Various tracks for Rock Band have hit Xbox Live today, and are now ready for your dowloading pleasure. Each of these will also be made available for the PS3. Notice that “Mr. Brightside” was also released for Guitar Hero: World Tour today as well.

Each of the following tracks will cost you 160 Microsoft Point ($2.00)

• “Laid to Rest” by Lamb of God
• “Mr. Brightside” by The Killers
• “Smile Like You Mean It” by The Killers
• “Spaceman” by The Killer (Day & Age)
• “Red Devil” by Yngwie Malmsteen’s Rising Force
• “Caprici di Diablo” by Yngwie Malmsteen’s Rising Force

The following Track Packs will cost you 440 Microsoft Points ($5.50)

• The Killers Pack 01– “Mr. Brightside,” “Smile Like You Mean It,” and “Spaceman”
• Yngwie Malmsteen Pack 01–”Caprici di Diablo,” “Damnation Game,” and “Red Devil”

Note that all Malmsteen tracks do not contain vocals therefore, you will not need a person to sing when playing these (duh!). Soundgarden was suppose to be released today as well, but as of this post, they are not listed as available.

(Thanks Major!)

UPDATE: Xbox 360 users were wondering where in the world the promised Soundgarden tracks “Pretty Noose” and “Jesus Christ Pose” were yesterday. Microsoft was aware of the problem and was working on it. This issue should be fixed now, so if you want these two tunes, you should be able to get them now. Like the other songs, they will cost you 160 Microsoft Points ($2.00).

Right now, Damnation has a lot going for it in terms of style. I mean, it’s a gritty Western set in a corrupt future; cowboys thrown into a sci-fi universe. It kind of reminds me Bravestarr in a way. So of course this new trailer for the game makes sure to highlight that aspect of the game, along with some of the over-the-top action. Sadly the gameplay still looks like your typical “third-person-shooter channeling Gears of War” but I may be willing to forgive that if style and story hold up well enough.

Blue Omega and Codemasters are expected to release Damnation on the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 sometime this Winter. This new “shooter gone vertical,” will feature open-world landscapes spanning not only the ground but the air as well, and players will get to participate in a wide variety of acrobatics and vehicular stunts.

This is certainly one of the coolest promotional events I’ve heard of in awhile. In order to promote their upcoming post-apocalyptic RPG, Fallout 3, Bethesda has partnered up with the American Cinematheque and GEEK Monthly magazine to sponsor a post-apocalyptic film festival. Dubbed “A Post-Apocalyptic Film Festival Presented by Fallout 3,” the event will showcase some of the works that helped inspire the game as well as some of the finer post-apocalyptic movies out there. These films will be shown at 7 PM at the Aero Theater in Santa Monica on Friday, August 22nd and Saturday August 23rd:

Friday
‘Wizards’ (Directed by Ralph Bakshi)
‘Damnation Alley’ (Directed by Jack Smight)
‘A Boy and His Dog’ (Directed by L.Q. Jones).

Saturday
‘The Last Man on Earth’ (Directed by Ubaldo Ragona)
‘The Omega Man’ (Directed by Boris Sagal)
‘Twelve Monkeys’ (Directed by Terry Gilliam)

I already know my favorite out of those (Chuck Heston FTW!). That’s definitely a cool lineup, but even cooler is the fact that each day only costs $10, which gets you three films, a bag of popcorn, a large soda, and a free Fallout 3 giveaway. Tickets go on sale July 25th through Fandango.com.

Via Press Release

According to a recent interview with Eurogamer, Blue Omega – the developers of the upcoming action “shooter gone vertical” Damnation – believe that the game industry needs to adopt more of a film-style approach to development.

Lead game designer for Damnation, Jason Minkoff, spoke about how he would like to see the larger independent studios include nothing more than a downsized team where they could oversea all outsourced work or else they are just tossing their money away which will eventually come back to “bite them in the ass”.

Thanks to a link provided by VG247, we now have a list of developers confirmed for E3 2008 along with what titles they will be showing off at the event. While the list is still updated regularly, as of this post, this is what you can expect should you be attending.

Akella
Postal III (PC, X360)

Bethesda Softworks
Fallout 3 (PC, PS3, X360)

Capcom
Bionic Commando (PC, PS3, X360)
Bionic Commando Rearmed (PC, PS3, X360)
Capcom Project #1 [untitled] (other)
Capcom Project #2 [untitled] (other)
Dark Void (PC, PS3, X360)
MotoGP 08 (other)
Neopets Puzzle Adventure (PC, Wii)
Plunder (PC, PS3, X360)
Resident Evil 5 (PS3, X360)
Spyborgs (Wii)
Street Fighter IV (PC, PS3, X360)
Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix (PS3, X360)

For the full list, hit the jump.

