Attending E3 -- it's the ultimate dream. And trust me, as someone who has been there twice, it should be. Hell, it's the reason Destructoid exists. E3 is absolutely pukka. It takes a a lot of work to get there, though. Breaking into the games industry is not the easiest thing to do, and while some may luck out, being an attendee at E3 is a pretty exclusive club.

But what if you could go to E3 without doing all the work it takes to break into the gaming industry? What if you could attend every gaming convention without having to jump on a plane, deal with convention funk, or actually physically be there? Awesome, right? Microsoft may be planning to do just that -- bring the convention to Xbox 360 owners.

Destructoid reader Dr. Rockso was taking an online survey when he was asked to read the following concept and answer some questions about it:

Imagine that interactive, online versions of E3, BlizzCon, GamesCon, ComicCon and every other major video game convention were made available through Xbox Live.

So it might not be like actually attending the event, but it would be a pretty awesome deal. Check below the fold for the full list of features this supposed "Virtual Video Game Convention Service" may have and do give the screen grab* of the survey a look if you're interested in such things.

We're pretty excited about Raskulls here at Destructoid, for more than one reason. One reason we cannot yet reveal, but a more obvious reason is this -- it's just too cute! If you don't believe me, check out this fat wad of screenshots and character artwork. If you disagree even after looking at that, you're clearly mentally subnormal.

We have exclusive gameplay footage coming soon, where you get to see Rey Gutierrez and myself take this game out for a test drive with Halfbrick's Phil Larsen. Do make sure to check it out, as this mixture of 2D multiplayer racing and Mr. Driller block smashing is really worth checking out. Of this I can assure you.

Ah, mandatory installations. They're a necessary evil most PS3 users have gotten used to, and all too common in many unoptimized multiplatform titles.

While a relatively minor gripe, it's always nice to see a game whose developers have gone the extra mile to make everything work smoothly, and that seems to be the case for Final Fantasy XIII's PS3 incarnation.

At least, if a supposedly leaked scan of the game's case art is confirmed. The game will have no mandatory (or optional) hard drive installation, and even its save data will take up a piddling 500kb (with 1.9mb extra for Trophy data).

Better still, the game will support loss-less 5.1-channel audio, and its gorgeous FMV cutscenes will be rendered at up to 1080p. Mmmm, juicy HD.

Nothing's been said so far about the Xbox 360 version, seeing as Final Fantasy XIII is still a PS3-exclusive in Japan. Perhaps more information will be available as Square Enix's international marketing engines rev up.

A question comes to mind though, for you dual/console 360/PS3 owners: were FFXIII PS3 to offer these features, and the 360 version not (perhaps due to some Blu-ray snafu), would it influence your choice?

I don't really expect any of you to care about this, since it's a new IP from an untested studio. Nevertheless, no other blog will deign to talk about it, so we're duty bound to give it some attention. You're just doing to have to deal with that.

In case you missed our previous coverage, which is hardly surprising, Hellion: Mystery of the Inquisition is a first-person-shooter set in the 13th Century. Players are charged with tackling the enemies of God, smashing apart heretics and demons in what is undoubtedly a more interesting concept for a shooter than the usual space marine nonsense.

Until recently, all that existed of the game was talk. Now there are screens, although only a handful. The game is to be shown off in more detail next month in Lyon, so hopefully we can get some footage of the game in action soon.

A much-needed patch is coming to Lucidity PC and Xbox LIVE Arcade in the near future. According to the latest Lucas Arts Workshop blog post, the Lucidity team is dropping a checkpoint system into the downloadable title, thus allowing the players to continue from somewhere better than the beginning of the f’ing level.

The update launches for the PC version this afternoon, while the XBLA patch is said to launching in “the coming weeks.” Neat.

I, like others apparently, considered the lack of checkpoint system a bummer, but I considered the lottery-style item selection the even bigger bummer in the beautiful downloadable package. This update won't fix the core problem -- the reason why Sofi visits the great beyond the vast majority of the time. Still, it’s nice to know that the game is still being supported. Let's hope they keep it up.

More videogame-related beans are being spilled in another magazine. According to CVG, the January issue of PC Zone magazine has the first shred of information about Splinter Cell: Conviction’s co-operative component as well as the first details on a lone “brand new mode” planned for the game.

This magazine hits on December 23rd. So, if you’re inclined to read something with actual pages and colorful pictures, go ahead and dig around for it in the magazine aisle later next month. Or don’t. It’s up to you now. Find our car and stop the New Order. And remember: music is the weapon.

"Dead to Rights is all about extreme visceral combat," says Dead to Rights: Retribution character art manager Dan Calvert in this latest developer diary, "it's all about action, adrenaline. We have awesome violence."

The game is so violent, in fact, that the team says it had to tone down the look and feel of the characters because of it. While they initially went for a photo realistic look, they found that the game was so violent that it actually made people uncomfortable. Because of that, they went with a more stylized look for in-game character models.

The team also goes on about the design choices made for the game's dog, Shadow. You'd think they just sat around and said "Let's make a bad ass wolf dog thing that gnaws people's faces off." But it's a bit more complicated than that, as things usually are. There's more details in the video if my "bad ass wolf dog thing that gnaws people's face off" explanation isn't good enough for you.

Dead to Rights: Retribution ships for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in 2010.

Today, Activision Blizzard announced that its Call of Duty franchise has surpased $3 billion in retail sales, taking into account internal numbers, as well as independent tracking sources. 

Keeping this number in mind, and the fact that the games in the franchise have sold more than 55 million units worldwide, expect one or more Call of Duty games a year until the end of time. Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick is pleased.

"Call of Duty has become one of the greatest entertainment franchises of all time," he's quoted as saying in a press release. "If you consider the number of hours our audiences are engaged in playing Call of Duty, it is likely to be one of the most viewed entertainment experiences in modern history."

