Rockstar Games Announces its First Episode of Downloadable Content for Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned

New York, NY – November 20, 2008 – Rockstar Games, a publishing label of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. (NASDAQ: TTWO), is proud to announce that the eagerly anticipated first episode of downloadable content, Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned, will be coming to the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system via Xbox LIVE® online entertainment network. Available exclusively on Xbox LIVE worldwide on February 17, 2009, The Lost and Damned will feature all new content and is the first of two episodes announced for Grand Theft Auto IV on Xbox 360.

“Making these episodes has enabled us to expand the narrative and the experience of interacting with a game world in really innovative ways,” said Sam Houser, Founder of Rockstar Games. “We hope fans of the game enjoy the new way of experiencing life in Liberty City contained in this first episode.”

Since its launch in April, Grand Theft Auto IV has garnered unprecedented praise and acclaim worldwide. Developed by series creator Rockstar North and set in Liberty City, The Lost and Damned features a new main character and plot that intersects with the storyline of Grand Theft Auto IV; new missions that offer an entirely fresh way to explore Liberty City with new multiplayer modes, weapons and vehicles; and a diverse soundtrack with additional music – all with the incredible production values that are the trademarks of Grand Theft Auto.

Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned requires players to have the full version of Grand Theft Auto IV for Xbox 360 and Xbox LIVE membership to download. Further details, including pricing, will be announced soon. For more information, please visit www.rockstargames.com/IV.

Valve's new co-op intensive shooter Left 4 Dead aims to capture the more human side of zombie horror, pitting a team of four disparate survivors against the hordes of the damned, which is nearly as frightening as a lone game facing off against an assemblage of video game critics. Turn the corner slowly...

Cheat Code Central
For good or ill, this is not a game that challenges your gaming skill. Rather, it's a title that plops you into the scariest parts of your favorite zombie/horror flick - think 28 Days Later meets Army of Darkness - and never lets go. As such, players will go through the entirety of the game guns-a-blazin' and on the edge of their seats. This is definitely one of the most exhilarating and heart-pounding experiences I've had in video games, though somewhat hollow and empty in retrospect.

GameSpot
You'll travel through urban, suburban, and rural areas, each one grim, desolate, and littered with evidence of the apocalyptic event. You never learn exactly what happened, but the rich environments and thoughtful graffiti set the stage expertly. One campaign on normal difficulty (the second of four tiers) takes about an hour to complete, so you'll soon become familiar with each set of maps. Although the limited selection and grim, overcast color palette can sometimes feel a bit repetitious, the dynamic enemies, varying weapon and ammo spawns, and ever-changing human factor combine to make each play-through feel surprisingly unique.

Edge Online
Normally, the giggling distraction of co-op promptly shatters whatever atmosphere developers had intended, but somehow Valve inveigles four players into the horror of its setting. It’s a pretty nerve-jangling scrimmage; rare is the game in which, shrill with panic, you find yourself shouting into the microphone: “Oh, Christ! It’s a Witch! It’s a Witch!” Valve has achieved this through its usual understated storytelling genius – taking something unscripted and dynamic, and seeding it with the right amount of narrative flavour, pacing and spectacle to make it feel like you are participating in an orchestrated horror set-piece.

Game Informer Online
I’ve neglected to talk about single player, which the game lists as the third option on its title screen. There is no story to soak in, and sadly, it’s just not the same game without buddies at your side. If anything, this mode is worth a look just to witness Valve’s amazing teammate AI. They are almost too good, often shooting a little too quickly and taking down elite zombies before you see them (which sucks for multiplayer matches without eight players). The split-screen co-op is fun, but results in a drop in graphical fidelity.

OXM Online
Left 4 Dead presents the zombie apocalypse the way we always hoped it would be: filled with non-stop tension and continuous carnage. Still, in your first match or two, you might be tempted to shrug off Left 4 Dead as too simple — “I get it, zombies.” But like the similarly “basic” Counter- Strike or Halo multiplayer, the strategies start to unfold. Where can you flank? Should you risk sending a scout ahead? Should you let the A.I. zombies take the lead? How can you use the terrain to your advantage? What if we work together here? The more you play, the deeper the experience gets, and the more satisfyingly strategic your play becomes.

Kotaku
I've already logged about sixteen hours with Left 4 Dead on the Xbox 360, a figure I expect to be but a tiny fraction of my total play time. I'm addicted. It's rare that I enjoy a game this much from the get-go. This is a brilliant, tightly executed shooter that feels fresh and exciting. It may be a little light on content, but it has easily supplanted my other online multiplayer gaming choices as the title that will soak up the majority of my free time. Anyone looking for a different — but not too different — take on the first-person shooter genre can't go wrong with Left 4 Dead.

As if having your life in the hands of other Xbox Live players wasn't scary enough...

Johnny is a very different character than Niko, with a very different background. 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 USA Today report also says the expansion will "let you download more sandbox time", Houser elaborating "We feel like we've only scratched the surface in terms of the depth and detail in [Liberty City]".

'Grand Theft Auto' yields road to the 'Lost and Damned' [USA Today]

That's the same price as the standard 80 GB model PS3 that Sony's offering sans packed-in game and $100 less than the new 160 GB SKU bundled with Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. Quantities may actually be genuinely limited this time and the offer appears to be online only, so if you're feeling froggy, we'd recommend jumpin'.

PlayStation 3 40GB Limited Edition Kojima Silver Bundle w/ Metal Gear Solid 4 [Walmart - thanks, Shaun!]

Aurora Feint II: The Arena will set iPhone users back $10, but will include asynchronous massively-multiplayer gaming, leader board rankings, messaging and player walls. The Arena will be the second of three proposed games based on the world of Aurora Feint, according to the developers.

"We had an overwhelming response to Aurora Feint: The Beginning and we are thankful for the support of our huge fan base" said Peter Relan, Chairman of Aurora Feint Inc. "The iPhone has created an incredible platform for gaming that Jason and Danielle have taken to a new level with the introduction of an Asynchronous MMO World."

No word on what the mysterious third Aurora Feint game will be, but here's a run down on what you'll get for your $10 with Arena:

Asynchronous Head-Head Real Time competition
Even though both players are not using their iPhones at the same time, a player can compete as if the other player is playing in real time, head-head. This is completely different from turn based non-real time competitive play, and is accomplished by "summoning persistent ghosts" that persist in the world and can be challenged by other players even when the ghost's player is not actually on their iPhone. Playing against a ghost is exactly like playing in real-time against a real player, with real-time interaction between challenger and ghost.

World Newsfeed
All players see a continuous stream of real-time events happening in the World all the time, as a ticker on the bottom of the iPhone touch screen. Touching an "interesting" event in this ticker takes you to a new place in the world called the Tavern, where players can conduct "asynchronous" chat with other players in the world, propose duels, share strategies and compete for leader board rankings.

Player Walls
Each player gets a wall where other players can leave comments and challenges and suggestions, which in turn become events in the Tavern.

