Filed under: Downloads, Demos, FPS, F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin

This single player demo for F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin lets you play a single level in this horror-themed action shooter. You’ll be able to try out a wide range of weapons, including the Elite Powered Armor (EPA) and face-off against a number of different foes. F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin is expected to release in February.

Download F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin Demo (1.76 GB)
Check out all F.E.A.R. 2 downloads

Download: F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin Demo originally appeared on Large Download Blog on Thu, 22 Jan 2009 13:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Hardware

Brought on by yet another product refresh by the Huge Green Eyeball Gang, BI wants to take a moment to crawl under the hood to discuss what this sort of evolution means in practical terms. Specifically, the architectural changes that occur at the manufacturing level for the chips themselves — using smaller and smaller integrated circuit etchings, and making minor tweaks to the layout of the circuitry itself. The former is typically called the “manufacturing process,” which refers to the photolithography that etches the actual circuitry onto the silicon wafers — the creation of the chip itself. The latter, where minor tweaks are made to the circuit layout from batch to batch, is referred to as the “chip stepping,” and is most commonly discussed when referring to CPUs within a single generation.

The easiest way to think about the signals traveling on the circuits inside of any chip is as though they’re commuters. They’ve to do the speed limit (okay, so they’re obviously not from New Jersey; unlike what the NHTSA dictates, 186,000 miles per second; it’s not just a good idea, it’s The Law); anything that improves how they get from point A to point B results in improved performance. Shortening the commute or offering a more efficient route to travel both serve this greater purpose.

Continue reading Large Iron: Of Nanometers and Stepping Stones

Huge Iron: Of Nanometers and Stepping Stones originally appeared on Large Download Blog on Thu, 22 Jan 2009 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Action, Screenshots

This June we finally get the Ghostbusters games that (hopefully) we have been waiting for since the original motion picture came out. Developer Terminal Reality and publisher Atari sent out a number of new screenshots for the game that we’ve added to our ever growing gallery.

These are some of the first screenshots we’ve seen that show the main Ghostbusters team fairly clearly in the shots. Venkman is spraying some slime around in the above shot and other screenshots show off Spengler and his hair (which is nearly a full character in of itself). Hopefully the game will play as good as it looks at this stage.

New Ghostbusters screenshots are full of slime originally appeared on Huge Download Blog on Thu, 22 Jan 2009 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Biz

The poor economy is hitting every company, including one of the biggest involved in PC gaming Microsoft. This morning the company behind the Games for Windows brand and Games for Windows Live announced that 5,000 team members will lose their jobs. 1,400 of those folks will be laid off today while the rest will be stretched out over an 18 month period. The amount of job cuts announced were smaller than some of the first rumors that hit the Internet late in 2008.

It’s currently unknown if that number includes any members of Microsoft Games Studios and Games For Windows team. The company has been downsizing its games business for some time, shutting down Shadowrun‘s internal developer FASA Interactive in 2007 and allowing its star developer Bungie to become independent once again. Last fall, the company announced it was shutting down Dallas based Ensemble Studios after the completion of their Xbox 360 game Halo Wars.

Microsoft made the job cut announcements as part of its quarterly financial report where it said it received $16.63 billion for the quarter that ended Dec. 31, a 2 percent increase from the same period a year ago. However, the company had net earnings of $4.17 billion for the quarter, an 11 percent drop from the same period a year ago.

Microsoft announces 5,000 job cuts; 1,400 people cut today originally appeared on Big Download Blog on Thu, 22 Jan 2009 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Culture, FPS

If you ever wanted to really create inter-dimential portals to do cool transportation tricks…well, keep dreaming. We live in the real world and not the world that Valve created for its 2007 short but memorable puzzle shooter Portal. However, at least one person gets to have a real (non-working) replica of the game’s Portal gun.

The image you see above comes from a Flickr account from “emilyskeith” who states that her boyfriend made the gun replica for her costume. It has working lights and looks cool but sadly does not do physics or portal effects. Ah, maybe one day we will be able to work around that whole science-thing.

