decisions regarding the PC version, saying once again they wanted to make the game more accessible to the average player. He dismissed the people who have complained about the changes as a loud minority saying, "We have 14 million players on Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. The hardcore gamers make up a smaller core of that, and PC gamers are the smallest group of that core. It is a very vocal community and they are all online."

Bowling also feels that because their community is so highly invested in their games, " . . . we should justify every design decision to them." However he also feels that the developer shouldn't be held to those demands completely, saying, "We know our game very well. Some of the stuff you have to put in there and have faith in your design. Some things don't sound good out of context. You don't see the beauty of them until you experience them for yourselves." When asked if the next Modern Warfare game would even be made for the PC, Bowing dodged the question saying that they don't know what their next game will be.

Originally designed as a Unreal Tournament 3 mod, Prometheus is now available as a stand-alone and free to play game made using the Unreal Development Kit (UDK).

Also known as Prometheus version 4.0, the demo includes:

• A full circle storyline with three new levels
• New awards for tracking progress
• Additional custom textures, meshes and animations
• Bonus original weapon
• New custom layering music system and new voiceovers
• Seamless cutscenes
• New Epimetheus menu with active previews of individual quantum state histories
• Dramatic improvements to the quantum state character movement and firing accuracy

"You're never alone when you have a clone. With the Prometheus Device, you control Einsteinian Physics laws of time and space. Create distinct past, present, and future Quantum States of yourself to solve puzzles and accomplish mission goals in this single player co-op game. You'll need to keep your wits and memory sharp using an original game play mechanic presented in multi-dimensional format inspired by Portal and Mirror's Edge."

Download the Prometheus UDK Demo (321 MB)
Download HD Prometheus Gameplay Trailer (142 MB)
Download the Unreal Development Kit (562 MB)
Check out all Unreal Development Kit downloads

This trailer showcases the fast paced firefights that players can look forward to in the upcoming Grave Digger map for Combat Arms. The map goes live on November 16th and the game install client can be downloaded here.

Download Combat Arms 'Grave Digger' Gameplay Trailer (166 MB)
Download the Combat Arms Install Client (752 MB)
Check out all Combat Arms downloads

In 1979, Moonraker was first shown in movie theaters. It's perhaps the dumbest premise ever for a James Bond movie: A super rich psycho with a Hitler complex decides to kill everyone on Earth via a bio-weapon in favor of his own specially picked humans. In order to kill everyone on the planet all at once he decides to build a space station to fire pods that would disperse the weapon from orbit.

The final battle takes place in and around this space station as a fleet of US Space Marines (yep, that's what they are called) head up in a space shuttle. The Marines and the villainous minions, all wearing bulky space suits, fire at each other with lasers in Earth's orbit. Again, it's really dumb for a James Bond movie but in another context, this kind of space battle had not really been seen before. In fact since Moonraker we have yet to see this kind of space combat duplicated for any other movie or TV show.

Looks like the so-called "protest" by a group of gamers against the release of Left 4 Dead 2 had just about zero effect on pre-orders for Valve's zombie shooter sequel. According to Computer and Video Games' Valve's Chet Faliszek stated that pre-orders have come in at "four times" the amount of the original game released just a year ago.

And what about those protesters who feel that releasing Left 4 Dead 2 just over a year after the original would split the community and is simply a way for Valve to get more money? Faliszek states that there will always be someone complaining about something and adds, "Honestly I made the joke and it's true: If you put $20 in a box and charge $10 for it someone would complain you didn't put $50 in a box."

Gallery: Left 4 Dead 2

It looks like other download sites have decided to drawn a line in the sand over the decision by Infinity Ward and Activision to incorporate Steamworks into the PC port of Modern Warfare 2. Direct2Drive has already stated it won't sell the upcoming shooter because it intergrates the Steam features into the game. Now Voodoo Extreme reports that Stardock's Impulse won't sell the game either for the same reasons. Furthermore Kotaku reports that GamersGate has confirmed they won't make Modern Warfare 2 available for sale on their stores for the same reasons.

While we again point out that Steam-supported games have been sold by IGN's Direct2Drive in the past (Empire: Total War and Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War II) it looks like they and the other two sites have all put their finger down in this case to protest having Steam be a requirement for purchasing Modern Warfare 2. We have emaield Valve, Infinity Ward and Activision for comment.

It's looking like one of the biggest PC game developers, id Software, could decide (and we emphasize "could") not to offer dedicated servers for online multiplayer in their next game Rage. In an article on Variety, id Software' John Carmack is quoted as saying, ""It's not cast in stone yet, but at this point no, we don't think we will have dedicated servers."

The specific reasons for such a move are not really spelled out in the brief article, stating that Carmack felt "the servers are something of a remnant of the early days of PC gaming." However he hasn't closed the door to such a move saying, "We'll see how it works out for everyone else." At the moment Rage won't likely be out until sometime in 2010.

