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Months after its release, Forza Motorsport 2 is still unwilling to go quietly into a Gran Turismo 5 Prologue-induced night. The game will get a new DLC pack on Wednesday, March 19, that will cost fans (and anybody else, for that matter) 400 points ($5).

For your five bucks you're going to be getting 13 new cars including the 2008 Audi S5, 2006 Maserati MC12 Corsa and 2008 BMW E92 M3. We'd love to tell you more about the offerings, but we know literally nothing about cars. We can safely guarantee though that they are all fast. And made of metal. Check the full list after the break.

Forza fans finally have something to be excited about. After tooling around for months with the same ol' boring cars, Microsoft has announced new downloadable content for Forza Motorsport 2. Technically, there are two bits of DLC, including one free car and an additional pack of ten cars for 400 MS Points. The free car is the 2007 SEAT Leon Cupra. The pay content includes cars from all over the spectrum, including American muscle, European sports, and Japanese tuners. While no specific date is given, the content should be on Xbox Live Marketplace sometime this weekend. See the full list of new cars after the break.

Officially kicking off this Saturday, August 25th is a new Forza Motorsport 2 tournament challenge where the grand prize racing winner will be rewarded with a brand new Nissan Sentra SE-R Spec V. To participate, you'll have to complete a few steps first registering by either heading to the XBLM to download the free tournament theme or signing up online. Once registered, you'll need to download the free Forza 2 Nissan car pack and race in the qualifying rounds (which start this Saturday) through September 8th. From there they'll be wittling down the racing participants and crown the Nissan Sentra SE-R Forza Motorsport 2 Online Tournament winner at the LA Auto Show in November. If interested, check out the complete tournament details, rules, prizes and more after the jump.

Thanks to a few eagle-eyed consumers and Amazon.com's Deal of the Day special you can pick up racing sim Forza Motorsport 2 for only $39.99! What's makes everything even sweeter is that this offer includes free shipping to boot, which we can't complain about at all. But you better lay down down your plastic quickly, because we presume the Deal of the Day only lasts until midnight* August 8th. Get shopping!

*By stating the offer ends at midnight we are making a sweeping generalization about time zones. We have no clue what zone Amazon.com bases their Deal of the Day on, whether it be pacific, mountain, central or eastern. As a result, X3F will not be responsible for you missing out this awesome Forza 2 deal. Sorry. But you can cry on our shoulder should you feel the need. We're cool like that.

[Thanks, PacoDG]

Forza fans out there should take note that the first batch of downloadable content for Forza Motorsport 2 is now available. There are two content packs to download. The first of which is the Nissan Tournament Pack, which includes the 2007 Nissan Altima, 2007 Nissan Sentra, and 2007 Nissan 350Z. Oh, and we should probably mention that the Nissan pack is free. The other pack is the Peugot #8 turbo diesel 908. If you want this ride, however, it's going to cost you 50 MS Points. Still, we don't remember the last time we got a car for less than a buck (virtual or otherwise) so it's not that bad of a deal. Now download, play, and be merry.

DCEmu also informs us that a tournament will soon be kicking off on August 18. The tournament will be an all out Nissan Sentra showdown between 256 players, with the finalists competing in Los Angeles. We assume further details on the tournament are forthcoming. In the meantime, you might want to start tuning up those Sentras. Finally, a Nissan Sentra customization contest is also in the works. In the contest, players will compete to create the best custom paint jobs. More details should be available on XboxLiveTournament.com starting August 10.

If tooling around in the Hatemobile or its polar opposite the Loco Roller has lost some of its luster, there are a few new cars now available for download in Forza 2. First up, there's the Nissan Tournament Pack, which includes the 2007 Nissan Altima, 2007 Nissan Sentra and 2007 Nissan 350Z. If you're not only too poor to buy these cars but also to buy their digital equivalent, take heart: The pack is free.

About 50 points (62 cents) less free is Peugeot's #8 turbo diesel 908. Speaking in technical terms, gearhead talk if you will, this car is very, very fast. Both are available now on Xbox Live.

Beginning August 4th our dear Canadian Forza Motorsport 2 gamers can enter Xbox.com's Forza 2 Drive Fast giveaway where you they drive away some some rockin' prizes. During the four promotional weeks in August, racers who earn (or already have) the "1,000,000 online credits" achievement will automatically be entered into the weekly giveaways that include Microsoft points, accessories, Xbox Live memberships and a grand prize that'll take you and three friends to the Bridgestone Racing Academy. And entering this giveaway is even easier, because all you have to do is download the special Checkered Flag gamer picture and you're entered. That's it! But remember, this giveaway is only open to Canadian residents, so European and US racers need not apply. Race on fellow Canadians, race on!

[Thanks, DjDATZ]

If you haven't already noticed, a new title update has been released for Forza Motorsport 2 fixing random bugs and completing some general game maintenance. Big changes include the temporary ban of the overpowered Lotus Elan, a deny on gifting or reselling of cars with locked paintjobs, and the removal of the host option to boot players. Other update fixes include the rotation of cars in the auction house and various scoreboard fixes. Overall, it sounds like a successful update to us. Also, current high ranking Forza 2 gamers will be happy to know that the dev team decided to NOT reset the learderboards and are instead focusing on removing invalid leaderboard scores individually. So, if you used the Lotus Elan to achieve greatness your score will be wiped clear off the leaderboards. Now get back to racing kids.

