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Good news, PC gamers: today's the day to score some solid deals on three popular titles, all of them available via download for (near) instant delivery. Here's the rundown:

• Direct2Drive has Ghostbusters: The Video Game for $9.95. It lacks the multiplayer modes of its console counterparts, but the single-player stuff is a blast. It's a must-have for any fans of the franchise.
• Today only, EA is offering The Sims 3 for $29.95--a savings of $20 off the list price. If you don't mind taking a drive or waiting on delivery, Best Buy has it for $19.99--with an exclusive game guide.
• This weekend only, Steam is offering Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare - Game of the Year Edition for $23.99. It's one of the top-rated first-person shooters of all time, and it normally sells for $40.

One of the holiday season games we're most bullish on is Dragon Age: Origins. While this nerd-tastic tale of dragons and elves and guys wearing chainmail armor isn't for everyone (or even usually our cup of tea), the large chunks of the game we've played have had a mainstream Lord of the Rings epic action movie vibe, rather than rolling a 20-sided die in your parents' basement. Plus, it's one of the only big budget games in recent years developed first for PC gaming, and then ported to living room consoles, rather than the other way around.

We saw two early tastes of the game this morning (one very literally). The first is a browser-based flash game spinoff, called Dragon Age Journeys. Billed as an "EA 2D Production" it's a surprisingly faithful recreation of the full game, from the menus and interfaces to the dialog system -- just recast as cartoonish 2D animation. Combat has a similar feel, with plenty of special attacks and powers to use, but it's more strictly turn-based in the browser version.

Unfortunately, it's not embeddable, but the dragonagejourneys.com Web site does allow you to save your game and even create multiple characters.

Coincidentally, moments after we logged into Dragon Age Journeys, a promotional package for the game hit our desk. The box contained a pile of hay-like material and a small wooden box. Inside the box was a vial of red liquid and a wax-sealed note written in the game's arch-geek style, warning us that "Some master the blood of the darkspawn, some perish."

Our promotional vial of demon blood actually had a handy (and probably legally required) list ingredients attached, which included taurine, caffeine, ginseng, elderberry juice, and, of course, sodium benzoate and FD&C Red #40. We haven't dared touch it...yet.

We're not drinking this stuff...

Update: Our buddy Russ at MTV.com actually drank the stuff, and filmed himself doing it.

Here's a little Friday fun for all you game fans: From now until Oct. 25, the insanely popular puzzle game World of Goo is on sale--and you get to name the price.

It normally sells for $20, but in honor of its first birthday, developer 2D Boy decided to run a little experiment. (Check out the results on the company's blog. Very interesting stuff.)

Basically, when you click the Get It button, you're whisked to a PayPal page where you specify your "donation" amount. (No PayPal account? Click the "continue" link on the left side to use a credit card.)

So, what'll it be? A penny? A five-spot? A sawbuck? If you're honestly not sure what the game is worth, download the demo before you pick a number. World of Goo is available for Windows, Mac, and even Linux systems.

I'll admit I wasn't familiar with the game when I heard about this promotion, but it's without a doubt one of the cutest, weirdest, and most inventive puzzles I've ever played. You don't have to take my word: GameSpot awarded it a 9.0, as did several thousand readers.

I'm not going to reveal what I paid for it, as I don't want to influence anyone one way or the other. But I did pay for it--and definitely more than a penny.

How about you? Are you going to get your Goo on? If so, what's a fair price? (And how much did you actually pay?) Let's hear from you in the comments.

Games that once sold for $40-50 are now available for just $5 apiece.

(Credit: Direct2Drive)

A few weeks back I told you about Direct2Drive's 5-year-anniversary sale, which was offering games like BioShock (a personal favorite) for $5 apiece.

I hope you've been checking the site every week since then, because the cheap hits just keep on coming. This week it's wargames, starting with the beloved, award-winning Company of Heroes Gold--yours for just five smackers.

Other $5 gems include Supreme Commander Gold, World in Conflict Gold Edition, and Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30 (which, incidentally, scored a rare 9.0 on GameSpot). Good, good stuff.

In case the name of the service doesn't give it away, Direct2Drive provides game downloads--meaning no shipping charges.

And if you happened to miss my first post, good news: BioShock is still available.

There's one week left in this anniversary promotion, so be sure to check back next Monday to see if Direct2Drive has saved the best for last. In the meantime, here's your chance to stock up on some great games for about the cost of a grande frappuccino.

Update: My mistake: This is, in fact, the last week of the promotion. So you've got until Oct. 11 to grab these bargains.

Score some awesome action games for just $5 apiece.

(Credit: Direct2Drive)

Game-download service Direct2Drive is celebrating its 5-year anniversary by offering a large selection of games (all for PC) for $5 each. My top pick: BioShock, one of my all-time favorites.

