If you thought you could sit back and give your noggin a break just because its summer, Drill Sergeant Mindstrong has new orders for you. You and your pals are to report directly to the Wii Shop to download Drill Sergeant Mindstrong. You learn to flex your mental muscle under the tutelage of the Drill Sergeant himself who has included a few words of encouragement for you in the press release:

LINE UP FILTHY SLOWPOKES. Brain boot camp starts now! The Drill Sergeant will begin by assigning you difficult tasks that only the most intelligent troops can solve. Impress him by consecutively completing tasks and you can earn a combo bonus. However, boot camp is not always so rosy. For every incorrect answer, you will be docked points. Even some of the brightest muffinhead cadets can end the game with negative points.

After each round, Drill Sergeant will complete a task evaluation and assign each player a brain power rank. This rank is determined by how often you anger Drill Sergeant by giving the wrong answers, and the few times you actually get an answer right and gain points. Stay a lowly sugar plum private for the rest of your career, or use your brain power to rise up the ranks to Field Marshall.

But who am I kidding? There is no way a snot face, lamebrain, bed-wetting boot like yourself is smart enough to get past what Drill Sergeant Mindstrong has in store.

Drill Sergeant Mindstrong is available today on WiiWare for 800 points.

This week, Rock Band fans that play on the Wii can look forward to more tracks from Nine Inch Nails, the Dead Kennedys and Weezer. Dashboard Confessional, Free, The Cab and Scars on Broadway each have an original master track in the line up as well Testament and Staind.

The Rock Band DLC catalog swells to over 330 tracks for download with these releases. Although it still has along way to go to catch the robust offerings for Rock Band and Rock Band 2 on the Xbox 360 and PS3, it’s almost half way there.

It’s disappointing that there’s still no price cut available in the form of track packs. The Wii DLC is set up for individual downloads at $2.00 or 200 Wii points each with the exception of Thenewno2 “Yomp” which you can pick up for $1.00.
Here’s the full list of original master recordings coming out Tuesday June 23rd for the Wii:

• The Cab – “One of THOSE Nights”
• Dashboard Confessional – “Hands Down”
• Dead Kennedys – “California Uber Alles”
• Dead Kennedys – “Holiday in Cambodia”
• Dead Kennedys – “Police Truck”
• Free – “All Right Now”
• Nine Inch Nails – “Burn”
• Nine Inch Nails – “Capital G”
• Nine Inch Nails – Last”
• Scars on Broadway – “They Say”
• Staind – “This Is It”
• Testament – “Electric Crown”
• thenewno2 – “Yomp”
• Weezer – “Dreamin”
• Weezer – “The Greatest Man That Ever Lived”
• Weezer – “Troublemaker”

EA Sports has re-imagined its popular American football series, Madden NFL 10 Wii: Madden Showdown. Anyone who is looking for a straight port of Madden over to the Wii is in for a surprise. Changes go much further than game controls. A whole new set of gameplay options lets you throw the traditional rules out the window and play any way you want it. You can choose between an all passing or rushing offense for starters and then the options start putting the fantasy in football. Throw in invisibility or fumblitis into your game or go turbo if you just can’t wait to get your game on. Hit random and you’ll never know what rules you’ll be playing by.

There are a couple other additions to Madden NFL 10 for the Wii. The Prediction system encourages you to bet on the winning team and one other closing stat such as longest field goal or last team to score. There’s also a kind of mini game focused around spotlight moments where you’ll personally have the chance to make or break a pivotal game moment like a sack attack or sprint to the endzone.
Madden NFL 10 Wii: Madden Showcase is a party game rather than a straight up sports title. You’ve played Madden for years with it’s ultra realism. It’s time to take a walk on the wild side. See the complete list of features after the break.
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It’s that time of year again: The time when Electronic Arts begins releasing its yearly stable of sports games. Yeah, I know. Who cares, right? Every year I see at least one person write something about how EA will eventually tire of this schedule, or else how the gamers will eventually reject it. After at least a decade of this, it doesn’t seem likely that either of those outcomes are imminent.

However, many of us are making progress. It’s been two years since I bought a Madden game, ditto for NCAA Football. I don’t remember the last basketball title I purchased, and I’ve managed to avoid succumbing to the urge to pick up FIFA, NHL, or Fight Night titles as well.

Unfortunately, I still have one crippling weakness: Tiger Woods PGA Tour. Yes, I realize that golf isn’t the ‘hardcore’ gamer’s choice, but for some reason I just can’t stop myself. Case in point: I headed into GameStop yesterday to pick up my copy of Ghostbusters. While I was standing in line at the counter, I was overcome with the urge to grab Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10. I fought valiantly, but lo and behold, once I arrived at the front of the line, the first words out of my mouth were those.

What is driving me to do this?

