The "hint movies" are all located inside Peach's Castle and have to be unlocked with Star Coins. Here's a sample.

Be warned, this does show an entire level in the game.

If you're intrigued, check out our full game review here.

The museum was erected just outside Nintendo's store in Rockfeller Center, a few feet from the Today Show Studios and pretty much on the spot where people stand and yell for Al Roker most weekday mornings.

There was no Roker today, but there was Trinen and Ellis, providing the following tour. We shot this just before the museum opened to Nintendo fans. Attendees were able to buy New Super Mario Bros. Wii at the store today and enter a tournament featuring the game.

A storm was picking up as we began:

That would be ESPN NFL 2K5, the last and best of an uncommonly good crop of football games in the first half of the decade and, perhaps not coincidentally, the last one before EA Sports inked its exclusive license with the National Football League. Certainly, the stupefyingly good value 2K5 delivered on an unheard-of $19.99 price tag moved the needle on its high regard. But reviews of the game still said things like "the best-looking football game ever made," and "the most entertaining show in video game football."

This coming week will see the last glut of AAA releases in the autumn sales cycle, and then it will be on to the question of Game of the Year. Sports titles are like the offensive lineman in modern Heisman voting. Just being mentioned would be honor enough, because the prize is completely inaccessible to your class of performer.

Maybe 2K5 did the best of any sports game, judged among others, in its year. It's impossible to say definitively. I dialed up Brandon Justice, a producer on the 2K5 team to ask him where that game fit in the larger context of 2004's top titles. Five years later, you can still hear the pride when quotes the game's feature set, as if he was back on the team going head-to-head with the Madden franchise.

"People are out there, today, talking about whether Madden 10 is overall a better product (than 2K5)," said Justice, who later worked on Madden and now is the director of design for Quick Hit Football (profiled Sept. 19.) "Five years later. They're just now doing features that 2K5 did first - and not doing them as well. They now have online franchises; we had that mode. We had SportsCenter presentation with a highlight reel; they're just now doing that kind of thing."

But the feature-packed game wasn't put out there to take home a statue, Justice said. It's not to say that is the sole motivation of any past game of the year, but such artistic recognition is at least in the mix for your typical AAA adventure. Not so with sports titles, which seek a more product-oriented recognition, Justice said.

"Ironically enough, trophies matter little to the sports crowd," he said. It's very much focused on sales and beating direct competition where it exists. "Our main mission in 2K was to beat Madden's score. Whether it wins sports game of the year or not, Madden's still going to sell millions of units every year. More than anything else we just wanted to make a good sports game. And having worked on the Madden team as well, those guys have the same spirit. You want to crush the competition, and make the best product out there."

In 2004, NFL 2K5 couldn't afford to think about taking on Half-Life 2, Halo 2 or Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. That year's Madden also went out to wide acclaim; just beating it would take best-in-class effort.

But it's also a little pointless, Justice said, for a sports game to shoot for anything outside best-in-class accolades. A former games writer himself, Justice said the criticism operations of major opinion leaders just aren't set up to give sports titles the same exposure as shooters, RPGs and other traditional genres.

"Every magazine I've worked for, they have a sports guy," he said. And, working for IGN, he remembers plenty of sports copy being handed off to freelancers. "Everybody plays Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto, Fallout, Gears of War, but you really have to find someone who's into baseball games, and then he always reviews it." Inevitably, when that outfit polls its staff for game of the year, few voices speak up for a sports game because few have played them.

"You've got one or two voices voting for a sports game," Justice said. "A lot of time it's a question of volume."

Could a sports title ever win Game of the Year? My gut feeling says the opportunity has passed. Criticism of video games is increasingly considerate of a game's narrative, and a sports simulation fundamentally has none. And sports deal with creative limitations specific to existing rules of a game, plus the veto authority of a licensor who may not buy into daring creativity.

David Littman, a producer on EA Sports' NHL title - taking 19 different sports game of the year awards in 2007 and 2008 - points out another basic limitation of sports games. "These big action games have huge worlds to explore, while sports games take place mainly inside a confined stadium," he told me.

Plus, he said wryly, "Sports games don't have guns. People seem to like guns."

True. Shooters also don't have to outdo themselves every year, lest they be branded as just a prettied-up roster update. The innovations in a sports game, year-to-year, may seem small, but comparing versions three years apart, the way one would Halo 3 to Halo 2, or Grand Theft Auto IV to San Andreas, and maybe a sports title's advancement would look more profound.

"NHL 10 and FIFA 10 are two of the highest-rated sports games ever on this console generation, but FIFA 09 and NHL 09 were also among the highest scores," he said.

Littman's right. This year FIFA 10 and MLB 09 The Show became the first sports titles in the current console generation to post a Metacritic score of 90 or better. (NHL 09 and 10 both got 88.) From 2000 to 2004, every single Madden and 2K football title on every console got at least a 90.

But it's not to say that we'll never see a truly revolutionary sports game again, or that when it does come, its excellence will go unrecognized. There's no way NFL 2K5 could have won Game of the Year five years ago. But it still enjoys a fame that's outlived those that did.

"Do you really think, five years from now, you're gonna hear ‘Is Grand Theft Auto on PlayStation 4 as good as Grand Theft Auto on PlayStation 3? Will Halo 6 people really say, ‘Is this as good as Halo 1?'" Justice muses. "I don't think so."

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

Not that it's not a nice place. It is! But it's also a place where the lights were installed by me, not by Sony. Where my furniture and windows were placed for everyday use, not for showing off a fiddly camera-based game. And where I'd be spending a whole week with an EyePet—the PlayStation 3's virtual dog-monkey-thing pet largely controlled and cared for via the rarely used PlayStation Eye camera—and not just an hour or two.

So cast initial impressions aside: what's it like to spend some time in the real world with a fake pet?

