Microsoft has announced that the following eight titles will now sell for $30. Most of these, GRAW, especially are total deals. Though, I'm a little surprised that Table Tennis, which was originally $40, isn't already, like, $20. But whatevs.

• Battlefield 2: Modern Combat (Electronic Arts)
• Burnout Revenge (Electronic Arts)
• Call of Duty 2 (Activision)
• Dead or Alive 4 (TECMO Inc.)
• Fight Night Round 3 (Electronic Arts)
• Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter (Ubisoft)
• Top Spin 2 (2K Sports)
• Rockstar Games presents Table Tennis (Rockstar Games)

A rumor of Wing Commander making it's way to Xbox 360 prove to be (somewhat) true today as EA announce Wing Commander Arena for the Xbox Live Arcade.

"Wing Commander Arena is a fast-paced space combat game where players can team up to attack other teams of ships. The game introduces the classic franchise to an arcade-style experience that allows up to 16 players online in battle at once. Players can propel their customized ship through space, fire torpedoes and unleash deadly gravity bombs as they try to climb the leader board. Online players will compete for Frag count, high score and dueling stats.

"We're really excited to deliver unparalleled multi-player arcade action," said Chip Lange, EA Vice President. "The design for Wing Commander will appeal to both long-time fans of the franchise and immediately engage anyone who wants the melee style action of an arcade shooter."

Wing Commander Arena will feature four styles of play: single player, multi-team, multi-player free for all and multi-player duel. Within the game there are eight game maps that include team maps, free for all maps and dueling maps, so Wing Commander Arena offers a gameplay experience for every Arcade gamer, whether they want a quick ten minutes of action or a longer more immersive game."

Shamefully, I never played any Wing Commander game. I actually never owned a PC (though I think it was on consoles also) until Wing Commander's time had passed but from what I hear, I really missed out on something near and dear to a lot of nerdlinger's hearts.

Barely a day into it's release Crackdown already has some new content in the form of four new playable agents and it's FREE!

Not an AMAZING download but certainly awesome for coming A. So Soon and B. So Free.

Major Nelson had this to say:

"If you got your hands on Crackdown already, download these four free agents. The set includes a character with Sam Fisher style head gear. Hey why no female characters ?

Name: Four-Play Pack
Price: Free
Availability: Gold Members in all Xbox Live regions except Germany
Dash Details: Before getting busy, download and get into the action with these four new Agents" 

If you work in video game marketing or PR there is a good chance you have no idea what you are doing. But fear not, the ubiquitous scribe Scott Steinberg (who has also written for Phuze) has your ass covered. 

For a limited time Mr. Sberg is allowing all game industry types a FREE peek at his new book Video Game Marketing & PR: Vol. 1 so hurry on over to http://www.sellmorevideogames.com and learn your trade, jerks!

A Chocobo themed collection of mini-games is coming to the Nintendo DS on April 3 and shall thusly be known as Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo Tales (not to be confused with any Mystic Quests, Adventures or Chronicles (Crystal or otherwise).

According to the press release they apparently EXPLODE on the DS! Not literally I'm assuming. Which would be cool.

FINAL FANTASY FABLES: CHOCOBO TALES ANNOUNCED FOR NORTH AMERICA

Chocobos Explode Onto the Nintendo DS™ with a Plethora of Minigames That Push the Touch Screen to the Limit

LOS ANGELES (February 20, 2007) – Square Enix, Inc., the publisher of Square Enix™ interactive entertainment products in North America, announced today that FINAL FANTASY® FABLES: CHOCOBO TALES (CHOCOBO TALES) is currently in development exclusively for the Nintendo DS and will ship to retailers across North America on April 3, 2007. 

"The chocobos and all their friends are going to explode onto the Nintendo DS," said Executive Producer Shinji Hashimoto. "Since the game contains references to the series going back as far as FINAL FANTASY, I am confident that fans of both FINAL FANTASY and Nintendo alike will enjoy this exciting title."

CHOCOBO TALES takes place in a fun and enchanting world filled with trademark characters from the FINAL FANTASY franchise. Featuring innovative stylus and Touch Screen functionality, players will challenge dozens of minigames and microgames as they embark on a journey to rescue their lost friends and restore peace to the land.

CHOCOBO TALES is rated E (Everyone) by the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB). For more information about the ESRB, please visit: www.esrb.org. CHOCOBO TALES will be available at North American retailers for the suggested retail price of $29.99 (USD).

Additional information on FINAL FANTASY FABLES: CHOCOBO TALES can be found at http://na.square-enix.com/chocobotales.

Hideo Kojima, the man behind all things Metal Gear (duh) stated recently that he himself absolutely HEARTS zombies and wants to perhaps make a zombie game himself! That would be awesome! Surely the Metal Gear Mastermind could make an awesome game about the undead?!