"We've raced to be the first Asynchronous Mobile MMO, or AMMMO, specifically designed for "distractable" environments such as the iPhone. Game play is bursty, interruptible, and you don't know exactly when to expect your friends to be online. Yet even our casual gaming fans wanted massively multi-player capability and told us they would pay for it: so we built this AMMMO World and are thrilled by the positive feedback we've received in the beta cycle." said Jason Citron and Danielle Cassley.

Now the only question is: Do you buy Aurora Feint II: The Arena now, wait for Puzzle Quest in December or pony up $20 for both?

TransGaming tells us that the game is working its way through the approval process as we speak. Challenge of the Warlords has been optimized to run on the iPhone and iPod Touch, making full use of the tap features. The game will include new story lines, new characters and new conquests.

Though, honestly, this could be an exact replica of the original Puzzle Quest and I'd happily plunk down my $10 to have it stowed away on my iPhone.

I've been hankering for this game since the day Apple announced the App Store. Going as far as emailing both the developer and publisher of Puzzle Quest and asking them to get to it. I'm delighted to see that my pestering, no matter how ineffectual in reality it might have been, has ended with a new way for me to while away the time between when my head hits the pillow and I finally fall asleep.

We'll make sure to update you once we shake more details on the game loose from TransGaming and get a chance to check the game out ourselves. But I can't help but think that there's a new must buy for iPhones in town.

Whatever side of the giving/receiving divide you find yourself on, Kotaku can help. Givers - print out our handy gift guides and carry them with you to the shops (or just open them in another tab while you browse Amazon or whatever - this is 2008 after all). Would-be receivers - leave the guides open on the PCs of family members, stuff printouts into pockets or down the side of the sofa where your prey loved one can find them or just grab people by the lapels and scream the URL directly into their faces.

As before, we have split this guide to the best in PSP and DS gaming into Bargains (cheap, yet cheerful), Essentials (should already be on your to-play list), Socializers (multiplayer magnificence) and Epics (life destroying time sinks).

Bargains

Iron Chef America (DS)
Price: $19.99
Rating: Everyone

A surprise hit at Kotaku Towers. In a sense this is just an IP-licensed knock-off of 'Cooking Mama' yet somehow the sheer bluster and absurdity of the TV show carries through and makes this more fun than it has any right to be.

Metroid Prime: Hunters (DS)
Price: $16.75
Rating: Teen

Still the best portable FPS around, Metroid Prime Hunters has plenty to offer fans of the 2D series or anyone looking for an engaging 3D shmup with exploratory/puzzle elements. The intuitive controls are the next best thing to Mouse/Keyboard for 3D shooting and the boss battles require thought as well as firepower.

Lumines II (PSP)
Price: $22.70
Rating: E10+

Better than the original on every level, Lumines II is a solid, fast-paced puzzler with a great soundtrack and plenty of extra modes to keep you coming back for more. Gameplay is hard to describe, but easy to understand in practice.

Beats (PSP)
Price: $5
Rating: E

Quirky rhythm action gaming bundled with a 'music creator' toy. The ability to play levels based on tracks stored on your memory stick gives this a lot of extra life and means that - finally! - Melt Banana can have their rhythm game debut.

Puzzle Quest: Challenge Of The Warlords (DS)
Price: $19.99
Rating: E

Tacking on a 'story mode' to a puzzle game is usually an exercise in pointless dialogue and applied lameness, but in Puzzle Quest the RPG elements really do add depth and turns the already addictive Bejewelled-style gem matching into a form of combat. It sounds daft, but it works.

Essentials

God of War: Chains Of Olympus (PSP)
Price: $33.99
Rating: M

Like Jessica Alba with a dose of the Rage virus GoW:CoO is absurdly violent, but beautifully put together. This is probably the best looking PSP title yet, with detailed backgrounds and character animations that would not look out of place on a 'proper' console. Well balanced fighting and slick production make this one of the PSP standouts of 2008.

Patapon (PSP)
Price: 19.99
Rating: E

A rhythm-based RTS? Why, yes - and one with a fantastic visual style at that. Patapon is a tough little nut and an acquired taste for some but it more than lives up to its inspired art direction.

Castlevania Order Of Ecclesia (DS)
Price: $27.99
Rating:T

Yes, it is hard - bastard hard - but you wont find a more polished action platformer in the class of 2008. Intense boss battles and a brand new magic system make this a welcome addition to the series.

Bangai-O Spirits (DS)
Price: $19.99
Rating:E +10

Insane J-Shoot-em-up of the OHMYGODDNO! school of frenzied blasting. Initially bewildering to play, with practice you will become death, destroyer of flashy things. This is the kind of thing that goes on in Jeff Minter's head all the time.

Lock's Quest (DS)
Price: $27.99
Rating:E

The Tower Defense genre seems ideally suited to a touchscreen device, but Lock's Quest takes the idea and runs with it, adding layers of micromanagement and minigames. The result is a well rounded game that expands a casual time waster into something much more.

Socializers

Mario Kart (DS)
Price: $33.99
Rating:E

What more is there to say about Mario Kart? Nintendo managed to bottle lightning in creating this one - a masterclass in simple elements combining to be more than the sum of their parts. Still one of the most fun ways for four people to spend time together that doesn't rate an NSFW tag and a premium video stream.

GRID (DS)
Price: $19.99
Rating:E

If you prefer your DS racing experience to be a little lighter on the Mushroom Mobiles and place greater emphasis on real-world vehicles and tracks, GRID offers a well designed driving experience that never sacrifices fun in favour of realism.

Advance Wars: Days of Ruin (DS)
Price: $28.99
Rating:E

The Advance Wars formula was simplified in some respects for this version but the core values remain - pitch perfect combat, accessibility and levels of addictiveness that make crack seem merely a bit moreish.

Monster Hunter Portable Freedom 2 (PSP)
Price: $44.98
Rating:T

Merely 'quite fun' as a single player game, MHPF2 takes a turn for the awesome when you get your friends involved. At the London Games Expo this year, Capcom had a special Monster Hunter chillout area where players could gather for ad-hoc group adventures. And gather they most certainly did.

Buzz! Master Quiz (PSP)
Price: $19.99
Rating:E 10+

PSP Multiplayer doesn't have to be about killing things or crashing into other things - Buzz is a quickfire quiz that will appeal to anyone wanting a quick, fun party game. Just give us more questions next time.

Epics

Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII (PSP)
Price: $27.99
Rating:T

The FF VII gang enter the Flashback Booth for more floppy-haired RPG action. Cue hours of solid gameplay within an engrossing story that stands up to the best the series has to offer. Lucky westerners get to play on 'Hard Mode' for the first time, too.

Sid Meier's Civilization Revolution (DS)
Price: $
Rating:

Always absorbing, Civ gets a streamlined makeover that makes the most of the DS interface and provides instantly accessible play with surprising depth. If you have never succumbed to the Civ magic, this could be the perfect introduction.

Disgaea DS (DS)
Price: $27.99
Rating: E

Deeper than a Zen master reading Kierkegaard at bottom of the Marianas Trench, Disgaea DS has cunning combat and a compelling story that will drag you into strategy hell. Or Heaven, depending on how you look at it.

