I read an article in PC Gamer about the MechCommander series being free for download. Apparently Microsoft released the games for free so there’s nothing shady about this. Go to mechcommander.org and click Downloads from the left hand menu. The original MechCommander is only available via torrent, but Gold and 2 are available as iso downloads. I already had MechCommander 2, so I downloaded the iso for MechCommander Gold. I mounted the iso image with Virtual Drive and ran the installer. I had to set the installer for compatibility mode as Windows 2000 for it to install on Windows 7 (I also had to set the shortcut to Windows 2000 for the game to run). The game calls itself MechCommander Desperate Measures (Desperate Measures is an add-on campaign for the original so when you install Gold you can choose to play the original campaign or the add-on from the in game menu).

It’s always nice when companies release older games for free, so get these games while they are available.

***Update***

mechcommander.org is no longer a good site. MechCommander and MechCommander 2, however, are available in ISO form from GameStand.net – thanks Alex for the information. Also according to Alex there’s “some more compatibility solutions on http://www.thegameengine.org/mcg.php“

After too few posts lately, I’m hitting a roll so I’ll go on. I finished Fallout 3 a while back and I would say it is definitely in my top 5 games of all time. With the game of the year edition out now, there is no reason not to try it. The main game is excellent, but the 5 DLCs are a mixed bag that are all worth playing. The first DLC, Operation Anchorage is fairly short and heavy on the combat. Some people did not like the lack of role-playing elements, but I thought it was fun nonetheless. The next DLC, The Pitt, had some role-playing though it was very linear. There was a lot of combat and some decent weapons. The best of the DLCs was the 3rd: Broken Steel. This was a continuation of the main quest and raised the level cap to 30 with new perks to boot. The second best DLC in my opinion was the 4th, Point Lookout. Like The Pitt, you went to another new location in the game, but the quests were non-linear and there was plenty of exploring and fun like the original game. The last DLC, Mothership Zeta, was an attempt to let you finally meet the aliens that crashed in the main game in a random area on the main DC map. The story here was linear like The Pitt (you were on a spaceship with very few options on where to go), but they had some cool ideas like NPCs that followed and could help you like in Op Anchorage, and some cool areas like the dump where the aliens suck things up from Earth. You can find plenty of items and weapons from the game on the ship, but most of the alien weapons are sub-par compared to the original alien blaster (and there was very little ammo for it on the ship for some reason). The ending is a little different, but again like all of the DLCs it is worth playing.

Fallout: New Vegas is the new Fallout game to be excited about in 2010. It is being developed by Obsidian Entertainment (which contains many of the folks from Black Isle whop developed the original Fallout games). Bethesda just released a cool teaser trailer on the Fallout site. Watch for more info and the release this fall.

I just finished NOLF and have to say it was a fun game.  Lots of cool gadgets to use, a good variety of weapons, and a good story. There are 15 missions, some longer than others. The Game of the Year Edition includes a bonus mission which has you take out a HARM base while on vacation.

The game also included a couple of vehicles to drive (motorcycle and snowmobile), but you could not fight from the vehicles so they were there just to get you from one place to another quickly. There were some challenging parts included timed areas to either escape from or do something before time was up. There were also some jumping challenges and falling out of an airplane with no parachute part; these were difficult and could be frustrating, but are definitely doable.

There are many funny conversations to overhear throughout as well as a lot of story to keep things interesting. The game was not totally free form,  but I felt like you had enough freedom to get from Point A to Point B a few different ways – do I sneak around or run in guns blazing; do I go through an open window, locked gate, etc. or take the direct approach.

I found the sneaking around parts the most annoying – dodging cameras and guards without setting off the alarm could get old after a while. Fortunately these parts were few and far between.

Overall, this is a fresh take on the shooter genre, and I am looking forward to playing NOLF 2.

A few weeks ago I had my first experience with Impulse, Stardock’s new Steam-like digital download site. After downloading the client, you can purchase games pretty painlessly. The games are available for immediate install or save to your hard drive. I bought an expansion for Galactic Civ 2, but since I didn’t have the original game installed, it wouldn’t even let me download the game I purchased (I am a firm believer in making backup copies of any digital downloads – you never know if the company will be gone tomorrow).

Impulse offered me a link to download a demo of Demigod. I went for it because I wanted to see something install. The download and install were silent. When the game was ready, I had the option to launch it from Impulse. I also found Start Menu shortcuts to the demo. I did enjoy the one game I played of Demigod, but unfortunately I missed the Labor Day sale on it so I’m waiting for the next time it goes on sale.

One last cool thing I found out about Impulse is that you can enter the serial numbers for any Stardock games you have (by registering the product in Impulse) and they will then show up in Impulse for download wherever you are. So, on the other side of the coin, I just made a backup of my purchased Stardock games in the cloud. They also update the version of the games available so you always install the latest version of the game.

I am happy with Impulse so far – they have sales weekly like other download sites and have a good selection besides Stardock games. The new client also eliminates the need to go to the website since it integrates everything from a list of your games or software purchased, community information (news, forums, etc), and the Impulse catalog of games and software for sale:

I’ve noticed this trend for a while from retail stores stock of PC games becoming smaller and smaller to the incessant cry of the death of PC gaming.  Yesterday, while searching for Spore Galactic Adventures for my son, we went to two different Gamestop stores.  One had one little rack of PC games, the other had no PC games at all.  We ended up going to Best Buy to find the game.  Of course, they hadn’t bothered putting it out on the shelf yet.  This is the second time this has happened to me at Best Buy try to purchase a PC game on the day it comes out (the first was with Fallout 3).  So if you ever go to Best Buy on the day a game comes out and their website says they have it in stock but you can’t find it, tell someone to go look in the back.

This situation with retail in general doesn’t bother me that much since there are so many good online digital distribution sites now.  From Steam to Gamersgate to Impulse (and many more including publishers’ own sites) it’s easy today to buy a game online and download it immediately for play.  If you haven’t tried one of these sites before, give them a look.  It beats driving all over dealing with stores who only seem interested in selling games for the console crowd anymore.