Every weekend, we take a time out from our work at the Orbiting HQ and play our new obsessions and old favorites, so we thought we'd celebrate the great weekend of gaming to come by providing you with some ideas about what each of us plans on playing over the weekend.

What are you guys planning to play this weekend? Anything out there that we missed that we should check out? Share your thoughts in the comments and enjoy the weekend of gaming!

Rock Band is nearing the 500 song mark for downloadable content, and Harmonix seems intent on meeting that mark before the year is out. For the second week in a row, Rock Band will see a deluge of downloadable content including new tracks from The Killers, Soundgarden, Yngwie Malmsteen, and Lamb of God. Peep the tracks for next week:

The Killers Track Pack Yngwie Malmsteen Track Pack Singles

Each of the two track packs runs $5.49 (440 Microsoft Points), and individual songs run $1.99 each (160 Microsoft Points). As a special exception this week because of Thanksgiving, the content will be up on both the Xbox Live Marketplace and the PlayStation Store next Tuesday. Though I'm the furthest thing from a death metal fan, I'm excited to get Lamb Of God going in Rock Band: I liked shredding to it in Guitar Hero 2.

While the Xbox 360 Arcade model is only $200, it doesn't come with a hard drive. That may not bother casual gamers, but the heavy downloader or the Rock Band fiend won't be happy at all. Luckily, Tiger Direct has the deal for you: the refurbished Xbox 360 Premium system with the 20GB hard drive is now on sale for $150.

While Tiger Direct isn't our favorite retailer, and I can see how some people may be a little hesitant at buying a refurbished 360, you can't deny that price... it's a great deal. Be sure to read up on the information Tiger Direct provides about refurbished products to make sure you're comfortable, but I can see these moving very quickly. 

It's great to see so many great deals on hardware out there right now; being a gamer on a budget is getting easier and easier. Should we use this as an excuse to say that Sony needs to lower the price on the PS3 again? 

Yes, I think so. 

If anyone orders one of these, let me know when you receive it; I've seen a wide range of refurbished products in my time, and if these are worth looking out for, that would be good information to share. 

Eidos lost a lot of credibility among gamers with the way it handled reviews of Kayne & Lynch. But it looks like the publisher is up to its old tricks again and has been trying to temporarily block low reviews scores for the upcoming Tomb Raider: Underworld.

The news was revealed via a Twitter post by GameSpot UK editor Guy Cocker, which said "call from Eidos—if you're planning on reviewing Tomb Raider Underworld at less than an 8.0, we need you to hold your review till Monday." Public relations company Barrington Harvey—which represent Eidos—then confirmed to videogaming247 that it was true.

"That's right. We're trying to manage the review scores at the request of Eidos," a company spokesperson said."We're trying to get the Metacritic rating to be high, and the brand manager in the US that's handling all of Tomb Raider has asked that we just manage the scores before the game is out, really, just to ensure that we don't put people off buying the game, basically."

It doesn't look like the tactic is working though, as the game currently has a Metacritic average of 78%. This includes sub-80% reviews from publications like IGN, 1up, Eurogamer, and Official Xbox Magazine UK. But given the negative reaction that the Kayne & Lynch incident inspired, it's surprising that Eidos would even resort to these kinds of tactics again.

Ben's thoughts

This is the dumbest thing I've ever heard... what is Eidos going to do, stop sending review copies to sites that don't comply? Do they really think reviews of Eidos games bring in enough readers for this to be a valid tactic? 

It most cases being told you can't review the new Eidos game is something of a relief more than it is a punishment. Here's a hint at the best way to "manage" review scores: make good games. It's just that easy. 

I was overjoyed to find a copy of Metal Slug 7 on my doorstep yesterday, and I spent last night dutifully chugging through the campaign. Metal Slug 7 is like getting your favorite dish at your favorite restaurant: you're rarely surprised by the flavor, but you're also rarely left hungry. 

So why, with the latest Metal Slug title, do I feel so unsatisfied? 

Maybe because there is no multiplayer... at all. Metal Slug games are a blast when played with a friend, and the top graphics and shooting action are easier to enjoy when you're shooting the enemy soldiers in co-op. The fact that an arcade game, a 2D shooter, doesn't have a two-player mode is somewhat criminal. What the hell were they thinking? 

