Which brings us to the two latest titles in Sony's Greatest Hits range for the PS3, Saints Row 2 and WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2009. Both have just turned up on GameStop's site, and while a listing like that would normally only be good for a "rumour" post, both also have Great Hits box art, so these are a lock.

You can't buy them yet, but with listings up, you should be able to buy them soon.

You know, acting normal — for Gary Busey.

A Laughing Matter [Saints Row 2 via Shacknews]

Due on May 28, it'll introduce a new set of missions where you have to take on the Ultor Corporation, along with other stuff like new weapons, multiplayer maps and vehicles.

360 owners will be paying 560 MS Points, PS3 owners will be paying 7 Real World Dollars.

Uncle Gary's power is simply amazing. The man can take something as wonderful as attractive, scantily-clad women running around with guns and transform it into something stomach-churningly nauseating with a few simple gestures. Busey on his own isn't too bad. A digital representation of porn star Tera Patrick packing heat isn't too bad. Together they're like taking a big bite out of a jelly doughnut only to find it's filled with pickle relish.

The Saint's Row 2 Ultor Exposed DLC is now available on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 for $9.99 or 800 Microsoft points respectively.

And decided to recreate the drunken, naked rampage in Saints Row 2 by whipping up a custom-made Tsuyoshi Kusanagi (comparison images here — namely arrest photos). Click through the gallery below and see ding-dong free images of Tsuyoshi going bananas. Sorry, it's just not possible to render Tsuyoshi's SMAP.

This, of course, reminds us of the time Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi and his mustache appeared in Saints Rows. See, Saints Row is good for something!

SMAP草なぎ君の勇姿を「セインツ・ロウ2」で完全再現！ [はちま起稿]

The Saints Row 2: Ultor Exposed DLC will hit both the Xbox Live Marketplace and PlayStation Store next Thursday, bringing with it an all-new mission arc that features "special producer" Tera Patrick, an expert in adult situations. That might be her in the above image.

Also included in the purchase price (800 Microsoft Points/$9.99 USD) are new "new vehicles, multiplayer maps, customization options and a new co-op activity." THQ further explains thew new DLC as featuring "new hairstyles, clothing and costumes, along with new multiplayer maps for the Strong Arm and Gangsta Brawl multiplayer modes."

Dubbed Saints Row 2: Ultor Exposed, the DLC features three new missions, new vehicles, multiplayer maps and Tera Patrick. Developer James Torbit explains, "As a homie, you can call Tera up and she'll ride shotgun in any of the Saints Row 2 gameplay, and that's part of the fun."

In game, she won't be an adult video actress, but rather, a microbiologist. Patrick herself studied microbiology and was a registered nurse before going on to bigger things like pornography. The adult video actress, however, was able to put that microbiology degree to good use in flicks like Real Golden Showers. Consider it field work.

Saints Row 2: Ultor Exposed [Eurogamer via Giant Bomb]

The first is called "Ultor Exposed", and will be out on April 16. It will include three new missions, a new co-op game mode where you score points for carnage, and a few new maps, vehicles and weapons.

As for the other two pieces of DLC, there's no details at this point.

Ultor will be 800 MS Points/USD$10. Which, in the wake of Lost & Damned's smorgasbord of content, seems awfully steep.

Saints Row getting three DLC packs [Eurogamer]

In this clip from a recent episode, in which the son and daughter of the titular Tara—a woman with dissociative identity disorder resulting in four distinct personalities—wax on relationships, Volition's Saints Row 2 is being played as set dressing.

Why? Good question. Maybe it's just curious product placement. Or perhaps the line "Mug the prostitute, it's really funny!" just seemed out of place without it. Formulate your own fun theories after watching the clip!

Thanks for the heads up, Michael!

After scouring the internet for upwards of 45 minutes I managed to find 24 different publications that had finished drip-feeding their readers their particular choices for games of the year.

The result? A tie!

Adding up the list you come up with seven votes for Grand Theft Auto IV and seven votes for Fallout 3. Of course, I'm sure you can find other outlets I've overlooked to break or extend that tie.

What really matters is that Giant Bomb, Time Magazine and The New York Times agreed with us.

