GAME> Street Fighter IV (2009)
SYSTEM> PS3 / 360
SOURCE> Kmart Entertainment Guide, Fall 2009

Your Blue Light Special: tips to unlock official artwork and bonus characters after the jump!

The Pepsi DLC list was last updated August 27, and with the promotion so nearly finished, it seems unlikely that Pepsi will update the list again. In fact, one supposedly official Pepsi Twitter account admitted as much early this week. So all that delicious Beatles DLC is not going to suddenly appear.

Today, Pepsi managed to get Wii tokens back in stock after almost two weeks of erroring on Wii cash-ins. So if you’ve been waiting for Wii Rock Band DLC (or you’ve been stockpiling Wii points for, ahem, other future purchases), now is the time to turn those around. The Wii tokens go fast, and I would guess that this round of tokens will vanish by the end of the week. Odds are, Pepsi will get more Wii tokens in before the 30th anyway, but since this last wait was so painful, I’m loathe to live through that again. The official Rock Band forum has a great thread that has been tracking all developments in this promotion, from song errors to Wii token status, so if you’re following the scene this is a great page to bookmark.

I am really going to be cheesed by all the code caps that will find their way to my office desk AFTER this weekend.

Drop ‘N’ Charge battery packs are available for the Wii Remote, the Wii Balance Board, and the 360 controller. You don’t even need to take the Wii Remote out of the silicone condom skin! Exspect claims a three- to four-hour slumber on the mat is enough to charge the Drop ‘N’ Charge battery pack for eight to ten hours of gameplay.

Exspect’s press release only lists UK pricing, with the mat+battery kit going for 30 pounds. Extra battery packs are 10 pounds. In American dollars, that’s kind of a lot… $50 and $16, in round numbers. But it’s definitely a cool idea, right? It’s one step simpler than fiddling with normal rechargeable batteries, and it requires no charging cables like the PS3 controller. THE MAGIC OF ATOMIC-AGE POLYMERS BRINGS THE FUTURE TO YOU, TODAY.

A brief product movie and full press release are after the jump.

No more crossed wires just Drop and Charge!!

Exspect launches Drop ‘N’ Charge Range for Nintendo Wii, Wii Fit and Xbox 360 wireless accessories

Gamers know there’s nothing more frustrating than having your wireless controller run out of power at those crucial gaming moments – whether you’re in the middle of losing those love-handles on Wii Fit, mowing-down your mates in Mario Kart Wii, or ridding the world of Russian rebels in Call of Duty 4 on your Xbox 360.

That’s why Exspect has launched its Drop ‘N’ Charge Range, making it even easier to keep your Nintendo Wii controllers, Wii Fit board, and Xbox 360 controllers fully charged. Simply replace the standard batteries in the controller/board with an Exspect compatible battery pack and then place it on the charge pad. A quick 3-4 hours charge on Exspect’s Drop ‘N’ Charge pad will give you enough playing time for a marathon gaming session*.

Using radio frequency (RF) waves that transmit electrical current from one point to another the Drop ‘N’ Charge will charge up to two batteries per pad, either separately or simultaneously. Unlike typical charging stations, the Drop ‘N’ Charge allows you to fully charge your remote without removing the silicone skin, Wii MotionPlus or having to dock the device. This is unique to the Exspect Drop ‘N’ Charge range and allows charging across several games platforms using one Drop ‘N’ Charge pad.

Only transmitting an electric current when a compatible battery pack is placed on the mat, the Drop ‘N’ Charge offers gamers a completely safe way to charge their wireless gaming accessories. It is also a highly energy efficient system as the charge induction stops the moment the battery packs reach full capacity, so you can leave them on the pad for as long as you like, without wasting energy.

The Drop ‘N’ Charge Range eliminates the need to buy and replace regular batteries, which can be costly in the long term – just plug-in a rechargeable Exspect battery pack and Drop ‘N’ Charge. For those that want to know the minute their devices are fully charged, the pad comes with LED indicators to illustrate the charge status by either a red/green glow.

“Wireless controllers have really enhanced the gaming experience, so it comes as little surprise that gamers frequently find themselves running out of power,” said Mike Sanderson, Head of Development, Exspect. “With our Drop ‘N’ Charge Range gamers can now quickly and easily re-charge their controllers, whilst reducing their energy consumption and saving money on batteries all at the same time.”

Available now, the Drop ‘N’ Charge kits for Nintendo Wii and Xbox 360 are £29.99 each from Tesco Direct and other leading retailers. Each kit includes:
1 x Dual Charge Pad
1 x Battery Pack (for either a Wii or Xbox 360 controller)
1 x USB Charge Cable
1 x AC Charge Adaptor

Additional battery packs for Wii controllers, Wii Fit board and Xbox 360 controllers can be purchased separately for £9.99.

