Busy Gamer News

• Tecmo Bowl Throwback ($10)
• Planet Mini-Golf ($10)
• Soldner-X 2: Final Prototype and Soldner-X: Himmelssturmer Bundle ($18)
• Dead To Rights: Retribution GAC Pack ($5) with Assault on the 87th Precinct, Riot Control, Action and Noir modes plus character skins
• Lost Planet 2 Map Pack #2 ($5) with two maps
• Record Of Agarest War various packs ($2-5 each)
• PS1 for PS3/PSP: N2O Nitrous Oxide ($6)
• Guitar Hero 5 Stone Temple Pilots Track Pack($5.50 or $2 each) with "Between The Lines," "Plush" and "Sex Type Thing"
• Rock Band/Rock Band 2 Spoon Pack 01 ($7 or $2 each) with "Don't You Evah," "Got Nuffin," "I Turn My Camera On" and "Trouble Comes Running" plus tracks ($2 each) "Forever In Your Hands" by All That Remains, "The Future Soon" by Jonathan Coulton, "The Most Beautiful Girl (In The Room)" by Flight of the Conchords, "Alive" by P.O.D., "Disengage" by Suicide Silence and "Get the Hell Out of Here" by Steve Vai - Note: "Family friendly" tracks also work with Lego Rock Band.
• Demos: Planet Mini-Golf
• Game Videos: Call Of Duty: Black Ops, Death Track: Resurrection, Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days, LittleBigPlanet 2, Medal Of Honor, ModNation Racers, Red Dead Redemption and Pulse magazine
• Themes: Futbol Premium ($2), ModNation Racers (free), Flower Fantasy ($1.50), Say Cheesecake ($2), UFC Dynamic ($3) and Voodoo Crucifixion ($1.50)
• Wallpaper: Soldner-X 2: Final Prototype
• Avatars: Soldner-X 2: Final Prototype ($1.50 for bundle or 0.50 each) and Super Street Fighter IV ($0.50 each)
• PSP: Telegraph Crosswords ($3)
• PSP Game Videos: ModNation Racers and Pulse magazine
• PSP Themes: Armored Core Last Raven (free), Futbol ($1.50 each), ModNation Racers PSP (free), Flower Fantasy ($1.50), Vampires ($1.50 each) and Voodoo Crucifixion ($1.50)
• PlayStation Home Items (usually priced $0.50-7.50 each): ModNation Racers personal space

When watching a streaming video on the Wii's Nintendo Channel, you can clear the white bands across the top and bottom by simply pointing the Wii-mote away from the TV.

Since your typical action when using the Wii is to keep the controller pointed at the screen, you might have wondered if there was a way to make the video more watchable rather than matting over the standard definition 4x3 aspect ratio.

As best we can read Nintendo's UI design team, pointing at the screen signals your desire to interact with the video (you can click Back, Pause or Details) while setting the remote down or pointing it away makes you a passive watcher who gets to enjoy it full screen. Maybe if the videos were longer and not mostly short marketing clips, we would find this more intuitive and would have discovered it sooner...

More Power User Tips:

• Check used Xbox 360 games for problems

If you're going to get the online multiplayer racer Test Drive Unlimited 2 this September (and you know we will!), you may want to consider the range of pre-order exclusives before plunking down your reservation:

• Atari.com: Yellow Nissan 370Z
• Amazon.com: Aston Martin V12 Vantage Carbon Black special edition, avatar apparel and a credit toward future videogame purchase
• Best Buy: Aston Martin DBS Carbon Black special edition
• GameStop: Casino Online bonus game with poker, roulette and slots, plus the chance to unlock two unspecified bonus cars
• Walmart: Inuit Audi Q7 V12 TDI Quattro, avatar apparel and a Walmart.com gift card

Looks like GameStop wins, at least for us. We're suckers for gambling where you don't lose any real money - well, beyond the price of the game itself...

We are suddenly swimming in codes and thought we would share the wealth! Pick just ONE code you really want from the following:

• Alan Wake (Xbox 360; Three separate prizes!): Bright Falls Theme, Male Avatar Shirt, Female Avatar Shirt
• Boys & Girls Club Avatar Hoodie (Xbox 360; Four prizes): Male Avatar Shirt (x2), Female Avatar Shirt (x2)
• ModNation Racers (PS3; Two prizes): Air Raid DLC (x2) with airman mod and kart

As noted, we have two each of the ModNation Racers DLC and the Boys & Girls Club Avatar hoodies. We'll keep this open until 5p Pacific today, or when there are enough entries that all nine codes will be awarded - whichever comes first.

This giveaway is a bonus for those busy gamers who are vigilant and lucky. The usual rules apply except that the entry period is shorter. We'll do a random drawing from all of the people who enter.

To enter:

• Arcade: Snoopy Flying Ace ($10) plus Defense Grid Map Pack 1 ($1) with two maps
• Game Room ($3-5 each; requires Game Pack 004; no new download this week): Frog Bog, Missile Command, Mr. Goemon, Skiing and Video Pinball
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Resurgence Pack ($15) with five maps
• Dead To Rights: Retribution GAC Pack ($5) with Assault on the 87th Precinct, Riot Control, Action and Noir modes plus character skins
• 2010 FIFA World Cup Flag Themed Ball Updates (free) for Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia
• Guitar Hero 5 Stone Temple Pilots Track Pack ($5.50 or $2 each) with "Between The Lines," "Plush" and "Sex Type Thing"
• Rock Band/Rock Band 2 Spoon Pack 01 ($7 or $2 each) with "Don't You Evah," "Got Nuffin," "I Turn My Camera On" and "Trouble Comes Running" plus track ($2) "Alive" by P.O.D. - Note: "Family friendly" tracks also work with Lego Rock Band.
• Rock Band Network tracks ($1-3; Rock Band 2 required to download and play) "Shake" by Atom, "Hail Destroyer" and "Sorceress" by Cancer Bats, "Disappear in You" by Clandestine, "Live For Today" by Sullivan DeMott, "This F***ing Job" by Drive-By Truckers, "When We Fall" by Gentlemen At Arms, "Freakshow" by HourCast and "American Hero" by Ron Wasserman
• Lips Elton John Song Pack ($5.50 or $2 each) with "Crocodile Rock," "Don't Go Breaking My Heart" and "Your Song" and track ($2) "Misery Business" by Paramore
• Games on Demand: Medal of Honor: Airborne ($20) and Soul Calibur IV ($20)
• Demos: Blur multiplayer plus all Xbox Live Arcade, Indie games and Rock Band Network tracks
• Indie Games (usually $1-10 each): Apple Jack, Avatar Paintball, Blast, A Game of Hockey, Kubrik 3D, Penkin Ball Dodge, Plasma Spheres 2, Prismatic Solid, Rock A Block and Solar Hoops
• Game Videos: Alpha Protocol, Blur, Crackdown 2, Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days, Raskulls, Shank, Shrek Forever After plus Alpha Protocol strategy guides ($1 each)
• Themes: Raskulls Premium ($3), plus Energizer and Marines (free)
• Pictures: Battlestars ($1), plus Energizer and Marines (free) and School's Out (enters you in sweepstakes)
• Avatar Items (usually priced $1-5 each): Snoopy Flying Ace

This week we have another pick and win, this time for a game guide.

Choose from the following guides (games NOT included):

• Blue Dragon (maps, monsters, and stats for a deep and fun J-RPG on Xbox 360)
• Doom II (ported to countless platforms including Mac and GBA, now with new life on Xbox 360)
• The original Dead to Rights (guide is for original Xbox, though the game also saw release on GameCube, PC, PS2 and PSP)
• Dungeon Keeper (PC predecessor to Overlord)

You may earn up to FOUR chances to win the game guide of your choice (or if you're really lucky, more than one!):

1. Enter a comment here, as usual. That's all you really NEED to do. Be sure to say which guide you want (or if you're ambitious and plan to use bonus entries, list the ones you'd like in order of preference)
2. Tweet the following on Twitter: Win game guides for Blue Dragon, Doom II & more at BusyGamerNews, home of the Busy Gamer Podcast! RT + enter: http://bit.ly/d9Vvx2 #bgnfsf
3. Review (or re-review) our Busy Gamer Podcast on iTunes
4. Review (or re-review) the Best of Busy Gamer Podcast on iTunes. This is a short audio highlights feed with our reviews, audio tours and other timeless bits.

If you do 2, 3 and/or 4, you do need to let us know your Twitter/iTunes name(s) in your comment so we can find, verify and include your bonus entries in the drawing and match them up to contact you if one of them wins. If we can't easily tell who you are on Twitter and/or iTunes, the bonus entry is disqualified.

You DO have to enter a comment here and follow the other rules to be eligible. Here's where you enter:

This week, Gamewatcher puts the Glee app for iPhone to the test with his vocal stylings (our funniest segment yet!), Pikachu Fan reviews his latest brick-themed videogame obsession, Lego Batman, GrrlGotGame picks between Alan Wake and Doom II, plus Red Dead Redemption's plodding pace, why nostalgia for Missile Command and Video Pinball won't win us back to Game Room and we introduce our new feature, Power User Tips, with advice for Xbox 360 and Wii gamers.

Get all of that - plus game release news, DLC and giveaways - in less than 15 minutes!

Our goal is to provide a short (typically 10-15 minutes) summary of news and helpful commentary every Sunday so that you'll have a great jumping off point for your busy gamer week. Here's what we pack into each episode:

• The week's game releases
• A quick look back at the previous week's releases, news and downloadable content highlights
• What we're playing/mini-reviews
• Giveaways
• Comment of the week

As promised in the Busy Gamer Podcast, here is the complete list of games due for release this week for PC/Mac, portables and consoles (plus some recent releases that slipped out when we weren't looking):

• DS: The Bachelor: The Videogame, Don't Cross The Line (DSiWare), Fire Panic (DSiWare), Flametail (DSiWare), Flips: The Magic Faraway Tree (DSiWare), Legend Of Kay, Let's Play Ballerina, Let's Play Flight Attendant, Let's Play Garden, Mega Man Zero Collection, Monkey Madness: Island Escape and Satisfashion
• iPhone/iPad: Carcassonne, Deadly Dungeon, Doodle Hockey, Grokion, Guitar Hero, Hector: Badge of Carnage Episode 1, Highborn, I Dig It HD, Land Air Sea Warfare, LilRacerz, Meteor Blitz HD, The Package, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Prince of Persia: Warrior Within, Princess Fury, Racing Mania, Sigma, Soccer Superstars and Super QuickHook
• Mac: Mini Ninjas and Yoostar Entertainment System (make greenscreen videos at home)
• PC: Grand Ages Rome: Gold Edition and Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands
• PS3: Green Day: Rock Band (Plus edition includes DLC codes) and Tiger Woods PGA Tour '11
• PS2: None
• PSP: Disgaea Infinite and Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker
• Wii: The Bachelor: The Videogame, Green Day: Rock Band, Lead the Meerkats (WiiWare), Let's Play Ballerina, Let's Play Garden, Reel Fishing Challenge II (WiiWare), Satisfashion, Tiger Woods PGA Tour '11 and Zoo Disc Golf (WiiWare)
• Xbox 360: Earthworm Jim HD (Arcade), Green Day: Rock Band (Plus edition includes DLC codes) and Tiger Woods PGA Tour '11

So, what will you be picking up - or is this week a pass? Any games we missed? Anything slip (as these inevitably do)? Please let us know...

