Borderlands has yet to hit store shelves. But, that hasn’t stopped its developer, Gearbox, from announcing its first episode of downloadable content, “Zombie Island of Dr. Ned” – which seems to have more of a Halloween “niche” then anything else.

As planned to be “the first in a series” of downloadable content for Borderlands, Zombie Island of Dr. Ned will set you back a total of $10 on all three platforms, including PlayStation 3, PC and Xbox 360. Here’s the description:

“Tasked with keeping the workers of Jakobs Cove alive, Dr. Ned (who is not related to Dr. Zed from Fyrestone) does his job a little too well, creating zombies and other abominations that now run rampant in this region. Players will have to work alongside Dr. Ned as they embark on a quest to cure the inhabitants of Jakobs Cove in this full-fledged expansion filled with new enemies, new quests and rare loot drops.”

Having not played Borderlands, this seems like a huge risk for the developers over at Gearbox because no one knows if the game is good, or bad. However, from the looks of things, it seems that Borderlands is more good then anything else. With that said, Zombie Island of Dr. Ned is do out “later this year”.

We recently sat down with Martin Wahlund (CEO, Fatshark) to talk about their upcoming downloadable title, Lead & Gold: Gangs of the Wild West – a third person multiplayer-oriented shooter aiming to give players “a chance to relive the thrills of a gunfight in classic western settings.”. Enjoy.

GCO: What’s the general idea behind Lead & Gold?

Martin Wahlund: To deliver a fun and good looking multi-player game with strong game modes that suits the western setting well. This, at a very good price for the players.

GCO: People have called Lead & Gold “Team Fortress meets the old west”, what do you have to say about that?

MW: It is not that far off. Team Fortress is great and there are many common elements in the games but also many differences.

GCO: Lead & Gold is a team based multi-player experience. Please describe some key elements in the game.

MW: Team play. You win as a team or lose as a team. Another key element is the class that you chose to play, it dictates the way you play in each scenario.

The in-game leveling system is also something that stands out; you get experience from completing mission objectives or killing enemies. The character then, evolves by gaining improved synergies.

GCO: Does Lead & Gold have some kind of perk system, much like that in the Call of Duty games?

MW: Not directly. The closest thing is the synergies that the characters get when you level up your character in each scenario.

GCO: We’ve noticed that Lead & Gold uses the same engine as GRIN’s Bionic Commando. Were there any setbacks caused by GRIN’s closing during development?

MW: Well, we worked close with GRIN and it was a shame to see the studio close down but we are still alive and kicking.

GCO: Is there support for dynamic (explosive) environment in the game?

MW: In some sense, yes. You can destroy certain objects with a well placed powder keg. It could be a wind mill or a door.

GCO: Going back to perks. Is there a class system?

MW: Yes. There are 4 main classes in the game at release, the trapper, the blaster, the deputy and the gunslinger. All of them have a special ability for example the trapper can set traps. We hope to release more characters as downloadable content in a near future.

GCO: When can we expect Lead & Gold to release?

MW: Q1 2010.

GCO: Thanks for your time.

Plastic guitars, used in the popular Guitar Hero titles, are Activision’s hammer in its crusade as ” the most successful game publisher on the planet”. However, with Guitar Hero sales on a recent decline, the next step is to ditch consoles and their licensing fees altogether.

During a Q&A session at Deutsche Bank Securities Technology Conference, Bobby Kotick, Activision Blizzard CEO, said that Activision is now exploring the option of selling Guitar Hero and games of its kind as plug-in-and-play products.

“I think what the untethered ‘Guitar Hero’ does is it maybe equals the playing field a little bit more and gives you leverage with first parties on downloadable content and the business model,” said Kotick. “You should expect to see many of our products to be playable on the television independent of a console.”

There’s innovative, and then there’s craziness. And I think that Bobby Kotick may have just crossed the line between the two because this would be a bad move on Activision’s part.

[Activision’s ‘Guitar Hero’ and Others May Ditch Consoles via MTV]

Peter Molyneux announced Fable III during Microsoft’s GamesCon press conference today for the Xbox 360. Months before, Molyneux teased fans that the series might be taking a new direction – seeing that the recently released “See The Future” downloadable content for Fable II teased at that.