The games are good, and apparently people like them. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 launched earlier this month, setting records with its five-day sales hitting approximately $550 million. 

Look up. That’s an image of the next Puzzle Quest title, dubbed creatively Puzzle Quest 2. We don’t know anything about the title (other than it appears to be hitting the Xbox 360), but someone does have the details: GamePro.

The gaming magazine is blowing the lid off the title in its January 2010 issue, dishing out the initial “hands-on details.” The issue will also have several images of the new game, aside from the one in the header.

If you’re hot for PQ2 information, then best to start browsing magazine racks. The January issue is the one with BioShock 2 all over it, so it shouldn't be that hard to spot. Well, unless Maxim decides to do a “women who like to wear really large, old scuba suits” spread or something.

[via GamePro]

If tentative plans hold together, expect the first bit of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 DLC -- an Xbox 360 timed exclusive -- to hit at some point in Spring 2010.

Infinity Ward’s community man, Robert Bowling, tweeted as much on November 25th: “DLC is planned for the wonderfully vague timeframe of Spring,” Bowling said in reply to a fan. He added, “I’ll let you know when we know it’ll be done.”

The tweet shores up a previous report of a Spring 2010 launch date, which was brought to us courtesy of a promotional pack of MW2-themed Monster Energy drinks. Yes. Energy drinks with previously unannounced release windows printed on them. God bless, America.

[via CVG]

This week's Friday update to the official Super Street Fighter IV website features a new trailer, (which we've already shown you), and gives the recently revealed new characters their own profile pages. Adon, Cody and Guy now join the rest of the fighters with bios avilable under the site's character section, and you can get a look at their stats and a listen at what to expect their Japanese voices to sound like.

Nakky has also updated her blog, albeit with little more than a celebration of the new characters. She does, however, show us the full, uncropped screenshot she teased us with last week, and it turns out Cody was the one giving Chun-Li a hard time.

Hit the gallery for a look at that, along with new screens featuring all three characters. There's also a better shot of Guy fending off Ibuki's kunai, as was teased in the latest issue of Famitsu. Hopefully it won't be much longer before we get to see the ninja girl who threw it.

People have been playing Aliens vs. Predator. People who are not me. This is clearly not right, but what is right is the fact that it looks bloody fabulous. This brand new trailer shows off the multiplayer aspect of the game, and briefly details a mode where eight marines get to hunt down a single Predator.

I'm simply stunned by the graphics hanging off this thing. The original screens looked like bullshots more than anything else, but the actual video footage seems to show no quality difference whatsoever. This is going to be one of 2010's early jawdropping visual treats, methinks.

Now Sega, let's do something about this whole "me not playing it yet" situation.

Being a space wizard in the original Mass Effect required patience and a knack for navigating radial menus. Not to discount the power, of course. In the end, we just found that space soldering gave us the most redeeming combat experience. But it looks like Bioware has stepped up the Adept in Mass Effect 2, making us excited to give the class another look this January.

For example, and as explained in the latest trailer above, the Adept can now curve his pulls, enabling him to grab enemies from behind cover. The class can also angle pushes, allowing for easier bad-dude-off-of-ledge action. Neat.

Now it looks like the only thing the Adept needs is a pointy hat and the ability to summon a demon or cast Magic Missile. Game’s not out yet, so you never know -- these things could make their way into it. Or not.

The soft-spoken, brilliant machinist Tali is making a return in Mass Effect 2, joining a growing cast of several fresh faces and a single familiar one (as of now). Her role in this game is unclear, but it appears as though the Quarian has found herself in some sort of trouble because of her contact with Commander Shepard. At the end of the latest character trailer shown above, we hear an elder Quarian saying, “You are hereby found guilty of treason against the Quarian people and sentenced to exile.”

Sounds like bad news, right? Right. Then again, Tali is no stranger to being outside of the Fleet or even ruffling a few feathers. In the last game, she was getting her Pilgrimage on before finding herself in trouble with Saren. She managed to discover some nasty evidence about his attack on Eden Prime in a Geth memory core and thus had to seek out protection from the Shadow Broker. The Quarian would eventually join Shepard for the entire ME ride, serving as a brilliant lock-picker and an excellent bullet-sponge before a certain dude became available. Oh, gosh, now we feel real bad about that. Sorry, Tali.

Unless Capcom pulls some crazy-stupid move between now and February 23, Lost Planet 2 is going to be one of next year's most enjoyable co-op games. The development studio hasn't exactly been known to do a silly thing like that, so I think we're mostly in the clear here.

Without warning, a massive amount of boss-centric screenshots have been tossed our way on this day of feasting. One's named Red Eye, while the other baddie goes by Akrid X. I'll let you figure out which one is which.

Recognizing some of the many images as being previously used, I tried to filter through the mess and only upload ones I thought were relatively new, or at the very least, looked pretty effing cool.

The fact that you fight the worm-looking fellow on a moving train has me thinking we aren't even close to figuring out most of Lost Planet 2's numerous surprises yet.

As we mentioned last week, Left 4 Dead 2 had a less than brilliant launch on the Xbox 360 thanks to the fact that it lagged out horrendously once it got online. Fortunately, Valve has dropped a Thanksgiving Day gift on our grateful heads, having just boosted the servers for Xbox Live.

“We have upgraded our network infrastructure to better accommodate the huge response to L4D2," blogs Valve. "360 players will now have lag-free servers. We’ve also added more dedicated servers."

Great stuff! There's nothing more frustrating than lining up your reticule on a witless survivor, letting your Smoker's tongue fly, and then waiting five seconds for him to actually attack, by which time the survivor is now onto you and pumping your tumor-riddled face full of bullets.

I have many fallen Smokers to avenge this night.