Here are this week's downloads, demos and videos for the Wii and Nintendo DS:

• WiiWare: Lead the Meerkats ($10), Reel Fishing Challenge II ($5) and Zoo Disc Golf ($10)
• Virtual Console: None
• DSiWare: Don't Cross The Line ($2), Fire Panic ($2), Flametail ($5) and Flips: The Magic Faraway Tree ($5)
• Rock Band 2 tracks ($2 each; due Tuesday, June 8) "The Great Escape" by Boys Like Girls, "Rock Ready" by Crown of Thorns and "Cherry Waves," "Hole in the Earth" and "Minerva" by Deftones - Note: "Family friendly" tracks also work with Lego Rock Band.
• DS Demos (via Wii's Nintendo Channel): All repeats including Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth, America's Test Kitchen: Let's Get Cooking Roasted Red Potatoes and Pots de Creme, Bakugan Battle Brawlers, Battle of Giants: Mutant Insects, Deca Sports DS Cheerleading and Ping Pong, Dragon Ball: Origins 2, Picross 3D, Rooms DS and Women's Murder Club: Games of Passion
• Game Videos: Despicable Me: The Game, Fire Panic, Lead the Meerkats, Puzzle Quest 2, Reel Fishing Challenge II and Zoo Disc Golf

Apple announced the iPhone 4, due June 24 in 16GB and 32GB configurations for $200-300 with AT&T contract (or $400-500 without contract):

• High resolution screen
• Smaller size, though slightly heavier
• Flash for external camera
• Front-facing VGA camera for videoconferencing
• Gyroscope that, when coupled with accelerometer, provides six-axis motion sensing (same as PS3 controller)
• Metal rim that serves as an antenna to improve reception
• Bigger battery that promises 7-10 hours life, depending on usage

If you have an existing AT&T contract that is up for renewal in 2010, you'll be eligible for the renewal price now (well, when pre-orders open on June 15). The other big news is that iPhone OS 4.0 is due June 21 for free download, even if you have an iPod Touch. Previously, iPod users had to pay for OS upgrades...

In an interesting twist, Sony has dropped the price on Sam And Max: The Devil’s Playhouse season (5 games in all) to $25 for a limited time sale, which is less than even the pre-order special. Or you can now buy the first episode individually for $9.

Here's what's new this week at the PlayStation Store:

• Joe Danger ($15)
• Voodoo Dice ($10)
• Death Track: Resurrection ($15) and Hari 108 car ($1)
• Sam And Max: The Devil’s Playhouse Episode 1 - The Penal Zone ($9)
• PS1 for PS3/PSP: Bloody Roar 2 ($6)
• DJ Hero: 2 Mix! (free through June 14) with "Just Dance" by Lady Gaga featuring Colby O'Donis vs. "Ghosts 'n' Stuff" by Deadmau5
• LittleBigPlanet Heavy Rain Costume Pack ($6 or $2 each) with Norman Jayden, Madison Paige, Ethan Mars, Scott Shelby, Origami costume and stickers
• ModNation Racers Soundtrack ($8) and Vamp Mod and Vamp’s Kart Bundle ($1.75 or $1 each) with vampire accessories, kart and parts
• Super Street Fighter IV Super Challengers Pack 2 ($4) with costumes for Juri, Ibuki, Cody, Adon and T.Hawk
• Smash Cars Virus Run ($3) adds split-screen and the six-player Virus Run online mode
• Burn Zombie Burn In Space DLC ($3)
• Hustle Kings Snooker Game Pack ($3)
• Skate 3 Maloof Money Cup 2010 NYC Pack ($5)
• Record Of Agarest War various packs ($2.50 to $7)
• Tiger Woods PGA Tour '11 various packs ($1 to $10)
• Guitar Hero 5 The National Anthem Pack Pack (free) with "God Save The Queen," "Il Canto Degli Italiani," "La Marseillaise," "Lied Der Deutschen," "March Real" and "The Star-Spangled Banner" by Steve Ouimette
• Rock Band/Rock Band 2 Deftones Pack 01 ($5.50 or $2 each) with "Cherry Waves," "Hole In The Earth" and "Minerva" and tracks ($2 each) "The Great Escape" by Boys Like Girls, "The Mob Goes Wild" by Clutch, "Rock Ready" by Crown Of Thorns, "Collapsing" by Demon Hunter, "Mechanical Love" by In This Moment, "Don’t Let Me Down (Slowly)" by The Main Drag and "Heimdalsgate Like A Promethean Curse" by Of Montreal - Note: "Family friendly" tracks also work with Lego Rock Band.
• Demos: Voodoo Dice
• Game Videos: Dante's Inferno Trials Of St. Lucia, Joe Danger, Red Dead Redemption, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II and Qore ($3 each or $25/year) featuring Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light and Green Day: Rock Band
• Themes: Wakeboarding HD ($3) and ACR Premium ($2)
• PSP: Cubixx ($4), Disgaea Infinite ($20), Lock 'N Chase ($4), Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker ($40), Metal Slug XX ($20) and Vibes ($6) plus SOCOM Fire Team Bravo 3 various multiplayer character/weapon packs (free)
• PSP Game Videos: Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 Portable
• PSP Themes: Pinball Heroes: ModNation Racers (free), Pinball Heroes: Wipeout HD Fury (free) and ACR ($1.50 each)
• PSP Wallpaper: Armored Core: Last Raven
• PlayStation Home Items (usually priced $0.50 to $7.50 each): BioShock 2 personal space and 2010 FIFA World Cup team jerseys

Reviewed On: Xbox 360 via Xbox Live Arcade; also available for PC, Mac and many other platforms in various incarnations.

In a Nutshell: Shoot demon spawn and zombie soldiers. There are puzzles, mostly involving keys and switches, but it really just boils down to: Kill enemies and find the exit. Rinse and repeat. That's basically it.

Oh, but there's so much more. Doom was the granddaddy of the modern first-person shooter. Building on the slick Nazi slaying of Wolfenstein 3D, Doom added grit, texture and some impressive enemies and level design. Then Doom II took things to new heights and helped foster a new generation of level designers. Many of the people who build the maps for the FPS games you play today cut their teeth making Doom WADs and Total Conversions.

Doom II for Xbox Live Arcade isn't necessarily the definitive version of the game, but for $10 it packs in a lot of value: the original 32 levels of Doom II, 9 exceedingly well-crafted bonus maps, split-screen and Xbox Live co-op and deathmatch and a pair of avatar items you can unlock including a black Doom II avatar t-shirt.

The No Rest for the Living bonus maps added by Nerve Software (which ported the classic id Software game for Bethesda Softworks) are masterful - if you take the time to enjoy them. Most are designed to provide relatively quick access to the exit, but if you notice any areas that are not accessible, hear the distant sounds of imps or see a key you can’t reach, you haven't extracted full enjoyment from them.

Spend some time finding the secrets and you will be rewarded with some great gaming moments: thoughtfully sprung traps, intricate mixes of enemies and bonus weapons to help make the experience stimulating and rewarding. The puzzles are so well done, I had a big grin on my face for almost the full time I played these levels. When I realized with horror on one of the later levels that an Arch-Vile was resurrecting a slew of dangerous enemies I had carefully dispatched - and then, a few minutes later, I heard another Arch-Vile lurking nearby ready to do the same - I tipped my virtual hat to the level designer.

Learning Curve: If you've never played Doom before, you'll need to adjust to its old-school ways. You can't look up and down so your weapon auto-aims to hit any enemy directly in front of where you're pointing. You'll have to learn which weapons work best against different enemies, though this is pretty easy and part of the fun of the game. Due to the way the console version cycles through your weapons (X and Y buttons), you will need to practice switching until you can do it quickly while under fire. The D-pad does offer your most common choices (shotgun, chaingun, rockets and plasma), but it would have been nice if they made it user remappable.

The Save Game: Save anywhere at any time. You do have a limited number of save slots (10) per storage device, and there's no quick save but otherwise this works really well.

Family Factor: In retrospect, this is not the most violent videogame ever (despite what some parents seemed to think in the '90s!) but it does have blood, rocket launchers, humanoid soldier enemies, scary-looking demons and some vaguely satanic looking symbols. Mature teens can probably handle it (especially if they've already experienced Call of Duty or Halo), but keep the little ones away while you play.

Buy or Skip? Hit the free demo to see if you enjoy it, but we'd rate this a buy at $10 for single-player and co-op alone. Xbox Live connectivity is hit or miss, and there's no system link (LAN) play so you may want to skip it if these things are vital to your enjoyment.

On a Personal Note: In the mid-1990s, GrrlGotGame and I were avid Macintosh gamers. There weren't a lot of games available on the Mac back then (oh how things have changed, right?!) - mostly shareware and the occasional BIG GAME RELEASE. When Doom II arrived on Mac a couple years behind the PC version, we were skeptical but gave it a try - and were instantly hooked!

It's not that we were against violent videogames per se, but the media reports had painted Doom as... well, you know the drill by now, a murder simulator. (Oh how things have changed!) I'm a pacifist and have never fired a gun in real life (well, maybe once when my dad was holding it at a shooting range when I was 10). But Doom II was riveting, stress-relieving and just plain fun. Those shocks of adrenaline when a well-designed level tossed an unexpected trap (say, a demon attack in a dark room) proved addictive. And we enjoyed the novelty of new community-made level downloads, including a replica of the Atari corporate offices, a total conversion that turned Doom into an Aliens game and a truly inspired set of maps called Memento Mori. (If you played them, you remember the name.)

We became so passionate about Doom, we launched a niche interest e-zine, MacDoom Review. (Oh how things have changed! Now we write a niche interest gaming blog and podcast!) MDR, as we called it, had a small but deeply devoted following. It was published monthly using a Mac tool called DocMaker so you couldn't even read it on a PC! We had interviews, tutorials for homebrew tools to make your own levels, tips and tricks and lots and lots of WAD reviews. Oh, and poetry. GrrlGotGame put her creative talents to work writing verses, lyrics and even recipes to entertain a lost generation of Doom-lovin' frat boys (we'll include a sample in Busy Gamer Podcast 35).

Doom II was actually the first Doom game to be released on Mac, followed by Ultimate Doom (which included the original Doom with bonus maps) and several map pack compendiums. Doom II remains the gold standard for us. It introduced some of the best enemies: the plodding but powerful Mancubi, rocket-firing Revenants and flaming Arch-Viles.

One of my favorite pastimes in Doom II was (and remains) slowly taking down a Mancubus with a shotgun. It takes a while and requires careful strafing to avoid his fire attack, but it's so satisfying to hear the creature's plaintive "Bwaa" with each impact that I could do this all day. Revenant rockets actually track you, so dodging them is a similarly rewarding challenge, along with the sound their bones make when they eventually crumble. And the menacing murmur of a nearby Arch-Vile still chills me, especially when I'm walking through a room of dead demons that I know it will bring back to life if it gets half a chance.

If you only pick up one Doom game for Xbox Live Arcade, make it Doom II - it's rich, deep and still loads of fun.