Loved
Aaaawwwww – The EyePets themselves are almost perfect. Perfectly cute. Part-dog, part-monkey, they'll tug at all but the driest and coldest of heartstrings. Provided, that is, they're able to do what they're told (see below).

DogMonkey See, DogMonkey Do – While there are plenty of things you can do with your EyePet, there are two that stand out; you can teach them to draw, and you can teach them to sing. Drawing involves sketching something on a piece of paper, holding it up to the PlayStation Eye then seeing the creature replicate your drawing. As something to astonish your friends with, it's up there. Up there with teaching your EyePet to sing, which requires singing something, then sitting back as the cute little guy copies/mocks your attempt with a Gizmo-like warbling of his own.

Can We Keep Him? – When EyePet works, it's mesmerising. Seeing a digital animal interact with you on a screen by dodging your swipes, pouncing on your fingers and responding to your affections with a polite purr is something to behold. When it works, you can see the future of motion-controlled gaming just poking its head above the horizon. When it works…

Hated
Failure To Launch – The technology underpinning this game simply isn't ready to go from "tech demo" to "retail game kids will play". You know something's wrong when the tutorial tells you to empty your living room of furniture, and definitely know something is wrong when half of the basic tutorials end in acute muscular pain as the EyePet randomly fails to respond to the most simple of commands. In short, in the real world (and I tested it in all kinds of lighting conditions), the EyePet ranges from mostly obedient to unresponsive to downright oblivious of your presence.

This Isn't Helping – The game's technological shortcomings are compounded by your "guide", a man in a lab coat with an annoying voice and an inability to provide clear instructions on how to complete a game challenge or properly interact with your EyePet. There were many times when I was left dumbfounded by something in the game and unable to progress, simply because basic commands or objectives hadn't been explained to me. And if he can't help me out, heaven help the small children this game is aimed at.

But Wait, There Isn't More – EyePet as a game is built around a series of challenges, tasks you must complete in order to unlock additional toys, tools or outfits for your EyePet. But these quickly become boring and repetitive, and that's before you factor in the constant repetition required to get over the game's technical shortcomings. Take away the challenges and you're left with…an expensive, unreliable tamagotchi.

EyePet is just a…shame. There's so much potential in the title, so much that London Studio got right, that it's disappointing the game is undermined by such fundamental technical shortcomings. Almost as if the intent has overshot the technology. Then again, seeing as this is the team behind the EyeToy – and EyeToy Play – maybe we shouldn't be that surprised.

If you have small kids, are luckier with your home's lighting setup or simply have money in your pocket and a burning desire to show off your PS3 in a different light (example: the ladies may not find Uncharted 2 as exciting as you), EyePet might still be worth looking into. Just stock up on patience before you get started.

EyePet was developed by London Studio and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation 3. Due for release in North America in 2010, released in PAL territories in October 2009. Retails both separately and in bundle with PlayStation Eye camera. A copy of the game was given to us by the publisher for reviewing purposes. Completed all challenges, spent considerable time in "sandbox" mode. Game played at all times of day in several lighting conditions.

Confused by our reviews? Read our review FAQ.

Be warned, this does show an entire level in the game.

Princess Peach gets kidnapped a lot. There are few women with more kidnappings under their belt than her royal mushroom highness, with only Daphne from Scooby Doo immediately springing to mind. In the 24 years of her existence, the good Princess has been stolen away at least a dozen times by Bowser and his pals, and we've got the documentation to prove it.

Super Mario Bros.

Princess Peach's first appearance in a video game also marks her first appearance as a victim of kidnapping. No one is quite sure where and how Bowser took her, but took her he did. A mutant turtle thing of vast resources, he even set up several decoy castles to keep Mario and Luigi occupied while he had his way with her. Thankfully his way equated to leaving her in a room, waiting for rescue.

Super Mario Bros. 3

After a brief stint as a playable character in Super Mario Bros. 2, Peach was back to her being kidnapped ways. She initially sends out Mario and Luigi to halt her rumored kidnapping, but they ultimately fail, and Bowser gets his paws on her once again. At least she kept in touch.

Super Mario World

In Super Mario World, Bowser kidnaps Princess Peach again, only this time he does it using the power of the Super Nintendo. He parallax scrolls her away to Bowser's Castle for a lovely ride in the Koopa Clown Car.

Super Mario RPG

Special thanks goes out to our readers for reminding me about Super Mario RPG, where Princess Peach is indeed kidnapped by Bowser. Then she is kidnapped by Booster. She actually managed to get kidnapped twice in one game. Simply amazing.

Mario 64

While being entombed in a fresco in front of your own castle isn't exactly being taken away from everyone you know and love, we're going to go ahead and call this one a kidnapping as well, just for the sake of being able to include it in our list. You got a problem with that? Don't make us entomb you in a fresco kidnap you.

Paper Mario

Not content to merely capture the Princess this time around, Bowser actually kidnaps her whole damn castle. Paper Mario featured scenes where you could control Princess Peach, gathering intel necessary to facilitate her escape. If only Bowser had stuck to his original 'leaving her in a room to be rescued' plan she'd probably still be kidnapped today, giving birth to little half-mushroom, half-lizard babies.

Super Mario Sunshine

Speaking of half-mushroom lizard babies, in Super Mario Sunshine it's actually Bowser Jr. that kidnaps Princess Peach, having been convinced by his father that she is his real mother. How did this game get released without Fox News and friends pondering the suggestion of Princess/lizard coupling? Why can't I stop pondering it right now?

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door

Who the hell are the X-Nauts? They're a species of alien led by one Sir Grodus who, despite our cultural differences, manage to work out that kidnapping Princess Peach is simply the right thing to do. Go X-Nauts!

New Super Mario Bros. (DS)

Unable to overcome his mommy issues, Bowser Jr. once again snatches Peach out from under Mario's nose in the New Super Mario Bros. for the Nintendo DS. He also raises his father from the dead during the story, which brings up the following question: If Bowser Jr. can reanimate the dead...wait, how the hell can he reanimate the dead?! I didn't say it was a good question.

