Star Wars: The Force Unleashed Ultimate Sith Edition v. 1.1 Patch
http://www.filefront.com/14900751/Star-Wars-The-Force-Unleashed-Ultimate-Sith-Edition-v.-1.1-Patch/
This patch will update the PC version of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed to version 1.1, and includes general performance improvements and additional controller support.

Grand Theft Auto IV v1.0.5.0 Patch
http://www.filefront.com/14901121/Grand-Theft-Auto-IV-v1.0.5.0-Patch-/
This patch updates GTA IV to version 1.0.5.0 and includes support for all languages in a single .exe, as well as a number of fixes and tweaks.

The Tower of the Twelve is opening it doors to heroes as the twelve face their greatest hour of need. Within its walls, the Planecallers will gate you to Shavarath, Plane of Battle. Here the devils, demons and archons issue forth from their fortresses to clash endlessly on the wasted battlefield.

I recently had the pleasure of going on an expedition to Shavarath lead by Kate Paiz, Senior Producer of Dungeons & Dragons Online. As we fought our way across the blasted battlegrounds, she revealed a wealth of information about the future of DDO: Ebberon Unleashed. Prepare for a divination on the Ebberon setting, the DDO store, the free-to-play model and why keeping your subscription and becoming a VIP member is an awesome deal.
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There are only a few more memorable lines spoken in the original Star Wars than when Obi Won refers to the Mos Eisley spaceport on Tatooine where Luke and he meet up with Han Solo and Chewbacca as a place where:  “You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. We must be cautious.”

That fateful meeting set the tone for the scoundrel and privateers in the Star Wars setting and introduced us to our first bounty hunter as well (even if he did get blasted by Han.. alas poor Greedo).

Scum and Villainy is the latest book in the outstanding Star Wars SAGA Edition RPG line. Like the place that inspired the films dialog, the book introduces gamers to the seedy side of galactic life in a galaxy far, far away. Lovable rogues, mercenary privateers and less forthright businessmen get their own sourcebook concentrating on making the gray side of Star Wars’ black and white universe not only playable but interesting to set within an entire campaign.

No longer do force wielding Jedi or noble galactic soldiers need to be the sole focus of a Star Wars campaign. Instead players and GMs alike can spend some time wallowing in the mud, making backroom bargains and getting involved in illicit deals with high risk and big rewards.

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Lucasarts has announced the release of some new DLC for Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, which features one new level and a handful of bizarre new costumes. The new level will have Vader’s Apprentice traveling to Coruscant to search for information about his father amongst the Jedi Temple ruins. Along the way though, he’ll of course encounter several Stormtroopers in need of a severe thrashing. The new costumes will allow you to wield a lightsaber as an assortment of Star Wars characters from Mace Windu to Jango Fett to even C3PO (which I still have trouble wrapping my head around).

You can check out more screenshots of the new DLC here.

There’s just a single standalone downloadable game this week — Age of Booty ($10), the Capcom RTS featuring pirates that was released on the Xbox Live Arcade in October — but there’s no lack of downloadable content for other games. First and foremost is Pain Movie Studio Lot ($6) and the David Hasselhoff character to go along with it. But do you love/hate The Hoff enough to pay $2 to throw him around the world of Pain?

Little Big Planet gets six new costumes ranging in price from free to $2. The Lilly Pad, Hugo, Great Blue, and Frost E costumes all cost $1 each — or you can get the Animal Costume Bundle with all four for $3 — the Sack-Eating Plant costume — which was an SCEE contest winner — is available for free, and the MotorStorm Stormers costume will cost a pricey $2. Hot Shots Golf: Out of Bounds also gets new costumes, although they come in the form of a single pack for $3 and include five new costumes with six variations each. And Star Wars: The Force Unleashed also gets in on the costume fun with seven new characters and three new Secret Apprentice costumes for $5. The new characters include Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Luke Skywalker. Star Wars fans should be plenty pleased with these additions. If your favorite character wasn’t included, there’s still hope — this is “costume pack 1,” which suggests there are more on the way.

FIFA 09 has a plethora of free commentary packs for various languages — everything from Portuguese to Swedish to new English commentary is included — that will allow you to hear your favorite soccer commentators from around the world in their native tongue. Depending on which you download, you’re looking at a file from 423 MB up to over 1.1 GB.

The weekly dose of Rock Band content features 12 tracks from the Foo Fighters. Each track will cost you $2 or you can get all 12 in “The Colour and the Shape” album for $20. If Guitar Hero World Tour is your thing, you can find three new tracks from R.E.M. for $2 a piece, or you can get all three for $5.49 as a bundle. Jimi Hendrix also makes an appearance with a bundle of three songs for $5.49.

Need for Speed: Undercover isn’t even out yet, and there’s more DLC than I’d care to count available, all of it in that “would have been cheat codes last generation” class. Prices range from $1.75 on up, with various bundles available for as much as $10. They’ll unlock things for use in the game that you’d otherwise achieve by playing through the game.

