The Best of Big Download: August 31-September 6

First QuakeCon, then BlizzCon and now PAX 2009 – It's been a packed month for Big Download. Let's look at the past seven days before things calm down ... a little:
Exclusive Features

• PAX 2009: We've been all over this year's Penny Arcade Expo in Seattle. Check out our primer for the show, a chat with show organizer Mike Fehlauer, pictures from the show floor and pictures of the cosplayers and booth models. Plus hands-on and eyes-on PAX 2009 impressions of games like Star Trek Online, Left 4 Dead 2, James Cameron's Avatar The Game, Serious Sam HD The First Encounter, InstantAction Tribes, Split/Second, Torchlight, Divinity 2 and Deathspank.
• F.E.A.R 2 Reborn Review: We give our final word on this week's new single player expansion to Monolith's first person shooter.
• Hearts of Iron 3 Review: We let you know what we think of Paradox's latest historical strategy game.
• The Top 10 PC Game News Stories for August 2009: We look back at the big PC game news events for last month.
• Steam's new hardware survey before Windows 7: What does Steam's hardware survey show we have in our rigs before next month's launch of Microsoft's next OS? We have the info.
• Other PC Games Due In Fall 2009: We look at a lot of upcoming downloadable PC game titles due out in fall 2009.
• Quick Hit Football: We chat with the head of a PC game developer planning to launch a web browser based pro foootball game with current and former NFL players and coaches.
• Mac Monday: Our weekly Mac game column looks at two more games: Heileen and Burgertime Deluxe
• Big Ideas: Our weekly look at game themes looks at villains in games.
• Boot Disk: Our weekly retro games column looks at the classic strategy Heroes of Might and Magic 3.
• All You Need To Know: A new feature at Big Download, we look at what you need to know about the upcoming PC port of Batman: Arkham Asylum.
• Playing For Free: Our new column on free-to-play online games continues with a look at Battlefield Heroes.
• Freeware Friday: Our weekly look at free PC games checks out the open-source shooter OpenLieroX.

Downloads

• European Cities XL Demo: Try out the EU demo version of Monte Cristo's upcoming online city building sim game.
• Battlefield 2 1.50 Patch: It's the last (and massive) patch for EA's multiplayer shooter which includes lots of free content.
• WarCraft 3 Patch: Check out the latest update to Blizzard's hit RTS game.
• Heroes of Newerth trailer: It's the first big gameplay trailer for S2 Games' DotA-based title.
• The Secret World Cinematic Trailer 2: It's the second CGI trailer for Funcom's upcoming MMO game.
• Bioshock 2 Multiplayer Trailer: Check out the first public multiplayer footage from the FPS sequel from 2K Games.

News

• Fan Made 2D Han Solo Adventures game gets noticed
• Take Two settles "Hot Coffee" Lawsuit for over $20 million
• Alienware hints at upcoming gaming PC announcements
• OnLive begins closed beta test
• New Lord of the Rings Online expansion announced
• Fort Zombie announced
• No more plans for third Sins of a Solar Empire micro-expansion but . . .