Joystiq [Xbox]

EA Sports is ramping up the hype machine for its very crucial FIFA franchise, as it has issued out a new teaser trailer for the latest installment, FIFA 10. Thankfully, it's not your average teaser trailer, as though it is short, it does contain actual gameplay footage. It looks like the one big improvement for this year's version will be bullet time.

Eidos just fired off a press release, scoring a direct hit on our inbox, informing that Battlestations: Pacific will receive two resupply convoys in the form of the Mustang Pack and the Carrier Battle Map Pack. The first pack is available for download today and offers six new units (including the P-51 Mustang bomber, US Navy Alaska Class battleship, and Japanese Yamato Class battleship), along with 18 different pieces of nose art to be used online or off, and will set players back a cool 160 ($2).

A more substantial DLC offering will come with the Carrier Battle Map Pack, a collection of four new maps that will be playable across all five multiplayer modes. These maps consist of locales such as the Philippine Islands, the Leyte Gulf, and Aleutian Islands, and will fetch a premium price of 800 ($10) when the pack releases on July 23.

With just the simple image you see above, developer Polytron announced that its dimensional-shifting platformer Fez would arrive on the Xbox Live Arcade platform at some point next year. Though we've seen a date of 2009 in a previous trailer, the teaser image is the best indication we've had so far in terms of a concrete platform for the game.

Though we can't say it's a huge surprise (we spotted an Xbox "A" button in the game back in March), it's nice to have it officially official.

Splinter Cell: Conviction will take 12 hours to complete on normal says the game's creative director, Maxime Beland, in the latest issue of OXM. There will certainly be a harder difficultly level for folks that are into trial and error for 30 hours, but the "normal gamers" will get a well-sized adventure. Beland says this was done because he wants people to actually finish the game. That's quite a good idea.

Also, at around 12 hours of gameplay, Badass: The Game won't wear out its welcome -- if it keeps the action going. Of course, there'll be multiplayer to extend the experience, but we likely won't be able to crack skulls in urinals there ... or maybe we will, which would then confirm Splinter Cell as game of the year.

[Via 1UP]

Microsoft released its Kodu Game Lab yesterday, giving gamers everywhere the opportunity to create their very own games. Just for you, we snapped up the tool and set to work creating the Next BIg Thing in video gaming. Well, either that or we created a dinky little 2D shooter. Still, it's hard not to feel some pride after creating a real, honest-to-goodness, functioning game. And we did it all without laying a finger on a standard keyboard.

Check out our video tour and see what created.

Add the trial version of Kodu Game Lab to your Xbox 360 download queue

That is to say: All forty characters in the game will be available from the first moment Tekken 6 graces your disc drive. Speaking to VideoGamer, Tekken series director Katsuhiro Harada stated -- through a translator -- that unlockables in games are "outdated."

Harada says that unlockables were originally implemented in order to extend the life of arcade games. As characters are unlocked, players would have more reason to come back to the machine. We definitely wasted a few quarters just for the chance to play as Kuma, so we'd say the plan worked. Harada said that unlockable characters were added to the home version for the same reason, implying that it would discourage gamers from renting the game instead of buying it.

Fast-forward to Tekken 6, and Harada says that unlockables are "outdated now ... especially with online play." He notes that today's gamers would be irritated by competing online against characters that they have yet to unlock. Thus, you won't find any unlockable characters in Tekken 6.

Of course, history tells us we still might see some characters for sale.

If anyone belongs in a game called DJ Hero, it's Grandmaster Flash. The legendary musician has been at the forefront of hip-hop for basically forever, and is credited with inventing the art of messing with records to create noise, upon which the entire game is based.

In addition to appearing in-game, Flash contributed his own mixes to the soundtrack. In the video above, you can hear a segment of his mashup of Herbie Hancock's "Rockit" and N.E.R.D.'s "Lapdance." After the break, we've embedded a clip of the game featuring a mashup of his own "Here Comes My DJ" and Gary Numan's new wave anthem to isolation, "Cars."

MTV recorded footage of Flash trying the game for the first time, and let's just say his performance in the game is much more impressive than his performance of the game. For a more thorough writeup of Mr. Flash's thoughts on the game, check out GameDaily's writeup here.

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So, in case it wasn't made absolutely clear by the box art, here's what Obsidian Entertainment's head-slammin' Alpha Protocol isn't:

• The Overwrought Fantasy RPG
• The Contemplative Neo-Classical RPG
• The Effervescent Dating RPG
• The Number One Best Selling RPG
• An Espionage RPG
• That Other Game About The Secret Agent and Stuff

Joking aside, it's quite likely that we're simply oblivious to the subtitle's significance to the plot -- the one involving a sneaky rocket-propelled grenade that taps your phone and then blows off your ear. See if you can spot it in the developer diary embedded after the break.