EX528 Xbox 360 Drop ‘N’ Charge Kit
EX357 Wii Drop ‘N’ Charge Kit
EX358 Wii Remote Drop ‘N’ Charge Battery
EX359 Wii Fit Drop ‘N’ Charge Battery
EX360 Xbox 360 Drop ‘N’ Charge Battery

###

*3–4 hours charge will provide the following approximate playing times:
• Nintendo Wii Fit – 16 hours
• Nintendo Wii controller – 10 hours
• Xbox 360 controller – 8 hours

For further information, photography or review samples please contact:

Exspect@33-digital.com
33 Digital
020 7608 4650

About Exspect
Exspect is a UK based brand, building an excellent reputation and portfolio of unique, well designed and well positioned technology accessories. Offering a full range of iPod, iPhone, Video game, laptop and digital camera accessories, whilst adding an element of fashion and individuality to each and every model we bring to Market.

Exspect is a subsidiary of GEM Distribution Ltd. www.exspect.co.uk

The biggest change is that we have dropped the news section.  Our podcast is meant to be a podcast that has all of us as joint hosts, and the news section normally has me rambling, with the occasional note or correction from my co-hosts for the week.  It normally does not bring a lot of discussion, and I want our podcast to be a joint effort, with everyone participating.  Hopefully you like this decision, and while this week does not reflect the cut down in length due to a meaty topic, you should see podcasts come down to a more drivetime like experience.  We are shooting for under one and a half hours at most.

Let us know what you think via voice mail at 206-339-8362, email at tips@aeropause.com and in the forums.  Do you like the podcast without the news, or are you missing out on your weekly news information.  The podcast is mixed together by our resident DJ, Stephen “Kid Capri” Munn, and features music by Revolution Void.  You can find their music at www.revolutionvoid.com.

Download the podcast from here or subscribe to the podcast using one of the services below: Also make sure to review us on iTunes.

Batman: Arkham Asylum is a triumph (he declares after one night!) This is a solid, polished experience that will be the new super-hero game standard. I can’t come up with any real gripes about my first four hours with the game, except that I feel it errs on the Legend of Zelda side of easiness. IE, on the medium difficulty, I’m really not dying all that much. Yet. But when a game provides so much to do, and lies so lush with details, I’ll happily not care about that.

Arkham manages to dovetail two pursuits that often appear mutually exclusive: linear storytelling and free-roaming gameplay. Example: I just finished a fairly straight-forward jaunt through a maze-like decrepit building with some specific set tasks, followed by a boss fight (You have to hit him three times! It’s like a Sonic boss!) But instead of forever locking me out of that building, it sits there empty so I can go back in at any time to search for unlockables and other secrets. With a nod to Metroid, some hidden elements require equipment upgrades that I have yet to find.

Fighting is a hoot, thanks to a dizzying assortment of combat animations. The environments are stellar. The art design combines comic-Batman and film-Batman with the voices of cartoon-Batman to create a new vision of the Bat-mythos. The game is helpful when it needs to be. The game is smart when it needs to be (Batman spends a lot of time kicking out vent grates as he explores air conditioning ducts. But when the game knows the situation calls for quiet, it instead has Batman carefully remove the grate by hand.) On the PS3 side, we already have the Joker as a playable character in the bite-size challenge bonus levels… and the game overtly promises that more free DLC is on the way.

If you thought Ghostbusters was a good licensed game, you can forget that. Ghostbusters is phoned-in trash compared to Batman: Arkham Asylum. We don’t even need to qualify this one as “being good for a licensed game.” It’s a great game, period.

While we may not know exactly how this audio voodoo will turn garage bands into DLC gold, we do have a growing list of indie bands who have vowed to sign up. The confirmed list has more details, but here’s the roster:

Alchemilla, Anarchy Club, The Cold Goodnight, Father Octopus, Freerider, Full-Source, Giant Target, The Holepunch Generation, Lead the Dead, The Main Drag, Matter in the Medium, Myriad Burial, Oliver Pride, Ploy of Oracle, Rose of Jericho, Sarah VonderHaar, Speck, Steve and Lindley Band, Terrorhorse, Verse Versus Chorus, Wounded Soul

The only one of those I’ve even come close to hearing before is Speck… because, guess what, they’re in Rock Band 2 with the peppy nerdlurve song “Conventional Lover.” Can anybody make some tentative recommendations based on the other confirmed bands?

If you have a band, start watching creators.rockband.com for info. Songs presented through the Rock Band Network will debut on the Xbox 360 version of Rock Band first (why?) but will come to the other consoles eventually.

Source: Rock Band forums
Pic Source (because I knew you’d wonder): Bad Band Photos

We had previously mentioned the Pepsi Rock Band contest, but at the time the press release was mainly about the Make A Video contest and was sort of vague about the “Rock Band stuff” you could win just by purchasing bottles of Pepsi.

