The news we reported earlier last night is now live according to a recent tweet made by Major Nelson exactly 14 minutes ago. Go check if you like. Per our previous post, there’s no update required.  The Major’s tweet along with details from his supporting post are below.

First the Tweet:

The new features coming to Xbox LIVE are now available. Details here: http://bit.ly/ohSaY Commence #Xboxtweet

And here are the details from his post on majornelson.com:

New Xbox 360 features now available (Twitter, Facebook, Zune Video and Last.FM)

We’ve just released the latest new features for your Xbox 360. In case you’ve been off the grid for the past few months and don’t know what is in this update, allow me to give you the some of the highlights: Facebook, Zune Video, Twitter and Last.FM. Here is how to find ‘em: Facebook and Twitter will appear automatically on your dashboard in the new My Community channel, Zune Video is in the Video Channel and Last.FM will be found under the Music Channel.

Assuming you have the latest Xbox 360 system update from Xbox LIVE, these new features will automatically appear sometime over the next few hours. Availability of these features will vary by region.

Remember, if you are under 18, you’ll have to wait a little longer for some of these features.

There you have it. I’m off to check it out right now. Let me know what you think of the update in the comments section below after you get a chance to mess around with it yourself.

Several leaked interface images surfaced one the web a few days ago depicting new gamercard customization and Facebook integration for the PlayStation 3 console. Without official word from Sony, it was easy to believe that they were nothing more than well done Photoshop job. Well, that official word came today. As part of an announcement on their Official PlayStation blog, Sony confirmed that the features listed above will be a part of their upcoming v3.10 update.

Feature fanatics may be a tad upset to find that the Facebook integration won’t have all the bells and whistles out the gate, as the blog explains that its initial push will allow PlayStation owners to share trophy achievements as well as their recent PlayStation Network purchases with other Facebook friends, with future updates allowing for a more complete Facebook experience down the road.

No release date information has been announced for the v3.10 update, but we’ll keep you posted as soon as we know more. In the mean time, check out the walkthrough video below for a first look at these new features.

Major Nelson tweet reporting for duty, sir. Latest tweet intelligence reveals that the Xbox 360 addition of Facebook, Twitter, and Last.fm (due to be available tomorrow) will not require an update. The new features will instead be magically inserted into your console via tiny underpaid mice while you sleep. The Major’s exact words below.

“When we turn on the new features tomorrow they’ll just appear! No need for a system update.”

There you have it. So, whatever you do, don’t kill any rodents tonight.

Boo! I hope that didn’t completely scare you, what with Halloween coming up and all the ghosts that totally aren’t fictional and monsters that totally exist coming out to haunt us. To celebrate this rather pointless special time of year, Valve have announced that Team Fortress 2 will be having a spooky update weekend.

The update will add five achievements to unlock some new ghostly hats, a new King of the Hill map (Harvest, a Halloween-themed map with a roaming ghost that will scare players stiff) and Pumpkin-bombs. It also seems that dead players will be able to interact in some way with the living. Not sure if this is restricted to this one map, but either way it sounds brilliant. The special runs October 29th-November 3rd.

Update: The game is also super cheap from now until 2:00pm PDT; go buy it!

Epic Games has put out the 5th title update for its third person shooter Gears of War 2 resolving a slew of glitches and a security hole that arose in the fourth patch. Plus, just in time for the Halloween Holiday, Epic is also treating gamers to another double XP weekend event Friday, October 30, through Monday, November 2.

Hit the jump for the full list of release notes via the official Gears forum.

Improvements

Title Update 5 makes these new improvements:

• Adds the ability to view friendly-planted grenades in Tac/Com.
• Removes the cringe caused when a smoke grenade forces a player to drop a meatshield.
• Adds bonus points to the winning leader’s score in the Guardian game mode if the leader successfully survives the winning round.
• Changes the postmatch Invite button to only invite former teammates, so a player can create parties more easily instead of trying to create a Private Match that includes both teams from the former match.
• Returns the roadie-run camera movements to the way they were in Gears of War 1 by decreasing the dampening values.