Football Manager Handheld 2009 (PSP)
Price: $37.89 (£24.99)
Rating:3+ (PEGI)

(or "Worldwide Soccer Manager Handheld 2009" in the US) The fearsomely addictive stat grinding of the FM series has the power to end relationships and sap the very marrow out of bones. The 2009 incarnation features multiple leagues, better in-match displays and even more finely tuneable player statistics.

The World Ends With You (DS)
Price: $39.99
Rating: T

Setting TWEWY in the surreal real-life fantasy land of Shibuya, Tokyo was a stroke of genius - but by no means the best thing about this quirky RPG. Innovative combat that makes full use of the dual screens and an intricate device levelling system will draw you in and tickle the gameplay receptors in your brain.

There are certainly some deserving titles among the winners, but there are also a few head-scratchers among the nominees.

Our pick for Game of the year was Grand Theft Auto IV. Here are the rest of the best:

KOTAKU'S PICKS

Studio of the Year: Media Molecule
Best Shooter: Far Cry 2
Best RPG: Fallout 3
Best Fighting Game: Soulcalibur IV
Best Individual Sports Game: Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09
Best Handheld Game: God of War: Chains of Olympus
Best Graphics: Metal Gear Solid 4
Best Game Based on a Movie or TV Show: LEGO Indiana Jones
Best Music Game: Rock Band 2
Best Driving Game: Burnout Paradise
Best Action Adventure Game: Dead Space
Best Team Sports Game: Madden NFL 09
Best Soundtrack: Rock Band 2
Best Xbox 360 Game: Gears of War 2
Best Wii Game: No More Heroes
Best PS3 Game: Metal Gear Solid 4
Best PC Game: Left 4 Dead
Best Original Score: No Vote
Best Multiplayer Game: Left 4 Dead
Best Performance by a Human Male: Stephen Fry as The Narrator
Best Performance by a Human Female: Debie Mae West as Meryl Silverburgh

The titles will still be available for stream via PCs and other set top boxes — just not your Xbox 360.

According to a follow up on the story from MTV Multiplayer, "a few hundred titles are temporarily unavailable" for Microsoft's console, but Netflix spokesfolk say "we hope they’ll be licensed for Xbox 360 shortly." On the eve of the New Xbox Experience roll out, I'd be plenty pissed at the last minute change if it didn't likely save me from actually going through with a viewing of Ghost Rider.

NXE Netflix streaming loses Sony's Columbia Pictures movies [Joystiq]

Sure it may not have the grid-like precision of its Nintendo counter-part, or the obsessive content (yet), but the first thing I thought of when I laid my eyes on Capcom's "branded experience" for Super Street Fighter II Turbe HD Remix, was Nintendo's Wii Channels.

The Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix "destination experience" looks to be a hang-out spot, a "channel" if you will, for fans of the game on the Xbox 360.

The "channel" will feature updates about new content, new trailers, and access to downloadable content. That includes the picture packs and themes you used to find running loose in the Marketplace on the Old Xbox Experience.

"With 1080p high-definition art and graphics, and the ultimate user feature set, Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix is the perfect game to compliment the New Xbox Experience,” said Christian Svensson, VP of Strategic Planning and Business Development at Capcom Entertainment Inc. “Capcom is dedicated to providing captivating content to the digital space and we’re proud to participate in this new era of Xbox LIVE."

What Capcom isn't totally clear on is exactly where this "channel" will show up in the New Xbox Experience. Hopefully it will be something you have to dig down to and not something that could clutter up the experience. I can't wait to see how else Msoft plans to monetize, and perhaps, clutter up their recently stream-lined interface.

Only one way to know for sure. Mortal Kombat Vs. DC Universe versus the game critics. Round one, fight!

G4 X-Play
The story concerns an interdimensional accident in which Mortal Kombat bigwig Shao Khan and DC tyrant Darkseid get fused into one bundle of bad attitude creatively named Dark Kahn. He’s also notable for having one of the most uninspired designs in fighting game boss history. You’ve got Shao Khan and Darkseid to work with and you come up with a big flamey skullfaced dude? C’mon, guys.

IGN
When things were 2D on your SEGA Genesis and Super Nintendo, Mortal Kombat was simple: up was jump, down was crouch, and left/right moved you left/right. Being an awesome fighter came down to timing your blocks and moves while dodging ranged attacks the best that you could with your limited movement options. However, when MK made the move to the 3D realm, things got sticky. Suddenly, characters could just walk deeper into the plane and watch Liu Kang's fireballs float past them harmlessly. Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe blends both of these styles with a varied amount of success.

Gamervision
Fans of old-school Mortal Kombat action will delighted with the fighting engine in Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe. Gone are the weapons and multiple fighting styles from the last few iterations, as are the super-long chain combos, replaced with shorter chains that can be linked together with other attacks to form long juggle combos. The quick, twitchy combat action found in MK3 is back, and for the first time in years, Mortal Kombat feels like Mortal Kombat again.

PSX Extreme
As far as the DC characters, they've all been given the Mortal Kombat treatment, as each and every one of them boast the infamous MK uppercut, on top of a fatality. Yes, fatalities are still very much a part of the game, they cannot be done in the story mode for obvious reasons, but all bets are off when you're playing the game's arcade mode. In addition to uppercuts and fatalities, all of the DC fighters also boast their unique signature attacks straight out of the comic books, and while their fighting styles are more Mortal Kombat than anything else, it helps to seamlessly blend them with the MK fighters. Lastly, all fighters gain the ability to trigger "Rage Mode", a temporary state of invulnerability that can be activated when your Rage bars fill up.

Giant Bomb
Personally, I didn't find the lack of M-rated violence to be that big of a deal. Even when fatalities are present, they're only really meaningful for the first month or so, when they're fresh and new. After that, everyone's seen them all, and they only serve to make the downtime between fights longer. But it all comes back to why you're personally interested in Mortal Kombat. For some people, the action is the juice. For others, it's all about the gory displays at the end of the fight. For what it's worth, the game does have blood during fights, so hits to the face will result in a bit of splatter. Also, clothing gets ripped up as you get beaten, resulting in some great-looking scuffs and scrapes at the end of the fight.

Kotaku
Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe may have been knocked around for some of its design decisions, most notably the inclusion of DC characters and the toned down violence, but it's still an enjoyable ride. The game looks damn good... from a distance, as things can get a little uglier up close. The most disappointing thing about MK vs. DCU, though, is its lasting value. The head-to-head fighting may offer near infinite replayability to the more dedicated MK fan, but the depth of content left us wanting more.

Not quite the best of both worlds, but a little good from each.

We've broken down the choices into four categories: The value picks that save you some dough, but are still very much appreciated by gamers; the essentials, the It games of 2008 that everyone's talking about; socializers, games that are more fun played among friends or online; and the epics, the whole worlds within a retail box that may take up to a month to fully explore. All prices quoted come from Amazon unless otherwise noted.

Alright, bring on the gifts!

