Big robots are a staple science fiction, ranging from the mecha of Gundam to the more realistic Battletech series. Naturally, the PC have seen their fair share of mech games, mostly from the Battletech property (Mechwarrior 2, anyone?). In this same vein, a freeware mech combat game called Young's Modulus has been released to continue the robot-killing legacy. Featuring simple (but not bad) graphics, an interesting interface, and a more detail-oriented focus than most robot combat games, it's worth a try for any mecha combat fans. Plus, it even has a conquest mode, which is a nice change from most mech games.

A note to those who want to play it: To unlock the demo, input any 6-digit code. You can't use the numpad to insert the numbers.

[Via IndieGames]

Strategy fans looking for an updated experience in Rome are in luck. On Thursday, Paradox Interactive's Europa Universalis: Rome was patched to version 1.2 via the in-game auto-update system.

Patch 1.2 includes the original Day 1 patch as well as updates to the look and feel of the Roman environment and compatibility fixes on Vista and Intel graphic chip systems.

Europa Universalis: Rome was released on April 15 to mixed reviews and fan reaction. However, it appears some of the issues gamers found with the title are being addressed with automatic patches like the one released Thursday.

Major changes can be found after the jump.

Download the demo of Europa Universalis: Rome today!

Twilight of the Arnor picks up some time after Dark Avatar, and the galaxy is in rough shape. The evil Drengin Empire still maintains major control while the Dread Lords quietly manipulate things from behind the scenes until it comes time to step out with a show of force. Fortunately, all hope isn't lost. The humans located the last of the Arnor, the ancient precursor race that holds the secret to defeating the Dread Lords. While the story might seem like pretty standard for space operas, the expansion delivers plenty of fantastic gameplay improvements and tweaks to make it compelling and keeps Galactic Civilizations II placed among the best strategy games around. Conquer the galaxy after the jump

Eidos' 2007 released WWII naval action-strategy game Battlestations: Midway was a surprise critical and sales success. Eidos is already preparing a sequel to the game, Battlestations: Pacific, but before that happens Macintosh owners will be able to play the original game in a direct port.

The Macintosh version is being handled by UK based Feral Interactive and is due for release June 27 worldwide with the US price coming in at $49.95. You can pre-order the game via Feral's online store. There's no word yet on any plans for a Mac demo for the game

As long as there's been Starcraft there's been famous (and infamous) opening tactics in multiplayer matches. From Creep Jacking to the legendary Zerg rush, the original Starcraft has a plethora of different opening tricks. Even if you're not familiar with the venerable sci-fi strategy game, we'd still recommend checking this recent feature on opening tactics out. The reason being that the feature also covers which of these tactics will work in Starcraft II. Of course, to save some of you the trouble of worrying: Zerg rushes are completely unchanged, so don't go worrying your little Zergling heads off.

We'd be lying if we said we weren't jealous of the 1UP crew for getting to play as much of the new game as they so obviously got to play. Maybe we should start sending big Zerg-themed heart-shaped valentines cards to Blizzard, because the regular heart cards don't seem to be working.

A couple months back, the Discovery Channel spent an entire hour of its 5 part documentary "Rise of the Video Game" analyzing the relationship between the United States military and the video games industry. It's been a long and profitable tradition, with military simulations making up a big chunk of video game sales, and with recruitment games like America's Army proving to be very effective for the military.

Australian military officials must have been inspired by that example, because their online recruitment initiative DefenceJobs has launched a website full of military-themed Flash games. The games are designed to pitch a 12-month, post-secondary-school stint in the army as a viable choice to teens. So, far, over 300,000 users have signed up at the site.

The games aren't nearly as complex as America's Army, but they're still fun, and there are several of them. Some of them even have multi-player options. The blending of military and gaming culture is a complex subject, and a lot can be said both in criticism and acceptance of the trend, so mull over that if you like. Or, if you're more the shooting type than the thinking type, just play the damn games.

