The Best of Big Download: August 17-23

by Joystiq Staff @joystiq on Aug 23rd 2009 11:30PM

Big Download's trip to BlizzCon 2009 was extra-busy (they pack a lot into two short days) and we have got a bunch of Diablo III and StarCraft II news and hands-on impressions to tell you about. Oh, and there was some other PC news that happened this week too:
Exclusive features

BlizzCon 2009: We were at Anaheim this weekend to get some hands-on time with Diablo 3 and StarCraft 2. We also got even more info on Diablo 3 and its newly revealed Monk character, learned about the voice cast for StarCraft 2 (with a special appearance by Number Six), learned more about its gameplay features (including some cool dev created mods) and got the first info about Battle.net 2.0 (selling your maps and mods for money . . cool). Oh and we have pictures from the registration line, Day 1 (Felicia Day is so cute) and Day 2 of the event. Oh, and did we mention the folks in costumes?
Mac Monday: This week's entry is all about the hidden object title Coyote's Tale: Fire and Water
Boot Disk: This week look at retro games is about the 1999 FPS Quake 3 Arena
Big Ideas: This week's column on game themes tries to answer the question on if games are actually evolving
Freeware Friday: Our look at free games this week checks out the music-rhythm game Stepmania

Downloads

Mini Ninjas demo: Try out a free sample of the upcoming (and cute looking) action game from Hitman developer Io Interactive
Wolfenstein 1.1 patch: Download this Day 1 update to Raven Software's just released FPS
Age of Conan: Rise of the Godslayer trailer: Download this first look at Funcom's upcoming MMO expansion
StarCraft II gameplay trailer: Check out the latest gameplay footage from Blizzard's upcoming RTS game
Guild Wars 2 trailer: It's the first teaser to ArenaNet's MMO sequel
World of Warcraft: Cataclysm: Check out the announcement trailer and some gameplay footage from Blizzard's newly announced MMO expansion
Diablo 3 Monk trailer: Check out the first footage from the Monk character in Blizzard's upcoming action-RPG
James Cameron's Avatar trailer: It's the first gameplay footage from Ubisoft's upcoming movie-based action game