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.

The Batman: Arkham Asylum Achievements (a full list of which is available right here) are already pretty pedestrian. (Complete a combo of 5 moves? Snore.) But the problem is compacted by the complete absence of:

1. Do A Really Soulful Batusi
2. Fight Off A Shark with Shark Repellent Bat Spray
3. Reconstitute All World Leaders from Colorful Piles of Dust
4. Spot Three Different Girls Playing Catwoman

Honestly, we're not even sure how the thing is calling itself a Batman game.

[Thanks, TheDarkWayne]

Things are heating up both outside and in the World of Warcraft lately, as we're gearing up for a big time content release. Joystiq's sister site WoW.com has all the news you need about patch 3.2, from the latest changes and updates to when we'll actually see it out on the live realms. Read on for more about the biggest and best MMO around.

News

• Patch 3.2 PTR patch notes
  Here's the breakdown on what'll be in the Public Test Realm very soon.
• Crusaders' Coliseum details released
  Blizzard gives out deets on what we'll see in the next big instance added to the game.
• Patch 3.2 changes to the tiered Emblem system
  3.2 will bring both new sets of gear tokens to collect, as well as some tweaks and updates to old ones.
• New Shaman totem interface revealed
  Shamans will have new ways to both watch and lay down their totems.
• Class Q&A: Mage
  Blizzard answers questions on "the iconic caster" class.

Features

• WoW.com's Guide to Patch 3.2
  Everything you need to know about the upcoming content patch, and then some.
• The OverAchiever: Guide to Midsummer Fire Festival Achievements
  The Fire Festival is back, and so's our guide to get the most out of it.
• Insider Trader: Patch 3.2 profession change analysis
  What's new with professions? Read this column and find out.
• The Queue: Patch 3.2 and beyond the infinite
  Our readers ask questions every day, and we offer up answers just as often.
• Guildwatch: We're not even in his guild
  Another week brings another look at all of the guild drama, downed, and recruiting news from around the realms.

In what will assuredly not be the last leak of the summer from Halo 3: ODST as we lead up to its fall release, the entire achievement list has allegedly hit YouTube via Game-Tuts. While the list doesn't reveal any shocking surprises, it does tell us quite a bit about where the game's campaign mode will take us.

According to the list, "Vidmaster" achievements will be making an appearance in the game, as well as all the de rigeur cheevos for regular ol' campaign objectives. Also unsurprisingly, campaign scoring and co-op achievements appear to be making a return in ODST. We'd love to tell you more about the rumored achievement list but, alas, we may start walking into spoiler territory if we do -- and you wouldn't want that, right? You'll just have to head after the break for the whole thing, spoilers in-tow (you've been warned!). We've contacted Bungie regarding the validity of this list and have yet to hear back as of publishing.

Following the tenets of a religion is supposed to net you blessings and well-being, but that's just not tangible enough for us. Judaism has wised up, though. Those who follow its teachings in regards to keeping kosher – specifically by blasting a ham at a bar mitzvah in Ghostbusters – will be rewarded with an Achievement (and a Trophy, we presume) called "Kosher." It's only 10 points, but still, it's substantial.

Man, why does all the best stuff happen to Jews?

[Via What They Play]

When Valve introduced the first four class updates to Team Fortress 2, an achievement system was used to help unlock new weapons and items. According to Valve, that system did not work as intended. In the end, instead of playing the game toward fun and rewarding goals, hardcore players would grind achievements to unlock the game's latest weaponry. At the time, users complained the achievement system was changing the landscape of Team Fortress 2's online community -- mostly because some of the achievements were so difficult to acquire regularly.

In response, Valve has changed the new weapon system with the latest update (Spy & Sniper). In the new system, Team Fortress 2 utilizes Valve's Steam Cloud, automatically rewarding players new weaponry and items previously only attainable through completing achievement related tasks.

According to Valve, the new system is designed to reward gamers based on how long they play Team Fortress 2. Play more, get more. But according to the game's forums -- and multiple emails to Joystiq -- some players are unhappy with the changes.

Xbox 360 Achievements for Wallace & Gromit's adventure (already ongoing on PC) have surfaced and X360A.org have scooped them up. Like any other XBLA title, Wallace & Gromit's Fright of the Bumblebees includes a possible 200 Gamerscore points to help players pad their personal Xbox profile "baseball card" statistics.

Fans of the famous British-born, stop-motion clay animation series will notice the careful attention Telltale Games put into the achievements -- primarily the the multiple achievements referencing Wallace's love for cheese. Here's hoping the XBLA translation for the adventure game turns out as Gouda as the PC version. Amirite?

Correcting the "miscreants" can be an ornery task. Just ask Stephen Toulouse, Xbox Live's virtual bouncer, and the man responsible for resetting your cheatin' heart (er, Gamerscore) back to zero. A recent wave of Gamerscore resets have hit Xbox Live and Toulouse was on Major Nelson's weekly show yesterday to explain what happened. "A couple weeks ago ... we did a Gamerscore reset pass on several Gears of War 2 players who had illegitimately toggled the 'Level 100' Achievement for a map pack that had just come out," Toulouse told the Major.

According to the show, the mathematics behind how quickly people were earning the achievement were, simply put, impossible. "Any time you earn an Achievement you don't actually have to earn, that's against the terms of use," Toulouse said of the official policing policy, something Microsoft has adhered to since the inception of Xbox Live Achievements. And to those of you who have a sibling or friend to blame on your Gamerscore reset, Toulouse feels little sympathy for you. He told the Major that you probably need to address that person and that it's ultimately "your responsibility" to take care of your console and online representation. Tough noogies, indeed!