More Busy Gamer Reviews:

• Solitaire Siege
• BioShock 2
• The Maw
• Assassin’s Creed II: Battle of Forli DLC
• Borderlands [BGN Game of the Year 2009]
• Lego Rock Band
• Assassin's Creed II
• Zuma's Revenge
• Halo 3: ODST
• Plants vs. Zombies
• Fallout 3
• Scribblenauts
• The Beatles: Rock Band
• Guide to kids and adult games

Apparently, Harmonix wanted to squash that rumor that suggested Rock Band 3 would feature a hobbled mini-piano controller. They revealed that the game, due in late 2010, will use a 25-key MIDI keyboard (which actually can be strapped on as a keytar if you like) as well as a real full-sized Fender guitar that can be used both with simplified game modes (so you can play the usual 5-note streams as a band just for fun) and a new Pro mode with real notes that's designed to help players learn the moves needed to migrate to a real instrument. Coupled with already realistic drumming and vocal experiences, this could make Rock Band the most authentic gaming music platform:

Prices for these new instruments aren't known yet, but your existing controllers and Rock Band music library will still work with the game, just not the new mode (we presume). In addition, some of the Rock Band 3 song list has been revealed:

• "Just Like Heaven" by The Cure
• "Rainbow in the Dark" by Dio
• "Break On Through" by The Doors
• "Crosstown Traffic" by Jimi Hendrix
• "The Power of Love" by Huey Lewis and the News
• "Been Caught Stealing" by Jane's Addiction
• "I Love Rock and Roll" by Joan Jett
• "Me Enamora" by Juanes
• "Portions of Foxes" by Rilo Kiley
• "Oh My God" by Ida Maria
• "Combat Baby" by Metric
• "Sister Christian" by Night Ranger
• "Crazy Train" by Ozzy Osbourne
• "Lasso" by Phoenix
• "Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen
• "Walkin' on the Sun" by Smash Mouth
• "In the Meantime" by Spacehog
• "Plush" by Stone Temple Pilots
• "Dead End Friends" by Them Crooked Vultures
• "Get Free" by The Vines
• "Here I Go Again" by Whitesnake
• "The Hardest Button to Button" by The White Stripes

UPDATE (June 10): Prices have been revealed for instruments. A wireless keytar is $80, or $130 bundled with the Rock Band 3 game. The new Pro Fender guitar is $150. The Pro cymbal expansion for drums is $40, and a MIDI adapter for the keyboard is an extra $40. So if you really want to go all out with your band for Rock Band 3, you're looking at $280 to about $500 depending on how many of the fancy guitars you need.

• Arcade: Earthworm Jim HD ($10) and NeoGeo Battle Coliseum ($10) plus Defense Grid Map Pack 2 ($1) with two maps
• Game Room ($3-5 each; no new download this week): Baseball, Circus Atari, River Raid 2, Sky Jinks and Video Hustler
• DJ Hero: 2 Mix! (free through June 14) with "Just Dance" by Lady Gaga featuring Colby O'Donis vs. "Ghosts 'n' Stuff" by Deadmau5
• Super Street Fighter IV Super Challengers Pack 2 ($4) with costumes for Juri, Ibuki, Cody, Adon and T.Hawk
• Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Upgrade Packs ($2 each)
• Forza Motorsport 3 Summer Velocity Car Pack with 10 cars ($5; one free sample 2010 Peugeot 308 RCZ)
• Lost Planet 2 Map Pack #2 ($5) with two maps
• Skate 3 Maloof Money Cup 2010 NYC Pack ($5)
• Tiger Woods PGA Tour '11 The Highlands fantasy course ($10)
• Pro Evolution Soccer 2010 06/2010 Downloadable Updates (free)
• Guitar Hero 5 The National Anthem Pack Pack (free) with "God Save The Queen," "Il Canto Degli Italiani," "La Marseillaise," "Lied Der Deutschen," "March Real" and "The Star-Spangled Banner" by Steve Ouimette
• Rock Band/Rock Band 2 Deftones Pack 01 ($5.50 or $2 each) with "Cherry Waves," "Hole In The Earth" and "Minerva" and tracks ($2 each) "The Great Escape" by Boys Like Girls and "Rock Ready" by Crown Of Thorns - Note: "Family friendly" tracks also work with Lego Rock Band.
• Rock Band Network tracks ($1-3; Rock Band 2 required to download and play) "I Wanna Be An Alien's Pet" by Alien Downlink, "Dead Wrong" by Cancer Bats, "Higher" by Creed, "Riot Act" by Exodus, "Smile (Live)" by The Gufs, "Walking Away" by Made Avail, "Haunt My Mind" and "Tap Dancing In A Minefield" by The New Regime, "Daughter" by The Reverend H Chronicles, "Fake It" by Seether, "Blow at High Dough" by The Tragically Hip, "Surprise" by Verse Versus Chorus and "Soldier from the Surface" by Windtunnel Syndrome
• Lips tracks ($2 each) "Shotgun" by Jr. Walker & The All Stars, "Dancing In The Street" by Martha Reeves & The Vandellas, "Fireflies" by Owl City and "My Guy" by Mary Wells
• Games on Demand: Need for Speed: Undercover ($20) and Red Faction: Guerrilla ($20)
• Demos: Lego Harry Potter and Transformers: War for Cybertron multiplayer plus all Xbox Live Arcade, Game Room, Indie games and Rock Band Network tracks
• Indie Games (usually $1-10 each): Aah Little Atlantis, Avatar Penalty Shootout, Blood Tempest, The Brain of Bob, Chaos Node, Dragoon, Fifteen, GochaSuraDash, Good Sir, A Balloon Race!, Ice Crush 10.000 B.C., I Suck At: Word Games, Legend of the Rune Lords, Light Bikes 360, Nice Try, Quickball, Spell Find, That Seagull Stole My Chips, TransSubversion, Try Not To Fart, Urban Space Squirrels, Video Poker and Zombie Sniper HD
• Game Videos: Crackdown 2, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Earthworm Jim HD and Naughty Bear
• Themes: Nike (free)
• Pictures: NeoGeo Battle Coliseum ($1) and Nike (free)
• Avatar Items (usually priced $1-5 each): Toy Story 3

With this week's big announcement that MotorStorm Apocalypse is on the way (someday!), we thought: What better way to celebrate than by going back to Monument Valley and the original MotorStorm for PlayStation 3. Also, we don't have nearly enough PS3 game giveaways, right?!

You may earn up to FOUR chances to win:

1. Enter a comment here, as usual. That's all you really NEED to do.
2. Tweet the following on Twitter: Win MotorStorm for PS3 at BusyGamerNews.com, home of the Busy Gamer Podcast! RT + enter: http://bit.ly/a7ItTY #bgnfsf
3. Review (or re-review) our Busy Gamer Podcast on iTunes
4. Review (or re-review) the Best of Busy Gamer Podcast on iTunes. This is a short audio highlights feed with our reviews, audio tours and other timeless bits.

If you do 2, 3 and/or 4, you do need to let us know your Twitter/iTunes name(s) in your comment so we can find, verify and include your bonus entries in the drawing and match them up to contact you if one of them wins. If we can't easily tell who you are on Twitter and/or iTunes, the bonus entry is disqualified.

You DO have to enter a comment here and follow the other rules to be eligible. Here's how to enter:

This week, we examine our Doom II nostalgia fueled by its Xbox Live Arcade release and uncork GrrlGotGame's decade-old demon poetry from our days publishing MacDoom Review. We also review Green Day: Rock Band and go deep into the details of Rock Band 3 (including the just announced instrument pricing) and iPhone 4.

Get all of that - plus game release news, DLC and giveaways - in about 19 minutes!

Our goal is to provide a short (typically 10-15 minutes) summary of news and helpful commentary every Sunday so that you'll have a great jumping off point for your busy gamer week. Here's what we pack into each episode:

• The week's game releases
• A quick look back at the previous week's releases, news and downloadable content highlights
• What we're playing/mini-reviews
• Giveaways
• Comment of the week

As promised in the Busy Gamer Podcast, here is the complete list of games due for release this week for PC/Mac, portables and consoles (plus some recent releases that slipped out when we weren't looking):

• DS: 16 Shot! Shooting Watch (DSiWare), 100 Classic Books, Electronic Keyboard (DSiWare), Flips: Silent But Deadly (DSiWare), I Spy Universe, A Kappa's Trail (DSiWare), Mahjong Mysteries: Ancient Egypt, Telegraph Crosswords (DSiWare), Toy Story 3, Western Riding Academy, XG Blast and Yard Sale Hidden Treasures: Sunnyville
• iPhone/iPad: 2XL SuperBlox, Banzai Rabbit, Foosball HD, Lightbike 2, Pac Match Party, Qwak, Return to Mysterious Island for iPad, Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2 and TrophyLite Rally
• Mac: Toy Story 3
• PC: Dream Day Wedding: Bella Italia, Fallen Earth: Blood Sports, Toy Story 3 and The Treasures of Mystery Island
• PS3: Super Bike World Championships SBK and Toy Story 3
• PS2: None
• PSP: Toy Story 3
• Wii: Arcade Sports (WiiWare), Bejeweled 2 (WiiWare), Boys Vs Girls, Dance on Broadway, Family Game Show, Kid Adventures: Sky Captain, Pirates Plundarrr, Shadow of the Ninja (Virtual Console), Toy Story 3 and Yard Sale Hidden Treasures: Sunnyville (WiiWare)
• Xbox 360: Air-Sea Battle (Game Room), Chopper Command (Game Room), Liberator (Game Room), Motocross (Game Room), Naval Assault: The Killing Tide, Ping Pong (Game Room), Space Ark (Arcade) and Toy Story 3

So, what will you be picking up - or is this week a pass? Any games we missed? Anything slip (as these inevitably do)? Please let us know...

Microsoft announced the official name for its motion-sensing peripheral codenamed Project Natal, which will hereafter be known as Kinect, as well as a new version of its Xbox 360. Here are key details from the Microsoft press conference at E3:

• Kinect for Xbox 360 is launches Nov. 4 with 15 titles available (no pricing revealed). You can wave at the camera for visual recognition to log you in. There's a new simplified Wii-esque dashboard, and you can use your voice to control. Also video chat with shared media watching (movies, music, news, etc). Titles include: Dance Central (dance game from Harmonix), Forza Motorsport (Kinect features in 2011), Kinect Adventures (3D theme park-style platformer party game), Kinectimals (play with a baby tiger and other adorable creatures), Kinect Joy Ride (kart racing), Kinect Sports (soccer, bowling, hurdles, javelin, ping pong, boxing, beach volleyball), Star Wars (light saber battles) and Your Shape: Fitness Evolved (structured exercise, combat training and tai chi)
• A smaller version of Xbox 360 with built-in WiFi and 250GB hard drive for same price ($300) ships today, hits retail later this week
• Xbox Live for Windows Phone 7 will give you some level of friends list interaction via mobile phone (no details)
• ESPN via Xbox Live to feature exclusive content in high def, free with paid Gold membership
• Halo: Reach adds space flight combat
• Metal Gear Solid Rising features some excellent katana slicing action and the tagline "What will you cut? The blade is in your hands."
• Gears of War 3 includes four-player story co-op and a new Beast mode
• Call of Duty: Black Ops due on Nov. 9 features first-person helicopter combat, and add-on packs for the game will launch first on Xbox 360 through at least 2012
• Fable 3 launches Oct. 26
• Codename: Kingdoms from Crytek (no details, just a teaser)

Here are this week's downloads, demos and videos for the Wii and Nintendo DS (check back throughout the week for more E3 videos):

• WiiWare: Arcade Sports ($8), Bejeweled 2 ($10) and Yard Sale Hidden Treasures: Sunnyville ($5)
• Virtual Console: Shadow of the Ninja for NES ($5)
• DSiWare: 16 Shot! Shooting Watch ($2), Flips: Silent But Deadly ($5), A Kappa's Trail ($5), Music On: Electronic Keyboard ($2) and Telegraph Crosswords ($5)
• Rock Band 2 tracks ($2 each; due Tuesday, June 15) "Crazy Babies," "Diggin' Me Down," "I Don't Wanna Stop," "Let Me Hear You Scream," "No More Tears" and "Soul Sucker" by Ozzy Osbourne - Note: "Family friendly" tracks also work with Lego Rock Band (but none of these appear to be).
• DS Demos (via Wii's Nintendo Channel): All repeats including Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth, America's Test Kitchen: Let's Get Cooking Roasted Red Potatoes and Pots de Creme, Bakugan Battle Brawlers, Battle of Giants: Mutant Insects, Deca Sports DS Cheerleading and Ping Pong, Dragon Ball: Origins 2, Picross 3D, Rooms DS and Women's Murder Club: Games of Passion
• Game Videos: 16 Shot! Shooting Watch, Arcade Sports, Bejeweled 2 and Music On: Electronic Keyboard - plus new E3 videos added throughout the week

