Really?

USA Today (of all places) has a scoop:

GTA IV, which was released in April for the Xbox 360 and Sony PlayStation 3, focused on former Eastern European soldier Niko Bellic and his escalating life of crime in the boroughs of Liberty City. This new episode, available Feb. 17 via download exclusively for those who own the Xbox 360 version (no price yet), stars Johnny Klebitz, a member of Liberty City biker gang The Lost.

“Johnny is a very different character than Niko, with a very different background,” says Dan Houser, vice president of creative development for Rockstar Games. “I can’t go into too much detail on the story, because we try not to give away too much plot before the game is released. But I can say that the story will show you a different side of Liberty City.”

The episode, titled The Lost and Damned, requires players to have the full version of the Mature-rated GTA IV (ages 17 and older) and an Xbox Live membership to download. It’s likely to carry an M rating, too. (Parents can use the Xbox 360’s parental controls to prevent children from accessing inappropriate content.)

…

Previous games have used downloads to add “new stages, weapons and costumes,” says GamePro Media features editor Dave Rudden, “but GTA IV’s content will reportedly add hours of gameplay.”

Rudden hopes the episode costs $15 or less, but Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst Michael Pachter expects a $20 price and says Rockstar could sell 2 million to 3 million downloads. “I see episodic content as a natural progression of the quality of downloadable content.”

Wow. Ok, last thing’s first: this ain’t gonna sell 2 million copies, guys. Secondly, it sounds like a fairly run-of-the-mill expansion pack, whereas we had been led to believe (or at least was heavily implied) that we’d be looking at a huge new area and plotline; comparable to a Liberty City Stories, I believe were their words. And hey, maybe it will be… but this sure doesn’t look like it.

But - this content is exclusive to 360 (and requiring Live Gold!) for who-knows-how-long, for a nearly year-old game that is on the wrong side of this year’s massive xmas game deluge? I dunno. I liked GTA IV – I even finished it (once) – but I can’t see myself going back for this. Besides, “The Lost” were such a small, lame part of GTA’s universe, it strikes me as an odd choice.

Anyways, this is out February 17 2009. You know what else is?

Killzone 2. And Street Fighter IV.

Act accordingly.

While Dan has been staunchly opposed to the NXE since hearing avatars wouldn’t be optional, I’ve tried to keep an open mind.  Sure, the whole thing smacked of “Wii’ve seen this before,” but that didn’t mean it wouldn’t be any good.  Besides — NXE is about more than just avatars.  There are so many changes that I like, big and little, that it’s hard to not fall in love with the new system.  Everything from installing games to the disc keeping your console whisper quiet to the long-awaited launch of the XNA-driven indie label Community Games tickles my happy bone.  I genuinely like the new navigation system and feel like the box art browsing in the marketplace has me checking out things I wouldn’t have before.  The “quick play” feature that lets you launch a recent game right out of another game is a nice touch and a perfect example of all the little features I’m loving.  Even Connect360, my Mac-to-360-streaming software that normally gets kncoked out of commission after even the smallest of updates is working fine — scratch that — better than ever.  All in all, I’d consider the NXE a huge success.  My only disappointment was the lack of “PrimeTime,” the channel that would feature avatar-based live game show gaming and was expected at NXE launch.

But enough about my feelings — how do you like the new NXE?

I just woke up to some of the best day starting news I’ve had in ages — FieldRunners 1.1 is now available on the iTunes App Store!

In case you somehow missed it, FieldRunners is a tower defense game for the iPhone/iPod Touch that we reviewed a few weeks back and gushed all over.  It’s still the go-to game on my Touch, and I don’t see that changing anytime soon — especially now that we have a new map, some new Runners, and an Endless mode!  Version 1.1 is essentially a free expansion pack rather than a simple bug fix like most +.1’s end up being.

If it’s good enough for Curt Schilling, it’s good enough for you — still only $4.99 on the App Store.  Hit the jump for the full list of additions;

[Thanks John!]

Tower defense games have become something of a passion of mine over the last year. After being turned onto the genre with 2007’s Desktop Tower Defense and falling head over heels in love with PixelJunk Monsters and FieldRunners, I’ve become something of a ravenous beast when it comes to the consumption of little army men running through my defense grid. Which brings us to… Defense Grid. Not my smoothest transition, I know — but the video above should make up for any failings in literary style on my part.

Defense Grid: The Awakening is the first tower defense game I’ve seen that had me panicked about the system requirements — it just looks that good. Launching on Steam later this month for $19.99, Defense Grid promises 20 varying environments, 10 different towers, 8 hours of campaign mode, multiple strategic solutions to each stage, and of course, Steam achievements. Oh — and those system requirements? Turns out they’re not as bad as I thought. I think we can all scrape together 1.8 CPU and 512 RAM.

