Rock Band Weekly: X, Carrie Underwood, Little Fish, Ace Frehley, OneRepublic

Despite American punk rock band X being next week's featured Rock Band DLC pack artist, we decided to go with a picture of Carrie Underwood. Why? Isn't it obvious?! Her single, "All-American Girl," available next week, speaks to the struggles of the middle-class American female. Of gender roles, a father's love and providing babies for your husband. It's like the "American Pie" of a new generation. So that's why Underwood gets featured with that "how do I spend my next million, y'all?" look.

Check out the full release list after the break.

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MAG gets free 'Trooper Gear Pack' DLC next week

Ten-hut, soldiers! HQ has just sent word that some new gear will be shipping to the front lines of MAG next week, free of charge: the Trooper Gear Pack. In this parcel, we'll finally get access to the Flashbang grenade -- which should help us confuse and outwit the enemy. But, that's not all: our supplier, Zipper Interactive, also reports it's bundled in some new LMGs (Raven's APEX 100SE, S.V.E.R.'s RTK-74 Vla, and Valor's Mk 46 Mod 1) and uniforms.

The full rundown is available via Zipper's site, where it's also revealed that double XP will be available on the battlefield throughout next weekend (March 25 - 28). It's a nice bonus for our continued service, though we consider it bad timing. Operation PAX East will be in full effect by the 25th, so we doubt we'll find time to benefit from the extra incentive to hoist the S.V.E.R. flag.

Red Dead Redemption videos show off pre-order options

Rockstar sent along videos showcasing each of the Red Dead Redemption pre-orders currently available, and we just can't decide which one to go with -- they all look so good. You can see all three of them over on the game's website. Pre-ordering from Amazon, you'll remember, will get you a Golden Guns pack, pre-ordering the game at GameStop will nab you the fan-selected Deadly Assassin Outfit and ordering the game from Best Buy will get you the War Horse, which you can see in the video above.

Wait a minute -- we just decided. We're totally going with the horsie. His name will be Roger and we will hug him and feed him and dodge explosions and shoot bad guys from his back and it will be the awesomest. Roger is the best horse ever. He's tougher than any other horse!

Majin and the Forsaken Trailer

He's huge, he's covered in foliage -- he's Majin, and in this latest trailer for Maijn and the Forsaken Kingdom, we get to see him and his friend some guy fighting the evil forces that have made the kingdom so forsaken. Majin may be cuddly, but he won't hesitate to straight up drop a wall on some monsters. He will emit lightning, should the situation require it. In addition, we see that even without his BFF Majin around, the kid can do some platforming and acrobatic fighting on his own.

Majin is currently scheduled to arrive on PS3 and Xbox 360 this summer.

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See Sonic 4's Splash Hill Zone, Eggman

For those of you who have yet to decide to boycott Sonic the Hedgehog 4, Sega has released some new media of the downloadable rodent-racing platformer. Including ... the second known character to appear in the game. Okay, before more of you start boycotting, it's just Eggman (or Dr. Robotnik, or whatever). And he's shown in one of his spheroid flying vehicles, implying that he's in the game in boss capacity only.

The site also features a few screens, music and a description of Splash Hill Zone, which can be summed up as "Green Hill Zone in HD." And that's a good thing, right?

PixelJunk Monsters Deluxe on UMD in North America this April

For that cross-section of the PSP audience that likes both PixelJunk Monsters and tangible objects, Q-Games's Dylan Cuthbert has announced a UMD release of PixelJunk Monsters Deluxe, due to launch in North America at "participating retail outlets" on April 27 for $19.99. The tower defense title has been available digitally since last fall.

Interestingly, Cuthbert originally cited piracy as the reason for the lack of a worldwide release for the UMD of Deluxe, previously released in Japan and elsewhere in Asia. Try not to pirate this one, so we can see more nice discs like this in the future.

Ten minutes of co-op sneaking exposed in Peace Walker video

Though we don't possess the thorough comprehension of the Japanese language required to understand what's happening in the video posted above, we know that we like what we see. If you've got some time to kill, check out the ten minute co-op demonstration of Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker at the top of this post. It shows of a few of the game's neat multiplayer tactics, including an invisibility gun and the increasingly iconic "four-legged tank maneuver." Judging by those two alone, it certainly looks like Peace Walker's capacity for hijinks is going to be near-limitless.

PSN Thursday: Sam & Max pre-order, Heavy Rain soundtrack

Max: Lissssten to my voice, you will pre-order Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse for $30.

We will pre-order Sam & Max

Max: You will also watch the next episode of The Tester.

We will also ... wait, do we have to?

Check out the full PSN update after the break.

Choose your platform to view the corresponding release list:

(Note: Continue past the break to view both release lists.)

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PlayStation Move input latency analyzed by Digital Foundry

The amount of latency between a user's input on a game controller and the in-game reflection of that input is an incredibly important factor when comparing motion controllers. Sony has been boasting that the input latency for the PlayStation Move would be "under a frame" -- though Digital Foundry concluded otherwise during its brief tech demo with the sphere-tipped peripheral.