Fable II: (4) Joystiq, PETA, The Telegraph and X-Play

Fallout 3: (7) The Associated Press, Crispy Gamer, Gamasutra, GamesRadar, Gamespy, UGO and
Yahoo Games

Grand Theft Auto IV: (7) GameTrailers, Giant Bomb, Kotaku, The New York Times, Play, Spike TV's VGAs and
Time Magazine

Left 4 Dead: (1) Destructoid

LittleBigPlanet: (3) Edge, Eurogamer and GamePro

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots: (1) GameSpot

Saint's Row 2: (1) Zero Punctuation

Yes, along with your local PC game dealer, Saint's Row 2 is now available for download on the Steam Service for the low price of $39.99, which is of course $20 less console gamers had to pay, but hey...your rig cost more, didn't it? Especially if you beefed it up to meet the recommended system requirements.

I'm actually pondering picking up the PC version. I bought a copy for the Xbox 360 on release day, but my underage nephew who probably shouldn't have been playing it ended up leaving my apartment with it before I got a chance to play. Jerk.

Saint's Row 2 On Steam [Steam]

Posted on the game's official boards, here are both the minimum requirements and the recommended requirements:

Minimum Requirements:
- Windows XP / Vista
- 2.0 GHz Dual-Core Processor (Intel Core 2 Duo or AMD Athlon X2)
- 1 GB Available System Memory
- 15 GB Available Hard Drive Space
- 128 MB 3D Video Card w/Shader Model 3.0 Support (Nvidia GeForce 7600 / ATI Radeon X1300)
- DirectX Compatible Display Capable of 640x480 16-bit Color Resolution
- DirectX 9.0c Compatible 16-bit Sound Card
- Broadband Connection for Internet Multiplayer

Recommended Requirements:
- Windows XP / Vista
- 3.2 GHz Dual-Core Processor (Intel Core 2 Duo or AMD Athlon X2)
- 2 GB Available System Memory
- 256 MB 3D Video Card with Shader Model 3.0 Support (Nvidia GeForce 8800 / ATI Radeon HD3850)
- DirectX Compatible Display Capable of 1024x768 in 32-bit Color
- DirectX 9.0c Compatible 16-bit Sound Card
- Recommended System Requirements Required for 2-12 Player Multiplayer or Co-Op

While Saints Row 2 spent the year overshadowed by GTAIV on console, with the PC version of Rockstar's game crippled by technical problems, the door's open for Volition's title to take a little turf back.

Re: SOME NEWS on the PC version... [Saints Row]

There's another ad after the jump as well.

THQ will be keeping the PC version of Saints Row 2 under wraps a while longer to fix some outstanding control issues and give the whole thing a bit more spit 'n' polish, according to a post on the Saints Row forums.

According to forum moderator V-Singular, one reason for the delay is porting the control system to mouse/keyboard and allowing a suitable level of customization to the controls. The game will be released on January 6th 2009

Saints Row 2 PC Delayed to 2009 [IGN]

New York's powerful police unions say that a violent new video game called "Saints Row 2" is an abomination. In the game, the player controls a gang member who can steal, do drugs and kill as many characters as possible, including police officers.

Yesterday Manhattan District Attorney candidate Leslie Crocker-Snyder spoke out against the game, which I am positive she has never touched, but I am sure the police unions appreciated it and will put in a good word for her when voting comes around. I sigh.

New York Police Union Wants Video Game Pulled from Shelves [WPEC News 12 Now]

Hit the jump for the full list, lovingly extracted from table format by hand, the way grandpa used to do it.

K12

We Are Rockstars - Does It Offend You, Yeah?
Death Of A Moralist - Daniel Mansury
Don and Sherri - Matthew Dear
Give Me Every Little Thing - Juan Maclean
North American Scum - LCD Soundsystem
Sexy Results - Death From Above
Special Effect - TRS-80
Street Justice - MSTRKRFT
Over and Over - Hot Chip
Through The Hosiery - Crystal Castles
Crossover Appeal - Guns N Bombs

Funk

Love Fades - Amnesty
Trespasser - Bad Medicine
Gotta Get Your Love - Chocolate Star
Keep Running - Cliff Nyren
Drugs Ain't Cool - Ebony Rhythm Band
Street Scene - Leon Mitchison
You Can Be A Star - Luther Davis Group
Wake Up Pt. 1 & 2 - Pure Essence
Look What You've Done To Me - Sheila Skipworth
Funky In Here - Dayton Sidewinders
Put A Smile On Time - The Rhythm Machine
The Cissy's Thang - The Soul Seven
Don't Get Discouraged - UPC Allstars