[Via Joystiq]

Wanted: One Portal gun – cheap originally appeared on Massive Download Blog on Thu, 22 Jan 2009 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Features, RTS, Sandbox, Simulation, Strategy, Spore

By John Gaudiosi

Will Wright’s been at it again. After selling over 3 million duplicates of Spore across PC, Nintendo DS and mobile phones, EA Maxis has a pair of new PC games heading to stores this year. First up for gamers is the Spore Galactic Adventures expansion pack, which ships this spring. This summer will see the release of the first stand-alone game, Spore Creature Keeper, which is aimed at the younger demographic.

Since launching last September, over 65 million pieces of user-generated content have been created on Spore.com, thanks in part to the 6 million free Creature Creator downloads gamers have made on the web. That makes for one massive Sporepedia. But that’s just the beginning, according to Lucy Bradshaw, vice president in charge of production at EA Maxis.

“We built Spore to be a platform,” stated Bradshaw. “It has a lot of new tech and a lot of design direction we have the ability to have fun and really play with. Much like The Sims, where we were able to take the franchise onto new platforms and do expansions on the PC, we’re doing something similar with Spore.”

Continue reading Feature: More Spore on the horizon

Feature: More Spore on the horizon originally appeared on Large Download Blog on Thu, 22 Jan 2009 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Downloads, Patches, MMO, World of Warcraft

Earlier this week Blizzard released their latest patch for their hit MMO game World of Warcraft. The 3.0.8 patch was the first update since the release of the second expansion pack Wrath of the Lich King back in November and was supposed to fix a number of issues.

That’s what it was supposed to do. The reality, as documented by our sister site WoW Insider, is much different. Their exact words are, “In short, patch 3.0.8 has been a disaster.” Reports have come in that the patch has created more bugs in the game than it was supposed to mend. WoW Insider states that the patch must not have been tested as extensively as other updates have in the past. There’s no word yet when Blizzard will issue a patch for the patch.

New World of Warcraft patch causing problems originally appeared on Large Download Blog on Thu, 22 Jan 2009 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: MMO, Champions Online

Our sister site Massively already scores a lot of major coups in the MMO game world. This week the site begins not one but two new series of developers diaries. One is for Star Wars Galaxies, the long running sci-fi title from LucasArts and Sony Online. In this first installment, designer Stephen Wyckoff talks about creating the recently added Echo Base adventure to the game (the Hoth battle from the film The Empire Strikes Back). There’s even a video to check out

The other new dev diary is for Cryptic Studios‘ long awaited super hero MMO Champions Online. In this first installment, Cryptic’s co-founder Jack Emmert talks about why they wanted to make a second super hero themed game when they had already created City of Heroes. Check them both out, won’t you?

Massively begins Champions Online and Star Wars Galaxies dev diaries originally appeared on Big Download Blog on Thu, 22 Jan 2009 08:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Downloads, Demos, Puzzle, RPG

This is the full Personal computer demo for Puzzle Quest: Galactrix, the science fiction themed puzzle role-playing game hybrid. The demo includes single player campaign and instant action modes. However, players will not be able to save their heroes, advance past level 5, or travel to more than the first few star systems. The full game is expected to release in February.

Download Puzzle Quest: Galactrix Demo (132 MB)

Download: Puzzle Quest: Galactrix Demo originally appeared on Huge Download Blog on Thu, 22 Jan 2009 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Biz, MMO

Even if the company you work for has raised a whopping $100 million, it seems you can still be laid off your job. GameCyte reports that’s exactly what has happened at Trion World Network. The start-up MMO game developer, formed in 2006, laid off about 20 of its employees this week, according to unnamed sources.

In a follow-up article, Trion’s CEO Lars Butler confirmed that layoffs had occurred but characterized it as a minor restructuring of the company. The company’s web team has been let go and other positions have been moved from Trion’s Redwood Shores, CA studio to its Austin, Texas office. The development of Trion’s two unnamed games (a fantasy MMO and a collaboration with the Sci-Fi Channel) has not been affected, according to Butler. Still for a company that was announced way back in September 2006, the fact that they have not yet revealed any solid details for their game titles is troubling.

Trion World Network confirms layoffs but states games are unaffected originally appeared on Massive Download Blog on Wed, 21 Jan 2009 21:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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