With the NFL regular season just barely underway, there's plenty of time for the Madden Curse to sink its hooks into Mr. Favre's vulnerable ankle, but for now, EA is busy squashing a host of bugs that have crawled out of the bowels of latest edition of Madden. The major pest is a freezing issue that can crop up during play calling and highlight screens, reports IGN. Senior designer Ian Cummings has documented most, if not all known bugs on the game's Producer Blog, recommending various workarounds while the team puts together a patch. EA is targeting "less than a 3 week turnaround" from last Tuesday for the update to be released. So put a big checkmark next to the 16th and cross your fingers.

Since CNBC analyst Jane Wells granted us poor peons a glimpse into "the ultimate proof Sony is winning" two months ago, we at Joystiq have been eagerly awaiting another chance to hear from her son, the twelve16-year-old oracle who sealed Microsoft's fate by trading his Xbox 360 for a PS3. And lo, today the all-knowing king of business analysis didst speak once more, granting his youthful wisdom to us poor, unwashed masses.

"Hear me!" came the oracle's booming, high-pitched voice from on high as he surveyed his subjects from his beanbag chair throne. "Though mine PS3 still brings me pleasure, the pleasure of Xbox Live friends may be one that I have treated too lightly. My patience waiting for an offering of new games from Sony has forced me once more to explore the shores of Azeroth. Lo, though times are tough, do not be tempted by the spawn of Nintendo, for I would not be caught dead with that thing."

With that, the doors of knowledge closed with a shattering thud, once again leaving us confused and in the dark. Still, we thank our benevolent information masters for this new glimpse into the heart of the game industry, however brief.

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.

Joining Hendrix, Ozzy and others, Sting will be walking around the virtual concert halls of Guitar Hero World Tour. According to the press release, you can play as Sting during the vocal career "or play alongside him" in the Police track, "Demolition Man." Additionally, three songs from Tool (who are not bringing their likenesses to the game) have been confirmed: Parabola, Schism, Vicarious.

We now know about 65 tracks of the reported "over 85" tracks. With about seven weeks to go before its October 26 North American launch, when do we get to learn the rest of the tracklist? More importantly, where's our virtual likeness of Lars Ulrich?

Ubisoft sent out a press release this morning confirming that Far Cry 2 will hit European retail shelves on October 24th. The company also announced a collector's edition, which comes in a wooden box. The fine wooden case, sure to be made from only the finest trees (not really), will deliver the game, t-shirt, art book, collector's map and "making-of" DVD.

We're still waiting to hear back officially from Ubisoft if North America should plan on getting the game on October 21st, which is what many retailers are currently showing as the release date. Update: GameSpot confirms the date is the 21st.

Resistance Retribution was a surprise hit last month at E3, and we had another chance to play it at last week's Penny Arcade Expo. With more playtime, however, come burning questions that need to be answered. Thankfully, Sam Villanueva, Senior Designer at Bend Studio, was at hand to answer our queries and make sure we could sleep soundly again.

Will you be optimizing Resistance Retribution for the PSP Brite?

That's a good question. We'll be evaluating this. We're pretty deep in development right now. We'd like to optimize, but that could potentially mess with launch time. If we can do it without affecting the date our game comes out, we will.

How does the game fit into the series?

Retribution fits nicely between Resistance 1 and Resistance 2. It's a continuation of the European campaign, whereas Resistance 2 is the start of the American campaign. You are James Grayson and you're going in to destroy another Chimeran tower. We wanted the story to deal with some pretty deep, dark stuff. Lots of drama and mystery. The game starts with your brother being infected and you're forced to kill him, for example.

Is there a multiplayer mode?

Absolutely. We've got lots of cool multiplayer stuff which we'll be announcing soon.

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.

Last weekend at PAX, we sat down with Bryan Intihar, the Community Manager / Hand Model (yes, that is on his business card) for Insomniac to go over Resistance 2. We were able to get some fascinating details about the secretive co-op mode (drop-in/drop-out confirmed!), as well as some interesting story tidbits (evidently this time around, Hale remembers he can talk).

