For the last year or so all DLC for Burnout Paradise has been completely free and applied using game updates rather then optionally downloaded, all that is a bout to change… In 2009 Criterion games will be releasing a number of DLC packs for the residents of Paradise City and so far none of them are free. The latest news from the team is that the DLC pack formally known only as “The Island” which was intended to be a free update will now be premium content. However if their previous DLC packs are anything to go by them it’ll be definately worth a few quid and will most likely be snapped up eagerly by anyone still playing the game.

We haven’t released anything new on this awesome, premium downloadable content since way back in May, so it’s high time we gave you a little update.

For all the latest info, we’d recommend you check out the very latest Crash TV. It’s your chance to hear all the latest news on the island direct from its creators.

This first shot shows your arrival point on the island. From here, you can make out the awesome cylindrical tower referred to in this Crash TV Episode 15. With the right car, it’s possible to drift all the way to the top of this tower and back again. But you’re unlikely to drive down, because this location is all about massive jumps. For a while, we considered naming it Big Air Island!

The building to the right is the hotel we named after one of our die-hard fans. DBC9MX earned the right name the hotel after winning the Downtown Showtime Showdown competition and chose to name it after his son – Taylor J. You check out the footage in Crash TV for a better look at Taylor J Towers.

This second shot is the first time we’ve shown you the view looking back down from the island towards the bridge and mainland Paradise City. Our mantra is ‘if you can see it, you can drive it’ – which means that even the bridge to the city features multiple levels and massive jumps.

The construction yard in the foreground is loaded with gameplay and the scaffold at the top features in one of the island’s most memorable pieces of gameplay. Everywhere on the island is like this.

This third image is the first look at the other side of the island, featuring the palm trees that give it a distinctly tropical flavour. The unusual shape of the lighthouse, and the massive ramp in front of it are more tell-tale signs that the geometry is more than just scenery.

And finally, here’s our favourite shot.

This shows the kind of action the island is built for. The scaffold towers in the construction yard can be climbed and all the hoops can be jumped. If you want a taste of what the island is all about, head for the airfield, quarry or beach in Burnout Paradise right now and imagine an area the size of Downtown dedicated to that kind of gameplay. The car featured here is the Dust Storm. It will be made available at the same time as the island.

We’d mentioned in a previous podcast that this would be free content, but we can now confirm that it will be premium paid-for content.

Here’s why. We never expected to create anything this ambitious for the island, but as it progressed we got more and more excited about what it could become. (In fact, that’s the story of all our Downloadable Content.)

Big Surf is the culmination of everything we learned creating Paradise City, and we want it to bring you a truly spectacular new experience – the highlight of a year of incredible premium content. Burnout already delivers incredible value for money – literally hundreds of hours of gameplay with your original disk or PSN purchase, plus more with the free Cagney Pack and free Burnout Paradise Bikes.

We want Burnout Paradise players to experience the greatest support ever seen in a console game. We’re transforming not just Burnout Paradise, but the whole Burnout franchise through DLC, and we appreciate the support we know you guys will give us for our paid content. We think it’s worth it.

LEGO Batman: The Videogame has won a prestigious Children’s BAFTA Award for Best Videogame 2008. The game faced competition from Mario Kart Wii, Professor Layton and the Curious Village and Guinness World Records: The Videogame.

Developer TT Games was snapped up by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment in 2007 and has since had a hugely successful 2008 seeing the release of LEGO Indiana Jones and LEGO Batman: The Videogame.

“We’re absolutely delighted; it’s a very special accolade for the whole team” said TT Games head of production Jonathan Smith.

“To get this acknowledgment, here in our home country of the UK, to be acknowledged by the British Academy for the work that everyone’s done on LEGO Batman, was really thrilling.”

Spencer Crossley, head of videogames UK at Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment said, “We extremely happy for everyone at TT Games. They have brought to life two great brands through fantastic game play and lots of humour which works perfectly for children.”