Mmmmm…. Tower defense…

The answer lies somewhere in between. For the most part Singstar Vol. 2 looks and plays exactly like it’s predecessor. The few tweaks that have been made, while appreciated, are nothing earth shattering. Amazingly the best of these doesn’t even seem to be mentioned anywhere that might let a player know. Volume 2 introduces a feature that has been available in previous UK versions for a while now — disc swapping.

While it’s not quite the saved-to-drive backwards compatibility we were hoping for (a la Rock Band 2), you can hit the select button on the Song Select screen and swap out your Vol. 2 disc for a disc from any previous version of SingStar. In other words if you have a PS3 and want to rock out to PS2’s SingStar Country, you can do it through your PS3 edition. It’s a nice touch for those of us that want to check out the PS2 games without losing the PS3 experience. I for one am dying to try out SingStar 80’s and SingStar 90’s now that keeping the PS3 experience is an option.

But while this is a feature that ships on the disc for Volume 2 owners, it should be noted that you can update the original SingStar to version 2.20 and have the same functionality. So what else does Volume 2 have up it’s sleeve to set itself apart from the first game? Cross-compatible DLC. Any tracks I’ve downloaded from the SingStore for the first version (Pure Morning, anyone?) are instantly playable in Volume 2. It’s a relief, but it’s not really a shock. If anything, Volume 2 is replete with cross-compatibility. All of the content you have saved on your drive — audio and video of yourself acting like a jackass and whatnot (heck — it even earned an award for that) — is all at the ready. Same goes for your access to My SingStar Online. SingStar Volume 2 really showcases the forward-thinking business model that Sony has tried to create: the disc is only the precursor to the experience. While both volumes offer up a selection of 30 tracks, the experience is tied to what you play create and share. Now where have I heard that before? Oh, right.

With the experience being tied so closely to what’s off the disc, the question still remains — what’s on it? As music all comes down to a matter of taste you can’t really say with any definitiveness which version of SingStar offers the better musical experience. For my money though? Volume 2’s track listing blows Volume 1’s out of the water. Any game that offers Eminem, Radiohead, The Cure and the Mama’s and the Papa’s instantly gets my attention. Still — it’s not up to me, it’s up to you. Check out the track listings for SingStar and SingStar Vol. 2 and decide for yourself. In all honesty, it’s hard not to want both. If I had any complaint, it would be that so many quality tracks from the UK version of Vol. 2 didn’t make their way here. Common People? Summer in the City? Lithium? Keeping these songs from me is a crime against humanity.

SingStar Vol.2 offers up an experience that is very much in keeping with what came before, and if you’ve read our review of the first PS3 SingStar you’ll know that that’s a good thing. If this is your first outing with SingStar you couldn’t be bringing home a better selection of tunes. But as a 30-song track pack for previous SingStar owners? You’ll need to make that decision on a track-by-track basis.

Do you have opposable digits? Can you hold a crayon or other utensil between them and create squiggly lines that other people can read? If so, we’re looking for you!

theBBPS is currently looking to add 1-2 new writers to the staff roster. We’re looking for people with marginal talent who don’t like money and have the ability to contribute daily. No fatties. Here’s the deets on what we need;

• previous writing experience
• ability to post daily
• good working knowledge of the video game industry

What do you get in return? A place to publish your work and get noticed. If you’re really looking to break into the game journalism industry we’re a great mid-level site for doing so. Past site alumni have gone on to write for major online publications like 1Up and Joystiq. No money changes hands for the work you do here, but we’re happy to tie an imaginary carrot to the end of the stick. That being said, if you prove yourself adept at review-writing we can make sure that free games occasionally come your way.

Still up for the challenge? Send samples of your past work along with a news post, an editorial piece, and a review as you would see fit to publish on theBBPS to thebbpsrecruits@gmail.com.

So Left 4 Dead drops today and is already playable in Steam. Being that it’s one of the best co-op games I ever played it’s natural to want to connect with you all while I’m balls-deep in wreckin’ some fool zombies. Luckily Steam provides a great way to connect with people through their community groups and I wanted to let you know that we have our very own on Steam. It’s a public group so there’s no invite needed and this will be a great way to be able to connect while getting your Steam gaming on.

Check out the group here.