Bargains
The Orange Box
Price: $27.99.
Rating: Teen to Mature
A gift that keeps on giving even more than a year after its release, and well more than three years since Half-Life 2 for the original Xbox. You get it, the FPS multiplayer Team Fortress 2, and Portal. All three of these titles are still strongly relevant to the ongoing conversations of serious gamers. There's also word that Valve will be delivering its TF2 class updates to the Xbox 360 sometime soon, helping The Orange Box remain a bang-for-the-buck winner going into its second year.

2000 Xbox Live Points to buy Bionic Commando: Rearmed and Castle Crashers
Price: $25 (BCR is 800 XBox Live points; Castle Crashers is 1200) Note: The 2100 points card apparently is no longer available, but you can get 2000 on Live. I suggest writing up your own gift certificate and giving cash.
Rating: BCR: Mature; Crashers: Teen
Bionic Commando: Rearmed is one of the truly great games of the year, downloadable or otherwise. A remake of 1988's 8-bit Bionic Commando, this "love note to the entire sidescrolling genre" delivers an experience that is equally nostalgic and newly entertaining. Castle Crashers is The Behemoth's highly anticipated multiplayer 2D beat-em up slam full of action and hilarity. Gift cards may seem like a cop-out, but not when they can buy these two games.

Bioshock
Price: $27.99
Rating: Mature
If you're short on coin but want to give an epic, you can't go wrong with 2007's game-of-the-year pick for many. Bioshock's dystopic future-set-in-the-past environment was well ahead of the trend for this year's Fallout 3 and Resistance 2. Mainstream media critics lined up to cover it in praise, saying that it more than holds its own with a genuinely thought-provoking story and deep gameplay.

Bully: Scholarship Edition
Price: $27.99
Rating: Teen
This finally dropped for the 360 in March, two years after it hit the PS2. No one does sandboxers like Rockstar, and Bully does not disappoint. The main story contains as much cynicism, satire and irony as you'd imagine, and is supported by a nearly endless map of side missions and collectibles. Once the carnival unlocks you'll spend days playing hooky there.



Call of Duty: Modern Warfare
Price: $29.99
Rating: Mature
Another go-with-a-winner pick. If BioShock substitutes for Fallout 3, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare substitutes for this year's Call of Duty: World at War. And for some, 2007's top shooter surpasses this year's sequel, because it set an almost impossible standard to continue. If your gamer's shooter-inclined, maybe he has this one already, but if not — or if he's not much of a shooter — definitely make the introduction.


Essentials
Left 4 Dead
Price: $53.99
Rating: Mature
Zombies might be a bit of an overdone meme for some games (ahem, Call of Duty: World at War) but by getting back to basics — zombies versus shotgun-packing pissed-off noninfected survivors in a darkened, quarantined city — shows strong potential this one is a winner. Plus it’s Valve, and when they train their guns on something, they usually blow it right off the map.

Braid
Price: 1200 Xbox Live points (You can get 1600 for $17.99)
Rating: Everyone 10+
Roundly hailed as the best downloadable game ever, Braid is a truly novel platformer with thought-provoking storytelling that puts its retail cousins to shame. If gaming, like film or theater, has a basic level of cultural relevance expected of those who enjoy it, Braid certainly became a part of that this year. The price might make it a value, but its experience makes it essential.


Dead Space
Price: $56.99
Rating: Mature
That’s three mature titles, two of them survival horror. But this is a standard bearer not only in its genre, but for game development over all. The Electronic Arts team asked set out to make a game that they themselves would want to play. We want to play it too. Just with all the lights on. At high noon. With our backs to a wall.


Soulcalibur IV
Price: $56.99
Rating: Teen
Here's your choice in the fighter genre. Soulcalibur’s fourth installment is the first on current-gen hardware, bringing along Yoda (as a standard character, you can download Vader if you want) into the lineup of SC faves. Rated for teens, but the jigglefest makes giving it to one who’s particularly hormonal a smidge risky. Yes, Ivy, we’re looking at you. Oh, yes, we’re looking at you.


Burnout Paradise
Price: $27.99
Rating: Everyone 10+
Every console owner needs a racer, and although this one has been out for quite sometime, it gets the nod as an essential for gameplay that isn’t as intensely difficult as the later Midnight Club: Los Angeles. Need for Speed: Underground is too new, so the jury’s still out on its essential-ness. If your friend is a racer, any of these three are a strong call, but Burnout takes the flag for the overall package.

Socializers
Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe
Price: $56.99
Rating: Teen
Just out as of Sunday. The characters involved make this the fighter choice among friends — who wouldn’t want to line up and beat ass as The Joker, or the Flash? Plus Wonder Woman and Catwoman supply the requisite fighter eye candy.




Rock Band 2
Price: Game only $56.99. Instruments and game, $189.99
Rating: Teen
This and Guitar Hero form the most social experience of any single game out there right now. With the instrument set, it’s a party in a box, although you can say the same thing about the Wii for not much more in price (MSRP, anyway.) If you are buying instruments, weigh that choice very carefully. Rock Band, the originator of the four-instrument setup, gets the nod here for both set list and instrument reliability.

Madden 09
Price: $56.99
Rating: Everyone
Electronic Arts added in the Madden IQ feature to make its genre-defining sports simulation much more accessible to less sophisticated players. that feature’s a work in progress, but when you’re playing among friends, you’re glitching and goofing and going for it on 4th and 40 anyway, so the lack of realism isn’t really missed.


Lego Batman
Price: $49.99
Rating:Everyone 10+
Legos and the holidays are a decades-old partnership. Lego Batman’s cooperative gameplay, awesome minifigs and laugh-out loud cutscenes are lots of fun on your own, even better with a buddy.




Need for Speed: Undercover
Price: $59.99
Rating: Teen
The deep customization engine and fleet of real vehicles are well suited for online play. Nothing beats building your real car, or at least the one you wish you had, and dropping the hammer on your pals. NFSU features the standard online racing action as well as the “Cops and Robbers” mode, which are both cooperative and competitive.




Epics
Grand Theft Auto IV
Price: $37.99
Rating: Mature
I forget what the final time figure was, to get to 100 percent completion, but regardless of that, you’re going to want to see and experience everything in Rockstar’s beautiful, grimy, jaded land of opportunity called Liberty City. The fact that Niko Bellic walks by default, instead of running, tells you that they wanted you to take your time with it.




Fallout 3
Price: $56.99
Rating: Mature
Fallout is difficult to encapsulate in a few sentences, but it was an RPG phenomenon on PCs in the late 1990s, so this is the first introduction to it for many console players. The sprawling expanse of the annihilated wasteland presents an almost infinite set of outcomes, leaving you feeling like you completely hallucinated another life for yourself.




Fable II
Price: $59.99
Rating: Mature
The 360’s definitive fantasy role playing game, Fable II presents Albion as an immense tapestry upon which to paint the story of your character’s life. The consequence driven engine immerses a player in role playing like no other game can, while the action sequences are entertaining enough to keep a player going for hours.




Gears of War 2
Price: $56.99
Rating: Mature
If any shooter deserves this much time and attention from a gamer, it’s Gears 2, because Epic Games certainly poured more than its share of work into it. Gears 2 provides the expected ultra-level of action and carnage, but it also further develops its increasingly iconic characters, the human bulwarks against a world gone mad.




