[Editor’s note: SurplusGamer takes a look at the difference between playingLeft 4 Deadon Steam and Xbox Live for hisMonthly Musings. — CTZ] I’m not an avid multiplayer gamer and so despite having bad experiences with playingTeam Fortress 2and a few other games on Xbox Live, I really didn’t expect it to live up to the negative things I’ve heard people say about it. I knew just as well as anyone the particular kind of idiot you get when playing with random people on Live but equally I found myself quick to defend:...

As promised, Podtoid 118 happened last night. Aaron, Samit, Brad, Jim and I talked about things. Beyond that, I can guarantee nothing. We did talk about boobs for a minute, though.

When we first saw the supposed PSP Go leaked images, we were quick to discount them as a fabrications, saying that there’s no way that Sony would have released something that looks likethat. And then we saw the allegedleaked Qore video, which forced us to realize that perhaps the images were real. Before we could fully express our feelings, we decided to make it the next topic for our Destructoid Discusses feature....

Sadly, it’s not the classic theme song to the first season of the Pokemon TV show, or one of the many classics from 2.B.A Master, but it’s a start. During last week’s debate between the current Republican presidential candidates, Herman Cain pulled out his old “Life can be a challenge. Life can seem impossible, but it’s never easy when there is so much on the line” routine. It’s a line he’s used a few times in the past, one that he attributes to “a poet”....

I don’t know about you, but I’m starting to get pretty tired of how serious games are these days. Videogames are a portal to do stuff you’d never be able to do in real life, yet most games out there try to capture realistic experiences. Even games that appear like they will be goofy keep adhering to a degree of realism. Volition seems to share my feelings — from day one of the development ofSaints Row: The Third, their goal was to “create the most ridiculous, over-the-top, guilty-pleasure experience ever found in a videogame....

Sonyhas droppedits “It only does everything” slogan in favor of a brand new moniker that focuses on the PS3 as a gaming device. From now on, the PlayStation motto is “Long live play.” How exciting! Sony says the new campaign slogan has been “designed to celebrate gamers from all walks of life and recognize you for making us who we are today.” Fictional Sony representative Kevin Butler will still feature in the commercials, the first of which was revealed today....

It’s been quite a while since we saw the last PS3 firmware update (v2.60came out on January 21st). But we’ve finally got a new one to mess around with — version 2.70 went live a few hours ago, around 10 PM EDT. After the jump, you’re able to check out the summary that the update itself comes with (I’ve transcribed it for you good folks yet again) and a video walkthrough from Eric Lempel, Director of PlayStation Network Operations....

Some more screens forAce Combat 3D Cross Rumblehave come out of the Nintendo 3DS Conference 2011. They involve planes, a radar, a weapon loadout, some Japanese text here and there, and yep, that looks like anAce Combatgame for the 3DS. Nintendo has also released some video footage of the game on theirwebsite, which shows the game to be some kind of hybrid between the old style of the franchise and the new cinematic action style created forAce Combat: Assault Horizon....

The latest trailer for the Wii-exclusiveResident Evil The Darkside Chroniclesis about as unsurprising as trailers get. Zombies? Check. Hounds from hell? Check. Soaking wet zombies crawling out of sewer water? Done and done. Then there are our good friends Claire, Leon, Steve, and — as if we’re supposed to act shocked — Ada Wong. The gang is all here. But as familiar as it all looks, it’s hard to argue thatThe Darkside Chroniclesdoesn’tlookdamned good....

As we sat around in the jacuzzi on our yacht the other night, it occurred to us that we’ve come almost a full hundred episodes without doing a show on platformers. Upon realizing this, Chad nearly spit out his champagne — which would have been fine, as that is exactly what the jacuzzi was filled with in the first place — but at that moment we were all in agreement that this should be rectified immediately....

When Codemasters publishes a racing game, I usually head for the hills. Not because Codemasters publishes bad racing games, but becauseI’mbad at Codemasters’ racing games.GRIDpractically required you to know how to drive arealcar, and if I knew how to do that, I’d be off joyriding instead of playing videogames. So, along comesFuel, an open-world arcade-style racing game in the same vein asBurnout Paradise, and suddenly I’m interested. Racing games that eschew realism in the pursuit of fun is something I can actually get behind, so I was more than happy to takeFuelout for a test drive....

Nintendo’s success with bundlingWii Sportsin with the Wii pretty much made a sports game shipping with any future motion-based console (or peripheral) a given. So when Microsoft announced that it had Rare on the job forKinect Sports, once everyone got over the shock that the company wasn’t developingKiller Instinct 3, no one was really surprised. Whatwassurprising was learning that Microsoft wasn’t bundling this sports game collection with its Kinect hardware, instead opting forKinect Adventures....

Three Avenged Sevenfold songs will join the music of Latin superstar Juanes inRock Bandnext week, Harmonix and MTV Games have announced. The Avenged Sevenfold pack will include: Songs are $1.99/160 MS Points/200 Wii Points a piece, or you can get the full pack for $5.49/440 MS Points. If you missed it,get more info on the Juanes six-track song pack here.