The Best of Big Download: April 27-May 3

by Joystiq Staff @joystiq on May 3rd 2009 11:30PM

We are now less than a month away from E3 and new game announcements are coming fast and furious. Oh, and lots of other news, features and downloads. Let's check out Big Download's coverage of the last seven days:
Exclusive features

We love the 90s (for PC games): We have a final feature looking at some games that we missed in last week's multi-part feature along with a wrap up of the entire series.
Top 10 PC game stories for April 2009: We give our choices for the biggest PC game stories for the past month
Demigod post-release interview: We chat with Stardock's Brad Wardell as he admits to the issues that happened to their RTS game after its launch.
Left 4 Dead Guide: Survival of the Fittest: We give you a guide to how to play the new Survival mode for Valve's zombie co-op shooter
Braid Review: We give you our final verdict on the PC version of Jonathan Blow's unique downloadable game
Nvidia on more PhysX game support: We report on a Nvidia conference call where they talk about more games supporting their PhysX game physics effects
Mac Monday: Our weekly look at Mac games is another two-fer as we examine Fishie Fishie and Spirited Heart
Boot Disk: Our weekly look at retro games is about Bullfrog's odd sim title Theme Hospital.
Big Ideas: How important is creating empathy for games? Our weekly look at game themes tries for an answer.
Freeware Friday: Our weekly look at free games examines the puzzle title Mind Wall.

Downloads

Battlestations: Pacific demo: Play a sample of Eidos' upcoming WWII action-strategy game
Cryostasis demo: It's a free playable sample of the recent first person shooter from 1C Company
Delta Force Xtreme 2 open beta client: Check out this small bit of gameplay from Novalogic's upcoming shooter
Buccaneer: The Pursuit of Infamy demo: It's a free sample of the recent indie-made pirate naval action game.
Puzzle Kingdoms demo: From the folks that made the Puzzle Quest series, here's a sample of their latest puzzle game.
New America's Army version: Download the latest version of the free-to-play shooter featuring four new maps and other additions.
Fallout 3 1.5 patch: It's the latest update to Bethesda Softworks' RPG game.
Dawn of War II soundtrack: Download and listen to the free soundtrack for Relic's recent sci-fi RTS game.
Crysis Wars 1.5 patch: Get a new map and more in this update to Crytek's multiplayer shooter.