CBS' iconic Road to the Final Four and March Madness presentation is paired with ESPN's signature college basketball, and both announcing teams will call an offense of back cuts and ball reversals familiar to fired-up gyms in the dead of winter. But can NCAA Basketball 10 deliver a game just as compelling as the sport's annual Cinderella stories?

Loved
Men in Motion: This year's big gameplay innovation involves implementing the motion offense, which is to college basketball what the option is to college football - versatile, team-oriented and not really used in the professional league. NCAA Basketball 10 offers what appears to be a head-spinning variety of motion sets, but it's easy enough to implement them. You'll bring the ball up in a base motion offense and then by touching the left bumper (or L1) initiate the play. Your teammates then start cutting across the half court, with passing indicators either grayed or lit depending on whether they're open for the pass. Timing is a big key, and it takes a few games to learn how to hit your man right as his icon becomes lit; just waiting for a full color indicator results in a lot of standing around. The responsiveness can be frustrating at times - direct pass control can often zip passes completely across the half-court no problem, while a skip pass inside in the motion offense suddenly becomes a turnover because the indicator goes gray when you don't expect it. Still, getting the hang of the motion does deliver satisfying thrills unique to this style of game. Seeing your man curl off a screen to the top of the key, hitting him in stride and dropping the dagger three exemplifies the character of the college game, and indeed sets NCAA 10 apart from its pro sibling NBA Live.

Prime-Time Performer: Much has been made of this game's use of both ESPN and CBS's broadcast packages, and with slight quibbles they live up to the hype. The CBS "heartbeat" graphic opens that package over a black screen, followed by a cut to the network's title graphics, iconic theme song, and Gus Johnson introducing the arena and the competitors. ESPN's Brad Nessler, Dick Vitale and Erin Andrews return as voice talents but are accompanied by that network's graphics and theme music too. It instantly took me to a sports bar on a Wednesday night in January. Nessler and Vitale, as veterans, have a deeper script and provide the truest broadcast. I straight up enjoy anything Nessler does and Vitale is tolerable because, frankly, he's in a recording studio and doesn't have a specific coach (or two) with an ass for him to kiss all game long, the worst aspect of his schtick. Johnson does a great job delivering his inflections and his excitement in the situations you'd expect to hear it. Unfortunately, he and Bill Raftery are rookies and as such, go into repetition earlier than Vitale and Nessler. The wipes and graphics are true to life for both networks, although they sometimes hang before going back to the action. Shooters go to the free-throw line with a biography box, complete with a major, again, just like on television. I love it that the announcers talk about going to a commercial, over highlight footage or a sideline cinematic, when you call a timeout. The CBS Selection Sunday show is minimal but an utterly necessary touch, and it's always fun seeing another bracket and rating other teams' shot at the Final Four in addition to your own. In all, these features deliver a verisimilitude that will definitely fire you up at least the first few times you see it, and is always enjoyable.

Hated
That's All Folks?: The motion offense and the broadcast presentation, though both are substantial, are it, unfortunately, as far as gameplay and experience changes from NCAA Basketball 09. The dynasty mode is basically a carbon copy from the previous year and, disappointingly, its schedules out of the box are not authentic, and must wait for a patch on Tuesday to fix these. That will be when EA Sports rolls out the game's first Dynamic Update, new to this year. It is similar in basis to NBA Live's Dynamic DNA, in that it will provide the updated, current state of college basketball as a context for your singleplayer dynasty, with a real world Top 25 and RPI and announcer commentary responding to those numbers. There's no superstar career mode, although I know how much effort this would take to create as it has no analogue in NBA Live. Online play has one head-to-head mode and no online dynasty, which is now integrated into every other major sports title. If anything needed at least an online tournament mode, it would have to be NCAA Basketball, but its multiplayer capabilities remain previous-gen.

AI Doesn't Play Smart: NCAA 10 is still fundamentally the NBA Live engine, right down to the harebrained AI your players and the computer's will exhibit. Too many passes go to a man standing with a foot out of bounds to be acceptable. The opposing offense will inexplicably dribble down its clock and get locked into passing back-and-forth rather than attacking the basket. I've seen both on display in NBA 10. There also isn't much of a post-up offense to speak of, looking like a NBA Live 10 with its post mechanics stripped out before they were patched back in. In truth I didn't notice it that much because I was lobbing into the high post mostly to distribute the ball to a cutter, occasionally going one-on-one with a baby hook. You'll definitely want to bias the sliders toward more fouls at lower difficulties or shorter time lengths, as not enough are committed and when the CPU starts using them for clock management, it'll often have five or more to give before you go to the line. I also had issues with the point guard coming back to take the inbounds pass after a made basket, sometimes taking off for the wing immediately but looking back, I could have had some bizarre three-guard offense put in at the time.

Mild Manners: For a game with such polish in its presentation, what it's "broadcasting" comes off somewhat bland. There are too many generic looking players, and too many generic arenas for its mid-major teams and in tournament play. Over the course of a long season, the broadcast novelty will wear off and the games will start seeming to blur into one. For players, there are some 800 faces to choose from in create-a-player mode but the body types seem restricted to just a few templates. Until you build a familiarity with your roster it's hard to pick out key players because height in the college game, with 6-9 centers and 6-4 forwards, is not as matched to a position as it is in the pros. While all schools in the major conferences have their home arenas represented, tournament sites are generic until you reach the Final Four, and even then, the dimensions seem a lot more cramped than what you're used to seeing on the television. Also, I'm disappointed that the crowd and the commentary in tournament play seems to favor the designated home team as if it were a regular season game. College basketball has a rich tradition of tournament crowds kicking in for the underdog if they're close, or leading, late in a game. And overall, rather than the sustained jet-engine intensity peculiar to college arenas, the crowd's emotion rises and falls in waves, and cuts in inconsistently.

NCAA Basketball 10 is an odd duck to recommend. For a casual basketball fan with a lot of school pride, it's very entertaining, very accessible, and even educational in how it teaches you the basic college offenses. It's also a less complicated game to master than NCAA Football, so someone nostalgic for his campus days will be winning bragging rights faster here. Hardcore hoops junkies will at least want to see the motion offense and the CBS and ESPN packages, and will need more than a rental period to cut down the nets.

It's for the sports gamer or the basketball fan in the middle - not wed to a particular school or team, nor that fixated on offensive strategy - where NCAA 10 might fail to hold someone's attention. Of course, you don't have to run your offense through half-court motion sets. You can use a straight-up pick and roll, or drive and kick all by yourself. For those who prefer to play this way, it will feel very much like a reskinned NBA Live 10. And if there's anything bemoaned in the college game, it's the one-season mercenary who's already thinking of the pro game. NCAA Basketball 10 is likewise a fine performer that uses up its eligibility too soon.

