Oh D3Publisher, you have such perfect timing. After a week spent flying across the country, running around a semi-crowded convention hall on little if any sleep, and getting so deep in gaming that I have waking dreams about upcoming titles, there is nothing I need more than a little mindless Puzzle Quest goodness, and you're delivering. The Xbox Live Arcade expansion pack for Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords is hitting tomorrow, bringing with it four new classes (Bard, Rogue, Ranger, and Warlock), more that 25 new quests, 50 new spells, and 40 new magical items. Subtitled Revenge of the Plague Lord, the expansion opens up an all new Southern map as players discover that Lord Bane had a brother, and he's pissed. All this plus a new level cap of 60 and three new achievements, all for 700 Microsoft points. Thank goodness.

D3 Publisher: Boobs, Sheep, and Aliens, Oh My!

Galactrix, Puzzle Quest's sci-fi spin-off, looks to be a pretty impressive step-up from the original Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlods that took everyone, including the developers, by surprise.

This time around the puzzle game will have a full storyline penned by a professional writer, rather than something dreamed up by the development staff. The game opens after a scientific accident provokes an alien race to try and exterminate humanity. As with Challenge of the Warlords, players create a character who gains skills, craft items, and in this case, upgrades their space fleet and deals with political factions.

The new hexagonal puzzle board now drops uses gravity, based on a player's location in the universe, to determine how to drop pieces as others are cleared. The game will also include a set of new mini-games that has you hacking jumpgates, negotiating with other factions, trading commodities and collection blueprints.

My very short time with the game gave me a glimpse of the new game board and, as with Trism, the new gravity-specific gameplay adds a whole other level of complexity to the game. I'm sure I'll end up being just as addicted to Galactrix as I was to Warlords when it finally hits.

D3 Publisher's E3 Line Up - Onechanbara And Friends

After announcing that they're bringing the bikini-clad, cowboy hat-wearing, zombie shooting Onechanbara to North America yesterday, does D3 Publisher have any other games featured at E3 that really matter? I suppose it depends on who you ask. Me? I'm excited about Puzzle Quest: Galactrix for Live Arcade, DS, and PC, but I am the puzzly sort. Anime fans might enjoy Naruto: Clash of the Ninja Revolution 2 for the Wii, though I'd say we're all wishing they'd just advance the storyline already and give us some new characters in the states. Same with Path of the Ninja 2 for the DS. The new Bangai-O Spirits certainly isn't anything to sneeze at. Ben 10: Alien Force? Shaun the Sheep?

I suppose once you announce a game where a scantily clad woman gets splattered with zombie blood the rest of your line up looks a bit pale by comparison.

Capcom Wants Bay-Area Gamers For Secret Game Test

Capcom is hunting for Bay-Area gamers to come to their secret lair and test out a super-secret game, eat potential cookies, and be showered with prizes, all in the name of focus testing. Their requirements are quite meager:

-18 years old (or older), with valid ID
-interested in action, puzzle, and strategy games.
-in the SF Bay Area and free July 10th, from 1-5pm.
-able to travel to the aforementioned fabulous Capcom HQ on your own.

A secret puzzle action strategy game plus prizes and maybe cookies? I could not think of a better way to spend an afternoon. Hit the link for how you can get a chance to do these secret things they wish you to do.

Bay-Area Gamers: Capcom Wants You! [Capcom Blog]

Roogoo Now In Delicious PC Flavor

SouthPeak's Xbox Live Arcade adorable bear-creature puzzler Roogoo is now available for the PC wherever fine PC games are sold. Released earlier this month via Xbox Live, Roogoo is addictive as it is cute. Just ask SouthPeak CRO Melanie Mroz.

"Roogoo is a fun, family friendly puzzle game that is as addictive as it is cute," said Melanie Mroz, CEO of SouthPeak Games. "Not only does the game get progressively more challenging to play, but it also gets harder and harder to put down."

The PC version, which retails for $19.95 (boxes aren't free!), and features all 45 levels of the XBLA version, as well as split-screen multiplayer. Awww, remember back when we used to play multiplayer games together on the PC? We were such dorks back then.

The Making Of Puzzle Farter

You may remember our link regurgitation of Puzzle Farter last week, Pet Tomato's debut platformer featuring a farting mechanic that really resonates. Mike Nowak of The-Inbetween, whom we regularly check in with for interesting things, briefly interviewed half the Puzzle Farter team, providing great insight into the Flash-based freebie.

It touches on all manner of interesting topics, such as character design challenges ("We go to the bar.") and plans for the future ("...the next version will also allow people to create and submit levels.") that Puzzle Farter fans will find rewarding. If not, maybe you'll just give the game another go or for the very first time.

