There are two demos available for the point-and-click adventure game Rhiannon: Curse of the Four Branches. In Demo #1, players play Chapter 1: Arrival, where they may explore the remote Welsh farmstead known as Ty Pryderi. In Demo #2, players can have a go at Chapter 5: Boswell's Office, an underground office located beneath Ty Pryderi. These demos highlight the engaging and unusual challenges unique to Rhiannon: Curse of the Four Branches.

"Rhiannon: Curse of the Four Branches, a game based on the gripping tales of the Mabinogion, a collection of stories from medieval Welsh manuscripts, is deep rooted in Celtic mythology and follows the present day haunting of a lonely teenage girl named Rhiannon, as she unwillingly enters a world filled with supernatural phenomena, magic, and legend."

Download Rhiannon: Curse of the Four Branches Demo #1 (75 MB)
Download Rhiannon: Curse of the Four Branches Demo #2 (79 MB)

Already revealed via a brief IGN interview last night, Codemasters has now issued the official press release for DiRT 2, the upcoming off-road racing sequel to their 2007 released game. The press release claims the sequel, due out sometime in 2009, will have "contemporary off-road events, taking players to the most diverse and challenging real-world environments"

The press release comes with the first official screenshots from the game showing off some of the new settings for DiRT 2. We can expect locations to include "canyon racing and jungle trails to city stadium-based events." The game's EGO graphics engine has also gotten a revamp which will allow DiRT 2's visuals to be "twice as detailed as those seen in Race Driver: GRID." The publisher also promises powerful vehicles to drive right from the start with seven different character classes.

We knew that it was going to be huge and it was. Blizzard has announced this morning that World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King sold a massive 2.8 million copies in just its first day of release. That shattered the previous one-day PC game sales record set by the last World of Warcraft expansion pack, The Burning Crusade, in early 2007.

Blizzard's 11 million strong subscriber base for the game came out in droves last week to buy the second expansion. Now the question is can the game keep the sales momentum up for the next month. The Burning Crusade sold 3.53 million copies in its first month and one financial analyst has already predicted Wrath of the Lich King will sell as many as 5 million copies in its first month.

"Would you like to play a game?" That famous movie quote from the WOPR computer in WarGames is appropriate for this story. Introversion Software released their WarGames inspired PC strategy game Defcon last year and now they are looking to see if people can create an AI that can be entertaining to play with using Defcon

Introversion is working with the Imperial College Department of Computing which created its own Defcon AI that consistantly beat the game's regular AI program. They are also seeking students and anyone else from around the world to create such a program. Introversion has provided a Defcon AI API to download for anyone interested in making the ultimate computer war machine.

Last month we marveled at the weirdness of Zeno Clash, an upcoming Source engine powered PC fighting game from Chile based ACE Team Software. But apparently that's not the half of it. Today the game's PR folks sent over some new (and yes, weird) screenshots from the game and some new details on the game's storyline and gameplay.

See that creature in the screenshot above? That's the game's "hermaphrodite creature called Father-Mother" and is also your mom-dad's player character in Zeno Clash. That character, named Ghat, has to escape his family with a lady named Deadra to explore the game world of Zenozoik. Zeno Clash will feature your Ghat going up against a variety of enemies and fighting back using "deflect & elude combos, knockback finisher punches and punishing grab attacks." There's also weapons to use that are made via scrap and junk found in the game including "dual wielding guns, a musket, skull bombs and more."

Zeno Clash will be released via Valve's Steam service in the first quarter of 2009; the game is still looking for a retail publisher.

Just a reminder that we still have some 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.

It's been a busy day for Valve's Steam service and we have one more bit of news from the game download service. Today saw the official release for Mosby's Confederacy, the historical strategy game from developer Tilted Mill. The game, which sells for $19.99, is the second such original downloadable title from Tilted Mill (the first was Hinterland).

The game itself combines both turn based strategy in building towns with real time strategic combat and is based on the real life exploits of the real life Confederate general John Singleton Mosby during the US Civil War. You can get a lot more info on the game in our exclusive interview.

