RTS

Earlier this week, Atari announced it was picking up the publishing rights to Codename Panzers: Cold War, the latest game in the military RTS series. This week the publisher also sent out three new screenshots from the title giving us more of what we can expect from the game.

As we reported earlier this week, Codename Panzers: Cold War is an alternate history look at if the Soviet Union were to invade Europe during the 1950's at the height of the so-called "Cold War" between Communist and NATO forces. The game was being developed by Codename Panzers's creators Stormregion but that developer shut down earlier this year alongside its owners, German publisher 10acle. The game is being completed by the new studio InnoGlow, made up of former Stormregion team members.

In this case, the headline says it all. Dan Tabar's phenomenal arcade-strategy-shooter-physics game Cortex Command, which was talked about in the 15 Indie Games for the Holidays feature, has been knocked down in price from $18 to $9 from November 28th through the 30th in celebration of Thanksgiving (and Black Friday). Buying the game in beta phase right now will net you all the features as well as all future features and the full campaign once it is released.

If you don't know what Cortex Command is, well, it's hard to explain in entirety. It's about remote-controlling body to shoot at each other and dig tunnels through the landscape in a real-time environment, but it's also about explosions, finding treasure, and skillful platforming and shooting, among other things. The demo is freely available through the Data Realms website, and is best played with a gamepad like the Xbox 360 controller.

This first developer diary for Stormrise explains the game's backstory in some detail and talks about how the two factions differ from each other. The upcoming sci-fi real-time strategy game is being developed by members of Creative Assembly, the same studio that created the Total War series. Stormrise will release for the PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

Download HD Stormrise Developer Diary #1 (225 MB)
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The latest patch for StarCraft and the StarCraft: Brood War expansion updates the game to v1.16, which fixes a small number of bugs and exploits. Continue reading for patch notes.

Download StarCraft v1.16 Patch (10 MB)
Download StarCraft: Brood War 1.16 Patch (25 MB)

We know how it is. You get up on Christmas morning, awaiting the game or games that you asked for and then your parents (or uncle or cousin or best friend) give you...a gift card or money instead. Their excuses are many; they couldn't find the game you wanted. They forgot what your game's name was. They got confused. So you are left with a generic way to get the games you really wanted.

But wait! Before you head out on the day after Christmas to start shopping you may want to consider another path. The truth is that there are a lot of major PC game releases that are due out in the first quarter of 2009. Publishers tend to release major titles during that time because their fiscal year ends on March 31 and they want their financial results for the year to end on a high note. The result is a glut of huge titles that you may want to save your holiday money to purchase.

Big Download has 10 examples of games currently due out during that time period that you may want to consider. Keep in mind that release date scheduled can and ususally do change so keep an eye out on our site for any delays in the titles that we will mention

Click on the image above to continue reading Big Download's 2008 Holiday Gift Card Guide For Future Games

Atari has been picking up a number of games lately that have been tossed aside by other publishers. Earlier this fall they announced they would be publishing former Vivendi Games titles Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena and Ghostbusters. This morning they announced that they would be taking on another previously lost game, Codename Panzers: Cold War.

This latest game in the long running PC RTS series was to be developed by Stormregion and published by German-based 10tacle in 2008. However 10tacle went into bankrupcy this summer and Stormregion shut down with them. A new dev team named InnoGlow rose from the Stormregion ashes to complete the game and Atari will now ship it to stores in February 2009.

Unlike the previous Codename Panzers titles which were set in World War WII, Cold War takes place in the 1950s as the game projects an alternate history conflict between the Soviet Union and NATO forces in Europe

We have just a quick note to our readers tonight. All of the beta keys for Battleforge that we have been giving away for the past couple of weeks here at Big Download have now been distributed to the folks that emailed us asking for the codes. Once again we have much thanks to Electronic Arts for giving us the beta keys to give out to our readers. While there's no more need to email us to ask if we have any more we still have a pretty major contest going on; our gaming PC rig that we are giving away via IBuypower. Head on over to the contest web site to learn more and enter.

Spore continues to stay atop the best selling list of PC games and today the game's publisher Electronic Arts announced a new contest where one person could win a trip to next month's Spike TV's Video Game Awards just by creating a 60 second movie using Will Wright's alien evolution sim game.