Prince of Persia
Price: $59.99
Rating: Teen
This won’t be out for another two weeks (Dec. 2), but the franchise’s history, plus what we’ve heard of the story, plus the unique cell-shaded graphic design of the game are enough get a bid in the epic department. The game introduces Elika, a supporting character who ensures the Prince never dies, meaning it shares more than just an engine in common with Assassin’s Creed. Leave it to Ubisoft to come up with a new way to save yourself from yourself.

A sniff of plot details accompanied the art. Seems you'll take the role of a Mr. Adam Jensen, who works for Sarif, a biotech company. Jensen goes to work one day, Sarif gets stormed by bad men, everyone is killed except...yes, Adam Jensen. The rest of the game sees you on a quest to find out what happened/avenge the deaths of your white-coated colleagues.

Hit the link below to see the full gallery.

First details from Deus Ex 3 [Gamereactor]

The fast, visceral combat is definitely there – but at the expense of some of the more “hardcore” elements of real time strategy games. For example, instead of being able to stay in a zoomed-out view where tiny minions explode quietly as you pump more out of your base, Halo Wars keeps the camera focused pretty far in on the battlefield so the action is in your face. There’s a level of detail to people, aliens and vehicles that makes explosions more vivid; and because your units level up to gain new abilities (instead of, say, unlocking new types of units), you become more attached to them instead of coldly sending units off to die like meat shields.

Hit the jump for more.

It also seemed to me like the combat was more urgent in Halo Wars than in other RTS games – but that might be me buying into the “epic storyline” that evolved out of Halo lore. I’m a nerd who has read the books because I crave back story and I’m a sucker for a good cut scene; Halo Wars offers up plenty of both. The story takes place about 20 years before the events in Halo, when the United Nations Space Command is trying to take back the planet Harvest from the Covenant.

We weren’t given too many details on the storyline – but here’s what I can follow based on the three cut scenes I got to watch between levels: Captain Cutter commands both Sergeant Forge and scientist Professor Anders. Something is going on down on Harvest that has the Covenant very upset: an Arbiter and a Prophet are having it out about some kind of “infection” spreading that might force them to abandon the planet. Meanwhile, Anders cops an attitude with Cutter when he tells her not to go planet-side to investigate the infection (and either they’re related or he’s sleeping with her, because I can’t fathom snapping at a commanding officer like that and still being able to keep your rank). She heads down to the planet anyway where Forge is also telling her not to be and proceeds to get the Marines in all kinds of trouble as she investigates some sort of temple-looking thing. After blowing it up (because that’s what the UNSC does best), Anders and Forge leg it to an extraction point and I was tapped on the shoulder by an Ensemble employee and told to move on to the skirmish mode.

There will be co-op campaign mode on Xbox Live multiplayer – but skirmish mode is where versus happens, so I’m sure that’s where most RTS fans will be getting their fix. Players can either be Covenant or UNSC and the two factions are different enough that you’ll have to change tactics for each, but also similar enough so that you can swap back and forth between them without having to suffer a learning curve.

Skirmish mode is where I started to see what Ensemble had done with Halo Wars to make it different than Age of Empires. On PC, RTS games live and die by hotkeys – more hotkeys means more units, more units means more specialization of factions, more specialization means more resources to manage, and that of course mean a more complex system of “rock-paper-scissors” balancing between resources, units and combat. Well, we don’t have hotkeys on the Xbox 360 and Ensemble was not about to try and cram a PC game onto a console – other RTS games have tried and the experience just doesn’t port well. So instead, Halo Wars gets its complexity from map layouts and unit advancement and focuses on the core elements of strategy. For example, you can pump out all the Grunt forces you want, but until you level your ranged fighters up enough to get the right kind of gun, you cannot take out the sniper in the tower that’s preventing you from crossing a choke point on the map.

What worries me about Halo Wars is not that it won’t be fun – three hours flew by before I had to be told my appointment was over. What worries me is that RTS fans and Halo fans both will be so turned off by the very idea of a Halo RTS that they won’t even give the game a chance. RTS gamers will complain because of the lack of resource competition: “It’s too easy,” I can hear them whine. Meanwhile, the Halo hardcore fans will cry, “No Master Chief? Wtf?!”

But there is something in Halo Wars for both; the skulls represent that idea. In campaign mode, there are certain optional objectives you can complete to earn a skull (e.g. “Kill 45 Hunters”). The skull will appear at some point on the map that you’ve got to fight to in order to obtain it – adding a whole degree of difficulty to combat. Once you get the skull, you can access it in a menu (either in the campaign or in skirmish mode) and activate it to trigger a special effect. The two that I got my hands on made Grunts burst into confetti when killed (Party Skull) and upped the visual effect of explosions so everything appeared to go up in fiery spouts whenever it blew up (Cowbell Skull).

Halo Wars is out on Xbox 360 in February 2009. No word yet on a demo, but rest assured there will be downloadable content.

Don't fret though, Mama fans. There's redemption in store for the titular hero, and by the end of the game it's all turkeys and rainbows for our tiny, sexual stereotype.

Cooking Mama: Mama Kills Animals [PETA]

The UK's Metro is reporting, with barely concealed schadenfreude, the end of their marriage and the details are so awesome I'm suspicious this whole thing is made up. But Amy hired a freaking detective to track her husband's activities, after she caught him nailing a virtual hooker — these exist? — in the game last February. Now, David's avatar — "Dave Barmy" — has been caught giving some American homewrecker named "Modesty McDonnell" the hot beef injection, and it's all over.

"I caught him cuddling a woman on a sofa in the game. It looked really affectionate," Amy said. 'He confessed he'd been talking to this woman in America for weeks and said he didn't love me any more."

Here you can see the love triangle — from left, Laura Skye (Amy); Dave Barmy (David) and Miss McDonnell (some tramp).

My head a-splodes folks. If they're married and living together, why was a detective necessary? Or was he logging on from a laptop at a Starbucks? Also, "cuddling" on a sofa? How can she be so certain he was actually having virtual sex? Probably because everyone is tiptoeing around what really happened. She walked in on him fapping to the cybersex, is my guess.

As for Amy, she's moving on. "[She] now has a new man," Metro says (wait for it ... wait for it ...) "who she met in the online game World Of Warcraft."

Second Life Sex Causes Divorce [Metro.co.uk via CNN

In the face of all this glamor and poshness, the game itself almost got upstaged. Only about five stations were set up for demoing the latest build of Prince of Persia – and some of them were even using the old E3 demo build. Luckily, it was easy to get my hands on the game during the acrobat show, when everyone was watching the spectacle instead of waiting in line.

The Prince of Persia series has never failed me when it comes to man-candy, even if it got a bit emo from time to time. This new next-gen outing might be the exception: no once during any of the three levels I played did his shirt get torn off. According to producer Ben Mattes, the Prince is modeled after Han Solo, so there might be hope for sex appeal yet.

