What is a PRPG, you ask?  It's a puzzle role playing game.  Square Enix and PopCap Games are having a baby together that is due on November 18.  The baby's name is Gyromancer. Their goal was to bring together the crazy addictive casual games and shake it up with RPG elements. 

Watching the video below makes me think that they may have a winner on their hands.  With beautiful graphics (for this type of game), 12 stages, more than 50 monsters to battle and more, expect Gyromancer to demand a lot of your time. 

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The official toolset for the recently released Dragon Age: Origins is finally available for download.

Fans of the game who want to tinker and build new scenarios, items, weapons and characters can now head over to the Dragon Age Social Network website and grab the program that will allow you to fashion your own dark fantasy adventures.

Along with the ability to create your own content, the toolset also offers interested designers the ability to "look under the hood" of the game to figure out how the game pulled off some of its more interesting scripted moments. The tools also include everyone's favorite machinima in the making feature - a cutscene editor!

A fair warning, these tools are not your typical click and play scripting tools, so the learning curve may be a bit high.

Digital distribution is widely hailed as the future of gaming and while it's been relatively smooth sailing for a while the system hit a few major snags on the PC this week.  We've seen bumps in the past with Steam's early days (the Half Life 2 launch wasn't exactly painless for a lot of people) and Games For Windows has been one cluster after another but this is the first time we've seen problems that aren't specific to one service.

The first was all of the hurdles users had to jump through to get Dragon Age:Origins working correctly.  Of course a lot of these issues were created because each entity along the way had their own pass mechanism which needed to be navigated to get the game working correctly.  This is one of those nasty things that will eventually go away as companies figure out how to get their services working together better.

The second big bump was Impulse, Direct2Drive, and Gamersgate refusing to sell Call of Duty:Modern Warfare 2 on their services because it includes a mandatory install of Steam for things like DRM and saved game management. This grants Steam a de facto monopoly on selling Modern Warfare 2 digitally on the PC.  This will be a bit trickier to navigate as Valve has so tightly woven their Steamworks tools set with their online service and there's no way anyone is going to help their competitor sell more of their product.  I don't see this really hurting sales of the game that much but it has to be a bit scary for those who don't want Steam to have a monopoly on the digital distribution market and will further the calls for Valve to start decoupling their various components.

It's not unexpected to see these kind of problems as a technology matures but it is a somewhat painful reminder that we are still in the early days of this new distribution mechanism.  These won't be the last bumps we have but they do represent a small inflection point in the system.

What do you think?  Are these big issues for you or should we just got ahead and welcome our new Steam overlords?  Let us know in the comments.

Just as a quick FYI, the PC version of Mass Effect is available for $10 on Steam this weekend which means you can get one of the better recent RPG's for less than three gallons of gas.  Randy really loved the game and if you start now you'll have plenty of time to finish the game before Mass Effect 2 hits next year.

Sean loves Reggie Fils-Aime and his ramblings. OK, maybe not but he does say some interesting things every now and then. He recently predicted that New Super Mario Bros will outsell Call of Duty : Modern Warfare 2 on one system. So we have the Infinity Ward title coming out on the 360, PS3, and PC. I can definitely see it outselling the PC and/or the PS3 version. I already talked to a few folks that have canceled their PC order because of all the hoopla that Infinity Ward is doing to that  title on the computer.

The two games really cater to two different sets of gamers though so whether it does outsell MW2 on another platform is irrelevant in my opinion. I think we should all aim for both games to do really, really well so that the industry remains healthy.

Sean, Chuck, and I recently played New Super Mario Bros and it wasn't bad in my experience. You can check out Sean's recap of the event. 

Test your memory, reflexes and dexterity by responding to rapid-fire questions in Encleverment Experiment.  This 1-4 player XBLA game is being developed by Blitz Arcade and is set for release on November 11, 2009.  The avatar-supported title has questions for all gamers ages five and up so it should be good for families to play together.

There are 16 mini-games and puzzles with four difficulty levels each.  Check out the screens below as well as a game play video.  If it peaks your interest, download Encleverment Experiment on 11/11 for 800 MS Points.

