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Is this a downloadable offer you can't refuse?

#pc StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty players shouldn't be wanting for custom-made maps—and wildly different game types—thanks to the game's Galaxy Editor. But an officially released Blizzard-made map is worth getting a little excited about. More »

67,600. That's the number of nerds and gaming fans that rushed Seattle's PAX Prime show this year. It's easily the largest gaming event in the US open to the public, and it shows no sign of losing momentum. This year's show made headlines, too, with the surprise reveal of a fully playable Duke Nukem Forever.

Speaking with Gamasutra, the Penny Arcade duo noted that the establishment of PAX not only serves gamers, but publishers as well. "[Publishers] need a place like PAX to promote [their products]," the team said. This year's show gave fans (and journalists!) an additional opportunity to check out games like Epic Mickey, Swarm, and Outland before release. PAX's timing, the Penny Arcade duo argue, allow for games to be spread more evenly throughout the year. "Before, if a game didn't make its Christmas launch it was a nightmare. This year was much more distributed as far as big releases."

Penny Arcade Expo will return to Boston next year for PAX East 2011, which will undoubtedly also turn up big numbers. But, PAX may have its eyes set on an international show. "A third PAX would likely take place in a different country," the Gamasutra report states. "Preferably somewhere the duo want to visit." PAX South Africa, perhaps? Cause we've got that covered!

Hi everyone,

As we said in our last preview post, there will now be a two week heads up for the exciting content coming to PlayStation Plus subscribers. With that said, let’s get into our packed update for September 21.

Our next update is one of our biggest since the launch of PlayStation Plus back in June. Starting off with free games, we have Zen Pinball, Echoes – minis, and Syphon Filter 3. There is also a 50% off sale for Cuboid. After picking up the game, be sure to check out the TikGames-Creat Studios page to grab the DLC for free. Also, we have early access to Sword & Soldiers, an award-winning 2D RTS by Ronimo Games. Finally, a select number of PlayStation Plus subscribers will be returning to Mars for some vehicular combat in the Red Faction Battlegrounds beta. Select users will be notified via an XMB message and email.

Also, a quick friendly reminder to check out some previous content, such as Mushroom Wars, VEMPIRES – minis, and the discount for the Soldner-X: Himmelstrummer and Soldner-X2: Final Prototype Bundle, before it is taken down on September 21.

Not a PlayStation Plus member? Our limited time introductory offer is still available. Get three additional bonus months free when you buy a 1-year package for $49.99. You can find all the details here.

PlayStation Plus Highlight for 9/21:

Free Games
Zen Pinball
Echoes – minis
Syphon Filter 3 – PS One

Early Access Game and Demo
Sword & Soldiers

Free Game Add-on
High Velocity Bowling – Move Compatibility Add-On

Free Themes
Shades of Autumn Theme

Discounts
Cuboid (50%)
Savage Moon (50%)
LittleBigPlanet: Monster Costume Pack (50%)

Discounted PS One Games
PS One Imports
Cho Aniki
Gaiaseed

Free Avatars
LittleBigPlanet Avatar – Hugo
LittleBigPlanet Avatar – Marvin

Last Chance, Get Them While You Can – Coming down on September 21:

Free Offers to PlayStation Plus Subscribers
Mushroom Wars
2Xtreme
VEMPIRES – minis

Discount Offers to PlayStation Plus Subscribers
Soldner-X2: Final Prototype – 30% Off (PlayStation Plus price $9.09, regular price $12.99)
Soldner-X: Himmelstrummer & Soldner-X2: Final Prototype Bundle (PlayStation Plus price $10.79, regular price $17.99)

Oh great, a Wii game with "Party" in the title. Do we really need another one of these? I mean, we've already got Raving Rabbits TV Party, Pool Party, Game Party, Babies Party, Mario Party 8, Boom Blox: Bash Party, and ... trust me, I could go on.

Wait a second. What's that? Disney Guilty Party's actually fun? It doesn't look like the developers were locked in a closet throughout the design process? Oh, fine. I guess I'll give it a shot.

#sports Quinn Pitcock, who climbed up from the rock bottom of self-described games addiction to give his NFL career another shot, did not make the final cut with the Seattle Seahawks. More »

Adding to the 2000+ titles already in the catalog, another 43 titles hit the Digital Comics Store this week, featuring everyone’s favorite heroes, villains and sixteenth-century bards. Happy hunting!

Here are this week’s top picks:

PSP-owning LARP fans can now get their fix of Dungeons & Dragons with a new series based on the hugely -popular role-playing game. Written by Transformers screenwriter John Rogers and novelist Alex Irvine, issue #0 is a special edition featuring two stories to introduce you to the upcoming D&D worlds. Acclaimed Marvel alumni Andrea Di Vito (Annihilation 2006) and Peter Bergting provide the outstanding art.