And what would an update be without some new trailers and videos? There are a handful of new things to check out… unless you’re a PSP owner, in which case you’re pretty much out of luck for another week. The only thing for you this week is a demo of Neverland Card Battles.

Nintendo is throwing in a little of everything in the latest bigger and better Wii-klly update. This week there are two WiiWare titles available for your downloading pleasure. Pick up a sports title with Midnight Bowling. It’s all the fun of an after dark trip to your local psychedelic bowling alley, only less embarrassing. If puzzle games are your thing, stretch your brain with the MadStone.

On the virtual console, you can download the Nintendo 64 classic Mario Golf. This premium Mario game goes for 1000 Wii points instead of the usual 800 WP. If you’re into RPGs, save the princess and the kingdom of Granseal in the Sega Genesis classic Shining Force II. Full details from the press release for all these offerings follow the break.
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LucasArts would just like to say, “Wait! Don’t trade in your copy of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed for sweet, sweet store credit just yet! We’ve got some cool new DLC on the way, including a whole new level!” Yes, LucasArts has now announced that Star Wars: The Force Unleashed will in fact be getting some pretty sweet downloadable content in the form of some new characters, as well as a new single player campaign. The new characters will essentially be skins to use while you deal out death to wayward Stormtroopers, and will include the likes of Luke Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Ki-Adi-Mundi, and Kit Fisto.

Those won’t really change the game up much, but the new level they have planned will. It will involve Vader’s Secret Apprentice traveling to a ruined Jedi Temple on Coruscant — presumably the one where Anakin killed the “younglings” in Episode III — to learn more about his father. The new level will function separate from the rest of the game in order for players to just jump right into it after downloading it. Executive producer, Haden Blackman, also hinted at the possibility of more levels in the future:

“We brainstormed a ton of locations. There’s easily another two dozen we could make into levels. This is a good way to continue the story. I wouldn’t rule out any future content on The Force Unleashed.”

That could certainly boost sales of the game, since as it stands, you easily complete the whole game in a solid rental period.

Via Kotaku

As the release date for Star Wars: The Force Unleashed drew close last week, many fans were disappointed to hear early reviews that rated the game somewhere between “terrible” and “mediocre.” Good thing the power of the Star Wars brand coupled with the inclusion of some insane Force powers can overcome even the harshest criticism. VGChartz is reporting that the game has sold over one million copies since its release last week. Most of those sales were for the Xbox 360 apparently, while the rest were evenly distributed among the other systems. Personally, I’m glad to hear most people were able to look past the flaws (which were admittedly numerous) to enjoy the great game underneath it all. Sure the camera and controls were kind of wonky, and some enemies and bosses were annoyingly tough (whoever came up with the “Purge Troopers” needs to be smacked upside the head); but it still had one spectacular story and some of the best Force powers this side of Psi-Ops.

Via VGChartz

One of the reasons I began writing The Analog Gamer months ago was to point out areas where digital and traditional pen-and-paper overlapped. I’ve discussed how video games evolved from boardgames, miniature games and of course the classic D&D style RPG but video games also evolve from big media tie-ins like Star Wars and Batman.

The best form of media convergence for me as a gamer has to be when a video game spawns a good tie in back to either film/TV or traditional gaming because then I can take my favorite universes into my other forms of entertainment.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed and the forthcoming Star Wars: Clone Wars are two such examples of games or animation translating across multiple media properties. Is it surprising that it’s George Lucas’s baby that is making this leap? Absolutely not, but the first of these two multimedia launches, the much anticipated The Force Unleashed is now on the streets as a novel, a multi-platform video game, an expansion for the Star Wars miniature game and of course the delayed Star Wars SAGA RPG campaign setting.

Along with the release of the game and the RPG book, it appears Lucas licensee Wizards of the Coast thinks that The Force Unleashed is the perfect gateway dru.. er property to lure gamers into its Star Wars mini’s line as well.

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Harmonix, EA, and MTV Games have sent along word that Rock Band 2 has now shipped out to retailers in anticipation of its September 14th release date. Sadly, on that day only the Xbox 360 version will be available, and that won’t include the new instruments. Still, gamers can expect to get a batch of over 100 new songs in addition to the ability to import songs form the first game.

“Rock Band 2 and Harmonix are raising the bar in the music game category again with an incredible music setlist, innovative online features, and new authentic instruments. With over 300 songs available on disc and via weekly downloads, no other music game can compete with the Rock Band 2 music catalog,” stated Bob Picunko, Vice President of Electronic Games and Interactive Products, MTV. “Mark your calendar, call your band mates, and get set for the best Rock Band party ever on Sunday, September 14th.”

Well…there goes my Sunday. And my free time sure isn’t getting any less busy with Star Wars: The Force Unleashed coming out just a coupe days later.

Via Press Release