Looks like Super Street Fighter IV doesn’t have the exclusive on the reappearance of Final Fight characters Cody and Guy. Speaking to IGN this afternoon, Capcom revealed Final Fight: Double Impact, an Xbox LIVE and PSN download set to hit this April.

As far as we can tell, this is something of a re-release of Final Fight with a few rocktastic additions, the foremost of which is the inclusion of Magic Sword within the lone download. Cool still is the planned addition of HD visuals and drop-in online co-op. Good luck getting your hands on Haggar, though. I call dibs.

No pricing information or a firm release date were announced, but we're sure we'll hear about this after this Thanksgiving thing in the US blows over.

I know a passionate group of individuals were waiting on those Transmorphers-themed Avatar items to come out, but I think you'll have to settle for this Transformers merch instead. Sorry, boys. Today is not your day, unfortunately.

In celebration of Thanksgiving -- because honestly, when I think of large quantities of food going into my system, naturally shape-shifting robots come to mind -- Transformers Avatar accessories will be up for purchase.

The Megatron, Optimus Prime, and BumbleBee (why?) helmets are 240 Microsoft Points each, while the male Transformers logo shirt, three Decepticons shirts, and three Autobots shirts are 80 MS Points a pop.

I'm usually quick to mock these virtual items, but that Optimus Prime helmet is sort of sweet. Even so, I shall resist!

Here’s something we didn’t know: over the past week, Microsoft has been promising people hyped for Final Fantasy XIII a secret item in exchange for participating in their “Register, Tweet, and Win” competition thing for the game. Turns out, as revealed earlier this morning, that secret item is a Chocobo item for your Avatar.

Don’t think that the opportunity to grab one of these lovely yellow beauties is over just yet. If you find yourself yearning for some bird companionship just head over to the official Web site for the game and then enter in your LIVE account details. Keep in mind, though, that the item doesn’t ship until sometime in December. The game, on the other hand, won’t arrive until March, so, uh, there's plenty of time enjoy that Chocobo.

Yes, what you are reading is there will be an announcement ... of an announcement. That's the kind of thing that happens in the videogame industry, and that's the kind of thing you're going to have to read. Dead Space 2 is one of the worst kept secrets in development right now. We all know it's happening, we even know multiplayer may be involved. Electronic Arts won't open its mouth.

It seems that EA's silence will be broken on December 22, as confirmed by Xbox 360 World magazine. The mag has a big teaser for its next issue that features Dead Space protagonist Isaac next to a big number two (dirty boy). A splash of teasing text reads: "One of 2010's biggest sequels. Next issue."

So yeah, a game we all knew was coming has had its official announcement officially announced to the surprise of nobody. I am aware of how ludicrous this is.

As you've no doubt heard by now, Cody, Guy and Adon are the latest official additions to the Super Street Fighter IV roster. We got a peek at Famitsu's reveal yesterday, and now IGN has gotten their hands on the first trailer featuring these new badasses.

You can watch each one beating the crap out of somebody above, complete with footage of their ultras and backed by what may or may not be a new theme. Watch the trailer, cringe at the English voice acting, and get ready to try what's on display for yourself this Spring.

When you're done, you can hit the gallery for a load of new screenshots to get a better look at all three.

[Update: The video is now included above.]

Divinity II -- Ego Draconis went gold a day or so ago, but don’t expect to see it in a GameStop in the near future. The title is still slated for a January 5th release. That means you a bit of time on your hands before it hits, so why not check out the above? It is, after all, a fresh trailer for the cdv Software-developed RPG.

This is the first of nine planned trailers set to hit before the game arrives in stores. Focusing on the Dragon Slayer, it illustrates that this character can be whatever he wants to be. Kind of like Clayface from Batman, minus the whole clay thing. Also, minus that changing on a dime bit. In fact, scratch all of that Clayface business -- DII is an RPG where you (presumably) choose to have your Dragon Slayer be a mage, ranger or whatever. I don’t think Clayface sticks to a specific class.

Also, dragons.

Assassin's Creed is generally considered to be a solid, if somewhat flawed, videogame. Despite earning praise for its visuals, concept and unique story, the 2007 title was criticized for its repetition and tendency to bore players after significant periods of time. Fortunately for Ubisoft, Assassin's Creed became an unexpectedly huge success, and the series now has a chance to fix its problems.

Assassin's Creed 2 definitely sets out to address the problems found in the first game, and the once-repetitive game is now a sprawling, quasi-open-world adventure full of variety. However, as old problems are tackled, new ones sprout up to take their place.

Does Assassin's Creed 2 solve old issues while successfully maintaining control of new ones, or does it try to do too much at once and fail on all counts? Read on as we give this game the full review.

I mentioned this yesterday in our gift guide, but now it's official -- Harmonix and MTV have announced that Rock Band now has more than 1,000 songs available to play. That's more than 390 bands, according to the developer and publisher. 

Back in 2007 when I went to Harmonix's Boston studio to check out Rock Band, I was told they'd be releasing music as downloadable content every week. I smiled and nodded, but in the back of my head was thinking "You're full of sh*t." Two years later, I stand corrected. 

I'm a bit of a junkie myself, and just checked -- I have 711 songs (666 right before I exported the tracks from LEGO Rock Band). That's stupid, and it makes me a bit dizzy. But I'm sure some of you out there have them all. 

So tell us, how many playable Rock Band tracks do you have in your library?

XB Elegant Edition is a case for your Xbox 360 that actually makes it look like a box. A high-end A/V component, if you will. That weird letter I/pillar/pillow-looking thing not cutting it for you? Maybe this Sweedish-designed box will help things out.

Inside the futurist box is three 120mm fans to keep your system from red ringing, and they say that the larger open area keeps airflow constant and helps limit some of the noise. You'll have to do a bit of modding if you want this look, though:

They say: "Use the case your own risk, the Xbox360 warranty is voided once you break the seals to open up the case. The case's warranty will only cover the chassis itself, and will not include the Xbox 360 or any of its associated components."

