impluse posts

If it's just you and your PC gaming laptop 24 hours before the worlds ends, would the two of you be prepared? Who knows? Let's just check some PC game download deals shall we?

• As we reported earlier this week Steam has a free weekend of play for Serious Sam: The Second Encounter plus a 50 percent sale on that title. Also Football Manager 2010 is on sale this weekend on Steam for 25 percent off its normal price.
• Also as reported earlier this week, both Gamergate and Direct2Drive are holding sales from now until the end of the weekend of the library of titles for 1C Company and THQ respectively. Direct2Drive has also put the indie game Plain Sight on sale for a week for just $4.95.
• Impulse is offering the original Assassin's Creed for free if you purchase Assassin's Creed 2 from them this weekend.
• GoG.com has 11 games owned by Rebellion on sale this weekend for 30 percent off if purchased separately or 50 percent off all 11 games in a bundle package.
• Finally Ubisoft's online story has put a number of its PC games on sale this weekend for as low as 67 percent off.

As we have reported over the last month, the launch of Demigod has been marred by poor Internet multiplayer performance and issues. Developer Gas Powered Games and publisher Stardock have been working hard on the issues and the multiplayer network is certainly better than it was when the game was originally released. However many players still have had issues with playing online.

Early on Saturday, a new beta patch for the game was released. In his latest update on the Demigod forums, Stardock CEO Brad Wardell states, "The results have been very encouraging with a massive improvement in connectivity plus a fixes to a wide range of issues that users had reported." A non-beta patch for the game is scheduled for release on Monday and Wardell states, "So is Demigod safe to play online for normal people? In my opinion, the Monday release will probably put it there."

Late in 2008 it was announced that the PC version of the acclaimed Xbox Live Arcade title Braid would be pushed back until sometime in the first quarter of the year. Today Stardock has announced that it is now taking pre-orders for the PC version of Braid to be released via their Impulse service.

The PC version will cost $19.95 and will basically be a port of the temporal themed platformer-puzzle game created by Jonathan Blow. Stardock currently has listed a March 31 release date for the game on their Impulse web site. However as we all know release dates can and do change. There's no word yet what or even if other download services will also have Braid available to download.

Sometimes when you purchase and download a PC game from one of the many legit services out there you also have to run a client program like Valve's Steam and Stardock's Impulse. Today one of these services, Gamersgate, have announced that it is doing away with requiring folks to also download and use a separate client program to purchase and download times from its service.

The site offers up a visual explanation on how it will let folks get games from GamersGate from now on. People who have already downloaded and purchased games from the service with the previous client software can go ahead and uninstall if. If they need to download the game again (to install it on a new PC, for example) their Gamersgate login info will be stored on the site itself. GamersGate has a large number of titles available including games from Eidos, 2K Games, Sega, THQ and other publishers.

Thanks to everyone who entered our Galactic Civilizations II game giveaway contest. We have now picked the three winners, each of which will receive a copy of Stardock's space strategy game (along with the games' two expansion packs) via their Impulse client. Congrats to Alex Winston of Miami, FL, Ben Bracamonte of Santa Rosa, CA and Anil Sinha of Calgary, Alberta, Canada for being picked as the winners. Thanks again to Stardock for providing the prizes for this contest.

At long last the massive 1.1 patch for Ironclad Games' space strategy title Sins of a Solar Empire is finally available to download via Stardock's Impulse client. The patch adds a lot of new features to the best selling and acclaimed game including lots of graphical improvements, the new Alloy multiplayer networking tech, game balance and UI changes and lots more.'

In addition, pre-orders are now being on the Impulse web site for Entrenchment, the first of three planned micro-expansions for the game. The $9.99 pre-order will also enable you to try out the expansion in beta form before its planned release which is now apparently planned for early 2009.

If you thought today you would be finally updating the space strategy game Sins of a Solar Empire, well, you won't. Not yet anyway. The promised (and huge) 1.1 patch for Ironclad Games' title was supposed to be released via Stardock's Impulse client today but those plans have been moved back until tomorrow.

In a note on the game's official web site it states, "We're using this extra time to setup some additional download servers so that everyone's update is fast." We are guessing that's what happens when you sell over 500,000 copies of a game inside of a year. As we have previously reported, the plan to release the first of three micro-expansion for the game has been delayed as well but a beta test of the first, Entrenchment, is expected to start in the near future.

The fourth quarter of the year is always the busiest in terms of new game releases and in sales but developer-publisher Stardock has deliberately decided to avoid that busy time period for its current and future games. Sins of a Solar Empire, the space strategy game from developer Ironclad Games, was released by Stardock in the first quarter of 2008 and went on to sell over 500,000 copies.

In a chat with Gamasutra, Stardock CEO Brad Wardell reveals, "What we try to do is we want to release a title every first quarter of every year. For as far out as our schedule goes -- that's five or six years -- there's a game coming out." The next game to get that treatment will be Demigod, the strategy-RPG from developer Gas Powered Games. Stardock's just revealed turn based fantasy game Elemental: War of Magic is planned for a first quarter 2010 release. Stardock already has a game set for a first quarter 2011 release but has not revealed any details yet on that title.

As the US presidential election goes into its final weeks, Stardock has announced that it has updated its recent strategy-sim game The Political Machine 2008 with a number of new features. The update is only available via Stardock's Impulse download client.

The update includes adding the promised matchmaking features in the game's multiplayer mode. According to the press release, "It also includes features allowing players to print out bumper stickers and campaign pins from within the game: Players can create their own candidates, controlling everything about them in how they look, and then export them as an avatar for on-line use or use the new print shop to create a variety of physical media with their creations including campaign pins, bumper stickers, and more. The update adds the new vice presidential candidates, Joe Biden and Sarah Palin to be incorporated into campaigns as well."