It's a pretty straightforward affair. You show up, you're of age, you play some MAG and socialized with the Zipper Interactive folks, peppering them with questions about the next SOCOM in between hands-on time with the "final beta."

Additional details are right here, but if you happen to miss out on the good natured festivities, the game will hit North American store shelves just a few weeks later.

Oh, here's some important information!

Who: You and 99 other diehard MAG fans
When: Thursday, January 7 from 4:00 to 7:00pm
Where: The Aria Hotel at CityCenter in Las Vegas, Nevada

Requirements:
· You must be 18 years-old or older – ID *will* be checked by burly men!
· You must RSVP via the Facebook event page.
· Don't hang out in the main lobby! Line up outside Juniper rooms 2 & 3.

Celebrate MAG Going Gold in Vegas – CES Meetup details [PlayStation.blog]

Famitsu—and we're guessing parent company Enterbrain—have tracked some of 2009's bestselling games that bear the budget price, known on the Sony side as "PlayStation 3 the Best" titles and on the Microsoft side, "Platinum Hits." We realize you probably weren't asking yourself this morning, "What price reduced games from 2008 sold pretty darn well in Japan in 2009?" but Famitsu is here to answer that unasked question.

The two bestsellers are Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare on the PS3 side, Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation on the 360 side. And that's where the race is closest, as the PlayStation brand is clearly winning the budget priced war in numbers, according to Famitsu.

Here's the list.

PlayStation 3 the Best
01. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare - 88,753
02. Everybody's Golf 5 - 88,346
03. Valkyria Chronicles - 81,625
04. Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots - 59,092
05. Yakuza Kenzan! - 55,226
06. Uncharted: Drake's Fortune - 39,679
07. Grand Theft Auto IV - 33,202
08. Devil May Cry 4 - 23,770
09. Mahjong Fight Club - 20,656
10. Way of the Samurai 3 Plus - 20,593

Xbox 360 Platinum Hits
01. Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation - 86,534
02. Beautiful Katamari - 74,166
03. Halo 3 - 25,508
04. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare - 24,567
05. Left 4 Dead - 12,988
06. Armored Core 4 Answer - 10,974
07. Idolmaster Twins - 6,621
08. Devil May Cry 4 - 6,360
09. Grand Theft Auto IV - 6,210
10. Fable 2 - 6,151

年末年始はPS3&Xbox 360廉価版で遊ぶのもあり！−−2009年廉価版ソフト販売本数TOP10 [Famitsu]

There were two ways to market this game in the states. Either Aksys could play up the fighting system and gloss over the more adult bits, or they could release a trailer that basically says that the game itself doesn't matter as much as the scenery within. That's not the sort of message that makes me want to rush out and spend my money.

Very nice use of 70's porno guitar though.

What does one get for the 800 Microsoft Points investment? The all-new Riot Mode challenges, offering new things to loot and a bank in which to store all that loot. It may not sound like much for ten bucks, but the description "like Smash TV in coop FPS" seems to actually have some truth to it, making the DLC potentially priceless.

You can read our impressions of the new downloadable content if you're on the fence or, if exceptionally cautious, wait for our upcoming review.

Mad Moxxi's Underdome Riot hits the PlayStation Network beginning January 7, 2010 for $9.99 USD and Windows PC in "early 2010." Anyone grab it yet?

In reality, they play more like isolated firefights than all-out war, according to CJ Heine, lead designer at Zipper Interactive.

"The scale has always been missing," he says.

For example, when you see tracer fire and hear gunshots in other games, it's usually simulated by the computer "to make the player feel like they're in a larger battle than they really are," says Heine.

So he and his team have built what they believe to be a better mousetrap; one that places a human command behind every bullet, air strike, and commotion taking place on screen.

"It's actual combat between real players," Heine explains, speaking of MAG, the upcoming multiplayer-only shooter for PlayStation 3. But not only are the game's actions authentic, the number of simultaneous players it accommodates is staggering: 256 to be exact, a figure that dwarfs the size of previous console shooters.

