Advanced Animus Training

Ubisoft has now released the second load of DLC for Assassins Creed: Brotherhood. As with the first Animus DLC, the Animus Project 2.0 pack includes a new map, Pienza, and a new game mode, Chest Capture, and comes to you for the low, low price of free. Pienza is the typical acrobatic friendly type of map you should be expecting of AC:B by now, while Chest Capture is a whole new way to play. In Chest Capture, players will be split into 2 3-man teams, with one team being given the goal of following their radars to chests which need to be looted, and the other team trying to stop them. Sure, it's basically just the Assault gametype you'd expect to see on any FPS, but as with everything else, the unique style of Brotherhood's online mode makes the game more ridiculous than usual.

Updated Synch

All you Brotherhood players out there should head on over to the marketplace to grab the first piece of DLC. Animus Project Update 1.0 adds a new map and game mode to Brotherhood's multiplayer and is available now for the great low price of free. You can add it to your download queue HERE.

DLC Roundup

There have been a few pieces of DLC that have hit the marketplace this week and i thought you might like to know. First up is Halo: Reach's Noble Map Pack which brings 3 new maps to the Reach online experience. The Noble Map Pack is priced at 800 points and  brings with it some new achievements and 250 gamerscore. Secondly is the long overdue Big Thrills Pack for Trials HD, which brings another 40 levels to the game, including 10 created by the fans. Finally we have the Spunky Cola Special add-on for Monday Night Combat, which adds an extra arena, game mode and some general improvements to the game. The best part is that this one is completely free to gold subscribers, so go grab it now.

[EDIT] I forgot to mention that VIP Map Pack 7 for Battlefield: Bad Company 2 should be available now too.

Writing An Ending

Just a quick reminder that the last piece of DLC for Alan Wake (The Writer) should be out some time today. In my opinion, Alan Wake still stands as my choice for game of the year, and i'm very interested to see how this final piece affects the story of the game. Keep an eye out for a review tomorrow.

The Writer Returns

I hope everyone is prepared to jump back into the twisted nightmare world of Alan Wake, as the second and final piece of DLC (named The Writer) will be available in about 2 weeks. Hitting the marketplace on October 12th, The Writer promises to give us answers to the questions remaining from the main game. My only question now is, can we expect it to answer ALL questions, or will a few be left unanswered to keep us guessing until Alan Wake 2 comes out?

Xbox's Path Ahead

Today marks the end of the Xbox LIVE's Winter of Arcade promotion (which i should already have a review up for, but i'm being uber slack, sorry) but that doesn't mean we won't be seeing anything new coming to the marketplace over the next two months. In terms of Arcade games, keep an eye out for The Game Feast, which features the launch of 4 more arcade games between September 29th and October 20th. The titles will include Hydrophobia (1200 points / Sep 29), Comic Jumper (1200 points / Oct 6), Pinball FX 2 (tables purchased individually / Oct13) and Super Meat Boy (TBA / Oct 20). Plus before then you'll be able to get Plants vs Zombies for 1200 points from September 8th, and U.S. users should hit up the marketplace on September 15th to get Sonic Adventure for 800 points (not being released in Aus). If you're all arcade'd out, i can tell you that the Deal of the Week starting September 6th is a discount on various Resident Evil 5 stuff, including avatar gear and game content. Finally if you're just looking to waste some more time on a game you already have before a certain release on September 14th, keep an eye out for Crackdown 2's Toy Box expansion on September 2nd, and new content for ass Effect 2 and Dragon Age: Origins on September 7th.

Bordering On Ridiculous

Gearbox have put out a tweet saying... "Borderlands Game of the Year Edition announced! Game + all FOUR DLCs and bonus map for 360, PS3, and PC. Available in October!"... ... I don't really know what else to add to this, it really says it all. So Borderlands will soon be available from retail complete with all 4 DLC packs, which seems a little ridiculous. I think most of the people who want the DLC for borderlands likely already have at least one or two pieces, so now they're left with the option to continue to download the packs individually from the marketplace, or cough up full retail price to buy a game that comes with crap they already have. I don't see this selling very well, but i guess Fallout 3 managed to make sales using this strategy.

The End Of An Age

Dragon Age: Origins has been a massive success for Bioware and produced an insane amount of DLC. So with Dragon Age 2 now well into development, the original had to come to an end eventually... but not before the release of one final piece of DLC. Witch Hunt has been announced as the final expansion for Dragon Age: origins and will tie up the last remaining loose end from the main game... What happened to Morrigan. Witch Hunt will be available for 560 MS Points from September 7th.

