Identity is a fluid concept, particularly in today's Internet Age. When your self is displayed by an avatar whose image is infinitely mutable, the potential for mischief is great -- as is the potential for true representation. Some people use their avatars as masks to hide behind, while others see them as a means to finally show the world what their real selves are like.

In games, however, there is often a more limited set of choices available to the player. Massively multiplayer online games offer a wide range of options, and non-MMOs usually have far fewer. When you're playing a first-person shooter, for example, regardless of the ostensible story, you are the gun, not an actual character with a personality. The question is, then, does it matter if you don't get to play as yourself? How important is the concept of identity in a game?

With E3 now behind us Big Download turns its attention to another terrific annual event: QuakeCon. Yes, we will be in Dallas, Texas this weekend to attend the massive (and free) gaming tournament and industry gathering sponsored by id Software. Did we mention that it's totally free.

Big Download will cover the event from the tournament to the exhibitors to the weird PC case mods in the BYOC area and more. Tonight id will hold a press conference for QuakeCon attendees which will include a lecture by id's master programmer John Carmack. We might not understand all he will say in his speech but it will be cool to hear anyway. We are also expecting id to show off their upcoming games Rage, Quake Live, and Wolfenstein (with Raven Software) and there might be some surprises as well. Stay tuned.

E3 2008 may seem like a distant memory (a really painful distant memory but we digress) but our mothership Joystiq has finally gotten together to name their picks for the best (and the worst) games they got to see at the nearly vacant LA Convention Center earlier this month.

Will your favorite game be among those cited by the team at Joystiq as one of their award winners? What surprises do the awards have in store for you. There's only one way to find out. Check out their picks for the E3 awards for 2008 right now.

Your daily wrap-up of the hottest stories in PC gaming in the last 24 hours.

	E308: Dark Void Impressions The first part of Dark Void plays out they way anyone would expect an action shooter would. There isn't much to help the game stand out without the benefit of an upgraded jet pack. Until then, the player moves through like most other shooters, picking up new and inventive weapons along with ammo while picking off waves of incoming soldiers along the way.
	E308: Damnation Impressions Going vertical is one of the more prominent themes of this year's E3, but before players fly around the Dark Void using a jet pack, they might be scaling the buildings of Damnation. Damnation takes place in an alternate history United States, where the industrial revolution took a radically different turn. The result is a 1900's America that looks both new and familiar at the same time.
	Left 4 Dead box art revealed Valve Software VP of marketing Doug Lombardi has released the official box art for developer Turtle Rock Studios' upcoming Left 4 Dead, a squad-based shooter that will pit humans in a fight for survival against legions of zombies. Though we find the box art to be stylish yet simple, snazzy yet unassuming, we find ourselves hesitant to award the art a thumbs-up.
	Portal: Still Alive already available on PC Keyboard-and-mousers up in arms over the recent announcement that Xbox Live Arcade would be receiving exclusive Portal content in the form of Portal: Still Alive need not fret: apparently the forthcoming bonus content has already been alive on the PC for quite some time.
	Frogster unveils strong MMO line-up Players looking for a variety of themes in the prolific MMO genre need not look further than Frogster, a PC game publisher with an emphasis on virtual worlds. Due out during the second half of 2008 are StoneAge 2, Runes of Magic, and The Chronicles of Spellborn, which should complement Frogster's existing portfolio of casual MMO titles.

Your daily wrap-up of the hottest stories in PC gaming over the weekend including the lastest of our E3 hands-on impressions.

	BigCast 004 -- English Is Hard! Listen as Xav stumbles about trying to pronounce simple words! This week we cover some of the biggest PC news from the world of E3, talk classic gaming habits and throw around the idea that maybe games are meant to be played instead of examined. Crazy thoughts and more in the epic episode with guest hosts Kyle Horner, Samuel Axon and first-timer James Murff. It's time to go big, right here at the BigCast!
	E3 08: Hands-on with Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3 If the original Command and Conquer timeline is a fairly standard sci-fi affair and C&C Generals is a more realistic near future storyline, then Electronic Arts' Red Alert franchise is all about comic book goofiness and fun. The alternate history where the Communist Soviet Union is still large and in charge and wild weapons are plentiful will get a revamp this fall with the release of C&C: Red Alert 3
	E3 08: Dragon Age Origins impressions Our very last E3 2008 appointment was, ironically, not at the Los Angeles Convention Center but at a nearby hotel. Deep underneath the hotel's meeting room was host to BioWare's long awaited next fantasy RPG Dragon Age Origins. The game was first announced and shown in a very early form over four years ago at E3 2004 (when it was called simply Dragon Age) so we were expecting to be wowed by this new version.
	E3 08: Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War II impressions So you think you know what Relic Entertainment is going to do with the full sequel to their acclaimed sci-fi RTS title Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War (based as always on the Games Workshop war game). Better graphics; more units, more visble units in massive battles, right? Isn't that the way sequels usually do things?

