COMMERCIAL GAMES FOR DOWNLOAD AS FREEWARE

Who wants scads of commercial PC games for free? No, I don't mean the kind you download illicitly, silly. I'm talking about older but as well a few newer games, including the occasional award-winner, that publishers have made available over the years and on the house.
Games like Richard Garriot's pre-Ultima RPG Akalabeth (1979). Revolution Software's Beneath a Steel Sky (1994). The original Command & Conquer Red Alert (1996). SSI's Dark Sun: Shattered Lands (1993). Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto 2 (1999). Sierra's Tribes 2 (2001). Even S2 Games's just-last-January Savage 2 (2008).
No comment on Wikipedia's value as a repository for factual data, but its "List of Commercial Games Released as Freeware" is both convenient and verifiable. It's an alpha-sorted collection of older and some not-so-old titles with links to their Wiki pages, which in turn link to each game's freeware storehouse.
Have a look. There's Abe Lincoln Must Die! (2007), the fourth in the recently released gonzo Sam & Max series -- obviously bait for the other five episodes outstanding, but worth a look just the same.
Remember Bungie's pre-Halo Marathon Trilogy? Yep, all three, available gratis (and the first one's a whole 4.7MB!).
Pick of the litter? Possibly Virgin's SubSpace. It's a simple two-dimensional multiplayer space shooter, easy to learn, challenging to master, and pathologically habit-forming. It was also still being updated, according to Wikipedia, through 2007.

FREE XBOX LIVE TITLES THIS MONTH

Last week, Xbox Live Director Larry "Major Nelson" Hyrb announced Microsoft's Xbox Live "Friendship is Free" program.
Under the program, eight popular Xbox Live Arcade titles-- A Kingdom for Keflings, Aegis Wing, Bomberman Live, Hardwood Hearts, Hardwood Spades, UNO, Small Arms and Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix--will be free to play online for Xbox Live Silver members all this month.


Normally, gamers have to pay US$8 a month, $20 for three months, or $50 a year to have access to Xbox Live Gold accounts and unlimited online gameplay.
Of course, a caveat to this "Friendship is Free" program exists in the fact that you have to pay for most of the games (the Major confirmed this in an email), although Aegis Wing is free. If you want a free copy of "Friendship is Free" headliner A Kingdom of Keflings, you could try to win one via GamePro Arcade's latest contest!

WORLD OF WARCRAFT EXPANSION SHATTERS RECORD

Online gamers, bow before the king.
According to developer Blizzard, the recently released World of Warcraft expansion Wrath of the Lich King sold over 2.8 million copies in its first 24 hours of availability, making it the single fastest selling PC game in history.
In an official statement, Blizzard CEO and co founder Mike Morhaime expressed thanks.
"We're grateful for the incredible support that players around the world have continued to show for World of Warcraft," he said. "Wrath of the Lich King contains some of the best content we've created for the game so far, and we look forward to seeing even more players log in to experience it in the days ahead."

He didn't, however, express much surprise. That's because the second fastest selling PC game of all time is none other than the first World of Warcraft expansion, The Burning Crusade, which sold through roughly 2.4 million copies in its opening day.
Those numbers are just as stunning as they look. To give some context, it took EA's chart-topping evolutionary simulation Spore a good three weeks to hit the two million mark. And with 11 million active Warcraft subscribers out there, expect more records to be broken before the year is over.
By Ben Silverman

NEW GTA lV CONTENT OUT BY FEB.17, 2009 ... ROCKSTAR

Thank you Rockstar, it's about time we're finally talking release dates for the Grand Theft Auto IV downloadable content you promised ages ago. We won't hold your tardiness against you, though you are rather tardy here. February 17, 2009? That's stringing things out a bit, no?
The first of two episodes, "The Lost and Damned" will be exclusive to Xbox 360 and include a new main character and plot that intersects with GTA IV's central storyline. Rockstar says it'll include new missions "that offer an entirely fresh way to explore Liberty City with new multiplayer modes, weapons and vehicles, and a diverse soundtrack with additional music."

“Making these episodes has enabled us to expand the narrative and the experience of interacting with a game world in really innovative ways,” said Sam Houser, Founder of Rockstar Games. “We hope fans of the game enjoy the new way of experiencing life in Liberty City contained in this first episode.”

Great if belated news for Xbox 360 owners, but why no love for PlayStation 3 or PC (the PC version ships in just a few weeks on 12/2)? Or is all this ballyhoo just a smokescreen for timed exclusivity?

NEED FOR SPEED UNDERCOVER trailer

I have been a NFS series fan and a follower of the old game series, especially NFS UNDERGROUND 2 which is my favorite. How can you not get hooked by the level upgrades in the career mode, the unlocks, DVD and magazine covers, the cool soundtracks at that time, and especially the outruns. Let's see what makeovers they applied from the old NFS series. I hope you enjoy the trailer. Was that a Porsche being chased by the cops?


