My dude is running around with an automatic weapon, but I'm not staring at the gun. Instead, it's his sweet cream-colored flat cap, the tan jacket he's rocking that looks like it might be leather, and a thin layer of moustache that wouldn't look out of place on that weird aunt of yours who has too many cats. I'm fascinated by his faux tough-guy look, and while I work with the camera to try to get a better view of his gear, a bullet rips through his chest and he's dead. Oops, forget admiring the sartorial splendor of my makeshift thug and let's get to doing what he does best: popping bullets in fools in the multiplayer features of the upcoming downloadable content episode for Grand Theft Auto IV, The Ballad of Gay Tony. Rockstar hosted a multiplayer session during which we had a chance to try out most of the multiplayer modes available in the Gay Tony expansion.

We started out with a few free-for-all deathmatches, including one particularly hectic match located in the amusement park Funland. Dodging bullets amidst all of the carnival rides turned out to be some of the most fun we had during the entire session. At one point, we had a great sniping point on the veranda of an office building and managed to snag a handful of successive kills without ever being spotted. The Gay Tony-specific weapons have some high points--including a sharp assault submachine gun that's good for tight spaces and an advanced machine gun that makes up for its lack of accuracy with some deadly stopping power.

In addition to the free deathmatches, we tried out the team deathmatch where multiple teams compete to collect as much cash as they can before the session timer runs out. With a long strip of road running down the middle of one of the most popular areas during our team deathmatch session, it wasn't uncommon to see cars hurtling down the road before exploding into flames as rival teams battled it out on the steps of the government building nearby. New deathmatch features in the Gay Tony DLC include earning cash for assisted kills, getting bonus cash for kill streaks, and the using the aforementioned new weapons.

Getting some bullet therapy in has its charms, but it's certainly not the only thing to do in Gay Tony's multiplayer. After all, it wouldn't be GTAIV without some racing, right? We tried out a couple of different races during our session, which included long point-to-point races in high-performance sports car models. Some of the routes were a bit confusing, thanks to a lack of direction. At one point, we managed to take a wrong turn off the highway and completely screwed our race. After a few weeks of playing Forza 3, the loosey-goosey handling of the GTA cars took some getting used to as well. Still, the wheel-to-wheel, anything-goes attitude of racing events made for a lot of laughs (and only a few curses). As in other multiplayer game types, there are a ton of options when setting up races, including car class, number of laps, traffic, pedestrians, time of day, weather, and several others. The races we ran featured sports cars with nitros attached--you could get a significant boost of speed with the B button and respawn your completely destroyed ride by holding the Y button.

You have a parachute, I have a gun. I win.

The highlight of the multiplayer session had to be the free mode where got a chance to try out the completely awesome (and wondrously incongruous) BASE jumping mode. After hitching a ride with a Rockstar employee who knew his way around the city, we immediately headed to the closest helicopter, took off to fly downtown, and looked for the tallest buildings in the city. With parachutes strapped to our back--which you automatically receive when boarding a helicopter in the game--we peered off the edge of the skyscraper, pondering our virtual doom, before taking the leap of faith and free-falling for as long as we dared. At the last possible moment, we pressed the A button to pull our chute and, for added flare, popped some smoke by pressing the L3 button.

We touched down safely, but because it was the free mode, it wasn't long until other players started making trouble. The timed free-mode session ended with a swath of fiery destruction as we were on foot being chased by a Rockstar employee emptying his helicopter's missile supply in our general direction. We did our best to get another BASE jump attempt in but were met with a fiery death instead. Of course, that isn't the only way to die when BASE jumping. In addition to failing to pop your chute in time, you can be chopped by the rotor blades of a helicopter and killed by weapon-wielding opponents as you glide down to earth.

But then, no one ever said BASE jumping was safe.

Look for The Ballad of Gay Tony for Grand Theft Auto IV on Thursday, October 29, available for download or on disc as part of the Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City stand-alone game.

Considering the original Matt Hazard game--Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard--spent much of its time making fun of classic game tropes, it's either ironic or inevitable that the tough-as-nails fake-retro video game hero would make his next appearance in an old-school side-scrolling shooter. Hazzard's next adventure will find him heading back in time in the upcoming Matt Hazard: Blood Bath and Beyond, a downloadable game for Xbox Live Arcade and the PlayStation Network. Publisher D3 came by earlier this month to give us a glimpse of this blood-soaked shooter ahead of its release in early 2010.