UPDATE (June 15): E3 videos added today include the Nintendo 3DS plus games Donkey Kong Country Returns, Dragon Quest IX: Sentinals of the Starry Skies, EA Sports NBA Jam, Epic Mickey, Final Fantasy: The Four Heroes of Light, Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective, GoldenEye 007, Golden Sun: Dark Dawn, Just Dance 2, Kid Icarus: Uprising, Kirby's Epic Yarn, Legends of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'hoole, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, Mario Sports Mix, Metroid: Other M, New Carnival Games, Nintendogs + Cats, Okamiden, Pokemon Ranger: Guardian Signs, PokePark: Pikachu's Great Adventure, Professor Layton and the Unwound Future, Sonic Colors, Super Scribblenauts and Wii Party

Despite a hiccup demoing the new Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword Wii game, Nintendo earned back some "nerd cred" by resurrecting old school titles and officially announcing its next portable, the Nintendo 3DS at E3. Here's what Nintendo revealed:

• Nintendo 3DS features a 3.5-inch top screen that can display 3D graphics without the need for glasses. A slider lets you adjust how much depth you see or turn off the 3D completely. It also has motion and gyro sensors, plus two cameras for taking 3D photos. No release date or price yet. There's an analog Slide Pad in addition to a traditional D-Pad, and it's compatible with DSi games. It's also capable of showing 3D movies, though no formal studio partnerships were announced. Kid Icarus Uprising will be a 3DS launch title, and Nintendo promised strong third-party support with 3DS versions of Assassin’s Creed, DJ Hero, Kingdom Hearts, Madden NFL, Metal Gear Solid and Resident Evil.
• The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, due in 2011, uses Wii MotionPlus for sword and shield. You can also charge up sun beam attacks, throw bombs and use a slingshot. Nintendo assured fans that the responsiveness is better than the E3 demo (which suffered from wireless interference).
• GoldenEye 007 reboot, due holiday 2010, is a Wii exclusive from Activision. It features Daniel Craig as Bond.
• Donkey Kong Country Returns for Wii is due holiday 2010. It's a classic platformer reboot from the folks who brought you Metroid Prime (but not the forthcoming Metroid: Other M, which launches Aug 31).
• Mario Sports Mix for Wii (hockey, volleyball, basketball and dodgeball) is due in 2011.
• Wii Party, due for holiday 2010, is online-enabled with 13 party modes including board games and boat balancing.
• Kirby Epic Yarn for Wii, due this fall, looks like it's made with real yarn.
• Epic Mickey for Wii, due this year, is a Disney platformer that lets you add color with a paint brush and remove it with paint thinner. (But, will it teach kids the importance of proper ventilation and protective gear when using caustic chemicals?! At least Mickey wears gloves...)
• Just Dance 2, available fall 2010, includes more than 40 songs and a "just sweat" mode for workout fans.
• Dragon Quest 9 launches July 11 for Nintendo DS with 10-person multiplayer, 120 miniquests, 300+ monsters, 900+ items and infinite treasure maps.

Sony put the emphasis on core gaming with 3D and its new Move controllers at E3. It also unveiled its Plus subscription service, which charges you for exclusive content. Here's what Sony shared at E3:

• PlayStation Move launches Sept. 19 for $50 for just the Move controller; $100 for Move, PlayStation Eye (if you don't have it) and bundled Sports Champions game, or $400 bundled with a PS3. Plus an extra $30 for each Navigation controller. If you already have a PS3 and want the Eye and Moves with Nav controllers for two players, expect to pay about $210. Move titles will be $40 each with 15-20 games at launch and more than 40 by holiday.
• All PS3s will get a firmware update adding 3D support. 3D titles on PlayStation 3 (special TV and glasses required!) will include Crysis 2, EyePet, Ghost Recon: Future Soldier, Gran Turismo 5, Killzone 3, Mortal Kombat, Motorstorm: Apocalypse, NBA 2K11, Sly Cooper Collection, Shaun White Skateboarding, Tron: Evolution and Tumble.
• PlayStation Plus is a new $50 per year subscription service that provides exclusive content and discounts on selected PlayStation Store items. Basically, it's the Qore subscription "magazine" expanded and rebranded - only it includes Qore (confusing!). The first 3 months will be free (UPDATE: Only with a paid $50 subscription! You get a bonus 3 months tacked on to your year.). Also, the existing PSN won't change - you will still get multiplayer gaming for free.
• Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood multiplayer beta, later this year, is PS3 exclusive. The game is due to launch multiplatform on Nov. 16.
• Dead Space 2 on PS3 will include rail shooter Dead Space: Extraction with Move support.
• Gran Turismo 5 for PS3 launches Nov. 2 (finally!).
• Heroes on the Move is a Move-enabled party game featuring classic Sony mascots Ratchet, Jax, Sly, Bentley, Clank and Daxter.
• Infamous 2 is coming to PS3. But then already you knew that, right? No real news.
• Killzone 3, which launches Feb 2011, will be 3D and Move-enabled.
• LittleBigPlanet 2 provides new tools for making party games, so you're no longer constrained to side-scrolling platformers.
• The new Medal of Honor game, set in Afghanistan and due for October release, will be bundled with a high-def update to the 8-year-old Medal of Honor: Frontline.
• PS3 is getting Portal 2 in 2011 (day and date release with Xbox 360 and PC) but what's interesting here is that the Steam service is coming to PlayStation Network to allow cross-platform play and text messaging.
• Sorcery is a third-person, Move-enabled wand shooter.
• Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11 for PS3 will let you golf with the Move.
• Twisted Metal for PS3 is due in 2011. It has helicopters.
• Upcoming PSP games include InviZimals (cute animal game that uses PSP camera add-on) and Patapon 3 (due this sometime year).

• Catan ($7)
• Gundemonium Collection ($15 or $6 each) with 2D anime shooters Gundemonium Recollection, Gundeadligne and Hitogata Happa
• Tales Of Monkey Island Full Season ($20) with 5 episodes
• PS1 for PS3/PSP: Final Fantasy IX ($10)
• Tiger Wood PGA Tour 11 Emerald Dragon ($10) fantasy course
• Super Street Fighter IV Super Brawler Costume Pack ($4) with apparel for Zangief, E.Honda, Rufus, Abel and El Fuerte
• Buzz! Quiz TV/Quiz World Celebrities Quiz Pack ($6)
• Record of Agarest War various packs ($3-10 each)
• Battlefield Bad Company 2 shortcut kits ($7 each or $20 for all four unlock packs)
• Guitar Hero 5 Alice Cooper Track Pack ($5.50 or $2 each) with "I'm Eighteen," "School's Out" and "Welcome To My Nightmare"
• Rock Band/Rock Band 2 Ozzy Osbourne Pack 01 ($10 or $2 each) with "Crazy Babies," "Diggin' Me Down," "I Don't Wanna Stop," "Let Me Hear You Scream," "No More Tears" and "Soul Sucker" plus tracks ($2 each) "Day Of Mourning" by Despised Icon,  "Demon Woman" by Flight of the Conchords, "Ikea" by of Jonathan Coulton, "Never Let You Go '09" by Third Eye Blind and "The Attitude Song" by Steve Vai - Note: "Family friendly" tracks also work with Lego Rock Band.
• Demos: Backbreaker, MLB 10: The Show 3D, NCAA Football 11 and Tales Of Monkey Island: Chapter 1
• Game Videos: Alpha Protocol, Battlefield Bad Company 2, Blur, Deathspank, Dragon Ball Raging Blast 2, Gundeadligne, Gundemonium Collection, Gundemonium Recollection, Hitogata Happa, Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days, ModNation Racers, Prince Of Persia: The Forgotten Sands, Shank, Soldner-X 2: Final Prototype
• Themes: Gundeadligne (free), Gundemonium Collection (free), Gundemonium Recollection (free), Hitogata Happa (free), White Knight Chronicles International Edition Dynamic ($3), Gangsters Premium ($2) and Western Sky ($2)
• Wallpaper: Anarchy: Rush Hour, Gundeadligne, Gundemonium Collection, Gundemonium Recollection and Hitogata Happa
• Avatars: Echochrome ($0.50 each or $1.25 for four) and Super Street Fighter IV ($0.50 each)
• PSP: Beam Em Up ($4.50), Express Raider ($4), Gold Fever ($5), History Ice Road Truckers ($3), Mahjongg Artificats ($5), Pallurikio ($4), Red Bull X-Fighters ($7), Rocks N’ Rockets ($5), Tehra: Dark Warrior ($5) and Yetisports ($5) plus Toy Story 3 add-on packs ($1 each), LittleBigPlanet PSP MotorStorm Stitch Pack ($3, with one costume free) and Buzz! Quiz World The '00 Quiz ($3)
• PSP Demo: Worms: Battle Islands
• PSP Game Videos: Armored Core: Last Raven, Dragon Ball Z: Tenkaichi Tag Team, Knights In The Nightmare, ModNation Racers PSP and Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 Portable 
• PSP Themes: Knights In The Nightmare (free), Pinball Heroes Fat Princess and MotorStorm (both free), Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 Portable (free), Gangsters ($1.50 each), Say Cheesecake ($1.50 each) and Terran Marines ($1.50 each)
• PlayStation Home Items (usually priced $0.50-7.50 each): Disgaea 3

UPDATE (June 16): E3 Videos have been added--

PS3 Game Videos: Ben 10: Ultimate Alien, Call Of Duty: Black Ops, DC Universe Online, Dead Nation, EyePet Move, EyePet PSP, The Fight: Lights Out, God Of War: Ghost Of Sparta, Gran Turismo 5, Heavy Rain Move, Infamous 2, InviZimals, Killzone 3, Kung Fu Rider Move, Mafia II, ModNation Racers, MotorStorm: Apocalypse, Patapon 3, The Shoot, Sly Cooper, SOCOM 4: US Navy SEALs, Sports Champions Move, Start The Party, TV Superstars Move and UFC Undisputed 2010 plus the Sony Press Conference and Pulse E3 Edition

PSP Game Videos: Ben 10: Ultimate Alien, EyePet Move, EyePet PSP, The Fight: Lights Out, God Of War: Ghost Of Sparta, Gran Turismo 5, Heavy Rain Move, Infamous 2, InviZimals, Killzone 3, Kung Fu Rider Move, ModNation Racers, MotorStorm: Apocalypse, Patapon 3, The Shoot, Sly Cooper, SOCOM 4: US Navy SEALs, Sports Champions Move, Start The Party and TV Superstars Move, plus the Sony Press Conference and Pulse E3 Edition

UPDATE (June 17): More E3 Videos and a demo have been added--

PS3 Game Videos: Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, Dead Space 2, Deus Ex 3, Enslaved, Fallout: New Vegas, Final Fantasy XIV, Fist Of The North Star, Front Mission Evolved, Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days, Marvel vs Capcom 3, Mindjack, Pro Evolution Soccer 2011, Quantum Theory, Red Faction: Armageddon, Sonic The Hedgehog 4, Transformers: War For Cybertron, Trinity: Souls Of Zill O’Li, Twisted Metal, Vanquish and Warriors: Legend Of Troy plus Pulse E3 Special Edition 2 and various compilation videos