Read the full article

File-N-Forget returns this week with a discussion of the changing face of gaming. Our topic: Cooperative gameplay and its evolution over the last few generations of consoles. Additionally Shawn raves about the good part of the the Xbox Live! Arcade game delisting and Ron gets wishy washy with praise and damnation for Funcom’s Age of Conan.

This weeks show is available by direct download here.

As always, you can get past episodes from our podcast page at http://podcast.filefront.com, and you can send your comments, questions, suggestions, or snarky comments to podcast@filefront.com.

File-N-Forget is also available on the iTunes Music Store.

Today is Thursday, and like every other Thursday, GameTap is offering up a slew of cool dowloadable games that are sure to entertain even the most die-hard gamers.

Today, the following games were added for purchase:

• Ice Land 2: You are Morimer, a blue penguin, tasked with retrieving fish for your pink-hued, ribbon-wearing sweetheart. You may have heard somewhere that penguins are powerful, swift swimmers, capable of hunting for fish beneath the freezing waves. Well, not Mortimer. You’ll have to carefully avoid falling in the water as you collect fish mysteriously floating above the ice floes.

• Uru: Ages Beyond Myst : A continuation of the award-winning Myst series, URU sends you into the book-worlds of the lost D’ni race on a mission guided by Yeesha, the daughter of Atrus — the man who created the Myst Age in the first place. URU isn’t your usual Myst adventure, though. It takes place in a 3D world and offers new perspectives on the series’ devious puzzles.

• Sam & Max Season Two Episode 5: What’s New, Beelzebub?:Judgment day is at hand, and it’s time for a showdown with the guy downstairs to bargain for Bosco’s soul. But in the corporate wasteland known as Hell, not even Sam & Max are safe from eternal damnation. Can the pair fight free from Satan’s grasp, or have they reached the end of the line?

• Tank Battalion: This arcade maze-crawler from 1980 places players at the helm of a one-man army — a single tank under attack from an entire enemy battalion. Your goal is to patrol the streets, destroying every single rival tank while protecting your base from destruction. The mission begins easily enough, but soon the entire screen is swarming with the enemy, your headquarters beset on all sides.

In the way of free games, GameTap also welcomed these to the fold, which brings the total of free games to a whopping 117:

• Fastlane Pinball :One table, three balls, four flippers, and as many points as you can come up with. Fastlane Pinball has all the trappings of modern pinball, from a digital readout to skill shots and bonus games. This is one experience pinball fans won’t want to put down!

• King of Monsters 2 :SNK takes us back to a world of giant monsters and building-busting brawls. Choose from three different monster movie faves — radioactive lizard Super Geon, robotic ape Cyber-Woo or superhero Atomic Guy — and commence with the smashing. King of the Monsters 2 adds a touch of side-scrolling beat-’em-up to its wrestling action, but retains two-player co-op mode for double-the-fun destruction.

There is a pretty humorous interview with Sam Cordier, the PR guy for Codemasters over on Rock, Paper, Shotgun and while it really does not discuss Damnation at length it is a fun, short read nonetheless. It also has tons of concept art for the game which is to be made available for the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360.

This new “shooter gone vertical,” will feature open-world landscapes spanning not only the ground but the air as well, and players will get to participate in a wide variety of acrobatics and vehicular stunts.Sam had this to say about the Damnation when asked to describe it without using the word “huge”:

“Damnation takes all the best bits from games like Prince of Persia, Gears of War and takes place in VAST streaming environments where the sense of scale is literally vertigo inducing. It’s also got loads of weapons and incredible vehicles, with which players will be able to pull off awesome stunts. There’s simply nothing else out there like it and on top of it all, it’s graphically superb and the story will blow you away.”

Whether or not it will indeed blow us away remains to be seen, nevertheless it does look interesting to say the least. No word on when to expect this other than sometime this Winter, so keep your ears and eyes on Gaming Today as more information sees the light of day.

Thanks: Rock, Paper, Shotgun

A title like “Damnation” practically screams for attention, and luckily, this one may actually deserve some. Codemasters has announced they will be publishing the game from developer Blue Omega Entertainment for the Xbox 360, PS3, and PC. They’re billing the game as a “shooter gone vertical,” as it will feature sprawling open-world landscapes that will span miles of landscape up in the air as well as on the ground. Players will move about these environments using a variety of acrobatics and vehicle stunts. Basically, it sounds like the sort of game Just Cause tried to be.

So why do I think this game deserves some attention? Really it all has to do with the screenshot above, since it shows a girl shooting people while she rides a freakin’ motorcycle along the side of a building. I’m pretty sure that’s a gaming first. You can check out a few awesome screens for the game here.

Via Press Release