Look guys, the cute little cartoon characters thing? Yeah, that ain't workin' so much these days. Folks are upset, and rightly so. Castle Crashers is broken. We know, we know, you told us a patch was coming. But why isn't it here yet!

... Er, what's that you say? You just had a "great talk" with Microsoft about it? Well, by golly, gosh, that's great news! But, you say. But what? But you don't have a "specific time frame"? Oh, don't worry about it. Those 1200 are just water under the bridge ... Aw, would you look at that: Those knights with their big blocky heads and stumpy wumpy hands -- how precious.

[Via The Escapist]

Microsoft is running an "Extended Play Download Days" promotion between now and the end of October, with select downloadable content discounted for six Xbox 360 titles. Sure, half of the promotion consists of Beautiful Katamari accessories and stages, but we've also got Forza Motorsport 2, Mass Effect, Guitar Hero 3, Lost Odyssey and a deep discount for Oblivion Shivering Isles (from $30 to $20). Not coincidentally, today also marks the first day of the new Xbox 360 price drop.

One of the more ... interesting Achievements in the Xbox 360 version of Mercenaries 2: World in Flames is the 50-point "Everybody Wants Some," which is earned by playing online with one of the game's developers, or someone who's already played with them. Yep, it's contagious. Actually, it's sort of like the STD of Live Achievements, if you'll pardon the icky analogy.

We think it'd be pretty cool to hear the 360 "Achievement Unlocked" sound in real life every time we came down with a cold or other ailment. Hear that Microsoft? Get on it – after all, you were all about "Live Anywhere." Mercs 2's devs will be playing September 5 through 12 using special easy-to-grok Gamertags, which we've listed after the break. Now, go forth and expose yourself to viral goodness.

When the Joystiq staff goes back to Call of Duty 4, it's usually because we're tired of getting our asses handed to us on a little silver platter in practically every other first-person shooter. Before too long we pine for the one game we've played enough that we're not embarrassed to admit to our team that we write about video games professionally.

But, according to Infinity Ward spokesman Fourzerotwo, we'll have additional reason to go back Sept. 13-14, when CoD 4 will be offering up double XP on PSN and Xbox Live. Come, play with us, and tremble before our staggering (and doubly rewarding) moderate competence.

We said in our "New Games This Month" post that Pure was the best racing you weren't anticipating, and believe us when we say we weren't, in the parlance of the hills, just whistling Dixie. It an incredibly smart take on ATV racing that intertwines your turbo and combo meter to create a risk/reward dynamic unlike anything else we've seen in the genre.

Now, you'll get to see what all the fuss is about firsthand when demos for Pure land on Xbox Live and PSN tomorrow. Just don't come crying to us that you weren't warned before your face got rocked clean off.

Aural squash annihilation news now, with Activision already promoting Guitar Hero: World Tour DLC in the form of a Smashing Pumpkins track pack. In addition to the hits "1979" and "The Everlasting Gaze," the downloadable pack will feature the exclusive debut of a new single dubbed "G.L.O.W." Unsurprisingly, you can expect the content to become available for download sometime after the game's launch later this year.

Those hoping to find lead singer Billy Corgan on the game's disc won't be disappointed either as, well, he's actually on there. Corgan will appear as an in-game and undoubtedly creepy character, singing and gyrating (probably) through the band's "Today," or whatever other career song you choose to fling at him. Be gentle.

We've been in Olympic withdrawal in recent weeks, wishing that we could just once more see Michael Phelps win America's heart through wild gesticulation or try to deduce which one of the Croatian swimming team members is actually a dude (spoiler alert: all of them).

Now, you can recapture the glory with a new demo for Beijing 2008 that has just arrived on the 360, a sample of what has been called "the best Olympics game ever." Sure, that's a little like being the world's mightiest primordial dwarf, but it's also plenty endorsement for something that's completely free.

The get-kids-voting people behind Rock the Vote recently spread out beyond the limitations of MTV's core demographic and decided to enlist the Xbox Live community, long known to be an e-bastion of enlightened political discourse. So, being the politically (and mathematically!) astute bloggers we are, we took a look at the live poll results, as presented by MyGamerCard.net.

As of press time, Democratic-nom Barack Obama had a commanding lead over Republican oppollnent John McCain, with 4,623 gamerpics in circulation versus just 2,076 – a nearly insurmountable lead of 2,547 gamerpics. That's fine, but what's the real story here? How the pundits and the pollsters – clouded by the corruption and cynicism of a two-party election system – have ignored the dark horse in this election: Gears of War skull face guy, who right now controls a most impressive 87,626 of The People's votes. Ignore the political machine and vote your conscience!

