DLC - November 20th

Well it's that time again. Time for people to be happy at the release of great new content at the PS Store, or the time for others to complain because they enjoy that more than they do actual games. And people wonder why I stopped visiting forums or commenting at most blogs. Either way there are new toys to be had, and I will have them! To the links!

IGN PS3
PlayStation.Blog
ThreeSpeech - European Store Update

Add-Ons
As LittleBigPlanet continues to steam roll into the hearts of many, we have more DLC to warm our little Sackperson's heart. For a while we will likely only see new costumes, but in some cases those are more than worth it! This week, to coincide with the release of the LocoRoco 2 demo, you can now dress up your Sackperson in the lovable LocoRoco costumes.



Now the LocoRoco 2 pack includes 5 costumes but will run you $2.99 - money I plan to spend as soon as the update is released - but for those of you who don't want to spend the money you'll have something new to play with as well. To continue with along with the Official in-game SackBoy costume contest Media Molecule has released new costumes based on those winners for the low, low affordable price of FREE! This week we seem to have gained a Poltergeist inspired costume, that was later adjusted slightly. But welcome our newest Sackperson!

As promised, we also receive Bioshock exclusive DLC this week.

For paltry $9.99 you can pick up a new "game mode" called New Game Plus that allows you to go through the game with all the items, weapons and abilities you earned through a previous play through of the game. The other addition is the Challenge Rooms. Something to add new difficulty and creepiness to game that deservingly won VGA GoTY for 2007. I'll pick these up eventually, but currently LBP and R2 are king and queen of my gaming hill.

Guitar Hero World Tour flies in this week with three songs and a pack from The Raconteurs. Each song is $1.99 each and all three for $5.49.

It's Rock Band Thursday, so you know what that means! It means RB cames out in force to show off in the face of all the other great DLC available. Today we get three different packs for three different groups. So for those Mission of Burma and Dead Kennedys fans make sure you pick up the 3 song bundles. If you're not excited about those there are girl band songs to pick from as well, taken from various girl rock groups. Each of the packs run in at $5.49, and of course they can all be bought seperately at a $1.99 each.

Not to be left out of the musical mix, Karaoke Revolution 5 songs for your karaoke pleasures. Each song weighing in at $1.49, and will have to bought separately. The game's full title is Karaoke Revolution Presents: American Idol Encore 2, so the songs may not have an artist listed next to them because they were recently performed by amateurs. I don't watch much TV, but I can tell you I for damn sure don't watch American Idol.

The lion's share of DLC this week comes from EA who likes to throw out content like their lives depend on it. Fortunately they're not pulling the same thing they usually do with NFS content by selling you content you'd unlock if you actually played the game itself. Some of them are just skins for weapons and armor, while others actually bring in new weapons. From what I have been able to confirm from people who have actually played the game, none of this content is currently in the game and the only way to obtain it is via these packs. So this week, for all your Dead Space fans out there, this is for you!

Astronaut Pack - $2.99
Big Gun Pack - $0.99
Heavy Damage Pack - $2.99
Hot Rod Pack - $0.99
Military Pack - $3.99
Obsidian Pack - $1.49
Obsidian Weapon Skin Pack - $1.49
Pedestrian Pack - $1.49
Scorpion Pack - $3.99
Scorpion Weapon Pack - $2.25
Speed Kills Pack - $2.25
Tank Pack - $3.99

Demos
Sadly there's only one official demo for North America today, and considering how lack luster the game looked in recent videos I'm not sure I'll even play it. This week we have MotoGP 08 available for download. A number of the past MotoGP games have been amazing looking and pretty true to the sport. Recent videos released for the game looked extremely grainy and rather unimpressive. I'll have to try it out ultimately but currently I'm in no hurry and have other demos to play.

Now as I said, MotoGP is the only demo for North America this week. For those who have PSNs for other territories it's time to put them to good use.

