huxley posts

The free-to-play business model for PC games has been huge in Asia for a long time but it's just been in the last few years that the trend has exploded into the US market. This week one of the biggest such web sites, ijji.com, announced that they have signed up 9 million registered players.

The site, run by NHN USA, boasts a number of free-to-play titles including the fantasy MMMO Lunia and the shooter Soldier Front. The portal has a number of upcoming games that are currently in beta testing. Those titles include the long-in-development sci-fi FPS MMO Huxley and the free-to-play modern day shooter Alliance of Valiant Arms.

Last week we listed a number of games that are currently scheduled to ship to stores sometime between now and the end of 2009. Nearly all of the games mentioned are supposed to head to retail stores. However we failed to mention a number of games that will be sold only via digital download.

Today we look at 10 games currently scheduled for release before the end of the year that will be primarily launched via download sites like Steam, Direct2Drive, and other outlets. They include some long awaited casual game sequels, a couple of sci-fi MMOs and some expansion packs to previously released games. As usual the release dates are based on the info at hand; they can and possibly will change.

Click on the image above to continue reading Other PC games due out in Fall 2009

It's been a long, long time in coming but now folks (in the US and Canada anyway) can now finally play a version of the years-in-the-making sci-fi FPS MMO Huxley. Fileplanet is allowing anyone with free access to their service to download and play the "closed" beta for the game from NHN USA.

According to NHN, the "closed" beta is scheduled to run from now until Aug. 12. In addition to downloading the beta from Fileplanet you will still need to sign in over at the Huxley closed beta web page at ijji.com in order to play in the beta test. The final game is expected to officially open its doors to the US public sometime this fall.

[Via Massively]

This video shows the opening cinematic for the upcoming free-to-play online shooter, Huxley. The sci-fi themed game takes place in a post-apocalyptic world where human "sapiens" use high-technology to battle against mutants. The game is currently in beta in Korea and is expected to make its way to North America in the fall.

Download HD Huxley Opening Cinematic (172 MB)

As the days get closer to the launch of E3 2009 in early June, Big Download has been compiling wish lists of games that we would like to see during the revamped and larger trade show. We start out with a long list of first person shooter games. Some of the games on this list are indeed confirmed as being at E3 this year. Other games on this list are titles we think will be there. There are ever a few that we are just hoping might make an appearance at the show.

With that in mind let's head over to our list. Next time we will give our E3 2009 wish list over to the action game genre

Click on the image to continue reading Countdown to E3 2009: The FPS Games We Want To See

It's been a long time coming but finally US residents can now sign up to beta test Huxley, the long-in-development sci-fi FPS MMO from developer Webzen. Sign-ups will last until May 20 and announcements on who will be picked will be made on May 27. The actual closed beta will last from June 3-14.

Meanwhile the game's official web site has added some new content while you wait for your beta test number to be picked. New screenshots and videos have been added to the site along with features like character descriptions, backstory info and a new forum for folks to chat about Huxley. So far there's no word on the game's released date.

How long have we been waiting for Huxley? A long, long, long time it seems. The sci-fi MMO shooter from developer Webzen was one of the first games that announced it would be using Unreal Engine 3. Today there have been tons of UE3 shooters but still no signs of Huxley.

This week we finally got some new screenshots from Huxley which has switched from a retail game to a free-to-play MMO. The shots still show off some impressive looking Unreal Engine 3 graphics and the game has kept its basis premise of players fighting in a persistent world with character customization and improvements. Huxley is now scheduled for release in the US via the ijji.com web site sometime in 2009.

If you are like most of us, the economy's quick drop this fall may have left you with a lack of cash to pay for that new copy of Left 4 Dead or Far Cry 2. However if you want to play a first person shooter game for free and don't feel like paying for it there are actually quite a number of free-to-play titles out there that you can download and play right now.

Big Download has noticed a growing trend of first person shooter titles that are already out there, in beta testing or coming up in the near future that you can just download and play. Some of these games do have or will have premium fees or micro-transactions to get more content but all of them can be enjoyed for free without the need to pay a cent. We decided to do a quick round-up of just a few of the current and upcoming free-to-play FPS titles. And remember, the best things in life are free..or so we have been told.

Click on the image above to continue reading about Free-to-play FPS games

It's been a long, hard road for the Unreal Engine 3 based sci-fi MMOFPS Huxley. The Webzen-developed game was first announced way back in 2005. Earlier this year it was announced that NHN USA had picked up the US publishing rights to the game and planned on launching it as a free-to-play MMO on their web site ijji.com before the end of the year.

Unfortunately it looks like that's not going to happen after all. Big Download has learned that Huxley's launch has been pushed back for the US market until the first half of 2009. We spoke on the phone with NHN USA's PR rep who said that the development team wanted more time to handle the game's localization issues. Huxley has been in open beta in Korea for the past few months.

Last week we had a feature article that took a look at many PC games that are currently being developed in near secrecy with little to no info on what those games are actually like. However, there also also a number of games that have been fully announced, with screenshots, trailers and more and yet even after years of waiting (and in case of one game over a decade) we are still awaiting those titles to finally be released. These are the games that we have decided to put in our Vaporware Vault.

Sometimes a game is officially announced and can ship to stores inside of a year (in a very quick turnaround, Electronic Arts officially announced Need For Speed Undercover in August and it's set for release in November). Sometime it can be two years between the game's reveal and its appearance in stores. However we have seen games take much, much longer. For example the original Max Payne game was announced in 1997 but wasn't released until 2001. The just released Spore was first revealed in March 2005. Valve's Team Fortress 2 was first announced in 1998 but the final, and much changed, version didn't get released until 2007.

So what PC games are we still waiting on? Quite a few and they come from developers both big and small. Our criteria for inclusion in our list of tardy games is that they must have been officially revealed in 2006 or later and that they are not scheduled for release until at least 2009. Many of these games have had little to no info on their status since their initial announcement. The reasons for their delays are sometimes unknown. Yet they all have one thing in common besides having their release dates pushed back. They all could be terrific games. We begin our feature with the grand champion of delayed PC games, Duke Nukem Forever

Click on the image above to continue reading "The PC Games We Are Still Waiting On"