NCAA Basketball 10 was developed by EA Sports Vancouver and published by Electronic Arts for the PS3 and Xbox 360 on Nov. 17. Retails for $59.99 USD. A copy of the game was given to us by the publisher for reviewing purposes. Played all game types in both single and multiplayer modes.

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I'm not saying we confuse the realities, necessarily, although anyone who's completed his third season of a dynasty in any simulation can be forgiven for wandering into an alternate reality. "My star linebacker, Rocky Doss, was lost for the season with a broken leg today," my friend Dav, playing his fifth season as Air Force's head coach, told me a few years ago. "And honestly, I really felt sorry for the guy. He was in the second game of his senior year."

Andy Hutchins, who writes The Arena sees things in just such a way. I went to him a week ago with this Greatest Sports Moments idea. He immediately rolled off an AP-style lede, complete with a quote. And to be fair, if I took Northwestern to a national championship, I'd probably be hallucinating, too:

The nation's top two scoring offenses entered the BCS National Championship Game expecting pyrotechnics. But it was Tim Vincent and the Northwestern defense that proved more explosive, leading the Wildcats to a 17-14 win and their third straight national title.

Vincent, the NCAA's all-time sack leader, harassed Oklahoma's signal callers all game, sending two to the sidelines with injuries on his two sacks, and the Wildcats' defense gave up no points after the first quarter, holding the Sooners to just 143 yards of total offense.

"I've been a part of three special teams and three special defenses here at Northwestern," Vincent said. "What this defense did tonight makes this the sweetest win we've had."

So in this spirit, I asked around for some folks' top moments in sports video gaming. They follow below, with mine going last. Of course, feel free to share your own in the comments, and I'll excerpt some of them into this column in an update later today.

Steve Noah, Operation Sports (MLB 09 The Show)

I like to create myself in a lot of games, just to see how accurate the game is, compared to my real life, uh, non-existent professional career.

This time it was baseball, playing MLB 09 The Show. Building myself into a cyber-steroid emerging uber-talent was hard. But after a few years, I was eventually plugged into the starting lineup of the San Francisco Giants. Even though I had a great average with good power and speed, I wasn't what you'd call clutch.

It seemed like every imaginable time I had runners in scoring position, during the season or in the playoffs, when the team needed me the most, I would choke, crumble and let them down. Every single time. I'd dribble it off the plate, pop it up or just strike out at the most important time of the game.

That is, until Game 7 of the World Series. Steve Noah, "Mr. Choke Job" himself, stepped up to the plate, bases loaded, bottom of the ninth with one out, trailing 6-3. It was something kids daydream about when growing up. On a 3-1 count, the count that I would usually jump all over, only to see disappointment, I hit a 390 foot home run to win the game! I was jumping up and down, screaming and yelling like I actually did this in real life. Like I was a kid again, like a professional baseball player, living a dream. OK, maybe not. But damn, did it feel good, and to do it against the Yankees was icing on the cake.

Commenter "Michael Dukakis" (MLB 08 The Show)It all began as a baseball conversation among friends. With two Mets fans, two Yankees fans, and a Red Sox fan no matter how civil the discussion began,it always quickly devolved into something similer to the Dawn of Man scene from 2001: A Space Odyssey. So as our "discussion" continued it came to a bet. Me and one of the Yankee fans 1 on 1 MLB 08, $10 to the winner and of course, bragging rights. I, the Mets and he of course, the Yankees.

Before I was even settled in the La-Z-Boy a Derek Jeter home run makes it 1-0. No biggie, Carlos Delgado immediately homered and I was right back in it. The 1-1 tie held until the top of the 8th, when Jeter smacked a two-run double (Pixelated Aaron Heilman, my starter, was just as bad as his counterpart apparently).

Mariano Rivera began warming up, due to face the bottom of my lineup. My first two batters were retired on strikeouts. But a walk to a pinch-hitter and a base hit gets me in business. Rivera goes to full count on my next hitter and then walks him. That brough up Carlos Beltran, with the bases loaded.

Now this was a year ago so I can't quite remember the exact pitch sequence, but I remember the last pitch. Oh what a shot it was, clearly into the virtual parking lot. The gloating and $10 mine. That is my greatest sports video game moment ... and sadly, probably one of the biggest wins any Mets team has had in quite a while.

Jim Harris, Operation Sports (NHL 94)

As a teenager growing up in Winnipeg in the early '90s, to say we were preoccupied with NHL 94 would be the understatement to end all understatements. We played it when we were bored. We played it when we were avoiding homework. We played it to determine our social standing and our own sense of self worth. My younger brother and I were especially transfixed. We spent hours and hours battling it out in one fictional seven-game series after the next.

Having played the game so much, we were essentially equally skilled. If we played 100 times, he might win 51 games to my 49 (but I'd probably win six of the 11 ensuing fistfights).

One particular seven-game series still stands as my favorite sports moment. Having gone back and forth over the course of a particularly tense series, we finally entered Game 7. Much to my chagrin, my brother got the best of me that game, building up a comfortable lead over the course of the first two periods. When the horn sounded to end the second period, the taunting began. He started ripping into me like only a younger brother could. I was finally getting my comeuppance.

Then something strange happened. Singing a happy victory song at the top of his lungs, he danced his way right out of the room. After a moment, I realized he'd mistakenly thought the game was over. At that point, I did the only thing that was right to do: I turned down the volume on the TV and played out the third period against an absent opponent. I called my brother back into the room to politely alert him to his oversight, just as the third period wound down.

As I recall, he didn't take it too well ...

Owen Good (Hardball!)

This is from 1992, after my freshman year of college. By now I had been playing Hardball! on a Commodore 64 with a Wico Command Control joystick for close to five years. We'd gotten it from our next door neighbor, who was the software buyer for the catalog showroom store in town. He'd been sent a bunch of samples and regularly passed them along to us.

Somewhere around my sophomore year of high school I began keeping box scores on notebook paper in a three ring binder. I could routinely log a 10-run, 20-hit game against the computer, and with the right pitcher, toss an 18-strikeout shutout.

But never a no-hitter. I was Hardball!'s Dave Steib - the Toronto Blue Jays pitcher who twice took a no-hitter to the final out only to lose it. In this case, I was convinced the game's AI was rigged to assure you never threw a perfect game against it. Repeatedly - it must have been half a dozen times, minimum - I would record the first 26 outs and get to two strikes on the game's final hitter, who would then drop an unplayable flare just over the third baseman's head. No matter where positioned the infield or the outfield, they couldn't get to it in time.