No price is given on this box from Industrie Pro yet. I think it manages to look both sleek and boring at the same time.

Xbox 360 fanboys may want to look away now, because this is not pretty. A girl who is either crazy, bad at acting, or both, smashes her boyfriend's Xbox 360 to pieces because he spends ten hours a day on it and ignores her. Apparently this is a lesson to all us "gaming addicts." You have been warned.

Fake or not, it's worth watching just for how stupid it is. She also swings a golf club like an infant. If she really wanted to break it, she'd have used a man's weapon, like a broadsword, a meteor hammer or a tiger. Silly females. They know nothing.

Anyway, not a lot's happening this morning, so have a really dumb video to look at.

Guitar Hero 6 development is already well underway, despite the fact that it hasn't officially been announced. How do we know this? Well, I woke up this morning, the sky is blue, and Jim Sterling upset a bunch of people last week -- these are all things that simply happen in nature. 

Who will be on the soundtrack? Well, we can confirm Tesla now. Yup, the guitarist for the 80s rock outfit recently confirmed that its song "Modern Day Cowboy" has been selected to appear in Guitar Hero 6. Dave Rude says the song was one of the three tracks it suggested to Activision when it was asked to be involved in the game. 

Rude also isn't on the "play a real instrument" band-wagon, seeing positives in the band-game experience. 

"“I teach guitar when I’m not touring and a lot of people start in on that," he says. "A lot of people complain, but I think it’s a good thing. Even if people don’t learn to play guitar, it’s exposing them to all sorts of cool guitar-based music that they wouldn’t have ever heard otherwise."

[Brave Words & Bloody Knuckles via Joystiq]

Are you a betting man? If so, popular discount Web site My Voucher Codes has a hot tip for you. The site has been looking at the sales data from its various retail partners and has confidently claimed that the Xbox 360 is primed to defeat the PS3 by an eyebrow-raising 3:1 ratio this holiday season.

"A couple of months ago, little separated the two in terms of units being sold through our site, but November has seen a huge surge by Microsoft's budget friendly console, backed by a stellar PR campaign," says My Voucher Codes founder Mark Pearson. "The PlayStation 3 is undoubtedly a fantastic console, but Brits are still extremely mindful of their bank balance due to the recession, and although they want Christmas 2009 to be memorable, are seemingly more than happy to choose the cheaper option.

"If sales stay at their current rate, the Xbox 360 will outsell Sony's console by three units to one, a marked defeat. Both companies want their console to be under the Christmas tree this year, but there can only be one winner."

The PS3 price cut was a welcome gesture and has surely seen a lot more PS3s find their way into people's homes. However, with the Xbox 360 able to wriggle out a cheaper price, it's definitely more attractive to the average consumer who doesn't care as much about Blu-ray and free PSN services as we do. We'll have to wait until the Christmas dust has settled, but this is an early swing in favor of the 360 so far.

Red Dead Redemption was among the list of games Take-Two Interactive pegged for distribution in their fiscal 2010 line-up during a memorable financial conference call earlier this year. Not much has been said of the game’s release date since until a recent Rockstar Games press release, which revealed that the videogame western is slated for to hit retail in April 2010.

Oh, and a fresh trailer is set to hit the first of December.

We haven’t seen much of RDR yet, but we’re always excited for a game with horses and funny accents. It’s a problem, and yes, it is being investigated by professionals. Blood test and urinalysis are expected to come back from the lab next week. Doc said we looked "fine" otherwise, though.

Next week, Nirvana's Nevermind album sort of gets complete for the Rock Band catalog. The three "missing tracks" -- "Come As You Are," "Lithium," and "Smells Like Teen Spirit" -- are being made available as part of "Nirvana Pack 2." The catch? Two are live tracks.

Nirvana Pack 2 ($5.49/440 MS Points, $1.99/160 MS Points/200 Wii Points Per Track)

• "Come As You Are (Live from MTV Unplugged)" +
• "Lithium (Live at Reading)"
• "Smells Like Teen Spirit" 

Night Ranger Pack 1 ($5.49/440 MS Points, $1.99/160 MS Points/200 Wii Points Per Track)

• "(You Can Still) Rock in America" +
• "Don't Tell Me You Love Me" +
• "You're Gonna Hear It From Me"+

_{(The "+" indicates the song is also available for LEGO Rock Band)}

You might notice something is up with the Night Ranger pack... where the hell is "Sister Christian"? I suppose you have to save something for Rock Band 3, which should feature an entire section of your career dedicated to playing Night Ranger's most popular track (and one of the greatest songs of all time). Right? Right.

It seems as if Topware Interactive is sticking with the platforms that make them the most comfortable. Earlier this morning, the studio announced via press release that both of their upcoming PC titles, Scivelation and Two Worlds II, are set to hit the Xbox 360 in 2010.

Two Worlds II is coming courtesy of South Peak Interactive. Topware is publishing Scivelation.

Prior to this announcement, Topware teased that both titles were coming to “next-gen” consoles and PC. It’s unclear if plans to release both games on the PS3 have been scrubbed in light of this recent announcement.

Scivelation is a post-apocalyptic action game said to feature a veritable smorgasbord of tired videogame stuff: time travel, a virus, fascism, robots, and rebellion. Two Worlds II on the other hand is, well, the sequel to Two Worlds. Get ready, folks.

[Update: Time travel is not a thing that happens in Scivelation. We're pretty sure the game doesn''t have werewolves or Captain America in it either.]

The Japanese release of Final Fantasy XIII is imminent, and so Square Enix has wrapped up its promotion for the game in the Eastern part of the world. It's gone out with a bang, however, as Square Enix has revealed its "final" trailer, giving us a whopping five minutes of footage.

