OK, let’s be honest here. Who isn’t tired of the near-constant stream of music games? I realize that it’s a super-hot genre right now, but do we really need another music game? Yes, this also goes for Rock Band Beatles, or Guitar Hero: Twisted Sister, or whatever the next shameless cash grab may be.

Regardless of what we may think, Activision isn’t content to sit back and count all the money they’ve made from Guitar Hero so far. No, they’re going to release yet another iteration of the title.

Guitar Hero 5 will add some new functionality to the title, and strangely enough, it’s actually functionality that makes it a better party game than before. Chief among these new additions is the ‘Pick up and Play’ mode. This will allow anyone to grab an instrument, jump in, play for a few minutes, and drop out without failing or causing the rest of the band to fail. It’s perfect for those unscheduled bathroom breaks in the middle of a song.

They’re also including a RockFest mode to let you face off against four players locally, or up to eight online. Heck, you can even throw down with four guitars at once if you so desire. But the question remains: Do we really need another full game for this? Wouldn’t these features be awesome DLC for the folks who spent nearly $200 on Guitar Hero: World Tour? You could probably even convince those folks to pay for them!

Ah well, maybe I’m just a spoilsport. After all, at least they’re including 83 songs in this version, and all the World Tour DLC will carry over as well. Maybe I’m just sick of having all these plastic instruments clogging up my living room.

At any rate, there’s a brand new trailer showing off these new features. You can grab it over at FileFront, or catch the embedded stream after the break.

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Crystal Dynamics is threatening to bring out the big guns after a leak of a memo and concept art on Tomb Raider 9 Sunday morning. The new game is a prequel featuring a much younger and less experienced Lara Croft than the one in the screen above. Four Player Co-op has taken down the contraband media but the article remains.

“Say hello to the concept art for the new Tomb Raider reboot. Our mole, deep behind enemy lines (and armed only with his digital camera), woke me up at 2 in the morning to deliver you these goods. I haven’t had a chance to fully digest the information here (getting it to you as quickly as possible was my paramount concern) but it seems like the new Tomb Raider will be, wait for it, Open World. Looks like the combat system has been completely revamped and that the story is starting over from Jumpstreet. I have no idea what the story is with the clawed… things… but, out of everything, they excite me the most. More screens through the portal.

Update: We all knew it was coming, it was just a matter of when. Crystal Dynamics’ lawyers swooped in with a fancy email asking us to take the pics down. We will be discussing the whole ordeal on this weeks Bullshot! (link opens in iTunes) which we are recording tonight. It will probably show up in your iTunes early Sunday morning. Thanks to Kotaku, Joystiq, 1up, and others for picking the story up. It’s been a hell of a day.”

The original Tomb Raider concept art is still on display at Gamersyde for the moment. Get it while its hot.

Eidos is showing off the villains of Batman Arkham Asylum in a new video. This dark and twisted vision of the batman setting will push the Dark Knight further towards the brink of slipping from hero into vigilante. These Batman Arkham Asylum Villains stand ready to push him right off the edge. Check out The Joker, Killer Croc and Bane in action as well as a glimpse of a Harley Quinn design that could have been inspired by Bloodlines.

I think that one of the reasons Batman is so popular is that he is a hero of the people. He isn’t a perfect man, a mutant or an alien. He has no supernatural or magical powers. He’s a man with a mission who struggles to keep from becoming the thing he hates. People can relate to him more readily than say Superman, even if he does have more money than god.

Survival horror is coming to the Wii in the form of Calling. This adventure game plays on the urban legend of people dieing after seeing something sinister on an obscure website. Hudson Soft promises true psychological horror rather than focusing on mere gross out tactics. Take a glimpse into the Calling beyond the creepy doll screen above.

