Busy Gamer News

This week, Nintendo has four new Virtual Console additions, including one that can help you with addition (plus subtraction, multiplication and division):

• Donkey Kong Jr. Math (NES) - $5
• Adventure Island (NES) - $5
• Bonk 3: Bonk's Big Adventure (TurboGrafx) - $6
• Landstalker: The Treasures of King Nole (Genesis) - $8

PC gamers are in for a treat this week with the free release of Command & Conquer Gold and several ad-supported Ubisoft titles. The Command & Conquer game is a 12-year anniversary present from EA to the game's fans - and it's completely free to download though must be burned to CD before play. Be sure to read the rather convoluted instructions. Ubisoft has jumped onto the free game bandwagon, teaming with Fileplanet to release some ad-supported titles. Right now, you can get the original Far Cry, Prince of Persia: Sands of Time and Rayman Raving Rabbids for free - if you can stomach a lot of load-screen ads for fast food. The download page offers a lot of other freebies, including some trials and demos. Also, Ghost Recon was supposedly on the list, but doesn't seem to be available now...

Xbox Live Marketplace now has the Gears of War Hidden Fronts map pack for free (previously $10). There's also a free first episode of the TV show Heroes in your choice of high or standard definition as a promotion for the Season 1 boxset on HD-DVD...

It looks like Mercenaries 2: World in Flames is going to slip past its originally scheduled 2007 release. It's now expected sometime in 2008...

If you booted your PlayStation 3 recently, you were probably prompted to install the v1.92 firmware. Sony isn't saying much about this minor update except that it helps with PlayStation 2 backward compatibility (probably for gamers who've bought newer systems that lack the PS2 processor). More concrete are the fixes for MotorStorm, which has been patched to close exploits, improve headset support, expand stats tracking, allow time attack and online play for the upcoming Coyote Revenge downloadable track and remember your last vehicle so you can select it quickly...

It seems Lair breaks new ground in a few ways (even if it's not the killer game the PS3 needed). First there is the unadvertised Remote Play option, so you can enjoy it via network-connected PSP. There are some parts of the game that require maneuvers only possible on the PS3, but you can play stretches of the game with the analog nub of your portable instead of tilting your Sixaxis controller. The other hidden extra is a Hot Coffee easter egg, which you can see below (and it IS safe for work, unless your company has a policy against food pr0n):



If you want to watch it in high-def, the cheat code is 686F7420636F66666565...

The PlayStation Store has some new demos and purchaseable add-on content for MotorStorm and Ninja Gaiden Sigma:

• MotorStorm Revenge Weekend Add-on Pack ($6) with the new Coyote Revenge track, 4 new vehicles, 9 races and a new online mode - or you can buy just the vehicles separately ($1 each)
• Ninja Gaiden Sigma Weapons Master ($3), which adds 5 survival modes
• Demos: Stranglehold and NBA Live 08
• Wallpaper: Heavenly Sword
• Game Videos: Heavenly Sword, Lair, MotorStorm (shows off the new track), PixelJunk Racers and Turok
• Movie Trailers: Drillbit Taylor and Resident Evil: Extinction

Also, if you're wondering how your favorite original PlayStation and PS2 games play on the PS3, there's a new searchable database of U.S. releases that tracks this. You must select whether you have a 60GB (hardware compatibility) or 80GB (software emulation) unit, with very different results in some cases. For instance, the first Jak & Daxter game works fine on the 60GB PS3, but freezes for 55 seconds whenever you collect an orb on the 80GB model. If there's a firmware update that fixes a compatibility problem, that is noted too..

If you were wondering what the recent BioShock auto-update does, the official word is that it "improves stability when loading autosaves and overall game stability, corrects audio during title menu loading and addresses AI behaviors regarding use of health stations." It does not make the game playback choppy as some have reported (remember, that happens anyway for some players who use the hard drive). If you run into this problem, try rebooting the title from the dashboard while holding both left and right bumper buttons down to clear the cache.