Of course, as Square Enix finishes prepping the game for Japan, it must turn its gaze toward we lowly round eyes, so don't expect the coverage to end any time soon. In the mean time, watch this trailer and flick your frenulum over some ludicrously beautiful visuals.

God damn, this game looks good.

Since we obsessively refresh GameStop.com, we already brought you news of the retailer's pre-order bonuses for THQ's Darksiders. Today, the publisher has decided to reveal them itself, giving us a closer look at what you'll get if you throw your money down a bit early. 

It's a pretty sexy package of stuff, so let me refresh your memory:

• Graphic Novel vision of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
• Concept Art - Exclusive in-depth look at the creation of the epic Darksiders.
• Exclusive Fold Out Poster - Original concept art created by Joe Madureira.
• Weapons Feature - Master the weapons of Darksiders with this exclusive guide
• The Harvester - Code to unlock GameStop exclusive in-game weapon

Darksiders will be available on January 5 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. You'll have to wait until then to get all of this fancy crap, but it sure sounds like it's worth the wait.

Last week, a survey leaked to Kotaku suggested that Tampa Bay Rays third baseman Evan Longoria would be on the cover of 2K Sports' Major League Baseball 2K10. 2K sent out a press release earlier today to make it official, but we now know that the four covers that the survey included were mere mock-ups. Six different box art designs, available for your viewing in the gallery below, accompanied the press release; you can vote for your favorite at 2ksports.com/vote. (They did the same thing for NBA 2K10.)

Longoria, like MLB 2K9 cover athlete Tim Lincecum, is one of baseball's most quickly rising stars; he made the AL All-Star team in his first two years in the league, and he recently won his first Gold Glove and Silver Slugger awards. And he isn't related to Desperate Housewives star Eva Longoria.

Which cover do you guys like? I prefer the one pictured above. MLB 2K10 will be out in March for the PS3, 360, Wii, PS2, PSP, and PC. Cover voting will be open for two weeks, until noon EST on December 8th.

The recent talk of Pandemic has made me realize something: I haven't played a truly crazy action game since Mercenaries 2: World in Flames. And no, Modern Warfare 2 doesn't count. Can you fall hundreds of feet from a helicopter and still survive the landing? Exactly.

Just Cause 2, or as I like to call it sometimes, Just 'Cause 2, looks to be the next decent void-filler. Between the grappling hook improvements and the increased options for base jumping with a more vertical game world, I cannot wait for March 23 to get here.

I was the guy who spent an unholy amount of time just flying peacefully through the sky in Super Mario 64. Who knows what will happen to my social life when Just Cause 2 hits. Bad things, probably.

It makes sense that Traveller's Tales' LEGO games have heavily emphasized on-the-couch co-op play. While they may be intended for everyone, you get the distinct feeling these games are perfect for families with younger gamers.

But what about the rest of us? It's not always easy getting together in real life with our busy schedules and all. Enough LEGO Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues players felt this way -- LucasArts hopped on Twitter to tell us about an impending patch for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 that'll add online co-op.

Is this going to be the norm now? It'd be neat if we didn't have to run a similar story a couple of months after LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4 releases. Just saying.

[Via Kotaku]

Having spent some time with it, I can safely say that Ruffian Games' Crackdown 2 is absolutely no joke. 

Everything you loved about the original is back, and amped up for the sequel. Plus mutants, four player co-op action, and a slew of slick new weapons. Basically, it's exactly what fans of the original had been wanting for. What else could they need?

How about a ton of images, including screenshots, weapon art, and character art? Yeah, it's a lot. Start browsing the gallery early, because you've got your work cut out for you.

Ruffian has also kicked off an art competition, which will allow you to get your work into Crackdown 2 as graffiti. You're a talented, so give it a shot, eh?

Tis' the season for gift giving. With some many great games released this year, finding the perfect gift for that gamer in your life (or for yourself, you selfish jerk!) can be quite a task.

That's where we come in. Destructoid staff writers were asked to make a few holiday, game-related gift picks, either based on personal choice or simply in the spirit of giving. The results were wide and varied, as each staff member's tastes and gaming experiences, uh, vary widely. We're quite an eclectic bunch, that's for sure. 

Hit the jump to see what made the list, and we hope to ignite some gift-giving sparks for you this holiday.

As we said about 40 minutes ago, Borderlands DLC “The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned” is a thing that is happening right now over PSN and Xbox LIVE. I grabbed the content off of Xbox LIVE Marketplace this morning, hoping to put some quality hours into the material before having to hit the grind again. Turns out that I was only able to put about 30-40 minutes before putting down the controller. Bummer.

No matter, though -- I think I got gist of it. The DLC adds a central HUB to the core game, Dr. Ned’s little haunted island of awesome. Upon downloading the DLC, you’ll be told to hit a travel beacon and zip to the content if you so please. It’s that easy to break into, and that easy to leave if you so desire. But you probably won’t want to get out. The epic introduction to the content pulls you in hard.

And speaking of that introduction, there’s a TMT above in the header showing off the first 10 minutes of the DLC. You’ll catch some heavy narrative, some zombie-skull busting, and a brief look at the immediate environment. Its swampy, dark, and infested -- just what we expected the DLC was announced.

So, what do you guys think?

[Update: Just to be clear -- the DLC is no doubt longer than 40 mintues. I just had something come up.]

Cast away your fears of terrorist attack or natural disaster while immersed in a session of your favorite Xbox 360 game. It's no longer a problem if you live in New York.

New York State is planning on blasting out alerts of natural disasters, terrorist attacks and the like to your Xbox 360 messaging service from the Emergency Management Office. This is like an updated emergency broadcast system. The goal is to reach younger people to spend more time on game systems than they do radio or TV. Good call.