Krunch

Anthem - Trivium
Bat Country - Avenged Sevenfold
Colony of Birchmen - Mastodon
Milk Lizard - Dillinger Escape Plan
Nothing Left - As I Lay Dying
Ghosts of Perdition - Opeth
Stars - Hum
Resurrection - Chimaira
Unsung - Helmet
What A Horrible Night To Have A Curse - The Black Dahlia Murder
Redneck - Lamb Of God
Deadly Sinners - 3 Inches of Blood
Barnburner - The Agony Scene
Woman - Wolfmother

Underground

And She Would Darken… - The Twilight Sad
Cheer It On - Tokyo Police Club
Dead Friends = The Saps
Don't Call It A Ghetto… - Architects
Every Single Line Means Something - Marnie Stern
For Real - Okkervil River
Hazel Street - Deerhunter
Here's Your Future - The Thermals
Shoot The Runner - Kasabian
Western Biographic - Bound Stems
Call In The Debts - South Street
Terror - The Rakes
House Of Cards - Shipwreck
Third Gear Scratch - Shiner

GenX

All That I've Got - The Used
Lying Is the Most Fun… - Panic At The Disco
Rock And Roll Queen - The Subways
Teenagers - My Chemical Romance
Hate ( I Really Like You) - Plain White T's
Hole In the Earth - Deftones
Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is - Jet
Knights - Minus The Bear
Let Me In - Hot Hot Heat
Makedamnsure - Taking Back Sunday
Face Down - Red Jump Suit Apparatus
Coat of Arms - The Life and Times
What You Need - Galactic
Misery Business - Paramore

Krhyme

Trick Me - Kelis
One Thing aka 1 Thing - Amerie Featuring Eve
Tell Me Bout It - Joss Stone
Fandango / DJ Quik Feat. B-Real
So Sick / Ne Yo
Me & You / Cassie
Hands Up / Lloyd Banks
New York State of Mind / Nas
Gangsta Bitch / Apache
Sucker MCs / Run DMC
Ridin In That / Wale
Twinz / Big Pun Feat. Fat Joe
What A Thug About / Beanie Sigel
Good Girl / Chrisette Michelle
I Luv It / Young Jeezy

The Mix:
Down Under / Men At Work
Karma Chameleon / Culture Club
Pretty In Pink / Psychedelic Furs
Take On Me / A-Ha
The Reflex / Duran Duran
Don't You (Forget About Me) / Simple Minds
Out of Touch / Hall & Oates
Sister Christian / Night Ranger
Everybody Wants To Rule The World / Tears For Fears
Everybody's Working For The Weekend / Loverboy
The Final Countdown / Europe

420:
Hey Boy / Buju Banton
Stop the Fussing and Fighting / Dennis Brown
Boom ShakA Tak / Born Jamaicans
Who Am I? / Beenie Man
Ganja Smuggling / Eek-A-Mouse
Guns Out / Ninjaman
Heads High / Mr. Vegas
Here I Come / Barrington Levy
Krazy / Elephant Man
Picture This / Vybz Cartel
Murder She / Chaka Demus & Pliers

The World:
Over The Moor To Maggie / Greg Knowles and Mike Taylor
El Viento En La Isla / Liza Carbe and Jean Pierre Durand
Bangara Dance / Ravi Shani
Zahrat El Sahra / Roger Abaji
The Drunkard's Song / Viktor Mastoridis
Schenkt's Ma Mal Was Boarisch / Karl Barthel
Mountain Hut Landler / Martin Beeler
Mandilatos / Robin Jeffrey
Mambo De Fito / Liza Carbe and Jean Pierre Durand
Hungarian Sundance / Friedrich Sehl
Humours of Glen Dart / Greg Knowles and Mike Taylor
Hot Nights / John Leach
Gypsy Dance / Laszlo Borteri
Good Morning Polka / Jan Schneeberg
Friss A Rozsa / Niko Radic
Emerald Jig / Ian Clarke and Simon Painter
Drumjig / Greg Knowles and Mike Taylor
Connaught Chase / Greg Knowles and Mike Taylor
Cigany / Niko Radic
Barasilian Fiesta / Claudia Figueroa, Forbes Henderson, Tony Hinnigan, and Martin Taylor
Baidoushka / Robin Jeffrey