Here's what else is new for 360 gamers:

• Xbox Live Arcade: Cyberball 2072 ($5) and Fatal Fury Special ($5)
• Soltrio Solitaire Game Pack 7 ($1.88) with 10 games including Canfield, Klondike 2 and Yukon
• Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08 purchaseable cheat code to max out all skills ($2.50; by the way, please don't encourage EA by actually buying this!)
• Demos: FlatOut UC and NBA Live 08
• Themes: Beautiful Katamari ($1.88), BioShock ($1.88), Medal of Honor Airborne ($1.88), Resident Evil 5 ($0.38), Alpine Summers ($1.88) Element Girls ($1.88), Golden Gate Bridge ($1.88), Golden Retriever ($1.88), Numskullz ($1.88) Summer Girls ($1.88) and Weimaraner ($1.88)
• Pictures: Beautiful Katamari ($1 per pack), Fatal Fury Special ($0.75), Medal of Honor Airborne ($1.88), Shrek the Third ($1.13), Element Girls ($1), Golden Retriever ($1.25), Numskullz ($1) Summer Girls ($1) and Weimaraner ($1)
• Game Videos: Blazing Angels 2, Eternal Sonata and SEGA Rally

And Xbox Live Marketplace now stocks Family Guy episodes, if you're into that...

This week's Wii Virtual Console newcomers include:

• Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (Genesis) - $8
• Neutopia II (TurboGrafx) - $6
• NES Play Action Football (NES) - $5

If you watch my Twitter feed, you know that I recently picked up a Toyota Prius. Buying a hybrid is something we've been considering for about a year, and our research suggested the Prius was the best fit for us. It has very good gas mileage (averages around 40-50 mpg) and - thanks to several years of refinement - seems very polished and reliable. And despite its compact size, it has a reasonable amount of trunk space.

Little did we know what a great car it is for gamers. With the right mindset, driving a Prius is something of a sandbox game! Though if you think of it as a gaming system, it does make the PS3 and even some high-end PC rigs look quite reasonably priced. Probably not the right approach to take when trying to sell your non-gaming spouse on one.

The Xbox connection
Before we get into the gaming aspects of the Prius, it's worth noting that we bought the car at substantial savings using Xbox Live Diamond, a free discount card offered to paying Xbox Live Gold subscribers. While perusing the offers online (most of which require a printed coupon, grumble grumble), we found a local Toyota dealer that had a special cardholder price for hybrids.

We picked a Prius with a global positioning system (GPS) since the discount brought this model into our price range and narrowed the difference in cost to about $1000. And we're glad we did, since the GPS adds a real sense of gameplay to driving.

GPS = Great Prius Sandbox
One of our favorite activities is to select a destination and then drive off the proscribed route into a neighborhood to see how long it takes for the GPS to give up on the old route and chart a new one. On the highway, the car may chastise you to turn around for several exits before relenting and calculating a new path. In other cases, it may find a valid detour in just a few seconds. This is handy when you hit a patch of traffic and you're convinced that there must be a better way to go. You'll find out if you're right by how long it takes the GPS to re-route you!

You can also play the "where's the nearest park" game. Simply head out to a new neighborhood or far-flung destination and then ask the GPS to find the "Nearest Park" (or coffee house, restaurant, movie theater, or dozens of other categories of destinations to suit your mood). It's voice activated, so all you need to do is press a button and speak. You can also watch points of interest as they appear on your map while you're driving.

This brings up another amusing detail. Due to the increased risk of accident from watching the GPS screen instead of the road, when you start the car you must view and accept a warning screen. It's sort of like if you needed to agree to a Microsoft end user licensing agreement every single time you turned on your computer.

Touching is good
Even the Prius models without the GPS now have a touch screen, which makes tasks like tuning the radio or adjusting the air conditioning a bit like playing a DS game. The car also has lots of techno-cool features, such as:

• Bluetooth phone integration with speaker, so you can dial, answer and talk on your phone from your steering wheel. People in the backseat won't be heard on the other end unless they really shout, but this doesn't stop our 4-year-old from trying.
• Auto-sensing locks, so you don't even have to push the buttons on your keyless entry remote. Simply standing next to the car and gripping the door handle will unlock it, and the car starts with the push of a button. Just leave your keys in your pocket and you're good to go.
• A rearview mirror that senses and adjusts to block glare, so you don't even need to flip it up or down to subdue the headlights from the hulking SUV behind you.
• Trunk cam that shows you what's behind you on the dashboard monitor whenever you put the car in reverse.
• A power outlet and mini-jack auxiliary audio input hidden in the hump between the seats. Though it lacks full iPod integration (i.e., remote control), it does make it easy to play audio and keep it charged and hidden. The power outlet shuts off automatically when you turn off the car, so you won't run down the car battery.