Yet more bloodthirsty vampire action hits the Digital Comics store this week with Zuda’s Blood Hunter. In a dark future, vampires rule the world, the life of the last human on earth – a baby girl – rests in the hands of a vampire sworn to kill her kind. Issue #1 is a free download.

Marvel’s 1952-vintage Journey Into Mystery – the series that introduced the Mighty Thor to a cowering world – continues its run with issues #87-#90, lovingly created by the Lee/Kirby dream team.

Following on from last month’s release of Silent Hill: Dying Inside, Among the Damned is another tale of bone-chilling horror guaranteed to thrill fans of the video game. Written by best-selling author Scott Ciencin and featuring art by Shaun Thomas, Silent Hill: Among the Damned is a special one-shot edition that will have you sleeping with the lights on. Be afraid.

Hot on the heels of the hit Dreamworks movie Shrek Forever After comes Ape Entertainment’s Shrek. Take a sneak peek at the nefarious new villain Rumpelstiltskin as he tries time and time again to get the best of Shrek and the gang.

The popular Raising Amy, Kill Shakespeare and The Murder of King Tut return with new issues this week, along with more Superman/Batman, Jurassic Park and Transformers for that sprinkling of box-office gold dust.

Here’s the full list:

• 2000AD Prog # 1696
• The Authority # 9
• Bayou # 9
• Blood Hunter # 1
• Bone # 3
• Breathe # 4
• DMZ # 21
• Donald Duck Von Münchhausen #1 & #2
• Dungeons & Dragons # 0
• Ex Machina # 8
• Fables # 23
• Gen13 # 29
• God of War # 3
• Green Lantern: No Fear # 5
• Growing Up Enchanted # 3
• The Hammer # 3
• Jonah Hex # 21
• Journey Into Mystery (1952) #87 – #90
• Jurassic Park # 2
• Kill Shakespeare # 3
• Murder of King Tut # 3
• Night Owls # 5
• Planetary # 10
• Raising Amy # 3
• RASL # 3
• Shrek # 1
• Silent Hill: Among the Damned # 1
• Sonic Universe #7 & #8
• Starcraft # 3
• Stormwatch PHD # 21
• Superman/Batman # 27
• Transformers: Ironhide # 4
• Transformers: Nefarious # 4
• Welcome to Tranquility # 2
• Wildcats # 9
• X-Mickey # 18
• Y: The Last Man # 6

Here’s the full list and as always head to www.playstationcomics.com for more info or to view our full catalog and pricing.

The following is a list of Capcom titles that will be playable at TGS: # Marvel vs.

Space Invaders: Infinity Gene is coming to PS3 and Xbox 360 next week, on September 14 and 15, respectively. Although based on the iPhone version of the game, the HD presentation and the much-needed ability to use a gamepad makes it a worthwhile upgrade over the iPhone version. It's far easier to pull off combos, powered by consecutive shots, with a controller -- especially when you're able to see your ship (instead of your thumb).

For those unfamiliar with the game, the concept centers around the evolution of the shooter. Starting with the iconic intro stage to the original arcade game, Infinity Gene introduces new gameplay and visual elements as you reach certain score targets. The first upgrade allows you to move your ship freely across the X and Y axis, and eventually you'll be able to move along the Z-axis as well. The visuals transform from a monochromatic not-even-8-bit look, to a wild barrage of colorful vectors.

Like the rest of the recent Space Invaders games, Infinity Gene may be more fun to look at, than to actually play. The entire presentation is high-concept -- every time the bright white "EVOLUTION" screen appears on the screen, it's hard not to think how odd this title really is. It's definitely intriguing, but perhaps not everyone's cup of tea.

Catch up with the latest adventures of your friendly neighborhood wall-crawler.

#sandlot Sandlot's lovable Earth Defense Force series will live to see another massive invasion. Publisher D3 has cryptically and modestly revealed the next entry in the giant bug and 'bot shooter, Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon. More »

#clips Every time I think I would really enjoy spending some quality time in Japan, I see something like this, and then I just don't know. More »

#sports We've known since E3 that NBA 2K11 would be playable with the PlayStation Move. Today, 2K Sports gave the first details as to how the game will be played with the new motion controller. More »

#leds Marc DeVidts went from Miami to Atlanta to attend Dragon*Con 2010 and show off his party-in-a-suit custom, which is loaded with LEDs that are controlled from his iPhone. That's at least +259 courage points right there. [Makezine] More »

Tucked away in this morning's press release revealing the 250GB Xbox 360 with Kinect bundle was news that, at this year's Tokyo Game Show, Microsoft will be showing off new Kinect games. The release says that the company will unveil "even more new controller-free games and experiences never before possible," without making any mention of the Microsoft-hosted keynote or the recently announced brain game from Dr. Kawashima and Namco.

