Gunbird 2 Remix is a remake of the original arcade shooter with all new 2D/3D hybrid graphics. All of the outrageous humor of the original game remains intact, with six playable characters with unique storylines and endings across the board. The game will be hitting the PlayStation Network in North America and Europe in February.

Gunbird 2 is one of PM Studios' first European releases, along with a retooled (read fixed) version of DJ Max Fever hitting the PlayStation Network in Europe and the U.S. in January alongside the European release of Strikers 1945 Plus.

Gunbird is nice, but I've been going through some serious DJ Max withdrawal since I "upgraded" to a PSPgo. Thank goodness the PSN release is only a month away.

Check out the six playable Gunbird 2 Remix characters in wallpaper form, courtesy of PM Studios!

The game launches today, featuring a new game space accessible through a teleporter in the Plaza. If any of you regular Home users were wondering what that tank in the Plaza was, here's your answer. Home Director Jack Buser and several members of Sodium's development team from Outso were on-hand to give journalists a little taste of what is now out there for all you Home users to enjoy.

Buser's hinted before at his intentions for Home to become a gaming platform as opposed to a virtual world tacked onto a gaming platform. He's used the words "mini-MMOs" to describe what he envisions the spaces within Home becoming. We've seen the beginnings of it in places like the Uncharted Nepal space (also developed by Outso) and now we're getting the first bite of Buser's ultimate vision for Home.

Sodium can best be described as a Facebook game. No, seriously – any of you who've played Mafia Wars or any of the "freemium" games where microtransactions drive gameplay will know exactly what they're getting into when they discover that only the first five out of 50 levels of Sodium are free. Sodium features a futuristic sci-fi setting where players pilot tanks to shoot up other tanks in an arena setting. There are other quests, too, such as stomping neon colored scorpions or a drinking game called Desert Quench – you'll have to check with the cyborg non-playable character Vicky to get them. Some quests are isolated experiences where you blow up NPC tanks; others are social games where you work cooperatively with other players to, say, squash a certain number of scorpions. Also, the developer said there were tower defense missions and proper boss fights at the end of each level.

Within Sodium, there are also social spaces that look a lot like the rest of Home – or any tavern in a fantasy MMO role-playing game. There's a big stage for where the developers plan to have live music events, a bar where you can buy virtual drinks in funky shaped glasses and even a VIP section where only tank pilots can go. (And tank pilots are always going to be people who paid for the game – the dudes with special colors on the sleeve of their jumpsuits to denote rank.) The whole setting looked like a cross between Burning Man (which turned out to be a major inspiration for the developer) and Dune. As in David Lynch's take on it with a lot of neon.

What makes this interesting from a gamer's perspective is that it's freemium gameplay on a major console. There are smaller, 3D games that have existed before Sodium on PC – like this game Korean shooter I used to play in college – but I'm hard pressed to come up with anything like Sodium on Xbox Live that functioned purely on microtransactions.

From a purely intellectual perspective, I find Sodium interesting because of what it will do to Home. I've talked before about how Home isn't as static as Xbox Live because when you go in, everything is instantly changeable. But if you've got a network of people who only log into Home to play these games – and their appearance changes in the game based on how much they've played or how much they've paid for – will it make Home more static?

Static or not, Home is definitely still growing. Buser was proud to announce that since the last time I spoke to him in November, Home has shot up from 8,000 8,000,000 users to 10,000 10,000,000 and the number of virtual items has doubled to something like 2,000. Home celebrated its first birthday just last Friday.

ETA: Sorry! I misheard Buser — thanks for the catch, Mathew.

And now for a Sodium trailer:

Sodium Two is already in the works for sometime early-ish next year.

P.S. Also, Monty Python and the Holy Grail costumes are on Home today. Send me pics!

Zhu Zhu Pets are, apparently, one of the hottest toys of the holiday season, and I should probably count myself fortunate that I was unaware of their existence. These tiny electronic replica hamsters have been flying off the shelves, regularly marked up 200-400% above their $10 retail price as parents struggle to get them under the tree for today's children, who'd off a real hamster in seconds flat if left unattended.