The plot of Blood Bath and Beyond features Hazzard going back in time to prevent the evil gaming corporation Marathon MegaCorp from destroying his 8-bit self from the good old days. Along the way, he'll be blasting his way through multiple levels of bloody 2D shooting action that mixes in occasional bits of 3D for variety. Controls in the game are straightforward: You use the A button (on the Xbox 360 controller) to jump, the X to fire, and the right trigger to throw grenades; you aim shots by moving the left stick in any direction. In certain areas of a level, you'll encounter enemies that are "behind" the action on the 2D plane--pressing the left trigger will let you turn Hazard so he fires at those enemies before they can get too close to cause problems.

Weapons are plentiful in the game, both in terms of quantity and variety. Shotguns, flamethrowers, grenades, ice guns, and plasma rifles are just a few of the weapons Hazzard and his sidekick Dexter Dare (playable when in co-op mode) will have at their disposal. They'll need every one of those weapons, too, in order to deal with the waves of enemies that assault you in each level. We played two levels of the game. The first--known as Booty Call--had Matt and Dexter fighting pirates in a level that culminated with a boss battle against a huge living lighthouse while onboard a ship. During the battle, the lighthouse occasionally fired missiles that we deflected by shooting at them, turning the missiles back at the lighthouse and eventually destroying it.

Fear the Rhinozilla.

A second level featured a Japanese theme, as Dexter and Matt fought off a seemingly unending horde of ninjas and samurais, culminating in a three-tiered fight against a huge monster known as the Rhinozilla. From the name alone, we're guessing you can imagine what this boss looks like. With huge dollops of blood being splashed onscreen at regular intervals and a good deal of the fictional retro humor that permeated the original Matt Hazzard game, Blood Bath and Beyond looks like a fun (and more focused) video game lark than its predecessor. Look for the game on Xbox Live Arcade and the PlayStation Network in early 2010.

The last time we saw Dante's Inferno for the PSP, it was tucked away in a corner at EA's Tokyo Game Show press event alongside the higher profile Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions of the game. To bolster the handheld's version profile, EA recently dropped by our offices to show off just the PSP version and give us our first peek at the Heresy level of Hell.

Dante gets his leap on.

What's New: In the epic poem upon which Dante's Inferno is based, Heresy is depicted as the sixth circle of Hell, alongside such sins as treachery and violence. In the game, being helmed by EA's Visceral Games studio and developed by AM2 (the folks behind Wet), the Heresy level is the first level you encounter upon entering the City of Dis. In it, heretics burn in a never-ending fire for doubting the existence of life after death. More so than combat-heavy levels we've previously seen, the Heresy level mixes puzzle-solving and a good deal of platforming. As you make your way through the level, you'll see a gigantic statue of the Old Testament's Abraham, and your goal in the level is to free him from captivity in Hell by solving the level's puzzles.

What's Different: The absolve and punish mechanic, which was previously only available to use on certain non-player characters in the game, looks to be nearly complete. You can now grab an enemy (by pressing the right trigger) and choose to absolve or punish him or her. Punishing a foe is as simple as one press of a button; while absolving requires you to mash buttons and takes longer to complete. The thinking here is that's it's tougher to be holy in the game. Whether you choose punish or absolve, enemies (and NPCs) will determine which powers Dante will have at his disposal as he progresses.

We also got a look at a new enemy--a dark priest of sorts--who could quickly teleport, making him difficult to attack. The priest is also immune to Dante's cross attacks and makes any minion around him similarly immune as long as he's alive. As a result, the priest enemies make for a challenge; one that needs to be dealt with as quickly as possible before things get out of hand.

It's also worth pointing out that, unlike previous levels in Dante's Inferno, the Heresy level doesn't end with a big boss fight. Instead, the level we played finished with an action sequence that had Dante skipping across a chasm of crumbling rocks as he tried to avoid falling into a pit of lava. While there's no boss battle in Heresy, producers said that the following level, Violence, will feature a final encounter. Judging by the level's theme, here's hoping it's a doozy.

