Project Origin

The latest blood-soaked trailer for Project Origin runs through a patchwork of cinematic and action sequences. Not much new is revealed, but the trailer, which features up-close flashes of monsters and bodies exploding from heavy gunfire, should be watched in the dark.

Download the Project Origin GC08 HD Trailer (32 MB)

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.

Alma is back and she doesn't seem happy. Project Origin, the storyline sequel to F.E.A.R. from developer Monolith, is a first-person horror shooter. Big Download went hands-on with the game earlier today and had some interesting things to note about the title. Take a look at the latest trailer for the game, courtesy of Xbox 360 Fanboy, and let us know what you think. Do it quickly, it'll be night out soon and you might not want to watch this in a dark room!

{Editor's note: This hands-on preview is based on playing an Xbox 360 build of the game)

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.

By contrast our hands-on time with the E3 2008 demo of Project Origin was mostly a standard first person shooter, but still very well produced. The demo began with our new character, a "normal" soldier that was caught up in the nuclear blast created by scary eight year old girl Alma at the end of F.E.A.R. We were told that the E3 demo we played takes place at the beginning of the third act with the new soldier finding himself in a subway station.

The sequel to Monolith Productions' F.E.A.R. has gotten the trailer treatment, just in time for E3, giving fans a nasty shiver with the return of Alma, a young girl with immense psychic abilities.

Fans of the franchise can expect just as much of a horrorfest as the original, if this trailer is anything to judge by. Clearly inspired by "The Ring" and possibly Silent Hill, there are lots of shots of body horror images -- pale, decaying humanoids, raw and pulsing organic orifices -- and static-filled jump cuts combine to create a lasting sense of dread and foreboding. Good thing you have guns, huh?

[Thanks, Jason!]

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.

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. Also, there's no Activision or Vivendi Games/Blizzard titles on this list due to the two publishers bypassing E3 but a press conference by Activision on Tuesday during E3 is highly expected to show some upcoming titles from that publisher (and maybe Vivendi/Blizzard as well). With that out of the way let's look at our picks for the next five games on our list.

Microsoft has been pushing its Games For Windows branding for PC games for over a year now and today the company is holding a press event in San Fransisco to let the media know about their continued commitment to PC gaming while showing off eight third party PC games to the press. Big Download will be there to report on the event. Two of the games, Kung Fu Panda and WALL-E, have already shipped to stores. The other six are Capcom's PC ports of Devil May Cry 4 (due out in early July) and Bionic Commando, 2K Games' Sid Meier's Civilization IV: Colonization, Activision's Call of Duty: World at War, Vivendi Games's Ghostbusters title, and the long awaited Gas Powered-Sega title Space Siege.

Microsoft also plans to show off new PC s with graphics cards from AMD/ATI and Nvidia chips at the event. In addition, Microsoft has announced that 16 PC games will now have the Games for Windows brand on their packaging and marketing:

• Battlestations: Midway (Eidos)
• Battlestations: Pacific (Eidos)
• Borderlands (2K Games)
• Call of Duty: World at War (Activision)
• Crysis Warhead (Crytek/EA Partners)
• Dawn of War 2 (THQ)
• Devil May Cry 4 (Capcom)
• Ghostbusters: The Video Game (Sierra Entertainment)
• Quantum of Solace (Activision)
• LEGO Batman: The Videogame (Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment)
• Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa Video Game (Activision)
• Mafia II (2K Games)
• Project Origin (Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment)
• Red Faction: Guerilla (THQ)
• Saints Row 2 (THQ)
• Zoo Tycoon 2: Ultimate Collection (Microsoft Game Studios)

"What the hell was that?"

Why, a second Project Origin trailer, that's what! The Remnant trailer shows the player emerging in a wartorn section of some city or other. Buildings are in shambles, the street is littered with craters, ashes fall like snow flakes, and fires assume the role of street lamps.

As the player steps into the desecrated avenue, he sees a shambling undead some distance ahead. Could this be the Remnant? Watch and find out!

Download the HD Project Origin Remnant gameplay trailer at Big Download.

A new trailer for Project Origin, the sequel to F.E.A.R., has been released. The trailer shows a penthouse ambush at sunset, which is a pleasant deviation from the bland office environments commonly found in the series.

As our hero enters the penthouse and admires the rosy glow of sunset, black-suited assailants burst through the skylight and charge in from multiple side entrances, quickly franking the protagonist. Not one to be caught off guard for long, bullet-time quickly steals the show and allows the player to make quick work of his would-be assassins.

Download the HD Project Origin Penthouse Gallery gameplay trailer at Big Download.

Three new trailers for Monolith's upcoming Project Origin have been released, each showing slow motion combat, explosions, creepy little girls, and a pleasing absence of acronyms.

The first trailer compares blood effects from Project Origin and its predecessor, F.E.A.R. Two combat trailers round out the additions, showing eerie office environments and the series' staple slow motion, strategic battles.

Look for Project Origin to terrify PC gamers later this fall.

Download the F.E.A.R. / Project Origin blood comparison trailer

Download Project Origin combat trailer 1

Download Project Origin combat trailer 2

Some new screenshots from Monolith's upcoming first person shooter Project Origin have just shown up on the web and, man, do things get bloody fast. These shots aren't of the horror variety that we have seen in previous glimpses of the game; these are of the pure first person shooter variety but with a lot of blood spray. One shot even shows off what appears to be the first person viewpoint of a mech vehicle which could mean that players may find themselves inside one of those puppies.

Not a lot is really known about Project Origin except that it follows up on events in 2005's acclaimed game F.E.A.R. with that spooky and evil (or maybe not even..hard to tell) girl Alma in the center of things. Look for us to have more info on the Warner Bros. Interactive published game (owned by Time Warner which also owns BigDownload.com) before it's scheduled release to stores this fall.