RPS:

“Valve, creators of best-selling game franchises (such as Half-Life, Portal, Team Fortress, and Counter-Strike) and leading technologies (such as Steam and Source), today announced the first game add-on for its co-operative zombie thriller, Left 4 Dead 2 (L4D2), is in development and targeted for release in early 2010.

Dubbed “The Passing,” the first game add-on for L4D2 brings the original Left 4 Dead (L4D1) Survivors down south for a meeting with the L4D2 cast, while delivering new single-player, multiplayer and co-operative gameplay for the PC and Xbox 360.

Targeted for release in early spring, “The Passing” takes place just after the Dead Center campaign of L4D2. Set in a small town in rural Georgia, players assume the role of the L4D2 Survivors as they meet with the L4D1 characters.

In addition to the new co-operative campaign and associated narrative, “The Passing” will include new arenas for Survival, Versus and Scavenge mode and introduce a new co-operative challenge mode of play. The Passing will also include a new “uncommon common” zombie class, melee weapon, and firearm.

“The Passing will become the most important campaign in the Left 4 Dead story, as all the Survivors are being called together in one campaign,” said Doug Lombardi, VP of marketing at Valve. “It will also be a huge offering of new gameplay content, with something new for every game mode plus a new uncommon common and weaponry.”

1UP:

“Ubisoft has revealed the names of the first two Assassin’s Creed II DLC packs. Continuing the franchise’s general appreciation for history, both of the titles appear to refer to famous historical events that occurred in the 15th Century.

“Battle of Forli” will be the first DLC pack. While Ubisoft hasn’t revealed any further details, the “battle” may refer to the infighting that followed the death of the lord Pino III in 1480. It’s also notable that Forli was ceased by Visconti in 1488, and by Cesare Borgia in 1499.

Meanwhile, the second DLC is called “The Bonfire of the Vanities,” which was the title of Tom Wolfe’s most famous novel as well as a famous event that took place in 1497. It refers to the burning of thousands of objects that were thought to promote sin, such as cosmetics, art and books, by the supporters of the Dominican priest Girolamo Savonarola.”

Lifehacker:

“The annual fall update for the Xbox 360 dashboard is here, bringing with it support for Last.fm radio, Facebook and Twitter integration, and HD streaming through Zune’s online marketplace.

To grab the update, just fire up your Xbox and sign into Xbox Live. You should be prompted to apply the update, after which you’ll have access to all the new features. The Last.fm addition is probably the most exciting update for most of our readers, but the Facebook and Twitter integration looks pretty solid (and let’s face it, Twitter and Facebook are both determined to find a home on every single electronic device you own). The Zune marketplace integration seems like a decent option for instant-streaming HD video rentals, though the selection doesn’t look that impressive at the moment (we still prefer the Netflix integration). Still, if you’ve got a 360, it’s certainly a worthwhile update.”

PCWorld:

“Microsoft expects you to pay close to $200 to upgrade your Xbox 360’s hard drive from 20GB to 120GB. That’s about $150 more than a 120GB SATA drive actually costs. But with this slightly tricky hack, you can save a bundle while boosting your game console’s storage capacity to hold more music, video, and other media files.”

FULL ARTICLE

RPS:

“Valve have sent word of a fourth game mode to be included in Left 4 Dead 2, called Scavenger Mode. It’s like this: “Scavenge mode challenges players to compete in round-based games of up to 8 players (Survivors vs. Infected). The Survivors must battle both the Infected and the clock as they collect gas cans to refuel a generator located in each map. Every can the Survivors pour into the generator scores their team a point and adds time to the clock.” Needless to say, the infected have to stop them. Just as interesting, perhaps, is the confirmation of previously discussed Ai Director 2.0, who will have “the ability to procedurally change weather effects, world objects, and pathways in addition to tailoring the enemy population, effects, and sounds to match the players’ performance.”

Video below.”
(…)
Read the rest of L4D2: Scavenger Mode

1UP:

“2K Games has finally taken the wraps off of the new BioShock 2 release date. The company announced today that the game has been set for a worldwide release on February 9, 2010. The announcement was pretty sparse, since the rest of the press release details the two separate stories in single and multiplayer modes, and doesn’t cover anything we haven’t heard before. The game was initially pushed back to 2010 to “perform better in the marketplace,” which we take to mean 2K wanted to avoid Modern Warfare 2. But the extra time is also letting them put on a bit more polish, and the game should be better for it. “

“The second expansion pack for Grand Theft Auto 4, The Ballad of Gay Tony, has finally made its trailer debut today. Rockstar’s latest trailer shows off much of what you can expect to see in the game, including parachutes, an attack helicopter, cage fighting, a guy with no pants, explosions and racing on a golf course — with you in a golf cart, naturally — and a helicopter lifting a subway car right off the tracks. Parachutes look to be especially interesting and should make navigating the rooftops of Liberty City’s skyscrapers much easier.

The Ballad of Gay Tony is releasing on October 29 for 1,600 Microsoft Points ($20) on the Xbox Live Marketplace and in disc form (bundled with the first GTA4 expansion, The Lost and the Damned) as Episodes from Liberty City for $40.”

/gamer: “Someone decided to edit a music video together of Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World,” but used the game Left 4 Dead for inspiration. If you watch the video with a group of people, there won’t be a dry eye in the room.Make sure you watch out for 1:00 minute mark when the lyrics talk about a rainbow — totally a beautiful thing.

Valve, take note. You should definitely do something like this for the next trailer for Left 4 Dead 2.”

OK, it’s definitely on my Christmas list now…..

DVICE:

“If you’ve been waiting for the PlayStation 3 to get cheaper before you jumped on board, your wait is over. Sony just announced the new PS3 Slim, a 120GB PS3 that slims down the form factor of the console while also slimming the price down to $299. It’s 33% smaller and 36% lighter than the original, and it’ll be available the first week of September.

Don’t need a smaller console? The old, fatty PS3s are still available while supplies last, with a price drop on those guys to be announced tomorrow.. All PS3s still stand up as the best Blu-ray players around, so now seems like as good a time as any to upgrade your movie discs.”

Engadget:

“It was almost a little cruel of Microsoft to offer its Xbox Live Update preview program so widely — sure, all your stupid friends had the update, with their fancy new avatar clothing purchases and their cutesy little shared virtual Netflix screenings — but there was you, updateless, sitting all alone, trying to squeeze out a few more experience points in Call of Duty while you held back the tears. Well, your wait is over. The newly improved Xbox 360 dashboard is live for everybody. Games on Demand, User Ratings, Avatar Awards… it’s all there. Just ripe for the picking.”