FPS

The Tribes-like first person shooter Section 8 is due to be released in late August but if you want a taste of the game you can head over to Fileplanet and download the multiplayer beta for the game. The beta is now available to all US and Canadian players with a free Fileplanet account.

Just in case you are unfamiliar with Section 8, it's a sci-fi first person shooter where your character is enclosed in a one-man battlesuit to take on the enemy in various planetary locations. It's being developed by Timegate Studios (who previously created two expansion packs for the original F.E.A.R. Originally to be released by the now defunct Gamecock Media, its now found a home in Southpeak Games.

As id Software prepares to say "good-bye" to their long time publishing partner Activision with their upcoming game Wolfenstein, the publisher is promoting its August 4 release with a series of animation shorts on Gametrailers.com that tells the back story of William "B.J." Blazkowicz before the events of the new game.

The first animated short (we might call it a "motion comic" since the animation is so limited) basically is a retelling of the original Wolfenstein 3D game, complete with a Hitler with multiple chainguns. Supposedly there will be new shorts like this released every week until the Raven Software-developed game is released next month. You can check out the video after the jump.

One of the big complaints about Left 4 Dead 2 from fans is that the upcoming sequel to the zombie shooter will basically kill support for the original Left 4 Dead. At the time of the sequel's unveiling at E3 last month, developer Valve made it clear that they still planned to support and add content to the original game.

While we still don't know what that content will be like, Computer and Video Games has a quote from Valve's Doug Lombardi who states, "There will be some announcements coming before summer's out about what's coming there . . ". Let's hope so; we don't need another online petition, do we?

Gallery: Left 4 Dead

Electronic Arts has released a new gameplay trailer showing the Guadalcanal level of Battlefield 1943, the upcoming downloadable multiplayer shooter from developer Digital Illusions. The PC version of the game is due to be released in September following the console versions which will be available to download next week

Download the Battlefield 1943 Guadalcanal trailer (121 MB) at Big Download

Released earlier this week, Ubisoft has now sent out a launch trailer for Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood, the M-rated Wild West shooter from developer Techland. The game has received solid reviews so far but at the moment there's no word on if a demo for the game will be released.

Download the Call of Juarez: Bound In Blood Launch Trailer (98 MB) at Big Download

The July 4 weekend is just a few days away and it looks like some downloadable PC game sites are getting a head-start on offering deals from their library of titles. Impulse has put several of their games on sale for the holiday period including a Sins of the Solar Empire bundle (with the original space strategy game and its mini-expansion Entrenchment) for $29.99. It has also put all of the Unreal franchise games on sale for 25 percent off.


Meanwhile Strategy First has put all of their games on sale for 50 percent off at their online store. This includes their "Take No Prisoners" bundle which has a whopping 20 games. During the sale you can get the bundle for a mere $34.99. The sale lasts until July 12.

Update: GamersGate has annouced they will put one game on sale on their site every day in July for at least 50 percent off. Here is the list of games for the first week:

July 1: Buccaneer: The Pursuit of Infamy - 75 percent
July 2: X-Com Complete - 50 percent
July 3: Atlantis Collection - 50 percent
July 4: Men of War - 60 percent
July 5: Arena Wars Reloaded - 50 percent
July 6: Painkiller Universe - 50 percent
July 7: Civilization IV: Colonization - 50 percent

We've got yet another nice little pre-order offer to give you a heads-up on today. Stardock's Impulse PC game download service has the PC version of the recent console action game Red Faction Guerilla available for pre-order. The PC port of the Volition-THQ game will be released via download on Impulse on August 25.

However, all pre-orders for the game will be able to get not one but two free games; the original Red Faction (first released in 2001) and its sequel Red Faction 2 (released for the PC in 2003). Yep, that's two free games for the price of buying Red Faction: Guerilla for $39.99. Not bad at all.

It's time for another system specs reveal for an upcoming PC game. Are you excited as we are? Well, let's get to it, shall we?. The game in question is (drum roll) Wolfenstein, the upcoming latest entry in the series that started the first person shooter genre. The game from developers Raven Software and id Software and publisher Activision is due out August 4 but you can find out if your PC rig can run the game right now, courtesy of a post on the game's official message boards:

SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS:
Microsoft(R) Windows(R) XP or Windows Vista(R) (Windows 95/98/ME/2000 are unsupported)
Microsoft DirectX(R) 9.0c (included & required for Windows XP & Vista)

HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS:
CPU: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 3.2 GHz or AMD Athlon(TM) 64 3400+ processor
RAM: 1GB RAM
Video Card: 256MB NVIDIA(R) Geforce(R) 6800 GT or ATI Radeon(TM) X800
Sound Card: 100% DirectX 9.0c compatible sound card
HDD Space: 8GB (Plus an additional 800MB for Windows swap file)
Media: 100% Microsoft Windows compatible DVD-ROM drive
Internet: Broadband connection and service required for multiplay

We always thought the name "Merchants of Brooklyn" was an odd title for a sci-fi first person action game. Apparently so does the game's developer Paleo Entertainment. After releasing their CryEngine powered action game with that title last March as a single player game, the company quietly renanamed the game today on the Steam service with the much more generic title Drug Wars.