DLC or Achievements

THQ have owned up to an issue with the latest piece of DLC for Metro 2033. Players who downloaded the 'Ranger Pack' DLC have found they can't earn any of the achievements related to the DLC. Unfortunately, the pack was released 3 weeks ago and THQ have only now admitted there is an issue and they are looking into it and ask for gamers patience. Better late then never i guess, but you think they might have actually looked into this during the months they spent actually making the DLC.

Breaking Shadows

If Halo isn't your thing, then dust off your copies of Mass Effect 2 (as if you've put it down long enough to gather dust). The next piece of DLC, 'Lair of the Shadow Broker', will be hitting the marketplace on September 7th and see a familiar ally by your side, as you get to work with Liara T'Soni once more (and continue your romance if that's the way you went in Mass Effect 1). Lair of the Shadow Broker will set you back 800 MS Points.

Other Stuff I Missed

People may or may not have noticed that i haven't posted in like a week. While Gamescom WAS underway, there wasn't really much new info coming out of it. Lots of screenshots sure, but those can be found with a simple google image search. The few little bits and pieces you may want to know about are mentioned below...

Fans of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2 won't have to wait till the release date to get some saber swinging action, as a demo for the game will be released before the game. No exact release date yet, but Lucasarts are apparently just making a few tweaks on it before releasing it.

Valve finally seem to be getting the hang of Left 4 Dead DLC as the next announced item, 'The Sacrifice', will be playable from both Left 4 Dead 1 and Left 4 Dead 2. Apparently the plot will be similar to that of 'The Passing' and see one of the team members bite the dust (or brains?) but who it is will be up to you. If that's not enough for you though, you'll also get your hands on a revamped version of 'No Mercy' from Left 4 Dead 1, complete with all the shiny upgrades of Left 4 Dead 2... So, some new zombies and weapons.

Dust off your turntables as DJ Hero 2 has now been given an exact release date (well, as close as we can get without them specifically giving an aus release date). DJ Hero 2 will be spinning onto shelves (see what i did there?) on October 19th/22nd (North America / Europe)

It's been said that Call of Duty: Black Ops may well take up the challenge of besting Modern Warfare 2's sales record. At the moment Black Ops is outdoing MW2 in the pre-order department, but i hardly think that's anything to go by... Let's wait till the game releases and see how it handles in the hands of gamers first. Oh and i've heard word that Agus (over at The Gamers Pad) is working up a feature article on Black Ops, so i'll link that when it's done)

Finally the arcade version of Scott Pilgrim vs The World is out this week (or like three weeks ago if you own a PS3). Paying tribute to the old look and feel of side scrolling beat'em ups, the game will let you take control of one of four characters to make your way through 7 levels of bad guy beating and boss battles. On the slightly disappointing side, if it matches the PS3 version, there will be no online co-op, but even without it, if the game is remotely as good as the comics or movie, it'll still be epicly epic.

Opening The Toy Box

The first piece of DLC for Crackdown 2, titles Toy Box, has been given details. Toy Box will work much like the expansions to the original Crackdown, with there being a free portion and extra stuff if you're willing to pay a little money (560 MS Points to be exact). The free Toy Box download will give you a new multiplayer mode (Vehicle Tag), a reward for maxing all your agents skills to level 6 (Thruster, it's like a jetpack for your feet) plus access to the now famous Keys to the City mode. Keys to the City mode allows you to do all sorts of things that you shouldn't be able to. Just access the pause menu and add whatever you'd like... Need a weapon? Spawn one. Running out of ammo? check the infinite ammo box. Just want to blow stuff up? check the god mode box and never worry about dying again. For people who want that little bit extra though, the paid part of Toy Box will give you access to two new vehicles (the amphibious, wall crawling Agency ATV and the 4-man Squad Chopper, complete with proximity mine launcher, rocket launcher, twin machine guns and nose machine gun). If vehicles aren't your thing, then check out the 5 extra gadgets you'll get. The Mass Driver is a turreted weapon... that messes with gravity. Portable Launch Pads which allow you to make your own jump pads wherever you decide you need a little extra height, Stickler grenades which bounce along and release smaller explosions with every bounce, the previously mentioned Thruster, and to round it off, Character Mags... yep, Mag grenades which you can attach to characters. Finally to round out the pack and a probably well spent 560 points, Toy Box will include 10 extra achievements and 8 new suit colours. Colours are...

