The Best of Big Download: December 15-21

by Joystiq Staff { Dec 21st 2008 at 12:00PM }

This week is the last one in 2008 that will likely have a lot of major gaming news but Big Download still has lots of plans to cover the past year and looking ahead to 2009 in the next several days. In the meantime let's look at the highlights from the past week:

Exclusive features

Contests: We have lots of contests that we are running this week. You still have time to enter for your chance to win a free copy of Galactic Civilizations II, Demigod, Prince of Persia, a Red Alert 3 game and swag pack or game codes for GoG.com.
Reviews: We have our final verdicts on Prince of Persia, Strong Bad Episode 5, and American McGee's Grimm: A Christmas Carol.
Cities XL preview: We go hands-on with the upcoming ambitious city sim game from Monte Cristo.
Left 4 Dead game guide: Our final game guide for Valve's shooter takes a look at some of the more interesting achievements.
Countdown to the biggest PC game news stories of 2008: What was the biggest story in 2008 for PC gamers? We give our picks for the most memorable events of the past 12 months.
Big Download's 2008 Rose Ceremony: We give out roses to those folks and groups who made news in PC gaming in 2008 and refuse to give roses to others.
GamerApps - GamerDNA: We take a closer look at the new social networking site for games.
Indie Showcase: Our weekly look at the indie games scene takes a look at some new artistic minded browser based games.
Big Ideas: Our weekly look at game themes takes a look at in-game health features.
Big Iron: Our weekly hardware column gives out their first annual hardware awards
Freeware Friday: Our weekly look at free games takes a look at the B-movie game inspired title Cottage of Doom.
Virtual Bargain Bin: Our look at cheap games takes a look at two games that have been released for free at GoG.com, Beneath a Steel Sky and Lure of the Temptress.

Downloads

Cryostasis PhyX Tech Demo: If you have a compatible Nvidia card you can check out this non-playable tech demo for 1C's first person shooter showing off some impressive game physics effects.
Space Giraffe Demo: It's the playable version of Llamasoft's arcade shooter
Far Cry 2 1.02 patch: Get the latest update for Ubisoft's first person shooter
Sacred 2 2.34 patch: This patch for CDV's recent RPG adds a lot of new content to the game.
Crysis Wars 1.3 patch: This patch for Crytek's multiplayer shooter adds two new maps to the game.
Spore De-authorization tool: This program allows Spore players to de-authorize their PC to free up installs for playing the game.
Mafia II trailer: Check out the new footage from the 2K Games open world crime action game.
Starcraft II Battle Report trailer: Check out this 20 minute look at gameplay from Blizzard's upcoming RTS game.