Since then, I had totally forgotten about the contest until I pulled an empty Pepsi out of the trash in my office (it was in the PAPER RECYCLE BIN, DUH.) You can see said bottle above… would you have any idea that there’s a sweet Rock Band contest code awaiting under the cap? Total marketing fail! No wonder somebody tried to recycle it.

I braved unknown germs and had officemate Josh take off the cap. Then I ventured to pepsirockband.com to see if I won anything. This promotion is tied in with Yahoo, so your Yahoo login info will all carry over. Entering this code got me a single point, which I could then gamble on a chance to win various prizes… a 360, one of those RB Rocker sculptures, and more. I chose to spend my code on a chance for a free Rock Band DLC song. They’re giving out 5000 of those a day. This isn’t like that great Pepsi/iTunes promotion where you definitely always got a free download with every code. But the odds were with me and I won. The DLC delivery service generates a token code based on which console you want (PS3, 360, Wii), and the available song list filters according to platform.

But seriously, how about some Rock Band branding on those bottles, gang? The only clue that something wonderful is afoot is a Rock Band icon on the yellow cap.

My slightly embarrassing free song is comfortably nestled after the jump.

I like how they misspelled “selected.”

If there’s one thing that’s evident after this year’s E3, it’s that Microsoft’s Xbox 360 has finally blossomed.When the 360 launched, Microsoft’s ad attack focused on selling a game console. Over the past years, Microsoft has been slowly adding extra media capabilities in the form of Netflix, and now last.fm. Out of the gate, Microsoft realized that what’s going to sell their hardware was games, games, and games. And the first few years of the 360 brought about some of the most exciting titles of this generation: Gears of War, Left 4 Dead, Fable, etc.

Sony on the other hand, did the opposite. The PS3 was, until this year, always billed as the entertainment media center that belonged in every household’s family room. Each year, Sony promised more riveting games, and always seem to fall short for one reason or another. One thing that did stay prevalent was providing a multimedia platform that brought new, free ways of enjoying entertainment, that wasn’t based on video games.

So what happened?

We can speculate all we want, but it seems that Microsoft decided that hosting the ‘must-have’ titles was the number one way to ensure their device would land in every family’s house. This is evidenced by the many exclusive titles that have shown up only on the 360, or for a certain period of time. Sony knew they would have a hard time selling their more expensive console on the same level as the 360, and attempted to elevate its stature by pushing the notion of it being more than a console: a full-fledged multimedia device. As many will recall, Sony even announced that it would not be spending money on securing exclusive titles from developers. Instead, Sony spent time and money on increasing media playback and usage; and developing its online virtual community, Home.

As of this year’s E3, it seems that both have switched stances hoping to cover that last bit of ground. Including the past years as well, shows a trend of Microsoft attacking the PS3 by taking wind from its sails. This was first performed by evening the playing field by weakening sought-after exclusives: Final Fantasy 13, just to name one high profile example. We also saw the inclusion of Netflix streaming movie support, for those that have the Gold Xbox Live service. Now MS has gone the next step and included last.fm, and even tried to chip away at the foundation of Home by bringing Twitter and Facebook support. Microsoft realized that it didn’t need to build a new platform to launch more community interaction, but rather leverage existing systems and tie them all together. This is one area that Microsoft has been quite successful, most notably outside of the gaming arena and on the PC, desktop, and server software markets.

Honestly, the latest game showings from Microsoft have not impressed as much as the past years, and that’s a normal trend. Towards the end of a console’s life cycle, we tend to see re-hashes, sequels, and me-too’s showing up too often. Clearly Microsoft has decided that their game portfolio isn’t going to be the defining factor but rather the whole platform. I’m not going to dwell on it, but even Project Natal shows the same emphasis by trying to create a new way to interact. Now, Microsoft has not forgotten that gaming is what the 360 does as they successfully showed off titles like Alan Wake.

Sony on the other hand has finally realized that they are trying to sell a video game console and been trying to emphasize their exclusive titles. Of the games shown this and last year, many are on the short list for the PS3 owners to watch and wait for their final availability. This was the first E3 where Sony did not over emphasize the other features of the PS3, but rather emphasize its ability to play games and the great games to look forward to. Honestly, the public did not need to be reminded that the PS3 can play Blu-ray as well. That tooth has passed being long in the mouth, and been yanked by the dentist a while back. Besides Home, Sony’s emphasis this year was firmly rooted in games: new titles to expect, and classic ones to resurface for purchase on PSN.

Now where Sony still holds the upper-hand over Microsoft is in the fees department. Microsoft was founded on making money over something was free, and that mindset has not changed with the 360 or Xbox Live. Meanwhile, Sony has never and emphasized that it will not charge for its online offering: the Playstation Network. They both have their respective market places where digital goods can be had in the form of games and media, but the ability to play games online for free, as well as other potential uses, stay free on the PS3. This has become even more prevalent with the all the clatter about Final Fantasy XIV potentially showing up on the 360 and causing a ruckus since it will have a monthly MMO fee, outside of Xbox Live, and require a hard drive.