Another striking difference with this Prince of Persia is the lack of time-rewinding; instead we have Elika, a woman who saves you whenever you do something stupid. The opportunities for doing stupid things start presenting themselves almost as soon as you meet her, conveniently enough. It all starts with releasing the world’s greatest evil from the Tree of Life (although technically, that’s not your fault). After the evil named Ahriman gets loose from the Tree, you spend the rest of the game exploring the non-linear world with Elika, cleansing ears and collecting Life Seeds so she can bring the Tree back to life.

From there, it’s all endless ledges, cliffs, slides and vine-covered walls for you to fall off of – plus some pretty hardcore enemies you have to beat with specific combos. I wasn’t too thrilled about this, but that’s because I’m a button-masher at heart and quicktime events are the bane of my gaming existence. The combo system seems like it’d be easy once you get the hang of it: the enemy glows blue when you need to use your sword attacks, turns black when you need to use Elika’s magic for a combo, and hunches over in an odd way when the game wants you to use the Prince’s gauntlet attack to throw the enemy.

Timing is a big part of combat in Prince of Persia – if you take a swing at an enemy when you’re out of range, or they block your attack, the screen with flash white and you’ve got to mash down on the block button at exactly the right moment if you don’t want to get skewered. It might have been the build I was playing on, but the bad guys seemed entirely too capable of blocking attacks. Between them and the long-jumps, I’d be dying all over the place if not for Elika.

Prince of Persia is supposed to be more sandbox-ish this time around, but since I was stuck with the old E3 build, it’s hard to say if you really can go anywhere on the map whenever you want, since only one area was available for play. The world map looks like a giant henna tattoo with four spiral branches. At the base, there are four colored circles that represent each of the four abilities the Prince will learn throughout the game: red for Rebound, blue for Grapple, green for Dash and yellow for “Cool Flying Stuff” (the PR guy walking me through the game didn’t know what the “official” name for that was). To start questing, you select one of the colors and then watch the rest of the map for any level circles that light up with the corresponding color. Move the cursor over one of them and click X (or A, depending on which console you’re playing), to set your path. When you close the world map, Elika will now know which direction to head in – she’ll show you with a magical burst of light if you tap Triangle (Y, whatever).

I’m pleased with what Ubisoft has done with Elika’s partner AI. She never once got in the way; I didn’t have to babysit her at all, and if she ever did fall behind, all I had to do was press a button and she’d magically turn up right beside me. She can get knocked out during combat, but that’ll be your fault for using the wrong combo. Elika will recover slowly on her own, or faster if you go over to help her. If by chance you get her knocked out during a fight and then are injured to the point of death, she’ll magically recover, heal you, and then the enemy will go back to full health so you can start the fight all over again. All in all, it’s not that different from the concept of time-rewinding – and Elika’s the sexier option, besides. (I’ll have to wait and see if the sexual tension between her and the Prince is anything worth watching – there wasn’t a lot going on in the early levels of the game besides the occasional “Let me carry you,” hug.)

Prince of Persia is out on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 December 2. Here's the swag report:

1 T-shirt that might actually fit me
1 Puzzle ball I will never be able to solve

The announcement on Capcom's Unity Blog also mentions something about picking up Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix when it releases in order to brush up on your fighting skills, a questionable marketing ploy if I ever saw one. Your steak is coming up, in the meantime we've fashioned this hamburger to look like a steak. Enjoy!

Street Fighter IV: coming home Feb. 17 (N. America) and Feb. 20 (Europe) [Capcom Unity Blog]

It’s called Echoes of War. Or, to use it’s full name, The Music of Blizzard Entertainment: Echoes of War.

Put together by the team behind the popular Eminence concert series, Echoes of War is, as the name suggests, the soundtrack to Blizzard Entertainment. Not the soundtrack to a single game. The soundtrack to the developer, and (almost) all the game’s they’ve ever put out. Warcraft. World of Warcraft. Diablo. Diablo II. Diablo III. Starcraft. Starcraft II. And, heck, even games they haven’t put out, like Starcraft Ghost.

Considering there are now millions of adoring, cashed-up Blizzard fans the world over, and considering this is one of the most sensible and well-crafted pieces of game-related produce to be offered in recent memory (ie it’s not a statue or an action figure or an action statue), I figured I’d catch up with Eminence’s Hiroaki Yura and find out a little more about how the project came about.

“This project came to being when I met Russell Brower last year in LA”, Yura says. Brower is Director of Audio at Blizzard, and is also the man behind many of World of Warcraft’s signature themes. The two, being game-related music types, had spoken before. Yura, being a Blizzard fan, pitched the idea of Eminence doing a Blizzard homage/soundtrack with their full orchestra. Brower, and Blizzard, said yes.

The pitch was no spur of the moment decision from Yura. Eminence have been holding both gaming and anime-focused concerts in Australia for five years now, but for a while have been working towards something bigger. Indeed, the group’s ultimate goal, as lovers of both symphony and video games, is to “spread orchestral music to the younger generation of people by performing music which appeals to them”.

Part of this “expansion” has been to start working on game soundtracks. Not the ones you buy, mind, but the actual in-game score. The team impressed Namco Bandai enough with their previous live work that they were given the opportunity to provide the soundtrack for Soul Calibur IV. And their work on that, coupled with their relationship with Blizzard, has led to the team being given the job of producing the soundtrack to Diablo III.

Eminence's relationship with Blizzard is evidenced by how closely the two groups – Australian musicians and American developers – worked together on this, by far their "biggest" project to date. The attention to detail would put most actual games to shame. “We have flown to Blizzard to speak with all the composers there on arrangement approach”, Yura says, “and Russell Brower flew to Sydney to oversee the recordings. Even the titles were made in conjunction with the Blizzard historian from their Creative Development team”.

“Of course, the art and cover designs have also all been approved by multiple departments at Blizzard, ranging from cinematics team to the Visual Arts guys” he continues. “We wanted to make sure we deliver this album in a very true way to all the Blizzard fans out there”.

Echoes of War features the work of not only Eminence’s own team of composers and musicians, but also a few famous (at least in the game soundtrack scene) guests as well. One is famed Gundam and Shadow of the Colossus composer Kow Otani, who contributes a free composition of the Diablo theme, and also a Diablo-themed bonus track with Japanese vocalist Aika to the album. Go Shiina, famous for his work with Namco Bandai on the Tales series, also appears on the album. “Mr Shiina did a special arrange/additional composition on the Zerg track “Eradicate and Evolve”, Yura says. “His piece involved a state-of-the-art Protools system, one being slaved to another to cater for all the tracks”.

Wait, two Japanese composers? How’d we end with an Australian orchestra working with two noted Japanese guys on a Blizzard soundtrack? Same way Eminence got the gig with Blizzard in the first place. Yura says all he needed to do, having worked with the pair on gaming concerts previously, was give the two a call. “They both knew of Blizzard’s games, even in Japan, and were very interested in the project” he says. “Also they had a lot of interest from an artistic point of view”.

And so they both contributed. And to continue the Japanese influence, the CD has been manufactured by Sony Japan’s record label. It’s a unique combination, but one that seems to have done the job for Blizzard, who are only too happy with Eminence, and the end result.