LEGO Batman: The Videogame is the latest game from the award-winning team behind the LEGO Star Wars series of games. With trademark LEGO fun and charm, the game takes you into the world of the ultimate crime-fighting hero. LEGO Batman: The Videogame brings the one-and-only Caped Crusader to life in a completely original storyline. Players will take control of the Dynamic Duo, Batman and Robin, to fight Gotham City’s most notorious criminals including The Joker, The Penguin, Catwoman, Scarecrow, Killer Croc and many more. The criminals have broken out of Arkham Asylum and are set to wreak havoc on the city.

EA have announced that later this month life will get easier and more stylish for those in Dead Space, now the packs to make life easier are more then welcome to some, but why would anyone pay money to have “Hot Rod Flame” paint jobs on their weapons this and other cosmetic only packs are rediculos and add nothing at all to the game experience. Stupid packs aside though, there are some interesting ones offering increased firepower and armor, now these will sell… Full details below.

Equip Yourself with All New Weapons and Suits to Survive the Horror

Guildford, UK – November 10, 2008 – Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS) announced today that the critically acclaimed Dead Space™ will be releasing premium upgrade packs* to provide the game hero, Isaac Clarke, an everyday systems engineer, with the ultimate Necromorph-dismembering equipment in his fight for survival aboard the space-traveling USG Ishimura. Players can experience the glory of strategic dismemberment November 13 on Xbox LIVE® Marketplace worldwide and the PLAYSTATION®Store** in Europe. These premium upgrade packs will be available on the PLAYSTATION Store worldwide November 20.

Winner of over 23 critic awards and boasting a score of 89 on Metacritic.com, Dead Space delivers the ultimate in psychological thrills and gruesome action. It is a bold and often-bloody sci-fi survival horror game set 500 years in the future. The innovative combat in the game calls for intense gore and character dismemberment that can be experienced even further with these premium upgrade packs.

The complete list of upgrade packs include:

• Astronaut Pack: Download the Astronaut Suit and Weapon Skin Pack, featuring an amazing Astronaut Suit and new skins for the Plasma Cutter, Pulse Rifle, and Ripper!

• 240 MS points

• Big Gun Pack: Download the Steam Punk Force Gun, the ultimate in Necromorph-killing destruction.

• 80 MS points

• Heavy Damage Pack: Download the Heavy Damage Weapon pack featuring a cool new look and massive firepower for the Plasma Cutter, Contact Beam, Pulse Rifle, and Ripper.

• 240 MS points

• Hot Rod Pack: Download the Hot Rod Weapon Skin Pack, featuring awesome flame graphics for the Flamethrower and Pulse Rifle.

• 80 MS points

• Military Pack: Download the Military Weapon Pack for a new look and enhanced power for all 7 Dead Space weapons.

• 320 MS points

• Pedestrian Pack: Download the Pedestrian Weapon Skin Pack, featuring a fresh new look for the Contact Beam, Plasma Cutter, and Ripper.

• 120 MS points

• Scorpion Pack: Download the Scorpion Pack featuring an upgraded Level 5 Suit and powered up Plasma Cutter, Line Gun, and Force Gun, all decorated in an awesome red Scorpion Skin.

• 320 MS points

• Scorpion Weapon Pack: Download the Scorpion Weapon Pack featuring a faster death-dealing Plasma Cutter, Line Gun, and Force Gun in awesome red skins.

• 180 MS points

• Speed Kills Pack: Download the Speed Kills Weapon Pack! Includes faster-firing Force Gun, Line Gun, and Plasma Cutter.

• 180 MS points

• Tank Pack: Download the Tank Pack featuring an upgraded Level 5 Suit and powered up Flamethrower, Force Gun, and Line Gun, all covered in Unitology script.

• 320 MS points

PLAYSTATION®3 Exclusive Packs:

• Obsidian Weapon Skin Pack: Download the exclusive Obsidian Weapon Skin Pack now, available only for the PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system. Includes weapon skins in jet-black PLAYSTATION 3 colors for the Line Gun, Plasma Cutter, and Pulse Rifle.

• Obsidian Pack: Download the exclusive Obsidian Suit and Weapon Skin Pack now, available only for the PLAYSTATION®3! Includes an upgraded Level 5 suit, and weapon skins for the Line Gun, Plasma Cutter, and Pulse Rifle, all in jet-black PLAYSTATION®3 colors.