I also wanted to take the time to publicly thank loyal reader Guruthos for letting me start a new BBPS Steam group. He had started one a long time ago and was gracious enough to let me take over the reigns. If you’re already a member of the old BBPS group you should already have an invite to the new group waiting for you.

Four games total, with two available now and the other two coming soon. Unreal Gold and Unreal Tournament Game of the Year edition can each be had for 10 bucks a piece and Unreal 2 and Unreal Tournament 04 will hit the site later on. So, if you’ve never played Unreal… now here’s a cheap way to fix that!

In addition to the game (again 100% DRM free) a lot of the titles have PDF’s of the manual, mp3’s and other sorts of bonuses too… plus the satisfaction of supporting a kick-ass idea. Get shopping!

I was chatting with Garth Chouteau, PR representative with PopCap Games earlier today. He thought it might be fun to tease me with a bit of news about their next big title now that Bejeweled Twist is out of the gate. So what does PopCap have in store for us next?;

It’ll be a few months, but our next new game will be worth the wait… “zombie apocalypse,” the PopCap way: no blood, no gore, but blood-curdlingly fun and addictive just the same.

So there you have it! While the rest of us will have our heads buried deep within Left 4 Dead this week the fine folks at PopCap will be hard at work on a zombie invasion of their own.

When I’d first heard word that a new Bejeweled was on the way, my heart was placed somewhere between optimism and skepticism.  Like most of the modern world I’d sold my soul to the match-3 gods long ago.  And while my poison of choice had always been the Infinite Interctive helmed Puzzle Quest, I couldn’t help but recognize the monumental place Bejeweled held in the genre.  So could this, the first true sequel to Bejeweled in more than four years, do something truly different that we haven’t seen before?  Could PopCap really re-invent the wheel?  After doing some soul searching and countless hours of hands-on research, I’m prepared to share with you my findings.

First things first: while the core of the gameplay is still about matching three or more colored gems, Bejeweled Twist is not Bejeweled.  I can’t stress this enough.  The developers at PopCap Games set out to create a real sequel — something that maintained the same thematic elements that one would have recognized from previous Bejeweled games but wrapped them in something completely new.  So what’s so different about Twist?

Rather than swapping the spots of two gems to make groupings of three or more, Twist sees you taking a square grouping of four gems and rotating them to meet the same ends.  Think Hexic, but without the hexagon.  It’s a simple change, sure — but it completely re-invents the way the game is played.

A number of other quality changes have occurred as well, though none are as earth-shattering as the twisting.  Previous iterations of Bejeweled limited the pieces you could move to only those that could be matched.  Now you can twist any four you like.  The penalty?  Your score multiplayer goes down for every turn you take without making a match. 

Scoring has really taken a central point in Bejeweled Twist.  Each stage is completed when a certain score is attained.  Using special gems that you create by matching 4 or 5 can boost your score even faster.  Once you reach a 10x multipler you can earn a fruit gem which can help your score to explode.  The importance of scoring is re-inforced after each stage, where you’re presented with a summary of your performance and just what you did to earn your score that round.

Getting through the stages isn’t always as easy as it sounds.  Several roadblocks can get in your way pretty quickly.  Bomb gems — again, not unlike Hexic — need to be cleared away in a certain number of turns.  Dull lifeless rocks can clutter your field obstructing any matched you might try to make.  Some gems can even get locked up to prevent their movement!  Between the obstacles that block your way to success and the various options for working towards a quality score, PopCap has again found that perfect balance between challenge and reward. 

Rounding out the package are the four game modes that you get to choose from.  Classic is the main game mode, stripped of any modifying behaviours.  You’ll be faced with an increasingly difficult series of stages featuring all of the risks and rewards mentioned above.  Zen is similar to classic, but with no real means of losing.  They’ve taken away all the risk, and in turn they reward you with a lesser score.  As all modes contribute to an overall ranking, playing in Zen will get your rank up far slower than the modes that really challenge you.

Speaking of challenge, we can’t forget to mention Challenge mode.  Those who’ve been through post-Peggle rehab are intimately familiar with PopCap-style challenges.  Match so many of this colored gem in a row.  Remove this many gems in one move.  Etc..  Once you feel like you’ve mastered Twist, Challenge will give you a reason to bring your A-game.

The final mode, which is great for those of us looking to keep our time-killing on a short clock, is Blitz.  Blitz has you trying to rack up as high a score as ayou can in five minutes.  It’s simple, it’s elegant, and it’s exactly what you’re looking for when you’ve got 5 or 10 minutes to kill before you have to go for lunch.