Europe

For anybody who played the original LocoRoco demos, you may have become a huge fan of the game because you spent enormous amounts of time playing the demos. For those with EU PSN IDs, you're treated to a crack at the new game. The original game released 3 demos I believe. The original demo, a Halloween themed demo, and then a Christmas themed demo. I still have one of them on my PSP MemStick that I random play despite actually owning the original PSP game as well as the PSN game for the PS3. It's just simple enjoyable game play that in part helped inspire Patapon and the upcoming Patapon 2. What more can you want from a game? Great game that helped inspire another great game? As a friend of mine once said to me, "that's portable pwn!"

Has the same basic game play, but this time the music requires user intervention. This time you have timed button presses to play the songs required to interact with various species. There are other new additions where your LocoRoco basically man... a vehicle for lack of better concept. Entering a ball that's used to break down barriers or cutting through barbs or enemies. Looks like they took what was truly enjoyable about the first game and just tried to add a few extras to make it fresh. So far it's enjoyable and I plan to pick it up when it releases.

Japan

The reason I went to check the Japanese PS Store today was for Patapon 2! Which I guess is fitting since it was Patapon that made me go through all the work of creating a Japanese PSN ID in the first place. Fortunately with the new Media Manager having the PS Store integrated right into it's nice and easy to switch from region to region. Also making it easier to set the account info stored on the PSP to the proper zone required for each demo/game. Unfortunately I haven't had time to play this just yet as I've been playing Resistance 2 and LocoRoco 2 all night, but I will get to this tomorrow most likely.

Games
No games today for this region. I believe Europe picked up a SimCity 2000, but nothing for North America. I know next week we're picking up Super Street Figher II HD Remix on Tuesday. Not sure if the whole update will be done on Tuesday because of the holiday here in the US, or just SSFIIHD. Either way I'm hoping for two games next week: Street Fighter and Söldner-X. But I guess it's for the best as I'm playing so many different games right now anyway.

Videos

Games
Dew Tour: Orlando - Chad Kagy
Dew Tour: Orlando - Adam Jones
Dew Tour: Orlando - From Flow to Pro
Dew Tour: Orlando - BMX Dirt Dew Cup Race
FIFA 09 “In The Game” Part 8 - Online Team Play
Lord of the Rings: Conquest Trailer
MotorStorm Pacific Rift Features and Strategy Trailer
Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe: Kreating the Comic Trailer
NBA 2K9 Momentous #1 Trailer
NBA 2K9 Momentous Trailer 2
Tom Clancy’s EndWar Launch Trailer

Movies
Hancock Trailer
Incubus “Look Alive” Trailer
Sara Bareilles - Between The Lines Trailer
This Christmas Trailer (Blu-ray)
Tenacious D - The Complete Masterworks Trailer

Themes
Two free themes today, both to coincide with their releases.

NBA 2K9 Theme comes with a few videos for the game this week, ramping up for next week's release. Of all the sports games I've always thought basketball players looked the creepiest. They're always covered in sweat that's no well depicted and something's often off. Well this theme kind of creeps me out. Watching the two videos listed above, this game looks like one of the first true representations of basketball, but if you get a straight on view of just about any of the players and they look like something out of a horror wax museum. This one uses icons of the various players in the lone wallpaper, who just stand their looking at you lost. I'll continue to use the same theme I've used for probably the past 3 months.

Hancock Theme which goes along with the trailer released in the store today and next week's Blu-Ray release of the movie, flops down on the store. The icons are nicely done, but the wallpapers aren't very inspired. In fact the first one that loads features both Smith and Theron, and the way it's present Theron isn't presented very well. Almost as if she's "half pregnant" and blending in with the background when in the movie she was about as gorgious as she's ever been. I enjoyed the movie myself, but it wasn't the greatest. If you were a real fan of the movie this may be of interest to you.

6 Premium Themes, and not all of them even have previews set for them. So for a number of them you don't truly know what you're paying for. Still nothing yet to interest me, as far as quality and thematically.

Timea Mojorova Theme - $1.99
University of California Theme - $1.99
Shadowy Graves Theme - $1.49
Darklight Fractais Theme - $1.49
Mrs. Claus Theme - $1.49
GunGirls Theme - $0.99

Well that wraps it up for this week, time to fire up LBP and get back to work! See you guys next Tuesday. I should probably do some thumb exercises to get my thumb ready for next week's battles!