Search Results

As Big Tuesday looms over us, three days from now GTA IV will hit the world upside the head with a baseball bat. While this game is indeed the most anticipated and hyped game to headline gaming news since Halo 3 - I for one will not get to play it with the rest of the world on Tuesday because I am in the process of moving this week. I have sat at my computer for a couple of weeks now, listening to my boyfriend play GTA 1-3, Vice City, and San Andreas in anticipation of his pre-order and while I love the GTA games, I am sick to death of hearing about GTA IV, and because of this franchise hogging my television screen for the past few weeks - I could care less about the launch.

Ok, I am lying. I am just bitter because I will be too busy moving to play the game - and I am sure the folks I work with will rub it in my face like a banana cream pie all next week. They better not though, because I have a general idea of where they all live.

Anyway, enough of my ramblings - which are nothing more than a distraction from the fact that the demos that hit FileFront were nominal again this week. Studies may show that trailers work better when promoting a product than demos, but I personally think that it is only because once a gamer plays a demo, they know how crappy the game is and refuse to buy it. With trailer, you have no idea until it is too late - just like a bad boyfriend or girlfriend.

Here is a list of the demos with the most downloads this week:

• Conflict Desert Storm: A demo version of conflict desert storm, just extract it, some video bugs.co-op. The PC version does not support co-op. The game begins shortly after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait on August 2, 1990. During an attempt to destroy one of the bridges crossing the Iraq-Kuwait border, sniper Paul Foley is captured, while his other team member is killed. The next morning, John Bradley, a rifleman, and later on, squad leader, is sent in alone to rescue Foley and complete the original mission of destroying the bridge. Shortly after landing, Bradley comes into a firefight with a small force of Iraqi mechanized infantry. Shortly after rescuing Foley, Bradley completes the mission of destroying the bridge, thus slowing the Iraqi advance. From there, the squad carries out various missions, such as rescuing the Emir of Kuwait, engaging Iraqi forces in the Battle of Khafji, destroying Iraqi early-warning radar, rescuing POWs from Baghdad, and leading an advance element of U.S. cavalry in a fight with the Tawalkana Division of the Iraqi Republican Guard. Also the player protects a scientist whose purpose is to disarm a nuclear warhead for an ICBM, collect plutonium to prevent the creation of more nuclear warheads and later go after General Aziz who at least in the game is the Iraqi Supreme Commander and who’s death will shorten the war as he doesn’t want to give up.

• I Wanna Be The Guy Demo: I Wanna Be The Guy: The Movie: The Game is a sardonic loveletter to the halcyon days of early American videogaming, packaged as a nail-rippingly difficult platform adventure. Players fill the role of The Kid, a youthful, vaguely Megaman-esque protagonist on a quest to become The Guy. This inscrutable plot, however, is just a vehicle for a wide variety of inventive, well-designed and frustrating jump-and-shoot challenges that pay homage to many of the games you loved as a child. The ever-fragile Kid explodes in a shower of red pixels at the slightest brush from the game’s many obstacles, from traditional spikes and bottomless pits to more unconventional killers, such as plantlife and puzzle pieces. You’ll die a thousand deaths and know you deserved every one of them. All the NES references, like the hundred foot tall fire breathing Mike Tyson, are just icing on the killing-the-hell-out-of-us cake. This demo lets you face 3 bosses.

• Baseball Mogul 2009 Demo: Baseball Mogul 2009 gives you complete control on the field, combined with an easy-to-learn interface and thousands of stats at your fingertips. With customized ratings and head-to-head stats for every player, you have everything you need to win the battle of wits between batter and pitcher.

• WorldShift Multiplayer: Black Sea Studios has released a multiplayer demo for WorldShift. The demo contains two cooperative multiplayer maps (The Lost Coast and Tay-Rammin tundra), also playable 1vs1.

• Voxelstein 3D : FPS game inspired by Wolfenstein 3D. The game uses Ken Silverman’s VOXLAP engine to render voxels in software. The levels in the game are fully destructible - and by fully we mean fully.The game world is built from tiny cubes called voxels. There are over 37 million in the first level. Rendering a world like this is slow (especially without hardware acceleration), but there is an advantage: voxels can be added, removed or otherwise altered very very quickly. This enables all kinds of cool stuff, including fully destructible worlds. Features: Weapons: knife, pistol, chaingun, grenades, C4. Enemies: guard, officer. Many treasures to collect, fully destructible world: blow holes in walls, ceilings, enemies, anywhere. Loads original sounds and music from Wolfenstein 3D. P.S. Check the game directory for a demo of the original Wolfenstein 3D.

