European publisher Deep Silver's first game in the US market, the GSC Game World FPS S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky was highly anticipated but a shipment error has caused the game's release date to be pushed back in this country. According to a report on Shacknews, a "manufacturing issue" has caused copies of the North American version to be recalled. Blue's News adds that (via an unnamed retail source) the specific issue was that the game boxes did not contain the CD keys.

There's no word on a new release date for the game although online retailers now have a September 15 date. This new development will likely push back any digital download release of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky in the US. The European release date remains unchanged; it will ship on September 5.

Penny Arcade Expo is now well underway in Seattle and the two men who came up with the annual gaming fan event, Mike "Gabe" Krahulik and Jerry "Tycho" Holkins, wasted no time in an interview with Gamespot taking shots at the upcoming E For All Expo scheduled for LA on October 3-5. Big Download broke the news earlier this week that E For All organizers have had issues getting most major game publishers to exhibit at the event, while PAX 2008 is featuring over 20 major game publishers along with a large number of independent developers.

Krahulik, after slamming E For All's design choices for wallpapers, stated, "It's not even that we're so awesome; it's that everyone else is an idiot. They don't get it. It's not hard. If you play games and you love games, it's not hard to do this. But when you look at something like that, you just think, "How can I take any pride in winning?" They're just stupid. They don't know what they're doing."

Have you had your cake yet? If you haven't then you haven't played the innovative and award winning puzzle-action game Portal from Valve. This weekend may be your time to find out what all the fuss is about as Portal is the subject of the regular weekend sale on Valve's Steam service.

Portal is priced for this weekend only for just $9.99, a 50 percent cut for its normal price of $19.99. With that you get a game that, while extremely short, is still challenging and entertaining (and not without more than a little humor). Valve is reportedly working on a sequel to Portal but it may be a while before that's even officially announced.

This trailer gives first looks at Storm of Zehir, the next expansion to hit Neverwinter Nights 2. Storm of Zehir will expand the RPG on numerous levels, including large scale battles, full party customization, and non-linear gameplay wrapped into about 15 hours worth of new content.

Download the Neverwinter Nights 2: Storm of Zehir HD Trialer (101 MB)

Ubisoft's upcoming revamp of their Prince of Persia third person action game franchise is due out this fall and GameSpot has the first word on a special limited edition of the game. In fact if you pre-order the game now you get all the limited edition upgrades for free. They include a behind-the-scenes DVD, a digital art book and mini-strategy guide, the game's soundtrack and other extras,

There's also word that Ubisoft is teaming up once again with Penny Arcade with the web comic creators making a 32 page Prince of Persia comic that promises to reveal secrets of the game's storyline. The comic will be released on both the game's official web site and Penny Arcade site, one page per day. The start date has yet to be revealed.

The newest Brother in Arms: Hell's Highway trailer offers a short but sweet look at combat action as soldiers spray machine gun fire and launch a bazooka.

Download Brothers in Arms HD Machine Gun and Bazooka Trailer (16 MB)

The whole tower strategy-action game sub-genre hasn't really been super popular lately, but Washington based game developer Hidden Path Entertainment wants to change that with their just announced game Defense Grid: The Awakening. The game will be demoed this weekend at Seattle's Penny Arcade Expo.

According to a press release from Hidden Path, Defense Grid will have a single player storyline where tons of enemies are trying to swarm your base and its up to use to put up tower defenses in order to keep the horde at bay. In addition to the single player campaign there will also be special challenge modes. 20 levels will be in the final game with 10 different towers, each with three upgrades. The game, which uses the Gamebryo engine, is slated for a November release date.

The development team working on Far Cry 2 discuss putting in a sense to total immersion into their game and world.

Download the Far Cry 2 "Immersion" HD Video (77 MB)

Penny Arcade Expo 2008 is underway in Seattle but the big news is what is to come for the growing fan oriented video game consumer show. Our sister site Joystiq is reporting that the first east coast version of PAX has finally settled on a location. It's Boston, home of the Red Sox, 2K Boston, Turbine, and many other game developers.

That's all we currently know about the new PAX EC. There's no word yet on an exact date other than the previously announced spring 2010. There's also no word about a venue yet although a big city like Boston won't lack for such locations. Hopefully we will know more about PAX EC in the near future.

As a promotion for the upcoming release of Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3, Electronic Arts has announced that C&C: Red Alert, the first game in the series, will be made available as a free download beginning on Sunday. The original game was created by Westwood Studios and released by Virgin Interactive way back in 1996 (EA bought both Westwood and Virgin's US operations in 1998).

The alternate history RTS game will be first made available on the official C&C: Red Alert 3 web site at 12 noon PT on Sunday but we will have the download on our ultra fast servers right here at Big Download soon afterward. As we have previously reported, people whe pre-order Red Alert 3 will gain access to C&C: Red Alert 2 for free as well.

Mercenaries 2 is coming out for the PC platform on September 4 and publisher Electronic Arts is doing an interesting promotion for the Pandemic developed open world action game. Today they are giving away free gasoline at a gas station at 8489 Beverly Blvd. in Los Angeles.

Of course, the setting for Mercenaries 2 is in the oil-rich country of Venezuela so giving out free gas is a perfect way to make people aware of the game. As you can see from the photos the gas station is full of signage for the game along with actors dressed as the mercs from the game. If you want to see a live feed from the station, Break.com has you covered.

Perfect World International is a sci-fi and fantasy MMO based in Chinese mythology. Make room on your hard drive for this one, because the four part download totals over 2 GB of data. Go to www.perfectworld.com to sign up for an account to play.

Download Perfect World International Client (1 of 4) (600 MB)
Download Perfect World International Client (2 of 4) (600 MB)
Download Perfect World International Client (3 of 4) (600 MB)
Download Perfect World International Client (4 of 4) (578 MB)

American McGee's Grimm truly delves into the darker side of fairy tales with its latest episode, The Girl Without Hands. For those who haven't been keeping up with the previous reviews, players control the character of Grimm, who uses an aura of darkness to transform the fairy tale world around him from a bright and happy to miserable and wicked. Grimm's aura becomes more powerful as he transforms the landscape, which enables him to change over more objects, including NPC's that will impede his progress by cleaning up his mess. In the end, players are rewarded with a dark retelling of the story.

Why should only costumed heroes get to have all the fun? This LEGO Batman trailer shows us that even the butler can kick a lot of butt. Alfred, armed with a large serving tray, can beat down the bad guys with the best of them.

Download the LEGO Batman Alfred HD Trailer (69 MB)