Who knew Bizarre Creations had a hit on its hands when it created the original Geometry Wars so many moons ago? I certainly didn't, though that might be due in part to my complete lack of one of those other consoles. Since its original inception on Microsoft soil, the Geometry Wars series has seen a number of different incarnations, a particularly enjoyable one of which is available for everyone's favorite handheld.

Geometry Wars: Galaxies also saw a release on Nintendo's white waggle box, though the infinitely more portable version is what I'll be covering in this week's edition of Gaming to Go. Haven't experienced the geometrical madness yet? Come along and see why playing with shapes on a two-dimensional grid is far more entertaining than it sounds.

Downloadable content is a prized nugget we all not-so-secretly hope awaits us after taking any game home, but like the midday sun on a carton of fresh milk, it also has us spoiled. However, with Bizarre Creations now parking its ride in Activision's garage, the developer stated that it's closing the books on last year's Project Gotham Racing 4, adding that it will not be releasing any more new content for the stylish Xbox 360 racer.

According to a recent post on Bizarre Creation's official forums by a dev calling himself "Ben," the studio has washed its hands of the game. "Bizarre Creations won't be adding anything more to PGR4 in the future," he wrote. "We've completed the hand-over to Microsoft, so any further add-ons will come from them and not us I'm afraid." The news probably wouldn't sting so much had the last update not been so incredibly cool, leaving us now waiting to see what else the British studio has up its racing sleeves.

Thanks to a pending merger with Blizzard, the Activision family is going to be growing in the near future, but a look at its current development resources reveals that the company already has a pretty diverse galaxy of stars. With such a variety, how will you ever keep track of all the devs under the Activision bumbershoot? Worry not, dear reader.

We've got you covered.

(Also: Check out our other family albums.)

When a demo for Bizarre Creation's The Club was released only in Europe and Australia, we were understandably testy. But then, we had a revelation: That's what it's like every day in countries that aren't America. We were so moved that we bought a red-white-and-blue T-shirt and six of Miller High Life to celebrate our appreciation for our homeland. Now, our patience has been rewarded, with the demo finally hitting Xbox Live.

If you need more encouragement to check it out, you should know that Tycho from Penny Arcade said nice things about it, which is good enough for us. Typically, the guys use their power to steer you towards the finer things, (unlike our power, used only to win fights in the comments section). But will you be joining The Club? Let us know below.

Because clearly, a music game simply isn't complete until it can turn mild-mannered button pushers into gyrating vessels of awkwardness. Not that we mind -- we're quite eager to stomp our way through Bizarre Creations' fun rocket-based rhythmer again. In a recent studio update, Bizarre reveals a new Xbox Live Arcade title update for Boom Boom Rocket has made its way through the certification gauntlet, bringing with it the following changes (the most important ones highlighted):

• Guitar and dance pad peripheral support.
  
• Japanese and Korean language support.
• Tweaked scoring system focusing only on accuracy.
• The huge loud "noise" which popped up occasionally on endurance mode is now gone.
  
• Occurrences of scores getting overwritten with a lower score when playing with 2 profiles signed in is now fixed.
• Display updates when viewing the game through a VGA cable.
• Friends leaderboard now shows extra information such as grade, accuracy, etc.
• Multiplayer endurance mode fix for player colors swapping sporadically.
• Slightly bigger and better explosions.

Now if we could just get our arthritic hands on some new downloadable songs (actual music this time, please), we'll really see some fireworks.

[Via 1UP]

Sega has released a trailer for the upcoming shooter The Club, which is being developed by Bizarre Creations (their last game before working solely under Activision). The trailer is very slick, showing off the cast of the arcade shooter. The characters run the gamut of generic badasses: there's the square-jawed Russian, the tough cop (gone bad?), the obstinate Irishman, and ... well, a crazy guy in a rain slicker. There's even a guy named -- we kid you not -- Killen. But what's a cool trailer without little gameplay? Nothing, that's what. So, we've included a gameplay trailer after the break. The Club is a little different from most 3rd person shooters, as its main focus is constant action. The faster you make your kills, the more your score multiplier increases. Essentially, it's 3rd person Geometry Wars on steroids. Watch and enjoy.

With Activision gobbling up Project Gotham Racing developer Bizarre Creations, the future of the Microsoft's racing series seems to have a lot of question marks attached. Interestingly, lead designer Ged Talbert has already been talking about what they could do to improve on the series, telling CVG, "Obviously Gotham 4's about to come out and we're really happy with it, but behind the scenes we've already started ripping our game to pieces. We know where we failed in certain areas."

Bizarre's going to be popping out a new racing IP for Activision now, so we'll have to wait and see if the improvements Talbert wants will be implemented in PGR 5, or in some new series. That said, are we the only ones who are a bit more worried about the future of Bizarre's other property, Geometry Wars? Traditionally, it's been a part of PGR, so will it be in someone else's hands too?

Bizarre Creations, best known for Geometry Wars and the Project Gotham Racing series, has been acquired by Activision. The first Bizarre Creations game to be published under Activision isn't expected until 2009. In the meantime, Bizarre Creations will complete work on Project Gotham Racing 4 for Microsoft and The Club for Sega. It's always difficult to see an independent developer snapped up by a big publisher, though Bizarre Creations is quick to allay the fears of fans. A blog post on the Bizarre Creations website promises that Activision will have a "hands off" relationship with the company and that all the teams will remain intact. As the post puts it, "We won't become Activision Liverpool or anything like that." Le's hope not. We all know what happened to Irrational.

