MCP
Rock Band just keeps getting better and better. For this Generation Y fool, anyhow. Along with all the awesome gameplay footage and live demonstrations from E3, now we get word that Nirvana’s Nevermind will arrive in its entirety as downloadable content, just like The Who’s Who’s Next, which was previously confirmed. Having "Smells Like Teen Spirit," "Come As You Are," "Lithium," and "Drain You" makes me happy; pretending to be Kurt Cobain makes me depressed.

One of my favorite games on the 360, Viva Pinata, is going to be heading to the DS! The sugary ecosystem simulator will have its gameplay preserved, so you can maintain your plot of land, fight off Sours, and get that Dragonache. There’s another franchise title in development right now, called Viva Pinata: Party Animals, but don’t get these two mixed up. Party Animals is all about minigames, while the straight Viva Pinata DS title is the real deal, and being developed by Rare. Get excited, damnit.

I like Penny Arcade. I love point-and-click adventures. I’m growing increasingly fond of episodic gaming. And don’t even get me started on ridiculously wordy titles; suffice it to say I liked Fiona Apple’s sophomore album. So, that makes this trailer for Penny Arcade’s On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness one of my favorite memories of today. Those artful editors really know how to get me interested. Touting walls of text as a selling point? I have already been sold.

Tomorrow will bring another pair of titles to Microsoft’s ever-expanding Xbox Live Arcade, with the release of Bungie’s Marathon: Durandal and the casual game pack Spyglass Board Games. While the latter might interest only your bridge club, the former should entice a fair number of FPS fans. Bungie’s Marathon games were well-designed when placed up against competition like Doom, and had a story roughly a thousand times more engaging than that of Halo. The venerable old fart has been done-up in fancy redrawn graphics (preserving the look of the original.) So, hurry home and tell the people that the Spartans have won.