PSP Demo: Hot Shots Tennis: Get A Grip

PSP Game Videos: Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, Despicable Me, Enslaved, Fallout: New Vegas, Final Fantasy XIV, Marvel vs Capcom 3, Quantum Theory, Twisted Metal plus Pulse E3 Special Edition 2 and various compilation videos

• Arcade: Space Ark ($10) plus Defense Grid Map Pack 3 ($1), Metal Slug XX Leona ($1) and Thing on Wheels VROOM pack ($4) with 5 tracks
• Game Room ($3-5 each; no new Game Pack download this week): Air-Sea Battle, Chopper Command, Liberator, Motocross and Ping Pong
• Mass Effect 2 Overlord ($7) with 5 levels
• Tiger Wood PGA Tour '11 Emerald Dragon ($10) fantasy course
• Super Street Fighter IV Tournament Mode (free) and Super Brawler Costume Pack ($4) with apparel for Zangief, E.Honda, Rufus, Abel and El Fuerte
• Battlefield Bad Company 2 Multiplayer Update (free) and shortcut kits ($7 each or $20 for all four unlock packs)
• Guitar Hero 5 Alice Cooper Track Pack ($5.50 or $2 each) with "I'm Eighteen," "School's Out" and "Welcome To My Nightmare"
• Rock Band/Rock Band 2 Ozzy Osbourne Pack 01 ($10 or $2 each) with "Crazy Babies," "Diggin' Me Down," "I Don't Wanna Stop," "Let Me Hear You Scream," "No More Tears" and "Soul Sucker" - Note: "Family friendly" tracks also work with Lego Rock Band (but none of these appear to be).
• Rock Band Network tracks ($1-3; Rock Band 2 required to download and play) "I'm Coming Home" by Atom, "Anybody Else" and "Ice Cold" by Audible Mainframe, "Bang Camaro" and "Nightlife Commando" by Bang Camaro, "Cheating, Lying, Stealing," "ShadowBang (Head)" and "Yo Shakespeare" by Bang on a Can All-Stars, "Travelin' Freak Show" by Joe Bouchard, "Scared to Death" by Cancer Bats, "Shop Vac" by Jonathan Coulton, "Serial Killer" by Damone, "Tree Village" by Dance Gavin Dance, "I See Georgia" by Drivin' N' Cryin', "Infected Nation" by Evile, "Fire Away" by Kill the Alarm, "America Underwater" by LoveHateHero, "Molten Death" by Man Parts, "Wake Up" by Me Talk Pretty, "Friday the 13th" by The Riptides, "Beautiful Machine" by Rose of Jericho, "Rise Above This" by Seether, "An Exercise in Futility" by Single White Infidel, "Beethoven - Symphony No. 9 - Scherzo" by Paul Henry Smith & The Fauxharmonic Orchestra, "Circles" by Something Opus and "Young" by Twintapes
• Lips tracks ($2 each) "Picture Of You" by Boyzone, "Stuck With You" by Huey Lewis & The News, "1, 2, 3, 4" by Plain White T's and "Some Guys Have All The Luck" by Rod Stewart
• Games on Demand: Lego Batman ($20)
• Demos: Field & Stream, Mass Effect 2 and NCAA Football '11 plus all Xbox Live Arcade, Game Room, Indie games and Rock Band Network tracks
• Indie Games (usually $1-10 each): 360 Lines, Adrift, Alawishus Pixel, Avatar Blaster, Bumblicity, Crisis in the Gulf, Falling Down, Fishie Fishie Fifty, The Flow, RC Airplane Challenge, Painting Beats, PolyWobble, Star Hammer Tactics, Towers, Ultimate Drums, Zap Zap: Pew Pew and Zombie Hunter
• Game Videos: Adrenalin Misfits, Ancients of Ooga, Bakugan Battle Brawlers 2, Ben 10: Ultimate Alien, Blacklight: Tango Down, Brink, Bulletstorm, Call of Duty: Black Ops, Child of Eden, Clash of the Titans, Comic Jumper, Dance Central, Dead Rising 2, DeathSpank, Deca Sports Freedom, Fable III, Fallout: New Vegas, The Force Unleashed 2, Future History, Gears of War 3, Halo: Reach, Hydrophobia, Hydro Thunder Hurricane, Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days, Kinect Adventures, Kinectimals, Kinect Joy Ride, Kinect Sports, Kingdoms, Knights Contract, Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light, Limbo, Madden NFL '11, Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom, Marvel Vs. Capcom 3, Mass Effect 2 Overlord, MMA, Monday Night Combat, Monopoly Streets, Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm 2, NCAA '11, Red Faction: Armageddon, Rock Band 3, Ruse, Shaun White Skateboarding, Singularity, Splatterhouse, Super Meat Boy, Transformers: War for Cybertron, Tiger Woods PGA Tour '11, Vanquish, Warriors: Legends of Troy, Your Shape: Fitness Evolved and Zumba plus ESPN on Xbox Live, Kinect and Xbox Live Arcade upcoming releases
• Themes: Mass Effect 2 Premium ($3), Super Street Fighter IV Premium ($3), The Dark Knight ($3) and Summer of Football Premium ($3)
• Pictures: Mass Effect 2 ($1), Things on Wheels ($1), Axe (free), The Dark Knight ($1) and Summer of Soccer (free; enters you in sweepstakes)
• Avatar Items (usually priced $1-5 each): 1Goal (free)

Based on the visits to our E3 coverage this week, we found that the Busy Gamer Community is pretty evenly split in its interest in the future of Xbox 360 and Wii.

So what better way to gauge your passion for these platforms than a Pick and Win giveaway (or as we'll call it this week: PLATFORM BATTLE)!

For this week's giveaway, we have two classics for each platform: a sealed copy of squad shooter Rainbow Six Vegas for Xbox 360 and funky Wii zapper Elebits. Whatever your choice, no name calling or hating (you will be disqualified!).

You may earn up to FOUR chances to win:

1. Enter a comment here, as usual. That's all you really NEED to do. INCLUDE WHICH GAME YOU'RE PLAYING FOR.
2. Tweet the following on Twitter: Win Rainbow Six Vegas or Elebits at BusyGamerNews.com, home of the Busy Gamer Podcast! RT + enter: http://bit.ly/9xcjMX #bgnfsf
3. Review (or re-review) our Busy Gamer Podcast on iTunes
4. Review (or re-review) the Best of Busy Gamer Podcast on iTunes. This is a short audio highlights feed with our reviews, audio tours and other timeless bits.

If you do 2, 3 and/or 4, you do need to let us know your Twitter/iTunes name(s) in your comment so we can find, verify and include your bonus entries in the drawing and match them up to contact you if one of them wins. If we can't easily tell who you are on Twitter and/or iTunes, the bonus entry is disqualified.

You DO have to enter a comment here and follow the other rules to be eligible. Here's how to enter:

This week, we pull out all stops - wading through hours of E3 press conferences to share the highlights and then a quick roundtable to give you our picks and peeves. Plus comments from the community on what they'll be buying - and skipping! We have Xbox 360 Kinect (including the adorable Kinectimals, Star Wars and Harmonix Dance Central), The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (complete with live demo snafu!), Call of Duty: Black Ops, Halo: Reach space combat, GoldenEye 007 for Wii, Nintendo 3DS, PlayStation Move, why Portal 2 will be best on PlayStation 3 and the dispute about actor and faux Sony exec Kevin Butler.

Get all of that - plus game release news, DLC and giveaways - in about 18 minutes!

Our goal is to provide a short (typically 10-15 minutes) summary of news and helpful commentary every Sunday so that you'll have a great jumping off point for your busy gamer week. Here's what we pack into each episode:

• The week's game releases
• A quick look back at the previous week's releases, news and downloadable content highlights
• What we're playing/mini-reviews
• Giveaways
• Comment of the week

As promised in the Busy Gamer Podcast, here is the complete list of games due for release this week for PC/Mac, portables and consoles (plus some recent releases that slipped out when we weren't looking):

• DS: Dragon Ball: Origins 2, Just Sing, Legendary Wars: T-Rex Rumble (DSiWare), Mega Words (DSiWare), Puffins: Let's Fish! (DSiWare), Puzzle Quest 2, Puzzle Time, Spin Six (DSiWare), Super Swap (DSiWare), Thinksmart, Transformers: War for Cybertron - Autobots, Transformers: War for Cybertron - Decepticons and Wipeout
• iPhone/iPad: Carnivores: Dinosaur Hunter, Deadly Dungeon, Geometry Wars: Touch (iPhone), GodFinger (iPhone), Pix'n Love Rush, Pro Zombie Soccer, Puppet War: FPS and Rocket Racing League
• Mac: None
• PC: Making History 2: War of the World and Transformers: War for Cybertron
• PS3: Transformers: War for Cybertron
• PS2: None
• PSP: TNA Cross The Line
• Wii: 10 Minute Solutions, Art Style: Rotozoa (WiiWare), Calvin Tucker's Redneck Racing, The Garfield Show: Threat of the Space Lasagna, Sin & Punishment: Star Successor, The Tales of Bearsworth Manor: Chaotic Conflicts (WiiWare), The Tales of Bearsworth Manor: Puzzling Pages (WiiWare), Thinksmart: Family, Transformers: Cybertron Adventures and Wipeout
• Xbox 360: Black Widow (Game Room), Casino (Game Room), Duke Nukem: Manhattan Project (Arcade), Field & Stream: Outdoorsman Challenge, H.E.R.O. (Game Room), Laser Blast (Game Room), Risk Factions (Arcade), Transformers: War for Cybertron and Triple Action (Game Room)

So, what will you be picking up - or is this week a pass? Any games we missed? Anything slip (as these inevitably do)? Please let us know...

Here are this week's downloads, demos and videos for the Wii and Nintendo DS:

• WiiWare: Art Style: Rotozoa ($6), The Tales of Bearsworth Manor: Chaotic Conflicts ($10) and The Tales of Bearsworth Manor: Puzzling Pages ($10)
• Virtual Console: None 
• DSiWare: Legendary Wars: T-Rex Rumble ($8), Mega Words ($5), Puffins: Let's Fish! ($5), Spin Six ($5) and Super Swap ($5)
• Rock Band 2 tracks ($2 each; due Tuesday, June 22)  "7 Things," "Can’t Be Tamed," "Fly On the Wall," "See You Again" and "Start All Over" by Miley Cyrus - Note: "Family friendly" tracks also work with Lego Rock Band.
• DS Demos (via Wii's Nintendo Channel): All repeats including Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth, America's Test Kitchen: Let's Get Cooking Roasted Red Potatoes and Pots de Creme, Bakugan Battle Brawlers, Battle of Giants: Mutant Insects, Deca Sports DS Cheerleading and Ping Pong, Dragon Ball: Origins 2, Picross 3D, Rooms DS and Women's Murder Club: Games of Passion
• Game Videos: Donkey Kong Country Returns, Epic Mickey, FlingSmash, Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Mini Land Mayhem, Nintendo 3DS, Samurai Warriors 3, Super Scribblenauts and various E3 round-ups and developer interviews

If you've held off a day or two before installing iPhone OS 4.0 (or iOS 4.0 as it's officially been dubbed) for your iPhone 3G/3GS or iPod Touch, who could blame you? Past Apple firmware updates have been problematic or, at a minimum, a good way to burn the better part of a day.

Here are some tips before you dive in and, if once you've installed it, a brief guide to where the nifty new features are hiding.

Before you install:

• Make sure you have iTunes 9.2 installed. I had a problem installing the update on Windows 7, even when I redownloaded the full manual installer. Running Windows Update (and installing all of the important patches) and then rebooting fixed this.
• Backup and sync fully beforehand. This brought my install time down to about 45 minutes on my 3GS. Word is that the iPhone 3G update takes a lot longer (2-3 hours!) even if you pre-sync. (We will find out when I update GrrlGotGame in the next day or so.)
• Turn on Airplane Mode to reduce risk of interruptions during the update.

