The Best of Big Download: December 14-20

by Joystiq Staff @joystiq on Dec 20th 2009 11:30PM

Just because many feet of snow have fallen on some of us since we last spoke doesn't mean we weren't plenty busy with news, features, and downloads this past week. Below and after the jump you'll find just some of our highlights from the past seven days -- that is if you're not too busy with snow clearing or going to see movies in the third dimension:

Exclusive Features

The Best PC Games of the Decade (2000-2009): We celebrate the last 10 years by looking back on the PC titles we think were the tops in the 2000s.
The Top 10 PC Game News Stories in 2009: What events shaped the PC game industry in the past 12 months? We have our picks for the news stories that changed the industry last year.
Dirt 2 PC review: We give our final verdict to Codemasters' rally racing game.
Interviews: We chat with the folks behind the upcoming Stargate Resistance and get a post-release update on Torchlight.
The State of Mac Gaming: Part 4: We conclude our look at the current and future state on gaming on the Mac.
Boot Disk: This week our retro game column checks out id Software's original Quake.
Big Ideas: Our weekly look at game themes examines whether PC games have had a "golden age" of development.

Downloads

Need For Speed Shift Falken Tire Demo: Check out this new demo for EA's racing game sponsored by the tire maker.
King Arthur Demo: Try out a sample of the recent RTS-RPG from NeoCore Games.
Wolfenstein 1.1 Patch: It's the latest update to the recent Raven Software shooter.
Dragon Age: Origins 1.02a patch: It's a small update to BioWare's recent RPG.
The Saboteur Beta Patch: This patch for Pandemic's recent action game is needed if you have an ATI graphics card.
The Sims 3 Create A World Tool: Make your own world for your Sims 3 creations to live in
Batman: Arkham Asylum 2 teaser trailer: Check out the first CGI teaser for the upcoming sequel to the hit super hero game
Tron Evolution teaser trailer: It's the first gameplay glimpse to the next Tron game.
True Crime announcement trailer: Activision's revival of their open-world action game series gets its first trailer.
Medal of Honor trailer: Take a look at the first gameplay from EA's FPS revival.
Spec Ops: The Line trailer: Check out the first gameplay from the military shooter from 2K Games.