In celebration of the upcoming release of Victoria II, Impulse has slashed the Victoria Complete bundle by 50% through the sequel’s launch later this month.

The bundle packs Victoria: An Empire Under the Sun and Victoria: Revolutions and typically goes $20.  Now for just $10 you can pick it up until Victoria II‘s release on August 13.

If you’re interested in pre-ordering V2 from Impulse, you’ll net yourself the soundtrack for the game in the process. As reported earlier, the title just went gold, with a new trailer to show off.

How about some indie sales for this, a month-turning weekend. That’s right, by Monday we’ll be well into August, and usually when temperatures get hot, game sales disappear. Luckily, digital distribution never rests, and offers plenty PC indie game discounts over the next couple of days. Have a look and see if something catches your fancy:

We’ve already discussed D2D’s IGF Finalists and Winners sale resurgence, which actually goes through the middle of next week. It’s a great deal if you don’t have half of the ten games packed in the bundle.

Impulse offers a few sales including the best individual discount of the weekend. Exosyphen’s Hacker: Evolution Untold with the “Flight Zero” expansion is 50% off, and can be had for just $12.50 instead of $25. Gratuitous Space Battles Complete is $15 off for the third weekend in a row (Our review.) Lastly, KRANX’s casual puzzler Musaic Box is $4.20 instead of $7.

Direct2Drive is offering a few deals this weekend. Killing Floor is $5 off and goes for just $15, Tripwire’s other title Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45 has been given the same 25% discount taking the $10 FPS down to $7.50. IGN’s digital distribution service is now also offering the 10% pre-order deal for Frictional’s adventure horror Amnesia: Dark Descent.

Steam’s offering a 10% pre-order discount on Team17′s Worms Reloaded, taking a couple bucks off the $20 strategy game.

Arcen Games has released their casual puzzler with hardcore depth Tidalis, now available for purchase and download via Steam, Impulse and Arcen Games website for $10. If you pick up the game through either of the aforementioned digital distribution channels you’ll get 10% off through launch week. A Mac version is available as well through Arcen’s site.

It’s a big leap of faith for Chris Park and the rest of the development team as they take their talents into a genre that’s largely seen as throwaway to core gamers. They hope to change that both with an addictive new gameplay mechanic and the depth of content their games have become known for.

We’ll have our review for the game up next week. You can grab the robust demo here for both PC and Mac, give it a go ’round.

Hidden Path has apparently struck an agreement with at least one digital distributor to pedal Defense Grid Gold–their popular tower defense game bundled with all DLC (both free and premium) currently released for the title.

$14 gets nets you the Defense Grid: The Awakening along with the “Borderlands” and “Resurgence” map packs that add an additional 12 levels to the game. The “Resurgence” DLC was released just last month as weekly dollar add-ons, so it makes sense the developer would roll out a version packaging the new content up with the core game. Though to that end, is the game’s post launch content support now concluded? Or will we see

DGG is currently available only through Impulse.

Update: Arcen Games has informed us of the release of the Tidalis launch trailer, which you can view below.

Original: Arcen Games next stop on the video game genre list Tidalis is set to arrive this Friday via digital distribution.

The casual puzzler promises hardcore depth (See dev’s other title AI War) with “a new addictive mechanic,” over 20 game styles, two player co-op and competitive play, the ability to create levels, themes and adventures. Even options for colorblind players, players averse to lots of light and motion, and those running the game on older computers.

Impulse has listed the $10 title as available for pre-order, offering beta access prior to the game’s release on July 16. Check out the launch trailer.

Taleworlds has released v1.126 of their action-RPG Mount & Blade: Warband, adding production house gameplay to the title. The new feature gives players the ability to construct buildings that produce valuable goods including iron, wine, velvet and more. Players can get started through the guild masters scattered throughout the towns of the game.

Several other additions, improvements and bug fixes also accompany the update. Highlights include: AI lord improvements, knockdown ability for hammers and clubs, new Swadian houses for their respected major towns and more.

The update is available as an automatic download for owners on Steam and Impulse. A manual patch is also available along with an updated dedicated server file over on The Patches Scrolls.