But my Modern Warfare 2 plays just fine. Why, then, would I want more numbers? What's in it for me, I ask the designer. Added purpose and broader scope comes the reply. "I think MAG is an evolution of the shooter," Heine responds. "Running with 256 players actually allows us to recreate the scale and intensity of widespread combat without relying on artificially placed sounds or effects."

Okay, but what about lag? Some games stutter with only 16 or 32 players online. Sounds like Sony will need a Google-size server farm to manage that many players for a single session. Either that or compromise the gameplay.

While the answer to enable more players would seem to be more hardware, Zipper Interactive says their "new server architecture" allows them to meet the demands of 256 players without the need of costly additional servers.

It's unclear exactly what they've done to ensure stability. And geographical latency is inevitable. But many early previewers have reported surprisingly smooth connections. "Whatever Zipper did with their servers, it's
working," said one beta tester.

There is no "I" in team
If you're one of those independent types or bratty tennis stars that hates team sports, MAG probably isn't for you. With so many players on screen at the same time, games would quickly spiral out of control without organization, making Unreal Tournament played in a tight corridor look like child's play.

To provide the much-needed structure, players are divided into 8-person squads, with 4 squads forming a platoon of 32 players, and 4 platoons forming a company of 128 players. Accordingly, group leaders are critical to the success of the team, says Heine-especially a company's Officer in Charge.

"In many ways, the OIC is similar to a platoon eader in that they cannot personally assign any objectives (like a squad leader)," he says. "But they do control powerful game-changing abilities that can turn the tide of a battle when used properly, such as altering the respawn rates of friendly or enemy forces, communicating the tactical abilities used by squad and platoon leaders, or preventing opposing tactics from being used."

Translation: In MAG, you're forced to work as a team. Since there's no computer-aided actions to guide you to victory, you'll live or die on the decisions made by your fellow gamers. And if your commanding officer is a douche, your team is screwed. It sounds bad, but it makes for some crazy good unity.

"Just watching the reactions in the beta over the last few months, each company has a vocal set of players, all declaring that their faction is the best or easiest to play with," says Heine. "It's great to see the players latching on and creating their own rivalries."

To advance the ranks into leadership roles and create your own company, you'll need to earn the trust of your peers by completing objectives, making valuable contributions, and earning experience points over time. This isn't to say you can't go on solo missions, such as sneaking behind enemy lines and sabotaging their supplies. You just can't be bohemian about it.

"Well-organized squads with good leadership and communication are going to make the difference between a win and a loss more often than the efforts of any one individual player," asserts Heine.

In the year 2025
Set 15 years in the future, MAG takes place in a fully globalized and diplomatic planet Earth.

But greed and utopia can never co-exist, so the demilitarized world quickly sees a rise in demand for enterprising mercenaries known as Private Military Companies to do its killing.

At first, these companies bade for contracts in a civil manner, much like a commercial firm would, explains Heine. At some point, however, "competitive tensions and minor conflicts escalated into full scale war," he adds. How convenient for you, Mr. or Ms. gamer.

With the world in turmoil, and weaponry in the hands of opposing private contractors, players will need to choose which company-otherwise known as factions-they wish to fight for before. For veterans, there's Valor Company, which outfits its troopers with standard-styled military gear. For James Bond lovers, there's Raven Industries, which relies on high-tech gadgetry to win its battles. And lastly, the S.V.E.R. company-a group of misfit militia-
men with a chip on their shoulder.

But not only do factions give the game a sense of individuality, according to Heine, they dictate how aggressive or defensive teams are in their attack. "Each faction has a unique visual style and reason for fighting, but the differences in weapons, equipment, and missions have the biggest impact on gameplay," he says. " Ultimately, factions create a sense of allegiance within MAG, which is rare for a shooter."

What exactly should you expect from the gameplay then? Look no further than SOCOM, Zipper's previous breakthrough series for PlayStation 2. "At the core, MAG and SOCOM are similar in that they're both squad-based military shooters," Heine admits. "Players already familiar with SOCOM will understand the importance of teamwork and have a set of skills, such as fire discipline, which translate over to MAG pretty well."

