joystiq posts

Last month, our sister site Joystiq launched a total revamp of its site design. However that's not all that our mothership has been working on. This weekend Joystiq also launched its first app for Apple's iPhone and iPod Touch (it also works on the iPad but it's not designed specifically for that device). The app is free to download right now from Apple's app store and has tons of features to check out.

That includes not just easy access to all of Joystiq's news stories (some of which use Big Download as its source) but also access to screenshot galleries, videos and Joystiq and Xbox 360 Fancast podcasts. You can even comment or send a news tip to Joystiq directly from the app. If you have an iPhone or iPod Touch its a must download.

Sometimes when a friend or relative gets a makeover you just got to stop and say, "Damn, you look good." In this case the accolades go to our mothership site Joystiq which launched its new look, complete with a new logo design, early this morning. Along with the great looking new layout (which the site calls "Futurestiq") comes some new features like a revamped comments system and more.

Just in case you are wondering, Big Download will still be here giving out PC specific news along with the free and fast PC game related downloads that we are known for. In fact we have a lot of cool E3 2010 plans that you will get to see next week.

While we didn't get to attend this year's Game Developers Conference, our sister sites Joystiq and Massively were out in force checking out the games and the lectures being shown in the past week in San Fransisco. Our big mothership Joystiq had quite a few features that are of interest to Big Download readers from GDC 2010. That includes some on-site with Mafia II, Civilization V, and the next Mass Effect 2 DLC.

Our MMO centric sister site Massively did their thing too, dawg. Their GDC 2010 features included some more info on the upcoming Battlestar Galactica Online game, a chat with 38 Studios' author R.A. Salvatore, an interview about Dungeons and Dragons Online, a DC Universe Online chat and more. Look for even more GDC coverage from both sites in the next week.

Our family of gaming web sites always seems to be in a state of flux. Earlier this year our sister site Joystiq got a major design revamp and consolidated all of their console sites into the Joystiq mothership. Today another of our sister sites, Massively, got a design refresh of its own.

If you head on over to the site right now you can see that Massively's new design reflects the new Joystiq revamp with wider posts, bigger images and more. Of course there's been no change at all to Massively's extensive coverage of the MMO game genre with previews, interviews, regular features and more every day.

The 2009 edition of the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco may be over but articles from the event are still coming in. While we had our own correspondent there out sister sites Joystiq and Massively were also at the annual event that brings game creators together to talk shop.

Naturally Massively's GDC 2009 coverage was all about the MMO genre. They have posted up hands-on coverage for games like Aion, an interview with the Fallen Earth team and more. Joystiq's GDC 2009 coverage did include a lot of console specific news and previews but they did catch up with some PC games including some time with our new favorite game title Stalin Vs Martians. Look for even more GDC coverage from us and from our sisters sites in the days ahead.

We chatted about it over the weekend and early this morning it finally launched. Our mothership site Joystiq has gotten a new and really spiffy redesign that now incorporates all of the console news and features of the now former "Fanboy" sites into one site. Again, there's no content being lost; it's just a way to consolidate the terrific console game coverage of the Fanboy sites and give them a higher profile on Joystiq.

As we mentioned this past weekend Big Download will remain a separate site as will Massively and WoW Insider but Joystiq should be linking to us quite frequently as they have in the past for their PC game coverage. Big Download will also serve as Joystiq's source for downloads of demos, trailers and files. Make sure to check out all the gaming goodness over there today.

We here at Big Download are always grateful to our "mothership" site Joystiq for their links and more importantly for their support for our relatively new operation ever since we launched back in May 2008. So it's appropriate that we give them some props for an upcoming and major event in Joystiq's life.

In a few days you will be seeing a much different site design at Joystiq. The big change is that all of the console specific "Fanboy" sites are merging with Joystiq's address. The final result is a site that is designed specifically to improve editorial coverage (and before you panic it's not designed as a cost-cutting measure).

So is this also going to happen to Big Download's PC game-spectic content? In a word, "No." Our site will continue to offer up PC game news, reviews, features and of course fast and free downloads (our sister sites WoW Insider and Massively will also stay the same). In the meantime you can get more info on the big changes on Joystiq on their site and on the new Joystiq podcast episode (head to the 53:50 time mark to hear the crew's plans for the new design). It's going to be very cool indeed.

You've seen our awards for the best PC games released in 2008. Now our sister site Joystiq lends their considerable authority to the fray as they give our their top 10 best games, console or PC, that were released in the last 12 months. As you check out the titles that they have given their thumbs up to you will notice quite a few games that were released on the PC platform as well as a couple of titles that are scheduled to have a PC release in 2009.

We don't want to spoil Joystiq's party by revealing their picks but we think you will agree they hit the nail on the head in this case. Check it out now.

LucasArts today unleashed their own force when they flatly denied rumors they are ceasing internal development after The Force Unleashed is finished. As we reported yesterday, a great deal of speculation has followed after LucasArts showed approximately 100 employees the trash compactor door (they were laid off) last week.

Not only did they deny the rampant rumors, but they reaffirmed their commitment to their internal studio. Margaret Grohne (Lucas rep) told Joystiq, "We're committed to our internal studio... We're working on the next Indiana Jones game internally." She added that the company planned on outsourcing future projects to other studios, but that shouldn't be seen as sign of distress since they have always used a good balance between their own internal studio and external partners.

Only time will tell if this saga becomes an epic disaster or not. As Yoda would say: "Patience you must have."