To start things off, could you give us a quick rundown of changes from the first Resistance?

Sure, there's a lot of course -- but in terms of the campaign we've put a lot more emphasis on Nathan Hale and that comes through in the story and how we're presenting the story. In R1, it was much more of a narrative approach with Rachel Parker telling the story, giving it a third-person feel. This time around it's all about Hale.

There was a time – when he was working at Capcom, creating the likes of Resident Evil 2, Devil May Cry, and Viewtiful Joe – that Hideki Kamiya didn't say much. In fact, he hated doing interviews. Something's changed, because now that he's at Platinum Games, the historically low-key director is letting his true feelings out – about action games, at least.

Speaking to EGM, Kamiya said that, "I've never played Ninja Gaiden, and to be honest, I'm not that interested." Itagaki could not be reached for comment on whether or not he felt that epic burn.

So, what does the master designer actually like? God of War. "There's one game that I am paying really close attention to, that I think is a rival game, a good game, which is called God of War 3," he revealed, boasting, "I want to make a game that exceeds God of War's sequel." That game, he hopes, is his next: Bayonetta. In particular, Kamiya credits Sony's series with being "Very carefully made," saying, "Devil May Cry was a bit rough, but I think that there's no roughness in God of War." Pretty nice words, eh, Mr. Jaffe?

Samsung UK consumer electronics boss Andy Griffiths doesn't see a lengthy lifespan for the Blu-ray format. Speaking to Pocket-lint, he said, "I think it [Blu-ray] has 5 years left, I certainly wouldn't give it 10." 10 years as in the product cycle Sony has mapped out for PS3, which features Blu-ray as a core technology?

Griffiths' prediction could very well be accurate, but consider DVD, a format that is still going strong 12 years after the first player launched in Japan in 1996. To put things in perspective, Blu-ray players only hit the scene two years ago. With adoption of HDTVs continuing at a steady pace and that whole victory over HD-DVD thing, the format (for video, at least) has to have at least six years left in it.

Purchasing this month's episode of Qore unlocks the door on the Motorstorm: Pacific Rim Rift demo when it actually releases on Sept. 11. It also includes an "exclusive" LittleBigPlanet theme. Beyond that, it's a relatively quiet week on the PSN, but it is worth checking out the Pure demo. The details about this week's PSN update can be found after the break.

Those rugged stallions over at PS3 Fanboy have the details on this week's European update. Why "rugged stallions?" What happens at PAX, stays at PAX, friends.

Richard Mitchell, master and commander over at X3F, has put together a dandy little video chronicling what Xbox 360 owners can expect during the Rock Band export process, which Harmonix fully detailed today. The video shows the relatively painless process (with Benny Hill theme music interlude) involved in the 400 ($5) 1.5GB transfer.

A couple of weeks back during X08, we learned that the "fall" release time frame Activision had been giving for the latest Call of Duty installment actually meant "November." Today, the publisher narrowed it down even further to November 11. That's the date all console versions of Call of Duty: World at War will rumble into retail – except, of course, for the never-to-be PS2 version. Those hankering for an earlier taste of multiplayer flame thrower action should hit our post from earlier today on the upcoming October beta.

It wasn't all good news in Take-Two's stellar third-quarter earnings report and conference call today, as the company announced that the release date for Midnight Club: Los Angeles has been pushed back to Oct. 21 in North America and Oct. 24 in Europe. The new date follows previously announced North American dates of Oct. 7 and Sept. 9 for the game's release. Take-Two said the extra time is being used to help polish up the game and to make sure its release doesn't get lost amidst a competitive holiday schedule. Here's hoping this one finally sticks.

As part of its recent quarterly earnings announcement, Take-Two announced that Grand Theft Auto IV has sold ten million copies through Aug. 16. These sales helped lead the company to a staggering $433.8 million in revenue in the third quarter, over twice as much as the same quarter last fiscal year.

For comparison, the PS2 version of GTA: San Andreas sold 12 million copies worldwide. During a conference call, the company said it would continue to promote GTA IV through the holiday season, and that it expected lifetime sales for the game to "track well ahead of any previous GTA title."