Activision Publishing and GameMill Publishing have entered into an agreement with toy company Cepia, LLC to produce games based on the adorable little androids, with the first Zhu Zhu Pets title coming to the Nintendo DS in spring 2010. I'm sure Ubisoft's Hamsterz team will be monitoring things closely.

"Zhu Zhu Pets(TM) success in 2009 speaks for itself and we're confident it will be even bigger in 2010," said David Oxford at Activision Publishing. Gary Miller, President, GameMill Publishing, stated, "It is our goal to expand this proven franchise in a way that fans of the wildly popular hamster toy line and video gamers alike will embrace and love to play."

I guess I'm just going to have to have children soon, if only to stay on the cutting edge of hamster robotics.

Harlequin Enterprises, one of the world's leading publishers of women's fiction, and Big Fish Games partnered up in January with plans to create games based on the Harlequin Romance series and novels based on Big Fish's Mystery Case Files games. The first fruit of the endeavor is now available for purchase, cleverly titled Harlequin Presents: Hidden Object of Desire. It's a hidden object game, only with desire. Inspired by Harlequin mini-series The Royal House of Karedes, the game follows reporter Allie as she covers the 30th birthday of the prince of Aristo and uncovers a mystery. Ooooo.

The game is available for purchase for $6.99 at Big Fish Games' website, with an hour-long free trial for those looking to try before they buy. It can't possibly be as entertaining as the dramatic Harlequin Romance novel readings my sister and I used to put on at family gatherings, but it should do in a pinch.

As the Game Over message flashed on the screen they fell back, the glow from the monitor casting a soft blue light on their glistening bodies. She delicately traced the curve of the fireman's bicep with her fingertips, causing him to mumble incoherently and roll over. Soon his violent snoring filled the room. With a disgusted sigh she returned to the computer and started playing again.

It's just not fair. Girls get to play with adorable animals in the Littlest Pet Shop, put together outfits in Nintendo's Style Savvy, and now they get to dance hip hop, jazz, ballet, and salsa with Dance Sensation!, while the boys are all busy playing Blood Death Kill Game number three-hundred and forty-five. Yes, gender specific games annoy me.

"Dance is an incredibly popular activity for young girls yet there is an absence of dance products available for this demographic," said Gui Karyo, Executive Vice President of Operations, Majesco Entertainment. "Dance Sensation! was specifically designed for this audience and its combination of dance styles lets female players perform and actually learn real dance moves as they play."

Male players, on the other hand, just couldn't handle it.

It's not that I really want to dance. My mother owned a dancing school for most of my life, and try as she might, she couldn't get more out of me than being the master of ceremonies for one of her recitals. I am mostly outraged on behalf of my brother Richard. His dance performed to the theme from "Fame" still brings a tear to my eye to this very day, and I'm sure he'll appreciate me bringing it up here.

Back to the game at hand, Dance Sensation! features more than 160 motion-captured dance moves and the ability to create your own dance routines and customize your dancer with various costumes and unlockable hairstyles. It's got licensed music, Wii Motion Plus support, and a special device that electrocutes the player if it detects a penis.

Okay, I might have made up that last one. Dance Sensation! is heading to the Wii in April of 2010.

With development of the Stargate Worlds MMO still ongoing, troubled developer Cheyenne Mountain apparently isn't so troubled that they couldn't prepare a completely new title based on the franchise.

Stargate Resistance is a 3rd-person online shooter for the PC in which human forces use stargates to travel around the galaxy in order to stem the tide of a massive invasion by the System Lords. Players can take up arms on either side of the conflict, with Galactic Domination granting the winning team across multiple servers and worlds an advantage over their opponents.

The game is class-based, with humans taking selecting between Soldier, Commando, and Scientist classes and the System Lords having a choice of Jaffa, Ashrak, and Goa'uld. Players will rank up as they play, though specifics on what the benefits of increased rank will be are still up in the air.

Cheyenne Mountain has launched the official website for the game, so feel free to head over there for more details on this surprise Stargate shooter.

Stargate Resistance [Official Site via GateWorld - Thanks Samuraidino!]