So that summer in 1992, I sat down to play Hardball! on a Saturday. I took the Champs' screwballer, Pepi Perez (with the deceptive 5.47 ERA) up against the All-Stars (the only other team in the game.) Sure enough, I powered through the first eight innings without a runner reaching base.

In the ninth inning, after getting two outs, I figured the perfect game had been proven an impossibility, but I was not going to waste a no-hitter. So I decided to pitch around the final batter and see if I could get the next hitter.I threw every ball out of the strike zone, just to see how committed the game was to screwing me. The computer swung at two pitches and looked at the rest, running the count to 3-2. I delivered the final one low and outside, absolutely intent on walking the computer.

It hit the ball directly to my third baseman, who didn't have to move. He caught the ball for the final out. I'd finally thrown a perfect game in Hardball! I turned off the computer and never played the game again.

Update: More Reader Memories

Marcus Stephenson, (Producer, EA Sports Vancouver; Madden NFL 08)

To pass the time, I was a store manager at Game Crazy, and we were on a conference call. I hear this voice on the phone say "If anyone wants to play me at Madden for money, let me know." I spoke up, since my background is Madden (owned Maddenmania.com), thinking nothing of it actually. A month later, we had a district meeting with all of the store managers, and this guy (first time I've met him) brought his own controller to the meeting, and reminded me that we needed to play.

We sit down to play, and I'm playing a conservative —bend don't break defense, running the ball, and short passes. This guy is the Chargers (I'm the Cowboys), and he gets to the goal line twice, and goes for it on 4th down twice and fails. I end up winning the game by 21 because of this, and he just shuts up. The entire group of store managers was huddled around us watching. It was classic. "This guy" later became my brother-in-law, and is Justin Dewiel, who now works as a Community Manger at EA SPORTS.

Snakepliskin (NFL 2K3)

I've had a couple good sports game moments. Last one i can remember was actually on the dreamcast. Me and my brother drove down to visit some family and we pulled out the old dreamcast to play nfl2k3.

My brother always whipped my ass at every game we played. So im playing against him and my cousin and i got one of my cousins on my team. I hadnt played on the dreamcast in a while but the vmu playcalling still worked and i still remembered the plays i use to run.

Either way my brother lights us up goes ahead by 2 scores and is leading up to the 4th. But then it starts clicking for me.

I hit my tight end going across the middle 3 times in a row till he finally adjust. At which point i throw to my receiver running a go route down the sideline for a score.

Still down 5 we get some luck when my cousin playing on my brothers team inexplicably moves out of his route for an incompletion, followed by a clutch sack by me. We get the ball back but time is running out. I make one throw on a crossing route. My cousin who made the mistake the last time made another one, he jumps going for the pick and misses leaving my receiver wide open and nothing but open space for the td. Nothing like beating your brother.

trunkenmath (Bases Loaded)
Bases Loaded on the NES. My Dad and I were crazy into this game. We played every single day when he got off the boat. He never let me win though, he would adjust his game to give me just enough hope to continue improving and coming back for more.

Anyways, one day I beat him and he told me it was time to hold our World Series, Best of 7 match to determine the champion. On the line: If I could win he would buy me a Sega Genesis. This was a dream chance for me.

I was too young to remember the details, but I can clearly remember the worst part. I won game 6 and forced a final battle. Excited he tucked me in and I went to bed dreaming of NES baseball and the wonders of Sega.

The next morning I woke up and rushed into my Dad's room but the bed was made and my mom was just in there alone. The night before my father's submarine had been deployed for an unknown amount of time. I was distraught.

After months of worrying and waiting my Dad came home. The first thing he said to me after he walked off the pier was "Game 7?". I don't recall how, but I won. My Dad and I celebrated like it were the real thing. Cakes, Soda, Pizza, driving around the block in a victory parade, no little detail was left out. Sure it sounds kind of lame but for us it was epic.

BryanH (NBA 2K8)

My friend would always play as the Spurs, because that's his favorite team, he's a huge nerd for Tony Parker and Tim Duncan and whatnot. I decided to be the Mavericks, no real reason, I don't even like them all that much. For the majority of the game, he's beating me pretty bad. He loves staying on Parker and annoying whoever has the ball, bringing in the big men to double whenever I get close to the rim. I can sometimes dish it out to an open man for an easy basket, but his plan is working, and by the time the 4th quarter rolls around I'm down by 20+.

This is when I go into 'screw it' mode. I think anyone who has played sports games knows what I mean, when you're either doing so good or so bad that you just say 'screw it' and start messing around, figuring the game is pretty much over anyways. In this case, I decided to start shooting 3 pointers with Jason Terry, just running up and immediately shooting it, defender in my face or not.

The first went in. The second too. And the third, and the fourth... Suddenly Jason Terry is on fire, exploding to make something like 13 of 15 three's. My friend is making some baskets on his end, but not enough to hinder my onslaught. At this point he's cursing Terry in real life, wishing him to drop dead as his virtual counterpart continues to score. Like a true bitch, he starts to intentionally foul me, but I still manage to cut it to one with the final possession, so he can't foul me now.

At this point, I'm already dying from laughter, both at his newfound hatred of Terry and the fact that I've made a comeback somehow. Despite needing only a 2 point basket to win, I looked at my friend and told him, "I'm going to shoot a three pointer with Terry and win." The fact this is my favorite story should tell you the outcome.

huginn (NCAA Football 07)

As an NCAA Junky my self, I can atest to the personal game drama a series can bring. And each title brings with it it's own stories and memories.

I can remember 07, playing Online with my PSU lions verse another who lovely decided to play OSU buckeyes. Up by 7, OSU runs a late 2 minute drill in the fourth quarter. With 5 seconds left, a quick corner strike goes to the endzone. OSU's WR (Ginn I believe) catches the ball.. but lands out of bounds as time expires. No review called but on replay, it looks close...

This year, I'm taking Louisville into a mutli-year season and had one game where I started a freshman QB who had a terrible 53 awareness rating. He throws 3 picks and I find my self benching him for my bench riding backup. I'm down 28-0 against kentucky and have to pull out a hard fought double overtime win to keep the upset from happening.

In my head I an see the coach (me) screaming at his players to play better, while consoling his freshman QB that it's ok. Little stories like these are about as non-linar as gameplay comes, and this experience is what keeps me coming back to sports titles.

Han (Brian Lara Cricket 2005)

In Brian Lara Cricket 2005 Australia needed 3 of the last over to win a match having scored 22 of the last Shane Bond over. I let the virtual me bowl and the over went like this.