“I think there’s something fundamentally wrong with RPGs like Fable… It’s a mechanic that’s been there since the eighties. I’m going to take that foundation stone and throw it away,” said Molyneux when talking about making RPGs “new, fresh, and different”.

In the epic story of Fable III, the journey to rule the throne of Albion begins five decades after the events of the last chapter, and you play as the child of your hero from Fable II. As you rule your kingdom as king or queen, you will be called upon to make choices and sacrifices that will test your morality and can affect your entire kingdom. Themes of heroism, leadership and consequence are taken to a grand scale as you fight to unite a divided people.

“Ultimately you overthrow that terrible tyrant who rules Albion, but to do that you have to make some promises,” Molyneux stated. ”You are going to become the ruler of the whole of Albion. You’ve played in this land in Fable 1, in Fable 2 you became a hero; this time, why not rule Albion? Why not be a king or a queen?” He added, “I want players to feel and experience what it’s like to be a ruler.”

Fable III will deliver a sweeping, powerful story and new innovations in gameplay and Xbox LIVE functionality when it is made available in the 2010 holiday season, only on Xbox 360.

Valkyria Chronicles has seem to have hit gold within the month of April with a huge sales jump from its predecessor month March, skyrocketing the game into best-seller lists, off of store shelves.

In the month of April alone, Valkyria Chronicles sales in North America increased by over 400% from, once again, March.

Half a year after a game is out, being able to say that sales doubled is a fantastic thing – that sales suddenly tripled is even more rare, said SEGA.

The burning hot sales can be attributed to community contests, DLC and the temporary price drop to $30.

The latest addition into downloadable content infantry that is Burnout Paradise, Big Surf Island, will arrive on Xbox Live and PSN on June 11th – revealed in a spiffy new trailer for the game.

“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,” - Criterion Games.

“Burnout Paradise is a complete reinvention of the series, built from the ground up for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360,” said Alex Ward, director of game design at Criterion Games when announcing the game. “To create truly next-generation gameplay, we needed to create a truly next-generation game, from top to bottom.”

The 360 already had its turn and now it looks like its the PS3s turn. Bethesda announced today that the previously exclusive downloadable content for the Xbox 360 version of Fallout 3 will be coming to the PlayStation 3. Bethesda has been working on implementing it for a while and are looking forward to bringing it to PS3 gamers via the PlayStation Network.

Operation: Anchorage will be released for PS3 in late June, followed by the release of The Pitt and Broken Steel 4-6 weeks apart. Release dates will be forthcoming. In addition, a new update will be released for PS3 that will allow users to download and play the new DLC. The release date for that update will be announced at a later date. There are also two new DLCs planned for all three platforms:

Point Lookout – Explore a massive new swampland area filled with new quests and it will be available in late June for Xbox 360 and PC. Cost will be 800 Microsoft Points. It will be available through Xbox Live and Games for Windows Live. Point Lookout will be available on PS3 after the first three DLCs have been released.

Mothership Zeta – The aliens have returned, and they’re pissed. Experience an alien abduction first hand and find out if you’re tough enough to survive. And is scheduled for release in late July for Xbox 36 and PC. Cost will be 800 Microsoft Points. It will be available through Xbox Live and Games for Windows Live. Mothership Zeta will be available on PS3 after Point Lookout.

It looks like there’s going to be another important no-show, go to the show at this years E3. Despite already having five titles that we already know they are working on, the developers behind the Grand Theft Auto franchise, Rockstar Games, don’t have any plans on showing anything at this years E3 event, as reported by EuroGamer.

Although, Rockstar has revealed that its not going to rule out announcements during the show. However, when asked about rumors that they have plans to reveal the second downloadable content for Grand Theft Auto IV they stated that, “we don’t comment on rumour and speculation.”

The downloadable content for Fallout 3 recently came to its maximum with the release of Broken Steel, but Bethesda might not be done releasing new content packs for the game and future packs will rely on projected profits.