InformationWeek says that the plan is still early, and is only in the testing phase so far.

I'm one of those rare ones that has his messages shut off in Xbox Live. I guess I'm screwed should we be hit by the Big One one day.

Oh, and look at what one douche's reply at IW:

Wonderful. This is just more way for the government to invade our personal lives. I believe that the current warning system is quite adequate. At what cost is this being implemented and how many lives is it expected to save? Isn't there somewhere else that our money might be spent with greater impact?

Not a gamer, obviously.

A lot of people -- including a few Destructoid staff members -- didn’t dig the so-called “weak” conclusion to Borderlands. I can’t agree with the assessment for a few reasons (one being my epic confrontation with you-know-who), but I understand the argument. More insightful than my reactions to the matter, though, are Paul Helquist’s, a senior designer for the game. He told MTV Multiplayer that Gearbox is going to keep the poor reception of the ending in mind going forward, in both downloadable content and full games in the future.

"We went through lots of different iterations on what the ending of the game was,” Helquist said. “We ultimately ended up with what you get to play. We didn't know how people were going to react to it. Obviously the reaction hasn't been as strong as we had hoped.

“That's something we're going to be keeping in mind as we do new things, whether it's download content or other games in the future. We're gonna think more about it and try to get more user feedback before the game comes out so we can ensure that we'll have endings that you guys like in the future."

Later, Helquist said that, at the least, the ending of Borderlands keeps the story open for sequels and content. The recent release of the “Zombie Island of Dr. Ned,” is proof of that. It picks right up where the game trails off. Hell, it even adds zombies to the core game without issue. Weird, right?

As Nakky promised over on the official Super Street Fighter IV dev blog last week, the new issue of Famitsu carries within it some hot new character reveals for SSFIV. Officially joining the roster this Spring will be Adon, Cody and Guy from the Street Fighter Alpha series.

Looks like Adon's foot was probably the source of Chun-Li's pain in that Focus Attack screenshot we saw last week, and the new stage was Cody's. This being a leaked scan spotted over at Shoryuken, Capcom still has yet to release any official information on these characters. But a look at the scans gives us a taste of what kind of action they'll be bringing back to the game. 

Perhaps when they get to talking, they can tell us why Cody is still wearing his prison clothes and shackles after all this time.

And if our SFIII fans out there are feeling let down, don't. Take a look at the gallery below and you'll see that the cropped shot of Guy's punch is blocking a kunai. Furthermore, the text above that image in the magazine pulls the Chun-Li teaser stunt from last week and asks whose it might be. 

Hmm, kunai ... I don't want to speculate, but I'm going to guess her name definitely rhymes with Ibuki.

If there is one thing that people can't seem to agree on in the world of MMOs, it's how games that are designed to be played forever should fund themselves.

There are plenty of models out there, like subscriptions, micro-transactions, advertisements, but all of them seem to have their different issues. When we spoke to Jeff Strain about his new MMO company, Undead Labs, and his upcoming zombie MMO, we brought this up.

He had some interesting things to say about why paying a monthly or annual subscription fee is the best way to go.

cdv Software Entertainment and dtp entertainment have announced that its action-RPG, Divinity II: Eco Draconis, has gone gold. The title will hit North American retailers on January 5, 2010 for both PC and Xbox 360. 

The game is the sequel proper to 2002's Divine Divinity, and puts players in "the role of a young Dragon Slayer, a hero with the ability to transform into a dragon, and take to the skies to fight against an onslaught of deadly creatures." Imagine the internal psyhological conflict that guy has to deal with. He kills dragons and he can turn into a dragon. That's deep, man.

In other news, I haven't stabbed anything with the knife cdv sent me awhile back.

Publisher Ubisoft is pleased with the reception to Assassin's Creed II, so much that its issued a press release to remind us.

According to the publisher, the title has sold through 1.6 million units if its own internal estimates are to be believed. That's 32% up from the first week sales of the original, which apparently remains the fastest selling new IP ever in the United States. 

Reviews are also positive, with the aggregated Metacritic scores pointing to "Universal Acclaim." I went out and picked up a copy of the game last week, and have been (mostly) enjoying it so far, despite some issue (i.e. why does Lucy look like that now?).

Of course, this isn't a review -- Jim Sterling will have his full write-up shortly. In the meantime, let us know what you think of Assassin's Creed II, but no spoilers, kids.

In a recent conversation with GTTV (via TVGB), Mass Effect 2 project director Casey Hudson revealed that most of the ME2 team would switch to working on ME2 downloadable content after the completion of the core game. And don’t expect just huge expansion packs -- the game will support a range of different content unlike the first ME.

“As part of trying to build the game, as ambitious as it was, one of the things we weren’t able to do technically was to have the support in the game itself for certain kinds of downloadable content,” Hudson said, speaking to the first Mass Effect and its hang-ups.

“So, it had to be a huge pack or nothing essentially was the issue. Now we’ve gone through and made sure that its technically possible to do a whole range of different kinds of downloads,” said Hudson.

Hudson continued, saying that "pretty much the whole team" will begin working on DLC once the game is ready to ship, and that content could be influenced by fans: “Once we’re done working on Mass Effect 2, pretty much the whole team switches into working on really cool downloadable content. That’s where we like to listen to what fan feedback is for ‘where do you want to go’ and ‘what kinds of things do you want to see.’ “

DLC details remains unannounced, but if a recent retailer survey has the right of it, we can expect “planned episodic combat via DLC,” weapon and armor packs, new downloadable characters for the “campaign experience,” new downloadable worlds, as well as “full campaign expansions for download.” And all of that is in addition to some sort in-game "periodic update" network dubbed Cereberus Network.

News flash: a lot of people signed into Facebook through Xbox LIVE after Microsoft rolled out the planned summer update that also added Last.FM and Twitter.