Once you have iPhone OS 4.0 installed, here's how to find the top new features:

• Access fast-app switching (iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4 only) by double-pressing the Home button. You can also quit apps to free up some memory if, say, your bigger games aren't working well. Be sure to check for updates to your apps over the next several days - many have recently been or will soon be optimized for the new quasi-multitasking.
• Make folders by dragging one app onto another (after making them jittery by holding your finger on an app). Each folder holds up to 12 apps, so plan accordingly. You can also manage apps and folders using iTunes when you're connected to your computer, which lets you see at least some of the "hidden" apps if you exceed the limit of what's visible on 11 screens. Alternately, you can reboot your phone (by holding down the power button on top) to get your overflow apps to fill any spaces you left on your visible screens when making folders.
• Camera 5x zoom is accessed using a slider down near the bottom of the frame. Tap the screen to make it appear.
• Wallpaper can be selected in Settings, Wallpaper. Your image should be high resolution or it will look jaggy. Pictures taken on the iPhone 3GS don't seem to be high res enough - wonder if this is an artifact of the higher resolution of the iPhone 4? (I didn't have this much trouble setting the wallpaper on my iPad, and it has a much larger screen!). If all else fails, use sample images in the supplied Wallpaper folder. If you've used the If Found, + app ($1 - and totally worth it!) to create a custom Lock Screen image with contact information (and you should!), make sure you only apply your wallpaper to the Home screen.
• Mail has been updated to offer a unified mailbox (in addition to all of your separate mailboxes) and conversation threading (which can be disabled if you don't like it). You can also now turn off Load Remote Images in your Mail settings, which is a good idea - it prevents spammers from getting a confirmation that you viewed an e-mail if you accidentally open it when trying to swipe to delete. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a way to load images on a per message basis, if you do want to see them.

Have a favorite tip that we missed? Share it in comments! You might just be the Comment of the Week in our next Busy Gamer Podcast...

• MAG Interdiction Mission Pack ($10)
• Red Dead Redemption Outlaws to the End Co-Op Pack (free)
• LittleBigPlanet Summer Solstice Costume (free)
• Lost Planet 2 Killzone 2 Helghast Assault and Scout Character (free)
• Just Cause 2 Tuk Tuk Boom Boom (free) and other weapons and vehicles ($1 each)
• ModNation Racers Princess Mod and Kart ($1.75 or $1 each)
• Super Street Fighter IV Super Shadaloo Costume Pack ($4) with attire for Balrog, Sagat, Vega, M.Bison and Seth
• Battlefield Bad Company 2 Onslaught Mode ($10) with four maps
• Tiger Wood PGA Tour '11 River Course At Blackwolf Run ($10)
• Skate 3 Black Box Distribution Skate Park ($3)
• PS1 for PS3/PSP: None
• Guitar Hero 5 All Time Low Track Pack ($5.50 or $2 each) with "Damned If I Do Ya (Live)," "Dear Maria Count Me In" and "Weightless"
• Rock Band/Rock Band 2 tracks ($1-2 each) "7 Things," "Can't Be Tamed," "Fly On The Wall," "See You Again" and "Start All Over" by Miley Cyrus, "Creepy Doll" by Jonathan Coulton, "HTML Rulez D00d" by The Devil Wears Prada, "Paralyze" by Finger Eleven, "Requiem For A Dying Song" by Flogging Molly and "Jumper '09" by Third Eye Blind - Note: "Family friendly" tracks also work with Lego Rock Band.
• Demos: None
• Game Videos: Alpha Protocol
• Themes: Battlestar Galactica Dynamic ($3), World Cup Soccer Dynamic ($2 each), 2 Dollar Special ($2) and Steam Punk ($1.50)
• Wallpaper: Anarchy: Rush Hour
• Avatars: Flower ($1.75 or $0.50 each) and LittleBigPlanet World Cup ($0.50 each)
• PSP: Burnin’ Rubber ($4), Influence ($5) and TNA Impact: Cross The Line ($30) plus Buzz! Quiz World National Geographic Prehistoric Quiz Pack ($3) and LittleBigPlanet PSP Unidentified Sacking Objects Pack ($3; one costume is free)
• PSP Game Videos: Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 Portable walkthrough
• PSP Themes: Battlestar Galactica ($1.50), 2 Dollar Special ($1.50 each), American Soccer Girl ($1.50) and Steam Punk ($1.50)
• PlayStation Home Items (usually priced $0.50-7.50 each): None

I'm sure I don't need to tell you this. You know that you don't really NEED an iPad. Certainly not in the same way you need water and shelter or - nowadays, even Internet - to survive.

Even without 3G, you're looking at a $500+ expense that would in most cases be better invested in netbook or laptop. It's undisputedly a luxury item.

So, if that's the case, what the heck am I doing with one?!

An iPad is absolutely not a laptop replacement. It's not particularly great for creating things. For the most part, you can't work in your familiar file formats and - unless you add on an external keyboard - you won't want to type very much on it (no, I did not write this review on the iPad).

Nor would it make a great tool for drawing or painting intricate artwork. And it is not well suited for recording or editing audio or video (we definitely won't be recording the Busy Gamer Podcast on it!). There's no camera, and unless you spring for the excessively expensive 3G version AND commit to a capped rate plan for AT&T, you're only online when you're connected to a WiFi network.

Again, why do I have one then? We can justify it for our consulting business, which has a growing social media component - and this is one place the iPad shines! And we want to expand Busy Gamer News to review iPad games: The iPad is arguably the best portable gaming platform yet, at least until the Nintendo 3GS streets next year.

So unless you have a grudge against Apple, you probably WANT an iPad. Especially if you already have an iPhone or iPod Touch and know how the touchscreen coupled with a wide range of useful and fun apps can make your life easier and more enjoyable.

Mobile gaming

Up until the iPhone, I detested mobile gaming. Just hated it. For a decade, every year or so I'd try some games on a new phone - and they just didn't seem to get any better. Tiny screens, chintzy graphics and buttons not designed for gaming made for a poor experience. Maybe if those were the only games I had access to, I would have stuck with them. But I've had consoles, Macs, PCs and gaming portables so I was quick to abandon inferior alternatives.

Then the iPhone came along and I found myself playing and enjoying games - on a cell phone! To be fair: Casual games mostly. Alas, with rare exception, I just don't find the iPhone immersive enough to enjoy longer and deeper games like RPGs and platformers.

The reason I mention this is that the iPad is, at its core, an over-sized iPhone. It aspires to be a tablet device, and the size is about right for it - but, as I've already noted, the functionality is not.

iPad basics

First, let's look at how the iPad is different from an iPhone or iPod Touch. It flips orientation more often - including on the Home screen. So this doesn’t get annoying when you're reclining on a bed or couch, there's a new button that lets you lock the orientation - which works unless a specific app overrides it. It doesn't have a camera, it won't make calls (unless you use an app for that, like Skype - there is a small microphone to talk into it at the top next to headphone jack, or you can plug in headphones with a mike or pair with a Bluetooth headset). Since it's not a phone, Apple left off the switch that instantly mutes it - so you'll have to use the volume control if you want it to go quiet, which is not ideal if you need to silence it quickly.

The screen is much bigger, so you'll be touch typing instead of thumb typing on the larger onscreen keyboard - or you may want to invest in a dock or Bluetooth keyboard so that it functions more like a desktop computer. (We're eyeing the ClamCase, which - if it's not too expensive and functions as promised, will convert it more or less into a laptop. Wow, would that be great for covering PAX?!) For now, we're just using a screen protector (which still smudges a lot, even with minimal use) and a cheap but sturdy case.

The iPad runs native and hybrid apps, which run full screen, and iPhone apps that show up small when you launch them but you can tap a "2x" button on the screen to enable pixel-doubling. There's no universal pixel-doubling setting, so you have to set this on a per-app basis - but it does remember your last state and will launch it that way next time. Pixel-doubling looks OK, but it's just jaggy enough to make the app feel like a second-class citizen and incent you to buy upgrades, if available for your favorite apps. Fortunately, there are plenty of free and hybrid apps - and this is likely to grow over time.

The iPad does not yet run iOS 4.0, which isn't due from Apple for the device until September. It does contain a couple of the same features - namely backgrounds for your Home screen and built-in support for iBooks. But multitasking, folders and unified, threaded mail will have to wait.

But whether you get an iPad or not (apart from your ability to afford one) will depend largely on whether there's an app for that thing you really want. So here's a tour of our favorite apps (so far):

Twittelator for iPad. (Screenshot) Since I bought this largely for social media management projects, I'll start with my favorite app in this space: Twittelator for iPad. This is the most innovative Twitter app I've seen yet, anywhere. Far from a straight port of the iPhone version (also great), the developer completely rethought the layout and optimized it for landscape mode. Accessing related information and @ replies to the right of the main Twitter stream is AWESOME. However, it's far from perfect - at least not yet. I would like it to remember my place in the Twitter stream when I quit the app prematurely, something that the iPhone version does really well. It should be able to download more than 200 tweets, or at least offer an option to fill in any that you missed (the iPhone version can get up to 400). And I would like to be able to click to save images (both TwitPics and from Web pages I view), and click the link directly in the stream to see a preview of Web links off to the right (at least when in landscape mode) rather than having to open the tweet and then open the full Web page. Even with these mostly minor gripes, this is an amazing app and well worth the $5 pricetag if you are a Twitter-a-holic or manage social media for a living. It'll even let you manage multiple Twitter accounts, each with its own settings.

Videos. (Screenshot) This is essentially the iPod videos section, broken off into a separate app for iPad. What's nice is how it makes them easily scannable with large buttons (unlike the iPad Home screen) and the ability to quickly pick up where you left off. We'll use this A LOT for travel since we didn't get the 3G-enabled iPad (we'd rather pay hotels for their WiFi than give AT&T more money for capped 3G service.)

Netflix. (Screenshot) On a positive note, Netflix for iPad streams video really well when you are connected to the Internet, at least over our home WiFi. It's the getting there that will have you pulling your hair out. First, the UI is essentially the Netflix Web site. This may work fine on a desktop PC, but it is DOG SLOW using what is probably the Safari browsing engine when you have several hundred items in your queue. They really need to offer a better interface, more like the Xbox 360 version - so you can quickly scroll to what you want to watch - and maybe a search feature similar to the iTunes store app. The other annoyance is that it doesn't mark shows as completed correctly, so we constantly launched to the episode of 30 Rock that we had just finished 100%. If you use this, be sure to hand pick the episode you want to see, at least until the next update (which will hopefully fix this).

iPod. (Screenshot) Basically, this just your iPod (minus any videos, as noted above) stretched to fill a larger space. It works as expected, even in the background while you use other apps - so this will keep you going until Pandora and Slacker can multitask as they do now on the iPhone.

iBooks and Kindle. (iBooks screenshot) I'll call out the iBooks because they are new, and the store integration is nice (your bookshelf flips around in 3D to reveal an iTunes Store for books). There are some freebies if you hunt for them, mostly the usual classics like Pride and Prejudice (one of my favorites, a great social satire) and some other Project Gutenberg ports. But I'll probably stick with Kindle for the most part, which makes a nice jump from the tiny iPhone version that I liked (but ended up not reading on too much since the screen was so tiny). This should encourage me to get back into reading more - if I don't get too distracted by the games...

7 Wonders HD. (Screenshot) This game is one of GrrlGotGame's favorites on the PC, so we had to try it on the iPad - which is well suited to Match-3 games. Watch for a full review from her, but I can say - two levels in myself - that it's a solid port that's fun to play.