Super Princess Peach

In this game, Princess Peach has to rescue a kidnapped Mario and Luigi. Obviously the whole thing was a dream.

Super Paper Mario

Back to the kidnapping! Princess Peach is forced to marry Bowser against her will (riiiiight) by the vile Count Bleck, which will somehow release the power of the Chaos Heart. Mario rescues her, she lures Bowser to the good side, and they all live happily ever after, never to be involved in a kidnapping plot again.

Super Mario Galaxy

Of course, if Princess Peach just happens to be in her castle when Bowser steals it and launches it into outer space, then that's something different entirely. You have to admire Bowser's logic though. If launching the castle into the sky doesn't work, just launch it higher. Epic fail, but brilliant.

New Super Mario Bros. Wii

Here we go again.

PSPgo Traveler Case Micro Review: Stylish and Sleek
In which Brian Crecente uses the word "sexy."

Pro Evolution Soccer 2010 Review: You Only Sing When You're Winning
In which Luke Plunkett likens Pro Evo to Liverpool, if you know what he means. (Do you??)

Modern Warfare 2 Throat Communicator Micro-Review: Comfy and Quiet
In which Crecente's neck is hugged. And he likes it.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Review: This Means War
In which Michael McWhertor spotlights this unheralded little game.

Modern Warfare 2 Xbox 360 Combat Controller Review: Plugged In
In which Crecente complains about a wire.

LocoRoco Midnight Carnival Review: Up All Night
In which Brian Aschraft praises the Halloween look.

MW2 PS3 Combat Wireless Headset Review: Pain in Your Ear
In which Crecente takes damage.

Modern Warfare 2 PS3 Combat Controller Review: DeLIGHTful
In which the PS3 trumps the 360. This time.

LEGO Rock Band Review: Redefining The Rock Block
In which Michael Fahey ponders the notion of a $50 track pack.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Reflex Review: Looks Aren't Everything
In which AJ Glasser looks at a less modern war.

New Super Mario Bros. Wii Review: Go Buy A Wii
In which Crecente appears to have fallen head over heels.

The levels we are covering are the notorious No Russian terrorism level, the Brazilian Takedown level, and Wolverines, which features an invasion of the United States.

Instead of starting with questions for each level, I want to start with a broader question that felt relevant for all three of these chapters:

How much did you play on-script — doing what you were "supposed to do" in No Russian and the other levels — and what were your experiences going off it?

Ok... GO! (We're doing this for an hour, though you can carry on further without me, of course.)

NOTE - The next Game Club meeting will be on Monday, same time as this one, 2pm Kotaku Time, 4pm ET. We'll be covering levels 7-9.

That's a lot for a single title, one with more than 20 years worth of games, to live up to. But New Super Mario Bros. Wii promises to reinvigorate the still popular franchise, adding cooperative and competitive multiplayer and delivering what could be a paradigm shift to the medium in the form of a new way of helping people play through a game.

Will New Super Mario Bros. Wii's four-player support and Super Guide deliver a memorable experience, or torpedo a beloved tradition? Let's find out.

Loved
Pacing: New Super Mario Bros. Wii can be a tremendously difficult game at times. But the developers seemed to have gone to great lengths to ensure that you don't spend your entire experience with the game gripping a remote in white-knuckled terror of a fatal misstep. The courses within a given map seem to have a subtle flow between frantic, frenetic and, by comparison, almost relaxing. While the clever pacing of the game makes those monumentally hard levels all the more memorable, it doesn't mean that everything else is forgettable. Instead the title's flowing difficulty helps to maintain a stranglehold on a gamer's attention.

The Koopa Two-Step : New Super Mario Bros. Wii's music is catchy and ever changing, shifting from world to world to match the themes found in a specific area. Most of the tunes seem derived from earlier versions of the fabled franchise, but that's all the more reason to love them. The ever-present music is so infectious that even your enemies will stop during their endless pacing to dance for a second.

Creative Courses: The main gameplay of New Super Mario Bros. Wii is spread out over eight worlds, each with a number of levels to choose from along branching paths. One could very easily play through the entire game without hitting every course, but there's so much creativity and craft put into each level it would be crazy not to play them all. Each course moves around quite a bit within a world's given theme, having you play through frozen, underwater, air-bound and even perpetually burning levels. The level design is some of my favorite for this long-lived franchise, making use of not just creative environments and elements to add to the challenge of the marching stream of enemies, but also working the use of light and darkness into the game in imaginative ways. And as always, there are plenty of secrets and hidden paths to find in a level.

Enemy Palette:The maps and themes of New Super Mario Bros. Wii are an intrinsic part of the experience, but they still serve as a backdrop to the ever-evolving, always intriguing cast of enemies and living dangers Mario faces on his quest to save Princess Peach. Of course the game has an army of Koopas and Goombas, and you'll find most of your favorite enemies from previous games returning in this latest title. But the minions created to plague Mario's quest are a challenging bunch. Including are reworks of classic enemies, like the walking Piranha Plant, as well as entirely new creations like automaton birds, glowing angler fish and swarms of bats and birds.

Devilishly Difficult: While I've played nearly every Mario Bros. game released, I'd hardly say I'm fit to quantify how relatively difficult this latest adventure is compared to the past two decades worth. But it's no cake walk. There are times, while playing through chunks of the game, when Mario has to navigate a screen packed with moving threats. Other times he has to hop, run and swing through moving courses. I'm sure there are those among you who will argue this isn't the most difficult—Super Mario Bros. 2 Japan, for example—but I doubt anyone will argue that it is too easy. That difficulty, coupled with a unique save and help system, make both the playing and completion of New Super Mario Bros. Wii a deeply satisfying experience.