Bejeweled Twist accomplishes exactly what it set out to do — it creates a brand new formula that reinvents a timeless classic.  And while it’s true that the similarities to Hexic can’t really be ignored, it’s far from a Hexic clone.  The two games may share some gameplay mechanics, but only Twist offers the PopCap charm that made Bejeweled so great in the first place. 

Bejeweled Twist is avaiable on the PopCap Store for $19.95.  A free trial is also available.  Want to take Bejeweled on the road?  Check out our review of the mobile version of the original.

Outside of Zombie awesomeness on the 360 and the PC there’s a few others worth noting out there. Animal Crossing with the teleconference addon, and Lips for those of you that wanted something like Singstar on the 360. Oh, and that ridiculous “Let’s Go to the Movies” game hits the 360. So three years from now when they try and figure out how the 360 destroyed itself, you’ll know exactly when it happened.

• Left 4 Dead (360, PC)
• Need for Speed Undercover (DS, PC, PS2, PS3, PSP, Wii, 360)
• Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe (PS3, 360)
• Shaun White Snowboarding (DS, PS2, PS3, 360, PSP, Wii)
• Castlevania Judgment (Wii)
• Lips (360)
• Tomb Raider Underworld (DS, PC, PS3, Wii, 360)
• Animal Crossing: City Folk (Wii)
• NCAA Basketball 09 (PS2, PS3, 360)
• You’re in the Movies (360)
• Rock Band Track Pack Volume 2 (PS2, PS3, Wii, 360)
• Strong Bad’s Cool Game for Attractive People Episode 4: Dangeresque 3: The Criminal Projective (PC, Wii)
• Tecmo Bowl: Kickoff (DS)
• The Lord of the Rings Online: Mines of Moria Complete Edition (PC)
• The Sims 2 Mansion & Garden Stuff (PC)
• Iron Chef America: Supreme Cuisine (DS)
• Karaoke Revolution Presents: American Idol Encore 2 (PS3, Wii, 360)
• Legendary (PC)
• Luminous Arc 2 (DS)
• Metal Slug 7 (DS)
• Monkey Mischief: Party Time (Wii)
• Mortimer Beckett and the Secrets of Spooky Manor (Wii)
• Naruto: The Broken Bond (360)
• Neverwinter Nights 2: Storm of Zehir (PC)
• Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party (DS, Wii)
• Rune Factory 2: A Fantasy Harvest Moon (DS)
• Skate City Heroes (Wii)
• Ski & Shoot (PS2)
• Ski Doo: Snowmobile Challenge (PS3, 360)
• Sonic Unleashed (PS2, Wii)
• Ultimate Band (DS, Wii)
• Winter Sports 2: The Next Challenge (DS, PS2, 360)

It’s a strange world we live in where the changing of seasons isn’t so much marked by a shift in weather or temperature but a shift in our buying habits. Rather than the changing color of the leaves, fall is marked for gamers by the suffocating deluge of great games releases. Last week alone we saw Resistance 2, Gears of War 2, Quantum of Solace, EndWar and Valkyria Chronicles. This week it’s Mirror’s Edge, Red Alert 3, Wrath of the Lich King, Call of Duty: World at War, Animal Crossing: City Folk, Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts and Mortal Kombat vs. DC. And that’s just the AAA titles. Drowning would be putting what we’re going through lightly.

Because of this, we’re put into a rather interesting situation. Rather than playing the games we want, we have to choose which games to play now and which games to wait on. It’s almost a game unto itself, and like any great game it can be as simple or as deep as you want it to be. Sure you could just pick the games you want most and move on, but what fun is that? And herein lies the part where I explain to you why I haven’t played LittleBigPlanet;

I’m dying to play LittleBigPlanet. Like — dying dying. For once the chest pains aren’t exclusively related to my high-blood pressure and poor diet. But here’s the thing — if I play LBP now I’m not going to play anything else this holiday season. I know what I’m like, and having played the beta I know the potential LBP has to suck every last free minute out of me for the next hundred years. I had to think strategically, so I’ve chosen to put LBP off until the fall deluge of games is over. If not, you’re reading list of Jim-penned articles would consist exclusively of LBP raving and ranting, and while that’ll make great material during the dry spell in the new year, it’s not necessarily what you’re looking for right now.

So Sackboy, to you I say “sorry,” I had to make a grown-up decision. I waited more than a year for you. Another few months won’t kill us to be apart. It won’t be much longer now, as I’ve already tackled much of what I cared about this fall. The reviews of Fable 2, Rock Band 2 and MotorStorm: Pacific Rift are behind us now, and while I’m currently knee-deep in Gears of War 2 and Bejeweled Twist, still looking forward to Left 4 Dead next week, and would eventually like to tackle EndWar and Prince of Persia, I can’t help but feel that the time for us to be together is almost here. Besides, some time to yourself will give you a chance to grow. When we meet you’ll have so much more to offer in the way of user-generated content than you would have at launch. I look forward to our time together with eager anticipation.