That driving game
All of these high tech touches are nice, but my favorite part of driving a Prius is actually the meta game: driving efficiently. The hybrid engine works by capturing energy when you brake to charge the car's electric drive system. Use too much gas and not enough brake, and the car will eventually need to burn even more gas just to keep the battery charged. Brake carefully (no hard stops) and often, and your car will charge up more quickly.

Here's the really cool part: Your battery status is actually represented on screen by a HEALTH BAR. Most of the time it's blue, but when it's nearly charged to the top it turns green. (If you really suck at this game, I suspect it turns red.) While driving, I find myself frequently flipping between the Map and Info screens using the steering wheel buttons to see how well I'm doing. The car shows you what your mileage rate is at that particular instant and your rolling average. There's even a screen with historical data to show how you're doing now vs. 5-30 minutes ago.

I don't know what happens when you completely max out the battery health meter, but I kinda expect it will prompt me for my initials. Now all we need are some online leaderboards.

Go ahead. Just try to beat my high score, dude.

-=Gamewatcher

If you pre-order The Orange Box with Half-Life 2 and all of the trimmings on Steam, starting Sept. 17 you'll also get early access to Team Fortress 2 (the beta version) and Peggle Extreme, an exclusive new version of a popular casual game co-developed by PopCap with Valve. You'll also save $5 off the $50 retail price. And in the very smart marketing department, there's an option to gift your existing license for Half-Life 2 to a buddy when you upgrade to The Orange Box. Nice...

Well, that was fast. According to industry trackers, 9 million Nintendo Wii sales have surpassed those of the Xbox 360 which - despite a solid one-year lead and strong retail availability over the past holidays - is now in second place with 8.9 million. The PlayStation 3 has even more ground to make up, with only 3.7 million worldwide sales to date. Unlike many stats bandied about, these are apparently sellthrough numbers - not the quantity shipped to retailers...

The PlayStation Portable has been updated to v3.71, which adds:

• Custom themes
• Support for more PlayStation Network titles in the Game section (it's not clear how many)
• New Remote Play button mapping (does this mean now you can finish Lair with your PSP?)
• Video playback enhancements including scene search
• The ability to play music with photos

You can also bet that this update closes any security holes, so expect it to break any unapproved games or applications you might have installed...

This week is a big one for the PlayStation Store with 2 new downloadable games, 5 demos, some videos, wallpaper, and even a free music download from the Lair soundtrack (like that's going to sell you on the game after all of the negative word of mouth):

• PixelJunk Racers ($7) with free demo
• High Stakes on the Vegas Strip: Poker Edition ($10) with a video preview but no demo
• Lair music track
• Demos: FIFA 08, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, NHL 08 and Tony Hawk's Proving Ground
• Game Videos: Everyday Shooter, Juiced 2, Lair, Soul Calibur IV and Warhawk
• Wallpaper: Folklore, High Stakes: Poker and PixelJunk Racer
• Movie Trailer: Feel the Noise

Before you can actually get to the store, you'll be forced to download the v1.93 PS3 firmware update, which reportedly fixes some network bugs for Warhawk to improve gameplay smoothness - but there's no official word from Sony yet (their Web site hadn't been updated from v1.92 at this writing)...

This week, Xbox Live Marketplace has some new and free Halo 3 content (some of it sponsored by a retailer), several demos and a Ninja Gaiden 2 teaser:

• Band of Bugs Map Pack 3 ($1.88)
• Xbox Live Arcade: Sonic The Hedgehog 2 ($5)
• Demos: FIFA 08, Juiced 2: Hot Import Nights multiplayer, Spider-Man: Friend or Foe and Tony Hawk’s Proving Ground
• Game Videos: Halo 3, Madden 08, NHL 08, NHL 2K8, Ninja Gaiden 2, The Orange Box and Turok
• Themes: Band of Bugs ($1.88) and Halo 3 (free for a limited time; look under Best Buy)
• Pictures: Band of Bugs ($0.63), Halo 3 (free for a limited time; look under Best Buy), Dice ($1) and Soccer ($2)

As part of the Best Buy sponsorship of Halo 3, Xbox Live Silver members will wake up with free Gold accounts on Sept. 25. Alas, the effects only last for two days and then you'll have to pay to play online...

