The Best of Big Download: November 24-30

by Joystiq Staff { Nov 30th 2008 at 9:00AM }

The last week of November was all about giving at Big Download as we posted up a ton of holiday gift guides and started a contest that will net one of our readers a tricked out gaming PC rig. Let's look at the highlights for the past week:

Exclusive features

Holiday gift guides: We have tons of suggestions and opinions on buying games this season: How PC gaming saves you money; Big Download's 2008 PC Gaming Holiday Gift Guide; Big Iron's 2008 Holiday Wish List; Big Download's 2008 Holiday Gift Card Guide For Future Games; 15 Indie Games For The Holidays; Black Friday 08 Virtual Bargain Bin
Contest: Would you like to win a $2,499 gaming PC from iBuypower? Then check out our biggest contest yet for all the details.
Reviews: We have our final verdict on Call of Duty: World at War and Penny Arcade Adventures Chapter 2
Mac Monday: Our regular Mac game column takes a look at the 2D adventure game Aquaria.
MODmonday: Our mod column takes a look at the Half-Life mod Action Half-Life
Boot Disk: Our retro gaming column takes a look at the original Half-Life.
Big Ideas: Our weekly look at game industry themes is all about the children.
Freeware Friday: Our weekly look at free games takes a gander at the indie fighting game Toribash

Downloads

C&C: Red Alert 3 demo: Check out this single player demo for EA's RTS game
Pyroblazer demo: It's the demo to the recent indie sci-fi combat racing game from Eipix
Zombie Shooter 2 demo: It's the demo to the arcade shooter game from Sigma Team
Starcraft patches: We have the latest patches for Blizzard's original RTS game and the Brood War expansion
PRISM: Guard Shield full game: We have the latest version of the full multiplayer game designed as a US National Guard recruiting tool
ARMA II trailer: Check out the first gameplay trailer for Bohemia Interactive's military shooter
Batman: Arkham Asylum trailer: It's the first gameplay trailer for the super hero action game from Rocksteady and Eidos
Wanted: Weapons of Fate trailer: It's the first gameplay trailer for the movie based action game from developer GRIN

News

Tags: big-download, call-of-duty-world-at-war, gaming-pc-giveaway-contest, holiday-gift-guide, pc-game-holiday-gift-guide

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

randomshagz @ Nov 30th 2008 9:05AM

Damn. Thing is a monster.

Foetoid @ Nov 30th 2008 7:17PM

It IS a beast PC i'll give it that, tho with 6gb of RAM it had better come with 64Bit Vista, or only half that will be used. 2x HD4870s is excellent, my brother has a single HD4870X2 2GB (dual-gpu) card and can run any game (yes Crysis) maxed out and smoothly.

Haggard @ Nov 30th 2008 9:14AM

It's a shame all the Joyswag and Big Download competitions are only open to the US and Canada. I'd gladly pay for shipping over to Europe if I won that thing ^^

LaughingTarget @ Nov 30th 2008 12:15PM

My guess is if they shipped it, they'd have to deal with stupid shit like idiots not realizing the included power supply, which works on the 110 volt standard, will fry out the entire computer when plugged into a 220v socket.

Ignatius @ Nov 30th 2008 12:56PM

Almost, if not all, PSU's that are built today are switching PSUs. You can merely flick a switch on the back to change from 110v to 220v.

If you own a computer in the UK and don't know this, then you deserve to fry your system.

Haggard @ Nov 30th 2008 1:17PM

I suppose when they're giving away games they're for the North American region as well. NA 360 games won't work on euro 360s, and similarly while any PS3 will play any game, the video output is a bit different and you won't be able to buy DLC from the european store with it.

LaughingTarget @ Nov 30th 2008 2:15PM

Just figured it out. VAT. That stuff doesn't exist here and they probably have to pay it to send a contest prize.

FluxWaveZ @ Nov 30th 2008 3:31PM

Well, I can't get any of the Joystiq contest stuff (or ANY contest outside of my province) because I'm in Quebec and for some reason that Canadian province is always excluded from this stuff.

Haggard @ Nov 30th 2008 4:14PM

You don't have to pay VAT to export something to Europe, just the customs duties if they apply (which might well be it).

LaughingTarget @ Nov 30th 2008 7:04PM

That could be it. Canada and the US have a free trade agreement so it wouldn't cost anything to move across our borders but would to get it to whatever local area in Europe a potential winner would be. Plus, another possibility is that contest rules may be different between each nation. Even in the US, many contests don't allow winners from certain states because of requirements the contest provider just doesn't want to deal with. This is to save on one of the most useless costs in the history of man, the lawyer fee.

Strategy_Panda (the artist formally known as Titanium_Orchid) @ Nov 30th 2008 7:57PM

I always thought it had to do with the cost of writing/filing legal papers for the contest. I could be wrong though

keffkelly @ Nov 30th 2008 10:30AM

Now that is one serious Bad Ass System..

Jon2309 @ Nov 30th 2008 9:42PM

Well, my keyboard is a start.
Shame the rest of my system sucks in comparison.

BananaBoat @ Nov 30th 2008 1:44PM

I wonder how many people will take the time to actually go through the process of finding all of the words for the contest.

PARANOID365 @ Dec 1st 2008 4:02AM

Quote: FluxWaveZ said, " Well, I can't get any of the Joystiq contest stuff (or ANY contest outside of my province) because I'm in Quebec and for some reason that Canadian province is always excluded from this stuff".

REPLY:
The reason the rest of Canada, and the world, (which includes my very own province), excludes Quebec from everything is because we all agree that Quebec is "THE DOUCHE BAG PROVINCE"!!

(I would of also said it in french, so you could understand it, but I am not very well versed in the fine language of DOUCHE !!)