Oh - and Fallout 3 can eat my hog. You’ll notice it wasn’t mentioned in any of my ramblings. That’s because I’m only somewhat interested and completely aware of the time-commitment involved. Something tells me I can hold off on that one until I’m looking for something to kill time with next April. Besides, I’ve only just started playing the original one (still available for free), so I’ve got a ways to go before I feel the need to tackle number 3.

Over at Flickr fans of Gradius’ Iconic Vic Viper are expressing their love of the ship with Lego. Check out more Lego Vic Viper after the jump.

Flickr via Brothers Brick

So I’m reading through this and scanning the pics and while it’s beyond impressive there’s a part of me that just wonders how precise can the controls really be. I mean it probably works great for certain titles, and be fine for games like Jeopardy and such, but can it really replace the standard controller? Well, he posted a video showing off the contraption and how it all works. At the end of it there’s a quick pan over to the TV and what game is he playing? Wipeout fucking HD. A game so twitch-sensitive that a good number of able-bodied people can’t manage it.

My hats off to you my friend, you’re a gamer in every sense of the word and it’s stories like this that make me proud to be able to consider myself a fellow gamer. We can certainly be a cynical bunch but damn if we ain’t resourceful!

On this week’s BitCast you can listen to me verbally SPOOGE all over this demo or you can go back and read how I can verbosely SPOOGE all up in it. Now you can see for yourself what I’m so hot and bothered over since you can now download the demo on both the PC and the 360. DO IT NOW and meet me on Steam or on Live and we’ll blow the heads off some friggin’ zombies together.

Before I write this review, I think it’s important for me to confess about the small love affair I had with the original MotorStorm.  Not only was it my favorite racing title of the past few years (sorry Wipeout!), but it’s the game that sold me on the PlayStation 3.  Before MotorStorm hit I was really on the fence about picking a PS3 up.  Would it be a success?  Would there be enough games that I couldn’t get on my 360 to warrant a purchase?  Would Blu-Ray win out over HD-DVD?  Back in March 2007 all those questions were still up in the air.

…and then I saw MotorStorm.  It was on a playable kiosk at my local FutureShop (it’s like Best Buy, only Canadian).  Within five minutes the question went from if I should buy one to how quickly could I afford it.

While the original MotorStorm had it’s detractors, it was easy to look past it’s flaws and enjoy the creamy middle inside.  Now, only 18 months later, MotorStorm is back.  But does Pacific Rift build on the awesomeness that came before, or just retread the muddy tracks it laid down in the first game?

If I could sum up my feelings about Pacific Rift in one thought, it would be this: they listened.  Nearly every complaint or concern that people had about the first MotorStorm has been addressed, and unlike the minor tweaks you might find in a sequel like Rock Band 2 you’ll find the changes in MotorStorm to be huge and noticeable.  Unlike so many sequels we’ve seen this fall Pacific Rift doesn’t feel like an expansion pack or a version 1.5.  It’s a truly new installment that’s substantially bigger and better than the first.

But before we talk about what’s changed, let’s take a look at what’s stayed the same.  The first MotorStorm was all about breakneck speeds, multiple paths, and physical obstacles.  These were the cornerstones of that game, and thankfully, precedent has now been set with Pacific Rift to make these the cornerstones of the franchise. Nothing about what made the original so great has been removed — only built upon. It’s a refreshing change to see a sequel that doesn’t mess with what works.

So what’s new this time around? First up, there’s the things you’d expect in a racing sequel. 16 all-new tracks compared to the originals 8 and a new vehicle class (monster truck) form the bare bones that all of the real enhancements are built upon. The tracks themselves feel a little bit tighter this time around — a little more claustrophobic, but in a good way. The first MotorStorm’s terrain had fewer obstacles and more room to breath. Keeping things a little narrower this time around means you’ll need to step up your game to stay on the track.

But a more challenging layout isn’t the only change this time around with the tracks. One of the biggest complaints people had with the original MotorStorm was that despite how technically great the visuals looked, all eight tracks had the same brown look to them. It was a desert rally — there’s not a lot they could have done with it, but it was definitely a sticking point for some people. This time around they’ve changed the setting to a pacific island that features four distinct environments — earth, water, fire, and air. Not only does this give them game some variety in terms of visuals, it also helps change up the types of obstacles you’ll be facing. On the fire tracks you might be navigating your way around the crawling lava of an active volcano. On an air track you may find yourself making big jumps up in the mountains. Some of the tracks even show a bit of crossover — earth tracks running alongside a beach, water tracks with big jumps, etc..

