While it isn't exactly game specific, adhocParty is perhaps the most noteworthy addition to Sony's PlayStation Network this week. The service allows PSP gamers with a PlayStation 3 to play some Ad Hoc mode games online through the console's Internet connection. Games thus far announced to use the feature are Capcom's Monster Hunter Freedom Unite and Polyphony Digital's Gran Turismo PSP.

Downloadable games, of course, are represented this week, as well. PopCap's ubiquitous puzzler Peggle makes its way to the PlayStation Store for $9.99. The game includes 55 levels and 75 challenges, as well as a variety of multiplayer modes. Gamers looking for even more Peggle can also pick up the Nights expansion for $4.99. Peggle Nights offers 60 additional levels and challenges set in ethereal environments.

If there's anything that can get Modern Warfare 2 out of gamers' PS3s, it's Peggle.

Two new PSOne classics are now available through the PSN Store. Originally released to glowing praise in 1998, Resident Evil 2 sees Leon Kennedy and Claire Redfield picking their way through the zombie-infested Raccoon City and can be purchased for $5.99. Another classic from days gone by, Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver from current Tomb Raider developer Crystal Dynamics is available for $5.99.

With Assassin's Creed II skulking onto the Xbox 360 and PS3 this week, the PSP-exclusive Assassin's Creed: Bloodlines worked its way to both retail and Sony's online storefront. Bloodlines picks back up with Altair shortly after the conclusion of the original Assassin's Creed and is available for $39.99. New PSP Minis additions this week are D-Cube Planet and Circles for $3.99 and Echoes for $2.99.

For a full list of new demos, add-ons, and wallpaper themes included in the weekly update, check out Sony's official PlayStation blog.

With the Wii's momentum rapidly evaporating, Nintendo is looking at new ways to market its console to the so-called "Blue Ocean" of non-gamers. According to the Wall Street Journal, tomorrow the Japanese game giant will announce a partnership with the Sports Authority chain of athletic retailers. Starting next spring, the 450-store chain will begin offering Wii consoles along with Nintendo's Wii Fit Plus alongside the weights, treadmills, and other real-world workout equipment it usually offers.

Future home of a Wii fitness-game section.

The Sports Authority reportedly took six months to negotiate the deal with Nintendo, but company president David Campisi told the Journal the effort was worth it. Said the executive, "It's taken us a long time to get to the finish line, but what we came up with was the idea to not just launch a product, because it's not a new product, but to view the Wii Fit Plus as an opportunity to shift the paradigm and shake up the treadmill and sporting-goods business."

Despite the deal with Nintendo, the Sports Authority won't offer first-party games exclusively. Other titles it will stock include Jillian Michaels' Fitness Ultimatum 2010, with the titular trainer and Biggest Loser host being on hand tomorrow to cohost the announcement event in Los Angeles. Select Sports Authorities will also reportedly have their own Wii Fit trainers on hand to show potential purchasers how to play the game.

Call of Duty: World at War has already proven that it has legs well beyond its initial launch. With more than 11 million units sold since the well-regarded World War II shooter launched in November 2008, Activision said in July that the game's first two map packs had combined to sell some 4 million units. That figure, of course, doesn't even include Map Pack 3, which hit the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3's online services in August.

Zombie sympathizers are few and far between.

With Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and its record-setting launch still a headline fixture, Activision today announced one more World at War extension, this time for Apple's iPhone and iPod Touch. The publisher said today that Call of Duty: World at War: Zombies can be downloaded through Apple's iTunes for $9.99.

As its title suggests, the touch-screen-enabled shooter continues the zombie theme established in the first three World at War map packs. Call of Duty: World at War: Zombies accommodates solo play as well as co-op for up to four via Wi-Fi connection as gamers are charged with fending off waves of the undead hordes.

Last month marked a milestone for the Beatles, as the band allowed its music to be digitally distributed for the first time with the Abbey Road downloadable content for The Beatles: Rock Band. It turns out the wait for the band's second wave of digital distribution will be much shorter.

Sgt. Pepper's military record is the subject of much debate.

Harmonix and MTV Games today announced that the eight tracks from Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band that weren't included on the game disc will be downloadable on the Xbox 360 and Wii starting November 17, with PlayStation 3 players able to get the songs on November 19.