Microsoft dude David Dennis recently told CNET that around 2 million people have signed into the social platform via the Xbox 360. He added that half a million people have signed up for Last.FM accounts within its first full day of availability.

Dennis didn’t have numbers for the amount of people who got bored with both apps and went to play Modern Warfare 2. He also didn't have a number for the amount of people using the Twitter app, but we’re guessing a lot of people signed into that as well. Not many can resist sending that, "Hey, I'm doing this over LIVE" tweet. Not many at all.

Ever the trend setter, it looks like Nintendo may have started a new one -- holding players' hands. 

Siliconera recently dug up a Microsoft patent filing that appears to be its own answer to New Super Mario Bros. Wii's "Super Guide." In it, a system is described in which a player caught in a tight spot would be able to pause the game and then access a database of online, user- or developer-submitted tips. The help system could included screenshots, video clips, as well as audio commentary to help gamers. 

The potential for such a system brings up some unanswered questions. How would this affect physical strategy guide business, and would Microsoft monetize this service in some way? 

Ubisoft recently began offering a similar style guide, tied in with its Uplay service and Assassin's Creed 2. Gamers can hop into their web browser to watch publisher-designed walkthrough content for the game's missions, achievements, and more. 

What do you guys think of these services? Would this be something you'd pay for, or are you so opposed to walkthroughs/hints that you'd simply never access the features?

[via GamesIndustry.biz]

Remember that Mass Effect 2 surprise teased over the weekend? It looks like that surprise has now been revealed, and well, we’re still reeling from the shocker.

In a recent Facebook post, the person behind the official account revealed that the ME2 Web site has been revamped. Surprise!

Now you -- just like we did with mouths wide open and drool dripping from the corners of our full lips -- can navigate the ME2 Web site with relative ease. Say “goodbye” to browsing inconveniences and “hello” to brilliant pathways for the best possible ME2 page viewing. Truly, this is an awesome surprise.

Awhile back, Sega teamed up with Maxim to trick women into dressing up like Bayonetta to win a 50 inch Panasonic TC-P50X1 HDTV Plasma TV and a copy of Bayonetta for the Xbox 360.

Well, a winner has been chosen, and it's Andrea Bonaccorso. Bonaccorso says that when she was nine, she begged her mom for a Sega Genesis, and then become obsessed with Sonic the Hedgehog, Toe Jam and Earl, and (random much?) Rolo to the Rescue. In 2009, she dressed in black, found a fake gun, put on some glasses, and won a television. Good for her. 

While congratulations are in order for Andrea, her win is suspect. Taking a look at the list of top nine entrants chosen by Maxim, one who goes by the name of Sydney, went all out. I'm talking like, hardcore cosplay get-up. What gives?

Borderlands DLC “The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned” is set to launch rather soon, as in tomorrow soon, over Xbox LIVE and PSN. As announced moons ago, this first bit of content has players traveling to Dr. Ned’s trashy island in order to purge the place of its zombies, pumpkin-head-dudes, Tankensteins, and other colorful enemies.

According to the 2K marketing folk, game owners should expect dozens of new missions and several more hours of play with this DLC. But don’t go into this expecting new weapons or a higher level cap. Neither of these things are going to happen to our knowledge.

Regardless, the content looks like a blast. The latest teaser (shown above) showcases some of the Halloween-themed locales, including a bent Jaokob’s facility and a twisted graveyard -- two places we’re eager to beserk through on the morrow depending on how our zombie-saturation meter reads. Green means good to go. Orange? Not so much.

It's with little shock that we'll eventually be telling you all about the sequel to Visceral Games' Dead Space. All signs point to "totally happening," with rumors of multiplayer that our own sources quietly confirmed to us months ago. 

So when will we see it? If a teaser for next month's issue of Official PlayStation Magazine is anything to go by, it seems "next month." The magazine teases an "unannounced horror game," and uses a piece of artwork that has been discovered to be a piece of concept art (pictured above) from the original Dead Space. 

Seems likely, and we'll find out soon enough, as the magazine hits stands on December 22. It's possible we'll see hints of the game even sooner -- the Spike VGAs, which airs on December 12, promises to reveal nearly a dozen unannounced games. Could Dead Space 2 be among them?

[Goonline via NeoGAF]

Visceral drew the ire of bookworms and literature students when it revealed its videogame adaptation of Dante's Inferno. Some believe the classic poem has been violated by a tasteless videogame company doing tasteless videogame things, but the studio has hit back by claiming that true fans of the poem actually love the game.

"Generally those critics are often people who weren't fans of the poem and weren't that familiar with it until they heard we were doing this," alleges executive producer Jonathan Knight. "What we're finding is, a few people anyway, that quite clearly didn't know it well, now have gone off and read it and they're looking for ways to go, oh you're taking liberties here, or you didn't do this, or whatever. But the reality is that true Dante fans, people who actually have spent time with the literature and care about it are over the moon with the game project.

"I like to say the game is a celebration of Dante. There are more people going to actually read the poem, learn about The Divine Comedy, read up on Dante and what he meant to western culture, than otherwise would have. That's a good thing. The game's not meant to replace the poem. It's not meant to be like, hey, play the game and you don't have to read the poem. The cool thing is the opposite is happening. More people are reading it, not less, because of the game."

I think Visceral has it right. The Dante's Inferno videogame can have as little or as much to do with the poem as you want. It's not taken anything away from the original work, and those crying sacrilege really are getting worked up over something that has no real impact on their enjoyment of literature. It's a videogame. Its job is to entertain us a game, not as a book.

Of course, if the game itself sucks, then feel free to criticize it to the Moon. But let's wait on that, shall we?

Some new Fallout 3 Avatar items are making their way to Xbox Live Marketplace this coming Thursday. You'll be able to pick up your own Vault 101 jumpsuit, an array of other t-shirts and the incomparably creepy "Vault Boy" head and matching cartoonish suit.