I'm also a little let down that the game, for the moment, is only available on the Nintendo DS. I love Nintendo's portable, and I'm not going to argue that SNK Playmore should have shoehorned in a minigame or two where I have to blow into the microphone, but the mini-map on the bottom of the screen is basically useless. What's more, the animation and detail is often lost on the small upper screen. It doesn't look bad, of course; I just wish for an Xbox 360 or PS3 release with high-definition sprites so I can enjoy the art. 

This is a game that belongs on the big screen, and you should be able to play it with a friend. If you're a Metal Slug fan, this new adventure is a by-the-numbers sequel in the series, but for $30, it's hard to recommend a buy. A $15 Xbox Live release? That would have been more like it. In many ways Metal Slug 7 feels like a game that was released with the absolute minimum amount of work put into the title, and that's a disappointment. 

Like Sony's SingStar franchise, Microsoft is hoping to bolster its recently released karaoke game Lips with a steady stream of downloadable songs. Now that the game has been released, Microsoft has outlined what aspiring singers can expect to belt out over the coming weeks.

Week of November 21:

Week of November 28:

The songs will be available worldwide and will run gamers 160 Microsoft Points ($1.99). Microsoft has promised that new songs will be available regularly, but hasn't yet committed to released songs on a weekly basis. Hopefully it is able to keep up with this pace, because as Rock Band has shown, new songs are a great way of maintaining interest in a music game.

You've got to hand it to Rare. When it comes to the company's recent efforts, no risk has been spared in the attempt to create a different kind of experience for the Xbox 360. In spite of less-than-stellar sales, the company continues to chug forward with refreshing, casual-friendly titles that are the only bright colors in a sea of "next-gen" browns and grays. And finally, with Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, Rare has hit the sweet spot between casual and hardcore: the elusive "bridge" title.

The company's latest title, which revives the famed N64 franchise, focuses on a series of worlds home to challenges that, when completed, further progress the story and unlock content. These challenges are bite-sized game play set pieces which players play through to unlock jiggies, which then unlock more levels with more jiggies and so on. There are more than one hundred different challenges to explore, 97 time trials to best, and 131 jiggies to find, so there's quite a bit of content in this $40 game.

Where Nuts & Bolts succeeds in hitting the sweet spot—and branching off from the well-worn norms of the genre—is in the universally enjoyable sandbox-style game play. Unlike previous Banjo-Kazooie games, on-foot segments aren't the norm; the vast majority of the challenges involve using vehicles. You'll be able to harness cars, trucks, motorcycles, boats, and even planes to tackle the game's varied and (mostly) fun challenges. 

Much like the infamous "Gummy Ship" section of Kingdom Hearts, Nuts & Bolts includes a rather robust vehicle editor which lets you create your own vehicles. New parts are everywhere: you can collect "Mumbo" crates, win them from "boss" battles, or buy them. It's all a part of the quest for your perfect vehicle. A full painting system and a seemingly infinite number of combinations makes this the game's strongest feature, as you can spend hours upgrading and perfecting your ride before taking on some challenges with your own, custom-made machine.

The vehicle creation system really gets interesting as you progress in the game; there is rarely only one way to complete a given challenge. Thanks to some of the more interesting vehicle parts, you'll have a ton of options that reward experimentation with the vehicle design. For example, one challenge requires you to navigate through a number of floating rings before time runs out. You could go the easy way and build a plane, or you could just as easily add a spring to your car to bounce through them. There are many places where the game lets you decide how you want to play, and this is the epitome of good sandbox design. It's completely up to you, and no one way is inherently better than the other.

Sadly, the game's Achilles' heel happens to be on its strongest leg: the vehicles just don't control that well most of the time. Most feeling clunky and slow even after numerous upgrades. The "fun factor" of driving in an loosely-realistic environment, like the infamous e-brake turns in Grand Theft Auto 3 or the power-sliding of the Halo warthog, just isn't there with Nuts & Bolts. Were the driving just a little bit tighter, the game could easily have been one of the best vehicular titles on the system. Instead, driving can sometimes feel like a chore and it saps a bit of the fun out of the experience.