Klassic:
Coppelia Ballet Suite, Act 1, No. 1 / Leo Delibes
Water Music Suite No. 1 in F Major / Handel
Sleeping Beauty Waltz / Tchaikovsky
Nutcracker Suite / Tchaikovsky
Hungarian Dance No. 5 / Brahms
Arrival Of The Queen Of Sheba / Handel
Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 / Bach
Concerto No. 4 in A / Bach
Eine Cleine Nachtmusik / Mozart
Four Seasons No. 1 - The Spring / Vivaldi
Four Seasons No. 2 - The Summer / Vivaldi
Haffner Serenade No. 7 in D Major / Mozart
Moonlight Sonata (First Movement) / Beethoven
Music for the Royal Fireworks / Handel
Peer Gynt Suite No. 1 - Anitra's Dance / Grieg
Ride of the Valkyries / Wagner
String Quartet in G Major - 2nd Movement / Mozart
Symphony no. 40 - 1st Movement / Mozart
Symphony no. 5 in C Minor - Allegro Con Brio / Beethoven
Symphony no. 5 in C Minor - Allegro / Beethoven
Toccata and Fugue in D Minor / Bach
Water Music Suite No. 1 in F Major - Overture / Handel
Marriage of Figaro - Overture / Mozart
Peer Gynt Suite No. 1 - In The Hall of the Mountain King / Grieg

Ezzzy:
Naughty But Nice / Walt Rockman
Marvellous Singers Remix / Marc Durst and Laurent Lombard
Love For Life / Sammy Burdson and John Charles Fiddy
Kalamazoo Style / Olivier Andres and Christian Seguret
Just Strolling Along / Sammy Burdson and John Charles Fiddy
Coconuts / Gerhard Narholz
Dancing On The Avenue / John Cacavas
Dolce Vita / Bruno Bertoli
Face To Face / Sammy Burdson
A Girl Like You / Norman Candler
Jarabe Tapatio / Carlos Periguez
Tooba Boogie / Otto Sieben
Walkie Talkie / Gerhard Narholz
Whistle Happy / Colin Baldry and Tom Kane
Tchoupa Twist / Nicolas Folmer
A Sunny Day In Heidelberb / Horst Jankowski
Swing Paname / Angel Debarre
Stereo Cha Cha / Umberto Pagnini
Colonie Celeste / Jean-Jacques Perrey
A Cielito Lindo / Carlos Periguez
Chanson Pour Toi / Alfred Jack
Bossa Cubana / Gerhard Narholz
Berg Und Tal / Gerhard Narholz
Bachelor Samba / Marc Durst

So why, then, do I suddenly love Saints Row 2? Drop-in, drop-out co-op. I sincerely believe that this can make any game –- no matter how horrible -– fun.

Luckily, Saints Row 2 isn’t horrible. Set aside the part where it’s a gangster shoot-em-up; that either is your thing or it isn’t. Focus on the fact that the game has all the fundamentals every action game needs: fine-tuned controls, solid graphics, a decent combat system, and a map that actually tells you where you are and where you need to be. Tack onto that the detailed customization and a pretty jumpin’ soundtrack, and it’s easy to see Saints Row 2 has put in the effort to be something besides a Grand Theft Auto “me too” game.

I jumped into a system linked 360 co-op game with Randy Nelson of Joystiq – two great gaming blogs, together at last. We were both given the chance to construct our characters (he made a very butch version of himself, I made a bearded Dr. Girlfriend gone very much to seed) and then the game dropped us in the single-player storyline. Everything from single-player carries over into online multiplayer and co-op. The customization, the cutscenes, the frame rate – everything. Moreover, in co-op, you’re not tethered to the player hosting the game – so you can go anywhere and do pretty much anything the same as you would if you were playing alone.

This makes co-op both easier and harder. On the upside, you’ve got someone with you to help out in massive brawls – and they can revive you by pouring a 40 over your corpse, should you get gunned down. They can also range farther and wider, collecting cash and scouting out places to rob while another player completes objectives. This carries over in team multiplayer modes; especially the much-vaunted “Strong Arm” mode, which I’ll get to in a sec.

