Three tracks from metal band All That Remains will be next week's Rock Band DLC offering. The songs "Two Weeks" and "Chiron" are off the band's latest album, Overcome, which will release Sept. 16. The tracks are offered at a special price for now and will cost double in one month.

All That Remains Pack (240 / $3)

• "This Calling" (80 / $1)
• "Chiron" (80 / $1)
• "Two Weeks" (80 / $1)

Videos for the tracks can be found after the break. The songs will be available for download next Tuesday and Thursday for Xbox 360 and PS3, respectively.

Look guys, the cute little cartoon characters thing? Yeah, that ain't workin' so much these days. Folks are upset, and rightly so. Castle Crashers is broken. We know, we know, you told us a patch was coming. But why isn't it here yet!

... Er, what's that you say? You just had a "great talk" with Microsoft about it? Well, by golly, gosh, that's great news! But, you say. But what? But you don't have a "specific time frame"? Oh, don't worry about it. Those 1200 are just water under the bridge ... Aw, would you look at that: Those knights with their big blocky heads and stumpy wumpy hands -- how precious.

[Via The Escapist]

Members of the Rock Band forums are reporting issues with this week's PAX DLC for PS3 owners. According to users, the pack just won't work. Apparently, the tracks are available in the game but get stuck on the loading screen.

We've sent requests to Harmonix and Sony to clarify what the problem is and when users can expect a fix. This would be the second time in recent memory that something has gone technically wrong with Rock Band's DLC.

One of the more ... interesting Achievements in the Xbox 360 version of Mercenaries 2: World in Flames is the 50-point "Everybody Wants Some," which is earned by playing online with one of the game's developers, or someone who's already played with them. Yep, it's contagious. Actually, it's sort of like the STD of Live Achievements, if you'll pardon the icky analogy.

We think it'd be pretty cool to hear the 360 "Achievement Unlocked" sound in real life every time we came down with a cold or other ailment. Hear that Microsoft? Get on it – after all, you were all about "Live Anywhere." Mercs 2's devs will be playing September 5 through 12 using special easy-to-grok Gamertags, which we've listed after the break. Now, go forth and expose yourself to viral goodness.

We recently had the chance to check out Combat Arms, the free-to-play online FPS brought to US shores by Nexon of America. Nexon is best known in the states for its unique side-scrolling MMORPG Maple Story. Despite the company's grounding in the MMO genre, Nexon chooses to see itself as a purveyor of online games in general. From online racing in Kart Rider to virtual karaoke in Audition, the company publishes or develops a multitude of multiplayer experiences. Its extension to first-person shooters, in that light, makes a great deal of sense.

What's surprising is not that Nexon has chosen to jump into the FPS genre, but that the offering is as good as it is. The company has combined elements of mindless combat shooters like XIII with the multiplayer tactical orientation of a game like Counter-Strike. In doing so, it's delivered a title that can be as explosion- or strategy-focused as players want. And, of course, it wouldn't be Nexon without some unique twists -- namely, the incorporation of its successful microtransaction-based business model.

Combat Arms employs a clearly visible player ranking system in order to tie together rank rewards, the in-game currency, and the socialization aspects.

Kim and Yang noted that this balance between purchased items and off-the-rack choices didn't exist in the original Korean version of the game. As previously mentioned, the Korean gamers were looking for a more "arcade-y" experience. Grenades had flares to make them easier to track, mines had blinking lights, and every purchased item was a pure win for the player -- why not buy in that environment. As Kim put it, "American players have a definite concept of what is fair and what isn't," and they were determined to cater to that.

Yang noted that the despite changes from the Korean version, Combat Arms retains the "jump-in-and-out" gameplay that made this take on the genre so popular there. Nexon believes Americans will respond (and are responding) to this vision of what an FPS could be, based primarily on the "feel" of the game. As an example, Min Kim noted the simple feature that you can run in the game:

"If you press the shift button you actually run. That is not an option in a lot of other FPSs so it feels a lot faster and a lot of people like that. It's one of those things that is not easy to market; you can't say: 'hey you press the shift button you go really fast' on the back of a box. They don't know what that means until they start playing it."


After talking through the game as a concept, we sat down to play a few rounds -- dying numerous times to both Kim and Yang as they schooled us on the game's public servers. (Protip: Anyone interested in jumping into the game can already do so. Nexon has had an amazingly positive reaction, and had to increase their server capacity unexpectedly fast to deal with demand.)

During our back-and-forth matches, Yang stated that Nexon's planning to update the game on a regular basis. The company has been regularly releasing a patch to the game every two weeks since the game's beta began. Every update will add new weaponry, while a new map or game type will be added every month or two.

That endless state of updates driven by player demand will likely never stop for the game, and neither will the game's "test" state. After the interview, we spoke with Nexon representative Robert Holtzman to clarify when the game would be going with a hard launch. He laughed, and noted that the game might never get one -- given the title's popularity already, Nexon plans to continue to expand through word of mouth advertising and constant improvements.