In an interview with OXM, Bethesda’s Pete Hines hinted at the prospect for more DLC on the way.

“Whether [Broken Steel is] the absolute last one remains to be seen,” he said. “Because it’s been hugely successful. Operation Anchorage vastly exceeded our expectation. It was like ‘holy shit, we did how many?’ and the Pitt was really successful, after a bit of a false start.”

In addition, he goes on to say that Broken Steel is the most anticipated of the packs among fans, and he expects it to be “hugely, hugely popular.”

[Bethesda Says More Fallout 3 DLC Could Come via 1UP]

After Guerilla Games announced that Killzone 2 would be getting DLC, rumors popped up on the web stating that the downloadable content would feature a co-op mutli-player mode, which was missing from within the game when it released.

But, however, when GameInformer interviewed Co-founder and Managing Director of Guerrilla Games, Hermen Hulst, he revealed that Killzone 2 will not be receiving co-op as downloadable content.

“We looked at all the different flavors of co-op early on, but decided our first priority would have to be the single-player experience and the multiplayer,” Hulst informed. “Rather than just tack on co-op, it would have to be integrated and done to a similar standard as the single and multiplayer.”

“Having looked at it again now. I do not think we would want to add it as DLC,” he added.

[Guerilla Games: no downloadable co-op for Killzone 2 via PSU]

Alot of people have been, appearently, asking about this. Now, it seems that SEGA has the answered the call. Beginning on April 16th PlayStation owners will be able to return to Gallia to fight in new EWII battles once more in the upcoming Downloadable Content for Valkyria Chronicles, which you can only play if you have the game.

[Valkyria Chronicles DLC marching to PSN soon via PlayStation.Blog]

We were told that we were going to see this in the “upcoming weeks”, no pun intended, but we didn’t think that would be this soon.

Today, details were revealed for the upcoming Fable II DLC entitle “See the Future”. The content gives players the chance to heed the call for a hero to restore color and balance to the world, or let Albion fall. Those who emerge victorious will receive the ultimate reward: a quest that provides a vision of Albion’s future and what lies ahead for those born into the heroic bloodline. The new quests in “See the Future” will bring players face-to-face with new characters, creatures, events and legendary artifacts, like:

Murgo – a person that you meet in the childhood part of Fable II how returns to Bowerstone Market to bring an amazing array of new wares; The Ghosts of the Snowglobe Quest – Holding a disturbing secret, the small model village inside it was once a real town in Albion.; The Cursed Knight Quest – Forever banished to a land beyond the dead, the Cursed Knight awaits a hero who has the strength and will to dress up in convincing costumes, even imitating a hobbe or balverine, to save him from his fate; The Colosseum – The Colosseum puts even the Crucible to shame. Only the greatest heroes have triumphed here.

See the Future will offer free unique items including Welley’s soldier helmet, a braided ponytail, pshyco Jester make-up, a new hero expression, the back flip trick for the dog, a collectible Murgo the Trader statue and more. The new content looks set to release in May for 560 Microsoft Points.

[See the Future of Albion via Lionhead]

In last weeks episode of Invisible Walls, they covered all the big announcements at the Game Developers Conference.

And in the episode, which is by the way was their 51 episode, they covered one of the biggest games at the show, Punch-Out!. Within their discussion it was revealed that there were only 13 characters within the title and somewhere within their discussion the word “DLC” poped up.

However, according to one of the cast members, when asking a rep from Nintendo about them bring in more character via Downloadable Content they were told that they weren’t going to do DLC for the title.

Besides all the controversy over the game’s downloadable content not being free, and that it didn’t come with the full retail version of the game. We can, without a doubt, tell you that the downloadable content for Resident Evil 5 has indeed been delayed, which Capcom announced this morning.

Earlier this month, Capcom announced Resident Evil 5’s ‘versus mode’ DLC will becoming to the market, which means that it’s going to be on both PSN and Live – sorry for the messed up translation. They also revealed the games prices on the system’s marketplaces ($5 on the Playstation Network and 400 Microsoft Points on Live).

They have announced that it has changed its released date to April 9, according to Capcom’s Japanese notice – it’s only for Japan kids. “We deeply apologize to those customers who have been waiting for this down loadable content,” Capcom states.

