The Best of Big Download: September 8-14

by Joystiq Staff @joystiq on Sep 14th 2008 8:00AM

Spore, Spore, Spore and did we mention Spore? Yep we were all over this past week's release of the long awaited game at Big Download but we did talk about some other things as well. Let's check out the past week's highlights at the PC gaming site:

Exclusive Features

Spore: We have our official review of Will Wright's alien evolution sim along with more detailed looks at various stages of the game (Cell, Creature, Tribal, Civilization, and the first portions of Space) and our controversial gallery feature 10 Reasons to Avoid Spore.
Reviews: We have reviews of the PC version of Mercenaries 2 along with the latest Amercian McGee's Grimm episode and a review of the Wiimote-like PC game controller Stix 200 from GoLive2
Previews: We have another (and somewhat unusual) hands-on preview of Champions Online along with an eyes-on preview of Velvet Assassin.
MacMonday: Our weekly look at Mac games takes a gander at the top down arcade shooter Wingnuts 2.
MODMonday: Our weekly game mod column returns with a look at the Diablo II total conversion Back to Hellfire.
Big Ideas: Our weekly look at gaming themes takes a look at mature content in games.
Alt-Tab: This week's feature gallery is all about the undead in PC games...and we aren't talking about just zombies.
Indie Showcase: It's the weekly column with a look at the best from the independent PC game scene.
Freeware Friday: This week's free PC game getting the spotlight is the odd action-platformer puzzle title Iji.
BigCast: It's our weekly podcast as the team reflects on PAX 2008 and more.

Downloads

FIFA 09 Demo: Get your soccer (or futbol or whatever) on with this free demo of the EA Sports game
C&C: Red Alert 3 trailer: Check out the Allied side in this new trailer for the EA RTS game.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky patches: Its the latest retail and digital download patches for the GDC Game World FPS.
Starcraft patches: Get the latest patches for both the original game and the Blood War expansion for the still popular Blizzard RTS game.
Bionic Commando Rearmed Patch: Here's the latest patch to update the recent GRIN-Capcom side-scroller remake.
F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin Trailer: Here's the first trailer for the Monolith shooter with the game's new title.
Saint's Row 2 trailer: Volition's open world action game has co-op support and this trailer shows that off in an unusual way.
Sims 3 trailer: What will The Sims 3 be like? EA's developers give you a sneak peak into this next sequel of the people sim franchise.