killing-floor posts

Happy Independence Day, everyone. Hope a lot of you are grilling in the yard, watching some marathons on TV (there's a Doctor Who one on BBC America right now) and getting ready to watch some fireworks tonight. Today is also the last day of Steam's big PC game summer sale where hundreds of their titles have have their prices cut so if you want to save some money on that game you have had your eye on this is the last time (for a while anyway) to grab it at less than full price.

This is also the last day for several games to get a bigger one-day price cut. You can check out that list below (which has quite a few games that were the subject of previous one day cuts) which will shut down, along with all the other sales, at 1 pm Eastern time on Monday:

Thief: Deadly Shadows - $2.99
Trine - $4
Grand Theft Auto IV - $4.99
Killing Floor - $4.99
Red Faction Guerrilla - $5
World of Goo - $5
Civilization IV Complete Edition (four games) - $9.99
Left 4 Dead 2 - $10.19
Borderlands - $10.19
Tales of Monkey Island Complete Pack (all five episodes - $11.89
ArmA II - $19.99
Mass Effect 2 - $23.99
Just Cause 2 - $24.99
Battlefield Bad Company 2 - $33.49

Summer may have just officially started just a few days ago but the Steam PC game download site has already launched its big summer sales period. From now until July 4 you can get some big savings on a ton of games including 25 percent off all Rockstar Games and 2K Games titles, 33 percent off all Ubisoft games, and 75 percent of all 1C Company games (just to name a few).

In addition to all of the "regular" sales, Valve will put a number of games and game packs on the price chopping block for one day only. From now until 1 pm Eastern time Friday you can get the games listed below at these prices:

• Killing Floor - $5
• Trine - $4
• Counter-Strike Source- $6.80
• Dirt 2 - $10
• Overlord Complete Pack (3 Game Bundle) - $4.50
• Aion Standard Edition - $19.99
• Unreal Deak Pack (5 Game Bundle) - $13.50
• BioShock 2 - $14.99

Valve's announcement last week that the Mac port of Steam would be released on May 12 is already generating much excitement but until today there's been no word on what other third party games will be available for Mac Steam users. Today Big Download has confirmed with Tripwire Interactive that its two first person shooter retail games; Red Orchestra Ostfront 41-45 and Killing Floor, will be released for the Mac via Steam.

The first clue came from the official message boards for Tripwire Interactive's zombie shooter as a desktop screenshot posted by a Tripwire team member (shown above) seemed to show the game running natively on a Mac OS. There are also hints from other Tripwire team members in the forums that a Mac port was in development.

However Tripwire's president John Gibson officially confirmed to Big Download today that both Red Orchestra and Killing Floor would indeed be released for the Mac. In addition to the regular games, the Mac ports will have access to all of the downloadable content available for both titles. They will also have Steam achievements and cross-platform multiplayer with their PC counterparts. An exact release date for the Mac ports has not been revealed but Gibson told us it should happen around the time the Mac Steam client is officially available or soon afterward.

Today is officially the last day for Steam's 2009-2010 holiday sale. All of the bundle sales from publishers will end sometime on Monday. Today is also the last one-day sale of the event and for the last day Steam goes back and puts several of the games that were part of the one day sale back on the chopping block one more time.

That means that Torchlight is once again priced at just $4.99, as is Killing Floor and Bioshock. S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl is just $2 while Defense Grid: The Awakening is $2.49. Grand Theft Auto IV is just $7.49, and Left 4 Dead 2 is priced at only $33.49.

Yep, it's time for yet another Steam sales post. Their ongoing holiday sale still has six days to go but today their one-day sale has some super low prices on five games. In fact all but one of them are priced below $10 each. The one exception is The Orange Box. Valve's collection of all the current Half-Life 2 games plus Team Fortress 2 and Portal is now just $14.99.

The other games on sale for the next 23 hours are Burnout Paradise: The Ultimate Box for $7.49, Killing Floor and Space Siege for $4.99 each and Prey for a mere $2.25.

This year has been a tremendous year for the growth of the indie scene. Many freeware and commercial indie games have seen the light of day, and thanks to the efforts of publishers such as Meridian4 and platforms such as Impulse or Steam, these indie games are getting more and more exposure to a broad audience. We think it's only appropriate that, after last year, we continue the tradition of naming our favorite indie games of the past year. We had to cut the list down to ten, and while this doesn't necessarily represent all of our favorites (that's practically every indie game!), it serves as a good cross-section. If you're looking for some excellent indie games to get yourself started on the treasure trove that was 2009, look no further than these games right here.

A year has gone by, and we find ourselves once again looking at our family and wondering just what to get them for Christmas. While you can certainly get them such stellar titles as Dawn of War 2, you may want to shift your focus to some cheaper and more interesting games. For the price of three indie games, you can get one triple AAA title, and many of these games exceed the games put out by major studios. Excellent gameplay at a third of the price always sounds like a deal to us, and with massive sales going on in the spirit of Christmas, the deal is even sweeter. We have 15 indie games that we think you or someone you love will absolutely adore this holiday season, and most of them run around or under a $20 price tag. Take a glimpse at some of these titles, and see if you want to go back to the big budgets of more mainstream games. After all, every year indie gaming only gets better.

Sit down, dude and dudettes, because this will be a tad confusing. Tripwire Interactive has been busy today issuing a new update to their shooter game Killing Floor via Steam, putting their first game Red Orchestra on sale and updating two free mods, one for each game.

First, Killing Floor has been updated with four of the winning maps from their recent level making competion added to the main game. Also every owner of Killing Floor now has two Guest Passes that they can give to friends. They can play the game for free for up to three days. Finally, Killing Floor's free sci-fi based mod Defense Alliance 2 is now available to download via Steam.

Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45, Tripwire's WWII shooter, is now on sale via Steam for just $4.99 until Monday. There's also a major new update to the game's free mod Mare Nostrum which adds 12 new maps, 14 new weapons, over 20 vehicles and 26 Steam achievements.

Tripwire Interactive's second and final wave of competition in their Killing Floor level design contest is now over and they have announced the winning maps made for their hit co-op shooter. The winning design was KF-Icebreaker (pictured above) which takes place on board a ship that's moving in a huge storm. The map's creators Damien Laurent and Yoann Guilloud take home a $10,000 cash prize.

The second and third place winners received an assortment of PC gaming hardware products. Second place went to Jeroen van Wamelen and Jessy De Lannoit for their map KF-Departed, set in an industrial area outside of London. Third place went to KF-Crash by Michael Hewish and Corey Sine. The level takes place in a storage area where a helicopter has crashed. You can download all three winning maps right here at Big Download.

Yesterday, we listed our picks for some great multiplayer games to play over the holidays. However, the thing about PC games is that you usually need an individual copy for each computer to play. It gets really expensive to shell out $40-50 per game to give as gifts. It can also be difficult to convince friends and family to buy those games for themselves.

Big Download knows your pain, and we've got you covered. Here are our top picks for multiplayer games that cost $20 or less, but provide plenty of fun for the holiday season. Some of these games might go on sale in the next few weeks for even more savings. Now you can spend less time worrying about what you can afford and more time planning that gaming get together.

Click on the image above to continue reading Big Download's 2009 PC Gamer Single Player Game Holiday Gift Guide.