You wanted the details to the New Street Fighter 4 (Street Fighter IV). You’re going to wanna get your quarters and put them on the TV to call next, because this game is where it’s at! After seeing the details, what do you think? I’m going to pull all nighters with this one, anyone wanna call next?

I see you there, clutching your precious $10 bill as you watch the economy cave in around you. Carefully considering what to invest in, knowing now is not the time for frivolous purchases; you need to make this one count.

Fortunately, Duke is here to give you a few reasons why the Xbox Live Arcade port of Duke Nukem 3D isn’t just some old broad with a new paint job, it’s the maximization of your 10 bucks:

39 levels over 4 episodes – Looking back at when I purchased the Xbox Live Arcade port, the download was deceptively small–faster than downloading a single track for Guitar Hero or Rock Band–but when taking in what’s been presented, it’s not even a question of whether or not the 10 dollar price point is worth it; it’s a flat steal.

‘Rewind After Death’ function – Simply, your mistakes can be rectified. No more worrying about saving your game constantly, or restarting a difficult level stripped down to only your pistol because you rushed into that swarm of Pig-Cops.  When Duke hits the asphalt you can restart at any previous spot up until the very second you bit the big one, doesn’t matter if it’s 30 seconds or 30 minutes prior to.

The feature also gives whimpering wusses, previously too scared to move onto a higher difficulty, the gumption to take on the ‘Come Get Some’ and ‘Damn I’m Good’ settings, provided they have the grit to pick themselves off the pavement and try again.

Revives the fast and dirty multiplayer – While the game’s multiplayer mode would be considered standard among mid-late 90’s First Person Shooters, Xbox Live gives it an opportunity to excel by offering an escape from the more plodding FPS we play today.

A Duke Deathmatch can only be described as a half dozen chickens pumped full of steroids, armed to the teeth and then freshly beheaded.  

Screw the deliberateness of Halo and damn the pack mentality of Gears of War; Nukem’s multiplayer is about covering ground like a cheetah, instant respawns–so you can kill the bastard that killed you–dealing with sore index fingers from holding down the triggers for entire matches and dog piling on the health packs for that extra edge.  

The weapon/item respawn system enables a tactical approach, allowing players to track how long ago someone was in the area by the color of the symbol in place of the item, and winners will often be found monopolizing portable health packs, steroids and atomic health spawns, presenting some method to the madness.

Harmonix has announced that Rock Band and Rock Band 2 owners will be able to download the majority of Red Hot Chili Peppers’ album Blood Sugar Sex Magik next week–save “Give it Away” which is on the Rock Band 2 disc.

The bundle will be priced at 1600 MS Points ($20), with individual tracks going for 160 MS Points ($2).

Xbox 360 owners will gain access to the downloads starting next Tuesday, September 30th, while PS3 owners will get their crack at the album Thursday, October 2nd.

Here’s the track list:

• The Power of Equality
• If You Have to Ask
• Breaking the Girl
• Funky Monks
• Suck My Kiss
• I Could Have Lied
• Mellowship Slinky in B Major
• The Righteous & The Wicked
• Blood Sugar Sex Magik
• Under the Bridge
• Naked in the Rain
• Apache Rose Peacock
• The Greeting Song
• My Lovely Man
• Sir Psycho Sexy
• They’re Red Hot

The many musings and rantings throughout forums and post comments alike surrounding Guitar Hero’s large downloadable content release of Metallica’s latest album Death Magnetic can be sumed up in one question: Should I pay 18 dollars for it?

I sat down with the DLC and, along with considering some of the variables that have appeared, have come to the consensus that at least someone will find it to be a workable exchange.  On the other hand, there’s plenty of reasons not to get it.  So what’s the right answer to the question?

Yes!

• The album is difficult but not impossible to play, it’s the level you’d expect from Metallica and often times just completing a song gives a sense of satisfaction.  Cyanide, The Judas Kiss and My Apocalypse are a blast for upper level players.

• For better or worse, at an average of well over 6 minutes a song you’re definitely getting your money’s worth on track length.  Hell, you could easily fit Rock Band’s free Stephen Colbert psudo-track “Charlene” a dozen times into a single Death Magnetic track; then again I suppose that’s why that was free, and this is not.

• According to at least one analysis, the Guitar Hero download actually sounds better than the retail CD.

• The fact that it has Guitar Hero World Tour support extends the album’s playability much further than where it stands right now–going from just playing the guitar parts to adding in vocals, drums and bass.  Think of it as a budding investment.

No.

• You have to download the whole damn thing. Personally, I had a serious issue with this when I first heard that they would only be selling the album in its entirety.  iTunes certainly lets you download any single track you’d like, whether it’s part of a bigger whole or not.  It would seem you’re only limiting yourself to the die hard Metallica demographic, which I assume is much smaller than the fairweather one.

• Not a Metallica fan?  Oops, the album probably won’t bode well for you.  This seems obvious enough to most, but just in case: Don’t spend your money on music you don’t like.