But as previously mentioned, it's a much bigger party this time-not to mention being a first-person shooter as opposed to SOCOM's third-person perspective. "MAG takes team based gameplay and elevates it," says Heine. "As seen in beta, most objectives are fiercely contested by full squads, and some level of teamwork is usually required to have any success with the objectives."

More specifically, you'll be destroying enemy bases, ordering commands on the fly with the d-pad, or engaging the front lines using standard first-person shooter controls. For a bird's-eye view of all 256 players on screen, you can hit the map button to survey individuals battles and assign new objectives or counterattacks.

Slower is better?
First-person shooters are traditionally known for their quickness. Turn a corner. Bust a cap in some guy's melon. Move on. If it wasn't already obvious, MAG is not that kind of game.

Your deftness with a firearm is still required, and headshots are still present. Only here you'll need to plan your attack, since you'll be commanding or working with upwards of 127 teammates as your opponents do the same.

Aware of how daunting that task may initial seem to some, Zipper has prepared concentrated modes to acclimatize new comers. "If players aren't quite ready to deal with this many players or levels of leadership, we have other gametypes for 64 or 128 players," Heine reassures.

The irony here is that MAG's huge numbers will either make or break the game for some. Since users dictate pace, as opposed to the game itself, MAG plays slower than most. To put it nicely, methodical. As a result, enthusiast gamers seemingly aren't jamming the pre-order lines to play once the game debuts next month.

"For a shooter-based console game just six weeks prior to launch, MAG's popularity numbers are a little lower than desired," says Scott Mucci of GamerMetrics, which tracks interest levels and behavior of some 46 million online gamers. In fairness, this could be because of a recently released juggernaut, Mucci adds.

"Fans of the shooter genre are most likely still focused on Modern Warfare 2," he offers, also noting that the highly anticipated Mass Effect 2 releases the same day.

Whatever the reasoning for the so-so anticipation, it's hard not to notice MAG's draw: filling spacious maps with 256 simultaneous players. MMO without the RPG. Or "massive action game"-take your pick.

Just don't blame me if you get stuck with a broken team.

MAG arrives Jan. 26 exclusively for PS3.

Blake Snow is a freelance writer from Crecente's neighboring state of Utah. His curious work has appeared on MSNBC, the Wall Street Journal, and GamePro among others. He is currently reading Game Over by David Sheff and thinks you should too.

But it's also attractive for the option of placing Santa hats on Nathan Drake, a timely nod I've been a sucker for since first coming across Christmas Nights for the Sega Saturn. So if you, like me, enjoy seeing characters who wouldn't normally wear bright red hats with fuzzy white poms and brims, you'll want to play some Uncharted 2 multiplayer this extended Christmas weekend.

Double cash deals run from 12/24 to 12/27, a time when I'll sadly be away from my own PlayStation 3. If you have your PS3 nearby, you may want to read up on the minute-specific details on this weekend's double cash deal.

Deck the Halls with Uncharted 2 Double Cash [PlayStation.blog]

GameInformer has the first comprehensive look at Clarke in his newer, sleeker, more jetpack-accessorized space suit, and at least one unfamiliar necromorph. Fight against the Silverlight and Photosynth-powered screenshot viewer a bit and you'll also get a peek at some of the environment from the sequel and what appears to be a flood of teenaged necromorphs bearing down on poor Mr. Clarke.

What do you think of Isaac's new duds?

Dead Space 2 In 3D [Game Informer]

That's according to the PS3 game's official site, which should explain just what Last Rebellion is, for those who don't remember it. It should also shed some light on heroes Nine the Blade and Aisha the Sealer and why the game's character switching mechanic is needed to slay all those undead Belzeds.

Other things to learn about this PlayStation 3 exclusive: who and what Lorvin, Arzelide, Junovald, Meiktilia, and Formival are. Your best pronunciations are welcome in the comments.