A Sharp Dressed Mario: Who doesn't love a Mario wearing anything but his plumber outfit? The ability granting costumes of Mario, and discovering which new ones are in a game, have always made the franchise a more thrilling ride. This time around Mario is given access to three new suits. The propeller suit allows Mario to spin up into the air and then slowly hover down across a map. The Ice Flower, a bit like the Fire Flower (which is also in the game) grants Mario the ability to throw enemy-freezing snowballs. The Penguin Suit, besides being adorable, allows Mario to throw snowballs, slide across areas on his belly and swim faster underwater. You'll also found an assortment of garment mainstays like the growth enhancing mushroom, the Fire Flower and the Mini Mario mushroom. Finally, the game includes levels featuring a rideable Yoshi. Sadly, there's no Tanooki or Bee suits, but I'm still pretty happy with the selection.

New Moves: New Super Mario Bros. Wii does a fantastic job of integrating motion into the solid, old-school controls of a decades-old franchise without making the result feel awkward or tacked on. Most of the game is played with the D-Pad (you do have the option to use the Nunchuk as an alternative control system) and the 1 and 2 buttons. But there are several moves that now require a bit of waggling. To lift an object you have to stand next to it, hold in the 1 button and shake the controller. To do a spin jump you just shake the controller. Both work quite well and never feel like they impact a person's ability to make it through a course. But much more interesting are some of the new ways that the motion controls are used. There are times when you have to stand on bolts and shake the controller to spin them, but that's almost to be expected. What I found surprising was the use of the motion control to do things like aim lights in darkened levels by tilting the controller as you play. Or moving a platform back and forth with the tilt of the controller while you maneuver Mario around with the directional pad. Both may sound annoying, but they work flawless and are integral parts of some of the game's best levels.

Luigi Time: The biggest addition that New Super Mario Bros. Wii brings to the franchise, to video gaming as a whole, is the introduction of the single-player Super Guide. The Super Guide is an automated play through of a level that can take players past difficult portions of a game, perhaps preventing them from giving up on a title. It sounds an awful lot like cheating, but the implementation does a great job of minimizing that.

Here's how it works. After a player has died eight times on a given map, a green box with an exclamation point appears at the start of the level. The box makes a doorbell sound until you jump up to it. The game than asks if you want to have Luigi play through the course for you. If you decide to do that, you watch as Luigi plays the map, not perfect and not picking up any power-ups or earning any coins for you, but getting the job done. At any time you can tap the plus button on the controller to take over for Luigi. But once you do, you can't activate him again. Once he's beaten the level, you're asked if you want to try it for yourself. If you choose no, the game asks if you're sure that you want to skip the level.

The Super Guide serves a lot of functions. Perhaps most importantly, it helps along players who otherwise might have given up and not enjoyed the entire game. But it also really does instruct. Watching Luigi play through a level gives you plenty of tips on how to get past tricky parts of the game. So it feels much less like cheating and much more like watching someone show you where you may have gone wrong. Finally, and most subtly, the Super Guide is great for those times when you use up your five lives deep in a world and have to start all over again. I could see someone deliberately dying so they could use the Super Guide to replay through levels that they had already mastered and didn't feel like playing over and over again.

TwoFer: The ability to play the same game, same worlds, same courses either on your own or with one to three others makes New Super Mario Bros. Wii feel more like two games instead of one. That mostly because while playing through the game with friends there are a whole new set of rules that come into play. Players can jump in and out of bubbles, they can pick one another up either to work as a two-person team or toss each other to their deaths, they even have a special new attack, a simultaneous ground pound that defeats all of the enemies on-screen on the ground. The addition of these new moves and the dynamic of being able to be friendly or hostile at any given time gives the game a completely different feel when played as a group.

Hated
Hiccup: There were two little things that I found annoying me on occasion while I played through the game. In single player, I discovered that the spin jump could be easily activated by tapping the remote or moving it suddenly, like when you shift in your seat or go to scratch your head. It wasn't a huge deal, but I needed to learn to remember that.

While playing as a group the only annoyance I found was that when another player died, it momentarily paused everyone on the screen to play that brief, catchy death melody. That stutter in time cost me more than a few lives when it hit.

There's really no reason not to buy this game. Despite my time constraints, despite the urgency I felt in needing to complete the game, New Super Mario Bros. Wii was a pleasure to experience from opening screen to post-credits punchline. The fact that it also happens to be the showcase for a new way of helping gamers experience and enjoy a title can almost get lost in the mix. But it shouldn't. The Super Guide, and the ability to unlock video hints inside the title will most definitely change the way we all play games eventually, no matter the system we play them on.

I haven't had this much goodhearted, simple fun on a video game console since my days playing the original Super Mario Bros. snowed in at my house in Maryland. Sure, a lot of what makes a game like New Super Mario Bros. Wii so much fun for someone like me to play is the nostalgia factor. But there's more to it than that. This is a delightful game, one that delivers a lasting and challenging experience without making you feel like you need to learn how to walk again. If Nintendo still needed a reason for people to buy a Wii, this is the ultimate argument winner.

New Super Mario Bros. Wii was developed by Nintendo EAD and published by Nintendo for the Wii on Nov. 15. Retails for $49.99 USD. A copy of the game was given to us by the publisher for reviewing purposes. Played through the entire game, sometimes on my own and sometimes with others. Tested the Super Guide. Unlocked video tutorials and tried both free-for-all and coin battle modes.

Confused by our reviews? Read our review FAQ.

"It was an NCL idea," Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime said today, referring to the Japanese company's home office to which his office reports, during an interview at New York's Waldorff Astoria hotel.

Nintendo HQ had determined that New Super Mario Bros. Wii, which launches Sunday, would be the first Wii game to come in a red case, rather than a white one.

"New Super Mario Brothers is such a special title," Fils-Aime said, "It is something that [Mario creator Shigeru] Miyamoto and his team have been so passionate about — that when it came time for the final packaging, we had many internal discussions as to how we make it special.