There are some other minor issues that aren't as central to the game play, but can test one's patience. A touch of slowdown here and there mars the otherwise-gorgeous presentation. Worse yet, the game gets a bit too "hand-holdy." Nagging text overlays in some places and poor instructions at other make the game a frustrating affair for any gamer with at least reasonable gaming skills, and the lack of voice acting makes the game feel much older than the visual presentation would have you think otherwise. And though this may not a negative for some, the game is entirely too easy. In fact, the only real difficult moments of the game are largely the result of clumsy vehicle controls. 

But these inconveniences aside, Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts is a great game and easily the best title Rare has produced in years. It's decidedly old-school in its high-level design, but the new vehicle twist does make for a great deal of variety and an addictive quality that goes beyond the "drive" to find all the items and beat all the time trials. If you're looking for something other than a shooter or a sports title this holiday, Nuts & Bolts is a great bet—especially at $20 less than a normal game.

Verdict: Buy
Developer: Rare
Publisher: Microsoft
Platform: Xbox 360
Price: $39.99
Rating: E10+ 
Other recent reviews:  

It has been a tough few years for Midway. The company that once dominated the arcade-style gaming scene with giants like Mortal Kombat and NBA Jam has come upon tough times as it struggles to keep up with an evolving industry. Even the company's blockbusters, including the likes of Unreal Tournament 3 and Stranglehold, didn't perform as well as expected. As a result, the company now faces delisting from the New York Stock Exchange.

The notice served by the NYSE gives a company six months to rectify its poorly-performing stock. The standard for continued listing requires a minimum average closing price of $1.00 per share maintained over 30 consecutive trading days, and Midway unfortunately has not met that standard. Though business operations are unaffected by the decision, this isn't a good sign for the hurting company, which quietly shuffled the press release under other news last Friday afternoon.

Last time we heard about a company threatened with delisting, Atari was on the verge of disappearing forever. Now Midway faces those same challenges, with layoffs and cancelled projects to boot. Even with its recently-released Mortal Kombat vs. DC on shelves, one of the most significant titles in its portfolio at the moment, the company definitely has its work cut out for it if it wants to stay afloat and free from the "boomshakalaka" of shareholders.

When Assassin's Creed was released, many believed it would be the spiritual successor to the excellent Prince of Persia trilogy. After all, the two games shared much in common, most notably the acrobatic gameplay. But Ubisoft is going ahead and creating a brand new PoP game, which will be released at the beginning of next month.

To further the connection between the two franchises, Ubisoft will be offering AC protagonist Altair as a playable character. To access the DLC, players have to register at Ubisoft.com. Once the game has been purchased, you then link the account to your Xbox Gamertag or PSN screen name to gain access to Altair.

You can also play as Classic Prince from the Sands of Time trilogy. Unfortunately, this offer is only available to those who preorder the game at GameStop. These downloads will be nothing more then cosmetic changes, and won't offer any new abilities or skills. But they do look pretty cool, as both have been rendered in the new PoP art style.

Of course, this isn't the first time that Ubisoft has offered retailer-exclusive content. But thankfully, this time it amounts to nothing more then new skins for the main character, instead of substantial content. Ubisoft has said that it plans to release more skins later on for both the Prince and his new sidekick, though no specifics have been revealed. 

Prince of Persia will be released for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on December 4, and a week later on the PC.

Sony's online strategy has been coming together slowly over the years, though it still has a ways to go before it can truly rival Xbox Live. Following our debate on whether or not the company should begin to set standards for functionality across all its games, Sony has revealed that trophy support will be mandatory for all titles starting January 2009.

Though the possibility of this kind of enforcement had been hinted at on Sony's part, official confirmation has only just arrived. Videogamer received a definitive yes from a Sony Computer Entertainment of Europe spokesperson late last night. "Yes, from Jan '09, all games must have trophies," the spokesperson said frankly to questions about trophy support.

With mandatory trophies out of the way, the path could be paved for other required base-level functionality, such as an integrated friends list, voice chat, and other features that would bring the PSN closer to parity with Xbox Live. It's good to see that Sony is taking criticism to heart and attempting to meet the demands of gamers. Online gaming isn't just a niche on consoles anymore, and it's high time that these features get implemented across the board.

