FREE GAMES, DEMOS, UPDATES

• Area 51 Free Game
• Full Spectrum Warrior Free Game
• Crysis Wars Free Trial (Part 1 of 4, 2 of 4, 3 of 4, and 4 of 4)
• Quantum of Solace Demo
• Dynasty Warriors 6 Demo, System Checker
• Sacred 2: Fallen Angel v2.10 to v2.10.1 UK Patch

VIDEOS

• Crysis Wars Free Weekend (WMV)
• Halo Wars Field Trip to Harvest (WMV)
• Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard Reveal Trailer (QT)
• Fracture Multiplayer Gameplay (QT)
• Guitar Hero World Tour Zakk Wylde (WMV HD), Hayley Williams (QT HD)
• Blitz: The League II Team Captain Trailer #1 (WMV HD, WMV Wide), #2 (WMV HD, WMV), #3 (WMV HD, WMV), End Zone Celebration (WMV HD, WMV Wide)

SCREENSHOTS

• Gears of War 2 (360) [Locust Reaver]
• Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard (360, PS3)
• LEGO Batman: The Videogame [launching Friday]
• Mega Man 9 [Proto Man]
• Kudos 2 (PC)
• Guitar Hero On Tour: Decades (DS)
• Priston Tale (PC) [new publisher]

ARTICLES

• Xbox America talked to Erick Boenisch, Lead Feature Designer for NBA 2K9.
• Don't miss the timely content -- and a good weekly rant -- when you go Inside the Nexus.
• Palit has a definite winner with their pre-overclocked Radeon HD 4870 Sonic Dual Edition GPU.
• Another edition of "Ask Cryptic" is up, answering more questions from the Champions Online community.
• Just enough of a bump in performance to show up in testing, Legit Reviews looks at the ASUS M3A79-T Deluxe Motherboard.
• AtomicGamer is looking forward to the full barbecue of Little Red Riding Hood's Zombie BBQ.
• The most anticipated and visually stunning Tower Defense game, Fieldrunners, is out on iPhone, and OS X Reality has the scoop.

Thanks to Xbox America, Techgage, Cryptic Online, AtomicGamer, and OS X Reality for today's News Roundup.

The soundtrack has been etched for NBA 2K9, and it has expectantly mixed big names with virtual unknowns.  Big dogs include N.E.R.D.'s aptly-titled "Spaz," Santogold's ubiquitous "Creator" (I'm still puking a little from its unfortunate inclusion in FaceBreaker as well), and Gnarls Barkley's arid "Going On."  The Cool Kids (nice!) have laid down an original recording called "2K Pennies" -- which, I'm guessing, adds up to a $20 bill -- while The Meters bring in the classy "Cissy Strut," and the Pharcyde (early OutKast influencers) didn't pass up the classic "Passin' Me By." [READ MORE]

Composer Jason Graves' work has graced two dozen projects ranging from the King Arthur soundtrack to Star Trek Legacy, and from Zathura to Dead Head Fred.  More recently he was hired on to score October 14th's Dead Space, the creepy-crawly sci-fi horror title from EA.  In two sessions, Graves conducted 60 musicians of the acclaimed Northwest Sinfonia Orchestra at the Bastyr Chapel in Seattle, and a year later, he conducted another 60-piece ensemble from the Skywalker Symphony Orchestra, and 20 voice choir at the Skywaylker Sound Scoring Stage.  The entire Dead Space soundtrack will be available on EA Trax to coincide with the game's launch, but if you want a snippet now, head over to Jason Graves Music where you can hear his utterly creepy aleatoric work in "Nicole's Theme," "Severed Limbs Are Hazardous Waste," and "The Necromorphs Attack."  Scary, scary stuff. [READ MORE]

Fallen Earth MMO team has made its content completion goal after nine months of accelerated development. The results are a high yield delivery of custom character content, dialog, motion-captured animations and emotes for this post-apocalyptic MMO. these are some of the things that keep players interested in an MMO as they progress. Combat will inevitably get to be routine, but customizing your character's stuff is always new.

Fallen Earth is still in Alpha testing at this point, but usually those gamers signed up for newsletters get the first word and shot at beta testing when it comes around. Check out the press release after the break and then visit the Fallen Earth website to find out more about the game and get your name on the list. [READ MORE]

In honor of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, EA has released a limited edition of its popular football franchise, Madden NFL 09 Pink. The game proudly bares the pink ribbon that has become synonymous with breast cancer awareness world-wide and The Deanna Favre HOPE Foundation will receive a donation for every copy sold during the month of October. If you're late getting in the game and want to pick up a copy, you can grab madden NFL 09 Pink and NFL 09 All-Play Pink for the Wii exclusively at Target stores and www.NFLShop.com.

