This coming Tuesday is a big day for people that are both fans of South Park and Xbox 360 owners. Comedy Central is releasing the first ever high definition episode of South Park on the Xbox Live Marketplace to all members (we're assuming this means Silver and Gold) for free. That's right, everyone's favorite word -- free. It will be on Marketplace at that low, low, price of free for two weeks, and will also be available as a free HD-DVD to people buying a new Xbox 360 console or the HD-DVD add-on drive at Best Buy from March 20th through April 3rd.

The episode is a couple of years old, but it is definitely a fan fave. It's 'Good Times With Weapons' from the 2004 season ... better known as the "South Park Ninjas episode. The style changes from the traditional cutout look into anime style pictured above, and it will look, er ... extra-animated in HD. Couple this with the fact that South Park's new season starts this Wednesday, and new episodes will be on XBLM each following week, the fanboys and fangirls should be fairly happy.

Still, for the price, who can complain? Let's hope this trend continues. Give us some free HD Battlestar Galactica episodes already. The timing on this is pretty interesting as well ... right after the Game Developer's Conference in San Francisco. Does this mean Microsoft might be finally releasing the rumored Xbox 360 v2 with HDMI?

While a little late in its development cycle, the team behind Red Steel opened a blog yesterday to discuss the game's progress as it reaches its final stages. The first topic: the much-discussed control scheme.

Producer Marie-Sol Beaudry wants players to have fun and not "force people to become actual professional swordsmen" (it's good thing, too -- professional swordsmen make very little money these days). The matter of synchronization between the Wiimote and sword animation apparently proved tricky. Beaudry promises that the final sword-fighting will be more diverse and feature a couple of undisclosed special moves.

One of the early comments suggested an option for players to have the option of switching between scripted moves and freestyle animation. It is a great idea, but we get the impression Ubisoft is not prepared to go in that direction for this title. Maybe another game, from a galaxy far, far away, can quench our thirst. O, to dream ...