breaking posts

In a massive surprise announcement, game retailer GameStop has announced that it will be acquiring the Impulse PC game download service from Stardock. The purchase also includes the Impulse::Reactor game development tools and the Impulse::Publisher real time reporting and management tools. The acquisition is expected to be finalized in May.

GameStop also announced today it has acquired Spawn Labs, who until now were known as makers of a device that streams console games to a PC. GameStop says they will use Spawn Labs' technology to allow gamers to have "immediate access to a wide selection of high-definition video games on demand on any Internet-enabled device". Financial terms of both deals were not disclosed.

It's clear that GameStop is going after Valve's Steam PC game download business with its purchase of Impulse and with OnLive's streaming game business with the acquisition of Spawn Labs. We hope to learn more about these deals in the days and weeks ahead.

As we reported earlier, the Houston-based game developer Pi Studios's current status is unclear. However a number of the studio's former members have already picked themselves up and along with others formed a new Houston, Texas based game development company, Category 6 Studios.

Big Download chatted briefly with the company's co-founder and president Kenn Hoekstra who told us that the studio currently has about 15 team members. Hoekstra himself is a long time veteran of the game industry. Before Catagory 6 Studios and Pi Studios he was one of the lead designers at Raven Software where he helped to make the Soldier of Fortune games, Star Wars Jedi Knight II and other titles.

The team is already working on its first game, an original title called Blackout. Hoekstra told Big Download that while the team is keeping the details to themselves for now he did reveal that Blackout is being developed as a survival horror themed first person shooter for the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 using the Unreal engine. We will naturally stay in touch with the company in the months ahead.

Last week we posted up an interview with the COO of Online Warmongers as we chatted about its upcoming free-to-play shooter War Inc Battle Zone. The game is entering its new closed beta testing period in preparation for its launch this summer. Today Big Download is offering its readers a chance to play in the closed beta test.

This beta test is being handled a bit differently than others we have reported on. Online Warmongers has spots for a whopping 5,000 of our readers. However the closed beta code for the game is the same one for all of those spots so there's no real need for us to actually email the code to each individual reader. Basically you can head over after the jump and follow the directions to get the code and access the closed beta test. Once all 5,000 spots are filled we will update the post accordingly.

Prey 2, the long discussed sequel to 2006's sci-fi first person shooter, has apparently been revealed via the cover to the new print issue of France-based gaming magazine Joystick. The cover image was posted by French-based web site NoFrag.com

Aside from the cover image there's no other details yet on this sequel. The original game was first developed, and then canceled, by 3D Realms in the late 1990s. It was later revived and then released in 2006 by publisher 2K Games. It used id Software's Doom 3 engine with Human Head Studios handing most of the development duties with 3D Realms as a "producer". Human Head has yet to release a game since Prey came out nearly five years ago. In 2009 it was revealed that the IP rights to Prey to Zenimax Media, the parent company of Bethesda Softworks.

[Via Blue's News]

We have another nice giveaway for our great Big Download readers today. Developer Timegate Studios is working hard on the upcoming downloadable sci-fi shooter Section 8 Prejudice. The game will be shown off at three different exhibitor booths at this weekend's PAX East 2011 event in Boston and there will also be t-shirt and poster giveaways as well.

But if you are not able to attend PAX East, Big Download still wants to give you a chance to get one of five downloadable copies of the game when it releases later this year along with a t-shirt and poster as well.

So how do you win? It's pretty easy:

• To enter, post a comment on this contest page.
• The comment must be left before 11:59 pm Eastern Time on Sunday, March 13
• You may enter only once.
• Five winners will be selected in a random drawing.
• Those five winners will each be emailed a code to download the PC version of Section 8 Prejudice (valued at $14.99 each) when it's released later this year along with being sent via mail a Section 8 Prejudice t-shirt and poster (valued at $20)
• Click Here for complete Official Rules. You must be a resident of the US or Canada (excluding Quebec) who is 18 years or older to enter this contest

Our thanks to Timegate Studios for sponsoring this giveaway. Good luck.

Sins of a Solar Empire fans who have been waiting patiently for a new game in the space strategy series will be very happy today with this breaking news story. Developer Ironclad Games and publisher Stardock have officially revealed the next stand alone game in the series, Sins of a Solar Empir: Rebellion. Big Download got a chance to chat briefly with Stardock CEO Brad Wardell via phone last week to get the first few details on the game which is described as a stand alone expansion to the original title which was first released back in 2008 and was followed up with two small downloadable expansion packs, Entrenchment and Diplomacy.

Sins of a Solar Empire Rebellion will continue Ironclad's mix of 4X turn-based strategy elements with real time strategy space combat, according to what Wardell told us last week. The biggest change in the game compared to previous installments is that there will be two separate factions that players can control; the Loyalists and the Rebels. Wardell told us that each faction will have their own distinct art style and tech trees that will make playing each faction a different experience.