The playable demo for Dark Salvation includes two levels from the game and one bonus secret level. The full version can be purchased from Direct2Drive for $14.95.

"The story of Dark Salvation revolves around the main character Talia who is a 24 year old woman that has been chosen by the Spirit Crystal of the Underworld as its new host. Her parents were into the occult and believed that Talia's younger unborn sister Tayana was the key innocent sacrifice they needed to resurrect the Lucafix demon."
Download Dark Salvation Demo (468 MB)
Check out all Dark Salvation downloads

During the Q&A session of Activision Blizzard's financial conference call, an investor asked company execs if they have seen any impact on the sales of the PC version of Modern Warfare 2 due to the game's lack of dedicated server support. Company execs stated they were watching developments on that front closely but that overall they were not that concerned about the impact of those decisions.

The execs reiterated the arguments that Infinity Ward gave when they first announced their move to create a internally run matchmaking system to handle multiplayer matches in the game. This will result in an upper player match limit of 18 compared to the 32 player (or more) that had previously been the case with Call of Duty games in the past.

Activision Blizzard execs also feel that the PC version could be more accessible to an audience that is not used to the dedicated server system. Ultimately they feel the changes will far out way any negatives that will be made with such a move.

Modern Warfare 2 must feel like everyone is piling on it. From the reveal of some controversial scenes to the lack of dedicated servers for the PC version to a unfortunate release of a PSA, the upcoming shooter from Infinity Ward has not had the best publicity. Now yet another issue has popped up as IGN's Direct2Drive site has openly stated they won't provide the downloadable PC version of the game to download.

In a listing for the game on their site, they state:

At Direct2Drive, we believe strongly that when you buy a game from us, you shouldn't be forced to install and run a 3rd party software client to be able to play the game you purchased. Because COD MW 2 requires you, the consumer, to do that, we aren't able to offer the game via Direct2Drive at this time.

They are clearly calling out the game's use of Valve's Steam service to offer automatic updates, among other things, for Modern Warfare 2 as their reason for their refusal to run the game. Direct2Drive is offering a $5 online coupon code on their site to purchase any other game from Activision until Nov. 30. We do find the arguments suspect since other games on Direct2Drive have installs for Steam (like Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War II) and Games For Windows Live.

This trailer invites players to join the PlayStation 3 beta of Battlefield: Bad Company 2, but it also gives viewers an up-close look at the intense graphics that will be featured. The PC beta is expected to start in December and the game will release in 2010.

Download HD Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Beta Trailer (133 MB)
Check out all Battlefield: Bad Company 2 downloads

While everyone else is waiting for pre-Black Friday sales, PC gamers know that sales on downloadable PC games can be found all the time, especially on Thursdays.

• Steam has cut the price of the original Mass Effect to just $9.99 for the weekend
• Impulse has a number of weekend game sales going on including Flock for $7.49, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl for $9.99 and Mosby's Confederacy for $12.99.
• GamersGate has cut the prices of several of their games. That includes Painkiller, Painkiller Overdose and Painkiller Universe which are down 30 percent each. It has also put Grappling Hook (for PC and Mac) on sale for 50 percent off its normal price this weekend.
• Direct2Drive offers up $5 off Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising if you put in the promo code 5OFFOPFLASH at checkout.
• Telltale Games is offering full seasons of Sam and Max Seasons One and Two, Strong Bad and Wallace and Gromit for $20 each, a savings of $15 each from their original price.
  

2007 saw the release of Shadowrun, a multiplayer-only first person shooter from Microsoft's now defunct FASA Interactive that was very loosely based on the pen-and-paper RPG. While an interesting if flawed game on its own terms, many Shadowrun fans would have preferred a PC game that was closer to its roots. Now some early demo work from an earlier version of the Shadowrun game has popped up on the Internet.

The info comes from the personal site of Robert Olson, currently working at Mad Doc Software but who previously worked at FASA Interactive on an earlier version of the Shadowrun game. Without revealing too many details, the demo that he was a part of seems to be much closer to the spirit of the pen-and-paper game than the version that was actually released. You can see a lengthy movie that apparently comes from the early Shadowrun demo after the jump.

It's been a few days since our last giveaway so it's time we gave our Big Download readers a chance to win something cool. In this case we got three Steam download codes to give out that will let the winners download the full version of Shattered Horizon, the just released multiplayer first person shooter from developer Futuremark Games Studios.

As with most of our contests, entering the giveaway is simple:

• To enter, post a comment on this contest page.
• The comment must be left before 11:59 pm Eastern Time on November 9
  
• You may enter only once.
• Three winners will be selected in a random drawing.
• Those three winners will be sent a Steam code that can be use to download a full copy of Shattered Horizon (valued at $19.99 each)
  
• 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.
• Also keep in mind that this game can only be run on Windows Vista or Windows 7 with at least a DirectX10 based graphics card.

Our thanks to Futuremark Games Studio for the donation of the prizes. Good luck.