Among the soon-to-be-released tracks are hits like "A Day in the Life" and "When I'm Sixty-Four." Unlike the Abbey Road downloadable content, all eight of the new songs will be available for download a la carte for $1.99 (MSP 160). PS3 and 360 players can also purchase them together as part of a bundle for $13.49 (MSP 1,080).

The full track listing for Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band follows below. Tracks included on The Beatles: Rock Band disc are marked with a *.

1. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band*
2. With A Little Help From My Friends*
3. Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds*
4. Getting Better*
5. Fixing A Hole
6. She's Leaving Home
7. Being For The Benefit Of Mr Kite
8. Within You Without You
9. When I'm Sixty Four
10. Lovely Rita
11. Good Morning Good Morning*
12. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)
13. A Day In The Life

By and large, BioWare has the market cornered on interspecies copulation, thanks to recent highly acclaimed role-playing efforts as Mass Effect and Dragon Age. Now, Ubisoft seems to be making a bid for the historical kink market, if the Entertainment Software Rating Board summary of Assassin's Creed II is any indication.

According to the rating summary, Assassin's Creed contains "strong sexual overtones," ranging from a kissing minigame to "adultery, sodomy, prostitution, and rape." The ESRB notes that most of the more taboo topics typically arise as part of character biographies of various figures that the protagonist Ezio meets throughout the course of the game. The ESRB calls out various instances in which characters swear in both English and Italian, as well as graphically detail sexual acts.

"I can assure you, sir, that there is currently no adultery, sodomy, prostitution, and rape occurring at this present moment in time…and definitely not six minutes ago, either."

Players also apparently keep company in a brothel, as well as use prostitutes as part of a blending-in mechanic. The ratings organization notes that no actual nudity or sexual acts are depicted, though various dialogue lines contain such gems as "So the whip or the paddle today?" and "Does your wife know about your page-boy fantasies, Captain?"

Assassin's Creed II will be available for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on November 17, with a PC edition due next year. Lest it not be said, Assassin's Creed II is rated M for Mature.

Digital distribution has opened up an entirely new market in interactive entertainment, so of course Rich Uncle Pennybags wants to move in and squash the competition. Last year's retail Xbox 360 version of Monopoly is the only new addition to the system's Games on Demand downloadable catalog ($29.99), but the classic board game will find plenty of competition from a trio of new Xbox Live Arcade titles.

First up on the Live Arcade front of Wednesday releases is Tecmo's arcade-style NBA Unrivaled. The publisher describes the game as having a "contemporary retro" design and an "old-school look and feel," which is more than a bit reminiscent of NBA Jam. The game features a full NBA license with rosters from the just-started NBA season, online or offline multiplayer, and will sell for 1,200 Microsoft points ($15).

Tecmo returns to the hardcourt with NBA Unrivaled.

Although Tecmo hasn't hit the hardcourt in some time, Unrivaled isn't the publisher's first basketball game. Tecmo used to have a sister series to its Tecmo Bowl franchise in Tecmo NBA Basketball, which debuted on the NES and produced sequels on the Genesis and Super Nintendo. Unrivaled developer A.C.R.O.N.Y.M. also has some basketball chops, having developed NBA 08: The Life vol. 3 for the PlayStation 2.

Rounding out the Xbox Live lineup for the week will be a pair of puzzlers, each selling for MSP800 ($10). ArcSystem Works' OD Beat Drop introduces rhythm elements into the puzzle game genre, allowing players to incorporate their own songs into its 100 stages and competitive or cooperative multiplayer modes. Encleverment Experiment, from Droplitz developer Blitz Arcade, puts a wacky spin on the quiz-show format, offering a variety of timed challenges testing players' memory, reflexes, and dexterity. The game will also incorporate Xbox Live avatars in the onscreen action.

The game industry is keyed into Activision Blizzard this week, as the publisher gears up to launch Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. Already the most preordered game in both Activision's and GameStop's history, the publisher has with no uncertain swagger said that it wouldn't be at all surprised if the military shooter achieves the highest-grossing launch of any entertainment product in history.

With the mountain of money the game is on track to generate, Activision announced today that a portion of the proceeds from Modern Warfare 2's launch will go to an altruistic end. The Washington Post reports that the publisher has established the Call of Duty Endowment, a $1 million grant to establish a foundation for helping military veterans find work.

Activision is lending a helping hand to veterans.