As December draws near, the glut of new holiday titles has thankfully begun to slow. It's time to quit spending money on games and enjoy the piles of titles we already have... unless you want to download some new content for your games. There are some great bits of content this week on the PlayStation Store. Let's take a look:

Demos

Add-ons

Videos

Music

Wallpapers and Themes

Like last week, this week thrives on downloadable content. Different skins for the weapons for a buck isn't exactly the most compelling content in the world, but it could make that second and third play through of Dead Space a little more interesting. Thankfully, the excellent LittleBigPlanet content continues, as does the healthy dose of downloadable music. The "must download" award this week has to go to the DRM-free MP3 of the Mirror's Edge theme song that quietly came with the update. The track is great, and (DRM) free music is always appreciated.

This time around it looks like Activision is actually going to fulfill its promise to consistently add new downloadable songs to Guitar Hero: World Tour. After releasing a Jimi Hendrix track pack last week, they are doing the same for the Jack White-fronted band The Raconteurs.

The content pack will include "Salute Your Solution," "Hold Up," and "Consoler of the Lonely." All three songs come from the bands most recent album, Consolers of the Lonely, which was released in March of this year. As per usual, individual songs will cost 160 Microsoft Points ($1.99), while the complete set of three will be 440 MSP ($5.49).

While it's great to see Activision finally stepping up when it comes to DLC, they clearly have a long way before they can reach the bar set by the competition. Let's just hope Wii owners will be able to access this content as well.

Anyone planning on picking up these songs? 

Wrath of the Lich King is out in stores, and the Activision Blizzard money train continues on. It's amazing to watch new content for World of WarCraft hit the streets; masses of people descend upon retail stores, blinking at the unfamiliar light, to buy a PC game. What's even more amazing are the final sales numbers: Blizzard has announced that the game has sold over 2.8 million copies in the first 24 hours of release.

This number was partially achieved by a large simultaneous launch. The game was released in Northem America, Europe, Chile, Argentina, and Russia on November 13. The game then was released in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand on November 14. Finally, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau saw the game on November 18. The scale of the launch was staggering. 

"After a single day of availability, Wrath of the Lich King is already the best-selling PC game of 2008 at GameStop and ranks as one of our top-selling products so far this year," said Bob McKenzie, GameStop's senior vice president of merchandising. "In keeping with the tradition established by their previous releases, Blizzard Entertainment has again created a product that not only reflects their high standards of quality but is clearly an instant hit with gamers around the country."

Luckily for productivity, we don't have many World of WarCraft addicts on the staff. Frank is our resident MMO player, and I've been diligently keeping the expansion from him in order to allow him to both write about other games and to finish off his exams. I know other people who haven't answered their phones in days; we're discussing rescue operations. 

MMO titles may look like good investments to other publishers because of the lack of piracy and the monthly pay day from subscribers, but with such tough competition, it's a tough sell. Hail to the king, baby. 

Though the Zune isn't exactly the first platform one thinks of for "mobile gaming," Microsoft's media player quietly entered the gaming market earlier this year and, as of this week, has a handful of new games available. The recent 3.1 firmware upgrade has supplemented the original pair of Hexic and Texas Hold 'em with a few other titles and, while none of the games are anywhere near the caliber of games you can find on competing handhelds, the new Space Battle title hints at a potentially bright future for Zune gaming.

Space Battle is a simple top-down scrolling shooter in the vein of Gradius. At the bottom of the screen is a ship, coming from the top are enemies, and you've got to shoot them for points and dodge their fire to stay alive. Thankfully, the game is actually just a touch more complex than that: you earn points to unlock upgrades for your ship, you traverse levels to unlock new worlds to blast through, and an easy-to-use in-game music box that lets you play your music while you're blasting away.

The only originally worrisome issue—the clunky button pad on the first-gen Zunes and the slippery touch pad on the others—is avoided by making the ships' guns automatically fire. Aside from pressing the main button to launch bombs, you'll only need to steer your ship. The game is a bit faster-paced as a result, to keep it from being too easy, but this is the perfect thumb-occupying, mindless endeavor which is the perfect complement to the Zune's primary function of playing music while on the go—it is a mobile device, after all, and not a true handheld.

