For Reddit User bolivar-shagnasty, a soldier stationed in Afghanistan, the reality was he couldn’t afford the pricey crappy internet. With the frustratingly slow connection and increasing boredom, bolivar-shagnasty decided to take matters into his own hands. He had long wanted a copy of Supergiant’s award-winning game Bastion, and wrote an email to the studio.

“I emailed Supergiant to see if they had any plans on releasing a disc based version,” wrote bolivar-shagnasty in a post on Reddit explaining his experience. “I had spent so much time researching that I read a little about the plot and got really excited about it.

“I got a response back from Greg from Supergiant. This wasn’t a customer service rep or PR guy. It was Greg Kasavin, a writer and designer for the game (it says it on their website so I don’t feel like he would mind the name drop). He told me they had no plans on releasing a physical copy in the future, but if I gave him my address then he would see what he could do. A few weeks later I get a copy of the game and some Bastion swag. All he asks for in return is for me to get a copy on Steam when I come home.”

It’s not often you see developers go out of their way to help a fan. In this case, we did. Hey Supergiant, you’re pretty awesome.

Via Game Informer.

Each of the tracks will set you back 240 MS Points and will require a full copy of Dance Central 2 to work properly. Each song will come with new moves and will have three levels of difficulty, as with every song in Dance Central 2.

Dance Central 2 is developed by Harmonix, and is exclusive to the Kinect device for Xbox 360.

The Mewtwo celebration also includes a free stream of the Pokemon animated episode “The Mastermind of Mirage Pokemon” at pokemon.com/ex. Plus, Mewtwo will make a return to the Pokemon Trading Card Game in the “Next Destinies” expansion set, expected in US stores in early February. The Mewtwo-EX card has two INSANE attacks on it:

That’s some game-winning attacks right there. Tons of potential damage for two colorless, plus a massive 120-point attack with the minor drawback of dropping a single energy card? I’d splash this guy into every psychic deck I own.

Yes, you can now groove to the hit “Gonna Make You Sweat” by the C&C Music Factory. It is one of those songs that you kind of hate, but when it comes on the radio, you keep it on for reasons unbeknownst to you. The new track comes with three difficulty levels, and new dance moves that are custom to the song.

“Gonna Make You Sweat” will set you back 240 MS Points and the full version of Dance Central 2 is required to play all DLC content for the game.

Downloadable content is meant to expand on the player experience. Some studios might see this as an opportunity to introduce whole new worlds (a la Fallout 3‘s Point Lookout), or a simple expansion. “RAAM’s Shadow” falls into the latter category, and while some gamers might find that it falls short, it’s a must have for diehard Gears fan.

It packs a lot of multiplayer punch, giving players willing to shell out the MSP (or for free, if you own the Gears Season Pass) new multiplayer characters, and the “Chocolate” weapons set.

Of course, the main focus of RAAM’s Shadow is the single-player campaign. With over 3 additional hours of gameplay, you might wonder why exactly did Epic not include any collectibles in the campaign. A bit of a let-down for any collector junkie, but the campaign delivers nonetheless.

Harken back to the days of the first Gears of War. Back in 2006, when gamers first stepped into the world of Marcus Fenix and Dominic Santiago, we didn’t know what to expect. Who the hell are these grumbly guys? Why was Marcus locked up, and what the HELL are these Locust things? While Gears of War 3 delivered the epilogue of the entire series, “RAAM’s Shadow” takes us back, way back, to a time before the first game happened. It’s a prequel, and gives us a look at the events that led up to the Locust Invasion of Sera, and what exactly was “E-Day” and the Hammerstrikes.

It's like Bill. Except with COG armor.

Players assume the role of Barrick, a member of Zeta Squad, and a former Stranded who was plucked off the streets of Sera, had a Lancer shoved into his hand, and enlisted with the COG. Gamers who have taken the time to read all the extra Gears of War books written by Karen Traviss and the comics would know of him more than those who have not. For most of the campaign, players view the planet from Barrick and Zeta Squad’s point of view, as the Locust begin their assault on the human race.

However, a few parts of the campaign give players a chance to play as the terrifying General RAAM, and while some players may cringe at the thought of ripping apart COG soldiers, the rest of us enjoyed every last bloody second of it. It’s a great change of pace, and offers up a different perspective on the events. Remember that lovely Kryll cloak the nasty General toted around aboard the train with the Lightmass Bomb? Yeah, now’s your chance to point that finger and tear apart COG soldiers.

The campaign, as mentioned before, is only about 3 hours long. However, in those three hours, we’re given some great environments to shoot our way through. We move from an open space, to a parking garage, a school, and even to an orphanage at one point. And there’s none of those troublesome Lambent bastards either.