It looks like being famous pays itself off because being the DLC for one of the most repected games on the market your definitely going to set some kind of record.

Today, Micrsoft revealed that the DLC for Grand Theft Auto IV has set an Xbox Live sales record, but, sadly, they weren’t candid about revealing how much it sold. According to the company, the downloadable content has “eclipsed first-day revenue for all previous down-loadable content on Xbox LIVE”.

“The success of ‘Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned’ redefines what consumers expect from Game Add-ons,” said Marc Whitten, general manager of Xbox LIVE. “Content like this is extending the lives of our favorite games and fundamentally changing the way we play.”

Well, with that said, it’s kind of point less revealing this when they didn’t even release the sales of the game.

In celebration of the release of the first Downloadable Content for Grand Theft Auto 4, Microsoft has announced a week free of multi-player for Grand Theft Auto 4. The experience will give players the chance to play for a total six days, all together – no more or less.

The deal will start from 9 AM on February 17 and continuing until midnight of February 22 for only players with the ability to access Xbox Live.

The company has planned a full slate of Xbox Live events during the time period including a chance to play the game online with members of the development team at Rockstar Games.

Rockstar Games have revealed a list of the achievements for the downloadable content that will be apart of Grand Theft Auto IV, Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned. Along with the achievements they also revealed a new screenshot showcasing the game’s protagonist Johnny Klebitz holding a shotgun.

Get Good Wood – 50G: In the Bike Races, whack off 69 bikers with a bat.
Easy Rider – 100G: Finish The Story
Full Chat – 70G: Your backup are riding at their best!
The Lost Boy – 25G: All hail the leader of The Lost!
One Percenter – 5G: Billy is back on his bike.

[The Lost and Damned achievements + new screenshot via GTAGaming]

Capcom has now announced that downloadable content will be hitting this Tuesday with not even a week since its debut of the game, Mega Man 9, on the marketplace. This is a much needed DLC that set’s the game higher above the rest in the franchise. Set to be unveiled with this download, the game will interlude a new playable chacter named Proto Man and will add a mode called Endless Attack. While prices have not been announced it’s most likely that the DLC may go for the price of $2.00-$3.00 dollars to reflect the price on Nintendo’s WiiWare service. If you would like more information you’ll just have to wait a little bit longer because the rest of the expected DLC will make its way in the upcoming week of October 20th.

Mistwalker has announced the date for the next set of downloadable content for the Japanese version of Lost Odyssey. The DLC is set for availability on April 10, the 89 megabyte download will give players access to a new dungeon.

The new dungeon takes place in the remains of an underground test facility and involves Kaim and his buddies mortal and immortal seeking out the nature of the top secret research that had been going on there. Those who explore this dungeon, who’s entrance requires a trip under the sea, will find a new boss character and some rare accessories. This third piece of download content for the RPG epic will run players 400 Microsoft Points.

Source

Today, Eidos announced that starting on April 17, 2008 gamers will be able to download four new multiplayer maps Kane & Lynch. You can download the DLC for the price of zero dollars, or free.

"Eidos will be announcing on Tuesday April 8, the upcoming release of four new downloadable maps for the Fragile Alliance multiplayer mode in Kane & Lynch: Dead Men. The maps will be downloadable for FREE on April 17, from Xbox LIVE and from the PLAYSTATION Network for the PS3. The new maps will be released in one downloadable pack entitled ‘The Dope Bag’, with each of the four maps featuring its own unique scenario."

Source

Great news Army of Two Fanboys, EA has revealed the downloadable content for Army Of Two plus they also revealed the details for the upcoming demo for the game. According to a post on the EA forums Matt Turner, Assistant Producer of Army of Two, revealed some new details for the demo and the DLC for the game. In the post it states that the demo will be coming out on April 1st. Here’s what he had to say about the DLC:

“……. So there is 1 new multiplayer map arriving as well as 2 new campaign maps in the not too distant future. As well as SSC Challenge- that’s the obstacle course for mercs that I mentioned in my previous post…..”