Patches are listed below, but I must warn you, there are not too many of those either. The largest ones to hit this week were LotRO: Shadows of Angmar Book 13 and Hellgate: London (single player patch). As always, for more demos and patches, hit the respective links.

The Golden Horde, Seven Kingdoms: Conquest v1.04 , Fate of Hellas, UFO: Afterlight v1.6 , Cabal Online US (04-21-08), and Frontlines: Fuel of War v1.0.2 Ded Server Hotfix

If you found this story interesting, why not subscribe to our RSS feed to get your daily fix of gaming news?

April is sometimes a tricky month for video game releases. Sometimes its hot, sometimes its cold, it just depends on what the developers and publisher have up their sneaky sleeves. So, in the downtime between games, here are some demos you may want to try out or you may want to get some patches for your games that you may not be aware of.

Here are just some of the demos that hit FileFront this week:

• Band of Bugs: Defend your kingdom in this turn-based strategy game featuring an army of bugs in battle! As Maal, newcomer to the Royal Army, you will be in command of a band of bug warriors, armed with different weapons and skills. It will take all your tactical skill to save your Kingdom and your Queen. You can even build custom levels and play against your friends on maps you design yourself with the Level Editor! The battle against brutish beetles is on in Band of Bugs!
• Gaia 3D Puzzle: Play with almost any images you find on the Internet, that means that you can play with thousands of images. Remember the last time when you walked in the toy section at the store and you saw a beautiful jigsaw, but the number of pieces was not exactly what you wanted. How frustrating? You want the puzzle for its beautiful image, but it comes only in 2000 pieces and you want 500 pieces. Other situation, the puzzle comes only in 250 pieces, but you want 2000 pieces. Are you going to pay for only 250 pieces and limit your fun? Our puzzle game allows you to choose your own image and the number of pieces you want.
• Magic Farm: Can you help a young florist and her cute little dragon grow and sell beautiful flowers and fruits to complete more than 25 challenging quests? Magic Farm is the heartwarming and entertaining story of a young florist and her cute little dragon helper! The young girl needs money to save her beloved parents, who have got lost in the jungle, so she puts her florist skills to the test! Help her grow and sell various flowers and fruits to complete more than 25 challenging quests! You will need your green thumb, as well as your business savvy and decorating skills to reach your goal, but nothing is too difficult with a little magic on your side!
• Escape the Museum:  Susan Anderson has brought her daughter Caitlin to work for the day at the National Museum of History. What began as an exciting day, ends in devastating suspense when, just after closing, an earthquake rocks the city! Old museum is in shambles and Susan must navigate through the maze of displaced artifacts by solving a series of puzzles and recovering the most precious of the museum’s collections. Can you help Susan get back to Caitlin and escape the museum together?
• The Count of Monte Cristo: Based on the famous and masterpiece novel by Alexander Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo will pull you into a world of love, betrayal and revenge! Help our hero, Edmond Dantes escape from prison and discover who set him up! There are 8 suspects that you must investigate by finding objects and solving more than 15 different puzzles. The stakes are high and with each discovery, the plot will thicken! Explore this classic story today!
• Age of Emerald: In Age of Emerald, use your skills to build the most splendid city in the Kingdom, and maybe even the entire world! Link together the different resources you need to build up your gold, food and magic quotas and watch your city come to life! With 30 buildings to construct and more than 15 kingdom inhabitants to unlock, your city will be booming in no time! So take a walk through the beautiful woodlands and enjoy Age of Emerald today!
• Cry of the Infected: In Cyborg Arm Games’ Cry of the Infected An entire city of civilians has been turned into zombies as a result of a biological warfare experiment gone wrong. Gamers play as Robert, a zombie trying to find his missing wife in a city torn apart by the outbreak.
• StoneLoops: Puzzle-arcade game set in the prehistoric world of Jurassica. Thanks to unique gameplay mechanics and non-stop action, it’s bound to please even the most selective gamers.
• Sam & Max: What’s New Beelzebub?: This playable demo starts you off by looking for Bosco’s soul.

For patches, hit the jump.