Drug Wars was previously the name given to Merchants of Brooklyn's recently added multiplayer mode but now that title covers both the single and multiplayer portions of the game. Today's name change also comes with a new patch for the game (automatically handled via Steam) that adds a few new features and fixes some bugs.

Last May, game publisher GameHi launched their first closed beta test for the US version of Sudden Attack, the free-to-play FPS that previously launched in Korea. Today GameHi announced that they are launching a second closed beta test for the game that will last until July 12.

While they are calling this a "closed" beta test, GameHi states that anyone who signs up for this second beta will gain access to the Sudden Attack game, which basically makes this an open beta. People who participated in the first closed beta will not need to re-register for the second beta but will gain access to new player characters. Sudden Attack is expected to officially launch in the US later this summer.

Like everyone else we were shocked and sad to hear about the premature death of Michael Jackson at the age of 50 last week. The news of his death was apparently enough to bring down parts of the Internet as tons of users hit news web sites reporting on his demise.

Since then the media has been paying tributes to Jackson's life with retrospectives, specials and the like. Those tributes are now extending to games. The just launched Battlefield Heroes free-to-play shooter from Digital Illusions and Electronic Arts is offering folks a chance to purchase some new in-game outfits for their characters. As you can see on the the right, those suits look an awful lot like Jackson's costumes in his 1980's music videos. The suits are just available for the month of July.

This fall Aspyr Media is bringing a new first person shooter franchise over to the PC platform. Dreamkiller is the newly revealed game from developer Mindware Studios who previously created the 2007 FPS title Painkiller Overdose (and yes, Painkiller and Dreamkiller do sound kind of similar) This new game is promising to be "fast, frantic and mega-bloodbath first-person shooter", at least according to the official press release.

The game itself takes place in the minds of the patients of psychologist Alice Drake. She doesn't just sit on a couch listening to odd stories. She also enters her patent's dreams and battles their mental demon. The first screenshots from the game show that battling dream demons requires some heavy ordinance. In addition to single player, Dreamkiller is promising some multiplayer modes as well as supernatural powers.

[Via email press release]

Even with id Software's purchase by ZeniMax Media last week, plans for QuakeCon 2009 are continuing. However the annual free LAN event-game convention is getting a last minute venue change. Instead of the previously announced Hilton Anatole Hotel in Dallas, the venue has changed over to the Gaylord Hotel in nearby Grapevine, Texas. The Gaylord Hotel previously hosted the 2004 and 2005 QuakeCons.

According to today's press announcement, this change will allow QuakeCon 2009 to have a bigger BYOC area, a biggest exhibitor area and "totally new events and entertainment." Folks who had made QuakeCon resevations at the previous hotel will find that those reservations have been canceled. id plans to announce when reservations will be made available for the Gaylord Hotel soon, at equal or lesser rates. The dates for QuakeCon 2009 have not changed; it will still be held August 13-16.

Bohemia Interactive's military shooter ArmA II only started on Steam's download service last Friday but sales were high enough to put it on top of the sales list for Steam for the last week. Second place went to Overlord II, the fantasy RPG-strategy from Codemasters. Here's the rest of the list for the week ending June 28:

1. ArmA II - Bohemia Interactive
2. Overlord 2 - Triumph Studios/Codemasters
3. Empire: Total War - The Creative Assembly/Sega
4. Left 4 Dead - Valve
5. Prototype - Radical Entertainment/Activision
6. Counter-Strike: Source - Valve
7. Team Fortress 2 - Valve
8. Killing Floor - Tripwire Interactive
9. Empire Total War: Elite Units of the West (DLC) - The Creative Assembly/Sega
10. Dawn of Discovery - Ubisoft

A Wild West shooter and a open world driving game are the highlights in the new PC game released this week:

Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood: Developer Techland and publisher Ubisoft team up again on this sequel to the 2007 Western shooter. Play as one of two of the McCall brothers as they try to find the lost gold of Juarez while engaging in some six shooter firefights.