tactical posts

Turn-based tactical games are a rarity today. Games like X-COM or Jagged Alliance 2, with their focus on small, engaging battles, have been bypassed for the large-scale combat you see in most other games. Mode 7 aims to fix this, though, and are currently working on a tactical game called Frozen Synapse. It's something of a mix of the planning phase of Rainbow Six and a game like Steambirds, and this is what caught our interest.

Much like your standard game company, Mode 7 has opened up pre-orders for Frozen Synapse, and pre-ordering the game gives you access to the ongoing beta. However, there's two pre-order options, and both are excellent. The first is a standard pre-order, but it also gives you a key to give away to a friend. The second costs $10 more and includes the two registration keys, but it also includes the music of the game, the composer's first album, and Mode 7's previous game Deliverance. Technically, there are three options, but two of them (one with Deliverance, one without) cost the same.

Those waiting for the Dawn of War 2 mini-expansion, your wait is over. The new update, affectionately titled There Is Only War, includes eight new multiplayer maps, new Observer and Referee features, a fully featured new map editor, new badges and colors, vast balancing changes, and many other changes to the game. You can read the patch notes on just what was added and changed on the Relic community blog.

To celebrate the release of the update, all Relic-developed games on Steam are now 50% off for this weekend only. This means that both the Company of Heroes and Dawn of War series are half off. You can get them in a pack or individually, your choice. Dawn of War 2 is also half off, and at $25, that's an absolute steal. It's a shame that the Homeworld series isn't on Steam, as that would be a great rounder to the deal.

Download demos for the Dawn of War series, including Dawn of War 2, right here on Big Download!
Download demos for the Company of Heroes series right here on Big Download!

	Call of Duty: World at War Trailer Call of Duty is returning to World War II in Call of Duty: World at War. This time the focus is on the Pacific theater of the war.
	WALL-E Demo This Pixar animated movie-based game has garnered some positive feedback from some of our readers. At only 219 MB, you don't have much of an excuse not to try it, do you?
	Stronghold Crusader Extreme Demo We hear that this historical real-time-strategy game from Firefly Studios is extreme in some way. Look at the title! Download the demo and judge its extremeness for yourself.
	SAGA Game Client Saga is a massively multiplayer real-time strategy game that borows gameplay elements from collectible card games. Consider this free client a starter deck.
	Brothers in Arms Hell's Highway Behind the Scenes Trailer This five minute-long video explains the rich historical basis for Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway, as well as the narrative implications of telling a darker, less hopeful version of the World War II story.