We here at Big Download love indie games. From telling you about them, playing them, or offering downloads for them, we are all about helping lesser-known developers get their name out into the world. Each week on Saturday, we'll give you the Indie Wrap-up, a collection of all the indie news stories and features during the previous week.

There was no big features this week, unfortunately. Most of our staff was gone at E3, after all! Just Freeware Friday was this week. However, the TOJam 2008 competition recently wrapped up, so there's a ton of games that were released this week! Dwarf Fortress also finally got the first update in the Army Arc, adding battles and wars to the historical records of the game.

Features

Freeware Friday: Off-Road Velociraptor Safari James Murff takes Freeware Friday to a new place: browser games.

Your daily wrap-up of the hottest stories in PC gaming in the last 24 hours. And, of course, that means even more E3 coverage from the floor of the convention and in the conference rooms where we were hands on with many popular titles.

	E3 08: Hands-on with Spore So you have likely been playing with the Spore Creature Creator for a few weeks now, either in its free version or the full $9.99 version. But how, you may ask, is the actual Spore game actually looking. Quite well, thank you. In fact it's a lot deeper experience than we first imagined.
	E3 03: Hands-on with Fallout 3 It's extremely hard to really get a feel for what a game that has about 100 hours of gameplay in less than 30 minutes of time. Yet that was our constraints while playing Fallout 3 at Bethesda Softworks' E3 2008 meeting room. It was enough time to confirm that the game plays well in those 30 minutes but that's about it.
	E3 08: Hands-on with Far Cry 2 We named this game our most anticipated PC title of E3 2008 and when we went behind closed doors at Ubisoft's meeting room to check out a PC demo build of Far Cry 2 our expectations were certainly high. We came away from the demo impressed by the game's promise, even though we are still scratching our heads as to why the game is even named Far Cry 2. With the exception of a couple of minor similarities, there's really nothing that ties in this game with Crytek's original 2004 shooter.
	E3 08: Hands-on with Project Origin Last year, Warner Bros. Interactive had a hands-on theater demo of Project Origin, the long awaited true sequel to developer Monolith's 2005 scary shooter F.E.A.R (in fact the official name of the game had not been announced at its 2007 E3 appearance). The demo was more akin to what was seen in F.E.A.R.. it took place in an office corridor. It had some shooting of AI driven soldiers and it had a scary scene at the end.

Your daily wrap-up of the hottest stories in PC gaming in the last 24 hours. And, of course, that means lots of E3 goodness.

	E3 08: Hands-on with Left 4 Dead Developer Turtle Rock Studios had been working for some time on Left 4 Dead before the company was bought out by Valve Software (Turtle Rock helped out on various Valve projects in the past and was using Valve's Source engine for Left 4 Dead). So that means that opportunities to play builds of the game have been fairly frequent in the past year or so. However, shooting zombies never really gets old and at E3 2008 today we got yet another chance to make a lot of blood go on the walls (virtually speaking of course).
	E3 08: Hands-on with Crysis Warhead When Crytek and Electronic Arts announced that the next game in the Crysis series would not be a sequel but a parallel story to the events in the first game, some folks scratched their heads. What? Why? Well, after playing a single level of the game at E3 2008 today we are certainly not complaining. Crysis Warhead is looking to be a more aggressive and faster paced game than the original, and not just because you are playing as "Psycho", one of the members of the original squad in the first game that was a tad more prone to shoot first and ask questions later.
	E3 08: Left 4 Dead videos reveal new player characters Valve Software's Gabe Newell took the stage at EA's E3 press conference to present the cooperative horror game Left 4 Dead. We have the video of that presentation on the other side of the jump, but here are the Cliff's Notes.
	E3 03: First Singularity gameplay info revealed Earlier today we reported that Activison had announced plans to release a new first person action game called Singularity. At Activision's press event tonight the company revealed more info about the title from developer Raven Software. According to the company the game will feature time as a major factor in gameplay and that that Singularity will see "controlling time in a new dimension not seen in a game before" (of course the 2007 game Timeshift also featured temporal effects as a gameplay feature)
	E3 08: Wolfenstein gameplay trailer at Activision press conference During Activision's press conference tonight, the company had a new gameplay trailer for Wolfenstein, the next game in id Software's first person shooter series. This time the game is being co-developed by Raven Software and will feature B. J. Blazkowicz yet again shooting up Nazis. id CEO Todd Hollenshead demoed the game during the press conference.

Your daily wrap-up of the hottest stories in PC gaming over the weekend.