From the change log:

Version 1.126

Features and Gameplay:

• NEW! Gameplay features have been added, now players have the ability to build production houses that produce valuable goods such as iron, wine, velvet and more. The building of production houses is accessible through guild masters in towns. Also players may visit these newly modeled scenes via the town menu.
• New Swadian houses have been added to major Swadian towns.
• New, AI Behavior enables more realistic AI lord behaviors, such as AI lords collecting taxes.
• Campaign difficulty has been rebalanced, hard mode is now even more challenging with AI lords recruiting troops faster.
• Economy parameters such as taxes from fiefs and raiding outcomes, have been balanced.
• The Khergit faction has been given some much needed love and as a result has had their troops and items rebalanced.
• Khergits get modified hats and steppe armor instead of leather vests in multi-player.
• Man-hunters and high tier slaver troops have been given an overhaul and have top tier troops equal to other top tier army troops.
• Weapons that cannot be used to block can now do feint attacks.
• All items from hammers to warhammers and spiked clubs to iron maces now have knockdown capabilities.

Technical:

• New flags for items are added and new operations are defined to give more freedom to modders.
• Out of memory errors while rendering are now handled more properly.
• Fixed a bug that caused AI lords to have too many high level troops.
• Several bug fixes to the level editor.
• Lots of other bug fixes and some healthy re-balancing/improvements in both single and multi-player modes.

Positech has rolled out a new update for its RTS/Tower Defense hybrid Gratuitous Space Battles, now available for download via Impulse.

The patch brings a list of new features, usability improvements and bug fixes for the game. The pair of feature additions include optional damage indicators and real-time data on hits, misses and damage done which clicking a turret on the battle screen.

The update is available as an automatic download through Impulse, no word on a manual patch for now. A reminder that the title is 50% off on Steam through July 4, taking it down to just $10.

From the change log:

Gratuitous Space Battles v1.41

Bug Fix: Fixed missing swarm smartbomb tooltip.

Usability: Clarified some tooltips.

New Feature: Added optional damage-indicators to battles to show damage.

Usability: A number of previously ‘free’ modules are now locked. This reduces the games initial complexity.

Bug Fix: fixed bug where tutorial highlight may linger if tutorial is cancelled.

Usability: Added a new section to the ship design tutorial pointing out the module data comparison window

New Feature: Clicking a turret on the battle screen now shows real-time data on hits,misses and damage done.

Bug Fix: Fixed bug where very rarely some attacks seemed to damage the shields graphically, when in fact they reflect from the shields.

Bug Fix: Blueprint slots on ship designer now revert from unhighlighted state correctly after you drop a weapons module.

Usability: The ship design screens ‘hull picker’ now filters out ships from a different race, unless launched direct from the main menu.

Usability: Ship design loading dialog now lets you sort by name, class or race and displays thsoe 3 attributes.

Can you believe Bob Came in Pieces came to us in pieces six months ago? It seems like only yesterday…regardless, to celebrate the game’s half-birthday Ludosity has released a new update that brings several new maps and gamepad support. Now you can use an Xbox 360 controller, or any other compatible gamepad of your choosing, to play.

The content addition includes four new VR Missions and a new Sandbox level, which added onto the existing areas brings the total to 25 levels. That translates to what the developer surmises to be between 5-10 hours to complete the game from beginning to end.

The full length title is currently available for $9.99 and is also being offered for a limited time (through July 4) in the quite excellent five-game Northern Lights Indies bundle on Steam for $20 down from $55. The update can be had automatically via Impulse, no word on other outlets or a manual patch as of yet.

From the Impulse description and from Ludosity’s blog:

Ludosity’s physics-based puzzle game, Bob Came in Pieces, has been updated to v1.50 today. Available now to all registered Impulse customers, this new update contains support for gamepads and many new maps.

Not only has Bob turned 6 months, but he’s also very close to version 1.5!

We’re wrapping on the next free DLC now, and everything is moving along quite nicely. With four brand new VR Missions and a new, fun Sandbox level, Bob Came In Pieces has now a total of 25 levels, easily clocking in well over 5 hours even for the experienced player, and more likely 10 hours to play the game from beginning to end.

Also new is the long awaited Gamepad support! We now have official support for Xbox 360 Controller, and any old gamepad should work really.

Stardock’s Digital Distributon hub Impulse has been adding independent titles out the woodwork over the past week or so, and as such I thought it’d be thoughtful to share what titles now are available in a new area, gaining the extra exposure and new audience from the partnership. Here are the recently added games to the service and their descriptions:

Zombie Shooter – Sigma
“Where is the line between life and death? How far can human science go trying to understand this? Take part in the great battle to rescue humanity and find out what’s happening! The human race is in danger again. This time scientists could not cope with the imminent threat and became monsters themselves. Crowds of zombie people filled the secret research base and the dreadful contagion is about to spread earth wide. Use this last chance to save humanity from total annihilation!”