[Via Joystiq]

So little has changed in recent months -- The Sims 2 and World of Warcraft still completely dominate PC game sales. Sure, now and then something usurps them for a short time, but they always come back. The top 10 PC games in the NPD sales report released this past week:

1. The Sims 2 Kitchen & Bath Interior Design Stuff Expansion Pack
2. The Sims 2 Double Deluxe
3. The Sims 2 FreeTime Expansion Pack
4. World Of Warcraft: Battle Chest
5. World Of Warcraft
6. Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
7. Sins Of A Solar Empire
8. World Of Warcraft: Burning Crusade Expansion Pack
9. Assassin's Creed: Director's Cut Edition
10. Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas 2

That makes four years that The Sims 2 and World of Warcraft have been fairly consistently pwning the industry. The only other PC exclusive on the list is Ironclad/Stardock's runaway 4X RTS hit Sins of a Solar Empire. The others -- Call of Duty 4, Assassin's Creed, and Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 -- are multi-platform titles. WoW's position is no surprise, given the NPD's research with regards to online game revenues. The Sims 2's domination of the charts, however, speaks to a vast, silent market of gamers to whom hardcore games like Rainbow Six don't appeal.

We all know that Blizzard puts more time and effort than just about any other developer into making their games perfect. This recent 1UP interview with Blizzard's senior art director Samwise Didier (who has been with the company since 1991) gives us a prettty good look into that process, specifically for Starcraft II. Of course the interview does go off on a couple of wild tangents, but we'd have a hard time not talking about everything we possibly could if it were us in the interviewer's seat.

Well, most likely we'd meekly ask -- in a shrill, deathly voice -- why the Terran Firebat seems to no longer be with us, to which Blizzard would probably say, "We are Alpha and Omega..." before slapping us to the ground. At least that's how we see it going down.

Starcraft II producer Chris Sigaty sat down with two editors from 1UP and discussed the changes in Blizzard's upcoming sequel to their ultra-popular RTS franchise. Surprisingly, there have been a lot of changes in how the three races play, but all of their core units are still intact. The end results seems to be that each race has tons of new tactics and strategies to employ while retaining some core basics, such as Zerg rushes.

It sounds like new and old players alike are in for a treat with Starcraft II, as Chris Sigaty points out that the game is in constant flux from week to week in order to make sure everything works just right. We know Blizzard has a "when it's done" mentality, but we're starting to get really impatient on this particular title. Whenever the game does drop, we're certain it's going slap our lives like a surprise Ghost nuke.

In its most recent issue, The Official Xbox Magazine revived a rumor that 2K Boston (Ken Levine's team, known for its work on BioShock) is working on a game that will reboot the X-Com franchise. Since OXM exclusively covers the Xbox 360, there was no word about a PC version. Nevetheless, X-Com is a PC franchise and since BioShock saw a PC release, we're hoping that we can safely assume the new X-Com will come our way too.

BioShock 2 is under development at the new 2K office in Marin, and that means Levine and friends are working on something unannounced. 2K bought the rights to X-Com last year.

If you're not up on your history, the X-Com games were highly acclaimed and popular tactical combat titles developed by legendary strategy developer MicroProse. MicroProse was originally founded by Sid Meier and also produced Pirates!, Civilization, and Master of Orion.

[Via Kotaku]

Stop whatever you're doing (unless all you're doing is breathing) and go read this 1UP Starcraft 2 preview where EGM Editor-in-Cheif James "Milky" Mielke and 1UP's PC Games editor-in-chief Jeff Green face off in seven matches over the course of several hours. That's right, these guys spent six hours playing a game that most of us haven't even spent a minute playing. Lucky doesn't even begin to describe it.

Thankfully, they went ahead and produced four pages of gold for everyone to read. Everything from Jeff's sad seven losses in a row to discussions of what they think about all the new changes, additions and subtractions from the game. It's all worth reading so sit down, strap in and get your flamethrowers ready: the zerg rush of information is about to begin.

Tower Defenses are not known for being especially cute. No longer! Mixing elements of soda-can pyramid building and tower defense, Mubbly Tower brings the cute in full force. Best of all, it's free!

The goal of the game is to maintain your tower above Teh Line. You do this by build blocks with Moneh, and by protecting your blocks from the Wobblies with Mubblies. It mixes aspects of physics tower building (you have to maintain your tower) and tower defense in a cute, simple, addicting formula. It also scores you and tosses the scores up onto a leaderboard. It's only a 10mb download, and it's completely free, forever. Give it a try!

[Via IndieGames]