"And that's where the idea of the red box came from: How do we signify to our Nintendo fans, to our greater community the specialness of this title? The red is Mario red.

"What we did differently here in the U.S., when we were looking at the final packaging, we were concerned that the Wii logo on the red, in what we call the branding bar, was a little too plain just white. So it's in our market we've made it silver with the metallic ink to make it pop more."

Fils-Aime has said that gaming retailers have been excited. As for other publisher reaction, he dismissed the idea that Nintendo's lone red box amid a wall of white Wii boxes at a game shop would distract attention from other publishers' games games. "I haven't heard any licensees concerned that the box is somehow going to overly sway the consumer," he said. "I think our licensees understand that, from a first party stand-point, New Super Mario Bros. is our biggest title for the holidays. And I bet most licensees are excited about the hardware-driving potential of that particular title."

One red box is not the start of a trend, however.

"We've been clear that this is kind of a one-time deal," Fils-Aime noted. "Don't expect to see a yellow box for x or a gold box for y."

An idea formed.... "Luigi's Mansion 2 would have a green box?" Kotaku offered helpfully.

Fils-Aime ignored that: "We wanted this to be very special and very unique which is why we went down the path with the red box."

Not that there's anything wrong with the sandbox third person shooter/action game label; it certainly does sum up both Just Cause 2 and its 2006 predecessor. But with sequels, you're expecting something more, right? Well, Just Cause 2 delivers – in parachute and grappling hook form.

What Is It?
Just Cause 2 puts players in the shoes of Agency operative Rico Rodriguez who is sent to track down his AWOL friend and mentor, Tom Sheldon on the fictional island of Panau. Along the way, he gets enmeshed in conflicts between three different factions and there are a lot of high places that are just begging to be BASE-jumped off of.

What We Saw
I watched a developer recap the demo shown at E3 where Rico BASE jumps into a speedboat and then goes crazy grappling between points on what looks like a shipping port. Then the dev took me and several other games journalists through the beginning of the Casino Bust mission before handing over the controller so I could try my hand at playing in the sandbox.

How Far Along Is It?
The game is due out sometime in 2010, but it looks pretty enough to seem like the release could be sooner rather than later.

What Needs Improvement?
Wait, What Was I Doing? It's awfully easy to get distracted by the pretty scenery and raw freedom offered up by Just Cause 2. You do get map notifications of where you can go to complete the next objective on whatever question you might be on – and sometimes cell phone updates from non-playable characters who want you to do something. But the map is easy ignore since you have to open a menu to view it properly. Also the cell phone pep talks are jarring enough to be irritating, so you might tune them out. It'd be nice if the game sent your PDA unobtrusive text messages or something.

Where Am I? Panau feels huge. I'm not sure how it stacks up compared to the first game, but the square mileage of the island is supposed to be something like 400 square miles. With all the ground to cover and topography that makes it hard to scan for landmarks, it's easy to get lost. You might not mind it much if you're an intrepid explorer – but if you're one of those gotta-beat-main-story-now types, getting lost while trying to learn the lay of the land is going to be a huge drag.

You Can't Grapple Two Elevators Together: Bummer.

The Malaysian Faction Boss Is Annoying: I might catch heat from both feminists and Malaysian people when I say that I can't stand the Malaysian faction boss lady. But seriously, she's irritating – especially when she's constantly yelling at you during a mission in heavily accented English.

What Should Stay The Same?
I Want To Have The Grapple's Babies: It is so fun to grapple onto things, grapple things together or just grapple yourself to the ground then deploy the parachute while you're being pulled toward said grapple point to launch yourself into the air for what's basically the Spider-Man mode of transportation. The best part of the demo was when the developer grappled a truck that was pursuing him to the underside of a bridge as they passed by. The physics of watching the wire snap taut and the truck flip up and over were hilarious. Also, you can grapple cars and boats to helicopters. Oh, and you can keep your airborne momentum up when you're parachuting by grappling onto distant points on the ground or environment.

I Might Cheat On The Grapple With The Parachute: You can deploy your parachute at any time, pretty much anywhere if you've got even a few feet of air between your feet and the ground. A single button press deploys it and releases it, which is very low-fuss given all the guns you've got to handle. Once you master the pitch (point up, not down and you'll gain altitude!) and the grappling-to-the-ground technique, you might even forget to hijack cars.

We Could Have A Threesome With The Stunt Driving: Car chases are infinitely more fun when you're not actually driving. It's way better instead to let the car's momentum do the work while you straddle the front of the car as cover and shoot at the dudes climbing onto the back of your car, trying to kill you.

Final Thoughts
Just Cause 2 is pretty and violent and expansive – just like sandbox third person shooter/action games ought to be. It's really the grapple combined with the parachute that sets this game apart from, say, Mercenaries 2 or Saints Row 2.

Also, it occurs to me that if the game really went for realism with the parachute/grappling thing, discarded parachutes and wires would be littered all over Panau by the end of the game. Also, Rico would be covered in vomit.

Under the rule of the Sanctum, the sky city of Cocoon knew a long and prosperous peace, but the Fal'Cie from the "lowerworld" of Pulse awaken from their slumber and curse humans, turning them into the I'Cie, the magic-wielding servants of the fal-Cie.

Those branded with the mark of a I'Cie have to fulfill their Focus or "face a fate harsher than death itself."

"After thirteen days of fates intertwined, the battle begins," according to the press release.

"We know that our fans have been eagerly awaiting the next installation of the franchise – FINAL FANTASY XIII will exceed all expectations," said John Yamamoto, president and chief executive officer of Square Enix, Inc. "Coming simultaneously to PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 for the first time, FINAL FANTASY XIII will be available to all players who are looking for the most immersive gaming experience of 2010."