What's the Same: The camera in the game hasn't changed much and can still be the occasional problem. During the latter part of the stage, we were required to jump between several moving platforms, trying to make our way closer to the statue of Abraham. It wasn't always easy to tell exactly how close (or far away from) we were to the different platforms, making some of the jumps difficult. In addition, some of the clues you need to finish certain puzzles are a bit obscured, making for a good deal of running around willy-nilly looking for an "interact" icon to pop up on screen.

What Impression the Game Made This Time: Dante's Inferno is at its best when it's reveling in the gruesome landscape of its levels. We've seen a lot of the same enemies in the game, and so far, we aren't in love with the combat system and only a few of the puzzles have been interesting. That said, we've been delighted with the twisted architecture of each new level of Hell, which seems to further cement Visceral Games' status as the go-to developer when it comes to creating a horrific atmosphere.

Didn't I already kill you?

Look for more on Dante's Inferno in the coming months, leading up to the game's release in February 2010.

The folks at Harmonix are nothing if not busy. Sometime next month, the developer of the Rock Band franchise will surpass the 1,000 song mark (including both disc content and DLC) for its music game franchise. This week we got to see two sets of upcoming DLC, both of which will be available on Tuesday.

First up, we had a chance to try out the new DLC for The Beatles: Rock Band, the full version of the group's 1969 album Abbey Road. Five of Abbey Road's songs were included in the disc version of The Beatles: Rock Band but fans will still have some real gems to experience as part of the DLC, including the clanging groove of "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" and the epic 16-medley that serves as Abbey Road's climax. Here's the full track listing as the songs appear in the game:

• Come Together
• Something
• Maxwell's Silver Hammer
• Oh! Darling
• Octopus's Garden
• I Want You (She's So Heavy)
• Here Comes the Sun
• Because
• You Never Give Me Your Money
• Sun King/Mean Mr. Mustard
• Polythene Pam/She Came In Through the Bathroom Window
• Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight/The End
• Her Majesty

As you can see, several of the songs that make up the medley have been strung together to make slightly longer game experiences. If you're playing the 360 or PS3 version of The Beatles: Rock Band, you'll be able to either play these combined tunes individually (for example "Sun King/Mean Mr. Mustard") or as part of a setlist; you'll also have the choice to play the Abbey Road medley in its entirety, eliminating the loading times that typically come between songs on a Rock Band setlist.

Unfortunately, the option to play the Abbey Road medley uninterrupted will not be available on the Wii version of this DLC. Incidentally, Harmonix reps told us that playing the Abbey Road medley in its entirety is a relatively simple way of getting the "One Million Points" achievement in the game. In addition, for a song like "Because" that features no drum track, you'll be able to play through the song even if you're signed into the game as a drummer--something you couldn't previously do.

There aren't any new dreamscape visuals created for the DLC of Abbey Road; instead, the game will be pulling from the art assets that are already on the disc featuring the band recording their songs in the Abbey Road studios. In all the highlight of the Abbey Road DLC will surely be playing the medley straight through--after all, who isn't going to enjoy belting "Carry That Weight" at the top of their lungs?

Next up is the Queen track pack, which features ten of the English rock band's finest songs. Here's the tunes that will be available in Queen pack:

• Another One Bites the Dust
• Crazy Little Thing Called Love
• Fat Bottomed Girls
• I Want It All
• I Want to Be Free
• Killer Queen
• One Vision
• Somebody to Love
• Tie Your Mother Down
• Under Pressure

If you're familiar with Freddie Mercury and Crew, you know that Queen songs are often vocal showcases and it will take your best chops to emulate Mercury's signature style and range. We tried out the anthemic "I Want It All" (which you might recognize from its use in a bank commercial these days) and the classic "Killer Queen" which originally appeared, as a cover, in the first Guitar Hero game. Brian May's delicate and melodic guitar part in the latter is still a highlight for us and we're happy to report it's still a blast to play in Rock Band 2.

Abbey Road DLC will be available on Tuesday, October 20 and run you $16.99 or 1360 MS points. The Queen track pack (1280 MS points, $15.99) will be released on Xbox 360 and Wii on October 20, and on PSN on October 22.