Exploit Fixes

Title Update 5 fixes these possible exploits, where under certain circumstances:

• A player could modify the game’s behavior due to a security vulnerability introduced in an earlier title update.
• A player could use a turbo controller to artificially maximize their rate of fire.
• A player could mantle a planted shield in competitive multiplayer to hide inside geometry or to travel outside of the map. The ability to mantle shields was removed in competitive multiplayer but remains in Horde and Campaign.

Title Update 5 also fixes a number of other, lesser-known exploits.

General Fixes

Title Update 5 fixes these other issues as well:

• An issue that contributed to the “sticky walk” problem, where a player’s avatar could stutter after the player picks up a weapon.
• An issue that could prevent players from hearing the “boom” telegraph from Boomers.
• An issue that could cause looping audio to continue playing after the player who triggered that sound is killed.
• An issue that could cause multiple names to be highlighted yellow on the scoreboard instead of the name of the player viewing the scoreboard.
• An issue that prevented the game from granting the earned experience points from the fiftieth wave of Horde.
• An issue that caused players at level 100 to see the “congratulations” message after every match.

Source: gearsofwar.xbox.com

Shacknews reports that Tripwire’s co-op survival horror game Killing Floor will be receiving a free update ’soon’, followed by some paid content after that. The free content includes a new level (foundry) and some new weapons, the Katana and the AK-47.

the paid content will include “four new playable characters including a Horzine foundry worker and a soldier in prototype Horzine body armor.” I don’t own Killing Floor, but as soon as it goes on sale, I’ll definitely give it a go. It looks like a more frantic and over the top version of Left 4 Dead’s Survival mode, which can only be good in my book.

Microsoft updated the Xbox 360 Dashboard in November of last year, but they’re already slated to make another update to the system. It doesn’t look like this will be graphical, though- Major Nelson says that the next NXE update will make the Dashboard much faster.

Nelson also makes a point of saying that a lot of very cool features will be coming with the update, presumably the Twitter and Facebook applications announced at E3. We don’t have many other details about the update, other than the fact that it’s coming this year.

(via Gizmodo)

True to their word, Valve are going to release a Left 4 Dead update next week, focused mainly on the community maps that have been created, and pushing for more to be made in the coming months. The update includes a much better matchmaking system, support for community maps, the full, non-beta SDK release, and obviously support for new maps, models, and textures (via an “add-ons” section).

This is an important update for PC fans of Left 4 Dead, since we’ll be getting a whole load more maps made by the community. Going on the support for TF2, there’ll be a lot of great maps, both well designed and ridiculously silly. I urge everyone with the skills to make a L4D map to do it!

Yes, it’s real. It was an April fool’s joke, and now it’s real. Snipers will be throwing jars of piss around. Jarate, when it spills on an opponent, grants 35% less damage resistance (they die faster) and, in the case of the Spy, shorts out the cloak. Jarate can be washed off with water, and it can be used on team-mates to put out any fires that may be happening in, on, or around them. The Sniper achievement titles have also been announced, and you can find them after the jump.

Australian Rules

Be Efficient

Be Polite

Beaux and Arrows

Consolation Prize

Dead Reckoning

De-sentry-lized

Dropped Dead

Enemy at the Gate

Friendship is Golden

Have a Plan

Jarate Chop

Jarring Transition

Jumper Stumper

Kill Everyone You Meet

Kook the Spook

My Brilliant Career

Not a Crazed Gunman, Dad

Number One Assistant

Parting Shot

Pincushion

Rain on Their Parade

Robbin’ Hood

Rode Hard, Put Away Wet

Saturation Bombing

Self-destruct Sequence

Shafted

Shock Treatment

Shoot the Breeze

Socket to Him

The Last Wave

Triple Prey

Trust Your Feelings

Uberectomy

William Tell Overkill:

Today’s update brings us the Ambassador, the replacement for the Spy’s Revolver. The Magnum-inspired gun features an engraving of the victim’s mother on the barrel, as well as the accuracy of a sniper rifle. Such a powerful weapon, though, is hindered by a cooldown between shots. Even so, it is probably one of the most aesthetically pleasing weapons yet. I’m willing to bet it’ll sound suitably epic, too.