Digital Foundry conducted a fairly rudimentary experiment in which a person filmed himself sharply moving the controller, then counted how many milliseconds it takes for the screen to reflect his movement. Though there were a few variables to the experiment (such as the unknown, natural latency of the television display used in the demo), Digital Foundry estimates the device's latency to be in the ballpark of 133ms (around eight frames), which they claim is "fine for most of the applications you would want from such a controller." You can check out a video of Digital Foundry's simple latency experiment on Eurogamer.

PixelJunk Eden's Baiyon creating music visualizer for PS3

Q-Games is teaming up with Japanese artist Baiyon once again for another PSN collaboration. Baiyon, who created the visuals and sound for PixelJunk Eden and Encore, is directing an interactive music visualizer for the PS3, to be distributed via the PlayStation Network.

Unlike Q-Games' Earth visualizer, this upcoming project will not be built into the PS3 operating system. Instead, this will be a standalone application, akin to .deTuned. This is terrific news for Trophy hunters, as they should be familiar with how easy it is to get PSN XP with these standalone art applications.

Hands-on: PixelJunk Racers 2nd Lap (PSN)

As the first PixelJunk game from Q-Games, Racers was largely misunderstood by most. Now, after the success of Monsters, Eden and Shooter, Q-Games is ready to go back to its first concept and give it a second chance. PixelJunk Racers 2nd Lap isn't just an add-on to the original PSN game, but a new game (with new features like Trophies) that warrants a second look from fresh PixelJunk fans.

Like the original, 2nd Lap is a unique interpretation of classic top-down racers of yore. However, Q-Games' take on the genre makes it more of a puzzle or rhythm game, rather than a racing game -- an easy mistake for players to make, considering both the game's look and title. While some modes do require "winning" a race, most are about achieving rather specific goals. For example, you may need to complete a number of laps in a constantly-accelerating vehicle, while avoiding all the other cars on the road. "Sunday Drive" will have you trying to get past as many slow-driving cars as possible. It's a frustrating recreation of being stuck in traffic, yet it's oddly compelling.

In its second iteration, PixelJunk Racers remains essentially a collection of car-themed minigames, with the ultimate goal of scoring as high as possible on the leaderboards. Thankfully, 2nd Lap has been made considerably easier and more accessible than the first game, easing players into a much easier single-player experience. The addition of YouTube recording support should appease the show-offs, while the presence of PSN Trophies may make the overall package far more rewarding. (Don't worry Trophy hunters, Q-Games' Dylan Cuthbert told us that they've learned from PixelJunk Eden and Monsters, and will make the Trophies much easier, akin to PixelJunk Shooter.)

GTA: Episodes From Liberty City for PC, PS3 delayed two weeks due to 'minor content changes'

If you've waited this long for Episodes from Liberty City, another two weeks shouldn't hurt, right? Rockstar Games has pushed back the PS3 and PC releases of the long-awaited Grand Theft Auto IV expansions by two weeks due to "a request by Sony Europe to make some minor content changes to the PAL PS3 version of the game." According to the press release, "the minor changes made to the game will not affect the gamers enjoyment of the games, these will not affect any gameplay elements and were not related to any local ratings requirements."

All versions of the add-ons -- including the downloadable episodes "The Lost & Damned" and "The Ballad of Gay Tony" -- have been delayed to April 13th for North America, and April 16th for all other countries. A Rockstar Games blog post further elaborated on the decision to do a global delay, ensuring that "everyone can experience multiplayer simultaneously, take part in online events together, be on level ground on leaderboards, etc."

God of War website teases 'Spartans Stand Tall'

Earning a Platinum Trophy in God of War III will give you an elusive reward: a link to a secret page, hidden on the God of War website. The "Spartans Stand Tall" website doesn't feature much right now, other than falling rain and a shield with an upside-down V, possibly a Lambda sign -- wait, does this mean we're finally getting the Half-Life/God of War crossover we've been waiting for?

This could simply be a placeholder website for upcoming God of War DLC. Or, this could be hinting at a new Ready at Dawn-developed PSP game we've heard murmurs about. In fact, Chains of Olympus was revealed in exactly the same way, via a website hidden in God of War II on PS2. Considering the franchise's penchant for announcing new installments alongside the latest releases, we wouldn't be surprised if this ends up being a brand new game in the God of War universe. Stay tuned.

[Thanks, Bryan!]

European PSN releases for March 18

Though there's not much on the "new game front" in this week's European PSN update, there's plenty of new stuff for the games you already know and love. There's the release of Dragon Age: Origins: Awakening, new cars for Need For Speed: Shift, some LittleBigPlanet PSP love, the arrival of Patchwork Heroes and, of course, the Gaga-ization of the Rock Band Music Store. Check out the full list of releases after the jump!

Choose your platform to view the corresponding release list:

(Note: Continue past the break to view both release lists.)

Continued →

Free DLC for Echoshift available through April 1

Have you tried out Echoshift, the excellent new puzzle game for PSP? Whether or not you've bought the game, SCEA has a pretty sweet deal for you to take advantage of. Starting later today (once the PSN update is live), current owners and new purchasers will be able to get an additional set of seven levels absolutely free. For current owners of Echoshift, you'll be able to find it by searching for "Echoshift" in the PlayStation Store.

New purchasers will be able to take advantage of the promotion by simply buying a new bundle -- which includes both the original game and additional levels -- from the PlayStation Store for $14.99. This is a limited time offer, so if you want to take advantage of this deal, you'll need to act before April 1st.

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