I would really criticize this week’s update, but at least PlayStation 3 owners are getting something. PSP owners are unfortunately SOL this week.

The main addition this week is “The Cars” album to Rock Band’s catalog of downloadable music. Each track is $1.99, or you can get all nine tracks for the standard album price of $14.99. A pair of tracks — “Gimme Three Steps” by Lynyrd Skynyrd and “Dirty Little Secret” by All-American Rejects — can be purchased at a discounted price of $0.99 until June 5.

Quake Wars and Battlefield: Bad Company each have a pair of new videos, and there are various other videogame and movie trailers and wallpapers for you to download. You can get the full list of content after the break.

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This week’s update is a fairly tame one, although I believe some new ground is being broken with the release of a game’s soundtrack on the PlayStation Store. $2.99 will net you the original soundtrack to PixelJunk Monsters, which includes 24 tracks in total. That’s not a bad deal for $3, but if you want music you can actually do something with, there are nine new Rock Band tracks for $2 each, or you can find two songs — “We Care a Lot” by Epic and “All the Small Things” by Blink 182 — at the discounted price of $0.99 each.

There’s also the usual assortment of trailers and themes. Get all the details after the break. Read the full article

Electronic Arts has released a new trailer for Battlefield: Bad Company. The video features the bad boys of B Company; a wayward band of soldiers that are more interested in Gold and personal financial gain than the glory of battle or patriotism. There should be a demo coming up soon for this single-player and multiplayer first person shooter.

Of course since Battlefield: Bad Company is a game for Mature gamers or at least seventeen years old; I can’t include the trailer here. Just follow the link to FileFront, and mind the age gate.

EA confirmed through a press release this morning that the demo for Battlefield: Bad Company will be available on PSN and XBL on June 5. Players will land on the battlefield as part of the ‘B’ or Bad Company, a wayward band of soldiers more interested in the pursuit of gold and personal financial gain than following the rules. Gamers will get a sneak peek at how tactical destruction changes the way shooters are played, both offline and online in the single player and multiplayer demo.Players can also gain early access to the demo by pre-ordering the game through participating retailers in North America and Europe. More details on this special pre-order campaign can be found here.

Players who missed their opportunity to participate in the closed beta will get a second chance to experience the multiplayer Gold Rush mode on the Oasis map while the single player portion starts gamers at the beginning of their ‘B’ company career. The single player portion of the demo sets the stage for players as they’re introduced to the humorous and sometimes irreverent set of characters that make up the ‘B’ company. As gamers embark on their quest for gold, they’ll gain access to numerous vehicles, weapons and open maps as well as tactical destruction.

Battlefield: Bad Company is slated to hit stores on June 25th in North America and June 27th in Europe for the PS3 and Xbox 360. For more information, check out our previous posts.

Via: Press Release

EA has unveiled a new trailer for Battlefield Heroes that shows just how you’ll be able to craft your own goofy, animated avatar for the game. Since the game’s certainly not going for realism that leaves the character customization options fairly open. You can craft a peg-legged pirate, an Old West bandito, a villain from the silent film era, and just about anything else you can imagine, from the looks of it. It’s almost a little sad how this completely free game already looks more interesting than Battlefield: Bad Company.

The Team Fortress 2-styled, free-to-play Battlefield game, Battlefield Heroes, is set to begin beta testing on May 6, according to Eurogamer. Registration will be conducted on the game’s official website, so keep an eye out for updates on that.

In case you missed any of our previous coverage, Battlefield Heroes is entirely free to play and will run primarily off of advertisements – although there will be no ads in the game itself. With a cartoony look and streamlined gameplay and low system requirements, EA is hoping to reach a broader audience with what is clearly a radical change for Battlefield on a number of levels. This isn’t, however, Battlefield 3, so diehard fans don’t need to worry – that’s still coming, even if EA isn’t talking about it right now.

As much as I like blowing up environments, I’m looking forward to Heroes much more than I am Bad Company. Luckily for me, I’ll be able to roll from the Bad Company beta right into Heroes, although I’m not exactly sure what will fill the gap between now and Heroes’ release in Q3 2008.

Those of you who have been enjoying (or not enjoying, in my case) the Bad Company beta who are also longtime fans of the core Battlefield franchise will know that the game is sorely lacking in the game modes department. In particular, the lack of the classic Conquest mode is a real bummer; Gold Rush is a fun mode, especially with the destructible environments, but some of us yearn for that classic Battlefield gameplay.

Luckily, DICE will be addressing this concern through some free downloadable content (free DLC from EA – shocking, I know) that will be available as soon as the game is released. And as Eurogamer points out, it’s being added because gamers wanted it.

You’ve gotta love that they were willing to implement the mode in response to community feedback. And the fact that it’s free makes it that much sweeter; it’s nice to see what amounts to a fairly significant gameplay feature being added through DLC for free in an EA published game.

Now, if they’ll just stop selling cheat codes, we’d really be in business.

No doubt you remember the uproar caused when it was discovered EA planned to charge for certain weapons in the upcoming Battlefield: Bad Company. And you probably also remember how EA then tried to temper the ensuing internet backlash by changing their strategy so that five of the extra weapons could be unlocked by leveling up in the game (or just purchasing the Gold Edition), while the other five would be released through different promotions. Well, now it seems they’ve finally revealed what you’ll have to do to in order to get the last five weapons:

• Assault (F2000 Assault Rifle) – Veterans, register your Battlefield soldier name to get this weapon unlock.
• Demolition (USAS12 Shotgun) – Check your Battlefield: Bad Company stats online at launch to get this weapon unlock.
• Support (M60 Light Machinegun) – Sign up for the Battlefield Newsletter to recieve this weapon unlock.
• Recon (QBU88 Sniper Rifle) – Pre-order online or at any participating retailer to receive this weapon unlock.
• Specialist (UZI Submachine Gun) – Download and play the demo to receive this weapon unlock.

Yep, you’re pretty much going to have to jump through a few hoops online to snag each weapon. I guess that’s one way to sucker people into getting involved with your online community.

Via Planet Battlefield

It’s been two weeks now since there’s been a real update to the PlayStation Store, so much of what’s been released today is catching up for missing out on the past few weeks – Rock Band songs, videos, and a UEFA Euro 2008 demo.

Of course, the big news is that Gran Turismo 5 Prologue has been released. I’ve spent some time today playing it, and I think it’ll be a fine holdover for diehard Gran Turismo fans.

The new Warhawk Broken Mirror pack is also now available for $8, as well as a bundle with both the Broken Mirror and Omega Dawn DLC packs.

Hit the break for the full list of content. Read the full article

After the whole debacle with EA initially planning to charge for certain weapons in Battlefield: Bad Company, I’d almost forgotten that they hadn’t even nailed down a solid release date yet. Well, now they have, and that date is…June 23. Gamers who’d rather pay for some extra weapons will be able to pick up the Gold Edition of the game for a limited time. That’s also when we’ll probably find out whether that whole weapon-charging business has driven off any potential customers.

Via Press Release