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For those of you ready to Carry That Weight and swing Maxwell's Silver Hammer, Harmonix and MTV Games released the full "Abbey Road" album download today for The Beatles: Rock Band. Rather than simply release the songs, the DLC comes with new animations for the four British gents and, in some cases, new "dreamscapes" (the pseudo-psychedelic animations tripping our your friends while you play songs).

The trailer above offers a medley sampling of the whole album, should you not be acquainted with it. But then, we must ask, what planet are you from where "Abbey Road" is an unfamiliar album?

I have to start by being brutally honest with you: Brütal Legend is not the game I hoped it would be. As a huge fan of director, designer and writer Tim Schafer's body of work – especially Double Fine's debut effort, Psychonauts – I had prepared myself for a wonderfully written, laugh-out-loud funny, constantly surprising experience filled with compelling characters that would have me grinning in anticipation of where it was taking me next.

What I came away with after beating the game in about six hours (granted, I didn't embark on many of the battle- and racing-based sub-missions, but I did do quite a lot of exploring) was the opinion that Eddie Riggs is a truly awesome character, along with a sense of wonder at the fantastic – and very metal – world Schafer and crew had created. Unfortunately, I also came away with a questioning of why so much of the game felt like a b-side to the hit single that had been its first couple of hours.

Valve took the wraps off Left 4 Dead 2's brand-new competitive multiplayer game type, "Scavenge," at a press event in San Francisco this evening. According to the developer, this mode is built purely for "quick, more frantic gameplay." (Yes, L4D actually can be more frantic).

Scavenge has the four survivor characters scrambling to collect gas cans from various spots in a confined location -- in this case a motel, pictured -- in order to fuel up a generator before a two-minute timer expires. There are 16 cans total and 20 seconds are added to the clock for each one that's successfully retrieved.

Four other players, controlling Special Infected, must do their best to stop the cans from reaching the goal. The two new Special Infected, Spitters and Jockeys, really excel in this mode. The former can set dropped cans on fire, while the latter can leap onto the shoulders of a survivor, "steering" them away from their goal.

These best two-out-of-three matches are broken up into three rounds, during the "half time" of which players switch sides. Valve confirmed that each of L4D2's campaigns has a unique Scavenge map, for a total of six shipping with the game on November 17.

Speaking about upcoming co-op zombie shooter Left 4 Dead 2 at EA's Tokyo press conference today, Valve's Kim Swift announced intentions to release a demo on October 27. Though no platforms were explicitly mentioned, we're betting pre-orders on both Xbox 360 and PC platforms will be getting first dibs, as Valve has already stated.

From what we understand, the demo will feature multiplayer, though we're not sure to what capacity this will extend. Either way, Xbox 360 and PC owners will get a chance to try out at least some of the 10 melee weapons well before the game's November 17 release. We'll ask EA for more details on the demo as the Tokyo Game Show continues this week.

The Beatles: Rock Band SingStar bundle has arrived at UK retailers for £49.99 ($81.87). Only after being half-announced by MTV Games, showing up on an Australian retailer website, and then vaguely detailed in a press release from today, are we able to bring you this news. Is it coming to other territories? That's a good question!

We asked EA, who gave us a laundry list of launch dates for various European and African countries (listed after the break). Unfortunately, we were told that the exclusion of North America from the list means that the publisher currently has no intention of bringing the microphone bundle Stateside. Sorry, aspiring North American crooners!

For those of you who dropped a few bucks reserving Brütal Legend early, now's your chance to get some face time with Eddie Riggs and co. The demo dropped today on Xbox Live and PlayStation Network, giving those who pre-ordered the game roughly a month of time to enjoy ... erm ... demoing it. If you didn't pre-order it and you're following Joystiq on Twitter, we'll be giving away some download codes later on today.

The rest of us plebes will have to wait until September 23, which is when the demo will arrive for everyone else. Tim Schafer would love for us all to be able to play the whole thing right now, though he concedes, "While we're waiting for Rocktober 13, a taste of Metal is better than none at all." Indeed it is, Mr. Schafer.