Last Rebellion [NIS America]

The first of four avatar packs, each featuring three or four LittleBigPlanet-themed icons that can represent you on the PlayStation 3 cross media bar and friends list, are going for $8.00 HK in Hong Kong, which translates to about $1.00 USD. In Europe, individual premium avatars are priced at £0.20/€0.25 each. Not a bad deal, should you have a dollar or two rotting in your Wallet.

On the other hand, it's a formerly free thing now monetized, something Sony seems more and more interested in doing lately. Good for business, bad for people who want things given to them gratis.

The God of War: Blood & Metal digital EP will feature exclusive, sometimes God of War inspired tracks from Killswitch Engage, Dream Theater, Trivium, Opeth and Taking Dawn. If you follow any or all of those bands, you're likely aware that they're Roadrunner Records acts, Sony's partner in giving God of War fans something heavier to rock to.

"This is the first time in 24 years that we've written and recorded a song for anything other than one of our own albums, so we're up for the challenge and excited to have been asked," said prog metal act Dream Theater's drummer Mike Portnoy.

I don't know about you guys, but I'm more than interested to hear just how God of War inspired any of these previously unreleased songs are.

Roadrunner Announces God of War EP [Roadrunner Records]

We've heard from tipsters here in the U.S. and in Europe—Switzerland, specifically—that the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions of the game have already shipped to retail and are waiting to be snapped up. Kotaku reader Bryant just snagged a copy at a Wisconsin Toys 'R' Us. We've reached out to some of our local retailers, even the ones that generally sell to us early, but have come up short.

You may have better luck, though, and may be able to secure a surprising Christmas or Hannukah gift for a friend if you do.

Yes, both versions appear to be regional, not import copies. Two good gets for a game that's not supposed to be released for another two weeks or more.

Thanks to Ivan and Bryant for the heads up. And have fun.

The three winners of the PS3 part of the contest are:

Arex, posing as Jin Kazama

Bigbadpenguinmaster, also posing as Jin Kazama

OmegaSpartan08, posing as Ganryu

The two winners of the Xbox 360 part of the contest are:

TwoToedSocks, posing as Lili

Omega Corn, posing as Devil Jin

All winners must send me their full name, e-mail and North American mailing address by the end of Wednesday. Send that information to me via a private message to my Kotaku username, stephentotilo. (Just click this link to get there. Don't make the message public.)

Thank you to all who entered. Congratulations to all who won! Your Tekken 6 bundles will be in the mail.

In newly released artwork for the PlayStation 3 game, the Fat Princess cast is now playing with a full hand, each class sporting five fingers instead of the previous four. While not officially blamed for the game's release, a four-fingered hand is often linked to referencing yakuza culture, the Burakamin Japanese social minority group and the the numeral four as an unlucky number.

The old Fat Princess artwork for Japan, for comparison sake, is below.

Pocchari Princess [PlayStation.jp via Andriasang / Hatchimaki]

Enterbrain puts Final Fantasy XIII sales at over 1.5 million over the course of the game's first four days on Japanese store shelves, selling through a major portion of the reported 1.8 million copies shipped. About 1.1 million of those are apparently from day one sales.

The boon to the PlayStation 3? Some 240,000 plus consoles sold in one week, including that fancy Lightning Edition PS3 released alongside the exclusive-in-Japan role-playing game. That's a considerable spike, as the previous week's figures, according to sales tracker Media Create, shows some 75,000 PlayStation 3s sold in Japan the week before FF13 hit.

ファイナルファンタジー13、発売初週で実売150万本　PS3本体も週間24万台販売＝PS3歴代1位 [Yahoo! JP]

Well, if you play Demon's Souls casually, oblivious or indifferent to the game world's "tendency," a Pure Black or Pure White setting has an effect on many things in the game. Enemy strength, availability of certain items and luck of the drop are all affected by tendency, a setting that can be manipulated by certain world events.