In addition to the new factions, players can look forward to getting their hands on new ships to command including the truly massive Titan-class ships which Wardell told us are the equivalent to the Super Star Destroyer that the Empire uses in the Star Wars movies. The concept art for the Titan-class ship can be seen above this post. Look for other new ships to be added to the game as well. There will be no single player campaign in Rebellion, which is something that fans of the original Sins have been wanting for some time. Wardell told us that Stardock and Ironclad have wavered back and forth on adding such a feature for the game but ultimately decided against it.

While Ironclad and Stardock have not released in-game screenshots yet Wardell told us that Rebellion will have some graphical improvements for the original game's Iron Engine including better lighting and particle effects and support for larger maps. As with the original game and its two micro-expansions look for Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion to have diplomatic features alongside the space combat, exploration and

While Wardell told us last week that Stardock's goal is to release Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion by the end of 2010 he added that both Stardock and Ironclad don't plan to release the game until its ready. Like previous games from Stardock, folks who pre-order the full game will gain free access to Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion's beta test builds. Also previous owners of the original Sins of a Solar Empire: Trinity will get a discount when purchasing Rebellion. You can check out the full press release for the game after the jump.

Update: We've updated our article to reflect that the discount for Rebellion will apply to Sins of a Solar Empire: Trinity owners

After a couple of years of teases and months of closed beta testing, the Gaikai streaming PC game service is now officially live. The CEO of Gaikai, Dave Perry, announced that the service was open to anyone to try out on his official web site late on Friday.

The streaming service is concentrating only on limited game demos, at least for now (unlike the OnLive service which has full games to play). The official Gaikai web site is offering a streaming demo of Mass Effect 2 (access to the demo pops up on the right hand side of the site after a few seconds). Gaikai is also being used to demo other EA games such as Spore and The Sims 3 which didn't have traditional PC demos released for them. Most interesting is that Gaikai is the only place to play a PC demo of the recent sci-fi horror game Dead Space 2 (after you fill out a survey). We've played it and on our connection it's pretty smooth. There's also a way to try out the quasi-MMO game Second Life via a Gaikai connection.

On his web site Perry states that at GDC next week he will be demoing a Gaikai-powered game running inside a Facebook page. He also states that " ... we will show some really high-end, high-performance games running at 60hz with no work needing to be done by the publishers / developers."

Last fall it was announced that Dino D-Day, the Source Engine-based multiplayer shooter of Nazi-bred dinosaurs battling the Allies in WWII, would be released via Steam on March 1. As happens with most games the development team at 800 North has decided to take its time to make the game a better experience. As a result, Big Download can exclusively reveal that the the release date for the final commercial version of Dino D-Day has been pushed back a few weeks and is now scheduled for release on March 29.

The good news is that there will be a beta version of Dino D-Day that will be released on March 1. The beta will have all of the human character classes, all of the weapons and all of the dinosaurs in the full game but will only have one map and gameplay mode, according to what 800 North's Abe Scheuermann told Big Download today. The beta version be limited to 1,000 people so keep an eye out on the game's official web site for sign ups. The final version will add more maps and gameplay modes and players can expect free content updates for Dino D-Day after its commercial release. Pricing has yet to be revealed.

King's Quest, one of the most popular and revered fantasy adventure game series of all time, will soon get an official revival courtesy of Telltale Games. As reported by our sister site Joystiq, Telltale has announced it has gotten the rights to create new episodic games based on the property. More details on Telltale's plans are due to be revealed at E3 in early June.

The King's Quest series started at Sierra Online and spanned eight games (not including spin-offs) from 1984 to 1998. All of the games were designed by Sierra Online co-founder Roberta Williams. Currently the rights to the King's Quest series are owned by Activision. It's currently unknown if Williams will be participating in this new revival.

In 2010, the development team Phoenix Online Studios started releasing their own free episodic continuation of the King's Quest series, The Silver Lining, after receiving permission by Activision to do so. The third episode in the five chapter series was released on Thursday.

The Darkness II, the sequel to 2007 console-only first person action game, has just been announced by publisher 2K Games. Unlike the original game developed by Starbreeze Studios the sequel will also be released for the PC sometime this fall. The game also gets a new developer in Digital Extremes.

Based once again on the Top Cow comic book series, The Darkness II has players taking on the role of Jackie Estacado who is now head of the Franchetti crime family. He has been holding in the supernatural powers of The Darkness since the events of the original game but now a mob war and an attack on Jackie's life is causing The Darkness to come out. The game is supposed to allow players to use both first person shooter weapons in both hand and the Demon Arms power of The Darkness at the same time in what the press release states is the game's "Quad-Wielding gameplay."