It appears that Best Buy's pre-order bonus for Brütal Legend comes a bit sooner than at other retailers. Handing over cash for the game before its Rocktober 13 release nets folks the attractive Brütal Legend LP sleeve seen above. Aside from displaying artwork, the sleeve serves as a holder for the game disc itself when, for some reason, it's not in your console.

Unfortunately, the official Brütal Legend blog doesn't list Best Buy among the retailers who are offering the free in-game guitar and early demo access. As such, we've asked EA for more information on the Best buy deal and will update this post when we hear more.

[Thanks, Kyle!]

We can't even begin to thank Harmonix for giving us a shirtless version of Iggy Pop that we're not completely revolted by. The guy's really been put through his paces over the years, so it seems only deserving that he should be all gussied up by Lego for upcoming rhythm/music game, Lego Rock Band.

Jeux Video discovered the images, as well as a bit of gameplay with the iconic Stooges frontman. Unfortunately, the one major problem with licensing your likeness to a Lego game persists: You just look like a generic Lego dude! Is that Iggy Pop above? Sure, why not! People that could also be include, but are not limited to, certain versions of Eric Stoltz, and a muscle-bound Edgar Winter.

[Via VG247]

We can just picture it: Harmonix employees collectively having a laugh at our expense as the forty-fifth (and final) track featured in The Beatles: Rock Band is announced to be ... wait for it ... "The End." The image you see above certainly makes this possibility seem all the more real, as the Abbey Road track isn't listed anywhere on the nearly complete track list we've had for some time now.

Apparently, the game has already landed in a few lucky forum-goers hands over at ScoreHero, who quickly revealed the alleged final track. Also revealed: The game's a lot of fun. Shocking! All kidding aside, though, we're fairly confident "The End" made it into the game as track number 45, but we'll have to wait and see with our own eyes when The Beatles: Rock Band launches next week.

Sure, The Beatles: Rock Band developer Harmonix has been busy working on next week's big release for some time now, but did you know it's also working on "re-energizing" its "core franchises?" Harmonix PR overlord John Drake told CVG as much, saying that while the studio is ready to refocus on its existing portfolio, it's been busy making sure it got The Beatles game 100 percent right. "We were terrified while making the game, hoping we don't make [Apple Corps] mad at any point -- they're really nice and easy to work with, but this is The Beatles, you can't afford to mess this up."


Considering the longtime rhythm game developer more or less re-energized its Amplitude and Frequency franchises with Rock Band Unplugged, we're taking a wild stab in the dark here when we suggest Drake's likely talking about Rock Band 3. And does "re-energizing" in this case mean "adding Project Natal functionality?" We're not sure yet, but we've got our fingers as uncrossed as possible, just in case.

Along with this rumored feature, the site has posted a list of upcoming DLC, including 10 tracks from Queen and three from The Raconteurs due in October. Three songs from The White Stripes are listed for November release. Undisclosed material from Attack! Attack! and The Duke Spirit appears as undated Rock Band Network content.

When contacted for comment, Harmonix told Joystiq, "While we don't comment on rumors or speculation with regards to our upcoming downloadable content, we can promise that the Rock Band platform is poised to remain the unchallenged best value and source of music for rhythm games."

This supposed "leak" is very conveniently timed, given that Guitar Hero 5 releases tomorrow. Doncha' think?

In a 30-second clip that we're not exactly sure came from this decade, MTV Games/Harmonix preview upcoming music/rhythm game The Beatles: Rock Band by way of a big party on Abbey Road. No, we don't mean the street itself, we mean that the enormously famous album cover got turned into a big ol' 30-second party in celebration of the upcoming game. Other than a somewhat creepy faux John Lennon around the halfway mark, this commercial provides yet another reason to be more excited than ever for the day that the Dreamcast turns 10.
[Via Kotaku]