Codemasters already has an off-road racing game due out in 2009 (that would be Fuel) but that apparently isn't stopping the UK publisher from releasing another such game next year. IGN has the first word, interview and screenshots on Colin McRae: DiRT 2, the sequel to the 2007 released racing game.

The interview doesn't have a lot of info on the game itself; it does say it will use a enhanced version of the previous game's EGO graphics engine and hints about the single player campaign, the replay feature and the online multiplayer support. Codemasters also retained the Colin McRae name from the late racer's estate and the game's producer says there will be tributes to McRae in the game.

As they are wont to do, Nvidia continues to improve and release drivers for its GeForce family of graphics chips. However the newest official GeForce drivers, released today, are supposedly something special. Nvidia refers to them as "Big Bang II". While perhaps not as huge as the explosion that created the universe, these new 180.48 drivers increase performance in a number of current and older PC games.

Nvidia claims that you will seethings like a 10 percent performance increase in Crysis Warhead, a 38 percent increase in Far Cry 2, a 13 percent increase in Assassin's Creed and a whopping 80 percent increase in Lost Planet Colonies. These drivers are for the GeForce 200, 9, and 8800 families of graphics cards for Windows XP and Vista OSs (both 32-bit and 64-bit versions).

[Thanks FiringSquad]

Yet another PC game has been added to the growing list of titles that support the unique Novint Falcon controller. This time it's for Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, the multiplayer shooter released a year ago from Splash Damage, id Software and Activision. The free mod will be provided by the HaptX team.

The mod will be made available to download on Nov. 21 and will allow the player to feel the recoils of weapons and the feel of driving the various vehicles in the game. This mod also has support for HaptX's Force Balancing System which they claim "...allows for stronger recoils with less camera shakes. This allows the player to experience even more intense action without ever losing aim."

This is the trailer for the PC release of Mirror's Edge, coming in January 2009. The game will use PhysX technology to power its moves.

Download HD Mirror's Edge PC Trailer (77 MB)
Check out all Mirror's Edge downloads

10 years ago this week Valve Software (now known simply as Valve) released their first game, a Quake 1 engine based first person shooter called Half-Life. It's now considered one of the greatest PC games of all time and its success has launched Valve's work with mods like Counter-Strike, the sequel Half-Life 2, their Steam content delivery system and others, including this week's release of Left 4 Dead.

If you have never played the original game before, this is a perfect time to do so. Valve is celebrating Half-Life's 10th anniversary by putting the game on sale via Steam for just 98 cents. Normally the game sells separately for $9.99 The sale expires on Friday at noon PST.

This trailer for Grand Theft Auto IV includes clips assembled using the custom video editor, a feature exclusive to the PC version of the game. Our favorite is the Russian music video. GTA4 is scheduled to release for PC's on December 2nd.
Download HD GTA4 PC Video Editor Trailer (156 MB)
Check out all Grand Theft Auto IV downloads

In what appears to be yet another cost-saving move by Electronic Arts, Variety is reporting through unnamed sources that the game publisher has retired its Blueprint game imprint. Technically EA never officially announced their plans for Blueprint but it was known that it launched over a year ago with the idea of the group developing smaller and more experimental games for the company.

However it appears that the costs of running such a division, which also involved groups from around the world working on EA game projects, were too high. While the games themselves are apparently still in development the Blueprint label itself has been shut down. EA has already retired another of its divisions, EA Casual, and merged their operations within their EA Sims brand.

The game download service Gamersgate doesn't get as much attention as other similar services but the company also has it's share of exclusives. Today Gamersgate added two new games to their line-up. The first is A Vampyre Story, the long-in-development adventure game made by Autumn Moon Entertainment, founded by former LucasArts adventure team members. The storyline has you playing the role of a young French opera star that's being held captive by a vampire. The game costs $29.99 to download. You can try out the demo right here at Big Download.

The other exclusive is for Europa Universalis Rome Vae Victis, the expansion pack to Paradox Interactive's historical strategy game. The expansion concentrates on the Roman Senate where you will have to deal with the many members and parties in order to have your goals as leader of the Roman Empire accomplished. You have to make sure the ruling party votes for issues in your favor and have them pass laws that you want to see past. The expansion will also have things like updated military AI and an overhauled interface. The expansion is only $9.99 to download.