As I mentioned when I posted the Final Fantasy XIII video earlier today, Leona Lewis will be providing the theme song for the latest Final Fantasy. My Hands , which hits stores in her second album on Nov. 17, was chosen because the developers said they felt it fit the game's "powerful themes and strong female protagonist."

The game, which hits in Japan on Dec. 17, will feature a a new "ultimate active time battle system" that allows players to execute numerous commands in a single turn with a multi-slot ATB gauge. Player will be able to choice between inputting individual commands in each slot for consecutive attacks, or expending multiple sots at once to activate more damaging attacks.

The game also adds a new game mechanics called Paradigms, that allow you to assign one of six gameplay roles, like Commando or Medic, to your characters.

A new summon system introduced Gestalt Mode, which allows players and their transformed Eidolons to fight as one through simple button commands.

Are you ready for Final Fantasy XIII? You've got four months to prepare... unless you're importing it.

The PSP has two modes of internet play: Ad Hoc and Infrastructure. Infrastructure mode lets players connect through the internet, but Ad Hoc mode is local only, or at least it was. The PSP adhocParty, launched last year in Japan, allows select games that normally allow for only face-to-face multiplayer connect via the PlayStation Network, using the PlayStation 3 as a bridge.

"The PlayStation brand is synonymous with creating exciting new gameplay experiences that connect and challenge people in ways they never thought possible," said Scott A. Steinberg, vice president, product marketing, SCEA. "AdhocParty for the PSP system creates an avenue for gamers to connect, strategize, and compete with each other – Gran Turismo is a great example of this. Polyphony Digital developed robust Ad Hoc features within the game, which are now even more accessible through adhocParty. We saw this as a tremendous opportunity to enhance the PSP system's online gaming experience and bring the service to our North American consumers."

While it would be nice if the PSP could perform this sort of function on its own instead of requiring a PlayStation 3, the service will definitely be a godsend, especially to those poor, lonely Monster Hunter Freedom Unite players. Look for the feature to go live later this month.

The game, which hits in Japan on Dec. 17, will include a new battle system, a "dramatic story" focused on the emotions of the character and will feature a Leona Lewis single as the game's opening theme.

Also, holy crap, are you looking at this video? Because it's spectacular. The video also gives us a better look at the game's Paradigm system.

You may want to watch this video full-screen, just click on that button in the bottom right corner.

That means it didn't just have to be the biggest game launch of all time. It had to beat the biggest album, book and movie launches, too. Which you'd think would be no easy feat, but remember: Activision's boast rests solely on two self-imposed criteria: that the launch applies only to North America and the United Kingdom, and that it's based on the total revenue gained over those first 24 hours.

That's a little too selective for our tastes. We're going to be a little fairer, and size MW2 up not only in terms of revenue - which will always favour games, which are relatively expensive - but units sold/people entertained as well.

MODERN WARFARE 2 vs MUSIC

It's difficult to get hold of accurate music statistics, mostly because global figures are rarely combined. And because until the early 90's, even the US records were a mess. Still, not that any of that matters; the biggest-selling album launch in US history is 'N Sync's "No Strings Attached", which moved only 2.4 million copies in seven days (with estimates of 1.4 million sales in the first 24 hours).

And in the UK? It's Oasis' "Be Here Now", which sold just under one million copies in its first week on sale. So MW2 is the clear winner here; it sold more units in 24 hours than 'N Sync and Oasis combined could manage in a week, and with games more expensive than CDs, earned far more revenue as well.

Winner (Revenue): Modern Warfare 2
Winner (Units): Modern Warfare 2

MODERN WARFARE 2 vs BOOKS

Books are able to put up more of a fight. The reigning champ when it comes to the printed word is Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, which in 24 hours sold 8.3 million copies in the US and a further 2.65 million in the UK. That's 10.95 million customers, easily trumping Modern Warfare 2's 4.7 million.

But remember: this is all based on revenue, not units. And with Potter's final adventure averaging around $18 at retail, that puts revenue at $197 million, nowhere near MW2's $310 million figure. Even allowing for Deathly Hallows' worldwide launch figures, at $15 million, it still can't overhaul Infinity Ward's shooter.

Winner (Revenue): Modern Warfare 2
Winner (Units): Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

MODERN WARFARE vs MOVIES

Again, a little messy due to sloppy record-keeping and a lack of global cooperation, but as you'll see, that doesn't matter. The current record-holder for a movie launch is 2008's The Dark Knight, which in its first 24 hours in the United States made $66.4 million. Factor in what would be far smaller figures for Canada and the UK and it's still not even within shouting distance of $310 million.

Things are, however, looking a little healthier for the movie business when you look at units sold. With ticket prices in 2008 averaging $7.20, that works out to be around, oh, 9.2 million movie-goers. And that's just in the United States.

Winner (Revenue): Modern Warfare 2
Winner (Units): The Dark Knight

MODERN WARFARE 2 vs VIDEO GAMES

Last year, Grand Theft Auto IV set a new record for "biggest game launch", selling 3.6 million copies and earning $310 million. Which, at least in terms of revenue, is awful close to Modern Warfare 2's figures.

Thing is, Take-Two's GTA numbers were worldwide. Modern Warfare 2's $310 million was made just in the United States, Canada and United Kingdom. Factor in Europe and Australia, which no doubt Activision will in the weeks to come, and it'll be a lot more.

Winner (Revenue): Modern Warfare 2
Winner (Units): Modern Warfare 2.

So there you have it. Modern Warfare 2 definitely holds the record for the biggest launch in video game history. It can also stab in the face anything the music business can throw at it. But as you can see, going up against movies and books, Activision's claims had a lot more to do with how they chose to define "biggest" than how many people actually picked up their product in a 24-hour period.

Hope this put things in perspective for you!

Note - DVD sales were not included because cumulative figures are a complete mess. But if you're curious, the #1-selling DVD of all time is Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, which has lifetime revenues of $295 million.