Are you dying to know who's going to join Naruto and his buddies in Tomy's upcoming fighting game? Here are the latest characters that have been confirmed on the growing roster.

Itachi

Sasuke's older brother Itachi likes to use clones, as well as his genjutsu, to throw off the enemy. The aerial crow-kunai is one of his special attacks, which allows him to teleport to the ground after releasing the dangerous projectiles. He can also quickly teleport to the backside of an opponent to gain a distinct advantage. Itachi's other specialties include creating an exploding clone as a counter move, and in this game, he's gained a new aerial fire ball jutsu move that can be executed by hitting the jutsu button in midair.

Kisame

The former member of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist, Kisame is a lethal adversary in close-quarters combat. His sharkskin sword attack drains chakra, and he can also summon a clone to take down an opponent with water prison jutsu for some extra free hits. The key to playing as Kisame is to stay within close range while attacking with your sword so that you can break an enemy's guard and suck its chakra. If enemies understand this and hover too far away, he has a water shark bomb jutsu that will close the gap.

Hiruko

Once a great shinobi of Sunagakure, Hiruko is now a slow character but he has a dangerous reach with his long tail. While he may skulk and lumber around the field, his tail is quick and lethal, as well as poised to do a ton of damage. He can poison his opponents and confuse them by inverting their controls, and one of his special abilities is a latent ninja ability that involves time-sensitive poison. It's a secondary jutsu that allows him to poison enemies who then have to defeat him before a timer runs out or they will die. Playing keep-away and run-the-timer-down is another way to win if you feel like you can't win the old-fashioned way.

Sasori

Sasori of the Red Sand has a lot of variety in his move set. He can do heavy close-range damage with his mechanical wings or take out opponents from afar with the cord that comes out of his body. If that doesn't work, he also has a stream of fire he can unleash. Sasori has hyperarmor, which protects him from knockback effects as he's walking forward. Damage can still be dealt, but he won't be stunned. His secondary jutsu allows him the ability to poison opponents and break down their guard. In partnered matches, Hiruko and Sasori can team up as one character if Hiruko dies first.

Deidara

The youngest member of the Akatsuki, Deidara likes to utilize his explosive clay creations and keep his distance in a fight. He can set explosive spiders and birds, which is important in distracting his opponents. In latent ninja mode, he can drop three times as many explosives, and the spiders will actually track down enemies. His secondary jutsu allows him to use a giant bomb to take out almost everything onscreen, which will come in handy during four-player free-for-all matches. In the latest game, Deidara has a new custom throw in which he attaches an explosive spider to an opponent's face. And watch out for his counter jutsu--it deals a ton of damage.

Naruto Shippuden: Clash of Ninja Revolution 3 is set to be released on November 17.

Unless you're watching the Cartoon Network on Friday nights, Ben 10 Alien Force: Vilgax Attacks and The Secret Saturdays: Beasts of the 5th Sun are probably not going to mean much to you. But chances are that you've at least heard of Astro Boy, given that the movie is set to hit theatres next month. D3 Publisher came by our office to show us the video game version of the three properties, and even though there's a stigma surrounding games based on TV shows and movies, the games we saw had some engaging gameplay elements that held our attention.

Astro Boy: The Video Game

The last time we saw Astro Boy was at the 2009 San Diego Comic Con where we met up with producer Cameron Rains to check out the game. This time, we were shown a never-seen-before Arena mode, in which Astro Boy takes on waves upon waves of enemies with a friend in air- or ground-based combat. The gameplay hasn't changed much since we last saw it, but we did play on the hard mode and then ended up bumping it to hero difficulty, which made things a bit more challenging. Luckily, the person demoing the game stayed alive for the most part, so as long as one player is still at it, the other person can die as many times as he or she wants without having to worry about starting over.

We also had a chance to check out the final boss battle against Peacekeeper (not a spoiler because everyone knows that it's Astro's arch nemesis). Playing cooperatively makes a huge difference because Astro Boy is a frantic and fast-paced shooter. We won't reveal too much about the final fight, but if you have quick reflexes and want to play as Astro Boy, then be sure to keep an eye out on the game when it is released October 20.

