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Call this an Afternoon Hangover after a Friday beer lunch (man, I miss those)...

Obviously this is spurred by Modern Warfare 2's release next week, but it's a question applicable to any game with multiplayer. When you boot up a new game for the first time, what takes priority...playing through the story, or hopping online and getting a jump on your stats?

Personally, I can't do anything multiplayer until I play through a significant portion of the single-player campaign. This is for a couple of reasons:

• I'm a little sensitive when it comes to story spoilers, even in bad games. (And bad movies, and bad books, and bad TV...)  Better to get through the experience myself before co-workers casually mention that character/event/location either died/happened/exploded. I've heard enough chatter about MW2 already, and the game's not even out yet.
• I need to get familiar with the basic control scheme of a game before I embarass myself in the public arena. Movement speed, aiming sensitivity, weapon familiarity...I need to know the particulars of all of these things so I can properly blame them for finishing second-to-last in the round.
• I always forget to recharge my headset, so I need a few hours alone anyway.

So this Tuesday...perks or plot? Render thine opinions!

It's time once again for our weekly round-up of downloadable content for all of your favorite music games. The first thing you'll probably notice about this week's list is that it's noticeably light. Rock Band fans are the big winners this week with track packs from the Foo Fighters and Nirvana, and a track from Joan Jett and the Blackhearts. Rock Band Unplugged users can go mobile with a track each from Bullet for My Valentine and System of a Down, while Lips belts out songs from Bananarama, Juice Newton and The Supremes.

No new releases

Click through to see new tracks for Rock Band, Rock Band Unplugged, SingStar and Lips.

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Rockers and/or rollers get ready: The White Stripes are headed to Rock Band and Rock Band 2 next week.

The duo, known for primitive drum lines, fuzzed out blues riffs and its lack of a bass player, is dropping the following tracks on listeners/gamers:

• Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground
• Girl, You Have No Faith in Medicine
• Icky Thump

For (slightly) more traditional music, there's also The Damned (goth-punks from before you were born) bringing their song "Smash It Up (Part II)" to the games and Kasabian is offering "Club Foot" as well. The tracks will be available on the Xbox 360 and Wii  on November 10 and the PlayStation 3 on November 12.

I'm going to download The White Stripes' tracks because I'm curious how Rock Band can possibly make them fun. While Jack White is an interesting guitarist and a great songwriter, Meg White's drumming is among the simplest ever recorded, and there is no bass... so how's it all going to work? In other words, how do you take music made by two artists and make it fun for four fans to play?

I like The White Stripes, but a lot of people don't. They tend to polarize. For example, The White Stripes opened for G4 producer Frank Meyer's band The Streetwalkin' Cheetahs back in the day. This was before The Stripes "sold out," when they were playing at the height of their indie glory, and Frank says he was "not impressed." What do you think? Are you a Stripes fan?

I stopped playing Madden after I left the confines of college housing, as I was no longer forced to provide human competition to my addicted roommates. And even then, using the term "competition" was a stretch. Even though I love watching the sport and I know how the game works, the deeper strategy of football play-calling has always eluded me, which is why I was one of those guys who always called a fake punt on 4th and 12. It usually didn't take longer than halftime for me to be excused back to my room and Unreal Tournament. I bring this up because I had to endure last Sunday's Packers/Vikings rematch, and watching Aaron Rodgers (whom I still kind of believe in, kind of) go down sack-after-sack reminded me of my own struggles on the gridiron. Slamming my fists repeatedly on the table wasn't a show of frustration, no…it was me frantically pressing the A button to get him to throw the damn ball already. I mean, how could he not see that Driver was wide open? What camera angle is he playing with?! And shame on Mike McCarthy for not attempting a 73-yard field goal. You can't win if you don't score.

In that spirit, let's get started with this week's Reply to All, which has absolutely nothing to do with the story I just told.