At the very least, we know to expect dozens -- if not hundreds -- of videos showing Japanese people waving their arms and legs about, trying desperately to maintain control while piloting Kinect-based games. We can hardly wait.

In the two years since the release of Bethesda Softworks’ critically acclaimed Fallout 3, the team has been hard at work creating their latest post-nuke romp, Fallout: New Vegas. If big guns, mutants, warring factions and gambling are your thing, check out Veronica’s visit with Senior Producer, Jason Bergman, for an in-depth preview of what’s next in the Fallout franchise. Also, don’t miss a Fallout-inspired slot machine mini-game that reveals some very cool wallpapers.

Developer Blue Castle Games, has taken mowing down zombies to a whole new level in Capcom’s, Dead Rising 2. This thriller is packed with enough parasite infested ghouls and innovative ways to take ‘em out to satisfy even the most discriminating survival horror fan. One of the sequel’s cool new features allows players to slip into a maintenance room and duct tape up their own crazy tools of destruction.

In Qore’s look at Enslaved: Odyssey to the West, Veronica Belmont chats with Ninja Theory’s, “Chief Creative Ninja” for an under-the-hood look at the developer’s approach to story-telling and production design. Best known for their PS3 launch title, Heavenly Sword, Ninja Theory has created a lush vibrant universe for Enslaved along with a storyline centered on the symbiotic relationship between the game’s two main characters, Trip and Monkey. The concept art gallery included with the feature story is gorgeous.

In this month’s “On the Road with Qore”, the team’s off to Las Vegas where Veronica shows us how to do Sin City – ‘geek-style.’ From The Pinball Hall of Fame which boasts the world’s largest exhibit of playable pinball machines to The Gun Store to actually shoot the real weapons found in many an FPS, you won’t want to miss Veronica’s experience with full recoil from – THE SAW.

And finally, this month in the Download Center – Warhawk. In celebration of the PlayStation 15th anniversary, Qore annual subscribers can flash back to 1995 and pick up this first generation PS one hit. Also included in this month’s episode for everyone, by popular demand, Veronica Belmont now has her own PS3 theme. And, our friends at Subway have made it possible for you to be the first kid on the block to cruise around PlayStation Home with a virtual Subway Fiery Footlong sandwich.

Episode 28 is now live.

By naming its flight combat franchise "HAWX," Ubisoft created an expectation of ... something more. Something to do with the letter "X." It wasn't "HAWKS" -- that "X" was a built-in promise, right there in the title, of something x-otic and x-treme. While the first game in the series attempted to make the genre a little more x-citing, its sequel isn't so much a thrilling melange of dogfights and bombing runs as it is a simulation of working nine to five for a missile and bomb delivery service.

Hey, a game where you pilot a flying UPS truck -- that could be pretty neat! Oh, sorry. See, I'm already forgetting HAWX 2. Let me get this all down before I move on to something more exciting, like a documentary on how they make packing peanuts.

A six-year-old PC point-and-click stumbles onto WiiWare.

Sam hosts one last time

PAX 2010 Hands-On: Drumskulls (with World-Exclusive Screens)

#science Researchers from the Australian National University have built a working tractor beam of sorts, ensuring that those wily rebels won't get far, as long as their spaceship is the size of tiny glass particles. More »

A lot of people have been making a big deal out of multiplayer in Torchlight 2 -- and rightfully so -- but not so much talk has been about modding. The first game had a substantial mod community, thanks in part to Runic Games offering mod tools for free to all players. And during my demo of the game at PAX, a Runic rep confirmed that the company will once again freely distribute mod tools to the public.

But because of the addition of multiplayer, I was concerned about how mods will be shared now. The rep confirmed to me that players will be able to use the new multiplayer framework to find games incorporating mods but, better yet, all XP earned in these games will stay with your character. I was promised persistence across all games, be they mods or standard games.

One final interesting tidbit: all loot dropped in multiplayer games will be client specific. This means that the items you see in your game are only in your game. No need for mad dashes to grab all the high-level loot drops!

#accessories LevelUp initiates tower defense against gaming clutter with a series of stylish all-in-one gaming storage solutions that make your console the base of its own video game tower. More »

Don't call it a keytar! If you've been waiting for a chance to see Rock Band 3's new keyboard in action, Harmonix delivers just that in its latest trailer for October's music/rhythm release. We're certainly enticed by its addition to regular gameplay, but that Pro mode? Well, we'll leave it to ... someone else.