Wicket, Wicket, 1 Run, Wicket, Wicket, Dot Ball.

And this was also on the hardest difficulty.

We obviously won and were off the the World Cup final when under the pump against Pakistan at 28/7 in chase of 46 for victory (10 over games) McCullum hit 20 of Afridi to win the World Cup.

Stick Jockey is Kotaku's column on sports video games. It appears Saturdays at 10 a.m. U.S. Mountain time.

EyePet Review: His Master's Voice
In which Luke Plunkett's furniture and lighting fail to meet Sony standards.

Command & Conquer: Red Alert Micro-Review: Palm-Size Power Trip
In which freelancer Matt Cabral forgives a key omission.

Left 4 Dead 2 Review: We Don't Care How You Did It Up North
In which Michael McWhertor no longer worries about the corny and the hokey.

Assassin's Creed II Review: A Season For Masterpieces
In which I praise, among many other things, the game's infidelity joke.

LEGO Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues Review: Nuke The Mini-fig
In which Brian Crecente finds a silver lining to a Crystal Skull.

Asphalt 5 Micro-Review: Pedal to the iPhone
In which Cabral is driven to temporarily dislike one of his favorite bands.

Torchlight Review: The Fate Of DiabloCraft
In which Michael Fahey is on the verge of laughing — but holds back.

Star Wars Battlefront: Elite Squadron Review: Deja Vu in Space
In which Brian Ashcraft fires the Ion Cannon a tad too much.

Art Style Digidrive Micro-Review: The Superiority Of Video Games
In which I praise a game that can be played on shaky boats, wobbly subways and other unstable places.

Thoughts? Theories? Is it Ken Levine's new game? Is it BioShock 3? Is it related to anything that shows up in Google when you type in 2K Games and Dubai? We here at Kotaku can only speculate about the secrets the VGA people are holding onto. They won't tell us anything.

The name of the game and gameplay will premiere during the VGAs on December 12 at 8pmET/PT on Spike. A Halo: Reach trailer is also scheduled for the broadcast.

1up.com reports that this is a teaser for Spec Ops and we can now even watch an August-posted TV commercial for it.

We're covering:

-Second Sun (Goodbye, space station)
-Whiskey Hotel (Goodbye, Oval Office - almost!)
-Loose Ends (Goodbye Ramirez Roach and Ghost)

Those of you who didn't exactly follow Game Club protocol already began to spoil that the levels we're discussing today would include a plot twist. Once teased, it was obvious what the twist would be.

So let's talk about plot twists... We just had one in Modern Warfare 2. Have the twists been done well in this game, compared to, say the twists in the first Modern Warfare or other games with big surprises such as Knights of the Old Republic? (When you answer, please show some restraint about spoiling too many other games.)

Also, what do folks think of territory-defense levels like Loose Ends? I was frustrated in the 90s with GoldenEye's late-game level like this. But I rather liked the one near the end of the first Gears of War. I believe MW2's was another success, offering the player to make tactical decisions, something the campaign otherwise seldom permitted.

NOTE - The next Game Club meeting will be on Monday, same time as this one, 2pm Kotaku Time, 4pm ET. We'll be covering the game's final campaign levels.

But anyway, Spirit Tracks has multiplayer. Boy does it ever have multiplayer, and boy did we ever play it. Here's what we liked:

What Is It?
The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks' multiplayer mode is akin to The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures for the GameCube – four people each control one color-coded Link and move around the same map as the other Links. The difference in Spirit Tracks is that instead of trying to help each other, you're racing each other to collect Power Gems and trying to royally screw each other up on the way.

Note: It's local-only.

What We Saw
I played two matches against a developer and two publicists at Nintendo's Redwood City office after finally getting my hands on the singleplayer mode.

How Far Along Is It?
Spirit Tracks it out December 7. I was playing on a normal-sized cartridge that may have been a final version.

What Needs Improvement?
Little Bit Laggy: When dashing around the dungeon map, things start off steady and the Power Gem drops are few and far between. As the match picks up pace, however, and players start falling into traps or getting sliced up the Phantoms, huge amounts of Gems will suddenly spill out onto the map. That plus all four players frantically running to that point to scavenge Gems caused a couple of super-laggy moments in an otherwise smooth experience.

Trap Door Confusion: There are trap doors in every map that are either random or triggered by switches. I honestly couldn't tell you which, though, because sometimes I'd press a switch and a trap door would open and sometimes the door seemed to open and shut in a kind of rhythm. It was confusing – and that much more frustrating when I fell into one because I didn't know if I should blame somebody for it.

What Should Stay The Same?
Spreading The Phantom: Numerous Phantoms – those big guys in helmets from the last Zelda DS game, Phantom Hourglass – wander the maps, prowling for Links. When one spots you, a little icon pops up above your head, indicating that it's got a bead on you. If you fail to run for your life, the Phantom will speed toward you and cut you – costing you precious Power Gems and precious seconds as you scramble to get up and recover them before the other players get there. The fun part about this mechanic is the bit where you can pass the Phantom's bead onto other players you run by – like spreading Chlamydia. It's amusing.

The Invisible Zone: One map we tried out had a patch of water in the center that rendered players invisible when they ran in. You could still see ripples where their feet landed in the water – and if you look closely, the ripples are color coded like the Links – but with all four players running around in there and Phantoms bearing down on one or more of them, it was blind panic. And freaking awesome.

Mario Kart-style Pick-ups: Occasionally, an orb with a question mark on it will fall from the sky. Players that snag this pick-up are treated to several things like a random Gem drop, invisibility or a lightning strike that you can inflict on other players. It keeps things interesting and can be the salve to the wound of a player who just went from 51 Gems to two after a string of Phantom infections.

Single Cartridge Play: I am so happy that it doesn't require four people to actually buy the game to enjoy this mode.

Final Thoughts
The multiplayer mode in Spirit Tracks certainly isn't the main attractions of the game – but it's a solid addition that deserves to be played if you can tear yourself away from trains and princesses for a little while.

Capcom US posted a link to the Japanese site today with the headline "New Super Street Fighter IV Art and... A New Challenger?", leading us to believe that's exactly what Nakky is talking about. According to a translation of the post by Azrael from the Shoryuken forums, the post teases big news that will also be appearing in next week's issue of Japanese video game publication Famitsu, with a promotional video going up on the Capcom site around the same time.

Yes, it's an announcement of an announcement, but at least we have a nice picture to dissect between now and next week.