GodFinger. (Screenshot) This debuted on the iPad but now there's a free iPhone version too. This is a little like Black & White meets Farmville. You control clouds to bring rain (or lightning, if you're the vengeful type) and earn followers. If you get really hooked, they'll sell you mana upgrades but otherwise this is free and pretty awesome for short doses of gameplay.

Air Hockey. (Screenshot) This is another freebie I picked up, and a lot of fun for two players - each controlling half of the screen. I call it out mainly because this is the sort of game that the iPad was made for.

Plants vs. Zombies (non-HD). (Screenshot) There's an iPad native version with high res imagery and bonus modes, but we already had the iPhone version and it's still pretty great - even pixel doubled. While we hold out for a sale on the HD edition, I'll see if I can finally complete this game on the larger screen.

Bejeweled 2. (Screenshot) This has not seen a high def upgrade, but playing Blitz mode is even easier with the larger touch screen. Sure, it looks a little worse in 2x zoom mode but it's fast, fun and easier to spot and nab matches.

Puzzle Quest. (Screenshot) I picked this up when it was free a few weeks back (and so did you, if you follow me on Twitter!) and wanted to try one of my all-time favorite games. Another case where pixel-doubling is a little hard on the eyes, but the game plays great and I may actually work my way back through it - if Puzzle Quest 2 doesn't come along and distract me (I would TOTALLY buy an iPad native Puzzle Quest 2).

JamPad. (Screenshot) This is a free keyboard and guitar app that we expect Pikachu Fan (our 7-year-old) will try out when he gets a little further along in his piano lessons. And it does look pretty awesome, just filling the iPad screen like it does.

Not so great apps:

Facebook. (Screenshot) The Facebook app has gotten consistently better over time, but it looks a real mess when pixel-doubled and would benefit from someone who knows what they're doing (say, the guy who made Twittelator for iPad) doing a complete overhaul. That said, I did use it to quickly upload the screenshot gallery for this review - and it worked well, though I still had to login on my PC to rotate the images and organize them into a new album.

TweetDeck for iPad. This isn't quite as good as Twittelator, but I wanted to try another Twitter app for a separate project. Not nearly as deep or creative as Twittelator or even the PC version, but it gets the job done and the extra columns do work well with the wide iPad screen. It also does not have any way to download more than a set number of tweets (200 seems to be the unofficial limit); couple with the fact that it doesn't save your place at all, this is not a great choice for a busy social media consultant - though it will work fine for more casual use.

ABC. (Screenshot) This free app from the television network has the interface that Netflix should try to emulate, but is full of fail in several other areas: 1) blanked out during an ad and didn't come back even though the show should have started, 2) a limited number of episodes for each show (no starting a season at the beginning unless it just started airing) and 3) mistakes, like a show that claims to have 6 episodes available but only offers 2 to choose from. Also, it's ABC - apart from Castle and (now ended) Lost, we usually stay away.

SlingPlayer. This app lets you stream television and other compatible devices (including Xbox 360, at least for videos) from attached SlingBox hardware. But for $30, I want an iPad optimized experience, not a pixel-doubled iPhone app. This will be a pass for me until they address this and I see some good reviews. This could be a real win on the iPad, but it's not there yet.

As with the iPhone, the free updates make it a moving target to review - but most apps do get better over time, depending on the developer. What is already a good overall experience will likely ripen with age. We'll keep you posted on how this experience evolves over time, and share reviews of standout games if you're among the 3 million (and growing) who already have an iPad.

• Arcade: Duke Nukem: Manhattan Project ($10) and Risk: Factions ($10) plus Defense Grid Map Pack 4 ($1), Family Game Night Connect 4x4, Jenga and Pictureka ($10 each) and Snoopy Flying Ace Dogs of War Map Pack ($1)
• Game Room ($3-5 each; requires Game Pack 006): Black Widow, Casino, H.E.R.O., Laser Blast and Triple Action
• Red Dead Redemption Outlaws to the End Co-Op Pack (free)
• Just Cause 2 Tuk Tuk Boom Boom (free) and other weapons and vehicles ($1 each)
• Super Street Fighter IV Super Shadaloo Costume Pack ($4) with attire for Balrog, Sagat, Vega, M.Bison and Seth
• Battlefield Bad Company 2 Onslaught Mode ($10) with four maps
• Tiger Wood PGA Tour '11 River Course At Blackwolf Run ($10)
• Skate 3 Black Box Distribution Skate Park ($3)
• Guitar Hero 5 All Time Low Track Pack ($5.50 or $2 each) with "Damned If I Do Ya (Live)," "Dear Maria Count Me In" and "Weightless"
• Rock Band/Rock Band 2 Miley Cyrus Pack ($8.50 or $2 each) "7 Things," "Can't Be Tamed," "Fly On The Wall," "See You Again" and "Start All Over" - Note: "Family friendly" tracks also work with Lego Rock Band.
• Rock Band Network tracks ($1-3; Rock Band 2 required to download and play) "Dream About the Future" by The Apples in Stereo, "Hot Stuff" by Scott Attrill, "Mandelbrot Set" by Jonathan Coulton, "The World is a Thorn" by Demon Hunter, "Six Is One" by Free Electric State, "Hitch Up (I'm So Stupid)" by Jesus Candy, "Crooked Strings" by Kiev, "Bury You Slowly" by Made Avail, "Bleed" by Meshuggah, "Janie" by The Raspberry Ants, "Bright Side of Life" by Rebelution, "Bled To Be Free (The Operation)" by RX Bandits, "A Better Forever" by Sexton, "The Lesser Man" by Soil, "Turnpike Ghost" by Steel Train, "Three Words" by Todd Thibaud, "Engine" by Wargasm, "Cookie Monster" by XTT and "Painted" by Zoo Seven
• Lips tracks ($2 each) "Dirty Little Secret" by The All-American Rejects, "I've Never Been To Me" by Charlene and "Meet Me On The Equinox" by Death Cab For Cutie
• Games on Demand: Bee Movie Game ($20), Mirror's Edge ($20) and Sega Rally ($20)
• Demos: Crackdown 2 plus all Xbox Live Arcade, Game Room, Indie games and Rock Band Network tracks
• Indie Games (usually $1-10 each): ABC Fun, Academy Trivia, Acupwnture, Adrenaline, Alawishus Pixel, Anger Management 4, Around The World, Avatar Bowman, Avatar Insane Race 3D, Avatar Karate, Avatar Jump!, Avatar Warriors, Combat Tanks, A Day at Grandma's House, Dino 'Splode, Fluidityk, High Stakes Zombie Monkeys, H0W 2 P1NG A(TrademarkRemoved), Hurdle Turtle, Impact of Towers, Japanorama, Kong 360: Gorilla Warfare, Licky Licky Lizards, MathFlash, MonkeyAirBoard, Muvizzle, Ninja Escape, Old School Racer, Orbit One, Pellets QuadraStack, PointMass, Rocket - Episode I, Sharpshooter, Strategy Soccer, Stunning Stunts, This Is Hard and いれかえまほちゃん ("Irekae Maho-chan")
• Game Videos: Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Onslaught Mode, Castlevania: Harmony of Despair, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, Crackdown 2, Duke Nukem: Manhattan Project, Halo: Reach, Hunted: The Demon's Forge, Kinect Joy Ride, Kinect Sports, Monkey Island 2: SE, Ninety-Nine Nights II, Pro Evolution Soccer 2011, Skate 3 Maloof Money Cup, Star Wars (Kinect), Zune Kinect and the new Xbox 360 console
• Themes: Lost Planet 2 Premium ($3), Klondike (free) and Showtime MMA (free)
• Pictures: Klondike (free) and Showtime MMA (free)
• Avatar Items (usually priced $1-5 each): Lego Harry Potter

This week, we have a choice for PC gamers. Do you want a $10 Aeria Fun Card (donated by the most generous Ballardgirl1) which lets you purchase in-game items for Last Chaos, Kingdom Heroes, Shin Megami Tensei, Hello Kitty Online and many more free-to-play MMO titles.

Or play for arguably the best game in the Lara Croft series, Tomb Raider: Legend (read our Busy Gamer Review). Or try for both with bonus entries!

You may earn up to FOUR chances to win:

1. Enter a comment here, as usual. That's all you really NEED to do. INCLUDE WHICH GAME YOU'RE PLAYING FOR.
2. Tweet the following on Twitter: Win $10 Aeria Fun Card or Tomb Raider Legend at BusyGamerNews.com, home of the Busy Gamer Podcast! RT + enter: http://bit.ly/bxeB18 #bgnfsf
3. Review (or re-review) our Busy Gamer Podcast on iTunes
4. Review (or re-review) the Best of Busy Gamer Podcast on iTunes. This is a short audio highlights feed with our reviews, audio tours and other timeless bits.

If you do 2, 3 and/or 4, you do need to let us know your Twitter/iTunes name(s) in your comment so we can find, verify and include your bonus entries in the drawing and match them up to contact you if one of them wins. If we can't easily tell who you are on Twitter and/or iTunes, the bonus entry is disqualified.

You DO have to enter a comment here and follow the other rules to be eligible. Here's how to enter:

This week, we walk you through the iOS 4.0 upgrade on both iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS - complete with tips for using the new multitasking, folders, wallpaper and mail features. We also review our new iPad. Find out what it's good for and what it's not suited to at all, plus we examine some of the more compelling apps: Twittelator for iPad, Netflix, Kindle, GodFinger, 7 Wonders HD, Air Hockey and any game from PopCap (including Plants vs. Zombies, which rocks even pixel-doubled!) We also discuss Zuma (GrrlGotGame's nemesis!), Atari 2600 classic H.E.R.O. on Xbox 360 and how we set up our 7-year-old's very first PC.

Get all of that - plus game release news, DLC and giveaways - in about 15 minutes!

Our goal is to provide a short (typically 10-15 minutes) summary of news and helpful commentary every Sunday so that you'll have a great jumping off point for your busy gamer week. Here's what we pack into each episode:

• The week's game releases
• A quick look back at the previous week's releases, news and downloadable content highlights
• What we're playing/mini-reviews
• Giveaways
• Comment of the week

As promised in the Busy Gamer Podcast, here is the complete list of games due for release this week for PC/Mac, portables and consoles (plus some recent releases that slipped out when we weren't looking):

• DS: Ancient Tribe (DSiWare), Animal Color Cross (DSiWare), Battle of Giants: Mutant Insects – Revenge (DSiWare), Brain Drain (DSiWare), Date or Ditch (DSiWare), Florist Shop, The Last Airbender, Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4, Maestro! Green Groove (DSiWare), Secret Files: Tunguska, TNA: Cross The Line and Vampire Legends: Power of Three
• iPhone/iPad: Archetype, Bar Oasis, Battle Bears -1, eBoy FixPix, Eliminate: Gun Range, Farmville, NCAA Football, Pac-Match Party, Pro Evolution Soccer 2010, Tunnel Shoot and ZX Nostalgia, a Sinclair ZX Spectrum emulator with 14 classic games (Ad Astra, Android Two, Barmy Burgers, Bugaboo the Flea, Chuckie Egg, Deathchase, Fantastic Voyage, Fred, Horace Goes Skiing, Manic Miner, Rescate del Tesoro, Starstrike 3D, Trashman and Wheelie) plus a free Street Fighter IV update that adds Cammy and Zangief
• Mac: Nancy Drew: Trail of the Twister
• PC: All Points Bulletin, Arma 2: Combined Operations, Arma 2: Operation Arrowhead, Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4, Nancy Drew: Trail of the Twister, Rise of Flight: The First Great Air War - Iron Cross, Singularity, Sniper: Ghost Warrior and Wildlife Camp
• PS3: Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4, Naughty Bear, Singularity and Trinity Universe
• PS2: None
• PSP: Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4,
• Wii: Harley Davidson, Jett Rocket (WiiWare), Frat Party Games: Pong Toss Pro (WiiWare), The Last Airbender, Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4, Mario Tennis (Virtual Console), Robin Hood: The Return of Richard (WiiWare) and Secret Files: Tunguska
• Xbox 360: Ancients of Ooga (Arcade), Crackpots (Game Room), Deathsmiles Limited Edition, Juno First (Game Room), Kaboom! (Game Room), Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4, Naughty Bear, Ninety-Nine Nights II, Puzzle Quest 2 (Arcade), Singularity, Sniper: Ghost Warrior, Star Strike (Game Room) and Warlords (Game Room)

So, what will you be picking up - or is this week a pass? Any games we missed? Anything slip (as these inevitably do)? Please let us know...