This is the kind of exclusive offer that I can wholeheartedly approve of. Deanna Favre, the wife of cover athlete Brian Favre founded the charity after being diagnosed with breast cancer in 2004. She continues to fight for women faced with this pervasive disease after winning her own battle. Like many others, my life has been marred by this disease. Let me remind you, breast cancer is truly nondiscriminatory affecting both men and women. If you were looking for a reason to own NFL 09 and are on the line, this is a good one. [READ MORE]

Here are a few things I missed while watching the Norwegian Nightmare light up Jason Blake:

• E for All, really only E for 15,000 (PAX did 80,000)
• Fable II single player story also stored on Microsoft servers, no that's not creepy at all
• Digital distribution vs. Retail, we know who wins this one in the end
• Ever wonder why people leave World of Warcraft?  Here are some answers (a life doesn't seem to be on the list)
• de Blob clone for the PC, for free and for reels
• Warhammer Online's community dissected
• Microsoft rolls out more details on the NXE
• 360 price cut not a measure of desperation, really it's not....seriously...
• More love for The Conduit

Nintendo has released four new digital downloads this week composed of two Virtual Console games and two WiiWare titles.  Midnight Bowling(800 points) and MadStone(800 points) arrive on the WiiWare side while Mario Golf (1,000 points) and Shining Force(800 points) make their debut on the Virtual Console side of the service.  Not a bad week for Nintendo fans as they are getting one more title than usual.  Be sure to check back on Friday for Cyril's take on the Virtual Console titles. [READ MORE]

It was a big week for Nintendo with the October 2nd press conference dropping a number of big announcements.  The DSi was the most prominent surprise but I'd like to talk about the Wii announcements first, as they're just as significant if not as exciting.

Nintendo fans finally have some decent software to live for, with the reveal of several new games that don't have "Wii" or "music" in the title.  First off is the new Punch Out!, a retro revival if there ever was one.  The original game was one of the NES's runaway hits, and from the teaser videos it looks like Nintendo understands what made the original game great.  There were a lot of familiar faces and the gameplay looks solid and nostalgic.  I was just hoping for something completely different--Kid Icarus.  They've been hinting at it for over a year and while Punch Out is great, Nintendo should really stop torturing the fans.

Sin and Punishment came right out of left field, and I'm delighted to see a sequel to the Japan-only N64 cult hit.  The first game apparently had very good Virtual Console numbers, and that's what prompted Nintendo to make a sequel.  They might have been astonished that an audience besides grandparents and soccer moms play the Wii but at least they're paying attention.

Square finally deigned to allow Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time to be shown, and I can see why it's been taking them so damn long.  Wii to DS play was expected but considering everyone and their dog owns a DS, it should be easier to play than the GameCube one.  The lack of a link cable will really ease things up--the GBA to GCN play was innovative but clunky and expensive.

Some of the lesser titles, like Dynasty Warriors and Trace Memory were great to see, especially with the possibility of WiiMotionPlus compatibility in the former.  It's always great to see The Conduit and the brilliant guys from High Voltage, and I'm happy to see that they're still pushing the living tar out of the Wii's processors.  With the magic they are working with that machine, I wouldn't be surprised if they discover that the Wii can cure cancer if you push it hard enough.

What's intriguing me, though, is the "Let's Play on Wii" series.  Nintendo is basically retrofitting GameCube titles with Wii features--one example was Pikmin.  This sounds kind of like double-dipping to me, but for people who missed the games on the Cube this could be like an enhanced "Player's Choice" series.  As long as they're budget priced I think it'll be fine, and this also lends credence to the rumored Metroid Prime Trilogy.  I for one would love to see Prime 1 and 2 remade with Wii controls, and possibly online multiplayer.  I just hope Miyamoto's hinted Pikmin 3 isn't simply a remake of one of the first two games in the series.

The biggest announcement for me, though, was the storage solution.  This has been one of the Wii's biggest problems since it was released, and WiiWare made it about 100 times worse.  Nintendo isn't giving us a hard drive but they are finally opening the SD card slot.  Now you'll be able to save, access and play games from an SD card, instead of having to copy them over to Wii system memory.  Nintendo has a long and bitter hatred of software piracy, and I'm betting they kept the SD slot locked up tight for so long for fear of pirates and homebrew coders.  It seems they finally got their minds right and realized that the slot was going to waste; the Wii's piddling 512 internal MB was never enough. 

Now we can finally download VC and WiiWare games without deleting everything on the internal memory.  I'll certainly be buying more VC games now that I can store more than a handful of them at a time.  The only problem is that the firmware update for the SD use won't be coming until next spring.  It's great that they're addressing the storage solution but it's been a huge problem for a long time, and they shouldn't make us wait any longer.