As for the future, Yura says Eminence are hoping to take Echoes of War on the road, both nationally across Australia and internationally, and are currently in discussions with “two major publishers/developers in Japan” for further, similar projects (Square Enix and Namco Bandai, perhaps?). The group are also keen on expanding on their work on Soul Calibur IV and Diablo III by doing more original work on the actual in-game soundtrack to games.

But that’s the future. For the present, Echoes of War is due out this month in two flavours. The “standard” edition will ship with 90 minutes worth of Blizzard orchestral scores over two CDs, and is due out on November 22. A much fancier Legendary Edition was released this week in very limited numbers, and comes with the CDs, a book, art cards and a bonus DVD including a “feature-length” behind the scenes documentary.

[Echoes of War]

Sony's PlayStation 3 exclusives SOCOM Confrontation and LittleBigPlanet didn't quite fare as well as Microsoft's chart toppers. LittleBigPlanet, which was only on sale for four days in October, moved a little more than 200,000 copies.

Nintendo's Wii standbys saw another month of excellent sales, with Mario Kart Wii and Wii Play moving close to 300,000 copies each. Nintendo's Wii Music, however, didn't crack the top ten during its debut month. The full list of software best sellers is after this.

01. Fable II (Xbox 360) - 790,000
02. Wii Fit (Wii) - 487,000
03. Fallout 3 (Xbox 360) - 375,000
04. Mario Kart Wii (Wii) - 290,000
05. Wii Play (Wii) - 282,000
06. Saints Row 2 (Xbox 360) - 270,000
07. SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Confrontation (PS3) - 231,000
08. LittleBigPlanet (PS3) - 215,000
09. NBA 2K9 (Xbox 360) - 202,000
10. Dead Space (Xbox 360) - 193,000

Other notable titles missing from the top ten — hey, there are only ten spots — are Guitar Hero World Tour, Rock Band 2, the latter of which saw its release on the PlayStation 3. Considering that the Xbox 360 version of Harmonix's latest band game bowed with 363,000 copies sold may illustrate that timed exclusives do matter.

U.S. consumers dropped $696.79 million on video game software last month, much better than the October from 2007. Total take for the year is $6.76 billion so far.

According to NPD analyst Anita Frazier, the jump in Wii sales can be attributed to a greater supply of hardware at retail. That made October the Wii's best month since December of 2007. Frazier notes that the September period consisted of five weeks of sales, with October a shorter four week month.

Here's how the hardware contest ultimately went down.

• Wii - 803,000
• Nintendo DS - 491,000
• Xbox 360 - 371,000
• PSP - 193,000
• PlayStation 3 - 190,000
• PlayStation 2 - 136,000

It was a down month for the PlayStation family, with all Sony hardware taking a hit before the holiday season kicks off.

Total hardware spend for October was $494.74 million, up from October of 2007 by about 5%. Total take for the year? $4.72 billion United States bucks. That's 14% better than lame old 2007, thank you very much.

"The price reduction on the Xbox 360 is paying dividends at retail as the platform realized a 7% unit sales increase over September," Frazier said of Microsoft's across the board price drop. As for the competition, "The PS3 realized the greatest year-over-year monthly unit sales increase at 57%."

"Looking ahead, the biggest opportunity that we see for the industry as well as for us is downloadable content," he said. "With Grand Theft Auto IV we will be offering downloadable episodes that gamers can buy on Xbox Live after they've purchased the original title. We've also that next week we will be releasing add on content worldwide for Bioshock. And these are our first offerings for downloadable content. We're excited about the creative opportunity. We are very excited about the profit potential and we'll see how these things roll out. I think the entire industry is focused in this area."

Zelnick went on to talk about the importance of microtransactions and how multiplayer gaming could perhaps be the solution to the growing used game market. In other words, make your online mulitplayer good enough and people won't want to sell the game back.

And then he had to ruin it all by bringing up subscriptions and not, it seems, just for the typical massively multiplayer online PC game

"The holy grail is taking a business, already a very large and successful business that's focused on packaged goods that you sell once and then are occasionally resold by others with new benefit to us, and turning that into a subscription business or a semi subscription business where we have an ongoing relationship with consumers, giving them products that they want," he said. "Who's better positioned to do that than the company that has the top franchises."

But what games could you be thinking of doing that to Strauss?

"It's our view that you won't be able to apply a subscription model to mid-tier titles," he said. "The triple-a titles that people really want to have that are really must have are in the best position for this business model."

Please tell me he's not thinking of a subscription-based Grand Theft Auto or BioShock. Worse still, this makes two of them.

And now we come to number 2. Gears of War proved that Epic could deliver, but can they grow? Is this a bigger, better Gears game, or simply more of the same? Run for cover - here come the game critics.

PALGN
Overall, Gears of War 2 is a better game, though essentially the same one as its predecessor. There have been some minor improvements, though given the success of the original, the development team obviously went with the old mantra ‘if it’s not broken, don’t fix it’. Thankfully, a few of the things that were broken have been fixed, to an extent. While Gears of War 2 provides the same type of visceral and intense action of its predecessor, it does so with an increased level of variety and a stronger design. Still, not everything is quite where you’d expect it to be, especially for such a blockbuster title.

Total Video Games
Gears of War 2 is a far cry from the corridor-trawling experience of the first game. We're not going to talk about it here, other than say it's a much more rounded, longer, and engaging narrative that takes the light foundations of Gears 1 and just runs with it. The addition of more meaningful collectibles this time around, which hint at further background stories, also adds depth to the game. Aside from the storyline, Gears of War 2 is a much more visually epic affair, with a sense of scale rarely travelled to by its predecessor.

CVG
Gears' arsenal of weapons have been tinkered and skewed to sound even more powerful and each feels more satisfying. The Lancer is now a chizzled and deadly-sounding beast compared to the original's clunky and annoying rat-a-tat-tat gun. Locust weapons aren't the last-resort selections they were in the first game, they're now strategic, powerful-but-slow alternatives to the COG's automatic-but-weak arsenal. Thankfully Epic has opted to concentrate on this refinement work across all of Gears 2's guns rather than flooding you with new toys, and it makes for a particularly balanced multiplayer experience...

TeamXbox
Considering that multiplayer was the weak link in the first game, Epic had a lot to prove with Gears of War 2. They didn’t have to prove that they know multiplayer; these are the same people who brought us the Unreal Tournament series, so it’s safe to say they know what they’re doing when it comes to playing against other humans. But UT also had awesome A.I.-controlled bots. And now, so does Gears of War 2.

VideoGamer.com
By far the best multiplayer mode is Horde, a five-player co-op mode in which you need to survive against wave after wave of Locust nasties on the multiplayer maps. It's intense stuff and requires you to work well as a team if you're going to reach the higher levels. Thankfully the game saves your progress too, so there's no need to start from level one each time you play with your friends. If two-player campaign co-op was the original game's key feature, Horde is Gears 2's surprise selling point - chances are you'll be playing for months to come.