Today, Meet the Spy was released! Oh, it was leaked, wasn’t it? Never mind. The true video is finally out: the HD version. It’s glorious. Also today is the list of the achievements for the Spy’s unlocks (which you can see after the jump). One that is noteworthy is the “Valve corporate achievement”: “Fail to understand what ‘Private’ means on YouTube. Needless to say, it’s been achieved.

Achievements:

1. A Cut Above
2. Agent Provocateur
3. Burn Notice
4. Come in From the Cold
5. Constructus Interruptus
6. Counter Espionage
7. Deep Undercover
8. Die Another Way
9. Diplomacy
10. Dr. Nooooo
11. For Your Eyes Only
12. FYI I am a Spy
13. High Value Target
14. Identity Theft
15. Insurance Fraud
16. Is It Safe?
17. Joint Operation
18. May I Cut In?
19. On Her Majesty’s Secret Surface
20. Point Breaker
21. Sap Auteur
22. Sapsucker
23. Skullpluggery
24. Slash and Burn
25. Sleeper Agent
26. Spies Like Us
27. Spymaster
28. The Man from P.U.N.C.T.U.R.E.
29. The Man with the Broken Guns
30. The Melbourne Supremacy
31. Triplecrossed
32. Wetwork
33. Who’s Your Daddy?
34. You Only Shiv Thrice

Welcome back to Team Fortress 2 update week, brought to you by Dapper Rouge: The catalogue for the Gentleman Scoundrel. Over the last few days we’ve been introduced to the Razorback, a shield to go on the Sniper’s back and protect him from spies (giving them a shock and making their knife unusable for a period of time). We’ve also been completely fooled by Valve, who have revealed that the Spy will also be part of the update.

His new toys include the “Dead Ringer” spy watch, which will leave a fake corpse of the Spy on the ground while the real Spy is cloaked for eight seconds. The “Cloak and Dagger” spy watch will grant a cloak regeneration ability, allowing spies to remain hidden forever while he’s standing still.

Sure, this is a little late. Give me a break here, okay? This week Valve will be releasing info on the Sniper update for the PC version of Team Fortress 2. I’ll update Ripten every day with the new stuff they announce, just as I did with the Scout update. Day one showed us the Huntsman, a bow to replace the Sniper rifle. It kills and pins enemies to the wall, and leaves arrows in the wounded flesh of the ones who don’t die. Simple stuff, but looks pretty fun.

Day two has brought us a load of new maps. Pipeline is a race to the finish with two bomb carts, with an uphill section at the end. Sawmill is an arena map set in a grassy, rainy landscape, and features, well, sawblades. Nucleus is a futuristic arena map that features a central point that comes out of some sort of pod. Very snazzy. Mor eot come every day until the update hits.

The TF2 blog reports that Valve are working on the Sniper update for Team Fortress 2, in an update billed as “the largest TF2 update yet, “include some new content for all classes”, and will release before the Sniper update.

The blog also mentions the status of the 360 version update: it’s in the works, but the measly memory limit on the console means that they’re having to spend a lot of time trying to fit it all on. I’ll make sure to keep you posted on this as well as the status of the Sniper update, just like I did for the Scout one. All that’s left to say is: it’s going to be a joy for Spy players when this releases. I sense a new backstab record.

The 2.70 update for the PS3 is now available, and includes a host of new features. The update features in-game text chat for up to 16 people at one time, and allows three text chat boxes per PS3, for use with the wireless keypad, the on-screen keyboard, or any keyboard peripheral you might have that works.

Finally, Sony. Sending single message after single message to my friends when trying to set up a game with them was tedious and stupid. See the rest of the new features after the jump (and a demo from Eric Lempel).