Unlike the iPhone, Microsoft's Zune doesn't really have the potential to be a gaming platform unto itself. But it could be a great supplement to Live gaming across the Xbox 360 and PC. Space Battle suggests that the Zune could handle more traditional games... if they are well-designed.

If Microsoft can integrate gamertags into Zune gaming and allow players to gain achievements and play online through the Zune, it could establish quite an attractive precedent for mobile gaming. Why let iPod Touch owners have all the fun? 

While the latest version of the PlayStation Portable hardware, the PSP 3000, is best known for its new screen and microphone integration, Sony also made a number of internal changes to try to stem the flow of hacked systems. Up until now, the only way to hack a PSP 3000 was to swap the CPU with an older version.

Peripheral manufacturer Datel has come up with a solution for the problem, called the Lite Blue Tool battery. The tool forces the PSP into service mode, which then allows the user to downgrade their firmware and then run whatever code they want. The tool is also compatible with 2000 models, and features an option to toggle between service and normal modes.

The battery will be available for purchase starting November 28, running gamers in North America $29.99. Given the way that a good percentage of PSP owners use the hardware, it was really only a matter of time before the latest version was also hacked. Now if only they could come up with a hack to fix those scan lines on the bright new LCD screen.

Prior to the launch of Grand Theft Auto IV, there was much buzz surrounding the potential for downloadable content. The new content, exclusive to the Xbox 360, has been delayed and has somewhat fallen off the radar, but now some details have finally been revealed by Rockstar Games.

The new episode, dubbed The Lost and Damned, puts players in control of a brand new character, Johnny Klebitz. Klebitz is a member of The Lost, a Liberty City biker gang. Virtually no story details have been revealed, but the new character is expected to provide a very different perspective on Liberty City compared to Niko.

"Johnny is a very different character than Niko, with a very different background," Rockstar VP Dan Houser told USA Today. "I can't go into too much detail on the story, because we try not to give away too much plot before the game is released. But I can say that the story will show you a different side of Liberty City."

The new episode will essentially be a side story, helping to flesh out some elements of the main plot. "The story is not directly impacted by decisions you took in the main game," Houser explained. "(But) tons of details and mysteries from the main story get explained, so it will add a lot of color to the main story."

The downloadable episode will require the disc based version to play and will come out on February 17. However, we still have no idea as to what the pricing or length of the new content will be. But given Rockstar's "it's done when it's done" mentality, the DLC will almost surely be worth the wait.

PlayStation fans from the PSX era will recall that PlayStation Underground was, for quite some time, the official Sony-backed media outlet: first as a digital magazine that shipped on a PSX CD with videos and demos, and later as an online eZine often dishing out exclusive news. With Qore filling that role now, it appears that days of the PlayStation Underground are over, as Sony has sent out word to its members that the online eZine is "coming to an end."

Word came through to me via the PlayStation G.A.P. program, which is an official club that offered select community members special access to Sony news and insider media. PlayStation Underground members are being asked to merged their PlayStation Underground online login with their PlayStation Network one. "The PlayStation Underground is coming to an end, and we'll be bringing you PlayStation Network on PlayStation.com," the e-mail reads.

Following the account-linking process, users are presented with a "PlayStation identity card" which bears a streaking resemblance to gamertags. From the looks of it, Sony may be shifting the way its online web presence works, perhaps trying to move towards a more online data-rich system as used by Microsoft. Sony has hinted that more changes are coming on the official PlayStation blog.

The New Xbox Experience launched without much of a hitch. However, the NXE feature that allows gamers to "install" their games to the console's HDD isn't working perfectly; one of the most problematic games for this is also one of the console's most popular: Halo 3. 

In a post on Inside Bungie, it's revealed that installing the game actually increases loading times. Chief caching officer Mat Noguchi explained why this is: essentially, Halo 3 is slower to run off the hard drive because the game still thinks it's running off a DVD, which makes it reload the data onto the HDD like it would if it were reading a game disc. It may sound circular, but it leads to slow loading.

"[This is because] you read and write through the same mechanism, i.e., the hard drive read/write head," said Noguchi, "and those reads and writes cannot occur simultaneously through a single mechanism. (If they could, it would be awesome, and I wouldn't have to document any of this. Unfortunately, it’s not easy to do for other reasons.)"