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Guitar Hero Smash Hits brings out Guitar Hero’s Greatest Hits for your band. This one’s for the many GH: Would Tour fans of the series that have looked back at Guitar Hero, Guitar Hero II, Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s and Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock and thought man if only those tracks were out for the whole band! I’m really looking forward to my favorites from Blue Öyster Cult’s “Godzilla”, Queen’s “Killer Queen”, Heart’s “Barracuda” and Danzig’s “Mother”. Check out the full list of tracks to pick out your favorites after the jump. You can also visit the GH Smash Hits site to vote for Best Guitar Shred, Best Vocal, Best Bass Lick, Best Drum Fill and more.

While you’re out in stores grabbing GH Smash Hits make sure to pick up the new Guitar Hero On Tour: Modern Hits for your DS. There are 28 new tracks to be shared bringing the total to 75 for the GH On Tour series. Guitar Hero: never leave home without it.

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Not every hardcore Rock Band junkie is a metal and alt rock junkie it seems, so Harmonix is releasing more country oriented tracks for fans of the steel guitar and southern drawl. The new Rock Band Country Pack adds to the existing songs from the genre, 21 new songs in fact. The retail disk is compatible with both Rock Band titles and the new tracks will be exclusive to the disk for a short time before making their way onto the Rock Band stores on the Wii, 360 and PS3.

Here is the complete Track list:

So, you may remember that I mentioned the tumble that game sales took in May. Well, it should be no surprise that Microsoft is looking at the massive drop in Wii sales and seeing an opportunity there.

What would be surprising would be for them to attempt to capitalize on that opportunity by launching a new console. Well, according to Sam Kennedy at 1UP, that’s exactly Microsoft’s plan.

In their Listen Up podcast, Kennedy was chatting with David Ellis of Microsoft, where they were discussing the new motion-sensing Natal technology, Ellis apparently let it slip that there will be a new XBox console next fall. Yeah, you heard that right. They’re planning another console launch in 2010.

Gamers will also be able to purchase Natal as an add-on for existing 360’s, which begs the question: Why launch another console now?

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Normally, I try not to mention “gone gold” info but since we’ve been back up and running I don’t think we’ve given much coverage to the Wii for reasons other than to moan and gripe about the weird E3 presentation but I wanted to take a chance to mention that while its my least played game console it does have titles for gamers outside the preschool and septuagenarian sects.

The Conduit, a first person shooter title developed by High Voltage studios and published by SEGA, is one of the more “core gamer” (we aren’t calling ourselves “hardcore” any longer I guess) oriented titles for Nintendo’s bizzare stress relieving, heartbeat sensing exercise console. The story surrounds Secret Service Agent Michael Ford, a member of a shadow cabinet organization called The Trust which is tasked with defending America from threats even more foreign and extraterrestrial.

Again, we get to see someone take a shot at making the Wii a console for an FPS. With the additionlack of the Wii Motion Plus it looks like the dreams planted in all Wii owners by the dynamic and far oversold Metroid Wii teasers back at the console’s launch could actually come to fruition. The Conduit looks pretty good for a Wii title and if it controls well the Earth vs. secret insect invader story could be a lot of fun as a break between running in place and flapping our arms up and down playing a Nintendo mini-game.

The Conduit is scheduled to hit stores in the US around June 23rd. just for fun I’ve embedded some videos for your viewing pleasure below.

The latest NPD numbers are out now, and it’s official: the industry is taking a major hit compared to last year. Total sales in May were $863 million, down 23% from last May. The 2009 year-to-date totals are down 7% from a year ago.

According to The Wall Street Journal, total videogame spending dropped below $1 billion for the first time since August 2007. The most significant drops were in console sales, with the sales leading Nintendo Wii dropping 55%.

But it’s not all bad news. Since the sales figures for this month largely met the expectations of industry analysts, there is speculation that the recent contraction in the industry should end by August. Also driving these predictions is the fact that there are a number of high-profile games coming to retail release dates, starting with the Sims 3 this month. We can still look forward to games like Batman: Arkham Asylum, Left 4 Dead 2, Dragon Age, and Brutal Legend to drive sales up later this year.

In all honesty, no one should be surprised by these numbers. After all, last May saw the release of one of the most highly anticipated titles of the year, Grand Theft Auto 4. That title alone drove more sales than the top two sellers for this May combined. Nevermind that had it hit its intended release date, it would have already been on store shelves for months at that time. 2008 was a phenomenal year for videogame sales, but in today’s economy, every industry is taking hits. Videogames may recover faster, because they allow consumers to stay home, and are one of the more cost efficient methods of personal entertainment.

I don’t think it’s time to panic yet, but if there isn’t a turnaround by August, then you may have to worry a little bit.

Activision is briefing players on the new Call of Duty 5: World at War Map Pack in a new video. The Shi No Numa footage will prime you for mucking through the swamp battling relentless Imperial zombies with glowing eyes and hell hounds coming at you from all sides. It also gives you a sample of the soundtrack which I’m now convinced I must have after hearing “The One”.

You can view the COD: WaW Map Pack 2 Trailer for yourself along with a guided tour of design and gameplay for Corrosion, Bonzai, Sub Pens, and Shi No Numa after the break. CoD:WaW Map Pack 2will be available for download from Xbox Live Marketplace and PlayStation Store Thursday, June 11th.
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