But Atlus is forcing a change to the world to Pure White for the next week—similar to the Pure Black World Tendency event that hit this Halloween—something that's not easy to do by oneself. The online game server goes white right about now, specifically at noon Pacific Time and ends next Monday, December 28, also at noon Pacific Time.

What does pure white world tendency get you? Lots of stuff, including non-player characters that wouldn't normally appear, access to certain portions of the map, all kinds of stuff! In fact, you can't get certain PlayStation Trophies without a Pure White World Tendency in effect. The unofficial Demon's Souls wiki has a handy explanation of what's different.

Lop the boss battle off of the original BioShock and the 2007 game would seem to be just about perfect. It was a novel dive into a failed Objectivist utopia called Rapture. It was a philosophical exploration of free will played as a first-person shooter designed to accommodate a player's tactical ingenuity. It introduced one of the great and weird new relationships in video games, the life-force/Adam-draining Little Sisters and their monstrously powerful protectors, the Big Daddys.

And aside from that final boss battle, BioShock ended well enough that nothing could improve it, not the addition of a 2 at the end of the title, not the tacking on of multiplayer and certainly not the opening title screen that credits twice as many studios for the sequel (four, none of which are the series' founding studio, 2K Boston).

I have, however, returned to Rapture, with the help of 2K Marin, 2K Australia, 2K China and Digital Extremes. I have played BioShock 2's single player campaign through its prologue and first full level, and I am both impressed and pleased. Dare I write this, but the new game has improved elements of the first.

BioShock 2, in its preview form, does not start with the elegance and magic of the first game. There is no scene-setting plane crash, swim through sinking, blazing wreckage nor an elevator ride down to an Art Deco paradise gone wrong on the sea floor. There is instead an abrupt awakening, a look into a reflecting pool that confirms, that, yes, I will be playing this game as a Big Daddy. And then, swiftly, there's combat. It is less artful, and it continued my worry, though that worry would soon end.

Jarring though the beginning of BioShock 2 may be, it is more with the gradual awakened clearing of the eyes that Rapture is revealed as a better-looking place this time. Outside the windows, the sea is now blue instead of green, its waters more clear and the sea-life around it more abundant and vivid. Graphical improvements are, I remembered as I began playing, a reasonable expectation even in the successor to something that was so good.

I'll stay light on story spoilers, and instead reveal the mood. Rapture is still a wreck, still one with wrecked lives in it. The city feels changed. Sofia Lamb, a psychiatrist brought in by BioShock's Andrew Ryan, is now a worshipped leader and apparently our nemesis within radio contact. On the attack, she sends splicers and the well-publicized Big Sister, a stalking seemingly invincible foe that leaps and springs through levels, only to be beaten back temporarily as was so many times the dark Samus in the sequel to Metroid Prime. There are friends within radio contact, but most of the character that emerges in the new game appears to do so in the same successful manner as it did in the first: From, literally, the writing on the walls of Rapture, from discarded radio logs, from the posture of corpses that reveal failed dreams and failed struggles.

Rapture as a place of wonder and as a trigger of player curiosity is back, successfully.

In the early going, being a Big Daddy feels different only in armament. On our right arm is a drill, a better melee weapon than a wrench. Soon, we earn well-animated guns, like a rivet gun and a 50-cal. Machine gun. On the left hand we earn plasmids, some of the same early ones as in the first game: Electric shocks and fire. New is the ability to dual-wield, which leads to the discovery of the shock/stun-and-shoot left-right combo. Even more useful is a hacking tool which can even, with the help of a rare type of dart, hack from afar. I played many fights from a distance, shooting a hacking needle into a turret and then hacking it so it would kill the enemies for me. Hacking, by the way, is no longer a puzzle game of pipes but a reflex test of well-timed button presses, like a gaming golf swing.

What's so winning in BioShock 2 is that, as it refrains early on from re-writing the rules of the first game, it instead amplifies that original's best aspects. It doesn't just look better or explore more of Rapture's interesting world, but it recognizes what played best in the first and does more of it.