Read the full article

When I see screens as detailed and action-packed as the one above, I immediately think, Oh, this must be a new RPG or action title. So imagine my surprise to learn that this new batch of screens is actually for a real-time strategy game. The game, titled “Demigod,” is looking to shake up the RTS genre quite a bit with its infusion of RPG and action elements. It’s probably no wonder then that it’s being developer by Gas Powered Games, who were responsible for both Dungeon Keeper and Supreme Commander. To top it off, the game is being published by Stardock Entertainment, who recently released another ground-breaking RTS with Sins of a Solar Empire. The game will apparently have you controlling a demigod (i.e. one massive, powerful unit) who can also create other units to aid him. It sounds kind of like the Heroes in Warcraft III, but taken to the next level. All I know is it’s being made by a proven developer, released by a proven publisher, and already looks awesome; and that’s good enough to make me keep an eye on it.

You can check out the rest of the screens here.

According to Aspyr marketing manager Eric Duncan, the Xbox 360 port for Supreme Commander has been delayed and will be released sometime during the later party of Spring or early part of Summer.No exact date has been, just that tentative release window but Duncan did have this to say about the delay:

“The benefit of having independent companies such as Aspyr and its partners working on a project of this magnitude is that decisions like this can be executed quickly. While the game will be hitting shelves later than originally expected, the additional time put into development will result in better gameplay and more fun for gamers.”

Currently in development at Hellbent Games, the Supreme Commander port has been both anticipated by gamers and looked at with a slight bit of scoff due to some of the crappy PC ports that have been thrown at us in the past. Hopefully though, this delay will get any kinks or major issues sorted out before it hits shelves. Unlike some other games we know *cough RSV2 cough*.

Thanks: Shacknews

As the release of the Windows Vista Service Pack 1 approaches, gamers are left wondering whether it’s worth all the trouble of a huge download and an anti-hack update when hotfixes can be manually downloaded from the Windows site. ExtremeTech has done some testing and found answers that might surprise you.

There is a marked difference in the efficiency of the SP1 media fixes as compared to the hotfixes. File operations tests show hardly any difference between the two. Company of Heroes and World in Conflict performance tests show a a performance gap between the hotfix and SP1. Supreme Commander and Crysis performance tests are more unclear and even surprising.
Get the full details and make an informed decision on whether to upgrade on ExtremeTech.

Chris Taylor from Gas Powered Games has reportedly stated that the team-based strategy PC title Demigod will probably end up on consoles after its initial release. When asked about the possibility of it being only a PC exclusive Taylor stated:

“That is actually up in the air. You could easily see that on the console. That’s got a very high likelihood of going to console.”

Taylor also reiterated SEGA’s comments on the possibility of Space Siege coming to consoles versions, and all but refused to rule out the idea. Rumors of this have been circulating the Internet for almost a month now, and William informed us of said rumors earlier this month. Although Taylor stated that: “There’s been no official word. No definite there… Anything can happen of course, in the future”, the hemhawing around of developers in the past have proven to be admissions of truth, because usually if it is only a rumor without substantial proof, they are usually quick to kill it.

Chris Taylor also stated that while Gas Powered Games has some other projects currently in development, he was keeping his lip zipped until E3 2008 where at least one project will be revealed. Could this be the next Supreme Commander expansion? Possibly, because they do have something in the works, but refuse to discuss it.

So what all of the “yes”, “maybe” and “no comment” statements mean is that Demigod and Space Siege will more than likely grace consoles next year and we can expect a Supreme Commander “expansion”, “new title”, or “who knows what” in the future as well. Don’t you just love it when developers give vague answers? All it does is lead to more internet rumors which do nothing but annoy the masses.

Thanks: Videogaming247

Gas Powered Games is known for it’s titles like Dungeon Seige and Supreme Commander where plot and character development are an afterthought in these mechanized games played out on a large scale. GPG is ready to get personal with its new title Space Siege. The upcoming sci-fi action title promises to deliver a solid character and story with the addicting game play its known for. The studio has promised it won’t go overboard with too many words and verbose cut scenes. That’s a relief because although I appreciate a story, this is a dungeon hack in space… and if I wanted more of it I wouldn’t be playing this type of game.

Space Siege is the latest in the Gas Powered Siege series - this time instead of drab underground dungeons, players will take to space with a pet robot to fend off the typical invading space aliens. GPG has to evolve the game a bit, since Dungeon Siege and DS II were both very traditional 3D dungeon crawls while maintaining the addictive gameplay and item collection.