Our friends at Uncle Gamer -- who we finally had the pleasure of meeting at E3 -- have contacted us to let us know that they're giving away a brand-spanking-new copy of Forza Motorsport 2. All you need to do is head over to the Uncle Gamer forums and think up a caption for a special E3 photo. We won't spoil the picture for you, but let's just say we spent four hot minutes in the dark with the guy on the right. You will have register for the Uncle Gamer forums to participate, but that seems a small price to pay for a free game, no? Hit the "read" link for full details.

Microsoft and Turn 10 might be determined to seek and destroy acts of hatred and discrimination plastered on Xbox Live, but the publisher and developer of Forza 2 couldn't act fast enough to prevent a 1957 Mercedes 300SL, defaced by pro-Nazi symbols and sentiments, from being offered through the game's online auction mode. 360-gamer recently pointed to the unsettling item, criticizing the moderators for their inability to keep this kind of content off of the Xbox Live servers; or at least promptly remove it (apparently the car's been Live for a while).

Whether adolescent mischief or true delusion, a small percentage of user-generated content is always going to incite "discrimination, hate, or violence towards one person or a group." While Microsoft clearly defines the boundaries of condemnable content in its Online User Policy*, the company fails to suggest how it might protect its users from being victimized by such content. Probably because it can't.

The Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival can be described in many ways, but gamer's paradise is not the first phrase that comes to mind. Monstrosity of music, perhaps, or neo-hippie nirvana -- these are much more apt descriptions. However, one tiny corner of the farm was in fact an electronic Eden, gamer style, at this year's festival.

We were curious about the console's presence at the festival, and the Microsoft rep on hand wasn't shy about answering questions. "Why not Bonnaroo? There are tons of people, it's good exposure for the system, and it's a great chance to demonstrate the 360." From what we saw of the crowds in the tent, she was right about the exposure. The Arcade was never empty, and several of the consoles had small crowds clustered around the screens.

The Xbox 360 Discothéque Arcade, like so many of the enclosed structures at Bonnaroo, didn't look like much from the outside. Dust-streaked white walls shielded gamers from the boiling Tennessee sun, and the doorway was perfectly positioned to catch the occasional (and very welcome) breeze. Inside, thick shag rugs and battered sofas turned the Arcade into the perfect chill-out area. While the tent wasn't air-conditioned, the simple presence of shade made the Arcade a big draw for gamers and nongamers alike.

Our fellow Guitar Hero II rockers Wolfmother will be playing some Forza 2 this Saturday as part of Xbox.com's Game With Fame. The band will be online playing Forza 2 sometime on June 23rd and to get a chance to race with them simply send gamertag WolfmotherGWF a friend request. That's it, sit back, rinse, repeat (minus the repeat part). We're also nearly certain that they'd be more comfortable rocking out to some Guitar Hero II online if they could, but you know ... a certain developer didn't include such feature in the 360 version. Oh well, Forza 2 will work just fine.

It has been a while since we've added your custom Forza 2 cars to the official X3F gallery, but it's not like we forgot about them or were purposely avoiding you. Really, we weren't. So, let's get to the vehicular goods. One of our favorite cars we received is Gabriel Acevedo's sequel to his first Spawn vehicle. His new one, as seen above, is down right beautiful. Gold star for you Gabriel, job well done. Our other favorite is Jayman007's X3F inspired car, because it says "X360F FTW" on the back, which is just the right amount of butt kissing to be enjoyed. And if you're feeling really manly and are up for some eye candy, be sure to stare at cade's Jessica Alba Sin City ride. Uhh, yeah ... it's nice. The custom Forza 2 cars gallery is updated, so go take a look and see if your handy work made the cut.

This week's live top ten has a third of the list devoted to digitally distributed demonstration content. Of those demos, Shadowrun came all the way in fourth, with Tenchu Z down in 7th, and the Overlord demo rounding out the list in tenth. Without the Halo 3 Beta there to hog the list, Forza moved up all the way to second, behind Gears of War. Crackdown proved it had some staying power without the help of the aforementioned beta, as it maintained the middle ground at fifth. Also, Prince of Persia managed to make the list at ninth. Speaking of the list, you can find that after the break. Enjoy.

The latest US video game sales data, as compiled by the NPD group, indicates that the popularity of Nintendo's delightful money-printing machines shows no sign of, well, change. The DS and its host of pocket monsters dominated hardware and software sales in May, a month marked by a 49% increase in overall industry sales to $815.5 million. GameDaily BIZ reports that the considerable rise was due in part to console hardware sales climbing 79% to $221.4 million.

The NPD has not yet provided a complete breakdown of hardware sales per platform, but the initial sales ranking gives more than enough food for thought. Sony's PSP grabs the number three spot behind the DS and Wii, trumping the PS2, the Xbox 360 and the PS3. Perhaps that early April price drop is paying off.

We'll add the exact sales numbers into the ranking below as soon as they become available. As always, you'll find the software's top ten after the break.

• Nintendo DS: 423K
  
• Nintendo Wii: 338K
  
• Sony PSP: 221K
  
• Sony PlayStation 2: 187K
  
• Microsoft Xbox 360: 155K
• Sony PlayStation 3: 81K

[Update: additional numbers added from a Bloomberg report.]