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Sex in video games has become much more prevalent (especially in BioWare games). I've been reading reviews for Dragon Age: Origins and most of them mention awkward sex scenes, which I felt was awkward in Mass Effect. My question, I guess, would be do you feel sex in video games really contributes to the story telling aspect of the game or is it just there to bring about some notoriety or attention to the game? -- usemeup

How much or to what effect a sex scene contributes to a story, regardless of the medium, is entirely dependent on the skill of the writers, directors, and actors involved. If done properly, it can contribute quite a lot...the ultimate expression of human love is indeed a powerful thing, but its meaning and impact is heavily dependent on the relationship of the participants. That's why it's much more challenging to get right in video games, where action frequently trumps meaningful character development, and it can easily come across as awkward or done simply for the shock value.

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Soon, Nintendo will drop its biggest game of the year, New Super Mario Bros. Wii. It's being released in the days after Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 comes out, widely expected to be one of, if not the, biggest releases of the year (Activision's CEO said it could be the most impressive launch in any entertainment medium -- ever). Nintendo disputed that point in little bit a Gametrailers TV interview with Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime.

Files-Aime believes once the holiday dust has settled, New Super Mario Bros. Wii will outsell Modern Warfare 2, if you look at a single platform's sales (i.e. Modern Warfare 2's sales on Xbox 360).

"I'll take that bet," he joked.

In the same interview, Fils-Aime also addressed other rumors regarding Nintendo. It's been long rumored Nintendo will release an updated version of the Wii with support for high-definition visuals. Despite the head of Nintendo's R&D division recently telling investors that "moving to HD appears to me a natural flow," Fils-Aime outright denied the existence of the theorized "Wii HD."

"I don't know how forcefully we can say there is no Wii HD," said Fils-Aime.

Lastly, the Nintendo head honcho briefly discussed the next Zelda game. Nintendo designer Shigeru Miyamoto confirmed the game's existence at E3 this year, but Fils-Aime wasn't willing to commit to a 2010 release date for Link's next adventure, but he didn't rule it out, either.

“We haven’t committed to Zelda for 2010," he said. "That’s what he [Miyamoto] said. So we’ll see how that continues to develop.”

[image credit: flickr / Brian Clary Photography]

Source: Gametrailers TV

Can you guess what everyone on Feedback was talking about this week? Hint, hint: we're one week away from the highly anticipated launch of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. However you feel about Infinity Ward's latest entry in its shooter franchise, it's shaping up to be a monumental day for games. Chances are everyone could have talked about Modern Warfare 2 for an entire show, but as it turns out, there's a bajillion other games being released right now. So, we talked about those, too.

 Here's what else Adam, Abbie, Sterling and I cover on this edition of Feedback:

• That controversial Modern Warfare 2 viral video that showed up last weekend (and has since disappeared) sparks some heated discussion...and harsh words for Infinity Ward.
• Even Nintendo's not sure what to do with the Wii these days. We look at where the Wii's come in the past few years and some up with some easy ways Nintendo can patch things up.
• Game of the week? How about games of the week? DJ Hero, Tekken 6 and Grand Theft Auto IV: The Ballad of Gay Tony -- batter up!
• As more casuals join the ranks of our fellow gamers and achievements encourage players to venture into harder difficulty settings, a reader probes us about difficulty settings in games.

Feedback: doing a poor job of hanging signs with scotch tape since mid-2009. Sing our ballad and subscribe:

Video: iTunes | XML   |   Audio: iTunes | XML

(And yes, we are aware that Sterling's microphone is underperforming this week. Top men are on the case. Top. Men.)

--Spoiler Warning--

Resident Evil fans are well aware of the series' collection of plot holes, oddities and all-around complexities in the storyline. Over the years, games like Resident Evil Zero and Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles have tied up many loose ends for the zombie-laden franchise. The upcoming Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles, looks to continue the storyline repair work while giving Wii rail-shooter fans an improved experience over the previous Umbrella Chronicles. 