Ben 10 Alien Force: Vilgax Attacks

Young Ben Tennyson is on another adventure and armed with his omnitrix to explore the galaxy via the Xbox 360. This is the first time that Ben will be able to transform into 10 different aliens, using their unique superpowers to get through the levels. The world is in 3D now, with a fully rotatable camera and numerous platforming sections. We fought these ghostlike aliens, which we had to lure to a nearby lantern before being able to hit them. The controls felt good, and you can easily come up with combo attacks as long as you keep pressing the X and Y buttons for light and heavy attacks.

The ability to swap into any alien form at any given time is also new, and it doesn't drain your energy gauge either. You can swap to swampfire and use its fire-breathing skills and then switch back to spidermonkey to quickly maneuver through hazardous areas. The game should last anywhere between seven and nine hours, and fans of the show will appreciate the fact that all the voice actors are involved with the game and the original story is penned by one of the show's writers. Ben 10 Alien Force: Vilgax Attacks will be released October 27.

The Secret Saturdays: Beasts of the 5th Sun

The Secret Saturdays is a Cartoon Network show about a family of scientific explorers who fight to protect and hide cryptids, which are exotic creatures that evil people want to exploit. The game is a 2.5D action platformer, in which you play as Zak, an 11-year-old kid armed with a big stick that also functions as a grappling hook. Zak has the power to control the minds of cryptids and scan them for information. We spent most of our time platforming, but in combat, we were able to tag team with other members of the family to fend off enemies. If you're a perfectionist, you can collect fireflies as you make your way through the levels, which will unlock goodies.

The controls are easy to pick up, and it's fun to hop into the body of your family pet Fiskerton because Fiskerton can scale walls and get to hard-to-reach places. There are more than 50 cryptids to encounter, as well as racing and target-practice minigames to change up the gameplay. The Secret Saturdays: Beasts of the 5th Sun is probably not going to interest you unless you enjoy the cartoon series, but at least the game is shaping up to be a solid platforming/action experience. Look for the game on the Wii, DS, PlayStation 2, and PSP when it is released October 20.

Order of War is a PC real-time strategy game published by, of all people, Square Enix, and developed by Russia-based Wargaming.net. The game was originally released in Russia as Operation Bagration, but has been retrofitted with an all-new American campaign, new cinematic cutscenes, and full English voice acting. We recently had a chance to play a few quick multiplayer sessions in head-to-head competition (the game will offer both one-on-one team competition modes).

Tough guys go into battle as infantry, but real men drive tanks.

In multiplayer, you can play as one of three factions, the US, the Germans, or the Russians, each of whom has between 25-30 units apiece. While the factions are roughly symmetrical, they differ somewhat in their unit mix and strengths according to approximate strengths that Wargaming.net has built into each faction, such as the tank superiority of the Germans.

Multiplayer is more or less a completely tactical exercise in deploying the right troops at the right time and right spots. There aren't any in-game bases to build or resources to harvest--just a requisition meter that gradually fills up over time, which can then be spent on purchasing units, though your meter will fill up faster if you're nimble enough to capture the various control points on the map. You can even capture your oppponent's home base, which acts like a control point, and if you do so, you cut him off from gaining any more points until he either recaptures his home base, or captures yours. The game will launch with six multiplayer maps, and two of these maps will appear in the upcoming multiplayer demo.

Though you start off a new match with a squadron of light infantry (who are perhaps better utilized when garrisoned in buildings once the heavy armor starts rolling out) and a medium tank squad, though you can commission different types of tanks, transports, infantry, and stationary artillery, as well as calling in one-off assistance attacks offscreen, such as artillery strikes and airstrikes.

Order of War, and its multiplayer demo, are incoming later this month.

Matches seem fairly fast-paced and, in some of the smaller maps, you may even face a decision to go after control points or try to rush your enemy, since you start new matches with a small chunk of requisition points in the pot. Different maps will have different layouts (one map will have several narrow chokepoints, which makes swarming your opponent with massive clusters of tanks unfeasible), but the general path to victory seems to be doing more than one thing at once; locking down as many control points as possible while either defending yourself from your opponents' rush or staging a rush of your own.

Order of War ships later this month, and the multiplayer demo will be available soon.