Friends list on the XMB (XrossMediaBar)

* Sort your friends via their online status
* Attach larger files to the messages you send to your friends (file size will increase from 1MB to 3MB)

Video delivery service on PlayStation Store

* Video files you’ve purchased from the PlayStation Store can be backed up to an external storage device and then restored to PS3’s internal hard drive for playback – so you can clear up space on your hard drive and then restore the video anytime in the future
* Videos you’ve purchased for PSP (PlayStation Portable) system can now be transferred to PS3 for playback

Despite being posted on April the first, it appears that this Left 4 Dead blog post is accurate: Valve are to update the matchmaking system for PC users of Left 4 Dead. The extension adds support for third-party campaign servers (custom maps) and support for a party system. this will allow you and three buddies to team up and find another four players for versus mode. Also changing is the way that the game auto-matches you based on skill.

Why people still play the game without people they know is beyond me, but whatever floats your zombie-infested boat, I suppose. That said, I’m glad that these features are coming; it’s a chore finding servers with the things that you want to play, and the party system will, I’m sure, be a lot of fun.

The PS Blog reports that LittleBigPlanet will be receiving an update soon, including a multitude of fixes and improvements. The update notes are after the jump, and include such things as ‘the game doesn’t break much now’ and ‘it’s a bit better now’. Not really, but that’s the gist of it. The patch includes the ability to listen to your own music in some sections of the game, and a better way to manage clothing, as well as a few improvements to the UI and community aspects of the game.

This update addresses several outstanding issues with the game:

* There is a new music player which lets player’s choose their own music from the XMB to play during create mode and in their Pod
* Improved decoration mode makes it easier to customize your Sackboy

New options to help prevent profiles becoming full of unwanted community objects:

* Option to delete all (unhearted) community objects and photos
* Option to select whether to automatically collect community prizes and photos
* A number of improvements have been made to make profiles more robust and to recover from certain errors
* We now support Japanese and Korean IME for text chat.
* Emitter prediction has been improved (this should help fast-moving projectiles e.g. in MGS levels)
* The player proximity switch now has a ‘require all’ option in it
* An option has been added to cycle between various level information when viewing community levels on the earth
* Various LittleBigStore improvements

Via Dtoid.

Keita Takahashi, Noby Noby Boy’s proud father, has posted an update on the PlayStation Blog today to let the world know that Noby Noby Boy will be receiving an update “in the hopes that more people can enjoy the game”. The update will include an offline multiplayer mode, Takahashi says, adding “it’ll still be fun”. Oh and regarding the long journey to Mars? “Please be patient.” Offline multiplayer sounds great to me, since Noby Noby Boy is best played with a friend in the room. What I really want from this mode is that each person controls each end of Boy, resulting in madness.

The page has updated for the last time today; the update has been released. Yesterday’s poll saw that the “Force-a-Nature” will be unlocked first, followed by the Sandman, and finally the energy drink. There have been a few other changes, including something I have been wanting for a long time- the ability to change the weapon that your disguised class is holding when playing as Spy. This means that we’ll need to start Spy-checking everyone, rather than just those with their primary weapon out. See the full release notes after the jump.

Updates to Team Fortress 2 have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The specific changes include:

New features

* Added The Force-A-Nature, The Sandman, and Bonk!
* Added 35 new Scout achievements
* Added crit boosted on/off sound effects
* Added new sounds for upgraded teleporters
* Added new sound for a fully charged medic dying
* Add bonus points section to scores
o Scouts earn a bonus point for killing Medics who are actively healing a target
* Added several new speech concepts, mostly hooked up to new Scout lines
* Added new “Remember last weapon between lives” option to the Multiplayer Advanced dialog
* Spies can now control which weapon the enemy team sees them holding. Hitting the “last disguise” key while disguised updates the disguise to show the Spy’s currently held weapon
* Added several new Arena mode announcer speech events.
* Added “First Blood” to Arena mode
* Removed 2x item respawn times in arena
* Changed backstab handling to fix facestabs
* Spies disguised as enemy team can now see player IDs for enemies