Eh. Maybe not. Read on.

"The zombie idea I have is a bit different," he told Edge magazine. "Imagine a large town where half the inhabitants are zombies. Users would subscribe, get inside the town and get bitten. At that stage they become undead and can't control their character - all they can do is modify the camera angles… They'd see their character attacking humans and have to pay just to watch!"

To quote Ricky Gervais' character's character on Extras "Are you 'aving a laugh? IZZEE 'AVING A LAUGH?!" 

Surely he is kidding. And if not, then there MUST be MUCH MORE to this. But for now, I'm going to go with "he is pulling our legs" scenario. 

Can't get enough Snow Pirate-y, Bug explode-y action? Have a burning need to snipe your friends from high atop a bell-tower like that kid in Parenthood? Fear not! Lost Planet has you covered as "on or about" March 9th, Capcom will begin to make a slew of downloadable maps available via Xbox Live.

“We’re committed to bringing new content to the thriving community of Lost Planet fans,” said Charles Bellfield, vice president, marketing, Capcom Entertainment, Inc.  “The development team is steadily working on additional environments to provide players with new ways to enjoy the intense Lost Planet brand of action.”

The first pack is planned to be released via Xbox Live® Marketplace on or about March 9 and contains two new multiplayer levels: “Radar Field,” a close quarters facility which is under construction and has a giant radar that provides a peak vantage point, and “Island 902,” a sprawling Pacific-themed battlefield with several islands connected by bridges as well as vast underwater areas.  Additionally, “Battleground,” a multiplayer map originally offered exclusively to those who purchased the Collector’s Edition of the game, will be made available for free to all Lost Planet players.  The next two packs, as well as the free Battleground map will be made available in the coming months.
 

As the allure of warring orcs and dwarves is seemingly endless, gamers across the country will be able to preview Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning at special events all over the country beginning next week until August with the possibility of also getting themselves into the games beta.

Frankly, Warhammer is quite possibly the only game that could give World of Warcraft a run for it's license to print money when it hits later this year.

THE ARMIES OF "WARHAMMER ONLINE" MARCH TO GREET FANS AT EVENTS ACROSS THE COUNTRY

Play the Highly-Anticipated MMO and Get a Chance to Enter the Beta At Events Throughout 2007

EA Mythic today announced the schedule of 2007 events where fans can preview "Warhammer(R) Online: Age of Reckoning(TM)." The highly-anticipated MMORPG will be playable in cities across the United States, and gamers will be given access to the MMO's revolutionary Realm vs. Realm(R) combat. At each event, 50 lucky people will be guaranteed access to the "Warhammer Online" beta.

** 2007 Schedule of Events for "Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning" **
(Event schedule subject to change)

February 23-25
New York, NY - New York Comic-Con
Jacob Javits Center

April 28
Atlanta, GA - Games Day Atlanta
Georgia International Convention Center

May 5
Toronto, ON - Games Day Canada
Metro Toronto Convention Center

June 23
Baltimore, MD - Games Day Baltimore
Baltimore Convention Center

July 5-8
Columbus, OH - Origins Game Expo
Greater Columbus Convention Center

July 26-29
San Diego, CA - Comic-Con
San Diego Convention Center

July 28
Chicago, IL - Games Day Chicago
Donald E. Stephens Convention Center

August 11
Los Angeles, CA - Games Day LA
Ontario Convention Center

August 16-19
Indianapolis, IN - GenCon Indy
Indiana Convention Center

August 24-26
Seattle, WA - The Penny Arcade Expo (PAX)
The Washington State Convention & Trade Center

For complete details on the time and location of each "Warhammer Online" event, please visit: http://www.warhammeronline.com/english/community/eventsCalendar/

Scheduled for release in late 2007, "Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning" is a Massively-Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG) based on Games Workshop's popular fantasy universe and table-top game, Warhammer. The game features Realm vs. Realm combat, EA Mythic's unique take on Player vs. Player action, as well an innovative Public Quest System and City Siege Campaign. For more information, please visit www.warhammeronline.com.

The latest issue of Famitsu reports that the Ico/Shadow of the Colossus team is hard at work on a PlayStation 3 title.

Despite there being absolutely NO other info on this, anyone who has played either of those games (and if you have not, what's wrong with you?) has more that enough reason to be excited to see what they can do with the PS3 hardware.

Euro site CVG points out that recently Microsoft's closed debug network, Partnernet, seemed to be running a version of the wickedly difficult shooter Ikaruga. Originally developed for the Dreamcast and GameCube, Ikaruga comes from space-blasting maestros, Treasure.

While there is no official word on when or if the game is coming for sure all signs point to the affirmative. Let's hope this is the case as this game is probably the pinnacle of hardcore shooter games. And that's saying a lot.