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After seeing Battlefield: Bad Company 2 at E3, I'm pretty excited about the game. The PC version's going to be using dedicated servers so a win for it! Anyways, PS3 folks will be able to blow up buildings, vehicles, and each other on November 19th as that's when the public beta for the multiplayer portion of the game's going to hit.

The beta will feature Arica Harbor map with up to 24 folks fighting it out in Rush. You'll be able to experience infantry and vehicular combat with the Americans assaulting the Russians.

PC people can look forward to December 2009 as that's when the open beta for that platform will hit. 360 folks will have to wait til next year as the demo for all systems will be released then.  The game will be due out on March 2, 2010 in the US and March 5, 2010 for Europe.

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Available now until December 31, 2009 Magneto, Black Panther, Carnage, Psylocke, and Cable can be bought to play along side the others in Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 for 800 MS points or $9.99. Not only that but you get four new missions and other goodies that come with the DLC. Interesting that it would only be available until December 31 but I'll try to get some confirmation as to if this just a timed DLC that will be gone after the end of the year.

-Update: Yes, I confirmed that this DLC will only be available until the end of the year so if you are thinking about picking it up, don't dilly dally. [READ MORE]

If you own Darkest of Days on the PC and have been itching for the chance to create your own content, this is your day. I might even go so far as to call it your darkest of days. Modders, whip out your typing and clicking fingers because you’ll be exposed to Habitat, the level editing software used by 8monkey on Darkest of Days. You can create your own levels, and even make some graphical mods as the update will also expose you to shader code.

Another intriguing update is the ability to revisit levels and missions wielding a weapon set of your heart’s desire. Phantom EFX calls this update to their gameplay “Instant Action” and is available for download on their site. [READ MORE]

Here's 77 seconds of new footage from Bayonetta which claimed my "WTF is going on award" at E3 this year.  While I'm not sure exactly what's going on in the game I can tell you that the game does look fantastic and that the game is certainly pushing the T&A a bit more than other games on the market.  The game is already getting good reviews in Japan and I think will probably do well once it's released here in the US.

I have many good memories in the arcade of smashing barrels or cars in between fights on Street Fighter II. I know some folks were disappointed that feature didn't make it into Street Fighter IV. Well, get ready to do some more smashing again as it's coming back.

The release of Super Street Fighter IV will see bonus stages coming back to the fray as you'll be able to smash cars and barrels again. Remember, the game's going to be set at a lower price point so seeing features like this added to the game is pretty nice. I hope there's more to come to lessen the voices against Capcom producing this game and make it a full product rather than a DLC. While it might not be a big deal for some, I for one am happy to see the return of bonus stages.

• Dragon Age: Origins hits shelves and 30 Seconds to Mars hits Dragon Age
• Last week's top games on Gamefly
• CBS shows are soon to visit your consoles and other gaming devices
• Your Direct2Drive bestselling titles are...
• ijji.com to fly top Alliance of Valiant Arms players to Korea for tournament
• Did Activision mention Band Hero is out today?
• Vandal Hearts: Flames of Judgment wants to help your RPG life to be less tedious
• Shopping for the Zelda fan in your life?
• Prince of Persia movie trailer released, teases that movie could not suck
• ECS loves....goOoooooOOoOoOoold
• That hat in Team Fortress 2 looks familiar
• Behind the Band Hero commercial featuring Taylor Swift and members of Weezer

As the fourth news item we've posted in the past week for Band Hero, this one is just a friendly reminder from Activision that the game is now available.  You'll be able to find it on the Wii, 360, PS3, and DS.  It seems to be the "Top 40" version of Guitar Hero 5.  Given that and the fact that the Wii will sport exclusive game modes, I would not at all be surprised if it sells the most units on that system.

Head to your favorite game retailer to pick up Band Hero as it's out today.  Also, you can click here to enter for a chance to meet Taylor Swift and see her in concert.  There are other prizes, but only Kanye West would care about those.
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