PS3 owners waiting “On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness” can finally get your hands on Penny Arcade Adventures Episode One.  The episodic game joins the new line up at the PSN store complete with trophies, ranking and Background Music Management for $14.99. Prince of Persia Classic is also in stock. You can grab Ubisoft’s retread of the 1989 Prince of Persia for the PC for $9.99. The free demos of LEGO Batman and the rapidly upcoming Valkyria Chronicles are also available.

Rock Band DLC for this week features the Nirvana 01 pack with “Breed”, “Lounge Act”, “On a Plain”, “Polly”, “Something in the Way, “Stay Away” and “Territorial Pissings” for $10.99. You can also grab Mötley Crüe’s “Dr. Feelgood”, “Kickstart My Heart” and “Rattlesnake Shake” or any individual Nirvana track for $1.99. Guitar Hero World Tour has a Classic Rock track pack with “Hot Blooded” by Foreigner, “Rock and Roll Band” by Boston, and “Jessie’s Girl” by Rick Springfield for $5.49 or $1.99 each. The Zakk Wylde and Ted Nugent Guitar Duels from GH World Tour and the Neversoft track pack featuring “Anything” by An Endless Sporadic and “Electrorock” by Sworn are free.

There’s lots of DLC this week starting with Yoda for Soul Calibur IV at $4.99.  Mega Man 9 has Super Heroic Mode, Heroic Mode and a Special Level for $.99 each. New High Velocity Bowling DLC is also out including two new bowlers: Foxy Powers complete with 70’s disco ball and Chastity Falls for a Redneck spin on your game. You can get these ladies and a Halloween themed set for $.99 each. Check the PlayStation.Blog for a complete listing of new offerings.

If you own a PlayStation 3, there’s a good chance you were ready to buy Little Big Planet this Tuesday. But after the unfortunate delay we learned of earlier today, come next week, you’ll be walking home from the videogame retailer of your choice with one less game than you were planning.

Had the game come out this Tuesday as expected, it would’ve faced some stiff competition — although it seems unlikely that the inevitably huge sales of LBP would have taken much of a hit (and, if anything, these other games should be sighing with relief). With that in mind, here’s what big releases remain for you to come home with next week:

• Far Cry 2 (PC, 360, PS3)
• Fable 2 (360)
• Rock Band 2 (PS3)
• Wii Music (Wii)
• BioShock (PS3)
• Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia (DS)
• Spider-Man: Web of Shadows (PC, 360, PS3, PSP, DS, Wii, PS2)
• Eternal Sonata (PS3)
• Midnight Club: Los Angeles (360, PS3)

If you also happened to come home with a copy of Petz Rescue: Wildlife Vet for Wii, I wouldn’t have judged you. That might not be entirely true, but what is true is that, with Little Big Planet now scheduled for release on October 27 (although with stingy retailers, that likely means Tuesday, October 28), gamers with multiple consoles are looking at another hard week on the wallet. Here’s what you might be picking up along with your copy of LBP:

• Fallout 3 (PC, 360, PS3)
• Guitar Hero World Tour (PC, 360, PS3, Wii, PS2)
• MotorStorm Pacific Rift (PS3)
• Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 (PC)
• SingStar: Vol. 2 (PS3)
• MotoGP 08 (PC, 360, PS3, PSP, Wii, PS2)
• Scene It Box Office Smash (360)

It’s truly going to be one of the most wallet-busting stretches in gaming history over the course of the next several weeks. We should probably be thankful there aren’t any new consoles releasing — unless you plan on picking up the new PSP 3000s or importing a DSi next month.And — tempted as you might be — selling an arm on the black market isn’t as great an idea as it might seem. If nothing else, it’ll make playing that shiny new game of yours much more difficult.

Surely you remember the hoopla caused by Spore’s piracy protection (even EA head, John Riccitiello, wasn’t happy with it). Well, get ready to encounter some similar restrictions next week with Far Cry 2. According to Ubisoft Forum Master, “bukowski113,” the PC version of the upcoming FPS will contain the same DRM by SecuROM. Luckily though, it will contain a few tweaks giving users a bit more freedom with their installs:

• You have 5 activations on 3 separate PCs.
• Uninstalling the game “refunds” an activation. This process is called “revoke”, so as long as you complete proper uninstall you will be able to install the game an unlimited number of times on 3 systems.
• You can upgrade your computer as many time as you want (using our revoke system)
• Ubisoft is committed to the support of our games, and additional activations can be provided.
• Ubisoft is committed to the long term support of our games: you’ll always be able to play Far Cry 2.

Five installs on three machines isn’t so bad, especially with the “revoke” system. You could even still share the game with a couple of friends. I mean, you shouldn’t, because that’s technically piracy, but just saying…

Ubisoft is in the process of giving all in-house games a subtitle options in order to allow the hearing impaired to enjoy gaming more. The first games to sport this new feature will be Far Cry 2, Prince of Persia and Shaun White Snowboarding. In order to do this, they will be modifying all in-house gaming engines and try to introduce the subtitle option into games that are already currently in development.

“This commitment entails modifications to some of our game engines, as well as the inclusion of subtitles in the conception phase of game development,” stated the company.

You may recall that Ubisoft was crucified for not making Assassin’s Creed with subtitles when it came out, bit it looks as though they do not plan on making the same mistake again – and that is a great thing. All gamers, no matter what their handicaps should be able to enjoy a game just as much as the rest of us.