Overall, we walked away from Combat Arms very impressed. Given the game's region of origin and the stigma of a free-to-play titles, Nexon's offering is a surprisingly fun and impressively attractive offering. It's a fast-action title that will please the twitch-happy mindless shooter fan just as easily as one looking for a more tactical approach. On top of it all, it deftly ties online clan gaming and Web 2.0 sensibilities together with ranks, formal groups, and eventually social networking plugins.

Given the unique blend of MMO and FPS in Combat Arms' DNA, it was intriguing and enlightening to see what the game has become. And it's always hard to turn down the offer of free.

In what has to be the most totally original pre-order bonus ever, Activision is going to let anyone who "reserves" Call of Duty: World at War into a multiplayer beta planned for sometime in October. Oh, that's everyone except PS3 owners. The beta will be available only on Xbox 360 and PC, giving lucky paying entrants a chance to try out the game's new perks and squad system.

In "no purchase necessary" style, those not feeling the pre-order itch can try their luck by registering for a beta token lottery on the official Call of Duty site – that is if they can navigate through the Web 2.0 minefield of way too much stuff on the page.

Those of you who just can't wait for that somewhat amorphous Little Big Planet release date should keep your ears to the ground this month. A developer on the PlayStation message boards let slip that the game will be put through a "limited public beta" sometime this month -- a sort of stress test of the game's architecture before the full release.

How do you get in on that hot, hot customizable platformer action? Well, that's also a little amorphous. "If it will be possible to 'sign up' for this test, full information on how to do so will be made public in advance of the test," the developer writes. "Similarly if the test is going to be conducted in an invitation-only we will let you know ahead of time." Of course, once that information is out there, you'll read about it here.

[Via PS3Fanboy]

Sony previously announced several planned pre-order bonuses for LittleBigPlanet, including custom downloadable "Sackboy" versions of God of War's Kratos and Heavenly Sword's Nariko. While the Ghost of Sparta went to GameStop, the official LBP blog has revealed that pre-ordering the game at Best Buy will land you a download voucher code for Nariko.

Both characters are über-spiffy, but, if you want both, you'll have to pre-order the game twice. No one's preventing you from avoiding it at one of the two stores when it's released, though. Oh no, certainly not us. Of course, you could always wait a bit for the characters to be made available for paid download via the PlayStation Store, something we're sure Sony would never think of doing, not in a million billion years.

The last stop on our Electronic Arts booth tour at PAX was dedicated to Spore. That's right, it's more Spore news. It's not a real day on Joystiq unless you get some minor Spore news, or a definitive hands-on experience. With the game actually coming out (can it be?!) in five days, maybe you'll start to see these die down a bit. Unless, of course, there's a secret Hot Coffee level that we find during our explorations.

But is the game coming out a bit too late, or just in time? It feels like it's starting to wear out its welcome just a bit. Like that house guest that just won't leave, is Spore in danger of becoming a bore? German gamer mags have already given the game fairly disappointing scores, and in all honesty, we were ready to leave our demo early, even though we went hands-on with the whole thing. Find out why after the break.

Over at the official PlayStation Blog, SOCOM: Confrontation producer Seth Luisi has confirmed a massive or slight delay (depending on your level of SOCOM infatuation) for the game's public beta. Originally slated to begin yesterday, the virtual doors will instead open this Friday, September 5. (QORE subscribers will be let in the following Friday, September 12.)

Luisi says the delay was prompted by the team "working so hard to ensure the final product is fantastic," which we believe is Ye Olde Spinne for "we found a bug." Thankfully (and thoughtfully) the beta's run won't be cut short by the delay; it will last a full month, from 9/5 to 10/5. (Make that three weeks for QORE readers viewers.)

Someone at Sony is trying way too hard. Can you believe an ambitious young stooge has dared to decipher the mysterious toggle on the left side of the PSP? And wouldn't you know, the thing's a Wi-Fi switch! Now all hell's broken loose at Sony HQ, as the discovery has ushered in a new era of brite possibilities for the handheld. Imagine: shopping for themes and wallpaper directly from your PSP. It's true folks, PlayStation Store is coming to PSP sans hand holding (so long PS3, so long PC!) this fall in Japan -- probably worldwide, PSP Fanboy speculates. And there's a free game in it for anyone smart enough to flick the "on" switch.

But that's not all. Sony has announced (and pictured) a new Infrastructure mode, enabled by connecting PSP to Playstation 3 ... wirelessly. In essence, ad-hoc multiplayer modes will become online-enabled through a PS3 connection for some games (like Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G). In addition, text and voice chatting capabilities can be added through the new online mode. Add to this the rumor of PS3 gamepad support for PSP Brite, and Sony might as well slap a UMD drive on the next PS3 SKU.

[Via PSP Fanboy]