This weekend we aren't featuring one, not two, but THREE deals!

The Freedom Force Pack and X-COM Complete Pack from 2K Games are available for $2/€2/£2 until Monday!

Tropico 3 from Kalypso Media Digital is available for 66% off until Monday!

The official story: "No comment." -- A tight-lipped 2K Games rep.

Bogus or not bogus?: Not bogus that 2K Boston is working on a new X-Com game of some sort, with a shooter spin-off being a strong possibility. As far as a second turn-based X-Com game from Firaxis is concerned, it would be the stuff of old-school gamers' dreams. And, as Fallout 3's massive sales proved, a critically acclaimed reboot of a classic franchise can reap massive rewards.

"(...) there's still no PC game that can compete with the mighty X-COM"

The original demo was for a relatively modest, two player tactical game. MicroProse asked them to base the action on Earth and to expand on the original design to deliver something more in keeping with the other epic strategy games it already had on its roster. “That prompted me to add the strategic level, with the basic idea of an alien infiltration of earth and the need to capture and research the alien technology to defeat them. It was quite a radical design in many respects, but we were trying to create a grand scale that would rival that of Civilization. In fact the research and technology tree somewhat emulates the role of advances in Civilization, but it also helped to develop the storyline.”

GS: There's this nasty rumor going around that you've been working on the successor to X-Com, the classic sci-fi tactical game from Microprose. You wouldn't know anything about that, would you?

KL: I personally own four copies of X-Com. I just bought the whole series again on Steam. I even spent a few hours last month playing (God forgive me) X- Com: Enforcer! Now that's love.

On a completely unprofessional side note, I'm going to name-drop and say I met Sid Meier at E3--one of the perks of working for Take-Two. He had this kind of Zen-master serenity thing going on about him, but I think I creeped him out with my nerdy, 1,000-yard fanboy stare.

Back to X-Com. I will say that I'm probably the world's biggest X-Com [fan]. I won't say I'm working on an X-Com game.

Retro goodness comes to Steam in the form of the entire X-COM collection. The individual titles are available for $4.99 each, or all together in the 'X-COM Complete Pack' for $14.99. To celebrate the launch, an additional 10% off these prices for one week until Sept 11. All games are available via Steam, a leading online platform for the delivery and management of PC games with over 15 million accounts worldwide. For more details, please visit www.steamgames.com

It's no secret that 2K Games acquired the X-COM license from Atari in June of 2005 and there's been speculation ever since that the publisher was looking for a studio to work on a sequel. After a few more rumors surfaced this week, we decided to do a little more digging of our own to find out if the rumors were true. Our inside source told us, "There's not much to tell, actually, other than that it's real." Now we still don't have official confirmation that the game is being developed by the former Irrational team or to what extent, if any, Ken Levine is connected. There was apparently, at some time, discussion of assigning the project to 2K Marin but since it is hard at work on BioShock 2, that doesn't seem likely.

So what would we like to see from this new sequel? Well, first and foremost, this is we're going to have to say we'd like to see another realistically modeled tactical strategy game. But even if the developers depart from that basic format, there are some key aspects of the design that we fell are necessary to maintain continuity with the franchise. First, the overall atmosphere of an alien invasion as an imminent global threat has to be maintained. While the original game definitely rode a wave of ET paranoia in the 1990s (thanks, Chris Carter), games where aliens invade the earth seem even more popular today than they were 15 years ago.

An inside source tells IGN that a new X-Com game is underway. Rumors of a new game have existed for quite some time due to the fact that 2K acquired the X-COM license from Infogrames back in 2007. (actually, it was acquired by Take 2 in 2005, as per USPTO; Gimli)

The latest Official Xbox Mag is running a rumour that's been quietly - oh so quietly - doing the rounds for a few months now. That rumour concerns just what, exactly, 2K Boston (and I presume 2K Australia as well) are up to these days. With 2K Marin confirmed as the team behind BioShock 2, what could Ken Levine and the rest of the guys behind BioShock 1 be working on? Maybe a new X-Com game. Yes, X-Com. 2K quietly bought the rights to the series in 2007, so the rumour's at least got a solid footing, though we're still going to recommend you increase your daily intake of salt. If only because the thought of a new, official X-Com game is too awesome to mess around with.