So, Activision has reunited the Sex Pistols and purchased Bizarre Creations. What's next?

[Via Joystiq]

Independent UK developer Bizarre Creations of Project Gotham Racing and Geometry Wars fame is now the property of Activision following an acquisition announcement this morning, making the studio one of Activision's wholly owned subsidiaries. The move by Activision follows last year's purchase of Guitar Hero publisher Red Octane, and while financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, Activision notes that its first Bizarre Creations game will not be released until sometime following fiscal 2009.

That said, Bizarre Creations will still release its visceral shooter The Club as an indie for publisher Sega this February for PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. The upcoming Project Gotham Racing 4 will be the studio's final game for Microsoft.

While it's always somewhat disheartening to see once independent developers sapped up like this, in some ways it's inevitable, especially given the high costs associated with console game development. Still, according to a blog post on Bizarre Creations' website, Activision's ownership will be "hands off," leaving creative control in the studio's capable hands, for now at least. In addition, the post adds that the company will have "absolutely no redundancies," no doubt causing a sigh of relief from those in the trenches.

Do you think a lean, green electric sports car can take on a noisy gas-guzzler? In discussing the invitationals planned for Project Gotham Racing 4, developer Bizarre Creations used "Electric vs. Petrol Showdown" as one example, where you in the Tesla Roadster face off against a Ferrari Testarossa.

Can full, unadulterated speed be met without exhuming fossil fuels? It should make for a fun, philosophical monologue while you maneuver around corners. We do warn you, though, that beating the Ferrari in a race may lead to an excess in smug emissions.

[Via AutoblogGreen]

Our partners in crime at AutoblogGreen -- just like Autoblog, only with more miles per gallon and fewer emissions -- have discovered that Project Gotham Racing 4 is set to feature a very interesting racing challenge. Part of the game's invitational series of races, the challenge is called "Electric Vs Petrol Showdown" and allows players to "take the wheel of a two-seater, silent, electric sportscar (the Tesla Roadster) and face-off against a gas-guzzling, noisy, mean machine (the Ferrari Testarossa)." For those that don't know, the Tesla Roadster is reportedly a damned impressive piece of kit, boasting the ability to go from 0 to 60 miles per hour in about 4 seconds. The environmentally friendly super car can also travel 200 miles on a single battery charge. The best part, thanks to PGR4, is that you won't have to spend $98,000 (base price, mind you) to try one out.

[Via AutoblogGreen]

A demo from Bizarre Creations' Project Gotham Racing 4 should be hitting Xbox Live soon, according to the developer (via Eurogamer). In addition to five playable vehicles (cars and bikes) that presumably will be in the full game, there will be an Arcade mode exclusive to the demo set in Macau, featuring exclusive challenges.
We're a bit perplexed about the exclusive content. If it's good, why not include it in the full game. Conversely, if the content is not good, or not on par with the full game, why use it to promote the title?

A time trial for Nurburgring Snow will also be in the demo. Project Gotham Racing 4 (with Geometry Wars: Waves) is due out October 2 in North America.

Earlier today, Bizarre Creations decided to share Project Gotham Racing 4's achievements with everyone and give a little back story to how they were decided upon. Learning from their PGR 3 days, Bizarre opted to make PGR 4's achievements a little more varied, less focused on difficult to obtain achievements and more fun in general. Our favorites include "Buy an Achievement", "Back it Up!" and "Beat Bizarre" where you have to beat a member of the Bizarre Creations dev team in an online game or someone who has already done so. Also, there are a few secret achievements thrown in for good measure like the "3CZV657" achievement, DeLorean anyone? Complete list, explanation and attached Gamerscore for all of PGR 4's achievements is available after the jump.

When Bizarre Creations is not driving fast cars or pulverizing polygons, the Liverpool-based developer likes to blast bullets at a blistering rate with little regard for their surroundings. According to a press release from publisher Sega, their incoming shoot 'em up The Club will ship this February for PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, hopefully just in time for Valentine's Day.

In the meantime, check out our impressions of the title from E3. And speaking of shoot 'em ups, we hear Clive Owen's new film has an action sequence or two.

Eager to show off their pretty new camera effects and in-game car models, Bizarre Creations decided to shed some light on Project Gotham Racing 4's new and improved Photo Mode. First off, Bizzare has added a few new photo filters and effects including tunnel, vehicle blur and an odd little filter that turns your photo into a 3D image when using a pair of red / blue glasses. Wicked odd, yet utterly nifty. The other Photo Mode improvements come from how a racer's photos will be shared with the rest of the PGR 4 community. Using PGR on Demand, gamers will be able to upload their photos, search others, share and rate eachother's photos with ease. It's like a mini PGR 4 Flickr account.

There's no denying that Bizarre is focusing on creating more of a tight knit PGR community this time around and with the enhanced Photo Mode options we think they're headed on the right track (pun intended). Also, don't forget to check out preview photos of the types of images you'll be able capture in PGR 4 after the break.