ドリームチーム枠！ [Super Street Fighter IV Official Blog via Capcom Unity]

After a several weeks of inactivity, the Art Style series has returned to North America's DSiWare shop with Digidrive, an abstract puzzle game about directing traffic that can sit along side Art Style: Boxlife, a wonderful game about folding boxes in a factory, as a suggestion that Art Style games are downloadable because, were they sold in stores, the descriptions on the back of their boxes would scare people away.

This game is a remake of Bit Generations: Digidrive, a 2006 Japan-only Game Boy Advance game from Q Games, the studio known best these days for making the PixelJunk series on the PS3 and less-well-known for programming the PS3's background ribbon thing. And, yes, their take on directing traffic, virtually, is fantastic.

Loved
Terrific Traffic Trope: The gameplay in Digidrive is as solid and simple as it gets. Thank goodness, you know, that game designers consider waiting tables and taxi-driving and other often un-delightful real life activities as subjects for games. Here, being a one-man traffic light is a joy. What you've got is a gradually sped up relentless flow of color-coded cars approaching the center of a four-way intersection from four sides. With either the d-pad or the stylus players can direct the cars to one of the three lanes that branch from the road on which they are entering the playing field. Your directive is to park like-colored cars behind each other, which banks fuel. Doing this well and then cashing in that fuel by letting a siren-blaring emergency vehicle drive into that section of parked cars, provides force to a puck on the bottom of the screen. That's important, because you are hoping to push that puck away from a plunger that is creeping up on it.

Yes, that's weird. And no, that's not how directing traffic works in real life. But it's fun, because of a few smart twists: Going into a high-speed Overdrive mode if you have at least five cars successfully parked in all four lanes helps you bank a lot of cars. Also, a clever but risky technique lets you double your reserves if you sacrifice one of the rows of parked cars. Timid players will never park many cars and keep cashing in to bump that puck forward nudge by nudge. Bold players will bank more and more cars, doubling and re-doubling their reserves, waiting until the last possible minute and than cashing in to ignite a major push of the puck. Hey, trust me, okay?

Abstract Art: The techno soundtrack is good. Better is the iconography of the graphics. A less interesting development team would have used numbers to represent the number of cars successfully being parked at the end of a lane. Q Games uses shapes. Park five cars and you get a triangle. Park a bunch more and that triangle fills up and becomes a square. Repeat until the square becomes a pentagon, then a hexagon (if you haven't messed up by this point and had the puck hit by the plunger), and then the hexagon becomes a circle. I like ammo counters and flashing words too, but I'll take a game that signals success with shapes.

Hated
Touch Options: Hated is a strong word, but I found no great advantage from playing the DS version's new touch mode. It allows players not just to direct the game's cars with a tap of the screen but to tap the shapes of banked cars to cash them in, rather than waiting for — or sending out into the roadway — an emergency vehicle. This seemed to make the game simpler without making it better. I preferred the d-pad controls which allow me to play this game even when I'm standing on the subway, holding onto a railing for support with my other hand. Many portable games require you to play while sitting, leaning or standing still. Praise Digidrive for allowing us portable gaming on unsteady platforms, but, if you do, don't try those touch controls.

It's hard to express the quality of a puzzle game when just putting it in your hands would prove that the balance and flow here is good. Don't be deterred by the traffic-directing subject matter. In fact, I hope that kind of oddity emboldens you to try this game. It was fantastic on the GBA and makes the transition to DSiWare well.

Art Style Digidrive was developed by Q Games and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo DSiWare downloadable store on November 16. Retails for 500 Nintendo Points ($5.00 USD). Played three difficulty levels in single-player, tried touch mode, tried two-player Vs Mode against the computer, and had trouble looking at the traffic in the intersections of Manhattan without wanting to get involved.

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Proce, who contributed to Midway's final fighting game (Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe) before being snapped up by Warner Bros, wrote that the re-imagining of the MK franchise proposed "mixing modern muti-player and dismemberment game design with the original fighting mechanic." The artist's take on four Mortal Kombat mainstays—Raiden, Kano, Scorpion and Sonya Blade—are dramatic, gritty and, for the most part, a welcome change.

Proce describes his Scorpion as "a wraith wearing the yellow blood of the demon" that resurrected him, his Kano as "half Japanese half US military bad ass." His Sonya, which will likely draw the most criticism, was redesigned as "the daughter of a Texas Ranger who's sex appeal weakens her opponents while her Special Forces training kicks their asses." Finally, his Raiden pitch portrays "a god [whose] feet rarely touch the ground."

We're not sure what direction the Mortal Kombat team is taking the series at its new home, but I'm personally hoping it's more along these lines—a darker, more dramatic, less comic book-like treatment with a pared down cast—than what we got with Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe. I enjoyed that game as much as the next guy, but I like my MK with a little less Wonder Woman.

Here are the never before seen Mortal Kombat characters... [Vincent Proce Art Blog via GameSetWatch/SRK Forums]

LEGO Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues spends much of its time focused on the brickification of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, but it also gives players a taste of Indy's original adventures. Better still, it gives Indiana Jones fans a chance to build their own LEGO levels this time around.

Can a new, coop-friendly split-screen system and the ability to design your own levels make up for the fact that the game reanimates Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull? Lets see.

Loved
Two Players, Two Screens: One of my big qualms with previous LEGO games was that when you started playing coop—and that's always been the best way to play—the screen became a leash. If one player went too far in a direction it started pulling the other player around with them, sometimes to their death. This time around, once you hit the limits of the screen it splits, allowing the two players to go their separate ways. The way the screen splits also shows which direction the other player is in. It's a neat design concept that typically works quite well.

Build Mode: While LEGO Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues spends most of its time focused on just about everybody's least favorite Indy film, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, it also introduces the ability to design and play through your own LEGO levels to the franchise. The system is fairly straight forward: You select and throw down LEGO bricks you've unlocked through gameplay to create sets based on what comes with the game. Not only does that include AI-programmable enemies and creatures, but traps that you can tie to different bricks. It's a robust little system tied to a fun aesthetic. My only disappointment is that you apparently can't share your creations with friends online. A pretty big bummer.

Another Take: While more than a third of the game is devoted to Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, the game also includes abbreviated takes on the first three movies. Interestingly, instead of just porting over chunks of these LEGO adaptations from The Original Adventures the game seems to completely reinvent them. While Indy purists may lose sleep over these in-a-nutshell adaptations of the first three films, they're clever, punchy and fun in a way that makes playing the story a second time worthwhile.