While the campaign achieves its goal of a much-needed fleshing out of certain plot points within the Gears universe, it still comes out feeling a little flat at times. No collectibles? Seriously? Searching the corners of each and every room yields little reward except for an ammo dump, which will be unnecessary to the seasoned Gears player. A few places within the campaign were also a little hard to navigate, but that could’ve just been me with directional issues.

RAAM sees shadow, six more weeks of Kryllstorm.

Of course, as a DLC pack, you can’t be expecting the longest of all campaign experiences. It’s a short, but powerful, rollercoaster ride through the fall of Ilima City as we watch the Locust begin their assault. Well, we also get to see how powerful one finger can be. And it’s not the finger you’re thinking of.

The Good

Story fleshes out the events before the first Gears of War.

Still as mechanically sound as main game experience.

Annihilate the COG as General RAAM with his Finger of Kryll Doom.

The Bad

No collectibles are hidden in those darkened corners.

Level design leaves something to be desired.

Campaign is dismally short.

“RAAM’s Shadow” is currently available for download from Xbox Live for a price of 1200 MSP, or free if you have a previously purchased Gears Season Pass.

Family Focus
With all the blood, gore, cussing, ESRB M and PEGI 18 ratings, it’s a self-explanatory no.

The maps included in this DLC are Academy, Anvil, Depths, Escalation, and the Slab – described as being inspired by the life and experiences of the series’ main character, Marcus Fenix. Characters included with this are Recruit Clayton Carmine and Thrashball Cole Limited Edition for the COG and you can also fight for the Locust as the Savage Marauder or Savage Kantus Limited Edition. These characters can be used in Versus and Horde modes.

One of the major changes is the new “Re-up” system. This will allow players already at the Level 100 cap to start again from Level 1. It gives you the opportunity to earn three new weapon skin sets, each linked to when you “Re-up”, along with your rank being coloured Red, Green or Blue to indicate your progress in this new system.

All of this is available right now from the Xbox Live Marketplace for 800 Microsoft Points or free to those who’ve purchased the Season Pass and downloaded from the games menu. The Season Pass is also still available from the Marketplace for 2400 MSP, saving you 33 percent on all DLC, and entitles you to the previous content packs “Horde Command Pack” and “RAAM’s Shadow” along with an as yet unannounced fourth piece of DLC.

Check out the trailer featuring Cheapy D in all of his dancing glory. The Cheapy D download will hit on Tuesday, January 17th, 2012 and will require a full copy of Saints Row The Third to work.

Robert Bowling confirmed with Joystiq that there’s an extensive release schedule of DLC for the popular shooter. After the multiplayer maps “Liberation” and “Piazza” are released later this month, five more DLC packages will be dropping over the course of three months.

It doesn’t stop there. Bowling has also said that up to September, there will be a total of about 20 pieces of DLC dropping. A “Content Collection” releasing in March will bundle DLCs on Xbox Live for those not in the Call of Duty Elite program.

“The first pack is traditional multiplayer maps, but we want to do Spec Ops missions, missions, Spec-Ops Survival, new game types, new game modes, and really look at adding things that we’ve never done before,” said Bowling. Infinity Ward, Sledgehammer Games, and Raven Software will all have a hand in developing the DLC. The aim? To provide more than just a multitude of different maps.

“We said just do what you think is gonna be good,” said Bowling. “Do what’s fun and, as long it fits in the Modern Warfare universe, try it! Experiment with it, and we’ll take the best of the best and start polishing it up and releasing it. So that’s really where our focus has been.”

Via Joystiq.

Closer will be released for download on the XBLA marketplace on January 10th, 2012 for 240 Microsoft Points.

Check out the screenshot:

Activision Community Manager Dan Amrich explained in a blog post on One of Swords how Modern Warfare 3‘s DLC will be doled out. “Other platforms and dates were not discussed, but remember that there’s a double-whammy…” said Amrich.

“Due to a business arrangement from 2010, Xbox 360 gets DLC content ahead of other platforms, and Activision has promised Elite subscribers will get DLC content ahead of the general public.

“With that in mind, I see five audiences: Xbox 360 Elite, Xbox 360 general public, PS3 Elite, PS3 general public, and PC. I don’t yet know in what order each of those audiences will be served. That could get confusing, but you know I’ll do my best to make it as easy to figure out as possible.”

January’s DLC will also include some Spec Ops content as well as things that players “have never seen before.” Well, we’d hope so, otherwise it would be a rather boring DLC.

Infinity Ward has also confirmed that iOS and Android Elite clients will touchdown in January 2012 as well.

Via Eurogamer.