This week, you can download these new titles for the Wii Virtual Console:

• Super Thunder Blade (Genesis) - $8
• World Class Baseball (TurboGrafx) - $6
• Yoshi's Story (N64) - $10

Anyone fill up their Wii system memory with downloadable games yet? Which ones have you bought?

If you've been waiting for Nintendo to unlock the potential of the Wii's Wi-Fi capability with some online multiplayer action, the game that's going to do it might just be Super Smash Bros. Brawl. It's just been announced that Smash Bros. will offer online battles with friends (yes, you will still need those annoying codes) and strangers. You can send custom taunt texts entered ahead of time to your buddies. But play a stranger, and the experience is totally anonymous and silent (why does that sound so creepy). Alas, you won't have a popular venue to hook up and exchange codes since Nintendo is ditching its NSider Forums message boards. That's right, they are in read-only mode now and close down permanently on Sept. 24. Go grab your mail and any friends codes you wanted before they're all deleted...

Despite many rumors of bans for players who manage to score an early copy of Halo 3, Microsoft says it's just not true. The latest word from the Redmond giant is that "Microsoft is not taking any action (such as banning Xbox Live accounts) against gamers who are playing Halo 3 before the official street date. Any rumours or speculation to the contrary are false." Play 'em if you got 'em...

Apparently that self-styled anti-videogames lawyer (who can't draft a legal brief that doesn't ramble for pages about his so-called self-aggrandized contributions to American culture or, for that matter, craft a simple elegant sentence) is a "target" in Grand Theft Auto IV. In an early mission of the game, you're called on to whack an attorney who closely resembles Jack Thompson and spouts the phrase: "Guns don’t kill people. Videogames do." Naturally, Thompson is using this brief parody to possibly block the game's release. He writes: "You have until five o’clock P.M. this Friday to inform me that you are going to delete the above references and any other references that could reasonably be construed to be references to me in Grand Theft Auto IV and any other video games that are pending release. Failure to comply with the deadline will result in my having to take necessary and proper means to stop release of the game which targets me personally." Uh, most of us would just write 5 p.m. (especially in a legal document). You can correct the grammar yourself (consider it a mini-game). How'd this guy pass the bar, anyway...

Sony finally confirmed it will release a Dual Shock controller for the PlayStation 3. Dubbed the DualShock 3, it's due spring 2008 in the U.S. and will be compatible with several existing and upcoming titles through software updates (i.e., patches):

• Blast Factor
• Folklore
• Formula One Championship Edition
• Go! Sports Ski
• Heavenly Sword
• MotorStorm
• NBA 08
• Resistance: Fall of Man
• Super Stardust HD
• Warhawk
• Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2
• Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas

Many more games will have Dual Shock support natively (not bolted on after the fact):

• Assassin's Creed
• Beowulf
• Blacksite
• Burnout Paradise
• Condemned 2
• "Cops"
• Dark Sector
• Destroy All Humans 3
• Devil May Cry 4
• Dynasty Warriors 6
• echochrome
• Elefunk
• Enemy Territory: Quake Wars
• Fatal Inertia
• FIFA
• GripShift
• Haze
• Heroes over Europe
• Highlander
• High Velocity Bowling
• Iron Man
• Kane & Lynch: Dead Men
• Legendary: The Box
• Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
• MLB 08: The Show
• N-Cube
• NBA 2K8
• Pain
• "Planet One"
• Prototype
• Rage
• Rat Race
• Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction
• Resident Evil 5
• Snakeball
• SOCOM: Confrontation
• Soldier of Fortune
• Stuntman Ignition
• The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena
• The Club
• The Crucible
• The Darkness
• The Incredible Hulk
• To End All Wars
• Toy Home
• TNA Wrestling
• Turok
• Uncharted: Drake's Fortune
• Unreal Tournament 3
• Warbit
• WarDevil - Unleash the Beast Within
• Wheelman
• Wipeout HD

Did anyone know this many games were even coming to the PS3, much less with Dual Shock support? Perhaps Sony can still turn this around...