Kotaku
Gears of War 2 is a satisfying middle child for what I can only expect will be the Gears trilogy. It ups the gameplay, tweaks the mechanics and finally digs into that deep potential, delivered in sweeping scale and backdrops, through a plot that both intrigues gamer and fills out the title's many interesting characters. I only wish the game's sense of purpose and pacing continued until the very end of this latest game, rather than drying up a few chapters early.

I'll have to play, if only to show my support for the Horde.

"Some of your are interested in our release schedule," he said. "To update that, our PC title will be released early next month. Downloadable content is a big undertaking. It's important that it be really special, really something unexpected by consumers. We're setting incredibly high standards for it. We have it planned for the end of the first quarter. It's close to be completed. That said, it may move into the second quarter depending on its completion date."

"Chinatown Wars we've decided to move out of the first quarter in order to fill out a better launch and marketing window. The title will ship in the first half of our fiscal year and we will provide more information on release dates by the time we report our earnings next month."

The comments came following a presentation by Zelnick that both highlighted the company's successes and stressed the concerns he and other developers have about the seemingly worsening economy.

"On the horizon we see a number of strategic growth opportunities including new channels of distribution, new markets, new products and new business models," he told the gathering. "We have a very strong publishing platform and an unrivaled development team."

But minutes later he described the current retail conditions as "extraordinarily challenging" and said that there has been a "softening of retail" that has had a negative impact on the industry.

So Take-Two's strategy is to "release a limited number of top tier titles" in the hope it will cushion the publisher in the short run.

Thanks to MTV Multiplayer for the heads-up.

A few minutes before the official release, the media gathered outside not knowing what would really happen. Coming down the sidewalk, 4 blood elves carried a sword, which they handed-off to Blizzard President Mike Morhaime out in front of Best Buy. With the help of the first person in line (who had been standing there for close to 24 hours) they jammed the sword into the ice-shaped styrofoam block and pulled out a copy of the game. Yeah, it was totally nerd fest 2000. Still, it was a great time. Blizzard developers autographed copies for everyone who wanted one. Check out the rest of the pictures below from the night!

The event will be held at The Mercury Cafe downtown on Dec. 10 from 7 p.m. until 11 p.m. The cover will be a $10 minimum donation and that will get you a ticket for a chance to win some of the awesome schwag I'll be bringing down with me.

This awesome new venue can hold 300 or so people includes a full bar, some tables and even the ability to order food if you want it. Better still, this year round due to popular demand the age limit will be 18 and older. To buy drinks you'll just have show your ID at the bar.

So if you want to show up to play some Rock Band 2, Guitar Hero World Tour (maybe even Rock Revolution) for a good cause mark December 10th in your calendar. Look for a blow-out picture of all of the goodies we'll be giving away, directions, parking, and all that good stuff. Also a number of people have offered up some pretty interesting items for a charity auction which we plan to run in conjunction with the Funde Razor. Stay tuned!

This year the show will include a live performance by 50 Cent, a Gamer God Award for Will Wright and, thankfully, no sponsored category. As in that annual Mountain Dew award won't be something the judges will have to vote on. Instead, I'm told it will be used to back an award for best indie game. As a judge, that's something I've been complaining about for years so I'm delighted to see it being shifted to something worthwhile.

Now hit the jump to read up on the finalists for the 22 categories and argue over who should be taking home the awards.

Game of the Year
Grand Theft Auto IV
LittleBigPlanet
Fallout 3
Metal Gear Solid 4
Gears of War 2

Studio of the Year
Media Molecule
Rockstar North
Harmonix
Bethesda Game Studios

Best Shooter
Far Cry 2
Resistance 2
Gears of War 2
Left 4 Dead

Best RPG
Fable II
Fallout 3
Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning
The World Ends With You

Best Fighting Game
SoulCalibir IV
Mortal Kombat Vs. DC Universe
Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Dragon Ball Z: Burst Limit

Best Individual Sports Game
Shaun White Snowboarding
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09
Wii Fit
Skate It

Best Handheld Game
God of War: Chains of Olympus
Professor Layton and the Curious Village
Patapon
Castlevania Order of Eccelsia

Best Graphics
Gears of War 2
Fallout 3
LittleBigPlanet
Metal Gear Solid 4

Best Game Based on a Movie or a TV Show
Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures
Quantum of Solace
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
Naruto: The Broken Bond

Best Music Game
Rock Band 2 (MTV Games/ Harmonix)
Guitar Hero World Tour (RedOctane/ Activision Publishing/ Neversoft Entertainment)
Wii Music (Nintendo/ Nintendo)
SingStar (Sony Computer Entertainment/ SCE Studios London)

Best Driving Game
Burout Paradise
Pure
Midnight Club: Los Angeles
Mario Kart Wii

Best Action Adventure Game
Grand Theft Auto IV
Dead Space
Mirror's Edge
Metal Gear Solid 4

Best Team Sports Game
NHL 09
Madden NFL 09
NBA 2K9
FIFA Soccer 09

Best Soundtrack
LittleBigPlanet
Grand Theft Auto IV
Rock Band 2
Guitar Hero World Tour

Best Xbox 360 Game
Fable II
Gears of War 2
Grand Theft Auto IV
Fallout 3

Best Wii Game
Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Boom Blox
Wii Fit
No More Heroes

Best PS3 Game
Metal Gear Solid 4
Resistance 2
LittleBigPlanet
Grant Theft Auto IV

Best PC Game
Spore
Crysis Warhead
Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning
Left 4 Dead

Best Original Score
Fallout 3
Spore
Metal Gear Solid 4
LittleBigPlanet

Best Multiplayer Game
Gears of War 2
Left 4 Dead
Resistance 2
Call of Duty: World at War

Best Performance by a Human Male
Michael Hollick as Niko Bellic in GTA IV
David Hayter as Old Snake in MGS 4
Stephen Fry as The Narrator in LBP
Jason Zumwalt as Roman Bellic in GTA IV

Best Performance by a Human Female
Nathalie Cox as Juno Eclipse in The Force Unleashed
Debi Mae West as Meryl Silverburgh: MGS 4
Paula Tiso as Silvia Christel in No More Heroes
Keeley Hawes Lara Croft in Tomb Raider Underworld

Best Independent Game Fueled by Mountain Dew (Not a Judge Category)
World of Goo
PixelJunk Eden
Braid
Audio Surf

There were plenty of people to laugh at - some 500 people came and went from the site of the party between 8 pm and 11 pm. Strangely, less than 10 were in costume.

Party festivities included face painting, ice sculptures spouting chilled Rockstar, raffles and... the big one... a dance competition where contestants had to freestyle one of the six race dances based on routines from movies like Saturday Night Fever and Napoleon Dynamite.

Things started to get ugly around 10:30 when the dance competition sparked a noise complaint from a local resident. San Francisco police were slow to respond as they considered the event to be pretty well-behaved and had two officer stationed outside the store for the entire evening.

"I've never even heard of [World of Warcraft] until today," said one officer. "I had to ask some guys down at the station about it - they're into that stuff."

"That stuff" has already sold a ridiculous amount of copies in only a short amount of time. This may be due in part to 7-Eleven.

Hit the jump for more pics.