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We're just gonna come right out and say it: July 2009 may be the worst month for new retail releases ever. Unless you like 2D fighters that is, because in that case, it's awesome. Or games about movies about hamsters, those two groups are being really well serviced.

If you haven't fully prepared yourself for the horror, we'd suggest you gird your mind with all the reason and clarity you can muster before continuing on.

Next week's Rock Band Weekly brings the announced three-pack from Green Day's 21st Century Breakdown album. The tracks are apparently the first offerings from an "exclusive partnership" between Harmonix and Warner Music to bring the band's songs to the platform. Green Day isn't even the angriest band this week ...

Green Day Pack (440 / $5.50/ 200 Wii Points apiece)

• "21 Guns" (160 / $2)
• "East Jesus Nowhere" (160 / $2)
• "Know Your Enemy" (160 / $2)

Mayhem Pack (1080 / $13.50/ 200 Wii Points apiece)

• "Conquer All" -- Behemoth (160 / $2)
• "What a Horrible Night to Have a Curse" -- Black Dahlia Murder (160 / $2)
• "Hammer Smashed Face" -- Cannibal Corpse (160 / $2)
• "Empire of the Gun" -- God Forbid (160 / $2)
• "Embedded" -- Job for a Cowboy (160 / $2)
• "Disposable Teens" -- Marilyn Manson (160 / $2)
• "Black Magic" -- Slayer (160 / $2)
• "This Is Exile" -- Whitechapel (160 / $2)

All tracks are original masters and are available for download next Tuesday on Xbox 360 and Wii. They make their way over to PS3 on Thursday.

After EA DICE loosed the official release date for Battlefield 1943 early today, we set to scouring the interweb for more information on the upcoming digitally distributed title. Wouldn't you know it, the first thing we found was the game's somewhat less-than-thrilling Achievements over on Inside MGC, detailing how many flag caps you'll need before hearing the glorious cheevo noise and snagging 10Gs for yourself, among other things. If you're one of those folks a bit more concerned than they should be with points (aren't we all?), check out the full list to see exactly how you'll be playing BF1943 when it hits next week.

Following up on earlier reports that Valve won't leave Left 4 Dead to die an early death, the company stated today that there should be an L4D DLC announcement before the end of summer. A company spokesperson also told CVG that about eight or nine months from now, when L4D2 has released and people see the continued support for L4D, they may finally understand the method to the madness.

We're all eagerly awaiting the epiphany.

The fate of Heroes over Europe was in question when the agreement between publisher Red Mile and developer Transmission Games dissipated, due to an unfortunate lack of money on Red Mile's part.

Ubisoft is now the hero of every prospective Heroes of Europe player, having just announced that it will publish the World War II flight simulator on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC. The Heroes Over the Pacific sequel, which features online play for up to 16 players, is currently scheduled for a worldwide release this September. You can check out new screens, only one of which includes a blimp, in our gallery.

Here in the States, we've grown accustomed to certain luxuries: subsidized gasoline for our free Hummers (hey, gotta stimulate that economy!); a complimentary 72oz soda with every purchase (just buy anything!); a lifetime supply of type 2 diabetes; and, of course, monthly updates from NPD charting the sales numbers of the major video game consoles. Our friends in the UK aren't so fortunate. So when we get a peek behind that curtain, we look to share it with you.

And here, courtesy of UK retailer GAME's first-half fiscal statement, we find data from GfK Chart-Track for sales up to June 27th, 2009. Unsurprisingly, Nintendo is in the lead with the DS, having sold 2.7m in the past year, bringing its total up to 9.1m units (that includes 300,000 DSi units sold since launch). The Wii is in second place with 5.4m, up 2.3 from last year. And then we get to the main attraction: 360 and PS3 sales.

You'll recall that in February, Microsoft claimed the 360 bested the PS3 in overall European sales by 1m units, citing GfK Chart-Track data again. In the UK, the Xbox is siting pretty with 3.9m units, up 1.7 from last year, while the PS3 is at 2.2m, up 900k from last year (and, coincidentally, right where Microsoft would've been a year ago). In between the "big boys" is the PSP, with 3.3m consoles sold, up 500k from last year.

It's weird: despite their genetic differences (three stomachs? gross!) the video game shopping trends of UK citizens sound an awful lot like those in the States.

Just when we were starting to get all excited about Silverlight-powered ads for Mountain Dew and Axe Body Spray littering the Xbox Dashboard, Xbox Live spokesman Major Nelson rains on our parade, telling readers that they don't need to sweat.

The Major recently posted, "One of our core principles is to enhance, not interfere with the gaming experience, and we work directly with our partners to only deliver experiences that are relevant to the LIVE community. Silverlight will help make those ads a more organic part of the dashboard, like we've done with some of the NXE slots in the past."

Aww, come on. Maybe just one "Get Totally Crunchatized With Doritos" ad? Something?