Xbox 360®-Exclusive Packs:

• Elite Weapon Skin Pack: Download the exclusive Elite Weapon Skin Pack now, available only for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system! Includes weapon skins in Xbox 360 colors for the Line Gun, Plasma Cutter, and Pulse Rifle.

• 120 MS points

• Elite Pack: Download the exclusive Elite Suit and Weapon Skin Pack now, available only for the Xbox 360! Includes an upgraded Level 5 suit, and weapon skins for the Line Gun, Plasma Cutter, and Pulse Rifle in Xbox 360 colors.

• 240 MS points

Developed at EA Redwood Shores, Dead Space is rated M for Mature with descriptors of Blood and Gore, Intense Violence and Strong Language by the ESRB and 18+ for PEGI. Dead Space is now available for MSRP £49.99 on the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system and PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system and MSRP £34.99 for the PC. For more information about the game, go to the website at http://www.deadspacegame.com or http://info.ea.com.

Requires Dead Space for the Xbox 360 or PLAYSTATION 3 to play.

** INTERNET CONNECTION required. Xbox LIVE gold or silver membership OR PLAYSTATION®Network account required.

Rockband clocks up yet another full album Details below:

MTV Games and Harmonix announced today that Foo Fighters’ best selling album, The Colour and the Shape, will become the seventh complete album to join the Rock Band® Music Store catalog of downloadable content.

Selling more than 2 million copies in the US alone, The Colour and the Shape is the most successful album from the alternative rock band and includes hit singles “Monkey Wrench,” “Hero” and “Everlong”. With “Everlong” already featured on the Rock Band 2 soundtrack, the DLC album will include the following tracks:

1. “Doll”
2. “Monkey Wrench”
3. “Hey, Johnny Park!”
4. “My Poor Brain”
5. “Wind Up”
6. “Up in Arms”
7. “My Hero”
8. “See You”
9. “Enough Space”
10. “February Stars”
11. “Walking After You”
12. “New Way Home”

The Colour and the Shape will be available for download starting November 11, 2008, for the Xbox®360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and November 13, 2008, for the PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system. Pricing will be $19.99 (1600 Microsoft Points) for the album, or $1.99 (160 Microsoft Points) per track.

With the release of this album Rock Band fans will now have access to 14 solid tracks from the Foo Fighters – “Learn To Fly” was already featured on the original Rock Band soundtrack. All 14 tracks can be played in Rock Band 2’s different modes including Quickplay where the album itself will be called out in its own subheader, and Tour Challenges, where users will be prompted to play through all Foo Fighters tracks in a standalone setlist.

The Colour and the Shape joins the growing list of Rock Band albums in the DLC music catalog, which includes Mötley Crüe’s Dr. Feelgood, Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Blood Sugar Sex Magik, Rush’s Moving Pictures, Megadeth’s Peace Sells… But Who’s Buying?, Pixies’ Doolittle, Judas Priests’ Screaming For Vengeance and The Cars’ The Cars. With the addition of the Foo Fighters album there are now more than 400 tracks available to date via disc and download purchase (complete list of tracks at http://www.rockband.com/music).

Picked up a copy of the Argos Christmas Catalogue today to see if they had GH: World Tour as most of the time Argos can be that bit cheaper when it comes to the more expensive things in life and at around €200 depending on where you shop GH: World Tour qualifies as expensive. but nothing prepared me for just how expensive it is at my local Argos…

Open the catalogue, and find the items and you’ll see €249.99 beside the now familiar picture of the instruments. This is ridiculous pricing it’s at least €40 more then everywhere else, but wait, it gets worse! after reading the product info there’s a problem… This bundle is just the instruments and the software is a separate buy at €74.99!!! I quickly headed for the counter to see if these were misprints and got a “We haven’t heard anything about that yet so those are the prices till we do”

So at Argos in Ireland Guitar Hero: World Tour will set you back €249.99 for the instruments across all platforms PLUS for the software you’ll have to splash out an extra €74.99 for PS3/360 versions and €59.99 for the Wii version. This is completely stupid pricing and i hope they don’t sell a single copy, but they probably will as everywhere else is sure to sell out and Argos will be the only place with copies…

More pics after the break…