[Via Cheap Ass Gamer]

Let this be a good reminder to always err on the side of caution when giving out your Xbox Live information ... that is to say, don't do it. MTV Multiplayer found out that Halo 3 multiplayer producer Joe Tung can list himself among the gamers who have had their XBL accounts compromised. "Representatives from Microsoft aided Joe in swiftly resolving the issue," said Luke Smith, who didn't provide other details.

One rather sneaky method of account stealing has been "social engineering," whereby the hacker in question calls up Microsoft service support and pretends to be the owner of the account and gains the sympathy of the customer service rep. Of course, the biggest tactic so far has involved promising one billion MS points with a simple click of the mouse. Protip: Don't give out your password, no matter how enticing a proposition is.

Each week Mark Methenitis contributes Law of the Game on Joystiq, a column on legal issues as they relate to video games:

Despite the relatively small amount of time I've had to play them, I've so far enjoyed Fable II's Pub Games, especially Fortune's Tower (pictured above). The idea of minigames has been around for ages, but Pub Games adds deeper elements than the norm, as well as pre-release hype for Fable II. Of course, this begs the question: Is this a sign of things to come?

I could certainly see other RPGs following suit, pre-releasing a related Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network, or WiiWare game that interacts with the core game, like a Final Fantasy XIII card game stand-alone. If this becomes a trend, then developers will be looking to the next evolution of this idea. I would imagine the next step would be external games that affect MMO environments; and beyond that, perhaps gambling with real currency. Think of the evolution this way: You start with a game like Texas Hold 'Em, where your play only affects that game, then the next logical step is something like Pub Games, which affects you alone in a virtual environment. From there, the evolution would logically move to impacting a multiplayer virtual environment and, ultimately, to affecting a real world environment, specifically your bank account. It's these last two steps that present some legal issues.

Meet 1ickTh3P0l3. He can vote. But why tell him that? When Rock the Vote comes to Xbox Live on Monday (the start of the Democratic National Convention), it won't find the disempowered young citizens eager to be mobilized it's expecting. In fact, the Xbox Live community is a conglomerate of well-organized sub-divisions -- or "clans" -- which communicate through a modified, verbalization of "133t speak" with a large admixture of derisive language; including racial, ethnic, gender, sex, and religious slurs. These nihilistic hatemongers shoot first, typically with rocket launchers, and top it off with a teabag over your dead body. Oh wait, these are just the Xbox Live users under 18. Imagine how the ones of legal voting age spend their nights and weekends ... And you want them rocking what now?

[Image credit: Jeff the Trojan]

In his latest report from Infinity Ward HQ, community confidant Fourzerotwo brings word that the Call of Duty 4 battlefront could see some changes soon. No less than eight new multiplayer playlists are in development, of which four are currently being tested, and at least one can pass through the servers without a patch: Hardcore Headquarters. But we're taking a keen interest in another playlist, Hardcore Ricochet, which turns teamkillers' attacks against them. It's like we're rubber, they're glue -- whatever they shoot, bounces off us and ... burrows deep into their treacherous guts!

Peep the full descriptions and statuses of all the planned playlists on Fourzerotwo's blog.

[Thanks, Michael]

While Microsoft hasn't yet announced an Xbox Live iPhone app of its very own, it has taken a well-intentioned step towards validating the handful of apps currently available on the service: it's required that the developers make their apps free. Now, before you go off about mean ol' Microsoft keeping the independent developer down, consider the reasoning here: these developers are given access to the Live functionality through the Xbox Community Developer Program and, as such, are beholden to Microsoft's rules.

In this case, Microsoft evidently has no problem with the applications themselves, just with developers charging cash money for them, so it's really looking out for you here. If you've held off on trying one out, we've included links to the three we could find (one isn't free yet, but we expect it will be shortly). Take 'em for a spin around the 'net and report your findings back here.

Source – 1337pwn XBOX Live Friends List AppStore Application is now FREE
iTunes – 1337pwn (now free)
iTunes – iLive (still $1.99)
iTunes – Xbox LIVE Friends (formerly iXboxLive; now free)

Cigar-chomping testosterone factory foiling alien invasion news now, with word that the Duke Nukem game you've all been waiting for -- again -- may be arriving imminently. Speaking to Shacknews, 3D Realms' George Broussard has confirmed that the Xbox Live Arcade version of Duke Nukem 3D has defeated the development galaxy's most dreaded scourge, the Microsoft certification process.

"We officially passed final cert on our first try Friday, August 15th," said Broussard, also revealing that the game is due for release "soon." Though we've yet to see convincing evidence that 3D Realms employees are familiar with that last word's meaning, we'll give them the benefit of the doubt when it comes to a game they've at least managed to complete once before.

No price has been announced yet, but Broussard noted that it would be "about what you'd expect." Meanwhile, be sure to check out the list of Duke Nukem 3D's Xbox 360 Achievements, which reward players for tipping strippers and stepping in poo.