1 vs 100 just became You vs Your Gamerscore, as the upcoming game will feature Achievements, Kotaku reports. The game will run in 13-week seasons, with each season allotting 200 Gamerscore in Achievements to gamers that earn them. When a new season starts, new Achievements will be available, adding incentive for players to keep coming back.

This news will surely excite Achievement junkies, since the game will most likely be free to them anyway. If they're a Gold subscriber, that is.

Essential reading: Joystiq hands-on: 1 vs 100 (Xbox Live Primetime)

Perhaps not realizing that the real achievement is the fun you have along the way, posters on Bethesda's forums are in an uproar about not being credited for the Achievements they earned in the newly released Fallout 3 DLC, Broken Steel.

If you experience the same problem, take heart! Bethesda tells us, "The Xbox Live servers don't seem to be fully synched yet with the additional Achievements. Microsoft is looking into it right now so that the Achievements folks have gotten will show up properly on Live (the game awards them, they just aren't showing up right on Live for some reason). People won't lose any Achievements."

Patience, friends. Sounds like this will be resolved soon.

That didn't take long. While Sega's Gunstar Heroes was noticeably absent from Achievements uncovered earlier this month, Xbox360Achievements has again given us reason to live. Or at least reason enough to believe that the Treasure classic will be running and gunning for Xbox Live Arcade sometime down the line.

The site highlights twelve Achievements for the fan favorite side-scroller, worth 200 points in all. While we're disappointed at the lack of creativity in the list, which mostly focuses overcoming the game's top baddies, we continue to hope for online co-op play once Gunstar Heroes' XBLA debut is made official. Come on Sega, make it happen!

[Via 1UP]

We always thought we knew how Achievements worked. You play a game, you unlock an Achievement, and an awesome wave of pleasure washes over you. It's a debilitating addiction that has caused some of us to be an embarrassment to everyone we know. Really, nobody should have Cabela's Safari on their list of games played.

But, we digress. There's a method to this addictive madness, and Xbox360Achievements has the scoop. Apparently, games now have a ceiling of 1,750, as opposed to the established 1,250. On top of this, there's also a maximum number of Achievements set at 80; however, savvy readers will know that the one exception to this is The Orange Box, which has 99 different Achievements.

There are also stipulations per yearly quarter now, with a maximum of 250 and 10 new Achievements allowed via updates. Microsoft has these stipulations to stop games from releasing, then adding a bunch of achievements right away to reach the max of 1,750. This instead promotes smaller, more consistent updates for a game over time, or one big update longer down the road. Since the quarters stack, a developer or publisher can perform one big update a year later with all sorts of Achievements packed in.

It's important to note that this all comes from "a source" and not Microsoft itself, who could only offer us this comment: "we regularly re-evaluate the guidelines for our Achievement system to reflect the quality and depth of Game Add-ons on Xbox 360, and appropriately reward players for their accomplishments in this new content."

Bringing the game's grand total up to 1350 points, the full list of Achievements for Fable 2's upcoming DLC, "See the Future," has been unveiled by the Lionhead Community blog. Since it includes such classy Achievements as "The Paramour: Make love 25 times" and "The Nutcracker: Score 25 groin shots," we're quite certain those venturing back into Albion will find no shortage of buffoonery to engage in.

We're still not quite certain what day in the next month the second add-on will arrive, but we do know it's fetching 560 ($7). Considering we're rounding the end of April any minute now, though, we imagine Fable 2 developer Lionhead Studios will see fit to announce a release date soon. Now that's seeing the future.

[Thanks, Aaron!]

If a few questionable screengrabs and a handful of ESRB ratings weren't evidence enough for you to believe in the XBLA-bound "Sega Vintage Collection Vol. 2," we now present you with exhibit C -- MyGamerCard recently dug up achievements for Altered Beast, Comix Zone and Shinobi, three of the titles belonging to the heretofore unannounced collection. Sadly, the other three titles which are rumored to accompany them, Sonic 3, GunStar Heroes and Phantasy Star II, are still unspoken for in the Cheevo department. We'll let you know when we hear more!

See: Altered Beast achievements
See: Comix Zone achievements
See: Shinobi achievements

Xbox360Achievements has just given us a bit more reason to believe that an HD Remix of Marvel vs. Capcom 2 is on the way -- or at least some kind of XBLA version. It's not hard to guess what kind of evidence would be found at that particular site: Achievements!

The site has a list of twelve Achievements for the frantic crossover fighter, worth 200 points total. Some of the challenges seem super fun, like "Berserker Barrage: Perform a 200 hit combo. (Multiplayer)" and Achievements based on creating X-Men, Street Fighter, Darkstalkers, and Avengers-only teams. We just hope, then, that these awesome achievements, and the new version of this awesome game, are real. If Capcom is able to get permission from Marvel for a re-release, we have renewed hope for its ability to deal with all the Tatsunoko license holders.

The retailer ShopTo reportedly provided another item of evidence, in the form of listings for a "Marvel Vs. Capcom Tournament Edition Arcade Stick" for Xbox 360 and PS3, to be released in July. The listing has been removed from the site, and Mad Catz hasn't responded to our inquiries about it.

We've embedded the character select music after the break in case you've managed to get it out of your head in the nine years since the game's original release.