The company has also announced Handigo: The Game, which was created in partnership with the charity  Handicap International. Part of the charity’s new “Ability Together” campaign, the game is to help the public  understand the difficulties that disabled people face day to day. It was created free-of-charge by Ubisoft, and includes three mini-games featuring a different handicap and helping the user learn to tell the difference between certain disabilities and the obstacles a person with restrictions face on a daily basis while living their lives.

via Game Informer

The new Far Cry 2 trailer is basically showing you just enough gameplay footage to try to get you to pre-order the game. While that in itself is not  necessarily a bad thing, what you will notice about the trailer is that it seems to have been funded by GameStop. I could be wrong, but with GameStop being the “pre-order” hounds that they are, it would not surprise me either.

I suppose we should all get used to seeing ads for goods and services when it comes to anything gaming related, because the future is going to be just as full of them as prime time T.V. eventually.

Far Cry 2 is expected to be released on October 23 for PC, PS3, and Xbox 360.

October is already looking to be one bang-up month for gaming, what with a number of triple-A titles like Dead Space and Fallout 3 finally getting release. And now you can add Far Cry 2 to their ranks, as Ubisoft has confirmed their upcoming shooter will now be released on October 23rd. This is way earlier than expected, seeing as most early reports indicated a November or December release. In addition to that welcome bit of news, Ubisoft also revealed details of the Collector’s Edition for the game. The limited edition will include the game itself, as well as:

• Exclusive wooden box
• Limited Edition Far Cry 2 T-shirt
• “The Art of Far Cry 2″ artbook
• Map that shows the 50 km² world of Far Cry 2
• Making Of DVD

With all these high-profile games coming out in the next few months, I’m already wondering if this year will actually top last year’s surge of great games.

Via PCGH

Something must be wrong with me, but I never get tired of those darn Rabbids and their ridiculous antics. This new trailer shows off one wayward Rabbid in some sort of reality show confessional booth, where he jabbers on in his weird language. And then he pulls a cookie out from under him with much straining and a loud “pop.” Then he screams…presumably at the prospect of finding a tasty cookie in his butt. Personally, I’d be a little wary about cookies that came from inside myself too, no matter how delicious-looking.

Speaking exclusively with VG247 during GC ‘08, Patrick Redding who is a writer for Far Cry 2 stated that the addition of some dangerous predatory animals may eventually be be added to the game after launch. This additional content may come the way of DLC or a sequel so, we will be sure to keep you posted either way.

Said Redding:

“We’re definitely talking about the types of predatory animals we might include at some point, and we’re going to investigate that, nut I don’t want to say too much about it because I don’t want to spoil the surprise.

We don’t have any predatory animals. We made a decision early on that because the AI requirements for doing an open world game were fairly challenging just with the human enemies, we wanted to have animals but we focused mainly on grazing animals, on quadrupeds like goats and livestock.”

I have never known any goats that wanted to attack and eat anything other than a bag of carrots I was holding,  but then again, Africa is just not Africa without the threat of being eaten alive by a pride of lions, or getting dragged kicking and screaming up a tree by a Leopard.  Other than the “big cat” threat, you have hyenas, alligators, wild dogs, and some mean-ass snakes over in that part of the world too. If you want to get technical, although not predatory, a hippo is pretty damn dangerous as well despite how lovely they look at a drunken 3:00 a.m. – oh wait.. wrong scenario.

Suffice it to say that you will not encounter and dangerous animals when Far Cry 2 hits the PC, PS3 and Xbox on October 21, but that does not mean that it be less of a game because of it either.

Thanks: VG247

In other news regarding pre-order goodies, Unbisoft is giving North American gamers who pre-order the new Prince of Persia game an upgrade to the Limited Edition at no extra cost out of pocket.

This free Limited Edition upgrade is only available by pre-ordering and will include in addition to the regular SKU:

• Collectible Limited Edition packaging
• An exclusive look at the making of Prince of Persia
• A Prima digital mini-strategy guide full of developer’s secrets to help players master the action-adventure game
• A digital art book that chronicles the game’s journey from concept to winner of Best Artistic Design at E3 2008
• The original soundtrack scored by master composer Inon Zur
• And much more (could they be less specific?)

Additionally, Ubisoft announced a partnership with Penny Arcade for the creation of a comic book based on the new Prince of Persia title. The expanded 32-page comic book will span roughly four times longer than the usual Penny Arcade comic and will allow the Prince’s story to be creatively told in a way that only Penny Arcade can – which means anything goes basically, well…. at least that is what I am hoping. The comic book will also give readers more knowledge in regards to the game as well as an enhanced understanding of the relationship between Elika and the Prince.

We are still unsure when the game is coming out – all we know at this point is “Holiday 2008″.  It will be made available for the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 and the Limited Edition cover for the PS3 looks the same as the 360 one posted above – therefore fanboys, don’t accuse us of showing a preference.

via Press Release

Ubisoft has released the first of what hopefully will be a series of video developer diaries for Prince of Persia. In this entry, producer Ben Mattes will explain how the open world structure, made possible by using the Anvil Engine that was used to create Assassin’s Creed, works. He also talks about a new Principality and give players a more detailed glimpse into how combat works. Enjoy the show.