Inside ‘Puzzle Farter’ [The-InBetween]

'Why User Generated Content Matters' (For Some)

Pet Tomato's debut indie game Puzzle Farter is as high brow as you probably suspect it is. And if you're still amused by the sound of passing wind as we are, you'll probably find it endlessly amusing, even if the gameplay is rather straightforward. There's not much puzzling to be done, but the farting comes through in spades. No, there's no music and Puzzle Farter is more of a platformer than it is a traditional puzzle game—it's more like N with ninja-strength gas—so I guess we're both guilty of misleading titles.

Puzzle Farter [via del.icio.us]

It's official you can start downloading games to your iPhone starting in July with the launch of App Store.

The App Store will be part of the iPhone 2.0 firmware update that is free to iPhone users, but $10 for iTouch owners. That's right, Apple is charging for a firmware update.

Why should you care if you own an iPhone or iTouch? Spore, Trism, Galga, Pacman and maybe, just maybe Puzzle Quest. Also there are the games announced at the beginning of the conference.

Games can be downloaded by cell connection if they are less than 10 MB and via WiFi if greater than 10MB.

So far it looks like games will run for $10 a pop, though it will ultimately be up to the developers to set prices. Apple keeps 30 percent of the revenues. If the dev decides to give the game away there is no charge at all from Apple.

Stay tuned here for other gaming news coming out of WWDC today and if you're looking for a deeper, more in-depth look at the whole show make sure to catch Gizmodo's amazing live coverage of the conference.

Capcom Giving Neopets The Puzzle Quest Treatment

Capcom, Neopets, and Puzzle Quest creators Infinite Interactive are teaming up to deliver a new Neopet title to the Nintendo Wii, DS, and PC this holiday season, Neopets Puzzle Adventure. It combines the cute collectibility of Neopets characters with...puzzles...and quests. Rather than the Bejewelliabaise we are used to in the PQ universe, the Neopets puzzles will be based on the classic board game Reversi.

Capcom is working to expand the breadth of our catalog to gamers of all ages in North America and Neopets is a perfect brand for us to bring to casual and family gamers,” said Germaine Gioia, senior vice president, licensing, Capcom Entertainment. “Combining Capcom’s experience, the rich world of Neopets, and Infinite Interactive’s skills in the puzzle/adventure genre makes a perfect match.”

It sounds like a terrifyingly addictive mix actually, and I personally know several combination Puzzle Quest / Neopet addicts that are probably hyperventilating as they read this. Add the fact that the games will feature unlockable codes for exclusive items on the Neopets website, various mini-fames, and 150 different petpets, and this is a game that has already sold several thousand copies. Hit the jump for the full scoop.

Puzzle Quest Needs YOU (If You Live In LA)

D3Publishing is looking for a few good gamers. They're looking for folks who live in Los Angeles and own Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords on any platform to help them focus test the next game in the PQ franchise, which I believe is Puzzle Quest: Galatrix... or maybe it's Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords - Revenge of the Plague Lord. Hey maybe it's some super secret iPhone Puzzle Quest, I'm not really sure.

If you're interested hit up the jump to read the details and email Lisa over at Mind of the Gamer.

Puzzle Quest 1.5 Gets Named, Detailed

After asking fans of the Puzzle Quest franchise to name their new expansion pack, D3 was inundated with more than 500 suggestions. Today they settled on the name Quest: Challenge of the Warlords - Revenge of the Plague Lord.

The runners-up names were Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords - Sorceress of Malbec and Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords - The Scourge of Antharg.

Revenge of the Plague Lord will be hitting Xbox Live arcade this spring and include four new hero professions: bard, rogue, ranger and warlock, as well as a new area on teh Southern Map which includes more than 25 new quests, 50 new spells and 40 new magical items.

The expansion pack has players taking on Antharg, the Lord of Plague and brother of Lord Bane.

Yesterday I whined a bit about the lack of original announced titles coming to the iPhone. Specifically, very specifically, I called out Infinite Interactive, asking why they haven't jumped onto the iPhone bandwagon yet.

We all know the world can't get enough Puzzle Quest... well, at least I can't get enough of it. And the thought of being able to play the very touch-perfect puzzle RPG on my iPhone gives me goosebumps. So after my little hint didn't result in any immediate announcement of an iPhone Puzzle Quest or Galaxtrix, I took matters into my own hands and emailed Infinite Interactive to see what was up.

Janeen Fawkner, producer on the game was quick to respond:

Puzzle Quest: Galactrix Gallery

The announcement of the new Puzzle Quest game, Galactrix has fans of the original game all aflutter. So to add to the excitement, I present you with this gallery of screen shots and some of the space ship concept art. I'm really liking the slick interface and the improved challenge of the "gravity" based movement of the pieces is going to make it one brain twister of a game.