You are going to be the person who dares to tempt fate. You will solve puzzles and use objects to uncover the truth behind the site and find your way out of the world of the Calling, or join the dead on the growing visitor counter. You’ll find your Calling exclusively for the Wii in 2010.
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The tongue in cheek antics of an elite combat marine squad stranded on the planet they’ve been sent to destroy is yours to try out for free in the All Aspect Warfare demo. The “non-invasive” Byteshield DRM on previous demos has already been cracked and the current demo build is protected by SecuROM with the disc and activation checks disabled. Between companies fearing their games will be hacked and gamers fearing their PCs will be frelled, DRM is a very touchy subject. You can read why 3000 AD team felt the need to include DRM and more details on progress towards the final release at the All Aspect Warfare Developer Blog Website.

The All Aspect Warfare Demo build is post beta so those players who helped work out the kinks will find it a valuable go as well.

All Aspect Warfare chronicles the adventures, mishaps and all around tomfoolery of an elite team of combat marines who crash landed on the enemy planet they were sent to completely destroy. Stranded and left for dead on a planet with a deployed thermo-nuclear weapon ticking somewhere, their only chance of escape lies deep within hostile territory.

AllAspectWarfareDEMO_FULL_setup.exe
AllAspectWarfareDEMO_090710_update.exe – For those players who have a previous version of the demo, this patch will bring you up to the latest build.

The notes on the demo release are listed after the break.
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Radical Interactive has released a tips and tricks guide in video form for their latest release, Prototype. Hints, Tips and Stupid Helicopter Tricks may point out a few things you didn’t already come up with on your own. It also has some less useful more fun ideas for you.

Prototype is a mature rated game as you might figure since the main character eats people, so you can download the Prototype Tips & Tricks Trailer off FileFront. Mind the age gate.

The first glimpse of Mini Ninjas box art has been captured for the upcoming game. Guide Hiro, the world’s littlest ninja on an adventure of massive proportions as you save the world from evil samurai turning animals into mindless minions. Having ninjas as heroes versus evil Samurai seems backward to me but the trailer looks good.

The Mini Ninjas -
Where have the animals gone?
September comes soon…

Mini Ninjas will sneaking up on the PC, PS3, Wii, Xbox 360 and the DS September 8, 2009.

If there are any doubters left, MechWarrior 5 has a gameplay trailer out. Almost 3 minutes of footage gives you a glimpse of planet Deshler, part of the Draconis Combine, and the terrific Tolek city layout. There’s definitely some House Kurita action in there as well as a glimpse of one of my personal favorite battle mechs, the Jenner-D, in action. The Warhammer and the awesome Atlus-C are also in the MechWarrior 5 Gameplay Trailer.

I’ve always liked the Battle Tech series whether it’s FASA’s original pen and paper game or the MechWarrior PC series. It looks like 10 years is going to be worth the wait.

Yes, I know. They’re dropping the Call of Duty from the title right? Well, maybe not.

According to Robert Bowling, community manager for Infinity Ward (a.k.a. FourZeroTwo), Call of Duty is definitely part of the new title. How can we be sure? Well, he shared this picture with us via his Twitter account.

See, now THAT is definitive. I had thought it strange that Infinity Ward or Activision would remove the CoD title from the game, since that links it into a seriously well-known franchise. Sure, it might confuse the issue of which Call of Duty game is coming next, but I’ll bet it will be totally worth it.

I can assure you all that most of us here at Gaming Today will be available online for you to shoot at on day one of Modern Warfare 2. I know that you will all be happy about that opportunity.

Hot on the heels of the announcement of a brand new MechWarrior game comes another announcement that gives us something good to do right now.

Smith & Tinker has authorized the release of MechWarrior 4 as a free download on BattleTech.com. It’s not live yet, but it should be up very soon. According to the Smith and Tinker website,

In honor of BattleTech’s 25th anniversary, Smith & Tinker has authorized MekTek.net and MekTek Studios to distribute MechWarrior 4 (along with its expansion packs) completely free. For years, MekTek.net has been the central point for online distribution of MechWarrior 4 expansion packs. Now they can provide the core game free to the fans as well. Keep an eye on BattleTech.com – the free download will be available soon!

Today is just a great day for gaming. There’s this announcement, plus Daggerfall for free. Could this day get any better?