Because Halo 3 was shipped before Microsoft had actually finalized this feature, Bungie wasn't able to prepare the game to utilize it. This is why, Bungie says, the shooter is slower to load while other games are experiencing improved load times.

As for whether or not the developer will make an effort to fix this problem, it doesn't look likely. "I would be a significant undertaking to try and retroactively patch/update Halo 3 to be optimized to take advantage of the HDD install features of NXE," Naguchi concluded. "The risks of doing that and the resources required has to be carefully considered against what could really be a rather insignificant change to the player experience."

Looking back, it's hard to remember what life was like before Half-Life. The game changed the way stories were developed in first-person shooters, the main character was much more of a dork than an action hero, and the rise of Counter-Strike showed just how far a small team could go with a mod of a popular game. We're still feeling the effects of what Valve produced. Do you remember the first time you played Half-Life? Can you believe it's been ten years? 

Valve's Marc Laidlaw told GameSpy that he never thought the game would even get a sequel. "The first game was really totally self-contained. The idea that we were going to do a sequel to it... I'm really sequel-averse in my own work. I think we thought that we'd do this, then we'd create a whole new world; we'd go and do something else," he stated. "That didn't take into account the fact that Half-Life was going to be a success. We were prepared to let go of it and try something new. Initially, Half-Life was supposed to be this quickie FPS that would give the company a resume and get us on our feet to do whatever the real thing was that we were going to do. We could learn some stuff doing this, then we'd do some other thing."

Of course that didn't happen, and Half-Life 2 was later released alongside the Source engine. After that the game went episodic, with the last release giving us two more sublime games in Team Fortress 2 and Portal. Now the PC gaming world has been set ablaze by the Valve-published Left 4 Dead. Half-Life may have made Valve what it is today, but the company has never rested on its laurels. In terms of track record, the only developer or publisher to come close would be Blizzard, and that's some fine company to keep. It says much when a company can launch an online gaming storefront and portal that rivals the for-pay Xbox Live in functionality and community, and then manages to keep it stocked with such great first-party games. 

To celebrate the ten-year anniversary of Half-Life, Valve is offering the game for a dollar via the Steam platform. Laidlaw thinks it's still worth your time. "If you go back to the core, you have to overlook a lot of stuff, but I think a lot of it is still pretty fun." Indeed. If you feel like re-playing a classic, go spend a buck and do so, if only to see how far we've come and how good design remains relevant. Hurry though, the sale price ends tomorrow. 

The only thing more exciting than looking back is looking forward and wondering about the next game that Valve will bring us. My professional opinion? It's probably going to be great. 

One of the best features of the new Xbox user interface is the ability to stream Netflix movies through your Xbox 360. Sure, you can't actually browse movies using your console, but it's a simple thing to set up a queue using your computer. Someone had to be a spoil-sport, however, and now Sony movies have been removed from the list of compatible films. You can still watch them on your PC or any other piece of hardware that can stream Netflix films, but Sony is saying no to the Xbox 360. 

There is a statement about this on the official Netflix blog, and it's appropriately neutral. "As watching instantly becomes a more prominent part of the Netflix service, our goal is to have all of our streaming content licensed for all of our partner devices. We're doing well in this area, but it will take some time before we fully achieve that goal," the post stated. "Today, titles regularly come in and out of license, and there is a natural ebb and flow to what we have on license at any given point in time. In the case of Xbox 360, a few hundred titles are temporarily unavailable to be streamed via the Xbox game console. Those titles are still available to be watched on subscribers' computers and on TVs via other partner devices, and we hope they’ll be licensed for Xbox 360 shortly."

Sony has its own video service on the PS3, and it's understandable that the company doesn't want to play nice with its competitor. Microsoft has never used the power of its multiple properties to try to squeeze out another company, right? 

While one can understand this move, it's just another annoyance for customers who don't really care about the politics behind what movies can be viewed on what devices; they just want to watch movies. With the owners of content still trying to figure out how to deal with things like streaming devices and digital copies, expect many more stumbles. Even if it's hard to be mad at Sony specifically, it's understandable to be depressed at the state of affairs in general. 

Update: It looks like not all Sony films have been removed, simply films from Columbia Pictures.