"It's about damn time" was the whole feeling I got from this conference.  Most of the announcements were like water in the scorching desert--finally, some good games and a lot of other things we've been asking for.  My problem is that we should have seen some of this stuff at E3, and other things, like the storage solution, should have been available at launch or shortly thereafter.  Again, it shows that Nintendo is a very reactionary company.  They'll take as little effort as possible to make a disproportionately large amount of money, and they won't fix a problem until people complain vocally, and for a long time.

The based-on-the-book movie is getting a based-on-the-movie game, The Tale of Despereaux, launching this December to coincide with the movie's theatrical release.  God of War fans can take a little breather.  This platformer is obviously geared towards the young gamers.

"A modern fairy tale, The Tale of Despereaux tells the story of an unlikely hero.  Tiny and graced with oversized ears, Despereaux was born too big for his little world.  Refusing to live his life cowering, he befriends a princess named Pea and learns to read (rather than eat) books -- reveling stories of knights, dragons, and fair maidens.  After Pea is kidnapped, Despereaux discovers he is the only one who can rescue her..."

These screenshots show the little guy taking on an Armored Thimble Rat, a Fighting Wasp, a Fighting Blue Spider, and making the requisite French kitchen appearance. [READ MORE]

DEMOS, UPDATES

• War Leaders: Clash of Nations French Demo
• Combat Mission: Shock Forcev1.10 Battlefront Patch, v1.10 Paradox Patch, v1.10 GamersGate Patch

VIDEOS

• Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway "Eyes Only: Secrets" Dev Diary, Revised Launch Trailer (QT)
• LittleBigPlanet Sackboy Documentary #2 (QT HD)
• Skate It GC 2008 Trailer (QT HD)
• NBA 2K9 Gameplay Trailer #2 (WMV)
• Sin and Punishment 2 Teaser (QT)
• Naruto: The Broken Bond Trailer #3 (WMV)
• Spectrobes: Beyond the Portals Behind the Scenes Video #4 (QT)
• Prince of Persia Development Diary Video #2 (WMV 720p, QT 720p)
• Ride to Hell Teaser (WMV)
• Mytran Wars Trailer (WMV)
• Geo-Political Simulator Ministries
• Zubo Sting (QT High, QT Low)

SCREENSHOTS

• Diablo III (PC) [scavengers]
• The Sims 3 (PC)
• Resident Evil 5
• X-Blades [shots and art: new combat suits]
• The Lord of the Rings Online: Mines of Moria (PC) [Redhorn Lodes]
• Stargate Worlds (PC)
• Runes of Magic (PC) [factions]
• The Tale of Despereaux
• WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2009 (360, PS3) [career mode]
• Galactic Civilizations II: Endless Universe (PC) [Terran Alliance]
• Gran Turismo 5 Prologue (PC) [new vehicles]
• The Political Machine (PC)
• Geo-Political Simulator (PC) [gov't ministries]
• BETandRACE (PC) [Vienna]
• Star Ocean: First Departure (PSP)
• Monster Lab (Wii and DS shots)
• Ninjatown (DS)
• Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe (360, PS3)

ARTICLES

• Don't judge a book by its cover.  Videogames though?  Fair play.  Defunct Games is where "The Cover Critic Comes Down."
• The "AI quirks" and "generally linear and repetitive gameplay" brings Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway down, according to ActionTrip.

Thanks to Defunct Games and AtomicGamer for today's News Roundup.

Disney Interactive Studios announced more songs and venues for their upcoming title Ultimate Band. The venues will include Gold Saber Cove, Jamhalla , Aztec Palace, Dome Debut and Viking Castle are among the eight. In addition, the new songs announced are:

Complicated
Won't Go Home Without You
Get the Party Started
First Date
When Did Your Heart Go Missing?
The Take Over, The Break's Over
9 in the Afternoon

Ultimate Band is a Wii band game that uses the Wii Remote and Nunchuk attachment to perform current and classic rock songs.

Harmonix announced quite a bit of downloadable songs hitting Rock Band next week, highlighted by a 3-pack of songs from The Offspring. In addition to The Offspring’s ‘Gone Away’, ‘Pretty Fly (For a White Guy)’ and ‘Self Esteem’, there are songs by Against Me! (Stop!), Free (All Right Now), George Thorogood and the Destroyers (Bad to the Bone), Harvey Danger (Cream & Bastards Rise), Screaming Trees (Nearly Lost you) and Static-X's (Push It). This is quite a solid lineup of songs this week, with a bit to satisfy everyone. I personally will be getting almost all of these. The Offspring 3-pack will be $5.99 (440 MS points) while the others will be $1.99 (160 MS Points) per track. [READ MORE]

Here's the first trailer for Mytran Wars, the new turn based strategy game from the folks at Deep Silver.  The plot has  humanity looking for resources on distant planets only to find that some of them are occupied by aliens who aren't exactly welcoming us with open arms.  The animated cut-scenes look good so this might be a game that PSP owners should keep their eyes on.  For more information be sure to hit up the official website of the game.