It's primarily a first-person sci-fi shooter, but with pivotal role-playing elements that fit perfectly into the story. I won't spoil one bit of that story, but I will say it's compelling enough to keep you playing all the way until the surprising, unpredictable, utterly satisfying end.

It's also genuinely scary in places. I actually yelped a couple times while playing.

Granted, BioShock is a couple years old, as are most of the $5 titles--but there's still plenty of great gaming to be had. Other choices include The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl, Max Payne 2, and MLB 2K9.

I haven't tried Direct2Drive myself (yet), but I'm definitely planning to pick up a couple of these gems. If you've had any experience with the service, or you have some opinions to share on any of the games, hit the comments!

(Credit: Logitech)

On Thursday, Logitech announced two new PC gaming accessories, a successor to the G5 Laser Mouse and a behind-the-head gaming headset.

The G500 Gaming Mouse refreshes the current G5 Laser Mouse with improved sensitivity and a new design. The mouse will also come with up to 27 grams of weight that you can add on to tune the overall feel of the device. How's that for customization?

The mouse's onboard memory also allows you to switch from game to game without having to remap a button scheme. Better yet, this feature doesn't require any software installation (though you'll need to install if you want to change various sensitivity settings).

Expect to see the G500 in stores September for $70.

(Credit: Logitech)

Also announced Thursday is the G330 Gaming Headset, which the company claims is the first-ever behind-the-head headphone of its kind. The design aims to reduce pressure points on your head, a major complaint of PC gamers across the board.

Attached is also a noise-canceling boom mic with in-line audio controls for volume and microphone mute. The headset can also attach to your PC via 3.5 millimeter jacks or an included USB adapter.

Look for the G330 this month for $50.

Make sure to check CNET Reviews for write-ups on both of these gaming accessories in the coming weeks.

Grim Fandango's suave hero, Manuel "Manny" Calavera.

It used to be that playing classic, out-of-print PC games required you to find shady download sites or old dusty retail boxes on eBay, then hope that your ancient Windows 3.1 game would work under XP or Vista.

One of the most welcome recent developments in gaming is the relatively sudden availability of a huge back catalog of classic games, across multiple platforms.

Like classic films finally being released on DVD, you can now play great (and not-so-great) games from the '80s and '90s via the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Nintendo Wii, as well as on your PC via download platforms such as Steam, GameTap, and Good Old Games (which is especially notable for offering DRM-free versions of classic games for $5-10).

Recent examples include LucasArts' The Secret of Monkey Island (available on Xbox Live and the iPhone), and the classic Fallout and Tex Murphy games on GOG.com.

While the future of PC gaming may be in question, many of our fondest video game memories are not of console games played on a living room TV, but of classic PC adventure games -- a genre virtually ignored today.

Sadly, many of our favorites are not yet available on any of these retro gaming platforms, so we present for you, in handy gallery form, our list of five classic adventure games that need to be re-released as digital downloads, pronto. Disagree with our choices? Let us know what classic games (adventure of otherwise) deserve a second chance in the comments section below.

[Note: We fully admit to not playing any of these games since their original release, so our fond memories may be more nostalgia than reality.]

Five classic adventure games that need to be re-released as digital downloads

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Who are you calling dead?

(Credit: GameSpot)

We're really having this discussion again? Should we just refresh this article every year to correct for the misguided interpretation of NPD's U.S. retail sales figures?

The "death of PC gaming" has become reliable column and blog fodder for tech journalists. Perhaps it stems from lingering bitterness over time wasted editing Warcraft batch files in DOS 6.0. Regardless, you shouldn't take the idea seriously.

To prove it, we won't even lean on that most tempting pillar of PC gaming, the 12 million-strong World of Warcraft monthly subscription-paying player base. Instead we'll point to a report by Rock, Paper, Shotgun's Kieron Gillen from Britain's Develop 09 conference, specifically from a presentation on digital distribution.

(Credit: CNET)

After a steady stream of Netbooks and entry-level laptops, it's nice to slip behind the seat of a deluxe mobile powerhouse for a change. Alienware's new M17x laptop jams pretty much any high-end component you can think of into an imposing, matte, black chassis, including an Intel Core 2 Quad Extreme QX9300 CPU, dual Nvidia GeForce GTX 280M GPUs, and 1TB of hard-drive space.

While the system starts at a reasonable $1,799, you'll need to configure something closer to our $4,849 review unit to really get the benefit of Alienware's years of experience making high-end gaming PCs.

While playing around with the M17x was a blast, and we especially enjoyed creating wacky color combinations with the customizable backlit keyboard (this new version has four separate color zones under the keyboard tray), we're left wondering if the era of the extreme gaming rig is over--replaced by a mix of 10-inch Netbooks and console games.

It's an argument some have been making for years (or rebutting), but the oft-reported "Death of PC Games" really does seem closer than ever. ... Read more