The Treyarch developed Wii port doesn't offer anything new or significantly changed from the original Modern Warfare. Gameplay switches perspectives between a series of individuals caught on various sides of a global nuclear conflict. Primarily, you'll be a gun-toting military type following behind or leading a non-playable character strike force tasked with everything from "go here, kill this" to "find this guy and run for your life." The big selling points are the intricate story with its upsetting plot twists and the fact that this is the first Call of Duty game set in the somewhat current/near future time line.

Show of hands here – who's already bought, played and beaten Modern Warfare 2? No? Well, then maybe Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Reflex is for you.

Loved
Doesn't Dumb Down The Gameplay: You'd expect a few sacrifices in any port of an Xbox 360/PS3 game to the Wii, but Reflex doesn't skimp on the gameplay. It looks like all of the features, weapons and difficulty levels from the single player campaign made it onto the console with no major changes to story objectives or AI.

Solid Multiplayer: It's true that the Wii caps multiplayer at 10 per match—about half of other versions of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare—and only lets you have private matches with people whose friend codes you actually have (ugh, friend codes). However, it's got the same maps, same snappy pace and no discernible lag from what I saw. What more could you ask for from a multiplayer on the Wii? Besides Wii Speak, of course –- and frankly, I can live without that because I hate having strange men alternately hit on and swear at me.

Hated
Scaled Down Graphics: The one thing Reflex does skimp on compared to the original is visual quality. While it's true that looks aren't everything, they are definitely worth a lot where Call of Duty is concerned. The varied settings of the different levels -– mountains, desert, snow, nuclear wasteland -– are all pixelated and flat with none of the visceral edge that set Modern Warfare apart from other shooters in 2007.

Frustrating Controls: Switching from game pad to Wii Remote is always a tough adjustment, but Reflex suffers from a particularly rough learning curve because there's just so much to fiddle with in Options menus order to make the motion controls feel "just right." Movement is controlled with the analog stick on the Nunchuck, but both your aim and the camera are fixed to the pointer which can lead to wild, crazy-panning or sluggish sitting-duck turning depending on your sensitivity settings. Worse, a lot of the secondary things you need to do (like putting on night vision goggles or triggering a UAV in multiplayer) require you to hold down a direction on the D-pad and mash the analog stick in a specified direction on the Nunchuck. Very frustrating indeed.

Frame Rate Drops During Scope Mode: The is the worst possible time for the frame rate to drop. Totally hosed me on the sniper mission with Captain MacMillan.

Pretty Late To The Party: Part of what made Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare such a massive hit was the freshness of the experience. We were in a new setting with a somewhat edgy plot in a way we'd never seen Call of Duty before. That feeling of newness doesn't hold up as well after two years –- even if you somehow did dodge all the spoilers.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Reflex is a good game by itself. Once you tweak the controls, the gameplay is solid and the story really is intriguing. Wii owners looking for real first person shooter experience instead of something on rails owe it to themselves to pick this up.

The downside is that Reflex isn't really ever by itself. Many of us can't think of it and not think of the original Modern Warfare experience from 2007. Also, given that Reflex came out the same day as Modern Warfare 2, you can't not think of that either. So as far as Call of Duty fans are concerned, what would normally be a good first person shooter on the Wii is instead reduced to an exercise in settling for something less, instead of getting the absolute best.

In other words, Modern Warfare Reflex is a good game... as long as you really don't know what you're missing.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Reflex was developed by Treyarch and published by Activision for the Nintendo Wii on November 10. Retails for $49.99 and is compatible with the Wii Zapper. A copy of the game was given to us by the publisher for reviewing purposes. Completed single-player campaign and logged three solid hours of multiplayer — also had previously played Modern Warfare on Xbox 360 in 2008.

Confused by our reviews? Read our review FAQ.

The month was packed with new software, including Forza Motorsport 3, Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days and NBA 2K10 which put big numbers on the board. And while the PS3 and Wii secured software spots one and two, respectively, the Xbox 360's showing as a platform resulted in six of the top ten games sold in the U.S. this October. That's a lot of royalty payments going Microsoft's way.

And speaking of Microsoft's fortunes, last month's U.S. software champ Halo 3 ODST managed to round up another 271,000 sales.

The top ten games for the month of October according to NPD are...

01. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (PS3) - 537,000
02. Wii Fit Plus (Wii) - 441,000
03. Borderlands (Xbox 360) - 418,000
04. Wii Sports Resort (Wii) - 314,000
05. NBA 2K10 (Xbox 360) - 311,000
06. Halo 3 ODST (Xbox 360) - 271,000
07. NBA 2K10 (PS3) - 213,000
08. Forza Motorsport 3 (Xbox 360) - 175,000
09. Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days (DS) - 169,000
10. FIFA Soccer 10 (Xbox 360) - 156,000

That's just a portion of the $572.73 million that U.S. consumers spent on video game software last month, down 18% from the same period last year.

NPD's Anita Frazier notes that about half of Wii Fit Plus' sales for the month were of the bundled variety, meaning that plenty of Wii owners are investing in Wii Balance Boards for the first time.

"The top game for the month across all platforms was NBA 2K10, at 575K units," Frazier says of 2K Sports' latest. "It was a great launch for the game, outselling last year's NBA 2K9 by 60% in its launch month. Sales on both the Xbox 360 and PS3 platforms improved substantially over last year."

Now for the bad news.

"The music/dance genre saw big declines this month compared to last year," Frazier notes. "The genre generated $53 million in sales as compared to $137 million last year. Both Rock Band: Beatles, and Guitar Hero 5 have the potential to be good gifting items for the holidays, so we should expect to see an uptick in sales over the next two months."

