It was a busy week: Fallout New Vegas came out, lots of news was generated from BlizzCon 2010 and Microsoft announced plans to (again) revamp its Games For Windows download business. Oh, and Tribes is coming back! Let’s take a look back at the past seven days on Big Download:
Features

Games For Windows Marketplace: We detail the upcoming changes for Microsoft’s PC game download business
A Quick History Of Tribes: We take a look back at the sci-fi multiplayer shooter franchise
NBA 2K11 Review: We give our final verdict on 2K Sports’ PC …

Adobe’s making a serious play for the app space today, and it’s not limiting itself to phones — its new Air cross-platform runtime environment is designed to toss apps on your smart televisions and tablets as well. Air 2.5 supports accelerometers, multi-touch gestures, cameras and microphones, GPS data and hardware acceleration in a variety of silicon. What’s more, the company wants a piece of the action, so it’s going to help developers bring their Air 2.5 apps to market by partnering with the stores themselves, and charging a mere 30 …

There's no stopping the pirating of games. It's going to happen whether it should or shouldn't. However, the tactics used against pirates can vary greatly. Most of the time a company being pirated comes down hard on pirate, but Activision is reportedly trying something different. They're trying to be nice.

VentureBeat is reporting that the company has contacted pirates and basically asked them nicely to not sell pirated versions of Call of Duty: Black Ops. The company has hired private eyes who have been in touch with multiple pirates and simply …

It looks about like every other MSI 15.6-incher out there, but for those who prefer classy over vivacious, he GE603 might just be right down your alley. Designed primary as a multimedia laptop with the ability to handle a modest amount of demanding games, this here rig will be available with a Core i5-460M, i5-450M or i5-430M processor, NVIDIA’s GeForce GT 425M (1GB), HDMI and VGA outputs, a 320/500/640GB hard drive, a DVD burner, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR and a foursome of USB 2.0 sockets. You’ll also find 802.11b/g/n WiFi, an ExpressCard …

For some, the sound of one person banging on a plastic drum peripheral just isn’t enough. Two? Not gonna cut it. Now four, that might get the decibel level high enough. Good thing, then, that Namco Bandai’s next Taiko Drum Master game for Wii, Taiko Drum Master Wii: Everyone Party, will let four players cooperate and compete simultaneously when it launches in Japan on December 2.
In addition to the traditional song-playing modes, the game will sport several party minigames, including battling against crocodiles, fighting ghosts and collecting treasure while combating …

Filed under: Podcasts

Listen, it’s Friday. Are you really in mood for the stress of a regular Joystiq Podcast? No, we don’t think so. Wouldn’t you prefer the soothing sounds of Just Riffin’ as Ludwig Kietzmann and Justin McElroy discuss the finer points of Costume Quest, Fallout: New Vegas and Vanquish?
Come, drink in the calm. Thanks to Steven Strom for starting things out on such a soothing artistic note.
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Ten years is an awful lot of time for even the best videogames, much less the mediocre ones. But, Square Enix CEO Yoichi Wada is confident the company can keep Deus Ex: Human Revolution alive and kicking for about that long.

"We have dozens of IPs, some of which we wish to build into franchises," Wada revealed to MCV. "Deus Ex 3 is something we're trying to revive. We want to keep on producing profit from that IP for the next ten years."

And hey, if all else fails, they've always got …