Repost from my WARSHOCK G-blogs
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NEED FOR SPEED goes UNDERCOVER November 18

Maggie Q to star in live-action sequences in EA’s next installment of underground street racer for 360, PS3, PS2, PSP, Wii, DS, and PC.

Snatched from WARSHOCK G-Blogs
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Black Box & Electronic Arts officially confirm Need for Speed Undercover, a new installment in the popular racing series. This game features the international movie star, Maggie Q (Mission Impossible III and Live Free or Die Hard), as the lead character in the live-action sequences. The good news about this one is EA’s decision to "take the franchise back to its roots and re-introduces break-neck cop chases, the world’s hottest cars and spectacular highway battles."

“Need for Speed Undercover features a deep and engaging story of spectacular Hollywood-style live-action that will transport players into the fictional world of the Tri-City Bay Area,” said Bill Harrison, Need for Speed Undercover Executive Producer. “Working with talent the caliber of Maggie Q allows us to deliver an unparalleled level of storytelling that will keep players engaged in between 180-mile an hour races.”

Need for Speed Undercover hits stores in North America on November 18 and in Europe on November 21. It's currently in the making for the Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, PS2, Nintendo DS, PSP, PC and mobile.

Stardock Says You Have Rights, PC Gamers

In the boldest, wisest, and frankly coolest collection of axioms I've ever seen a developer lobby in three decades of PC gaming, Galactic Civilizations designer Stardock today released a 'Gamer's Bill of Rights' describing what gamers should expect from developers, publishers, and retailers going forward.

In just 10 succinct points, Stardock simultaneously identifies a lot of what's wrong with the PC games industry while courageously suggesting that:

-Gamers shall have the right to return games that don't work with their computers for a full refund.
Me: You know, we used to have this right a decade ago. Remember the era when stores like Babbages and Software Etc. gave you 30 days on opened software with a valid receipt?

-Gamers shall have the right to demand that games be released in a finished state.
Me: I'd add an important corollary: Game developers have a right to demand that publishers never, ever force them to release a game in an unfinished state.

-Gamers shall have the right to expect meaningful updates after a game's release.
Me: I'm assuming Stardock means updates = expansions, and not the sort of optional free content a developer should never feel obliged to offer if the game adheres to point number two. But yeah, if we're going to pay from one-half to two-thirds the cost of the original game for an add-on, it needs to deliver at least commensurately.

-Gamers shall have the right to demand that download managers and updaters not force themselves to run or be forced to load in order to play a game.
Me: I religiously uninstall third-party download managers the second I've finished pulling down a file or game (exceptions being Stardock's and Valve's).

-Gamers shall have the right to expect that the minimum requirements for a game will mean that the game will play adequately on that computer.
Me: This one's a toughie, because "adequately" is still so vague. Adequately for me is Crysis with everything set to "max." Adequately for someone else might be Crysis in a tiny window with everything set to "low." This gets even trickier when you consider how completely anarchic benchmarks are in terms of morphing drivers and elusive one-off optimizations. Unless hardware vendors counterintuitively agreed to develop to an independent performance index, getting a good definition of "adequately" will probably remain the purview of one-size-fits-all consoles.

-Gamers shall have the right to expect that games won't install hidden drivers or other potentially harmful software without their consent.
Me: 'Nuff said. Well, and maybe something in there about serious legal threats against anyone who violates this point.

-Gamers shall have the right to re-download the latest versions of the games they own at any time.
Me: Another tricky one, because bandwidth costs publishers money, and games aren't getting smaller. If you could convince me that publishers are paying less than pennies on the dollar to maintain download servers, I might bite, but with PC gaming vectoring toward total digital-distribution, I'm conflicted.

-Gamers shall have the right to not be treated as potential criminals by developers or publishers.
Me: Hear hear. Begone, StarForce and all your misbegotten hasn't-stopped-a-single-pirate-to-date progeny.

-Gamers shall have the right to demand that a single-player game not force them to be connected to the Internet every time they wish to play.
Me: I've been an advocate of this since Valve launched Steam and made this mandatory. Valve eventually wised up and made it optional. So bravo (again) Valve, thank you as well Stardock, and the rest of you need to follow suit, because going online should always and forever remain an option and not a requirement.

-Gamers shall have the right that games which are installed to the hard drive shall not require a CD/DVD to remain in the drive to play.
Me: Color me ambivalent on this one. But speaking as a laptop gamer, games that don't require discs tend to play (a) much more quietly and (b) generate far less heat. The latter can be crucial if you're utilizing a high-end mobile GPU.

One last "right" I'd like to add...

-Gamers shall have the right to expect members of the gaming press to challenge game companies when they violate any of the above principles.
Me: The press is an engine of inquiry, not a press-release patsy. There's supposed to be an element of bias in expert reporting. You wouldn't accept on its face what a politician tells you, and you shouldn't uncritically accept what a game company does as in everyone's best interest. As history shows us, time and again, that's not always the case.

-by Matt Peckham