Ubisoft takes hitting things while imagining you are holding a racquet to a whole new level with Racquet Sports, due out in March of 2010 for the Nintendo Wii. Composed of several racquet-centric sporting events, multiple game modes from party to championship, and support for the Wii MotionPlus and Ubisoft's own Motion Tracking Camera, I fully expect the injuries stemming from this family-friendly game will be quite exquisite indeed.

"Ubisoft and Nintendo continue to reach new gamers with innovative casual experiences that push the industry forward," said Adam Novickas, director of brand marketing at Ubisoft. "As racquet sports are some of the most popular sporting activities throughout the world, we are excited to bring a realistic interactive game experience for the entire family."

Check out the game's official web page for a trailer of the realistic interactive game experience in action.

Seriously, history buffs, are you going to let this go? The freaking Holy Roman Emperor drowned on his way to this particular Crusade and Richard the Lionheart's boyfriend — Phillip II of France — broke up with him over it. I think they deserve a spot on the game's title, too. Or you could just call it Kings' Crusade: Third Time's The Charm and add a question mark for intrigue.

Anyway, the game is in early days with a hazy 2010 release date set. Players can enjoy one of two single-player campaigns either on the side of the Crusaders or the Saracens in full 3D maps that may or may not be historically accurate. You can also "rewrite history" by playing campaigns with characters straight out of history — though developer Neocore Games has yet to say which historical characters will be playable.

Find them on Facebook here.

At least that's what it says in EA's official announcement, which comes hot on the heels of the teaser image that kept fans stumped for all of five minutes over the weekend. It sounds like Isaac will be large and in charge in the sequel, which promises new characters, plenty of zero-G fighting, and more space nightmares than you can shake a plasma cutter at.

"We're thrilled to jump back into the series, making the next chapter in Isaac's journey," added Steve Papoutsis, Executive Producer of Dead Space 2. "The infection continues to spread throughout space and our hero Isaac Clarke is the only person able to contain it. There are still loads of Necromorphs that need killing. In Dead Space 2, not everything is exactly as it seems. Expect plot twists that will surprise you and a huge cast of twisted, disgusting monsters that are sure to scare the daylights out of you."

And that's all we get. I just want to see how they got Isaac out of the predicament he was in at the end of the first game. I don't want to spoil anything, but that sure was a whole lot of monkeys.

That amply bearded, box-art starring soldier is a Tier 1 Operator, "a relatively unknown entity directly under the National Command Authority who takes on missions no one else can handle," according to EA's announcement. The new Medal of Honor—known simply as Medal of Honor—will give gamers a chance to "step into the boots of these warriors and apply their unique skill sets to a new enemy in the most unforgiving and hostile battlefield conditions of present day Afghanistan."

Just like that year-old rumor said.

The all-new Medal Of Honor is currently in development at EA Los Angeles and DICE, responsible for the game's single-player and multiplayer components, respectively.

Medal Of Honor will make its video debut at the Spike TV VGAs on December 12 and hit the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC next year. Until then, the game's official web site should keep you busy.

While The Scourge Project will have its fair share of online multiplayer options, including capture the flag, deathmatch, team deathmatch, and frontiers, Tragnarion's focus for the game is story-drive co-op. The Scourge Project's co-op allows up to four players to step into the role of a key player in the story, with each experiencing the unfolding events from a unique point-of-view.

Set in the near future, the players are members of the elite mercenary group Echo Squad, hired by one corporation to steal technology from the evil Nogari Corporation. Stranded on Nogari Island soon after their insertion and surrounded on all sides, the players must accomplish their goals and work together to survive the experience.

Game director Omar Salleh voices Tragnarion's excitement over the upcoming release.

"We're really excited about the upcoming release of The Scourge Project. The whole team has put a huge amount of love and effort into creating something special and we're all eager to see action gamers the world over having a blast with the gameplay and soaking up the breathtaking visuals and soundscapes. Our unique blend of co-op action plus co-op storytelling, in which each playable character has a distinct perspective on the central plot, brings something new to the table and we're definitely looking forward to expanding on this and much more in the rest of the Scourge Saga."

And yes, it is a saga that Tragnarion is crafting. The first release will be composed of two episodes with four complete levels. Future releases more than likely rest on the success of the first.