Listen in as Capcom's product marketing manager Matt Dahlgren previews the new South American setting, Krauser/Leon backstory, new characters Javier and Manuela and more in this 10 minute direct-feed tour of the game.

Retro reboots are finding enormous success through digital distribution. Old school publisher Hudson Soft is well aware of this. The nature of video game development and marketing these days makes charging $59.99 for a new Bonk game a difficult proposition, but asking a fraction of that asking price on Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network and WiiWare becomes much more appealing. Hudson Soft is one of growing faction of companies fully embracing the advantages of digital distribution.

The Bonk idea isn't fake, either. Bonk: Brink of Destruction is coming to all three platforms in 2010.

"For digital download, we are very aggressive," said Hudson VP of development Sabine Duvall in a recent e-mail interview with me. "Our intent is to deliver solid products for this market. The goal is to support the casual gamer as well as the hardcore gamer. The only thing that changes [versus retail] is the method of distribution. It is a natural process of this industry to move on to new technologies. Digital download is definitely next generation and it is here to stay. Hudson is always checking for new trends in the industry, it was a natural step for us."

Not everything needs to be digitally distributed, however.

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Capcom's on-rails Wii shooter Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles will attempt to cover a plethora of dark spots in the series' storyline. Here's a new trailer which takes a peek at a large assortment of new: scenes, enemies, bosses and the two new characters Javier and Manuela.

Hardcore veterans of Resident Evil lore, what can you pick out from this latest number?

According to analysts at DFC Intelligence, now is the time for the PlayStation 3 to shine, and the system owes at least part of its spotlight to the Nintendo Wii.

The logical line goes something like this: Around launch time, Sony's strategy was to focus on competing with the 360. It discounted the Wii entirely as Nintendo seemed utterly irrelevant in the console race before the launch of the Wii. When the PS3 launched at its original high price point, with its meager launch slate of disappointing games, bottom-end gamers were out of the picture for Sony. Rather than purchasing an Arcade 360, though, those consumers flocked to the Wii, which kept Microsoft from total market dominance during a particularly bleak period in PlayStation history. 

Now that the PS3 is not appreciably more expensive than the 360 (when you figure in online fees, specifically), and the Wii is seeing its sales implode like a pin-pricked balloon, the PlayStation is poised to be the "It" system.

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The band No Doubt has filed a lawsuit against Activision over just-released music game Band Hero.

According to the suit, Activision only had permission to use No Doubt's image to sing three of the band's songs, but instead, it "transformed No Doubt band members into a virtual karaoke circus act" by having them "sing, dance and perform over sixty songs" without getting their permission.

This seems a lot like the lawsuit Courtney Love threatened against Activision a few months ago. Much like Love's suit this seems to me to be very unlikely to prove successful. I'm no lawyer, but Activision is a serious company with a lot of money tied up in this game; I just couldn't see them deciding to do anything they didn't have ironclad, legal agreements to do. I don't think the extra sales earned by the appearance of No Doubt in game form would be worth the potential legal risk of using the band's images in ways they didn't agree to... But hey, who knows. Maybe I'm wrong. Believe it or not, it's happened before.

Source: TMZ

Assuming you haven’t already started lining up in front of retailers in preparation for the deadliest shopping day of the year, aka Black Friday, then you might be interested to hear about some of the deals that Kmart will be offering later this month.