Here are this week's downloads, demos and videos for the Wii and Nintendo DS:

• WiiWare: Jett Rocket ($10), Frat Party Games: Pong Toss Pro ($6) and Robin Hood: The Return of Richard ($5)
• Virtual Console: Mario Tennis for Nintendo 64 ($10)
• DSiWare: Ancient Tribe ($5), Animal Color Cross ($5), Battle of Giants: Mutant Insects – Revenge ($8), Brain Drain ($5), Date or Ditch ($5) and Maestro! Green Groove ($5)
• Rock Band 2 tracks ($2 each; due Tuesday, June 29) "Burn It to the Ground," "Figured You Out," "Never Again," "Photograph," "Rockstar" and "This Afternoon" by Nickelback - Note: "Family friendly" tracks also work with Lego Rock Band.
• DS Demos (via Wii's Nintendo Channel): All repeats including Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth, America's Test Kitchen: Let's Get Cooking Roasted Red Potatoes and Pots de Creme, Bakugan Battle Brawlers, Battle of Giants: Mutant Insects, Deca Sports DS Cheerleading and Ping Pong, Dragon Ball: Origins 2, Picross 3D, Rooms DS and Women's Murder Club: Games of Passion
• Game Videos: Arc Rise Fantasia, Blue Dragon: Awakened Shadow, Frat Party Games: Pong Toss Pro, Jett Rocket, The Last Airbender and Robin Hood: The Return of Richard

The v3.4 update to the PlayStation 3 firmware is now available, and it's your key to getting the pay-to-play PlayStation Plus subscription service (including an Automatic Game Patcher, early access to demos, bonuses and discounts) and other features. Incidentally, you do NOT get a 3-month PlayStation Plus free trial. When Sony said at E3 that they'd give everyone a free 3 months, they meant with a $50 1-year paid subscription.

Either way, you'll want to download the PS3 patch right away or you'll be blocked from accessing the PlayStation Store until you do.

Here's what's new (that is actually free!):

• Video Editor: Edit video on your PS3 and upload them to YouTube and Facebook.
• Photo Gallery: View and upload pictures on Facebook and Picasa, or share them with PlayStation Network friends.
• Ratings: Rate the content you buy from the PlayStation Store.
• Auto Shutdown: Your console will shutdown automatically after 2 hours of inactivity.
• Friends List: View trophy levels.

There's also improved Facebook integration via a new app there that lets you find Facebook friends with PSN accounts...

• PlayStation Plus Exclusives ($50/year, $18/3 mo.):
  • Full Games and Packs: Age of Zombies, Cuboid Level Editor and Booster and Bundle packs, Magic Orbz Booster, Jungle and Winter packs, Mahjong Tales: Ancient Wisdom Booster Pack, Rally Cross, Smash Cars Virus Run, Warhawk Fallen Star Pack and Wipeout HD
  • Demos: Infamous full game trial (1 hour play)
  • Other Freebies: Collision theme and Fat Princess avatars
  • Discounts: Cuboid ($2 off), Fat Princess Fat Roles Pack ($1 off), Gauntlet II ($2.50 off), Hamsterball ($2 off), Interpol:  The Trail of Dr. Chaos ($2 off), Magic Orbz ($2 off), Mahjong Tales: Ancient Wisdom ($2 off), Mortal Kombat ($2.50 off), Rampage ($2.50 off), Rampart ($2.50 off), Smash Cars ($3 off) and Wakeboarding HD ($3 off)
• LittleBigPlanet Saktue of Liberty Costume (free for limited time)
• Fat Princess Fat Roles ($5) adds ninja, pirate and giant classes
• Pain Sergeant Jay Character ($1)
• Super Street Fighter IV Super Classic Costume Pack ($4) with outfits for Guile, Blanka, Dhalsim, Gen and Fei Long
• Infamous ($30) - full game; nearly 7GB!
• Tiger Woods PGA Tour '11 Waialae Championship Course ($10)
• Trinity Universe Kanata’s Adventure Pack (free), Monsters Souls Pack (free), Healing Idol Pack ($1), Their Voices Pack ($2) and Universal Beauty Pack ($2)
• DJ Hero Dance Party Mix Pack ($8) with "Poker Face" by Lady Gaga vs "Girls On Film" by Duran Duran and "Buttons" by Pussycat Dolls vs. "S.O.S." by Rihanna
• Guitar Hero 5 Pop Track Pack 01 ($5.50 or $2 each) with "Just Dance" by Lady Gaga, "This Love" by Maroon 5 and "Fireflies" by Owl City
• Rock Band/Rock Band 2 Nickelback Pack 01 ($10 or $2 each) with "Burn It To The Ground," "Figured You Out," "Never Again," "Photograph," "Rockstar" and "This Afternoon" plus tracks ($1-2 each) "Undone" by All That Remains, "Sick" by Bif Naked, "American Dream" by Silverstein, "Kick Some Ass '09" by Stroke 9 and "Battle Royale" by The Word Alive - Note: "Family friendly" tracks also work with Lego Rock Band.
• Demos: Lego Harry Potter
• Game Videos: Backbreaker, MAG Interdiction Mission Pack, ModNation Racers PSP, Singularity and Voodoo Dice
• Themes: ModNation Racers Dynamic ($3), Trinity Universe ($2 each), Percy Jackson ($2), Terran 3020 Premium ($2) and Terran Marines Premium ($2)
• Wallpaper: Fat Princess Fat Roles
• Avatars: Final Fight: Double Impact ($0.50), Mega Man 10 ($0.50) and Super Street Fighter IV ($0.50 each)
• PSP: Arcade Darts ($4), Bejeweled 2 ($10), Egypt Engineering An Empire ($4), Hello Flowerz! ($5), Hot Shots Tennis: Get A Grip ($20), LocoRoco: Midnight Carnival Bundle ($10), Mahjonng Solitaire ($3), Midway Arcade Treasures Extended Play ($10) and Stellar Attack ($4.50) plus LittleBigPlanet PSP Fantasy Level Kit (free) and LocoRoco: Midnight Carnival Official Strategy Guide ($2)
• PSP Game Videos: ModNation Racers PSP and Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 Portable
• PlayStation Home Items (usually priced $0.50-7.50 each): Home Starter Pack ($5) and Toy Story personal space

We all have at least one of those games in our past. You know the ones. The story sounds amazing. The early, "leaked" art is gorgeous. And nothing – repeat, nothing – is going to stand between you and your local game store when it opens, whether it's midnight or 10 a.m.

You get it home, play for a while, and... wonder how much you could get for it as a same-day trade-in. Or maybe eBay, if you can remember your login. You feel violated... sad... tricked. As you gaze at the game in your hands, you solemnly vow, with Roger Daltrey as your witness, that you will NOT be fooled again.

At which point you pick up that complimentary videogame magazine from your local videogame store, and see a six-page exclusive spread on another game that looks really, really cool...

Sigh.

This year has had some very solid titles to date, and the second half of the year promises to be stellar. By this time next year, we'll know which games lived up to the early hype, which fell short, and which ones will join Duke Nukem Forever in the release abyss. (Hey, did you hear it's REALLY coming out? I'll believe it when I actually see it.)

But all that's all in the future. Today, all I have to go on is early buzz, "leaked" stories, screenshots, developer track record and a game video or two. Based on these highly unscientific factors, I have chosen the following games that absolutely cannot suck.

In other words: Developers, don't screw these up!

Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4

Platforms: Nintendo DS, PC, PlayStation 3, PSP, Wii and Xbox 360

U.S. Street Date: June 29, 2010 (available now)

This game has two big things going for it: First, past Lego games have been very solid, despite annoying save schemes (30+ minutes to a save point? Utter fail when a 7-year-old only has 20 minutes to play before dinner, bath and bed!). Second, the Harry Potter IP is "highly revered," which roughly translates to, "the people who stand to make money off it keep a watchful eye on any and all projects bearing the HP logo to ensure they achieve a suitable quality bar." This particular venture promises to take players through the first four years at Hogwarts (through the Goblet of Fire challenges!), which means getting to some pretty freaky developments for younger HP fans.

For example: (SPOILER ALERT) The developers say they've used humor to lighten up some of the scarier moments. For example, Voldemort chases a unicorn with a knife and fork.

Reason I'm concerned: Did I mention that saving in Lego games has never been particularly easy? Thank goodness for the Nintendo DS version.

Dead Rising 2

Platforms: PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360

U.S. Street date: September 28, 2010

The original Dead Rising dropped players in the middle of a huge, well-armed mall with teeming hordes of the infected and, worse, timed missions. If you could let go of the "the truth" (main mission), you could have a grand old time hacking and whacking and slashing. Hell, I didn't even mind the escort missions. (Some escorts may have become zombie food. That's life in the Willamette Mall!) Dead Rising 2 moves the action to Fortune City, a thinly-veiled Las Vegas knock-off. Early videos promise co-op, bizarre new murder weapons and tons more folks to kill a second time.

I'm also excited about an Xbox Live Arcade game called Dead Rising 2: Case Zero that will drop sometime this summer to let you level up Chuck (the new protagonist) and fill in some backstory that connects the dots between the two games.

Reason I'm concerned: The developers have said the "Japanese" feel of the original game alienated some western players... so they, uh, fixed that for us. What's not clear is, does that refer to the bizarre (fun) aspects of the game (oh look, a katana sword outside of Not-Starbucks!), or the suck-tastic timed missions. I'm hoping it's the latter.

Fallout: New Vegas

Platforms: PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360

U.S. Street date: October 19, 2010

As the name implies, the next Fallout RPG takes place in an alternate-universe version of Las Vegas. The game takes place three years after Fallout 3 (set in Washington, D.C.), but with an all-new cast and storyline. Developers say old-school Fallout fans will see some familiar names (California Republic and Caesar's Legion) plus revamped versions of past enemies (Nightkin) returned from the archives to make your life more interesting... or a living hell. Pluses include twice as many weapons as Fallout 3 and a hardcore mode for super masochists.

Reason I'm concerned: Twice as many anything doesn't mean quality – just quantity. The game has a definite Western feel, which is not my thing. And finally, Fallout 3 has outlasted every other game in my gaming library. Many games have been bought and sold/given away in the time I've continued to play Fallout 3. The bar here is very, very, very high.

...And the Rest

Why wait until summer to have my dreams crushed? I'm looking forward to playing these games in the next days or weeks: Red Dead Redemption (Grand Theft Auto in the old West), Toy Story 3 (the licensed game that could, if the reviews are true), Alan Wake (hailed as a worthy successor to my all-time favorite game franchise, Silent Hill, though so far I've been underwhelmed) and Halo: Reach (because it's Halo, dammit!).

I can only hope.