• Peacekeeper
• Terror Firma
• Agent Orange
• May Contain Nuts
• Minti-Sting
• Mega Agent
• Haz Mat
• Dem Apples

Prepare For Robolution

Gearbox today announced a new piece of upcoming DLC for Borderlands... Oops. As previously mentioned the DLC will feature more than 20 new missions and focus around a claptrap revolution that has the vault hunters and Hyperion working together. Claptrap's New Robot Revolution should hit the marketplace in September for a price of 800 Points.

Getting Naughtier

For anyone who went out any bought Naughty Bear, here's a little surprise for you... Artificial Mind & Movement have released an extra episode as DLC for the game. Episode 8 is available now at the low, low price of FREE.

Can't Keep Your Claptrap Closed

Developers are going to have to pay more attention to patch details. Several games have had their DLC outed because of people reading through code, and we now have one more to add to the list... Borderlands. So, Borderlands has a new DLC add-on coming. No idea on the name yet, but Legendrew and various other forum goers at the Gearbox forums have managed to dig up quite a few details about the upcoming add-on. It will contain 21 new missions (9 story and 12 side missions), 10 new locations and a heap of returning characters, plus a new one, labelled as "Interplanetary Ninja Assassin Claptrap"... Yes, i can hear you laughing... No, I'm not kidding... Yes, it is awesome. I'll throw the story into a spoiler section below so if you want to skip over it you can, but if you're interested to know whats gonna happen... well:

» Click to show Spoiler - click again to hide... «

Hyperion creates the Ninja Claptrap to prevent vault hunters from stealing all the loot, however the Ninja Claptrap starts a revolution, freeing his clatrap brethren and rising up against their creators. Hyperion then tasks the vault hunters with bringing down the claptraps, who have now taken it upon themselves to reanimate dead bodies (adding an extra part or two along the way). This means the return of some characters including Dr. Ned, General Knoxx and Commandant Steele.

While this is obviously all still unverified, Gearbox employees have been happy to respond in tweets letting us know how they feel about it. CEO of Gearbox, Randy Pitchford, had this to say, "OMG! You're in our files, stealing our secrets! Interplanetary Ninja Assassin Clap Trap will KEEL you!" and Mikey Neumann, Creative Director for Borderlands, left this, "P.S. Legendrew, if I ever meet you-- I'm punching you in the face. Sure, we'll laugh after, but I'm fucking punching you first."

Follow The Signal

The first piece of DLC for Alan Wake, The Signal, is now available and i've already played through it and figured i'd let you know what i think. Firstly, The Signal takes place after the ending of the game, so make sure you finish that off before starting this. When i found out it was following the ending i was a bit disappointed because i liked the ending of the game and felt that explaining it would take some of that away... After finishing The Signal though, i'm not at all disappointed. i won't go into details to avoid spoilers, but while there isn't much plot to The Signal, it does manage to explain bits and pieces of the ending, but still leaves just as many questions. A gameplay element that turned up near the end of the normal game (shining your light on words to make objects appear) has been brought back and is used rather extensively. Not just in ways you'd expect either. Anything can now be summoned from words including, weapons, ammo, helpful effects (such as explosions and fireworks) and even enemies. The Signal will only take about an hour to complete (much like the standard games chapters) but manages to cram quite a bit into that hour. Plus there are a heap of collectibles thrown in, just to make sure you play through more than once. Overall i'd say The Signal is a nice piece of DLC that expands upon and experiments with the original gameplay, but still manages to feel like it belongs within the game. At 560 MS Points, anyone who liked Alan Wake, NEEDS to get The Signal.

More Mass Effect

One of the better games when it comes to DLC is Mass Effect 2. It's already had heaps of DLC released for it ranging from alternate costumes to entire quests, but don't think that will stop Bioware from dropping more. It was revealed that there was another DLC pack on its way (Lair of the Shadow Broker) but when people started noticing the weapons in the screenshots aren't in the current game it was also revealed that prior to the Shadow Broker release, there will be more guns heading to the game in DLC form. Mass Effect 2 is quickly becoming the game with the most extra content available (excluding music games, obviously) but i think i'd rather see the team working on Mass Effect 3.