The Scourge Project will be released on Steam later this month, with an Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network release slated for March of 2010. For more information, visit the official website.

Sega will squeeze 16-bit platforming adventure classics Sonic The Hedgehog, Sonic The Hedgehog 2, Sonic The Hedgehog 3 and Sonic & Knuckles onto a DS card and ship it to retail March 2010. The Nintendo DS collection will also feature a handy save anywhere feature, the kind of save state options that emulators have offered for years. Or so I've heard from friends.

Also included will be "a wealth of extras including video and collectable pictures," according to the official Sega Europe blog.

With the major motion picture purely focused on the Sands of Time storyline, Ubisoft puts it's cel-shaded franchise reboot on hold in order to deliver a new tale that will be more familiar to fans of the Jake Gyllenhaal version of the prince. The announcement backs up claims made by GameDaily back in June of last year regarding a movie tie-in game. It also answers a question raised by the Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands trademark that popped up in September.

We're not sure if The Forgotten Sands will be a direct movie tie-in featuring the likenesses of actors playing the parts in the film, or simply a side-story in the Sands of Time universe. All we know so far is that the game will feature "fan-favorite elements from the original series," along with some new innovations.

Speaking during Ubisoft's second half 2009 financial results, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot says the game will target both the hardcore and the more casual gamer.

"The goal is to reach both audiences, the core and casual gamers. It will be a game that will have lots of combat, with the possibility for gamers that are not as good - a level for beginners. In that sense we are trying to cover both groups."

Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands is due out in May for consoles and handhelds.

The new game is in development at EALA, the studio where a core group of Pandemic team members were relocated following last week's closure of Pandemic's offices and departure of its top executives.

EA offered no gameplay detals, release date or platforms for the new game.

The existence of Mercs Inc — which EA refers to as a "working title" — first surfaced yesterday on website Bitmob, which ran a video of the in-development game and referred to the game as a multiplayer project.

The video showed classic shoot-em-up-for-cash Mercenaries paramilitary action, though it did not display much of the environmental destruction that was the original trademark of the series.

"We are very excited to announce a new instalment [sic] in the popular Mercenaries series because it demonstrates our continued commitment to Pandemic's rich catalogue of intellectual properties," EA group general manager Nick Earl said in a statement. Last week, Earl had the less pleasant duty of announcing the fate of Pandemic to EA employees.

Earl noted that a "core creative team is forging new ground and conceptualizing new ideas for this exciting franchise."

The first Mercenaries was released in 2005, developed by Pandemic and published by LucasArts. A sequel, Mercenaries 2: World in Flames, was released last year, again developed by Pandemic but published by new studio owners EA.

[UPDATE: EA declined to provide any more details about when the game is coming out our what it will be about. As for whether the company announced Mercs Inc today as a reaction to the leaked video of the game that surfaced online yesterday and started the rumor of its existence, an EA spokesperson said, "We don't comment on rumors." The company has not responded to a follow-up regarding whether anyone who worked at the Pandemic offices as of last week is currently involved in the new project.]

There's been post-apocalyptic MMO games in the past, but the apocalypse in those games has never been of an undead nature. Undead Labs is looking to fix that with the first MMOz, and the Z stands for zombies.

ArenaNet co-founder Jeff Strain, who's resume includes Blizzard and NCsoft, formed Undead Studios to build a new MMO game from the ground up for consoles. He assembled a crack team of zombie-loving developers in Seattle, Washington, and set about creating a game that quite frankly begs to be created.

"Every time I see a good zombie movie with friends, we spend days debating our strategies for surviving the zombie apocalypse," said Strain. "The police station, or the supermarket? Garden rake, or staple gun? Bach, or the White Stripes? I'm a game developer, so I'd probably be useless for anything other than ghoul bait, but I'm excited to have the opportunity to build an MMOZ that lets us put those strategies to the test and find out for sure."

This is the single best idea for an MMO game that I've heard in the history of the genre, and I've played a lot of MMO titles. To be able to work together with other players to survive a zombie apocalypse, without having to worry about the government simply nuking everything before the credits roll? That's love right there.