New maps

* Added community maps: cp_egypt, arena_watchtower, and cp_junction
* Updated cp_fastlane with Arttu’s new version

Mapmaker requests

* Added new input for forward speed modifier to FuncTrainTrain
* Added TeleportToPathTrack input to func_tracktrain

Bugfixes

* Fixed a bug where players would sometimes gib from non-gib damage kills
* Fixed stat screen showing an entry for a class called “map.”
* Fixed item model panels not using team skins
* Fixed obscure bug where spectators were able to carry the flag

Update: Needtocontrol pointed this out; there’s been a small update to fix some bugs:

Gameplay changes:
- Removed the damage reduction against non-stunned enemies on the new bat
- Players with full health can now pick up dropped sandviches

Fixes:
- Reverted the change that treated chat text starting with / as a command instead of passing it through as chat
- Fixed a crash related to baseball impacts
- Fixed the Heavy’s hands disappearing when he’s stunned while wearing the KGB
- Fixed the BONK! particles appearing in the air when the bat’s taunt kill is used on a target
- Fixed Force-A-Nature description not fitting inside the item window
- Fixed the Axtinguisher

Day 5 on the update page, and today it’s the Scout’s final weapon, the “Force-a-Nature”. This gun reloads slower and has a smaller clip, but knocks back enemies and, when fired while airborne, propels the user higher. Also today is a brand new TF2 T-Shirt, the “Force – a – nature t-shirt“- featuring none other than the Scout. Lastly, there’s a poll at the bottom of the page that Steam users can vote on- which order will the weapons be unlocked in? The way the results of the poll go is how it’ll happen.

Yes, there were achievements yesterday, but today they have been updated with how to get them. In doing so, Valve have revealed that the new Scattergun will be named “Force-A-Nature”, although we don’t really know much more than that (though the word “force” implies knockback of some kind). The new map is community made- CP_Egypt, bye Sean ‘Heyo’ Cutino. A “Dustbowl-style” map, it looks very different to the others- ignoring all the sand, of course. I’m intrigued to play it; I haven’t seen it on custom map servers, so I’m not familiar with it. Hit the jump for the list of achievements and how to go about getting them.

1. A Year to Remember
Get 2004 lifetime kills.
2. Artful Dodger
Dodge 1000 damage in a single life using your Bonk! Atomic Punch.
3. Batter Up
Perform 1000 double jumps.
4. Batting the Doctor
Kill a Medic that is ready to deploy an UberCharge.
5. Beanball
Stun a scout with their own ball.
6. Belittled Beleauger
Kill an opposing player that has your intelligence while holding theirs.
7. Block the Plate
Block 50 point captures.
8. Brushback
Stun 50 enemies while they are capturing a point or pushing the cart.
9. Caught Napping
Kill 50 enemies from behind with the Force-A-Nature.
10. Closer
Destroy 3 teleporter entrances.
11. Doctoring the Ball
Kill 3 enemies while under the effects of a Medic’s UberCharge.
12. Dodgers 1, Giants 0
Kill an enemy Heavy and take his Sandvich.
13. Fall Classic
Cause an environmental death or suicide using the Force-A-Nature’s knockback.
14. First Blood
Get the first kill in an Arena match.
15. First Blood, Part 2
Kill 5 enemies with the First Blood crit buff.
16. Foul Territory
Cause an environmental death by stunning an enemy.
17. Gun Down
Destroy an active sentry gun using your pistol.
18. If You Build It
Destroy 3 enemy buildings while they are still under construction.
19. I’m Bat Man
Survive 500 damage in one life.
20. Moon Shot
Stun an enemy for the maximum possible duration by hitting them with a long-range ball.
21. No Hitter
Steal and then capture the enemy intelligence without firing a shot.
22. Out of the Park
Bat an enemy 25 meters.
23. Pop Fly
Kill 20 players while double-jumping.
24. Quick Hook
Kill a player in Well before the round starts.
25. Race for the Pennant
Run 25 kilometers.
26. Retire the Runner
Kill a Scout while they are snared by the post-dodge slowdown effect.
27. Round Tripper
Capture the enemy intelligence 25 times.
28. Set the Table
Initiate 10 point captures that ultimately succeed.
29. Side Retired
Capture the last point in a CP map.
30. Stealing Home
Start capping a capture point within a second of it becoming available.
31. Strike Zone
Kill 50 enemies while they are stunned.
32. The Big Hurt
Stun 25 UberCharged enemies.
33. The Cycle
In a single life, kill an enemy while you are on the ground, in the air, and in the water.
34. Triple Play
Capture three capture points in a row in one life.
35. Triple Steal
Capture the enemy intelligence 3 times in a single CTF round.

