james-camerons-avatar posts

A few months ago, publisher Ubisoft said that their heavily hyped game adaptation of James Cameron's mega-popular sci-fi film Avatar was a sales disappointment. The game itself received only average reviews even with Cameron's direct involvement in the game's development.

Now it appears that Ubisoft is singing a different tune. IndustryGamers reports that the Avatar game has now solid a very respectible 2.7 million units across all of its platforms, according to Sterne Agee analyst Arvind Bhatia. It's been speculated that the movie's recent release on DVD and Blu-Ray combined with price cuts for the game itself has caused a spike in the game's sales.

This patch addresses a number of game issues with James Cameron's Avatar. Continue reading after the jump for a list of changes. The playable demo can be downloaded here.

Download James Cameron's Avatar v1.02 Patch (187 MB)
Download James Cameron's Avatar: The Game Demo (1.55 GB)
Check out all James Cameron's Avatar downloads

No one expected that James Cameron could win the equivalent of the Megamillions lottery when Avatar was released in theaters last month, but the 3D sci-fi epic has now generated more revenue (before inflation) than any other movie in history besides Cameron's own Titanic. So, you would think all that success would help sales of James Cameron's Avatar: The Game, right?

Wrong. According to the game's developer and publisher Ubisoft, the game (which released a few weeks before the film) did not meet its expectations. In today's financial report Ubisoft stated, " . . . .not all of the Company's games have reaped the full benefits of the measures implemented, with James Cameron's Avatar: The Game . . . reporting lower-than-expected sales." The game itself, which supposedly had Cameron as an active consultant, only got average reviews from critics. One wonders if Ubisoft will be so quick to sign onto making a game based on any Avatar movie sequel.

Overall, Ubisoft didn't have as good of a quarter than it though it would in terms of revenues. Today it revealed that it was now expecting revenues for the just completed third quarter to be 495 million euros versus previous estimates of 540 million euros. For its full fiscal year it is predicting it will have revenues of 860 million euros versus predictions of 1.08 billion euros.

Releasing a demo for a game is a piece of art in itself. You don't want to give away too much of the full game yet you want to give out just enough to both satisfy a gamer as well as leave him or her wanting more. Perhaps that's why a lot of high profile PC developers don't bother with releasing demos for their games these days.

Thankfully PC gamers got a lot of free samples to games both big and small in 2009. We decided to pick our top 10 favorite demos for the past year. Picking our favorite demos can be even harder than picking full games. Since all demos are by definition free to play you can't complain about the price. However some demos feature more content than others and some demos are so addictive you can't stop playing them. We think you will find that all of our demo picks have something of value.

Click on the image above to continue reading Big Download's Top 10 Favorite PC Game Demos of 2009

Want to save some money six days before Christmas? Perhaps these deals will help:

• Direct2Drive has put Civilization IV: The Complete Edition on sale for just $15.95 and Batman: Arkham Asylum on sale for just $24.95 until 1 pm Eastern time on Saturday. They have also put the indie game Osmos on sale for just $4.95. Also you can get the Special Edition of James Cameron's Avatar: The Game and either get Beyond Good and Evil or Call of Juarez for free until December 25.
• Impulse managed to sneak in some sales via their desktop icon. Among the price cuts are X-Com for just $1.99, Lightweight Ninja for just 99 cents, and Civilization IV for $9.99.
• GoG.com's weekend sale has a price cut on all of their Might and Magic games. You can buy each one individually for 30 percent off their normal price or all of them in a bundle for 50 percent off their normal price.

James Cameron's Avatar, the movie, hit theaters this weekend but fans have a chance to go deeper into the adventure with the video game. The Avatar demo can be downloaded here.

James Cameron's Avatar "will take you deep into the heart of Pandora, an alien planet that is beyond imagination. Gamers will encounter the Na'vi, Pandora's indigenous people and discover creatures and other wildlife the likes of which have never been seen in the world of video games before. When conflict erupts between the RDA Corporation, a space-faring consortium in search of valuable resources, and the Na'vi, players will find themselves thrust into a fight for the heart of a planet and the fate of a civilization."

Download HD James Cameron's Avatar Launch Trailer (158 MB)
Download James Cameron's Avatar: The Game Demo (1.55 GB)
Check out all James Cameron's Avatar downloads

This patch updates James Cameron's Avatar to v1.01 and addresses a number of gameplay issues. Continue reading after the jump for patch notes. The game demo can be downloaded here.

Players can also download a free DLC pack by registering for an Ubisoft account at the official website. The content includes new weapons like bows, flame throwers, and grenade launchers. These weapons also come in an assortment of colors.

Download James Cameron's Avatar v1.01 Patch (171 MB)
Download James Cameron's Avatar: The Game Demo (1.55 GB)
Check out all James Cameron's Avatar downloads

The first week of December sees several retail and downloadable PC games and expansions make their way to store shelves and download services:

Dirt 2 - While the console versions of Codemasters' rally racer were released last September, the PC version that comes out this week has the distinction of being the first PC game released in the US that has DirectX11-supported graphics out of the box.

So, you've heard a lot about how the conflict between the humans and the alien race called the Na'vi in James Cameron's Avatar. Each species specializes in different skills. Humans rely heavily on technology while the Na'vi have the advantage of speed and can call upon the indigenous to aid them. In this video, players get to see exactly how well the two forces work when battling against each other in multiplayer.

The game comes out next week on December 1st and the movie hits theaters on the 18th. The game demo can be downloaded here.

Download HD James Cameron's Avatar Multiplayer Trailer (19 MB)
Download James Cameron's Avatar: The Game Demo (1.55 GB)
Check out all James Cameron's Avatar downloads

In the quest to find a truly great movie-based PC game comes the forthcoming release of James Cameron's Avatar: The Game (yep, that is the full official title) from developer-publisher Ubisoft. The game, which tells a parallel story related to the upcoming (and, it has to be said, truly epic looking) sci-fi movie is due to be released on December 1.

PC game download sites like Steam, Impulse and Direct2Drive are offering their customers an in-game pre-order bonus that is apparently not in the retail version of the PC port. They consist of two weapons unlocks; the Dual Wasp for the RDA faction and the Fighting Staff for the Na'vi faction. In addition, both Impulse and Direct2Drive are selling a downloadable special edition of the game for $54.95 that adds six exclusive weapons and two extra character skins to the game. Again this special edition is not being sold in stores.