The Best Of Big Download: May 16-22, 2008

Hello once again, loyal reader. The team at Big Download has had an extremely busy second week with lots of features, downloads and news to report about on the PC gaming scene. It doesn't get much bigger than the release of Penny Arcade Adventures (and yes we have the PC, Mac and Linux demo versions available to download) and of course Age of Conan was pretty huge as well. We are still trying to iron out a few more bugs on the site but we are pretty happy with what we've got so far. Let's take a quick look at the highlights for our second official week:

Exclusive Features:

• PvP vs PvE: ArenaNet on Guild Wars: We chat with game designer Isaiah Cartwright on how they develop the PvP and PvE aspects of Guild Wars.
• Epic's Mark Rein on Chair Entertainment purchase: We chat briefly with Epic Games' VP on their acquisition of Chair Entertainment
• Age of Conan: The pros and cons: Should you buy Funcom's new MMO? We look at the pluses and minuses of the fantasy game.
• Big Iron: Age of Conan's demanding tribute: Our hardware columist takes a look at what kind of PC you will need to run Age of Conan
• MODverlous Monday: Our new weekly mod column takes a look at two Half-Life 2 mods
• Freeware Friday: Our weekly look at free games takes a look at the classic title N
• Casually Speaking: Orisinal and the Zen of design: Our casual game columist checks out an impressive casual game web site
• Talkin' Smack: Online voice chat in kids' games: An editorial on how game designers might deal with the tricky issue of game voice chat for children
• Guide to Team Fortress 2 Medic Achievements: Check out the final two parts of our extensive look at the various achievements for the Medic class in Valve's multiplayer shooter: Part 5; Part 6

Downloads:

• Penny Arcade Adventures Demo: We have the PC, Mac and Linux versions of the demo for the new Hothead Games RPG-adventure game based on the web comic strip.
• Postal 2 free multiplayer game: Download the entire multiplayer portion of Running With Scissors' first person shooter for free
• ArmA: Armed Assault patch: The new 1.14 patch to the military shooter adds the new RTS-like Warfare mode
• Enemy Territory: Quake Wars patch: We have the 1.5 patch to the sci-fi multiplayer shooter.
• Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3 trailer: The first gameplay footage from EA's alternate history RTS game
• Spore Cell Phase trailer; Check out gameplay footage of the first portion of Maxis' upcoming evolution game

News:

• Splash Damage signs deal with Bethesda Softworks
• Epic Games acquires Chair Entertainment
• Diablo 3 announcement next month?
• Age of Conan to lack DirectX10 support for launch
• James Cameron sees gaming moving into the third dimension
• Replay Studios: PC market is "not healthy"
• AMD announces new program for consumer gaming PCs
• Acer announces Predator gaming rig