Day three gives us the second item for the Scout, the energy drink, as well as the names of the achievements you’ll need to get to unlock it. The energy drink (branded “Bonk!”) will “blast ya into a few-second rush of radioactive energy so powerful you’ll be dodgin’ bullets like they ain’t even there!” However, “drinkers have reported experiencing feelings of lethargy that can last several seconds.” Essentially, it makes you faster, but then you’ll be tired out for a few seconds. Another genius unlockable, comparable in sheer silliness to the Sandvich. See the list of achievements after the jump.

1. A Year to Remember
2. Artful Dodger
3. Batter Up
4. Batting the Doctor
5. Beanball
6. Belittled Beleauger
7. Block the Plate
8. Brushback
9. Caught Napping
10. Closer
11. Doctoring the Ball
12. Dodgers 1, Giants 0
13. Fall Classic
14. First Blood
15. First Blood, Part 2
16. Foul Territory
17. Gun Down
18. If You Build It
19. I’m Bat Man
20. Moon Shot
21. No Hitter
22. Out of the Park
23. Pop Fly
24. Quick Hook
25. Race for the Pennant
26. Retire the Runner
27. Round Tripper
28. Set the Table
29. Side Retired
30. Stealing Home
31. Strike Zone
32. The Big Hurt
33. The Cycle
34. Triple Play
35. Triple Steal

Nothing on how to get them yet, but here’s a link to download the icon set. Oh, and yes, this post is early today; I stayed up just to post it. Don’t you just feel special?

Valve have revealed that the much anticipated Scout weapons pack will release next Tuesday (24 February). In the week running up to the update, the site will update every day with a new feature of the update, just like with the Heavy update. The first unlockable for the scout is the “Sandman”- a bat that has the ability to send baseballs at the enemy, “stunning” them. The amount of stun is dependant on the distance the ball travels before contact. The catch here is that when wielding the Sandman, the Scout loses his double jump. See the diagram after the jump.

Now, I have a question for the readers: would you like me to update every day with each new feature, or have one post next Tuesday with them all? Let me know in the comments!

A while back, Valve announced some downloadable content for Left for Dead on 360 and PC. The announcement mentioned a new game mode to be released: “Survivor” mode. GameTrailers TV have revealed what this new mode will involve. According to the video, up to four players will attempt to set records on surviving hordes of zombies on 12 maps (whether the maps will be adapted from existing levels or brand new was not specified)- essentially, ‘who can last the longest against the waves of undead’. The DLC pack will also include Death Toll and Dead Air for Versus mode play.

I guessed it would be a “last man standing” type mode originally, but this is even better. the first thing I thought of was the mode in Timesplitters 2 where you had only a shotgun and increasingly big waves of zombies would shamble towards you. It got really hectic once you were up to about wave 20. With the speedy Left 4 Dead zombies in mind, this sounds like a brilliant new mode.

[Update] Valve just confirmed that the DLC will be free. Huzzah!

Epic Games’ Gears forum received a post from company VP Mark Rein a few minutes before 1AM today. In that post Mark makes mention of a title update for the Gears sequel that they hope to release in January. The laundry list of issues being addressed include the ability to wield an invisible shield, infinite lancer ammo, melee through walls, and more.