There were two things that had played so well in the first BioShock.

The first, was the original game's linear sequences, passageways through Rapture's sights and sounds that allowed the player to absorb the history of the place and its people. This is best executed early in the sequel in an area called Ryan's Amusements, which is a theme park and museum that reintroduces and elaborates on Rapture's history, Ryan's philosophy and, as much of the place is defaced, on the views of those who rebelled against Ryan shortly before the first game began. Walking through this place makes evident the genius and madness of Rapture.

The second gameplay achievement in the first game was the dynamism of its combat, the offering to the player of numerous direct and indirect ways to fight. This was a key element, utilized when attempting to take down a Big Daddy. Players could fill a room with explosive traps, plan to electrify water when a Big Daddy might rush through it, and then begin shooting. The new game makes these tactics all the more available, thanks to the ability to hack from afar and with projectile-based trap ammo. The game requires this kind of play when a player prepares to take down a Big Daddy. It also requires it of them when the alert sounds that Big Sister is coming in for an attack. And, in a twist, it forces this kind of planned combat when a player has taken their own Little Sister to a corpse full of Adam energy. Placing her next to the body is prelude to setting the room up to defend against Splicer attack. Give her the signal to begin and they swarm. You have to keep her safe until she drains the energy. Then you can decide whether she is rescued or harvested. These types of planned offensive and defensive combat work so well, the designers of the new game clearly relishing the opportunity to let the player strategize and orchestrate organized chaos.

Earlier demos and hype for BioShock 2 showed off the ability to walk outside on the sea floor, and much has been made of the game's placement 10 years later in the timeline from the first. I did indeed walk on the sea floor in the new game, and while it was a beautiful sight, the sequence lasted too briefly for me to recognize any significant gameplay change it introduces. The plot is mostly still a mystery to me now, as it is intentionally unclear just why and how the player's Big Daddy, one of the original line, has been revived nor how some of the supporting characters who appear really relate to each other.

I started playing BioShock 2 worried that the inspired execution of the first BioShock would consign a sequel to being a pale imitation. It seems, though, that I had underestimated the room for technical improvement and gameplay refinement. I see little sign of re-invention and a lot of signs of love and polish. That love could smother, that fealty to the past could still render this game as superfluous. But in the early going, I am happily immersed in Rapture again, joyfully mystified as to what its inhabitants are up to, pleased with the way it plays and wanting to play more.

The first of these episodic downloads is Heavy Rain: Chronicle One – The Taxidermist, a self-contained story featuring Heavy Rain ensemble star Madison Paige. You may have seen The Taxidermist before, as it was the subject of many Heavy Rain previews, like the one we had at the Leipzig Games Convention in 2008.

According to official word, these "unique, stand-alone, playable short stories" will "offer a unique journey and different outcomes based on the players' decisions and actions." The PlayStation.blog puts a theoretical $4.99 price tag on these things, which may or may not affect your decision to pre-order the game.

Hit up the PlayStation.blog for a list of participating retailers if you're interest is piqued.

Pre-order Heavy Rain and Get The Heavy Rain Chronicles [PlayStation.blog]

According to Dan Hill, Sony's European Home Business Manager, "PlayStation Home is fast becoming the meeting place of choice between users and developers."

For developers, Hill explains, Home helps to drive interest in games by offering an interactive, hands-on experience built around the game itself. "A game space in PlayStation Home ought to be a core element of every studio's marketing strategy for new titles."

While Sony clocks in ten million registered Home users, new game spaces for Ratchet and Clank: A Crack In Time and Uncharted 2 have opened up virtual spaces in Home.

Public beta testing for Home began in late 2008.

So sign up now, if you're interested. But only if you would like to beta test the PC version, as Square Enix says "Details regarding recruitment for the PlayStation 3 version will be released at a later date."

And please be at least 18 years old. And have a Square Enix ID account (or sign up for one). And only apply once. Thank you.

Final Fantasy XIV Online Beta Test Application Site [FFXIV.com - thanks, many tipsters!]