I spent a lot of time in the generic fantasy setting and I suspect I’ll do the same with the generic space setting. Though I’m worried they might make too many changes to the basic formula and thus move away from what I’ve come to think of as a “Siege” game.via Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Gas Powered Games have seen fit to released a patch for its critically acclaimed RTS Supreme Commander. This latest patch will install a small series of display updates and add compatibility for amBX support. Don’t know what amBX is?

amBX is shorthand for ambient experiences. It’s a new ‘experience’ technology currently being added to PC games and PC gaming peripherals. With amBX, games and peripherals providing surround lighting, sound, vibration, air movement and other effects work in harmony together. The result is an incredibly immersive experience.
 
Want to know more about amBX? Head on over to http://www.ambx.com/site/about

You can get the patch by logging into GPG.net from inside the game, thus allowing the patch process to automate itself. But if that’s not your thing, we’ve got the patch hosted here at FileFront.

Download Supreme Commander Patch v1.1.3280 @ FileFront [38 MB]

Note: All previous SupCom patches are located here.

Via GPG.net

Supreme Commander is an excellent benchmark for a PC. Although it pushes the CPU harder than the graphics card, it’s still a good test to see how a graphics card affects a CPU-limited game and a great benchmark for a CPU.

Gas Powered Games has made it easy for users by including a built-in benchmark that produces a SupComMark composite score as well as a large bunch of benchmark data, most importantly the average FPS. Just remember to update SupCom before you begin and make sure to download the latest video driver for your card from its manufacturer.

Get all the pertinent information from the benchmark article on Tech ARP.

Within the pages of the February ‘08 issue of Games for Windows: The Official Magazine (shown right) features an upcoming title I dare say many have heard little to none about until now. This latest issue of GfW is offering gamers a world exclusive first peek at Chris Taylor’s Gas Powered Games’ (Total Annihilation; Supreme Commander; Dungeon Siege) upcoming action/RPG/RTS hybrid title, Demigod.

Inspired partly by the popular WarCraft III mod Defense of the Ancients, Demigod pits players (or teams of players) at destroying each others bases. A somewhat unique aspect to the game revealed is that rather than managing units and gathering resources that you see in a typical RTS, players control a single hero unit with varied powers, leveling up as they kill the A.I. controlled units around the map.

The expected gameplay mechanics of Demigod are best described by 1UP:

“In Demigod, you control one of many ‘demigod’ heroes — some of which survive solely on the strength of their own powers, others of which thrive on building smaller units and structures of their own for support. The guy on the left in the screenshot below is one such hero, ‘The Rook,’ a former king whose spirit now animates an anthropomorphic castle. Demigod is, as you’d expect, a multiplayer game at heart, with an emphasis on co-op play. There’s a single-player mode, too, though Gas Powered Games says it will serve mainly as a ‘training ground’ for the multiplayer.”

Sounds like a cross between Black & White and Overlord. I can’t emphasize enough how pleased I am to see co-op being given a 1st rung feature. I hope this game ends up as awesome as it sounds.

You will find tons more details (interviews, screens, etc.) regarding Demigod in the upcoming issue of Game for Windows: The Official Magazine (which should be in stores soon).

GfW Via 1UP

We are all well aware of the more media savvy patches that were introduced to FileFront this week. Gamers who play BioShock, CoD4, FIFA 2008, AVENCAST, and EVE Online are happily playing the latest additions and fixes to their games. But what about PC games that do not make the front page - are they less worthy? Of course they aren’t! So, for those of you who have games other than the ones mentioned above and they need a patch, check out this week’s list of patches to see if your game was included.Here are just some of the many patches available on FileFront. For the full list, click here.

Granado Espada: Sword of the New World - v2.4 Bahia Island Client Patch - The new Version 2.4 Bahia Island Expansion of Granado Espada has been made available for download. Immense yourselves in the tropical beaches of Bahia Island as this new expansion comes to you this Christmas. Take part in light hearted mini games and stand to win special in-game items! Dress up in beach wear and explore the new maps. Team up with valiant heroes of Vespanola to defeat the new powerful raid bosses in Island of Fire. Unfold the story behind the “Nameless person” & “The one who searches for his memory”, choose your alliance with them and make your family stronger.

Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance - Fixed issue where Seraphim sACU could use overcharge before upgrading. (Done by selecting both unupgraded sACU and an ACU and giving overcharge command)
Fixed issue where FA only player could inappropriately be another faction during online play. Plus many balancing issues have been addressed and new Cybran Land Units have been added.

Tarr Chronicles - This v1.0.3.0 patch improves Vista compatibility, fixed freezing videos issue, added toggled AA, and a squashes a few other bugs. Quazar and Aklla have also given you the ability to change resolution in all OS and CPU. Added toggled anti-aliasing, fixed problem with freezing videos, fixed error in guardian mines part 3, fixed problems with implanted video memory, fixed problem “D3D invalid call (data/shaders/pspost.txt)” . Please note, that if you have any saved games, the items you have in the hangar after loading (as well as your custom devices) WILL NOT CHANGE, so any balance-changes or bugfixes in them will not be applied. If you want to have ALL the changes in the equipment you’ll need to create a new profile and delete the old one.

Depths of Peril - A patch has been issued updating Depths of Peril to v1.004. Please note that if you’ve already downloaded the v1.004 beta patch, this patch is not required. Added an extra check to make sure covenant never thinks it is at war with itself, added very hard covenant aggression difficulty level, and fixed a bug that allows most projectiles to get an extra critical hit bonus, etc.

Overlord- Codemasters has added a patch for features in addition to those present in OVERLORD I. Here is a basic summary of those features: Split Screen, maps include a new free survival map called Rocky Race, amBX PC gaming peripheral is enabled, etc.

For more information on the contents of all listed patches please click on the game title.

Next year, Xbox 360 owners will be treated to Gas Power Games’ tremendously overwhelming real-time strategy game, Supreme Commander. Aspyr Media will publish the port, which is being co-developed by both Gas Powered Games and Hellbent Games.

Lead designer Chris Taylor had mentioned previously that an Xbox 360 version of the game was certainly a possibility, so this is by no means a surprise. There’s currently no word on a PlayStation 3 version of the game, or if the soon-to-be-released Forged Alliance expansion pack will make its way to the 360.

I’m interested, more than anything, to see how the controls work. In the brief time I’ve spent playing Supreme Commander on PC, I’ve found myself tremendously overwhelmed because there’s just so much to manage. And when a game recommends that you have more than one monitor, it doesn’t seem like a natural fit for consoles.

Relic Entertainment owner THQ has acquired the rights to the Homeworld franchise from Vivendi Universal. According to a recently discovered trademark document, the rights to the Homeworld name changed hands August 14, 2007. A similar transfer of the Homeworld: Cataclysm expansion trademark was made the same day. Although it’s not specified, it’s highly unlikely THQ would have bought the name without acquiring the license to use the intellectual property.

Homeworld is a groundbreaking Real Time Strategy title in which players control a vast space fleet, maneuvering their ships on a fully 3D plane. Relic which originally developed Homeworld (1997) was purchased by THQ in 2004 and has gone on to develop Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War (2004) and Company of Heroes (2006).

It logically follows that THQ must have some plans to develop a new game for the series, which fits with its releases of more ambitious hardcore-oriented PC titles than any other publisher such as Iron Lore’s Titan Quest, Gas Powered Games’ Supreme Commander, and GSC Game World’s S.T.A.L.K.E.R.

via ShackNews

Gas Powered Games have just released a new patch to their highly acclaimed grand scale RTS, Supreme Commander. You can get the patch by logging in to GPGNet or by direct download link below.

For now, here are the release notes:

Supreme Commander patch version 3269 is now live.
It includes 3 new units, 1 per faction.
It also includes balance changes, including an adjustment to the Aeon Mercy.

For your convenience, here are the three new units:

Download Supreme Commander 3260 to 3269 Update

If you have one of those fancy schmancy IGN Founders’ Club memberships you can signup for the Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance beta over at FilePlanet right now. The signup page indicates the selection will be small.

Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance is Gas Powered Games’ standalone follow-up to the highly acclaimed Supreme Commander real-time strategy game that offers a seemingly unique way to zoom in and out of the battlefield as well as its ability to field mass amounts of units. Just in case you missed it, above is the latest Forged Alliance game trailer. Those familiar (or not familiar) with Supreme Commander might also read the Forged Alliance Knowledge Base to get an idea of what the upcoming expansion offers.

Not a Founders’ Club member but play SupCom tourneys via GPGnet? There might be hope still. Taken straight from GPG’s forums:

The Forged Alliance Open Beta has begun!