Information regarding the deals has showed up online, and the folks over at Gamer Deals have compiled said info into the following easy to use list:

Xbox 360:

• Xbox 360 Elite Holiday Bundle - $299 + Halo 3: ODST Free
• Batman: Arkham Asylum - $39.99 (Save $20)
• Brutal Legend - $39.99 (Save $20) Saturday Doorbuster
• Dirt 2 - $39.99 (Save $20)
• Dragon Age: Origins - $39.99 (Save $20) Saturday Doorbuster
• Forza III - $39.99 (Save $20)
• Halo 3: ODST - $39.99 (Save $20)
• Left 4 Dead 2 - $39.99 (Save $20)
• Need for Speed: Shift - $39.99 (Save $20)
• Rock Band 2: Special Edition - $99.99 (Save $60)

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In honor of the titular heroine of Sega’s upcoming hack-n-sexy-slash-ction fest Bayonetta, we here at G4 have gone ahead and plumbed the depths of our collective creative…idea…brain…spaces…to bring you a list of five other video game characters we’d like to see rock the sexy librarian look. The list ranges from the technically compelling to the absurd to the slightly nauseating, but the one thing all the choices have in common is that they’re all damn, damn sexy.

Number Five: Samus Aran - Metroid Prime

This one is kind of a no-brainer, given how indelible the image of Samus Aran’s reveal at the end of the original Metroid is in the minds of gamers everywhere. It also doesn’t hurt that over the years, Samus only got hotter, thanks in large part to her increasingly sexier form-fitting power armor…oh, and her contributions to female empowerment in video games. Now, while we could have just said, “Samus wearing sexy librarian glasses. Done and done,” we wanted to get a little creative with this one, so we went the first-person route with Samus, since being able to play as Samus as a sexy librarian is just the kind of meta-creepy we can get behind.

Click through to see the full list...

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The Beatles: Rock Band might be besting Activision’s Guitar Hero 5 in the sales department, but the interactive love letter to the Fab Four has yet to be profitable for MTV Games’ parent company, Viacom, the GamesIndustry.biz reports.

During a conference call, Viacom chief financial officer, Tom Dooley, said, "Rock Band was a negative contributor to margins in the third quarter. We expect it to break even or be slightly profitable in the fourth quarter from a margin point of view. It really depends on how many units we sell in the holiday season."

Most rhythm-based music games are typically profit sucks for publishers because of the cost of manufacturing the instruments and accessories. In the case of The Beatles: Rock Band, those costs were heaped on top of the cash that was dished out to license the coveted tracks, a feat that the game's closing credits proves must have been nothing short of an absolute nightmare. Still, Viacom chief executive Philippe Daumann said, "the economics of our Rock Band franchise are improving," even if it’s taking a bit longer than the company would like.

Looking ahead to the end of the year, Viacom says it plans to "start putting in more marketing dollars together with our retail partners behind [Beatles: Rock Band]," in the hopes of attracting those ever-precious holiday dollars. Although, given the number of massive titles being released between now and the end of the year, bringing the Rock Band franchise into the black isn't going to be an easy task. On the other hand, the holiday season is prime family-gaming time, so that should bring in some much needed green. I'll guess we'll know for sure when the sales figures are released early next year.

Source

You know how the Wii is positioned as a game system that sells units by offering less than its competitors but having a user-friendly gimmick? Nintendo may be "correcting course" a bit and offering some of the services users of the other two big game systems take for granted.

First off: Playable downloads are coming to the system. On a Nintendo conference call Saturo Iwata said Nintendo will start a test program for WiiWare demos some time this month. The test will cover just a few titles. Apparently, Nintendo wants to test whether people actually want to try out games before they buy them. The demos will be for WiiWare games, but Nintendo could extend this idea and provide demos of retail titles as well. No word yet on whether the pilot program is for Japan only, but we'll keep you posted.

Secondly: Movies. According to the same call, Nintendo plans to offer paid video streaming in Japan on the Wii no Ma channel before the end of the year. Currently, the video content on the service is free of charge. No word yet on what kind of paid content will be offered, but Iwata did say that Nintendo "will be working to take the service to the next step" with an eye on getting more people using the Wii, even people who might not be into playing games at home.

Whether these two changes are indicative of a strategy shift from Nintendo or just a couple of weird things being tested out in Japan remains to be seen. If these start looking more like major initiatives/priorities, we'll let you know. Of course, Nintendo has no hope of competing without an HD version of its machine...