Hit the jump for Mark’s post in its entirety.

A brief status report on the next Gears2 title update

First of all I hope all of you had a safe and happy holiday season.

As I mentioned before the break we’ve been working on a major title update for Gears of War 2. This update will address bugs and exploits as well as add some new achievements related to downloadable content. We don’t have an exact date for it but all indicators are it will go live within January. If that changes we’ll let you know.

We’re fixing a whole bunch of online exploits. For example we’ve fixed the ability to wield an invisible shield, melee through some walls, gain infinite Lancer ammo and equip a shield and a two-handed weapon simultaneously plus many more.

We’re also making several small changes to improve the overall online gameplay experience. A few of the ones that might interest you are; increased penalties for quitting matches early, adding additional spawn protection against planted grenades and chainsaw attacks, and adding the ability to see the Submission flag carrier destination by using Tac/Com.

We know you folks love achievements so on the achievement side we’re adding achievement progress numbers to the War Journal, increasing the frequency of in-game Achievement progression notifications and adding some new Achievements for DLC.

This is just a very small list of some of the things that will be in the next title update but one more item which has been talked about a lot in our forums deserves a special call out…

About that shotgun…

We fixed the client side hit detection on the shotgun so that in a high-latency (i.e. “laggy”) match, the shotgun will be more reliable. We’ve also fixed another bug whereby shotgun and boomshot rounds could strike the ground when firing from the hip.

So there’s a brief status report on the next title update. At some point I expect we’ll post a more detailed list but I assure you we’re working hard to get this out the door and once it’s done we’ll start working on the next update. We’ll try to do a better job keeping you informed of our progress on future updates and we’ll try to be a little more active in the forums once this update is released.

Source: gearsforums.epicgames.com

Major Nelson, who is currently chilling out and live-blogging in Japan at the Tokyo Game Show, just confirmed that the New Xbox Experience will officially launch on November 19th.  Additionally, he went over some of the new features, such as taking a picture of your Mii Avatar to use as your GamerPic, as well as the ability to surf the Marketplace on the web and buy stuff to be downloaded to your 360 later.

If it weren’t for the stupid new interface, I would be much more excited about this update.  Lots of good features but at the cost of looking totally “casual”.  The gods shall damn thee, Microsoft…

Source: Major Nelson

A press release issued today by EA announces the release of a “Total Payback” update to Mercs 2. The update will be making its way on to XBL October 13th and PSN just a few days later on October 20th.

Included in said update will be the ability to enter in cheat codes to unlock weapons and other types of goodies, as well as six new playable characters, and cross regional multiplayer support.

And just in case you didn’t hear the sound of Pandemic pulling out their big guns, the studio added that they will be releasing a DLC for the game sometime in November.

Full press release available after the jump.

Total Payback … Mercs style! Pandemic Studios will release the “Total Payback” update for Mercenaries 2: World in Flames on October 13th for Xbox Live and on October 20th for the PlayStation Network. This update will allow players to create even more chaos in the streets and hills of Venezuela, offering:

Cheats: Unlock the total-payback power of all weapons, vehicles and airstrikes in Mercenaries 2, as well as everyone’s favorite: Infinite Ammo and Infinite Health

SIX New playable characters: From Blanco to Fiona, Ewan, Eva and more

Cross-region Co-Op multiplayer SUPPORT: Tear through Venezuela with friends from around the world

In addition to the “Total Payback” update, Pandemic will release the first Mercenaries 2: World in Flames Downloadable Content (DLC) in November. Stay tuned for more details!

For more on Mercenaries 2: World in Flames please visit: www.Mercs2.com.

Mercenaries 2: World in Flames is available now for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2 and PC.

Come Monday, September 29th, Xbox LIVE is shutting down for a full 24 hours. Starting promptly at midnight, everything related to the LIVE service, including a lot of the features on Xbox.com, will be unavailable as Microsoft prepares you for “the cool new stuff coming your way in the new Xbox experience”.

