just-cause-2 posts

Since launching its PlayBack "all you can play" monthly option for $9.95 a month, the OnLive streaming PC game service has been slowly adding games to the PlayBack lineup. Today the company announced that it has added its 50th game today to the PlayBack section, the 2010 open world action game Just Cause 2. OnLive says that the game is one of the service's most popular titles and has some of OnLive's highest rated "Brag Clip" user made videos.

The PlayBack game lineup on OnLive contains a mix of older and more recent games including the recently released movie game tie in title Battle Los Angeles.

[Via email press release]

Avalanche Studios may have just announced a new downloadable only action game, Renegade Ops, but that doesn't mean that the Sweden-based game developer has abandoned making big AAA retail game titles. Speaking to Eurogamer, Avalanche's founder Christofer Sundberg states, "We are not finished with traditional boxed retail games by far. We have two huge licenses that we work on to be released in 2013."

The report speculates that one of those games could be an adaptation of the upcoming fourth film in the Mad Max series but Sundberg would not confirm that. And what about a third game in Avalanche's Just Cause open world action game series? Sundberg states, "I can't really comment on the future of Just Cause but as we created the IP there is an attachment to the studio even though we don't own the IP."

Avalanche Studios' CEO Christofer Sundberg has a strong distaste for DRM set-ups in PC games. The head of the studio behind the Just Cause open world game series told Computer and Video Games, "I think piracy wouldn't be as much of an issue if there were better PC games out there. We could just scrap the whole concept of stupid DRM." Indeed he hates the very idea of DRM in games, saying " ... Forcing people to be online all the time and so on doesn't show respect to the people who actually buy PC games."

Sundberg also doesn't care for PC ports of console games, saying, "You end up just doing a port, so there's not a lot of time, budget or creative thinking going into using the PC." He adds, "I would like at some point to do a really good PC game designed specifically for PC players."

2010 was a solid year if for PC gaming. A game that some have been waiting 12 years to play finally was released and some other titles surprised us from left field. All in all there was no shortage of titles that were worth your time paying for and playing.

But what games were the absolute best of the past 12 months? Ultimately there will always be lots of debate over which games were chosen and why. But after much deliberation among the Big Download staff, we our settled on our picks 2010 Best PC Game Awards. These are the games that impacted us throughout the year and will probably keep gamers going well into 2011.

So which categories do we have this year and which games are worthy of our humble attention? Check after the jump to find out:

Editor's Note - Steven Wong and James Murff contributed to this feature

Hold onto your debit cards. Steam has just posted up a new batch of PC games on sale from now until 1 pm Eastern Time on Thursday. We know; it's so tempting but we bet there's a few games on this list that you have to have RIGHT NOW:

Tales of Monkey Island - $17.49
Railworks 2 - $8
Spore Complete Pack (the original game and two expansions) - $19.99
Just Cause 2 - $7.50
Aliens Vs Predator - $5
Trials 2 Second Edition - $2.50
Day of Defeat Source - $2.50
Zuma's Revenge - $8
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare - $14.99
Recettear An Item Shop's Tale - $6.80
Assassin's Creed 2 - $14.99 or $12 if you own Assassin's Creed 1
Bully Scholarship Edition - $3.75

It's a little unusual for an official web site for a game to post anything about an upcoming movie version but the Just Cause 2 web site is doing just that. A new interview on the site with the movie's producers Adrian Askarieh and Eric Eisner gives some more info on the forthcoming movie version of the open world action game series.

The producers are keeping the storyline a secret saying only that it's an origin story for the game's lead character. You can expect to see the "incredible cinematic elements of his signature weapons and the stunts, including the fast- becoming-iconic, Grappling Hook." The interview strongly hints that the movie could be filmed for 3D theaters and that an actual title for the film will be revealed in January.

Steam's Treasure Hunt promotion and game sale marches on today as the PC game download site has four more objectives for its users to accomplish in the next two days in order to have the chance to win some free games. Here's the list of "missions" to complete:

Download and watch a trailer from each of the following games - Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Homefront, BRINK, Red Faction: Armageddon, Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine and Portal 2
Become a Nosalis Hunter in Metro 2033
Create a Destruction Frenzy in Just Cause 2
Set a leaderboard score of at least 3,770,488 for 'Survival Best Score' in Beat Hazard

In addition to the new objectives the following games are also on sale for 75 percent off for the next two days: Metro 2033 for $9.99, Just Cause 2 for $7.49 and Beat Hazard for a mere $2.50

The big holiday one day sales over on Steam continue today. Here's what's on sale for the next 23 hours over at the PC game download site:

One day only game sales

Mount and Blade Warband - $7.50
Splinter Cell Conviction - $20.09
The Ball - $9.99
Street Fighter IV - $10.20
World of Goo - $2.50
Patrician IV - $10
The Orange Box (Half-Life 2; Half-Life 2 Episodes 1 and 2, Team Fortress 2 and Portal) - $7.50
Bit.Trip.Beat - $4.99

One day game gift pack sales

Osmos - $19.99 for 12 copies
Splinter Cell Conviction - $89.99 for six copies
Just Cause 2 - $59.99 for eight copies

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving but already folks are starting to buy their holiday gifts (or at the very least thinking about creating their lists really hard). There have been a lot of PC games to choose from in the past 12 months and today Big Download wants to offer a few suggestions for the person who has a PC gamer on his or her list.

The games listed below are what we feel are good gift choices that should please any hardcore or even casual PC gamer that you have to buy for this year. We have even thrown in some indie titles and some games that are priced a bit cheaper than the norm for those of you on a budget. Check out our 2010 holiday list after the jump:

Editor's Note: Steven Wong contributed to this article

Ok, who ordered all of these late-night game announcements and reveals from EA today? How odd. Are the PR folks testing web news boys like us to see if we are still working? If so, the answer is obviously , "Yes".

• As we first reported would happen, Guardians of Graxia is now available on the Steam download service with a 10 percent discount for the next week.
• Also the Chaos Parachute DLC item for Just Cause 2 is now available for free via Steam to all owners of the game.
• There's a new Source Engine update available via Steam that fixes bugs for several Valve games.
• Bejeweled 3 is now available for pre-order on Steam with a 10 percent discount. Also owners of the Steam versions three previous games in the series can get Bejeweled 3 for 20 percent off.
• The creator of the indie-made MMO Love is giving away his animation tool.