As noted by the Post, a 2008 Department of Veterans Affairs employment survey found that 18 percent of military veterans who left the armed services in the past one to three years are currently out of work. A Bureau of Labor Statistics study found that 11.6 percent of people who departed the military since 2001 are unemployed.

"The joblessness rate that [veterans] should have should be far less than the national average, not more," said Activision CEO Bobby Kotick. "How do you expect people to actually join the military if when they leave the military they can't integrate back into the free market they're supposed to be protecting? These are super-capable people. To the extent that you can put them on track to develop more skills, the development potential that we've identified is extraordinary."

Activision said that its first donation will be to the tune of $125,000, to be delivered to the Paralyzed Veterans of America foundation to help establish a vocational rehabilitation center.

With Activision proclaiming next week's launch of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 to be the biggest debut in entertainment history, tech blog VentureBeat has provided a look at the efforts to address prerelease piracy of the highly anticipated game and how it landed one young hacker in jail.

According to the blog, the story began last week, when an ad for Modern Warfare 2 Xbox 360 bundles surfaced on Craigslist. When Activision spotted the ad, it contacted Dallas-based private investigation firm IPCybercrime.com, which arranged to purchase two such bundles from the seller. IPCybercrime also spotted a separate ad for the bundle with the seller claiming to be a stock boy for a major game retailer, identified the two sellers as friends based on an online social network, and turned their information over to Activision.

Modern Warfare 2 is just the latest in a long line of games to be leaked and pirated before launch.

When confronted by Activision, the two sellers admitted they had swiped a crate of the Modern Warfare 2 systems, and their case was then turned over to the retailer's loss prevention staff. The story might have ended there, if not for one of the seller's other customers.

IPCybercrime found a post by a user on an Xbox piracy forum asking people to donate money so he could buy one of the Craigslisted bundles, rip the game, and distribute it online. Investigators cross-referenced the user's e-mail address with a Facebook account, which had his cell phone number listed, and determined his identity to be 18-year-old Christian Del Amo. They turned the information over to the Miami-Dade police department, who arranged to purchase a pirated copy of the game and bust the hacker in the process.

Christian Del Amo.

Police obtained the game from a "runner," who led them back to Del Amo. The 18-year old was arrested yesterday and is currently incarcerated in Miami's Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center. IPCybercrime told VentureBeat that Del Amo was set up to sell thousands of illegal copies of Modern Warfare 2.

According to VentureBeat, Del Amo had a history of piracy, selling modded 250GB Xbox 360 hard drives preloaded with 125 hacked games through auction site iOffer.com. At retail, the games could cost thousands of dollars, but Del Amo sold the hard drives for $150.

While an arrest was made in the case, it didn't come quick enough to prevent piracy of the game. Illegal copies of Modern Warfare 2 have been appearing on peer-to-peer file-sharing services since earlier this week, potentially costing publisher Activision thousands of lost sales.

The PSP Go may not have a UMD drive, but gamers certainly haven't been left wanting for selection. In the weeks following the device's October 1 launch, Sony has stocked the PlayStation Network's PlayStation Store with downloadable versions of the PSP's library, and that continued this week with 11 more games added to the collection.

There are so many, but can we take them all??

This week's PSP offerings are split evenly between the Everyone 10 and Older crowd and the T for Teen audience. Square Enix's highly regarded Dissidia Final Fantasy leads the offerings for slightly older audiences and carries a $39.99 price tag. Crimson Room: Reverse ($7.99), Class of Heroes ($39.99), Star Wars Battlefront: Elite Squadron PSP ($29.99), and Star Wars Clone Wars: Republic Heroes ($29.99) have also been added to the PSN.

Younger gamers can pick up downloadable versions of Ben 10 Alien Force ($19.99), Ben 10: Protector of Earth ($14.99), Ghostbusters The Video Game PSP ($29.99), Dungeon Maker: Hunting Ground ($14.99), Creature Defense ($7.99), and Numblast PSP ($4.99).

The PlayStation 3 isn't without its own downloadable fare this week. Military Madness: Nectaris is a turn-based military strategy game that features online competitive and cooperative modes. It is available for $9.99. Also a new PSP addition, Numblast is a number-heavy puzzle game that runs for $4.99. PSP and PS3 gamers can also pick up Crystal Dynamics' PSOne Classic Gex for $5.99.

A full list of the week's new PlayStation Store content, including themes, wallpapers, demos, and add-on content, is available on the official PlayStation Blog.