Today's mandatory update to Xbox Live adds support for the new Scene It? game controller in advance of its release later this year. It's not for you (yet), it's for the Microsoft test team to confirm its functionality...

This week, the PlayStation Store has the new LocoRoco Cocorecho! game for $7 with a preview video but, alas, no playable demo. If tilting a big yellow blob through a fantasy world isn't why you bought a PS3, there are plenty of free demos and videos to keep you busy:

• Demos: NBA 08, Sega Rally Revo, Skate and Stuntman: Ignition
• Game Videos: Devil May Cry 4, Folklore, Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, Heavenly Sword, Lair and Ratchet and Clank Future
• Wallpaper: Devil May Cry 4, Lair, LocoRoco Cocorecho!, NBA 08 and Ratchet and Clank Future

Here's a power user tip for those of you who queue a lot of files: Use the L1 button to quickly back out of store pages. This comes in really handy when downloading lots of wallpapers...

This week is a pretty weak one for Xbox Live Marketplace, though there are a few interesting demos and the promise of some Forza Motorsport 2 cars on the horizon:

• NHL 2K8 2K Reelmaker ($5), which lets you create your own highlight reels, and watch and vote on others
• Soltrio Solitaire Game Pack 8 ($1.88), which adds 10 more games including Spider 2 and Plait
• Eternal Sonata Piano Music Key ($1), which unlocks all of the Chopin piano music in the game (something you can do just by playing through - in other words, a cheat code you have to pay for)
• Xbox Live Arcade: Geon: Emotions ($10)
• Demos: NBA 2K8, Sega Rally and Viva Piñata Party Animals
• Game Videos: Ace Combat 6, Dark Sector, Devil May Cry 4, Halo 3, Kingdom Under Fire: Circle of Doom, Soul Calibur IV, Virtua Fighter 5 and Xbox Live Arcade (flashy editing, but nothing new)
• Themes: Ace Combat 6, Dark Sector, Devil May Cry 4, Geon: Emotions, Kingdom Under Fire: Circle of Doom, Virtua Fighter 5, Family Guy and Sexy Pirates
• Pictures: Dark Sector ($1.25), Devil May Cry 4 ($1.25), Fatal Fury Special ($0.75), Geon: Emotions ($1.50 each), Virtua Fighter 5 ($1.25 each), Family Guy ($1 each) and Sexy Pirates ($1)

The good news for racing fans is that Forza Motorsport 2 is getting a new car pack this weekend. Download the SEAT Leon Cupra for free, or pay $5 to get a collection that includes the Audi R10 Prototype, Classic Dodge Challenger R/T Hemi, Dodge Challenger Concept, Honda Civic Si Coupe, Honda Civic Type-R, Classic Lamborghini Miura P400, Lamborghini Miura Concept, Porsche 911 GT3 RS (997), Saturn Sky Red Line and SEAT Leon Supercup. Alas, no new tracks...

Every couple of years, iTunes blows up on me and I really hate Apple for a week or so. Once upon a time, I was a huge Apple booster, buying only Macs, writing for user groups and even editing an e-zine devoted to MacDoom fans. But these days my biggest connection to Cupertino is my iPod.

When you start out, the iPod is super easy to use and a good quality audio device; it almost justifies its high end pricing. But once you invest time and money to build up a huge library of music, things get hairy. About every two years, the files I've collected outgrow my hard drive and need to be moved. The first time, I just drag copied the files. I figured everything else was so easy with iTunes, why shouldn't this be? Surely, the metadata (song ratings, etc.) are embedded with the music files, and the playlists are standalone files like with Windows Media Player.

Alas, no - as I learned the hard way. iTunes stores this data in XML and database files, so you need to let iTunes do the moving for you. Back then, I had all of my music files backed up on my iPod (when they still all fit), so I was able to buy a third-party extractor to pull them back off onto my hard drive, preserving my ratings and playlists.

It's also worth pointing out that, unlike some online stores, you can only download a file once - so you'd better back up any music, videos or games you pay for (as well as their weekly freebies). I think it cost me about $20 to fix that nearly fatal error.