Funny thing is, didn’t Xbox LIVE go down not too long ago for the exact same reason while also not adding anything noticable to the service during its unwanted vacation? I’m no technical genius (except for when I’m talking to people that don’t know any better), but what exactly does “preparing Xbox LIVE for an update” really mean?

Don’t they have, like, a practice server to try stuff out on? And if so, how long does it really take to transfer that stuff? What do you think? What the hell is Microsoft doing during this downtime? My guess: porn (it’s always the answer).

Robert Bowling, Community Manager for Infinity Ward, has revealed that the team has been hard at work on a playlist update for their hit shooter Call of Duty 4.

Along with the playlist update, which hasn’t been given a date yet, there is an Xbox Live and Playstation Network double-experience points promotion in the works for the weekend of September 13-14.

Here is a peek of some of the game types we should be seeing in the new update. Bowling has stated that the list is nowhere near complete yet, but it’s a teaser of what we might see soon.

• Hardcore Headquarters – Testing is completed for Hardcore HQ. This playlist has standard HQ rules with Hardcore Settings. Limited HUD, Increased Bullet Damage, and Friendly Fire Enabled
• Hardcore Ricochet Playlist – This is the “No Teamkilling” playlist. Any damage a teamkiller attempts to do to their teammates is reflected onto themselves only. Therefore, if they attempt to shoot an RPG into the ground at the beginning of the match, the only person who will die is the teamkiller. This eliminates the fear of being shot in the back by some asshole, but still encourages players to play tactically and not throw random ‘nades, because if you accidentally hit a teammate, you’re only going to end up killing yourself and they’ll go unharmed. No Teamkilling, No Random ‘Nades. This playlist will include the variant for Hardcore Team Deathmatch, Hardcore Search and Destroy, and Hardcore HQ.
• Sudden Death Sabotage – Sabotage with no respawns. Fast-paced and intense Sabotage. No more hiding with the bomb until time runs out for sudden death. Increased XP per kills to encourage Team Deathmatch mentality. Defend your objective while attempting to secure the bomb and plant on theirs. Once you’re dead, you’re dead. No second chances.
• Second Chance Search and Destroy – Search and Destroy with one respawn each. This completely revamps your Search and Destroy tactics. No longer will a lucky frag or well-placed claymore end your chance of victory. Each player has one respawn, creating longer, more thought-out attack/defend strategies. Eliminate enemy players and cut off their reinforcements while you defuse.
• Bare-Bones Team Deathmatch – Team Deathmatch with no perks and no air support.
• Hardcore Free for All - Free For All with Hardcore Settings.
• Team Elimination (Last Man Standing) – 3 round Team Deathmatch with no respawns. Switch sides each round.
• Multi-Bomb Search and Destroy – Search and Destroy but all attackers spawn with a bomb.

When the Variety Map Pack was released back in April, a double-experience points weekend came along with it, so I’m expecting the new playlists and promotion weekend will coincide this time around as well.

Source: Hexus

It’s kind of hard to argue with the popular belief that the console versions of TF2 are massively inferior to the PC one. They don’t have 32 player matches, they’ve got awful controls, there’s barely any community to speak of, it used to be obscenely laggy, and they’ve never gotten any of the cool (and free) updates the PC version has, like Achievements and new weapons for the Medic and Pyro, and most recently the Heavy.

Well, maybe things will get better when Valve releases a massive update to the 360 version of TF2 later this year. Speaking with Kotaku, Valve’s Doug Lombardi remarked that they’d be bringing the whole suite of new stuff in one big happy box full of downloadable TF2 goodness to Xbox Live Marketplace – new maps, modes, class updates, everything. Since, unlike the PC version, Valve has to charge for this update, they thought they’d make it worth gamers’ money by making it a substantial package.

10 bones seems to be the going estimate for all this, but otherwise no official word on pricing or any incoming PS3 updates.

Source: Kotaku