Valve is usually pretty generous about the games it puts in its regular weekend sale on its Steam service and this weekend's deal is no exception. For the next few days, the entire first six episode season of Telltale Games' Sam and Max adventure series (based on the Steve Purcell's comic book series) has a special price.

Folks who haven't had the pleasure of trying out this terrific (and funny) series can get all six episodes for just $14.99 via Steam this weekend. Individually each episode is $8.99 each and the regular package price for all six chapters is $29.99 so there is savings all around in this case.

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.

It's been rumored to happen for many months now and today the official Tabula Rasa web site made it official. NCsoft's sci-fi MMO, launched just over a year ago, will shut down for good after Feb. 29, 2009. The game's creative team was led by Richard Garriott, the legendary creator of the Ultima PC RPG game series which cultimated in the first successful MMO Ultima Online.

However, despite years in development, Tabula Rasa did not achieve the subscription numbers that were first predicted. Garriott himself just left NCsoft a few days ago following his much hyped trip to the International Space Station. Current subscribers to the game before today's announcement will receive some compensation including three free months of access to two other NCsoft games, City of Heroes and Lineage II. They will also get beta access to NCsoft's next MMO Aion and one free month of access to the game after its official launch. In addition, Tabula Rasa will be free to play for anyone after Jan. 10 until its shutdown.

This is the second Western made MMO that NCsoft has published that has since shut down. It's car combat MMO AutoAssault, developed by Netdevil, was shut down in August 2007 after less than 18 months of officially launching.

You may notice that this week the BigCast has gone missing in action. Don't fear, next week's planned show is going to be an extra special episode where bloggers throughout the Joystiq Network give their two cents on the recent crop of big name PC releases. Left 4 Dead, Mirror's Edge, Dead Space and Fallout 3 are all going to be planned segments in a hefty show that includes eight servings of your weekly podcast requirement.

Add to that a standard episode format which will showcase the best from around Big Download, Would You Rather of epic proportions and maybe a few non-Joystiq guest hosts.

It's an episode so big we couldn't even contain it to bring it to you this week ... that and we needed more time to get a feel for Left 4 Dead. Okay, we're lying. We're just really busy playing Left 4 Dead. Can you blame us?

Have a comment or question you want us to discuss on next week's show? Email us at podcast [at] bigdownload [dot] com

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.

It's never a good sign when your publicly traded company gets a delisting warning from the stock exchange you trade on. In this case, it's financially troubled Midway who has gotten such a warning from the New York Stock Exchange.

Midway's issue with the NYSE is that their stock has traded below $1 for over 30 consecutive days. Midway now has six months to get its trading price back up to the NYSE's standards. The publisher said in a press release it will "seek to cure the deficiency" but in the meantime the stock will continue to be traded. We would recommend as a cure some high selling games like next year's planned release of Wheelman and This is Vegas.

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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Last year a massive controversy over Gamespot's poor review of Eidos' Kane and Lynch: Dead Men resulted in an editor being fired and other Gamespot writers resigning, allegedly over pressure from Eidos over the unfavorable review (Eidos has always denied this). Now an PR rep for a UK company is denying similar allegations over supposedly poor reviews of Eidos' latest game, the action-adventure title Tomb Raider Underworld.

Videogaming247.com reported earlier this week that Eidos' UK PR firm for the game, Barrington Harvey, had asked reviewers to not post up any reviews for Tomb Raider Underworld that would be lower than an 8 out of 10 score until this Monday, Nov. 24. The site quotes a statement from an unnamed person at the PR firm who stated, "....we're trying to get the Metacritic rating to be high, and the brand manager in the US that's handling all of Tomb Raider has asked that we just manage the scores before the game is out, really, just to ensure that we don't put people off buying the game, basically."

However a new statement from Barrington Harvey director Simon Byron denies this, saying that they only issued an embargo of last Wednesday, Nov. 19, to review the game, adding, "Nothing else. No further obligations whatsoever. " He also says, "Any site, be it Gamespot or whoever, is entirely within their rights to post whatever score they want and no-one is under any sort of obligation to delay any review."

Byron says, "Barrington Harvey has been working hard to ensure the launch scores of Tomb Raider Underworld are in line with our internal review predictions over the launch weekend - but to suggest that we can in some way "silence" reviews of the game is slightly overstating our influence."

This trailer gives an early look at the next stand-alone expansion for the WWII themed real-time strategy game, Company of Heroes. Tales of Valor is expected to release sometime in the first half of 2009.

Download HD Company of Heroes: Tales of Valor Trailer (54 MB)

Gallery: Company of Heroes: Tales of Valor

We want to make one thing very clear: Left 4 Dead is a terrific game and everyone who loves first person shooters, especially playing online with pals, should not hesitate to pick up Valve's long awaited zombie co-op oriented game. It's super addictive and we always hate it that we have to do actual work before we go back to playing it.

There are lots of highlights in playing the game but we have to be honest; there are things about Left 4 Dead that have us scratching their heads to say, "How come, Valve?" No game is perfect (despite supposedly some so-called "perfect" review scores) and in playing the game we have got some things we love and some things we hate about Valve's latest game release

Click on the image above to continue reading Things we love and hate about Left 4 Dead

Two new video for Rise of the Argonauts released, highlighting some of the main aspects of the game. One (featured above) involves dedicating deeds to honor different gods to gain favor and special abilities. The other walks players through the leveling process to develop their characters.

Download HD Rise of the Argonauts "Honour the Gods" Trailer (79 MB)
Download HD Rise of the Argonauts "Leveling Up" Trailer (137 MB)
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Gallery: Rise of the Argonauts

Welcome to Freeware Friday, a weekly column showcasing excellent games that you can play free of charge!

It takes a certain kind of person to play business simulations well. They must be devoted to detail, able to spot trends in markets, and instinctively know what works and what doesn't. For those that can't play business simulations well, the act of playing helps them excel in all these skills later on in life. It's both fun and useful, even though the skills are applied to a fantasy environment. For the freeware enthusiast that falls under these categories as a devotee of business simulations, look no further than Simutrans, a freeware remake of Chris Sawyer's seminal Transport Tycoon.

The newest trailer for Need for Speed Undercover gives another look at the high-speed action players can anticipate. The cops'n robbers game is out in stores now.

Download HD Need for Speed Undercover DJ5 Trailer (586 MB)
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When it comes to a genre like action-RPGs, you've played them all if you've spent an hour or so with one. No matter the title, no matter the setting, the goals are approximately the same: kill hordes of monsters, scavenge the world for loot, and hopefully sport better gear than your friends. In that capacity, Sacred 2: Fallen Angel is the consummate archetype of the genre. It doesn't do anything special, but for those who can't get enough mouse-clicking mayhem, Sacred 2 makes for a good time.

This video features a high level raid level boss monster called The Watcher, which can be found in The Lord of the Rings: Mines of Moria expansion. It's a generally well-known creature in Tolkien lore and one of the toughest monsters in the game.

Download HD LOTRO: Mines of Moria The Watcher Raid Video (34 MB)
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