Flash forward to last week. I found some handy tutorials that walked me through the supposedly foolproof music migration process. You simply let iTunes manage your files, select a new location for your files within the program's settings, and then tell the player to Consolidate Library.

First off, let me recommend that you BACK UP everything before trying this. All of your music files, plus your database files (which tend to remain in your My Music folder on your default hard drive - aka "C:\:" on a Windows PC - along with any games you purchased). This will make restoring everything much simpler if things go horribly wrong. As they did for me.

The consolidation process took several hours. When it was through, only about 75 percent of my 16,000 files actually moved. My fatal error this time, it seems, is that the drive I chose was a Western Digital MyBook connected via USB to a remote D-Link network hard drive. Apparently, network drives are not usable by iTunes since it detects a lag and then marks the files as Streaming, which then makes them unplayable. (Hey, Apple, why don't you sniff for latency and warn us before trying to copy our files to a drive that's not fast enough for your software?! And let us toggle files from Stream back to standard play.)

But even that should be no problem, right? I'll just hook the hard drive directly to my PC, make sure it has the same drive letter and I'm golden, right? Alas, the MyBook doesn't get along with my Windows XP SP2 machine. Every time I try to copy a file to the MyBook when it's directly connected via USB, I instantly get a blue screen of death. Even in Safe Mode. (And, yes, I have all of the latest Microsoft system patches.)

Next I tried to manually edit the Library XML file to point back to my old drive (where I had not deleted the original files, thankfully). After searching and replacing some 10,000 entries with PSPad, I found that this data is duplicated in another, non-editable database file. So whenever I relaunch iTunes, it changes all of the paths back to the bad drive. Gee, thanks.

So far, the only solution I have found is to manually reconnect each file on the old drive to iTunes. This means deleting the file on the remote drive, clicking the entry in iTunes, and then browsing to the same file on the old drive. With about 10,000 files that need repointing, it will take me at least a month (assuming I can repoint about 350 each day) and possibly through the end of the year (if I only average 100 per day).

This still doesn't solve my original space problem. When I'm done, I'll be back to using the same drive that is full up and may fail on me sooner than the newer MyBook. So I plan to move some files into cold storage (leaving them marked as missing for now) and eventually migrate them to a locally connected drive that does not crash whenever I copy files to it. I'll also tell iTunes that it no longer gets to manage my files, since I don't want them consolidated on the same drive anymore.

If anyone knows a better fix for this, please let me know. And if you're thinking of moving your own iTunes library, take precautions if you don't want to join me in my new daily routine: Right-click, Ctrl-A, delete, select path, Ctrl-C, Alt-Tab, click, click, double-click, click, Ctrl-V, enter, double-click, repeat.

Right now, I'm up to the B's.

-=Gamewatcher

Another ho-hum week on the Wii Virtual Console:

• Kirby's Avalanche (SNES) - $8
• Legend of Hero Tonma (TurboGrafx) - $6
• Streets of Rage 3 (Genesis) - $8

Is anyone picking up any of these? I didn't think so...

There have been lots of "facts" flying around about Guitar Hero III. It's been confirmed that the game will be released for Mac, PC, PS2, PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii. Wireless guitar controllers will be bundled with the game on all platforms (well, at least the console versions) with pricing at $100 for PS3 and 360, and $10 less for PS2 and Wii. The game will also feature boss battles every few sets with two famous rockers and one special guest star. Here is the rumored final track list:

• 3's and 7's (Queens of the Stone Age)
• Anarchy in the UK (The Sex Pistols)
• Barracuda (Heart)
• Before I Forget (Slipknot)
• Black Magic Woman (Santana)
• Black Sunshine (White Zombie)
• Bulls on Parade (Rage Against the Machine)
• Cherub Rock (Smashing Pumpkins)
• Cities on Flame with Rock and Roll (Blue Oyster Cult)
• Cliffs of Dover (Eric Johnson)
• Cult of Personality (Living Colour)
• The Devil Went Down to Georgia (Charlie Daniels)
• Evenflow (Pearl Jam)
• Helicopter (Bloc Party)
• Hit Me With Your Best Shot (Pat Benatar)
• Holiday in Cambodia (The Dead Kennedys)
• Knights of Cydonia (Muse)
• Kool Thing (Sonic Youth)
• La Grange (ZZ Top)
• Lay Down (Priestess)
• The Metal (Tenacious D)
• Mississippi Queen (Mountain)
• Miss Murder (AFI)
• Monsters (Matchbook Romance)
• My Name Is Jonas (Weezer)
• Number of the Beast (Iron Maiden)
• One (Metallica)
• Paint It Black (Rolling Stones)
• Paranoid (Black Sabbath)
• Pride and Joy (Stevie Ray Vaughn)
• Raining Blood (Slayer)
• Reptilia (The Strokes)
• Rock and Roll All Nite (Kiss)
• Rock You Like a Hurricane (Scorpions)
• Sabotage (Beastie Boys)
• Same Old Song and Dance (Aerosmith)
• School's Out (Alice Cooper)
• The Seeker (The Who)
• Slow Ride (Foghat)
• Story of My Life (Social Distortion)
• Stricken (Disturbed)
• Suck My Kiss (Red Hot Chili Peppers)
• Sunshine of Your Love (Cream)
• Talk Dirty to Me (Poison)
• Welcome to the Jungle (Guns N Roses)
• When You Were Young (The Killers)

Bosses:

• Tom Morello
• Slash
• Lucifer (aka "Lou")

Bonus Tracks:

• Avalancha (Heroes del Silencio)
• Can't Be Saved (Senses Fail)
• Closer (Lacuna Coil)
• Don't Hold Back (The Sleeping)
• Down N Dirty (LA Slum Lords)
• FCP Remix (Fall of Troy)
• Generation Rock (Revolverhead)
• Go That Far (Bret Michaels Band)
• Hier Kommit Alex (Die Toten Hosen)
• I'm in the Band (The Hellacopters)
• Impulse (An Endless Sporadic)
• In Love (Scouts of St. Sebastian)
• In the Belly of a Shark (Gallows)
• Mauvis Garcon (NAAST)
• Metal Heavy Lady (Lions)
• Minus Celsius (Backyard Babies)
• My Curse (Killswitch Engage)
• Prayer of the Refugee (Rise Against)
• Radio Song (Superbus)
• Ruby (Kaiser Chiefs)
• She Bangs the Drums (The Stone Roses)
• Take This Life (In Flames)
• The Way It Ends (Prototype)
• Through the Fire and the Flames (Dragonforce)

Don't forget that as of today, all Xbox Live Silver accounts should have free Gold-level access in honor of the Halo 3 launch (and Best Buy's sponsorship of it). Online matchmaking and other advanced features work for any game that supports them and expire on Thursday (time not provided, but probably 11:59 p.m. in some U.S. time zone). In unrelated news, Microsoft is having a sale on three Xbox Live Arcade games (starting at 5 p.m. PDT and lasting a week):

• Bankshot Billiards ($11.25)
• Frogger ($3.75)
• Hardwood Spades ($3.75)

So if Halo just isn't your thing, get online tonight for some cutthroat Spades action...

One of the best Xbox 360 online resources is gone. Dashboardthemes.com provided a fully interactive look at 360 themes, so you could try before you buy. This made up for an oversight in Microsoft's dashboard design, which doesn't permit any in-engine preview, and its sloppy, understaffed workaround of posting the flat-file images to Xbox.com - often weeks or months after they are released (we're still waiting for any BioShock theme previews!). Apparently the fan site didn't make money and the developers lost interest in maintaining it. Damn! Dashboardthemes.com, you will be missed. Microsoft should have funded you - or at least licensed your nifty preview engine for its own Web site...