Wide Open Spaces: Every LEGO game has a sort of jumping off point, a hub from which gamers embark on the multiple stores and adventures of the particular game. In the original LEGO Indy game it was a university, this time it's the storage warehouse from Raiders of the Lost Ark. Sort of. The top menu has you select one of the eight containers (some start boxed up and have to be unlocked) to decide where your adventure begins. There are crates for the first three movies and then three crates for Crystal Skull and finally a crate each for the build mode and another for "Super Bonus" levels, which are essentially time trials. But when you jump into a movie, the game drops you into a fairly expansive area that than has to be explored to find the storyline. While you wander around these large set pieces you also discover hidden items, challenges and fun little things to do. It's a neat addition to the LEGO gaming experience.

Vehicles: Always a pleasure in LEGO games, this time around the world gives you access to cars, motorcycles, bikes, tree-cutters, horses, camels, rickshaws and, my favorite, planes. There's nothing like flying over a LEGO land and jumping out to parachute to your favorite play area.

Completest: As with all previous LEGO games, LEGO Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues comes with quite a few reasons to play, replay and replay the game again. There are special LEGO pieces to collect, time trials to unlock, Easter eggs to discover. And it's all a lot of fun to do.

Funny Story: Played in tandem with my 8-year-old, the game had Tristan in stitches. And it wasn't just him. Sure, I'd still like to see a LEGO heart ripped from a mini-fig's chest, but the alternative to all of that Indy violence can be quite funny at times.

Hated
Not So Invisible Walls: The worlds of LEGO Indiana Jones 2 are much, much bigger, but they're not without their limits and unfortunately those limits aren't disguised very well. Go too far and your mini-fig will just float back to the map.

The Camera Controls... Still: How can Traveller's Tales, who have single-handedly reinvigorated, reinvented the LEGO gaming franchise, still not have the in-game camera worked out? I'm sick of dying simply because the perspective is throwing me off. Fix this already.

What Next: I love the huge explorable, hidden area-filled, worlds of LEGO, but I hate having to wander around in them for half an hour trying to figure out which path, which cave, which ladder will take me to the next step in the story. A map or maybe a better indicator would be much appreciated.

I wasn't really looking forward to LEGO Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues. Of all of the LEGO games the first Indiana Jones was my least favorite, though I still quite liked it. And this time around, I wasn't really anticipating playing through my least favorite movie in the series. But the game delivers on so many levels, adding a much needed split screen and a fantastic build mode, that I've been delighted with the experience.

If you didn't pick up the first LEGO Indiana Jones game, I think it might even be worth skipping and instead going straight to this one.

LEGO Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues was developed by Traveller's Tales and published by LucasArts for the DS, PC, Playstation 3, Playstation Portable, Wii and Xbox 360 on Nov. 17. Retails for $49.99 USD. A copy of the game was given to us by the publisher for reviewing purposes. Played through all sets and campaigns both alone and with my son on Xbox 360. Built several levels alone and with my son.

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Those 33 million users download a staggering 25 petabytes of data a month. More importantly for Sony, they're also spending three times what they did last year at the PlayStation Store.

Sony's presentation highlights what it called a significant revenue in downloadable games and add-ons. The company also pointed out that its video delivery service now has more than 2,417 movies and 15,047 television episodes.

A final point made in the slide presentation by Sony about the PlayStation Network is that a new revenue stream is coming from a subscription model.

Reached for contact this morning, SCEA told Kotaku that in terms of the PlayStation Network and subscriptions "we're looking into a variety of options, but nothing to announce at this time."

Capcom's third-person shooter isn't out until January, but Pitt's production company seems to think it has potential at the box office. Plan B Entertainment now holds the rights to a theatrical version of the game under its Creative Partnership with Reliance BIG Entertainment. Said theatrical version would likely follow the story of game protagonist Will, who crash lands in the Bermuda Triangle and wakes up in the mysterious Void, where an ancient alien race plots to take over civilization.

According to the Capcom press release, the movie version is being developed with Brad Pitt himself in mind for the starring role.

"As a game, Dark Void was developed with a wide-screen mentality - a world full of adventure presented in cinematic scope and scale," said Germaine Gioia, senior vice president, licensing, Capcom Entertainment. "Plan B recognized the potential of our newest property and are as excited about bringing Dark Void to life in cinemas as Capcom is to bring the interactive experience to home theaters."

Sounds great! I've been waiting a long time for a sequel to The Rocketeer.

I was introduced to Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers last week, discovering quickly that this was not the kind of Crystal Chronicles game I had expected. It is, you see, a single-player game, the first in a splinter line of Final Fantasy games made for Wii platforms and previously designed for four players.

The Crystal Bearers is different, set 1000 years after Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles and putting the player in control of a single hero, a mercenary named Layle. The series' dwarf race, the Lilty Tribe, have risen to power. The mechanical race, the Yuke, have seemingly been wiped out.

I was told by a Square-Enix representative that this game would feel like a "true Final Fantasy" for the Wii. It will have a deep storyline. But it also has real-time combat and was described to me as 75% mini-games.

What I saw and played clarified things. I was shown Layle running through a farm, getting pulled into a challenge to pluck all of the vegetables from a field before a clock ran out. A scarecrow was the opponent, shooting at Layle to try to mess him up. So don't think of "mini-games" in terms of a Mario Party, I realized. Think of them is mid-game challenges.

Next, I was shown some combat. Layle ventured to a dusty desert area and enemies attacked. The game is played with a Wii Remote and Nunchuk. The control stick moves the character. The Remote's pointer is used for telekinesis, to pick up objects and enemies, then toss them. The d-pad on the Remote is used to swivel the camera, the only element of the controls I found hard to handle in the few minutes I played the game.

I was told that conversations with non-player-characters will be less than typical for an FF game. Instead, the interactions the player tries to get are "reactions." You get these from enemies by encountering them. For example, out in that desert area, Layle fought some dog enemies. Once he had a Reaction associated with them, he could get them to stop fighting, run over and, uh, urinate on him. Other Reactions are equally comical, sending enemies into a daze because they've had their heads knocked off, for example. It's all cartoony, done for laughs.

Also, somehow, some way, you can take a cow, hold it over Layle's head, and shoot enemies with its udders.

I'm a sucker for the absurd in my games, so, as little as I saw of the Crystal Bearers, I was encouraged. It's hard to see it as being a "true" Final Fantasy game, but only a longer play session that presents more of the story can verify that claim.

I was told that Crystal Bearers does support a co-op mode that allows a second player to use the Remote as an assist, similar to Co-Star mode in Super Mario Galaxy.

The game plays swiftly, action-first. It is colorful and has fun visuals, as you can see in these shots. Crystal Bearers may be off some people's radar, but it will indeed be out this year in North America, the day after Christmas, for the Wii.

Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days recently made the transition from rumored software to announced product, but details about the game have remained scarce, even on the game's official site.

I found some, however, on an assets disc I recently received from Square Enix, and they present some good news for those who played the first game.

The 2010 game switches the lead in the series, putting players in control of "self-medicated psychopath" Lynch. The story, according to the fact sheet, begins with Lynch having found peace in Shanghai and attempting to "make a fat deal where the pay is beyond his wildest dreams and nothing is going to get in his way."

The plot summary promises that Lynch will find Shanghai to be the "perfect playground for expat criminals such as [himself]; seduction and corruption highlight the contrasts of the city as players fight through the seedy underbelly of Shanghai – a juxtaposition of old-world and new-world ideals ripe with black market opportunities for Kane and Lynch to exploit and reap rewards from."

The game will support online co-op, in contrast to the original's inclusion only of offline co-op. Competitive online multiplayer will return.

The fact sheet is light on gameplay details, though it does note that players who are shot to the ground in the new game will be able to shoot from a prone position or crawl away, giving them a second chance in the fight.

The game is in development at series creators Io Interactive. It is announced for a Q2 2010 launch on the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC.

Sure. But, getting the film made and made right wasn't so simple.

Turbo follows 4D fighting game player Hugo (Justin Chon of Twilight fame), who hopes to join a pro-team by winning a Super Turbo Arena tournament.

"People," Conaway recalls, "looked at me like I was crazy."

It wasn't the story that was causing the looks of bewilderment, but Conaway's vision for how the film should be made: An effect-heavy film with a budget of $100,000 USD.

This was Conaway's University of Southern California student film short. "It costs about $400,000 to make an episode of Power Rangers," says Conaway. "So if you think about it that way, it's really not that expensive."

Student films typically cost a few thousand bucks — maybe the price of a sedan at most, not a fleet of sedans. Sure, Turbo was to be Conaway's thesis film, but it was to be more: Atypical. It's Conaway's calling card. This would be a two-years-in-the-making showcase showing he could use to tell a story and made a slick, effect-heavy film. And ultimately proof that this young, up-and-coming filmmaker gets gaming, the internet, convergence.

It all started in 2007. No, actually it started before that with karate, anime and video games. The Last Dragon inspired a young Conaway to take up martial arts in junior high, studying Shorin-Ryu style karate and kobudo until he achieved a black belt. "There weren't many black action heroes that I was aware of as a kid," he says, "so Bruce Lee Roy fighting Sho-Nuff the Shogun of Harlem on a bootleg VHS was my inspiration." (The movie would even go on to inspire the final fight in Turbo!) By high school, he was got a gig as executive editor of game site PSXNetwork.com, going to E3 each year starting when he was 16. There was a stint working at Electronic Arts in marketing. And then there were movies, loads and loads of movies.

Movies took him to USC Film School and to a select motion capture performance class taught by Oscar-winning director Robert Zemeckis. The class got Conaway thinking about the Uncanny Valley Theory, about avatars, about effects and, even, martial arts. But it wasn't just about making a slick flick. "I wanted to find the story's emotional core," says Conaway. For him, that was the relationship between the two brothers in the film. Conaway was ready to go, Turbo was the picture he wanted to make for his master's thesis. Then, road block. "I didn't get a lot of support at USC for the project," says Conaway.

If he was to make the film using USC's cameras and USC's equipment, well, then, USC owns the film. Meaning? Meaning Conaway could not put it online. How did you see Turbo? On the Internet. How did I see it? Ditto. This is an age in which, if it's not on the Internet, it does not exist. And the only way for Conaway to ensure that the film existed was to get it online, which meant raising the money himself.

He didn't do it alone. Film is a collaborative endeavor — though the director is leading the charge. Conaway and his producing partner, Garrett T. Thompson, set out securing money. Conaway created a press kit — a press kit for a movie that hadn't been made yet, but a press kit that showed the visual vibe of the film. "Neither one of us comes from money, so we had to take a basic grass roots approach to raising the funds," says Thompson. Student loans, credit cards, fund raisers, matching gift donations, grants and any which way they could get the money they needed. "The challenge was convincing people that  we could get this 'crazy Turbo' project done." The reward wasn't some monetary pay-off.

Remember, Turbo is a student film — they were convincing the donors to give money just so the film could get made. That's it. A donation of faith. "When people donate to a short film they are basically doing it out of the kindness of their hearts and pockets," Thompson points out. "They will really reap no monetary benefit, so your passion truly has to convince them."

With initial funds in place, shooting commenced on December 2007. For the next year plus, Conaway and his team would be hard at work on this short film.  "I was never worried about it turning out great, I was just worried that it would take forever to get there," says Justin Lutsky. "To be honest, I never expected this to be such an undertaking.  When I agreed to edit I was anticipating a several month commitment and couldn't really believe we were still working on a short film a year and a half later."

Lutsky had met as contestants on a Fox filmmaker reality show called "On The Lot" in May 2007. Both were eliminated, but became fast friends. Lutsky, a young filmmaker in his own right, was asked by Conaway to cut the film. "Turbo shot on the RED camera, which was fairly new at the time," says Lutsky. "There were no established post production or editorial work flows established.  We essentially had to create our own work flow from scratch and had a lot to learn along the way." Learn as you go, learn as you go.

An effect-heavy film like Turbo needs effects. Lutsky introduced Conaway to the folks at Ember Lab, a start-up digital effects house in Southern California. "With the large amount of VFX work that had to be done, Jarrett could have easily spent his entire budget on post production alone if he had used an established Hollywood studio," says Ember Lab's Josh Grier. "We wanted to propose a bid that fit within his budget and would allow us to sustain our selves for the duration of the project." For the team at Ember, Turbo was their first complete project and the experience of working on this type of film was by far their biggest drive to get involved. That, and the arcade gaming.

"My brother Mike and I lived in Tokyo for about three years and we have always been fond of the Japanese arcade culture," says Grier. "After watching the first cut of Turbo, we knew right away that we wanted a hybrid look, combining elements of the retro eighties gaming culture with Japanese arcade flair." Those retro elements were massaged so that they felt futuristic and a look was developed that Conaway agreed completed his vision. "The most challenging part of Turbo was not a specific effect, but the design work that went into developing Turbo's game system," says Grier. "The HUD, UI and the futuristic TV were featured in about 75% of the shots and all had to be developed from scratch."

Not only was the game system complete mapped out, but the game's mechanics. "People sweat when they play DDR in arcades, right?" asks Conaway. "That's the same idea — Super Turbo Arena is a physical game. Kids want to be Turbo players, not basketball players." The game and its moves was created in the minds of the Turbo team so that it would be possible to play if the tech ever existed.