The tracks also feature something that hasn’t been seen before — real-time track deformation. If I take out a viewing tower made of logs? When I come around on the next lap those logs are still going to be an obstacle on the ground. If another racer gets stuck in the field knocking down sugar cane? That path he created will still be there for me to use. It’s a great mechanic in a game all that’s about multiple paths and obstacles, as it puts some control of the situation right in the hands of the player.

While the tracks are really what the game is about, there have been a number of technical improvements that don’t relate to hands-on racing. Vehicle selection has undergone a massive overhaul this time around. Rather than being part of the problem when it came to the ridiculous load times of the original, it’s become part of the solution. They’ve carved the majority of the vehicle selection right out of the main game and stuck it off to the side in the options menu. When it comes to selecting which type of vehicle and paint job you want for each class of vehicle, you now visit the “garage.” It may sound like an extra step — and it is — but if you’ve ever suffered the first game’s load times before every race, you’ll be nothing but grateful for the change. You can still select your class before each race, but everything else has been streamlined out of the process.

Offline multiplayer, which was sorely missing from the first title, has made it’s debut this time around as well. Offline supports up to 4 player split-screen and it does something I love that so few games attempt — it offers 2-player vertical split-screen. In the days of CRT displays horizontal split was a no-brainer. But now that everybody’s sporting wide? Horizontal splitscreen is a dinosaur and should be treated as such.

Online the experience doesn’t change much from the single-player campaign. That’s something of both a blessing and a curse. A blessing because you’d like to maintain the things you love about the game without having to deal with problems like lag or gameplay limitations. A curse because in multiplayer, sometimes you just want something more. Online tournaments might be a lot to ask for, but maybe some different gameplay modes like Eliminator or a “least crashes” race. Vehicle combat was introduced in Pacific Rift (we’re talking a little nudge like the bikers did with their fists in part one, not some sort of weird Twisted Metal clone), and I would’ve loved to see a game mode revolving around that. Still — no lag issues, no problems jumping into a game quickly, an ongoing ranking system and a built-in party system that lets you keep your friends with you from race to race no matter who you’re competing against make the multiplayer fast, fun and addictive. A little note to the developers of this (and many other games) though — if I’m not wearing a headset I probably don’t want to hear their chatter through the TV. Give me an option to cut that out.

Online taught me something else about MotorStorm that I hadn’t really realized before. Falling from 1st to 15th after one crash? That’s not poor AI, that’s the nature of the game. It was one of the complaints people had about the first game, and honestly, it seems as though they’ve tweaked the AI to make that a less likely scenario in the single-player game. But as soon as you get online you realize that you’re traveling as the leader of a tightly knit pack, and if you crash you’ve got a lot of catching up to do.

And of course, there’s trophy support. the trophies are fairly well-balanced and offer a lot of “earners.” Complete so many of this race, win with this vehicle so many times, play for this long, etc.. Earners are attainable for anybody so long as they’re willing to put in the time. I’m definitely a big fan, and MotorStorm has tons of them. A few other features have snuck their way into the game as well and are at least worth a mention. Despite the rocking music ondisc, customized soundtracks are supported this time around. There’s a photo mode as well, which seems to bear a striking resemblance to the “screenshot support” we’ve heard so much about. After taking your photo you can export it to the hard drive, and I can say I’m proudly sporting one of my pics as my PS3 wallpaper. Who doesn’t love seeing my wheels come off as a crash off the top of a big rig?

As a fan of the first, MotorStorm: Pacific Rift offered me more of what I loved and fixed the things I didn’t. Rather than tossing in a few tweaks and a handful of new maps, the team at Evolution Studios took the term sequel to heart and offered up a brand new experience without changing the things that made the first one so great. If you like off-road frantic pray-to-survive type racing, you couldn’t do better this year than picking up MotorStorm: Pacific Rift.

MotorStorm Pacific Rift is available now exclusively for the PlayStation 3, and retails for $59.99.

We’re neck-deep in all the big AAA fall releases and decided to dedicate our entire show to the different ones that we’ve been spending time with. Luckily it works out that the three of us in the show this week have each spent a significant amount of time with different titles so there’s lots to talk about.