I'm only a few hours into the Halo 3 campaign, but wanted to share some initial findings:

• Gameplay is what you'd expect from a Halo game. Getting used to reloading weapons with the right bumper (instead of X) is tricky. I'm tempted to swap the mapping. But then it will get confusing when I dual wield.
• Story seems better overall, though I'm only two missions in. Your marine buddies seem pretty extraneous and generally invulnerable, unlike past installments where they'd die and leave you worse off if you didn't protect them. The good news is that you can just worry about yourself. Need to hide while your shields come back up? No problem. Just let your comrades take care of themselves.
• Wandering off the main path a little on the second mission, I stumbled on a hilarious in-game cameo from two of the Red vs. Blue guys. Great stuff!
• The load screen seems out of place. It's this weird blue swirling animation. Kinda takes you out of the game.
• The in-game films feature works for Campaign mode (as well as multiplayer), but it doesn't seem to save your films from past levels. I went back to capture a great moment from Mission 2, but instead found that I only had a 28-second clip from the start of Mission 3. Lame! I have 70GB of free hard drive space. The game should let me set how much space I want to devote to my locally saved films. [UPDATE: The game hides past films on another screen - press A on the currently selected Film to get there. It looks like it will save 25MB before deleting old ones. You can mark any films you want to retain by pressing X on the selection screen. The game also won't let you rewind or capture film clips during Campaign mode since it loads the game in segments. It does seem like you should be able to rewind and save clips within a single load segment, and even skip back and forth to earlier and later segments. Future feature?]
• I got the Legendary edition, and the "cat helmet" is very cool (though it won't actually fit on a cat). It's bigger than you'd expect and comes with its own logo'd dustcover. None of my discs were scratched, but if yours are damaged be sure to return them for an exchange or take Microsoft up on their warranty.

I haven't played any multiplayer yet, but based on my beta experience I expect this to be nothing short of awesome. I like to savor the Halo series, so it may take awhile for me to complete campaign mode. Over the next few weeks, I plan to play around with the Forge editor/sandbox and try to earn my Sergeant stripes in multiplayer...

This week's PlayStation Store update has some for-pay game add-ons, downloadable demos and videos:

• Ninja Gaiden Speed Master ($3) adds five survival modes with worldwide rankings
• MotorStorm Castro Capitano ($1) is an armored racing truck with three style variants
• Demos: Clive Barker’s Jericho and NBA 08
• Game Videos: Eye of Judgment, Guitar Hero III and NBA 08
• Movie Trailers: Iron Man and We Own the Night

Oh, and if you were holding your breath for the PlayStation Home launch in October, you'll have to wait a bit longer. It's been pushed to spring 2008...

If you have a Gold account, login before Sunday night to nab a free Halo 3 theme, gamer picture and a couple of videos. Look for the Unite to Fight Exclusive Content promo. If you click it and see only purchaseable themes and content, back out and keep refreshing the Marketplace tab until a different promo appears. Other recent Xbox Live Marketplace additions include:

• Blue Dragon Ultra Hard Mod (free), which adds three new modes for advanced, high-level players
• Texas Hold 'Em title update fixes an exploit and resets the Competitive Bankroll leaderboards
• Hexic 2 title update patches a bomb-related bug in Marathon and Timed modes, balances a few gameplay elements and resets Marathon, Marathon Weekly and Timed leaderboards
• Guitar Hero II Indie Label Pack ($6.25) includes Detonation (Trivium), Ex’s And Oh’s (Atreyu) and Bury the Hatchet (Protest the Hero)
• Demos: Crash of the Titans, Clive Barker's Jericho and NHL 2K8
• Game Videos: Battlefield: Bad Company, Crash Of The Titans, Guitar Hero II (shows off Indie Label Pack), Halo 3, Last Remnant, Lost Odyssey, Midnight Club: LA, Sega Rally and College Hoops Virtual Final 4
• Themes: Rock Band ($1.88), Discovery Channel (free)
• Pictures: Rock Band ($1.25), Block Party ($1) and Discovery Channel (free)

If you're the kind of person who likes to start with an empty canvas when creating a new multiplayer map, some Halo 3 fans have already painstakingly emptied out the included maps of objects so you can download them and start building your own versions from the ground up with Forge. Chevmeister (with help from hercules1177 and Isnagov) has collected the empty maps for easy queuing to your 360...

MTV has revealed the final pricing for Rock Band, long rumored to be a $200 bundle. The truth is $30 cheaper: the game with guitar, microphone and drums will run you $170. PS3 players will get a wireless guitar, while Xbox 360 owners are stuck with a wired model for now (a wireless version for 360 is expected to be offered separately next year, and it's not clear whether the wireless axe included with Guitar Hero III will work)...