Like Activision's recently-released Band Hero, LEGO Rock Band seeks to be the E for Everyone answer to the band-based rhythm genre, delivering songs that parents don't have to explain to their children while blushing profusely. Unlike Band Hero, however, LEGO Rock Band has the power of one of the world's most popular toy lines behind it. There's really no doubt that the familiar red logo on the front of the case will attract game buying parents like moths to a flame. Will they get burned?

Loved
Rock Band's Gameplay: It's the same Rock Band gameplay we've all come to know and love, plastic instruments and all. Cosmetic changes aside, there's nothing stopping anyone who has played previous Rock Band titles from picking up the mic, drumsticks, or guitar and rocking out.

LEGO Charm: If you don't find the LEGO video games charming on some level, you might as well treat LEGO Rock Band as a giant, $50 track pack. If you do find the LEGO-brand cuteness adorable, then the game has plenty for you to gush over, from the LEGO block notes on the highway to the ridiculous hijinks your band and crew get up to during jam sessions. New venues are opened up by unlocking new, increasingly absurd LEGO vehicles, with each new location loaded with cute little touches that you'll only notice if you are watching someone else play. Once again, Traveller's Tales manages to squeeze refreshing water from a LEGO block.

Rock Challenges: While they aren't particularly challenging, LEGO Rock Band's Rock Challenges do split up the monotony of playing song after song after song. These special stages have specific goals, like blowing up a building with the power of rock, or ridding a haunted mansion of ghosts. In single player you simply play through the song presented as per normal, but with a friend the action is broken up, giving each player a bit of solo time to accomplish their goals. Again, not all that challenging, but a welcome distraction. Plus, the Ghostbusters challenge features some of the most adorable moments in gaming this year. To quote my girlfriend, "Cutest. Thing. Ever."

Eclectic Selections: Despite its family-friendly theme, LEGO Rock Band has managed to gather together a nicely varied list of music that might not have seen the light of day in any other Rock Band title. The introduction of my favorite band, Counting Crows, to the Rock Band universe was almost worth the game's $50 price tag for me, while songs like "Kung-Fu Fighting," "Ghostbusters," and "Walkin' on Sunshine" are exactly the sort of light-hearted fare that other Rock Band games lacked.

It's A Brick House: Like other LEGO games from Traveller's Tales, LEGO Rock Band is all about collecting bits, and once you've collected those bits you can use them at the in-game store to buy new outfits, instruments, staff members, and even decorations for your LEGO headquarters. Your headquarters acts as the main menu for the game, so being able to add your own personal touch is kind of nice. This is really the feature that separates the game from the rest of the Rock Band lineup, even if it doesn't allow for in-depth customization of your pad.

Super Easy: A new addition to the standard Rock Band difficulty settings, Super Easy means even your most uncoordinated friends can pick up a guitar and play, as long as they have even the most rudimentary grasp of the concept of rhythm. Just push any button and strum, or hit any drum pad. We don't care which, just pound the damn thing. There, now you're playing Rock Band. Perfect for those singers in your group who are afraid of the plastic instruments.

Export Business: If all else fails, LEGO Rock Band functions as a 44 song track pack. A code included with the game allows you to export the songs on the disc to regular Rock Band for $9.99, meaning that if you'd like to play "Accidentally in Love" with your friends without worrying about LEGO Rock Band's lack of online multiplayer, you still have another option.

Hated
Skimpy Track List: Three years ago we would have been perfectly happy with 44 songs, but these days that's around half of what we generally expect. The songs might be a nice collection of tunes, but when you have to play them over and over again throughout your career in order to progress, they wear thin rather quickly. In one venue I played through two songs I wasn't particularly fond of, only to have both of said songs show up in the mystery set list I played next. That's not fun. That's annoying.

Offline Only: I suppose stripping away the online play from previous Rock Band titles was one way of making LEGO Rock Band more family friendly, but its presence is definitely missed.

LEGO Rock Band makes several painful trade-offs in order to present a game that can be considered family friendly, and your enjoyment of the game hinges on whether or not you can handle the changes. You get half as many songs as a normal Rock Band release and no online multiplayer, in exchange for a rhythm game that's brimming with unique LEGO personality and music you won't find anywhere else, until Harmonix releases the tracks as paid DLC for the regular versions. Plus, LEGO Rock Band is by far the most accessible of the Rock Band titles, with a lower level of difficulty making it an excellent gateway game.

There's a lot to love in LEGO Rock Band, as long as you don't try and take it too seriously.

LEGO Rock Band was developed by Harmonix and Traveller's Tales and published by Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Nintendo Wii. Retails for $49.99 USD. A copy of the game was given to us by the publisher for reviewing purposes. Played through complete career mode on the Xbox 360 version both alone and with a friend.

Confused by our reviews? Read our review FAQ.

While watching the creative use of Penguin Suit-spawned ice blocks and synchronized butt stomps, try not to think about the lack of online multiplayer in New Super Mario Bros. Wii, a missing feature that would really help out lone gamers like me.

The Brandford Rant Institute of Cosmic Kinesis was founded in 1984 by inter-dimensional theorist Bradford Rant to study the possibility of intersecting alternate universes, and they may have finally hit pay dirt. They've been tracking mysterious LEGO pods that have been falling to Earth from origins unknown, apparently drawn to locations that contain a significant number of LEGO bricks and large amounts of imagination.

The scientists who maintain the Institute have set up a website to track the progress of their discoveries, having already posted a video documenting the discovery of the first pod, found in LEGOLAND Park in Denmark. That discovery only led to more questions. What are the mysterious words on the side of the pod? Why are the pilots so damn cheery? What does it all mean?

The next Pod is somewhere in North America. Can you help them find it?

This is obviously some sort of alternate reality game for some sort of LEGO product, and we've got a hunch that it could be for LEGO Universe, Net Devil's upcoming MMO. When you start talking LEGO and parallel universes, it's the logical conclusion to come to.

Visit the Bradford Rant Institute website yourself to see if you can help solve the mystery of the LEGO pod people.