That's what sells the film — its authenticity. Whether it be the authenticity of Turbo's characters or its video game element, it feels real. Even for a movie wrapped in a sheen of CG and special effects. It feels realer than anything than has come out of the traditional Hollywood system.

Turbo is not perfect, but it's filled with promise. It's a vision of a future when those who grew up playing video games start to make movies about them. Movies that don't suck.

Turbo from Jarrett Lee Conaway on Vimeo.

At the beginning of Dragon Age: Origins, a battle between the forces of good and evil at Ostagar leave the Grey Wardens nearly extinct and young King Cailan seriously dead. In Return to Ostagar, players revisit the scene of the slaughter, exacting revenge, uncovering secrets, and seeking out the arms and armor of the fallen king. I'd expect the armor might need a little hammering out, considering the good king was crushed like an empty Sprite can.

"We are very proud of the phenomenal launch of Dragon Age: Origins and we're pleased to announce the next installment of downloadable content that will be available to fans of the game," said Ray Muzyka, Group General Manager, RPG/MMO Group of EA, and Co-Founder, BioWare. "The Return to Ostagar DLC pack is a prime example of BioWare's commitment to give fans a game that continuously offers new experiences and further enriches a storyline that has already received critical acclaim and positive feedback from the players."

Return to Ostagar will be released for the PlayStation 3, PC, and Xbox 360 some time this holiday season, with a price tag of 400 Microsoft points, 400 BioWare points, or $4.99 depending.

Just come on down to Cervantes Masterpiece Ballroom in Denver at 6 p.m., donate a bit to get in and party like a rock star up on stage or in the console arcade.

But before you come, here are some things you should know:

We'll be having a silent auction this time around, the items are listed here, if you want to bid make sure to bring a credit card or cash. Each of the items will have a sign-up sheet. To bid you'll just need to put down your name and number and the amount you want to bid. The top (still present) bidder will win.

You'll have to be present to win (the auction will run from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m.) and able to pay on the spot.

We'll have both Rock Band and DJ Hero up on stage this year and a couple of folks from Harmonix will be joining us to ensure that we both rock and rock hard.

If you're more into console gaming, Colorado Cutthroat Connection will also have a whole area set up on the second floor for that. To make sure everyone has a good time there will be a few rules in place for the arcade. You can check them out here.

Door prizes will include neat LEGO creations, an Uncharted 2: Fortune Hunter's Edition, a Modern Warfare 2 Xbox 360 and things way way too numerous to mention.

If you're planning on coming, and you really should, here are the details:

Kotaku Child's Play Fundraiser
Where: Cervantes Masterpiece Ballroom
When: Thursday, Nov. 19 6 p.m. to midnight
Who: 16 years and up. Need to be 21 and have ID to buy alcohol.
How Much: $10 donation
What: Rock Band, DJ Hero and tons of console games up on stage and in a console arcade.
Why: To raise money for Child's Play... and have fun doing it.

Special thanks to:
Adam Barenblat
Cervantes Masterpiece Ballroom
Colorado Cutthroat Connection
David Thomas
Death of the Arcade
NetDevil and studios too numerous to mention.
Team Kotaku and its many, many wonderful readers

The full post.

Star Wars Battlefront: Elite Squadron follows the tale of two brothers, both Jedi clones, named X1 and X2. As the Dark Side's power grows, the brother find themselves on opposite sides of the battle with X1 fighting for the Empire and X2 helping the Rebel Alliance. The game takes place over the course of the Star Wars films, with clips and characters from the older and newer films.

Compared with the previous entry in the Battlefront series, Elite Squadron offers "deeper" customization than any of the previous Battlefront titles. But with customization now standard on so many titles, a good game needs more than the option of character changes.

Loved
Variety Is The Spice of Space: Elite Squadron takes the fight into space, allowing players to fly X-Wings and board Star Destroyers. The inclusion of a galactic front in the series, opens up the title — makes it feel bigger. You go from blaster Stormtroppers on Tatooine to barrel rolling TIE Fighters in space. It really encapsulates the Star Wars experience.

So Epic: The great thing about Elite Sqaudron is the scope — players travel from Tatooine to Hoth to Endoor. The game is epic! Just like a Star Wars title should be. But at the same time, it does give players the feeling of experiencing the smaller side of a larger battle — just like a Battlefront title should

We Are Online: Elite Squadron has robust multiplayer, and The Heroes and Villains mode is a welcomed addition, giving players the chance to play as Stars Wars heroes or bad dudes. The other online modes, such as Galactic Conquest, offered replay value once the single player campaign is finished.

Hated
The Controls Are Outta Control: There's no way around it, controlling the camera and the character by using the PSP's analog stick is a bad idea. Why not control the character with the directional pad? Oh right, because I'm using it for all sorts of input controls like getting into spaceships and whatnot. The controls could be and should be streamed lined — they feel dated. There is nothing wrong with complex controls when they add to the experience. Here, they don't. They detract. It would make more sense to have the character controlled with the direction pad — not just for camera issues, but for control issues. The analog numb on the PSP often lead my character all over the place, jumping too far, running too far, missing my landing spot. Unfortunately, the Alternative Controls are even less instinctive than the Default ones.

Been Here Before?: And as previously mentioned, the inclusion of space battles, provides a variety in gameplay, but some of that variety gets stale in the single player campaign. Missions seem to be either shoot guys on foot, use Ion Canon, then fly away or fly away, use Ion Canon and then shoot guys on foot. A pattern develops and becomes old.

The addition off space battles and the new multiplayer mode show that there is still innovation and room for the Battlefront franchise to grow. But for it to truly blossom, the basic control mechanics are in need of an overhaul. I fear the dark cloud of clunky controls shrouds all Elite Squadron.

Star Wars Battlefront: Elite Squadron was developed by Rebellion Developments for the PSP and published by LucasArts on November 3. Retails for $29.99 USD for the PSP as well as for the Nintendo DS. A copy of the game was acquired via PSN digital code for reviewing purposes. Played through single player campaign and tested multiplayer.

Confused by our reviews? Read our review FAQ.

The news supports previous reports on Sony's 3D PlayStation 3 strategy, suggesting that a firmware upgrade would introduce the capability to existing consoles. Not only does Sony plan on upgrading the console to support 3D, but release games in 3D as well in order to take advantage of the enhanced capabilities.

Of course, 3D games and 3D televisions would go hand-in-hand, so adding the capability to the PlayStation 3 would definitely help drive at least a few television sales.

Would you purchase a new television to support 3D gaming, or is Sony seeing things?