Originally released on the PlayStation 2, Nintendo Wii, and the PC last year, Obscure: The Aftermath will now be available on the PlayStation Portable so that you can take this college drama/survival horror game on the go. It might not be the easiest game to get into while commuting or waiting in line, but if you want increase your chances of having dreams about monsters and poisonous plants, then it's probably best to play this in bed after you've turned off the lights. It was difficult for us to get into the game with the fluorescent lights in our office, but from what we've played, it's very similar to what we saw on the consoles last year.

The Aftermath takes place a couple of years after the events of the first Obscure game, and the survivors have graduated from high school and moved on to Fallcreek University. The distinct, cheesy teen-slasher vibe is written all over as the group tries to fend off mutants that like to rip apart fellow students. You're not alone on this adventure, however, because a friend can always accompany you via ad hoc as you try to unravel the mysteries surrounding a strange flower.

All of the individuals you played as on the consoles return in this version, and each has his or her own unique ability to solve environmental puzzles. If you need brute strength or a brilliant mind to hack into a system, you can swap characters with the triangle button to get the job done. It's unfortunate that the camera still doesn't work very well and makes it hard to see what ahead of you when you're exploring narrow hallways or peeking around the corner. After picking up various pieces of sports equipment, you can attack by holding the R button and swing using the X.

One of the highlights of the game is Olivier Deriviere's soundtrack, which sets the mood and reminds you of what kind of game you're playing. It can be easy to forget when the dialogue is limited to sexual innuendo and cringeworthy one-liners, but that's also part of the game's charm if you can laugh it off. It doesn't look like the gameplay has been adjusted though, because the AI still isn't very bright, which makes The Aftermath ideal to play with a friend. It's not that often you get a chance to play a survival horror game with a buddy anyway. For more information, check out our Wii review of the game here .

We just had a chance to look at the PC version of Batman: Arkham Asylum, the recently released console game starring the caped crusader himself. While the console version of the game has a lot to offer, it seems like the PC version will have even more, especially if you're running Nvidia hardware. Be advised that this story may contain spoilers.

Get ready for explosive special effects in the PC version of Batman: Arkham Asylum.

The demonstration we watched took place on a machine with video cards set up in SLI. While users with lower-end setups will be able to enjoy some of the higher-end graphical effects, Nvidia suggests that the best way to enjoy all the graphical bells and whistles, particularly the game's implementation of PhysX, is to have an SLI setup with one card rendering graphics and the other set to handle the in-game physics. To have the best experience, the hardware manufacturer also recommends you use its handy-dandy 3D vision goggles, which have additional depth-of-field and out-of-screen effects similar to other games that support it, like Resident Evil 5.

We sat through a demonstration of some of the earlier levels in the game, which showed the way that the PhysX rendering will enhance all particle effects, while 3D vision will make them pop out of the screen. Batman looks good beating the stuffing out of thugs, but when the time comes to pry a grille out of a wall, the bolts will pop out of the screen, and the cobwebs in the air vent will sway procedurally to and fro. Batman uses his grapnel to vault up onto gargoyles in the shadows, and bits of stone and rubble go bouncing out of the walls each time the hook hits home.

Batman, his enhanced volumetric fog, and all his PC-exclusive special effects will ship out on September 15.

The physics rendering provides a lot of subtle visual effects, but there are also parts of the game where they're used to great effect. At one point, Batman rescues a team of Arkham therapists who have been gassed by the Scarecrow, who appears in the game as a gaunt figure with glowing eyes and syringes for fingers. It soon becomes clear that Batman has also been gassed as he begins to hallucinate about a dead Commissioner Gordon, the corpses of his parents returning to cuss him out, and an eventual attack by a giant-sized Scarecrow. This last encounter takes place in a hallucination-enhanced version of the asylum's morgue, where the walls and ceiling and floor have been all but torn away, and the room floats in midair. As regular-sized Batman, you need to sneak around the shattered room without attracting your enemy's attention to get to a bat-signal flood light and shine it on him to banish him, constantly staying on the move by hopping across floating floor fragments to avoid his gaze. In the meantime, surgical instruments and dozens of wall tiles swirl dramatically in the air as the gigantic Scarecrow peers over the fragments of the wall trying to hunt you down. The effect of the floating debris is pretty spectacular, and it's a shame it'll be exclusive to the PC version, which is scheduled for release on September 15.