	Big Download's most anticipated PC games of E3 2008: 5-1 There have been tons of great cliffhanger endings in history. Will Han Solo get out of that carbonite casing? Will Captain Picard get free of the Borg? Who shot J.R. Ewing? Who is the final undiscovered Cylon? We can now add one more cliffhanger to this list. "What games will Big Download pick as the five most anticipated PC games for E3 2008?"
	Big Download's most anticipated PC games of E3 2008: Wild Cards In the past five days we have revealed our picks for the 25 most anticipated games that might be shown at E3 2008. However there are a number of other titles that we are looking forward to seeing at the show as well that didn't quite make the list. There are also some games that might be officially revealed at the show for the first time.
	Big Download's E3 Week Prediction Bingo Come join Big Download in our first annual game of PC E3 Announcement bingo, where we fill a bingo card with some of the likely (and unlikely) things that could happen in the world of computer gaming.
	Big Versus: Civilization IV and Revolution Since the early 1990s, Sid Meier's Civilization franchise has challenged strategy enthusiasts to shape an empire and make their mark in virtual history. While PC gamers enjoy the latest expansion for Civilization IV, Beyond the Sword, they may not realize Firaxis Games has been hard at work redefining the conventions that made the original series so popular in the console exclusive, Civilization Revolution.
	Freeware Friday: I Wanna Be The Guy There's always a lot of nostalgia going on in the freeware scene. From developers taking inspiration from classic games, to outright stealing their concepts, it's not too uncommon to find a game of the kind that you loved so many years ago. This game, however, is not to be loved. No, this week I'm going to tell you about a game that reduces most gamers to tears because of its difficulty. This game, the one that will drive you insane, is I Wanna Be The Guy.

E3 is right around the corner, and that means one thing. Press briefings and conferences galore. Of course, our focus is on the PC which will have information spread throughout the event. What could be announced? There are so many possibilities. Picking and choosing among all of them is almost like a game ... of bingo! Come join Big Download in our first annual game of PC E3 Announcement bingo, where we fill a bingo card with some of the likely (and unlikely) things that could happen in the world of computer gaming. Click each image above for more info about each prediction.

Will Games for Windows be reborn? Will sequels be revealed? Will an executive go into a blind rage about piracy as another call the format a dying breed? You decide, you play! Play along with us:

Download a copy (PNG file) and play along!

Your daily wrap-up of the hottest stories in PC gaming in the last 24 hours.

	Games to play while waiting for Diablo III A crowd of ecstatic fans cheered when Blizzard announced Diablo III at the 2008 Worldwide Invitational and gave an early look at its gameplay. Then reality set in, and people were reminded that they wouldn't be fighting off the forces of hell again for a very long time. To help people suffer through the long "when it's done" schedule Blizzard sticks to, we've put together recommendations to help gamers get their action RPG fix until it comes time to confront the Lord of Terror again.
	Big Download's most anticipated PC games of E3 2008: 10-6 Here at Big Download we have been counting down our picks for our most anticipated games that we are most looking forward to seeing (maybe) at the event. After revealing our picked for 25-21 on Monday, 20-16 on Tuesday and 15-11 on Wednesday, we are now finally entering the top 10. Today we are revealing our picks for the 10-6 positions on our list.
	BigCast 003 -- The Pre-E3 Show ... Ladies This week we talk about everything from PC piracy solutions to puzzling (beta) demo releases. Also, listeners can enjoy multiple inside jokes that are later explained in the outtakes of the show. Akela, Kyle and Steven return to the BigCast this week ... well, until Steven has mysterious tech issues and is forced to opt out (which is later hilariously solved).
	Neverwinter Nights 1.69 patches arrive A trio of patches for BioWare's Neverwinter Nights have arrived, patching Neverwinter Nights, Hordes of the Underdark, and Shadows of Undrentide to version 1.69. Each patch adds new music tracks, tilesets, and more to its respective title.
	New GRID 1.2 PC patch released 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.

Your daily wrap-up of the hottest stories in PC gaming in the last 24 hours.