This week we ramble on about:

• What’cha been playing:
• Start - 27:45 - Little Big Planet
• 27:45 - 44:58 - Fable II
• 44:58 - 1:01:16 - Fallout 3
• 1:01:16 - 1:12:40 - Gears Of War 2
• 1:12:40 - End - Left 4 Dead PC Demo

This Week’s BitCast Music:
Song: Ramble On
Artist: Led Zeppelin
Album: Led Zeppelin II

Download Episode 59

It’s easy as pie to enter, since all you need to do is drop a comment down below! I’ll pick a few at random and send you an email with the download codes for the Kratos, Medusa and Minotaur outfits and the special God of War type level. So make sure when you leave that comment you fill in the email field properly. And while I’ll be picking names at random, that doesn’t mean you can’t try to grab my attention with a funny/witty comment!

Of course if Warcraft isn’t your thing, there’s more than enough here to keep you busy. Mirror’s Edge, Call of Duty, MK Vs. DC, Animal Crossing, even Tecmo Bowl DS hits this week. There’s literally something for everyone it seems. There’s also a TON of junk coming out on the DS and Wii this week, and yet ANOTHER Guitar Hero game…. shovelware galore!

• World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King (Mac, PC)
• Call of Duty: World at War (DS, PC, PS3, Wii, 360)
• Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 (360)
• Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts (360)
• Mirror’s Edge (PS3, 360)
• Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 (PS2, PS3, PSP, 360)
• Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe (PS3, 360)
• Shaun White Snowboarding (DS, PS2, PS3, 360, PSP)
• Shaun White Snowboarding: Road Trip (Wii)
• AC/DC Live: Rock Band Track Pack (Wii)
• Animal Crossing: City Folk (Wii)
• Guitar Hero: On Tour Decades (DS)
• Star Wars The Clone Wars: Jedi Alliance (DS)
• Star Wars The Clone Wars: Lightsaber Duels (Wii)
• Tecmo Bowl: Kickoff (DS)
• Sacred 2: Fallen Angel (PC)
• Call of Duty: World at War Final Fronts (PS2)
• WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2009 (DS, PS2, PS3, PSP, Wii, 360)
• MLB Superstars (Wii)
• Avatar - The Last Airbender: Into the Inferno (DS)
• Brain Challenge (Wii)
• Pony Friends: Mini Breeds Edition (DS)
• Populous (DS) (DS)
• The Three Stooges (PC)
• Winx Club: Mission Echantrix (DS)
• Amazing Adventures The Forgotten Ruins (DS)
• Big League Sports (Wii)
• Block Party (Wii)
• Eternal Poison (PS2)
• FaceBreaker K.O. Party (Wii)
• Guinness World Records: The Videogame (DS, Wii)
• Hasbro Family Game Night (PS2)
• Imagine Party Babyz (Wii)
• Luxor 3 (Wii)
• Monkey Mischief: Party Time (Wii)
• Mortimer Beckett and the Secrets of Spooky Manor (Wii)
• My Stop Smoking Coach with Allen Carr (DS)
• Rock Revolution (Wii)
• Six Flags Fun Park (DS)
• Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World (Wii)
• Testament of Sin (PC)
• Zoo Vet: Endangered Animals (DS)
• Super Street Fighter II Turbo Pinball FX (360)
• Top Chef The Game (PC)
• Candace Kane’s Candy Factory (Wii)
• futureU: The Prep Game for SAT (DS)
• Hello Kitty Daily (DS)
• TrackMania DS (DS)

So beautiful… Should have sent.. a poet…

The fine folks over at Half-Masked have seen fit to document my nightmare with EA in comic strip form, and I’m tickled pink about it. I couldn’t be tickled any more pink if my skin were inside out and I rolled around in cotton candy. I’m the pinkiest. Thanks Half-Masked!

When I’d first heard about Soul Trapper, my interest couldn’t have been more piqued. An audio-centric adventure game that you played more with your ears than your eyes? Who wouldn’t be interested in checking that out? As far as new ideas go, it’s definitely something that breaks new ground in the video game market. But was it ground worth breaking? Read on to find out..

Audio production quality falls somewhere between old timey radio and modern mystery audio books.  It’s a good fit for what’s presented.  If the whole idea behind Realtime Audio Adventures is to put you in the drivers seat of an interactive radio adventure from the 30’s, they’ve done it.  The problem is that an interactive radio show from the 30’s isn’t all that much fun.