I don't hate Avatars but I've yet to find any real benefit to them other than another excuse for microtransactions. Yet, I always knew in my heart that these items would come down the pipe eventually and that would cave and buy a vault suit. I mean, I've wasted $3 on less worthwhile crap (hard as that may be to imagine).

The full listing of Avatar items and their price in Microsoft Spacebucks is after the jump. Anybody else going to make the likely regrettable decision to support the continued proliferation of this crap?

Good news for those of you too lazy to create Japanese PlayStation Network and Xbox LIVE accounts -- Sega has announced that the demo for Platinum Games' Bayonetta will be hitting North America and Europe next week, on December 3. 

Jim Sterling took a look at both versions of the demo now long ago, and basically came to the conclusion that the Xbox 360 version was superior. Both, however, were good times. The Internet, of course, exploded anyhow. That's just what happens. 

Earlier today, a few of us were talking about how the game really wasn't on some of our radars until we tried out the demo. It's shaping up to be an over-the-top third person action game, full of violence and sexual overtones... the way we like it. 

Bayonetta is set for release in North America on January 5, with a European release to follow three days later. 

Crackdown 2 does not even have a release date yet, but let's not stop Ruffian from talking about Crackdown 3. Talking to VG247, Crackdown 2's developer has jumped the gun to let us know that Crackdown 3 will "alter" the game's location, rather than return to Pacific City as Crackdown 2 has done.

"When we go to Crackdown 3 things’ll alter again. But yeah, for Crackdown 2 it made more sense to stick in the same city, because it is pushing on from the idea of the Freak fires and how they’ve affected the city," explains Ruffian creative director Billy Thomson. "It’s not a case of doing it because it’s quicker. If anything it’s taken just as long to re-do what’s already there, because we’ve got to make sure we don’t break what we spent so much time getting right in the first game."

Thomson also confirmed that Crackdown 2 will run at thirty frames-per-second, for those of you who get off on all that graphical stuff: "“We will just keep hitting it until we hit 30. Because it does need to be a constant 30. As soon as we go above that, we need to stop."

Crackdown 2 is set for 2010, but no firm release date has been given. We're all pretty much looking forward to it at Destructoid though, so we eagerly anticipate news of its launch.

Yes, it's another story about an announcement for an announcement. You can insert whatever excuse (it's the weekend, people want to know, Mass Effect 2 is a big game) you want here for reporting on it. According to the ME2 Facebook fan page a surprise announcement revealing something surprising will be hitting some time this week.

Chris Priestly (or his evil doppelganger) posted this news on the page: "Man, so much time tied up today in meetings and "secret stuff" I didn't get any time with ME2 at all. =( Still with the coming surprise for next week on the ME2 website, I'm sure fans will forgive me for no update. Did I, Evil Chris Priestly, just drop a hint? Yes. Yes I did."

What could it be? Let's hope it is an announcement about how the game's terrible box art is going to be changed to something that doesn't look like the poster to a Hallmark move. Really, couldn't you just see that thing captioned with "His struggles almost killed him, but then he found friendship, laughter and love?" You'd have to take the guns out of course, but I think I'm spot on there.

It looks like the Need for Speed franchise is taking a page from Burnout and going the free DLC route. For anyone still playing Need for Speed SHIFT after Forza 3 has already been released some new DLC is on the way, and it isn't just a few new cars to race in. Come Dec. 1 on the 360 and Dec. 3 on the PS3 SHIFT players will get an all new gameplay mode called Team Racing. It actually looks pretty damn awesome.

The new mode will allow players to go online with up to six friends and make a team of cars. The goal of team racing is not for individual glory, but for the entire team to do well. This should create some pretty interesting racing tactics that you don't see too often, especially in online play. As the video above shows it's actually looking a little exciting (at least to my untrained racing eye), especially when you throw in the four new muscle cars and one Toyota that come with the DLC in the form of a 1967 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray 427, a 1967 Shelby GT-500, a 1969 Dodge Charger R/T, a 1971 Dodge Challenger R/T and a 1998 Toyota Supra Mark IV.

What say you? Intriguing enough to pop the SHIFT disc back into the system or have you moved on already?

So I guess this Dark Void game is going to be a pretty big deal. What with the movie tie-ins we can easily conclude that Capcom is looking to make this a major franchise. Maybe it's because I haven't had any time with the game yet (unlike Dyson), but I'm just not feeling it that much -- and I love The Rocketeer or at least the idea of strapping a jet pack onto my back. If you have been following the game then this video is for you, as it shows off The Watchers, who are mysterious indigenous beings from the planet Dark Void takes place on.

These guys appear to be enemies in the game, as large, sharp, metallic, pointy creatures usually are, but the video doesn't show off much about them in general. I must say that they do look a bit out of place from the retro/future design I've seen of the game so far, but that is possibly intentional so that they are clearly different from your jet pack wearing hero. See, just typing "jet pack wearing hero" is actually getting me excited for this game.

Left 4 Dead 2 released this past week and while most people are having fun with it, there is a dedicated clan of people who are determined to convince the world that Left 4 Dead 2 is not a real game. These people, who we shall class as "f*cking idiots," have labeled Left 4 Dead 2 an expansion pack, unworthy of accolade and recognition.

These people are wrong and stupid. Left 4 Dead 2 is every bit a sequel as any other game, and trying to say otherwise is ludicrous. The arguments supporting the claim that L4D2 is an expansion remain nonsensical and reek of double standards. If you think Left 4 Dead 2 is an expansion, you are clearly very ignorant, very unintelligent, or you simply haven't played the game.

Read on as we explain why thinking Left 4 Dead 2 is an expansion makes you a f*cking idiot.