Guns of Icarus – Muse Games
“In an apocalyptic steampunk future, you are a privateer ferrying goods across treacherous airspace. Protect your airship and yourself from an onslaught of pirates, and safely reach your destination to reap the rewards. Guns of Icarus combines aspects of first-person shooters with time management in a richly detailed steampunk setting. The effect is a thrilling, frenetic aerial showdown that quickly takes hold and doesn’t let go.”

Fishdom: Spooky Splash – Playrix Entertainment
“Build up your spooky Fishdom! Earn cash as you complete addictive tile-swapping levels and spend it to fix up your spooktacular tank. Create the eerie atmosphere of an underwater haunted house with witches, vampires and ghosts in your aquarium. Have fun taking care of quirky tropical fishies and adding boo-tiful accessories to the virtual aquarium of your dreams! Win trophies as you polish your aquarium design skills in this brrrilliant match-3 sequel to Fishdom™! Get splashed with Fishdom fun!”

Vizati – Different Pixel
“Vizati is a puzzle game that will put your mind to the test. You have to rotate a magical cube to connect (group) the little vizati stones by color and figure out the best way to do it with a limited number of rotations/moves. You can play the Story Mode and follow the story between Julie and Peter who discovered the Vizati cube, or play the Arcade Mode, which is a rawer, faster and even more teasing mode.”

Mad Skills Motocross – Turborilla AB
“A motocross game that focuses on pure, simple fun. Race like a mad man. Do backflips over spectacular jumps. Land perfectly, full throttle, hit the Nitro-button and off you go. You will collect achievement-like stars for tricks. You will get power-ups that might seem silly and useless at first. But these power-ups will be very useful once it ‘clicks’ for you and you figure out when and how to use them. Unlike most other sidescrolling motocross games, Mad Skills Motocross is not about puzzles and obstacles. It is about racing. Pure and simple. Getting to the finish line in the shortest time possible is the primary goal, while pulling off backflips, frontflips, wheelies and more is the secondary goal.”

Qwak – Jamie Woodhouse (50% Off!)
“Qwak is a 2D platform/puzzle game where the object of the game is to guide a green duck through eighty levels. Fruit and gems can be collected for points, and enemies are eliminated with projectile egg weapons. Progress through the game is earned by collecting gold and silver keys. There are a variety of power-ups also available, including ‘chocolate egg’ weapons and extra shots. In addition to the normal-style levels, the challenge levels require the player to complete levels and collect all fruit within twenty seconds. Can you complete all eighty levels?”

Toki Tori – Two Tribes
“The gameplay in Toki Tori is a blend of two genres. While it looks like a platform game, it’s a puzzle game at heart. To progress through the game, the player must find each egg in a level using a set number of tools. Players will have to look and plan ahead carefully while using items such as the Telewarp, Freeze-o-Matic and InstantRockTM. Additional tools are gradually introduced as the player progresses through the games 80+ levels covering four unique worlds.”

Grappling Hook – Christian Teister
“Grappling Hook is an innovative first-person action puzzle / platform game. You use the Grappling Hook as a mighty high-tech tool to overcome various challenging obstacles by performing incredible moves and fast combinations of daring tricks. The dynamic and surprising levels open opportunities to use the Grappling Hook in unique ways never seen before in a game. Making your way through the levels requires both skill and creativity, while the increasing difficulty pushes you to become a real master of the Grappling Hook. All this comes together to create an intense, challenging, and rewarding gameplay experience.”

Ntronium has released a new update for its strategy title Armada 2526, now available for download via Impulse.

The major patch brings the game to v1.302, adding two new campaign and four battle scenarios, improved graphics for the star map, battle backgrounds and menus, improved UI with new features, and more. The file is available as an automatic download for owners of the game on the Impulse client.

From the change log:

Armada 2526 v1.302

Improved graphics for the star map, battle backgrounds and menus

New feature to fight a one off battle where you choose the setting and forces

Powerful new UI features to help manage your empire

Much improved battles, including improved ship behavior, AI, pacing and interface

Battle UI shows ships as icons when zoomed out.

Two new campaign scenarios, and four battle scenarios

Many small improvements and fixes