	Big Download's most anticipated PC games of E3 2008: 15-11 On Tuesday, in our last thrilling episode of Big Download's most anticipated PC games for E3 2008, we listed our picks for 20-16 on our list after revealing our picks for 25-21 on Monday. Which naturally means that today we will have our picks for the 15-11 games we have on our list that we are most interested to see at E3 next week in Los Angeles. Which games will they be? Will they actually be at the show? Will we stop making silly references to Saturday afternoon movie series of the 1930's? Stay tuned to find out the answers to these exciting questions and more.
	Big Ideas: Are video games art? The idea that video games could be classified as art is a fairly recent one, emerging right around the time that we began to include narrative as a game element. All too often, the subject is brought up by detractors of the form as a way to look down upon a medium to which they feel no attraction. The underlying conceit is ridiculous of course -- if video games aren't art, then they have no lasting cultural value, and may therefore be dismissed as mere juvenilia. Yet video games are, nevertheless, quite a large part of our culture, and the lingering perception that they are made only to be entertainment for adolescents does the entire industry a disservice.
	New Team Fortress 2 update released PC owners get another new update for Valve's popular multiplayer shooter Team Fortress 2 this week. This update, which as always is available when signing on via Valve's Steam client, is mostly to deal with a number of minor bug fixed in the game.
	Blizzard community manager discusses Diablo III respecs Diablo II could be a harsh mistress: bludgeoning your free time without a second thought, severely lowering your resistance levels in Hell difficulty, and adopting a "that's life, kid" attitude toward misspent skill points. Though equally harsh in many ways, modern action-RPGs and MMOs such as Titan Quest and Blizzard's own World of WarCraft allow players the option to respecify (or "respec") skill points they've decided are no longer applicable toward their desired character build -- for a fee, of course.

Your daily wrap-up of the hottest stories in PC gaming in the last 24 hours.

	Big Download's most anticipated PC games for E3 2008: 20-16 On Monday we went through our 25-21 picks so if its Tuesday it must be time for the 20-16 picks on our list. As we mentioned previously, these are just our predictions on what games will be shown at the event; many of these titles have not been officially confirmed to be at E3 as of this writing.
	Spore Creature Creator Contest Top 10 Winners! Now we turn the contest over to you, the Big Download readers. Check out the Top 10 Spore creatures and vote for your favorite by replying to this post (one vote per person, please). Grand prize winner gets a Wacom Intuos3 6x11 drawing tablet. Second Prize is a EVGA NVIDIA e-GeForce 8800GT Superclocked video card. Third prize winner will receive a EVGA NVIDIA e-GeForce 9600GT video card.
	New Fallout 3 fan Q&A includes new screenshots Bethesda Softworks' work on the upcoming post-apocalyse RPG Fallout 3 has generated tons of comments (good and, well, fanatic) from fans of the first two Fallout titles from Interplay. Now the official Fallout 3 message board forums have posted up an extensive Q&A with highly specialized questions from those very fans.
	Frontlines: Fuel of War Beta Demo now available A Beta Demo for developer Kaos Studios' Frontlines: Fuel of War is now available, weighing in at a hefty 1.8GB. The beta, which is also a demo (but also a beta), allows players the chance to wage war on maps Oilfield and GNAW.
	New Prince of Persia screenshots come forward Ubisoft has already launched one revamp of the classic Prince of Persia game series and this fall they are going back to square one again with yet another reimagining of the franchise. The publisher sent out some new screenshots from the upcoming game that's due in stores this fall.

The idea that video games could be classified as art is a fairly recent one, emerging right around the time that we began to include narrative as a game element. All too often, the subject is brought up by detractors of the form as a way to look down upon a medium to which they feel no attraction. The underlying conceit is ridiculous of course -- if video games aren't art, then they have no lasting cultural value, and may therefore be dismissed as mere juvenilia. Yet video games are, nevertheless, quite a large part of our culture, and the lingering perception that they are made only to be entertainment for adolescents does the entire industry a disservice.

However, merely positing the possibility that video games might be art isn't enough to ensure that they are art. Part of the problem lies in our definition of what art is, and what it isn't. Once we've defined that to our satisfaction, we have to endure the much more difficult task of judging whether it applies to video games. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, we need to ask ourselves the question "Does it matter?"

Your daily wrap-up of the hottest stories in PC gaming in the last 24 hours.

	Shipping this week: Guns v. Glowing Arms This week the Capcom love keeps rolling in with the PC release of Devil May Cry 4. Previously released on the Xbox 360 and PS3, DMC4 follows the story of new character, Nero, and his powerful demonic arm. We know what you're thinking, when did Devil May Cry go realistic?!
	Big Download's most anticipated PC games for E3 2008: 25-21 Despite what other articles might tell you the PC game industry will be represented very well at the expo this year with a number of highly anticipated game titles due to be shown to the invited press (and there may very well be a few surprise announcements in store for E3 that we don't know about yet).
	Go to Quakecon 2008 and (maybe) win a Corvette We are just a week away from the start of E3 but we are also just a few weeks away from the start of Quakecon 2008, the the 13th annual free LAN party-gaming convention sponsored by Doom and Quake developers id Software. Today the event's organizers announced that one lucky attendee of Quakecon 2008 will win a rather sweet prize; a 2008 Chevrolet Corvette Coupe valued at $55,000.
	More Dragon Age info on July 9 It looks like BioWare is finally ready to talk a little bit more about their long-in-development fantasy RPG Dragon Age. The developer first announced the game and showed an early PC build at E3 2004 but since then there's been a cone of silence on the title (with the exception of one article in the now defunct Games for Windows magazine in 2006).