The downside of co-op is: you’ve got to keep track of who’s doing what, who’s protecting the VIP in this mission, who’s driving…

Oh my God, did you just shoot the store clerk while I was buying clothes? Now we’ve got the cops after us again and I’m not wearing any pants! (This is what I did to Randy after about an hour of trying to outrun the cops in a tow truck – he spent the rest of the game running around in a basketball jersey and tighty whities.)

Really – I dig the customization in Saints Row 2. You might remember me going on about the fat avatars in Aion: Tower of Eternity; if not, let me just say I salute any game that can make a person really look fat instead of a bigger version of skinny. Saints Row 2 lets you run the gamut all the way from emaciated to morbidly obese. I also heart games that understand how women are built; maybe it was just my ignorance, but it seemed like the only feature on my Dr. Girlfriend’s body I couldn’t control the size or color of with a slide was her bust. If I made her fat, her tits became huge and saggy. If I chose the emaciated body model, there weren’t much way of tits at all on her. This, to me, is a mark of good game design. ‘Cuz let me tell you fellas, your girl starts losing weight and the boobs are the first thing to go…

But I digress. I did that a lot in co-op. Randy would kick open a door and run toward the gate to perform the prison break objective and I would get sidetracked by something sparkly (usually a Taser wielded by a prison guard). Or he’d get in the police car to drive off and I’d run ahead, shooting wildly at helicopters.

This of course resulted in us failing the prison break mission, like, 10 times. Even when Randy could prevail upon me to follow him instead of running off in the wrong direction, we kept getting our escort killed, or exploding our escape car as we crashed into shit. Rather, *I* crashed into shit – or some strange bug got my character stuck against the side of the car and Randy crashed into me. And then, periodically, Randy would get dragged out of the car by a cop for a beatdown, and then I’d get in the car, run the cop (and Randy) over and then explode, presumably from crashing into something I didn’t see. That or Randy’s avatar was made of napalm.

But strangely, we didn’t seem to mind the multiple failures. And that could have been the booze served at the event or the swanky setting – but I really think that the experience of trying to cooperate with someone in the same room as you is pretty hilarious, what with all the yelling and the swearing.

Which is why Saints Row 2 is a good game to play with your girlfriend: it’s a game you can share.

Now – about the Strong Arm online mode… This is the culmination of Volition’s lofty ideal of having a multiplayer mode that encompassed all types of multiplayer modes. They wanted to take “protect the VIP,” treasure-hunting, point-capturing (and so on) and roll it into one giant mode that focused on teamwork as well as being a badass motherfucker in your own right. To that end, you’re put on a team of 4 versus another team of 4 and sent into a city filled with neighborhoods ripe for the conquering. You start off quickly with an activity – say, capturing points on the map by tagging them with your gang logo. Once an activity is completed, you earn money. You earn more money the more activities you complete, and you can also earn cash by killing your opponents on the rival team. As you gain more money, more activities become available and your team will be participating in everything from drag racing to target practice. And don’t forget to defend your tagged spots – that’s an ongoing activity, as far as I can tell.

Strong Arm is part of a series of updates the dev team made to the online modes offered in the original Saints Row. Other improvements include a lobby that’s easier to get to (you can move around in it and stuff – apparently, if someone talks smack to you in the lobby, you can go up to them and shoot them); a 12 rank progression system (everyone starts off at New Jack); and a Badge system that works similarly to Team Fortress 2 (you shoot people in the head a lot and you get the “Brain Surgeon” badge).

The bottom line is: Saints Row 2 is a bigger, louder, more in-depth Saints Row. The new online modes are icing on the cake for fans of the first game; and the co-op is the gateway for non-believers to discover the joy of running over hookers with cars.

The game is slated for release on PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 October 14th in North America.

Not content with infesting hundreds of video games of their own, the Zombie horde has slowly shuffled onto the back lot of the Gang-related sequel Saints Row 2 for a fully-3D mini game.

Pop into one of the game's many arcades and you should find a Zombie coin-op that uses the main game's 3D engine to pit you (actually, your avatar's avatar, I suppose) against an army of undead brain-chompers, like a Left 4 Dead-lite.

What could be better than this? Two things - first, if Rockstar take up the challenge and implement GTA IV in an in-game console in GTA V. Second, two words — Zombie Busey.

Saints Row 2 Hands-On - Story, Co-op, and Zombies [Gamespot]