SteamPunk posts

As promised a few weeks ago, developer Digitalmindsoft has launched a second open beta test for its upcoming WWII RTS game Men of War Assault Squad. This second open beta can be accessed via Steam and adds the Soviet Union playable faction to the game. If you didn't participate in the first open beta you can still get keys for the second at this web page.

Digitalmindsoft has also posted up a development update on the game at its official web site. It goes over the many changes that it has put into the second open beta from improving small arms fire to adding increased accuracy to rifles to making grenades work more realistically. The game itself will be released on March 25 in some European countries along with Australia and New Zealand but there's no word yet on a US release date.

The team at the Humble Indie Bundle have been generating a lot of money already with the second batch of games with its 'pay what you want" business model. But now the team has upped the anty. The Humble Indie Bundle 2 now includes all of the games from the first Humble Indie Bundle.

Yes, you can get all of the bundle's current games (Braid, Machinarium, Osmos, Cortex Command and Revenge of the Titans) plus all of the game's in the original bundle (World of Goo, Gish, Aquaria, Penumbra Overture, and Lugaru HD plus the freebie Samorset 2). People who have bought Bundle 2 can download the Bundle 1 games now. People who have yet to purchase Bundle 2 can get the Bundle 1 games if they pay more than the current average which is currently $7.35. Paying $7.35 to get a whopping 10 great indie games (plus one freebie) is still a massive bargain.

Earlier this year we were the first to report that Direct2Drive had decided to start offering PC game download that required that Valve's Steam client be installed after previously banning games that required such a feature. At the time Direct2Drive's head told Big Download that it gave in to customer demands for such games to be offered on the service. Now another PC game download outlet, GamersGate, has also started to offer PC game download that require the third party Steam client and registration.

The games, added earlier this month, include R.U.S.E. and Lead and Gold Gangs of the Wild West. Both listings state, Note: This product requires a 3rd party download and account." Back in July, GamersGate CEO Theodore Bergquist sent us a statement, "At this time, we have no plans to offer games that use Steamworks." He added, "We listen to our customer base very closely and they clearly prefer to not use a client."

So why the about face? Big Download contacted GamersGate and got a new statement from Bergquist. He states, "The original plan was to not offer anything that requires a third party download, but we had a few users request those titles. We want to provide the best service possible and we listen to our customers regularly. If a gamer would rather spend his/her hard-earned money with us and then go and play the game with someone else's software, that's alright with us. It's also good to see that Steam finally has to give-in a bit. In these retail versions, many of the more intrusive features have been turned off and are not shown to the customers. They require only a registration like any other multi-player service. We're trying this on just a few games and hopefully our customers will accept this. If not, we will know quite fast."

It's currently unknown exactly what Steam and Steamworks features are "turned off" for the GamersGate versions of the games and we will follow up with GamersGates to get more info.

We are getting close to the end of the year and over at developer Valve the team behind the zombie co-op shooter Left 4 Dead 2 is offering up a new Mutation gameplay mode for the next couple of weeks. This time its a community-developed Mutation called Special Delivery.

In a variation of the previous Hard Eight mode, Special Delivery raises the Special infected spawn cap to 10 and also removes all spawn timers. In other words, tons of chaos as you and your buddies try to shoot your way through tons of Specials. After the new year Valve plans to release new Mutations from the community every two weeks with a featured community made campaign on the off weeks.

Developer Frozenbyte's action-puzzle game Trine has sold very well in its PC incarnation. Now comes word that the title will be making its long awaited debut on the Mac. Frozenbyte has announced that the Mac port of Trine will be released sometime in November.

The Mac port will be released at first via Steam and because of that Trine will also support SteamPlay, meaning that people who purchase the PC port will get the Mac version for free and vise-versa. The Mac port will appear on other download services later. Frozenbyte also hints that if the Mac port of Trine does well a Mac version of the upcoming sequel Trine 2 could be released in 2011.

[Via email press release]

If you have a hankering to spend an extra 10 bucks to add new content to a game that only costs $30, then we have the DLC for you. City Interactive's recent budget priced first person shooter Sniper: Ghost Warrior now has some extra maps that can be purchased and downloaded via Steam.

There's five new maps included in the map pack with locations like some abandoned offshore oil rigs and a ruined stone temple location the middle of the jungle. The maps are all supposed to be bigger in order to give players a chance to shoot sniper targets from even longer distances. You can check check out a trailer for the DLC after the jump:

It's been a little while since we have reported on the progress of The Ball, the fun first person action-puzzle game from developer Teotl Studios that began as an Unreal Tournament 3 mod. However the game's official web site has been giving regular weekly updates on the upcoming full commercial version of the game which will be published by Tripwire Interactive.

The latest updates states that a release candidate version of The Ball could be ready by tomorrow or Friday and a full gold master for the retail version is still planned for sometime in early September. Earlier updates to the site indicate that a new logo for The Ball is being made, with the site saying that the current logo " .. is too simple, and we think we can come up with something better and more polished." Art for the game's retail box is also being worked on and a Steam version of the game is being worked on that will be made available to the press.

Download The Ball UDK demo (359 MB)

After two multiplayer open beta tests on Steam, the upcoming WWII themed RTS title R.U.S.E. will be getting a proper PC demo later this week. In online ads for the game it's revealed that the demo will be released on Wednesday, August 25. At the moment there's no word on what the demo will contain in terms of its content.

The title from developer Eugen Systems and publisher Ubisoft is still slated to be released on September 7 in the US and on September 10 in Europe. The PC port, as we reported earlier this month, will feature an exception to Ubisoft's "Always On" PC DRM approach. Instead R.U.S.E. will use Steamworks which will allow for single player games to be played without the need for a internet connection.

Let's put this week to bed, shall we? It's been a long and busy one for us here. And then we have PAX Prime coming in two weeks. Yipe!

• The destruction-themed game Demolition Company is now on Steam with a 15 percent discount for the next week.
• Sol Survivor gets a Steam bug fix update today.
• Check out this interesting interview (part one and part two) with Valve's Robin Walker on the future of Team Fortress 2.
• A new general Steam client update adds a tabbed interface for browsing and chatting.
• Check out the full exhibit hall map for PAX Prime. It's pretty massive!

Publisher Bethesda Softworks is prepping for the future release of Hunted: The Demon's Forge by announcing some pre-order specials for folks who put their money down early for the upcoming fantasy action-RPG. The inXile entertainment-developed title, which is due for release sometime in 2011, will have many different pre-order offers from several brick-and-mortar and digital download outlets.

The retailers include Best Buy, GameStop, Walmart and Amazon.com with Steam and Direct2Drive also offering digital pre-order specials. The in-game items include new levels and new monsters that are used in Hunted's dungeon creator system along with exclusive character items and weapons. You can check out the full list of pre-order specials after the jump: