Eight screenshots have beenpopping uparound the the Internet which claim to be images of upcoming downloadable content for Epic Games’Gears of Wars 2. The screens don’t reveal very much, but they appear to point towards at least one new map, a burnt out city with pools of Immulsion glowing all around. It has been pointed out that, for whatever reason, Immulsion was barely featured in the launch maps — which is strange, considering it’s one of the few bright colors in the game....

Those that were late to the PlayStation 3 bandwagon know that their shiny black console doesn’t play well with PlayStation 2 games. The word on the street is that a new firmware update will change this. Every upcoming firmware update has its fair share of rumored features attached to it, so take this newss of the addition of PS2 backwards compatibility with a grain of salt. According to German game site InPlayStation, an October firmware update for the PS3 will bring full backwards compatiblity for PS2 games for that poor 40GB model that got left out in the cold....

AccordingGamepro(viaOnly The Games) players could be jumping into Treyarch’sCall of Duty: World at Waras early as this November. This possible date puts a nail in the tentative “autumn” date that the game has been slated for. While it’s only a rumor, my excitement over destroying the Pacific theatre with a flamethrower in November simply cannot be contained. Space Cat told me that November 11th looks like a really good day to releaseWorld at Warconsidering that it’s Veteran’s Day, which means only 75 more days to go before maximum fire satisfaction can be reached....

FirstStrikeforce, thenDynasty Warriors 7, and nowSamurai Warriors Chronicles. It seems Tecmo Koei is intent on dragging itsWarriorsseries into the modern day, with online co-op modes becoming more regular.Chroniclesis the latest to get it, bringing some two-player fun to the Nintendo 3DS. InChronicles, you strategically position four characters on a map and can switch between them at any time. It’s not yet clear if the second player will simply have access to one of the four characters, or bring a whole new team to the game....

If you were holding a conference for the eight richest nations in the world and needed to give out gifts fast, what is the first thing you would think of? Certainly not a videogame product, right? Before the G8 conference officially kicks off inToyako, Hokkaido, at least three important bureaucrats in attendance were presented with gifts. The US’s very own Condoleezza Rice’s offerings consisted of some stickers in her likeness, as well as a customized DS Lite....

I’ve been Street Pass-ing it up this week with my Nintendo 3DS. You’ll see in the above video that I’ve just hit 70 Miis in my Mii Plaza. Hell yes. While I haven’t fared as well in Street Pass Quest, I’ve done quite well in Street Pass Puzzle. You’ll see that I’ve unlocked several new panels and have actually completed a couple of them. You complete these panels by running into people on the street that have the pieces you need....

Okay, so we were wrong. Last month I predicted thatSeptember would be a strong month for games, but it turns out that the whole industry saw its first decline in sales since early 2006. Even still, video games are more popular than ever, and this September’s sales are up over last year’s by 75%. September was a software month. Sales of all consoles were down.Star Wars: The Force Unleashedwas the star of the month, selling 610,000 copies on the Xbox 360, 325,000 on the PS3, and 223,000 on the Wii....

Do you likeHalo? You better learn toloveit, because Microsoft is pulling out all the stops to make sure there’s moreHalothan you may handle in the future. MS’ Phil Spencerhas statedthat there are at least three or four teams working on newHalogames. “There are more than two or three teams buildingHalogames right now,” Spencer claimed. “Some of them we will own, some of them we won’t.” There are currently fourHaloprojects that we have heard about....

It appears that Sony’s multiplayer title,Warhawk, will be getting an early release on the PlayStation Network this week. Set to hit the PlayStation Store on Tuesday at 12:01 AM EST, the digital version of the title will cost gamers $39.99. Retail outlets will also be selling the Blu-ray disc version of the game this week, which will also ship with a Bluetooth headset, and will cost $59.99. Those who decide to go digital will have a slight edge —Warhawkships to retail on Tuesday, August 28, which means most stores won’t have it on their shelves until the next day....

Not content to release a $700 slab of pointlessness, it appears Apple will be following a business model familiar to iPod Touch users and cheekily charge users for future firmware upgrades. The implication comes from Apple’s EULA, which was publicly released recently. The basic gist of Apple’s fanciful text seems to indicate that minor OS upgrades will be free, along with one major upgrade in the future. After that, you’re on your own....

Cool news for PlayStation Portable owners who haven’t made the jump to the PlayStation 3 — Sony has announced that thePlayStation Storeis now available through your PC. Launched today, this PSP-centric version of the store already features a slew of new content, including a Playstation Store PSP exclusive,Syphon Filter: Combat Ops($9.99). Other full titles are also available, including a digital version of the PSP classic,Wipeout Pure, as well as a handful of PSX titles, videos, and demos....

Since trophies were announced as Sony’s answer to Microsoft’s achievements, its implementation has been a little patchy. The worst part is hearing “[game name] to have trophies” as if it’s a big deal. By this point, a game having trophies should not be bloody news. Thankfully, Sony is going to put an end to such nonsense byofficially declaringmandatory trophy support in January 2009. It was a confirmed by a Sony Computer Entertainment Europe spokesperson today....

The PSP may finally be getting a more consistent amount of solid game releases, but let us not forget that it took Sony’s handheld almost half a decade to get this far. According to Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios boss Shuhei Yoshida, part of the problem was the PlayStation 3 of all things. “We look at all the titles we are working on and attempt to see if there are any holes or areas where our focus isn’t enough,”he explains....