• Isn’t Guitar Hero Metallica in production? Yup, and they’ll have plenty of classics to blow these tracks out of the water.

Before we get into Castle Crashers, I’d like to point out that it’s not a stretch to say that I’ve had more fun playing $15 dollar or less titles this summer than any of the big name–and big priced–titles for the Xbox 360. Now this may change once we get closer to releases Fable II, Fallout 3 and Left 4 Dead, but it’s undeniable that the arcade extravaganza Xbox Live has served up this summer is one of the best smattering of games I’ve come across; I can only hope that this is just the beginning of the digital distribution revolution.

The decision to save CC for last was a wise one, after getting plenty of time to run around with Geometry Wars 2, Bionic Commando and Braid, I was prepped for another new title that implemented the retro tried and true tactics into itself. If Geometry Wars reminded us of the fun we had playing Asteroid and Braid felt like a darker, more puzzling Mario Bros, then what does Crashers bring to mind?

Castle Crashers throws you back into the arcade (or in front of your NES) as the 4 main color coordinated characters hold an unmistakable quality reminiscent of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles titles of old.

What makes CC a vast improvement from the archaic side scrolling titles is that it replaces the dust with a beautiful glossy finish; and in addition to the cherry, the game adds the whipped topping and chocolate sauce on top in representing the beat ‘em up genre.

Looking on the surface, you’ll find that Castle Crashers is full of vibrant colors, legitimately hilarious sequences and a nice variety in how you go about killing your enemy ; but you really don’t see your 15 dollars stretch until you get into some of the deeper qualities of the game.

With the stat/point system implemented, you can improve your character through magic, strength, dexterity or defense as you see fit, and playing through with a couple of my friends it was quite clear that while certain attributes came in handy on certain levels more than others, there was no wrong way to level up your character.

Speaking of characters, I was delighted to discover that most every standard enemy you encounter is an unlockable character with its own brand of attacks to master, add this to the incredibly difficult ‘Insane Mode’ unlocked only after you beat the game in its formidable regular mode and you end up with more than a few handfuls of replay value.

Know that it hurts to type right now as I’ve just wrapped up trying out the new Dragonforce Track Pack, available now for download on Xbox Live Marketplace (500 MS Points) and Playstation Store ($6.25).

If you’re looking for something to get you back into the color coded shredding before World Tour arrives–which by the way promises to be more difficult than the previous titles in the series–then getting pushed around by Dragonforce’s unbelievably difficult songs is the way to get that hand into tiptop shape.

While all three songs–’Heroes of Our Time’, ‘Operation Ground and Pound’, and ‘Revolution Deathsquad’–probably rank in the top 10 hardest songs of the game, none had that nightmare of an intro for ‘Through the Fire and the Flames’ that took down so many good men.

‘Heroes of our Time’ is by far the most difficult out of the three but all three put to test your lightening quick strums and blistering solo skills.  I was able to complete all three on the first go getting a 4 star on ‘Operation Ground and Pound’ for my efforts, and the one thing I know for certain is that being familar with TTFATF certainly helped, I mean it’s not like you don’t know what’s coming.

I’ve had a nice relaxing morning running around as the pint-sized luchador in his title Strong Bad’s Cool Game for Attractive People.  Homestar Ruiner is the first in a succession of WiiWare episodes for the series.

After going a little point-and-click crazy in the brother’s Strong household (I seriously am interactive’d out) I found that Strong Bad’s room was host to Snake Boxer 5; it came as no surprise that the game was incredibly simple and addictive as you traded blows with snakes.

As I exited the room my surprisingly dumb eye caught a table with a smattering of lined paper and I realized that this was the Teen Girl Squad area, and so far the most enjoyable part of my infantile stage with the game.  The way the first comic is set-up is simple.  You’re given something like a dozen objects that you can insert into the story and if and when you decide to use these objects affects the story, with the main goal to kill off the entire team.

I did it four times and on my last try was able to knock off all of them and I received “32…no, 38″ points after receving 0, 7 and 7 points on my first tries.  He told me the comic was acceptable but made it sound like I still could’ve maxed out my points, probably because I can.  It was fun trying to piece together the right icons to the right scenes in the way of trial and error, I’m excited to run into the comic portion again.

Overall the experience has been very good so far and I haven’t even stepped out of the front door yet.  I’ll have a full review coming later on.

Yesterday I was able to pry myself away from Geometry Wars 2 and Pixeljunk Eden long enough to try the already critically acclaimed puzzle-platfomer Braid. I made my way through a few worlds to give myself a good impression of what made the game such a fresh take on the platformer/puzzle type, and instead ended up almost moved to tears over what the game does for the bigger picture of gaming.

I wanted to touch upon the strong notion that we are moving towards total digital distribution in media and specifically gaming. It’s scary to think we went through a point in time where games like Braid (and the aforementioned other titles that have had so much success through download) were almost impossible to release on a major level. These titles simply weren’t made for next-gen disc releases, for several reasons including price, game length and overall reception.

Braid has, thus far, been an amazing game; lots of challenging puzzles, a unique feature that constantly has you rethinking how you go about playing and a surprisingly deep storyline steeped in realism. Yet a release like this means so much more to the big picture of gaming; it ushers in a new renaissance, where the old school game types I fell in love with 15 years ago have not only been brought back into prominence, they’ve seen significant improvements.

I’ll admit, the last few years have been difficult for me as a gamer. It was like living in the cold war, an arms race between two (occasionally three) giants who invested themselves into building epic, graphically superior titles that promised 100 hours of gameplay. I felt that while something had been gained with these new titles, something much more important was lost.

Core gaming took on a totally different persona; instead of inputting initials to signify your superiority, you put balls on your enemy’s face. Instead of sweeping through platform levels to make sure you collected every last item you could, you swept the area for enemies named ‘69a11th3tim3.’

I was crestfallen to see that the undeniable popularity of these games (fueled by a level of competition that hadn’t been seen in gaming before) shot down the possibility of recapturing the feeling you had when both you and gaming were younger and frankly much more creative. I had resigned myself to the fact that I would never capture those feelings again, but a light has emerged at the end of the tunnel in the form of digital distribution.

Without the revolution of downloadable content, we would never see games like Braid (Evolved Mario) and Geometry Wars (Evolved 80’s Arcade), at least the vast majority of us wouldn’t. They simply wouldn’t exist on the scale they do now.

It all adds up to a new Golden Age of gaming, the ability to purchase a new game and be generally excited about it, not because its running on some type of engine or that it boasts umpteen hours of gameplay, but because it’s genuinely fun. These titles open the door to developers and designers that up until recently were unable to find a decent medium to present their product.

At 23, the original excitement I felt when I first entered the realm of gaming is back; I’m born again, and what I feared was lost and gone forever has returned.

I made it a point this weekend to dedicate myself to the controller, up my achievement score and try out some digitally distributed enjoyment for both PS3 and Xbox 360. Geometry Wars 2 is absolutely fantastic and I’ll get to that in its upcoming review, but first let’s touch upon the highly anticipated title for the PSN, Eden.

Before we discuss the gameplay, I’d like to endorse Eden’s demo as one of the greatest trial versions of a game ever to be released, simply because of the amount of gameplay presented to you. They give you several levels to play around with, confident that after you have your fill you’ll be ready to invest the 10 clams for the full game. It didn’t take long to convince me that the title was one I had to have in my collection; to be honest, I’d probably oblige if they asked me to pay double.

I could go on about the wonderful simplicity of the game, the bright, yet unobtrusive color scheme, and the fact that the game shows off several artistic levels; but instead, let’s focus on what matters most to me as a gaming participant: gameplay.

At its roots, Eden is a platformer, something I found out very quickly making my way upwards only to come tumbling down as I missed a branch with my Spiderman-esque silk thread. You can’t die by falling off the screen, instead having a time limit that you can increase by picking up the corresponding power-ups.

You assume the role of one of Eden’s guardians, protecting and propagating at the same time by destroying enemies and transferring the energy they leave behind into building up your garden. All the while, swinging through the ever-transforming levels to get to the top and clear the stage.

The game is incredibly accessible to both new and veteran gamers; while it’s plenty fun to jump right in and start jumping around aimlessly, letting your eyes pick up what’s happening and why it’s occurring, there’s also tons of room for growth. As you gain the ability to use your given skills effectively, the game presents a whole new experience by encouraging you to maximize your efforts.

The replay value isn’t something I really should be touching on since I’ve yet to complete the entire game, how long that would take is anyone’s guess, but it’s worthy to note that you can play a level 10 different times and create 10 different paths to your goal, with several unique methods at your disposal.

The developers were wise to make this such an uncomplicated experience, no age or gender demographics have been targeted, they just let the game speak for itself.

Simple, innovative and incredibly addictive, PixelJunk Eden will do for the Playstation Network what Geometry Wars did for Xbox Live Arcade.

Well I just finished my first run through the Guitar Virtuoso trackpack and my fingers are burnin’.  First I’d like to start off by saying that, surprisingly, Buckethead is not the hardest of these three songs, though still very difficult.  I was able to 5* “Soothsayer” with a score of 435k, although honestly I dipped down into the red several times during the ridiculously fast, note heavy solos.

I can’t say the same about my first runs through “For the Love of God” by Seve Vai and “Surfing With the Alien” by Joe Satriani except for they too have absurdly hard solos.  I 4* both but was happy to not fail Surfing; that song has one of the hardest hammer-on sections I’ve ever run into in a rhythm game.

Regardless I thoroughly enjoyed the new challenge as I have more or less looked over Guitar Hero: Aerosmith in anticipation of the much more awesome Guitar Hero World Tour.  With the rumored release of the entire track list for the 4th main installment of the franchise, we’ll soon be focusing our discussions on what we can expect, but trust me that game is an entirely different (and much more expansive) beast.

As far as the pack’s price is concerned, at 500 MS Points it’s a pretty good steal to get 3 songs that immediately jump into the top 15 hardest songs in the game once they’re downloaded.