Undead Labs plans on being pretty transparent throughout the development process of the game, so you might want to keep an eye on the official website for further apocalyptic developments.

Last month Capcom asked players how they wanted the extra content in the Japanese Resident Evil 5: Alternative Edition delivered to Western players, and the fan base voted overwhelmingly for a DLC release. Well, Capcom is giving them that DLC release, along with a retail version with the main game plus all of the downloadable content. What did we vote for again?

The downloadable content includes two new episodes, a selection of new outfits, and a Mercenaries Reunion mutliplayer mode, complete with 8 new playable characters. Players who'd rather not download all of that will be able to pay $49.99 to get it all on a single PlayStation 3 Blu-ray disc, or one Xbox 360 DVD with a voucher to download all of that anyway.

Announcing Resident Evil 5: Gold Edition [Capcom Unity]

That last bit certainly explains the teaser video that McWhertor posted awhile back, featuring the two criminals running through a Chinese restaurant pursued by gunman and an attack dog, caught on what looks like a grainy surveillance camera. IO Interactive is looking to "deliver a fresh perspective to the words 'intensity' and 'realism' in video games," and if that teaser was less tease, more gameplay, then they might just be on to something.

"Gamers are always looking for something new and that is exactly what they are going to get with Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days," said Niels Jorgensen, general manager of IO Interactive. "A special thanks to gamers worldwide for their feedback. They are certainly in for a shock as we, with immense pride, welcome back our two dear, violent and somewhat unfortunate friends."

Dog Days will feature the world's most dysfunctional couple as they journey through the seedy Shanghai underworld. The original teaser vid plus the new one below are now up at http://www.kaneandlynch.com, with screenshots listed as coming soon. Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days is slated for a 2010 release on the PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 under the Eidos label.

If you guessed the Nintendo Wii, we aren't even going to give you credit, because it's pretty much a no brainer. Developed by Attractive Games LTD, Pizza Delivery Boy has the player delivering pizza to survive, unlocking faster vehicles and extra cash along the way through side missions like street racing and baking competitions. Players use the Wii remote as a combination all-in-one cooking utensil / driving wheel. It sounds a bit like Cooking Mama meets Paperboy, which translates quite nicely into the sexy fan fiction I've been writing.

Pizza Delivery Boy is slated for a winter 2010 release. Finally a game that pizza delivery personnel can sit around playing, bitching about the lack of realism.

Access Games' Deadly Premonition not only sounds a lot like Silent Hill, it also looks like it as well, with a bit of Fatal Frame thrown in for good measure. The game centers on FBI agent Francis York Morgan. investigating a murder in a small town. As the story progresses he unravels layers of mystery surrounding the place and its people. The game's action sequences will allow players the chance to choose between slipping by enemies unnoticed or running in guns blazing and fists flying.

"Ignition Entertainment has done an incredible job finding and targeting each game's primary audience and we could not be more excited to team up with them to publish Deadly Premonition," said Hidetaka Suehiro, Director, Access Games. "We've developed the graphic styling and game play of Deadly Premonition to uniquely trigger the suspenseful emotions in every player. We promise an astounding ending if you can meet the challenge to solve the mystery and make it there!"

Even the marketing quotes sound like Silent Hill! Check out the first teaser trailer below, or visit the game's official website for more info.

Possibly the purest Magic: The Gathering experience ever to grace a game console, Wizards of the Coast is keen to bring Duels of the Planeswalkers to the PlayStation 3 and PC audience, while continuing to show love to the Xbox 360 audience with a couple of new expansions. The PC version of Duels is scheduled for release in the Summer of 2010, featuring the same gameplay of the Xbox Live Arcade version with an "extra bonus." I'm guessing the extra bonus is some sort of card marketplace, but don't quote me on that.

The PlayStation Network version of the game won't be hitting until fall of 2010.

Meanwhile, Xbox Live players will enjoy the release of the 2nd and 3rd expansions for the game in Spring and Summer of next year respectively.

I've yet to download the first expansion, what with the fall review season in full swing, but I look forward to sitting down and getting my game on soon. Once a Magic addict; always a Magic addict.