Tournaments with beta key access will be on till the beta ends.
Simply check the Tournament Schedule in the GAME > menu on GPGnet.

So there you go. More teasing and less pleasing for the majority of us.

Not trying to rush the year or anything but if like me, you are a fan of the original Supreme Commander, November cannot arrive any sooner. One of the best RTS titles out there, in my opinion, it was also the first one I ever played. This new stand alone expansion to the original is something I have been looking forward to since June, and the wonderful folks at THQ have decided to take pity upon us and sent more screens and a new trailer for Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance. Go ahead and drool…. you know you want to.

Ron posted some info regarding the new Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance back in June and THQ was more than happy to provide some screens during the E3 2007 event in Santa Monica. This new stand-alone title will be compatible with the original RTS and will follow the story of the Infinite War. With a new single-player campaign, new features for multiplayer, over 100 new units, and a new faction, fans of the series will be guaranteed an awesome new experience come November. The original Supreme Commander arrived on my doorstep over the weekend from the nice guys at FedEx and needless to say I am LOVING IT! Like Ron said: “If you didn’t play the original Supreme Commander, go buy it now. Right now. Then come back, read this again, and drool. Supreme Commander …………. Can November get here fast enough?” Amen to that!

MORE SCREENS

THQ and Valve have announced their plans to bring a number of game titles to the popular Steam service. The games will cover a wide variety of genres and developers and will kick off with some of the best:

• Supreme Commander - (Strategy; developed by Gas Powered Games)
• S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl - (Action; developed by GSC Game World)
• Company of Heroes - (Strategy; developed by Relic Entertainment)
• Titan Quest  - (Role playing; developed by Lore Entertainment)
• Titan Quest: Immortal Throne - (Role Playing; developed by Lore Entertainment)
• Full Spectrum Warrior -  (Action; developed by Pandemic)
• Full Spectrum Warrior: Ten Hammers -  (Action; developed by Pandemic)
• Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War Gold Edition - (Strategy; developed by Relic Entertainment)
• Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War: Dark Crusade - (Strategy; developed by Relic Entertainment)
• Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War Platinum Edition - (Strategy; developed by Relic Entertainment)

To top it off, Company of Heroes, Titan Quest, Titan Quest: Immortal Throne, Full Spectrum Warrior, and Full Spectrum Warrior: Ten Hammers are available right now, and will have a 10% discount until July 24.

THQ has announced that the next installment in the Supreme Commander series is set to be released in November for PC.

The new game will be titled Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance, and will be a standalone title. However, it will be compatible with the original RTS title, which means there are all sorts of goodies coming for the original as well. Forged Alliance will follow the story of the Infinite War, and will include a new single-player campaign, a new faction, and new features for multiplayer. You can also look forward to over 100 new units, which will give the player access to navies, counter intelligence, and orbital weaponry.

Chris Taylor, CEO of Gas Powered Games, said, “Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance is not only the continuation of the epic story that is unfolding inside the game’s universe, it is the continuation of our goal to move the bar for RTS gaming even higher than ever.”

If you didn’t play the original Supreme Commander, go buy it now. Right now. Then come back, read this again, and drool. Supreme Commander was one of the best RTS titles I’ve played in a while, and I expect no less from Forged Alliance. Can November get here fast enough?

Have you been thinking about picking up Supreme Commander or S.T.A.L.K.E.R., but just didn’t want to drive to the store? Now you don’t have to.

Direct2Drive has announced an agreement to distribute games from THQ digitally. Direct2Drive’s Jamie Berger said, “We’re proud to be the first to offer THQ’s roster of hit games to our consumers via digital distribution. Our customers are passionate about great games and blockbusters like Supreme Commander, the award-winning Company of Heroes, and the full Dawn of War series are exciting additions to our unparalleled library of AAA games available for download.”

THQ is just another big name in a host of them making titles available on Direct2Drive. Other companies such as 2K Games, Atari, Activision, Blizzard, Eidos, EA, Namco, NCSoft, SEGA, SOE, Ubisoft, and Vivendi-Universal have previously made titles available through the digital content distributor.

Digital distribution may be the future, but I’m not a huge fan right now. The biggest reason for that feeling is that I tend to change hardware and platforms on a fairly regular basis, and digital distributors like Direct2Drive tend to limit the number of installations that the end user can do before their key no longer works. Hopefully, this is something we’ll see change in the near future.