Gameplay unfolds a little like a stripped down version of Zork.  Every minute or two of dialogue is followed with a few options that make up the entirety of the gameplay.  The first of these puzzles, for example, places you in a burning barn.  You can either grab the water bucket on the left, the ladder on the right, go forward into the loft or backwards out of the barn. As the game follows a strictly linear path, trying to diverge from their plans and act sensibly usually leads to the game calling you an idiot.  For some reason it didn’t like the idea of either battling the fire or getting the hell out of there.  The story needed me in the loft, so I grabbed the ladder and up I went.

Given the limited amount of actual gameplay involved you’d expect the story to be polished and hard to walk away from.  Instead it plays out like a high school kid whose read too much Chandler and has seen Ghostbusters a few times.

Still - you’ve got to give the team at Realtime Audio Adventures credit.  They’re trying something that hasn’t been done before, and it’s hard to know exactly how to make something like this work the first time out of the gate.  In trying something new, they’ve come up with a great idea that I’d love to see ironed out a little more effectively down the road.  Audio-centric gaming is a brilliant idea, and I couldn’t think of a better device to put it on.  Let’s hope that Soul Trapper has sown the seeds for better products down the road.

Soul Trapper: Episode 1, Ollie Ollie Oxen Free is available on the iTunes App Store for $6.99.

However, when someone turns the iPhone into a touch screen based Ocarina I need to sit up and take notice. I’m not sure whether to applaud this or make fun of it…

As I was first writing this post the entire thing consisted of one word written as big as this column width would allow:

Though that is entirely accurate of my feelings toward the game I have a conscience nagging at me saying that I should probably elaborate a little bit for you all. Besides, this game has been so damn high on my list of WANT NOW that it deserves more than just a single, perfect word. Read on to find out how the demo plays.

The demo let’s you try out both the online versions of the co-op campaign and a solo version of the campaign with AI-controlled teammates. The versus mode (where some people control some of the zombies) is not playable. I played through the solo campaign twice and both times it was a remarkably different experience though it was exactly the same level. The basic idea it to get from point A to point B alive. The maps were set up to give you a few different options of achieving that goal with a couple of gun and ammo stops spread out along the way. Each character can carry a heavy weapon with limited ammo (uzi, shotgun, assault rifle), pistols with infinite ammo (single or dual-wield), a health pack used to heal a teammate, a bottle of pills to give yourself a temporary health boost and a hand-held bomb (be it a molotov cocktail, pipe bomb or the like). You need to find a balance with the weapons since you need to conserve some of your ammo, but this game isn’t Resident Evil stingy with bullets.

What’s great about this game is that it is everything I’ve always wanted a zombie game to be. The zombies react exactly like I expect them to. One little foul up or separation from the team and you’ll find yourself flooded and overrun with undead. Sometimes they’re just aimlessly fumbling around, sometimes they’re above you ready to pounce, sometimes a huge group of them comes running around a corner. When that happens your adrenaline kicks in to overdrive and you just start firing and swatting as quickly as you can. Sometimes you’ll get pinned down and one of your teammates has a set amount of time to rescue you. You’ll also get messages if someone else is pinned giving you the chance to play hero.

There are also a few different types of zombies. “Normal” ones that mainly populate the world. Big fat ones (I have to apologize since I don’t remember exactly what each type is called in-game) that cover everything in a zombie-attracting goo when blown up. “Smokers” that have a long tongue that can grab you and pull you towards them but cause a distracting cloud of smoke when killed. There are also ones that seem to specialize in leaping at you from great distances. You’ll also encounter one “super zombie” in the demo that is a bit more powerful and takes a few more bullets to take down. All in all it makes for an interesting circumstance when they’re all attacking you at the same time.

What little I played of the game made me mark the calendar and consider taking a day off of work for launch. This is game is pure balls-to-the-wall FUN. I can’t wait to jump in with a group of friends and take this on, it’s the ultimate co-op game. You can be damn sure we’ll be talking about this game in a week or so when it finally releases. If you want to play the demo now be sure to preorder L4D on Steam and drop me a line or friend request so we can wreck house together.

Last night the wife, our friend and I went on a Friday Night Lights season 3 binge. I’ve been accumulating the episodes since this new season began and this was the first time we watched any of them. If you’ve never seen the show you might think you have to be a big football fan to enjoy it which really isn’t the case. The show really revolves around the characters and their relationships living in a football-obsessed town. The relatively unknown cast know their characters really well and that helps to let yourself get absorbed into their world.

This week in music has been filled with binging on The Decemberists since I’m going to their show tonight in Philly. They’re a very unique band in terms of sound and lyrics. I’ve often described them as “colonial”, like they should have been making music in the American Revolution period. Really they should be a really pretentious band but they’re melodies and hooks make them very welcoming.

That’s about the size of it for, What’cha Been Up To?