Game Downloads

Back when I was in college -- way back in early 1997, I'm afraid -- I wrote a well-reasoned letter to the online arm of Ultra Game Players magazine in defense of Nintendo, whose star was starting to take on a distinct tinge of tarnish among the nascent online hardcore gaming fanbase. The N64's strong launch had deteriorated into the likes of Yoshi's Story, with little but Star Fox 64 and the far-distant Ocarina of Time to look forward to for the foreseeable future. But that's okay, I argued; Nintendo has always employed the same model as Apple Computer, whose Macintosh suffered from the same problems as the N64 -- an expensive proprietary format, relatively sparse releases, an insular corporate culture -- but also offered the same ultimate benefit: powerful hardware and quality software.

Six months after the release of Grand Theft Auto 4, details of the much-hyped episodic downloadable content have emerged. Andno, it's definitely not 28 Days Later-style zombie outbreaks or a return trip to San Andreas.

Sins of a Solar Empire fans will have to wait a little bit longer to get their hands on all the goodies being offered in the upcoming Entrenchment expansion pack. But don't worry, Stardock still has your back for Christmas.

Microsoft's Games for Windows Live service hasn't exactly been the beacon of light that PC gamers may have been hoping for when it launched last year, but the PC mega-company is not giving up the ghost on its troubled initiative yet. In a recent interview with GameDaily, GFW Live senior marketing manager Michael Wolf discussed some of the changes coming to the service in the near future, including plans to introduce digital distribution.

Valve is currently celebrating the tenth anniversary of their seminal first-person shooter Half-Life, and they've taken the opportunity to temporarily drop the game's price on Steam to an astonishingly low 98 cents. Compared to the game's usual price of $9.99, that's roughly 90% off the standard cost of admission. Trust us, that's a deal you just won't find outside of, well, Tabula Rasa.