Using Spore or the Spore Creature Creator (either full or trial version) you are asked to create a wild 60 second video and upload that movie to the Spike TV site by Dec. 2. The winning video will be selected by a panel of judges (which will include Wright himself) and the winner and a guest will be flown to Los Angeles to attend the awards show and meet with Wright himself. He will also be getting Spike TV's first 'Game God" award at the event.

This is the official demo for Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3, an over-the-top real-time strategy game that puts heavy emphasis on cooperative multiplayer. The single player demo includes the full motion video intro cinematic, a tutorial and one campaign mission from both the Allied and Soviet factions. The full game is out in stores now and features three factions and extensive multiplayer capabilities.

Download the Red Alert 3 Demo (1.8 GB)
Check out all Red Alert 3 downloads
Read the Red Alert 3 review

It's been known for some time that the rights to the Homeworld space-based RTS series were purchased by THQ from Vivendi Games (before they merged with Activision to form Activision Blizzard). THQ owns the game's original creator and developer Relic and while they have lots of announced projects in the works a new Homeworld game could be under development as well.

Relic released the first Homeworld in 1999 with a sequel in 2003 before they were purchased by THQ. Eurogamer reports that Relic designer Jonny Ebbert stated, "We're really happy the IP has made its way home, and yeah, we're definitely looking at it. We'll see what happens in the future." Relic is pretty busy with three upcoming projects. Two are due out in the first quarter of 2009; Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II and Company of Heroes: Tales of Valor. They are also working on a free-to-play multiplayer game, Company of Heroes Online, that will be released exclusively for Asian game markets.

It's been a while since we have seen some new screenshots from Stormrise but late this week publisher Sega issued some new images from the upcoming sci-fi RTS game. The title, from Empire: Total War developer The Creative Assembly, is due out sometime in 2009.

The four new screenshots shot off more of the game's post-apocalypse setting on Earth where two factions battle it out; the genetically mutated Sai who have lived above ground since "The Event" and the technology-based Eschelon which have emerged from their underground bunkers. While Stormrise was intended to be made primarily for the console game market, The Creative Assembly is making a DirectX10 PC port of the title.

We still have a few codes left over to give away to our readers to beta test Battleforge, the upcoming fantasy RTS-collectible card game from developer Phenomic and publisher Electronic Arts. Once we give out the remaining keys, there will be no more. How do you enter? It's simple. Just email us at contests@bigdownload.com with the subject line "Battleforge Beta Test Contest." The first 200 people to respond will get beta codes for the Battleforge beta test. You can grab the beta test installer right here at Big Download. If you don't get one of the codes, don't fret. You can still register for the beta test at Battleforgecardhunt.com.

If you haven't picked up Electronic Arts' recent alternate history RTS game Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3, you will soon have a chance to sample a portion of the game for free. EA announced today plans to release a playable demo of the game on Monday that will include two single player missions (one from the Allied faction, the other from the Soviet faction) along with three tutorials level and the full seven minute opening cinematic to the game.

In addition EA announced details of a major new patch for the full version of Red Alert 3 that will be released "later this year". It will include a WorldBuilder to allow anyone to make new maps and mods for the game along with a de-authorization tool that will give players a way to de-authorize any copy of the game on a PC they no longer wish to play on. The patch will also have enhancements to AutoMatch for multiplayer, game balance fixes and other features.

Asian markets are considered by many to be the biggest growing area for PC games. Today, new developer Riot Games announced a deal for their recently announced multiplayer fantasy action-strategy game League of Legends that will see the game published in China.

The Chinese deal will partner up Riot Games with Tencent Inc., described in the press release as " China's largest Internet value-added services company." It will be one of the first games in China that was first developed in North America. For more infomation about League of Legends (which was created by some of the folks behind the Warcraft III mod Defense of the Ancients, check out Big Download's interview with Riot Games.

This new gameplay trailer for Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War II has it all: Explosions, death, aliens and Space Marines. The interstellar battle for control continues in 2009 when the game is scheduled to release.

Download HD Dawn of War 2 Gameplay Trailer (111 MB)
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