*I spent the past weekend playing several hours of “Too Human,” but that’s public knowledge already.

*I spent about 10 hours playing lots of “Metal Gear Solid 4,” a game of startlingly distinct chapters. Could the people who made Act 3 really be the same people who made Act 4 (which I now think of as the fan-service act)? I just fought a major battle in Act 5 and assume I’m near the end. Looking forward to seeing how this wraps up.

*I spent some time trying “Guitar Hero: On Tour” while doing laundry on Sunday. I appreciate what the developers have accomplished, but I just don’t feel like the kind of physicality required to strum the DS and feel in rhythm with the music is what I want out of a handheld game. Maybe it’ll grow on me?

*I tried a little bit of “Soul Bubbles,” a mellow DS game that reminded me of the never-released-in-the-U.S. “Kururin” games. Instead of guiding an electrified stick through a maze, “Soul Bubbles” asks the player to use the stylus to “blow” a bubble through a maze, breaking the bubble and mending it to fit through narrow passages and past enemies. (Thank goodness there haven’t been a lot of Huff n Puff controls so far). So far, so good with that one. Though the fourth “Harry Potter” is going to be taking over my subway rides I think. Time to read!

Next: If I’m lucky, Snake’s mission ends tonight. But first I need to go for a run.

It’s been more than six months since “Mass Effect” was released on Xbox 360 and BioWare was picked up by Electronic Arts. We haven’t heard much from the studio since, outside of talking up the recently released PC version of “Mass Effect.”

Their PC epic “Dragon Age” looms on the horizon and rumors continue to swirl about their long-anticipated entry into the world of MMOs. But announcements on those and the inevitable sequel to “Mass Effect” aren’t yet here.

But we managed to corner BioWare co-CEOs Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk this morning for a conversation on a number of topics. First up? Where the future of BioWare’s gaming development lies. PC gaming isn’t dead for these guys. What about the iPhone? More DS? Read on to for their thoughts…

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With the announcement of “Rock Band 2″ earlier this morning, the Rhythm Game Track Finder saw a huge update. Even though no songs were announced for the game, 157 songs were added to the “RB2″ entry in the Track Finder, all downloadable content for “Rock Band.” These included the four tracks that were added to “Rock Band.”

In addition to the “Rock Band” updates, a new game was added, “Rock Revolution” from Konami. The game will be released later this year with 40 tracks, this week we added 14 of them to the track finder.

The full list of updates is below:
Rock Band (Xbox 360, PS3) 4 Songs Added (Motley Crue’s “Down At The Wiskey,” Trapt’s “Who’s Going Home With You Tonight?,” Papa Roach’s “Time Is Running Out,” and a free track from Vesuvius’ “Promised Land”)
Rock Band 2 (Xbox 360, PS3) 157 Songs Added
Rock Revolution (Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, DS) 14 Songs Added

As always, go to trackfinder.mtv.com, for all this and more — it’s the definitive search engine for all your music gaming needs.

After a box office topping weekend today’s ‘120 Seconds‘ is the  video game version of “Wall-E.” In the first two playable minutes of the Xbox 360 game, Pixar’s newest star motors his way around the world, following a cockroach, and improving his skills with junk he finds along the way. Keep an eye out for a quick cameo from another Pixar star off in the distance.

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MTV Games announced this morning that “Rock Band 2” will be debuting on the Xbox 360 this September. The Associated Press added that the game will be hitting PS2, PS3 and the Wii by the end of the year. The big news, so far, is that the sequel will work more with its predecessor than many gamers may have expected.

From my MTV News story:

According to a press release from MTV Games, “Rock Band 2″ will initially be released exclusively on the Xbox 360 this September and will be fully compatible with the original instruments, as well as the more than 100 songs that were available to download for the first “Rock Band.” Like the first, the game will be developed by the MTV-owned Harmonix games studio.

This “Rock Band” sequel is a departure from recent music game sequels and spin-offs, including entries in the competing “Guitar Hero” franchise, which do not always sync up to the originals. For example, the new “Guitar Hero: Aerosmith” coming out this week does not work with downloadable content marked for “Guitar Hero III,” according to a report on gaming blog Joystiq.

“Rock Band 2″ comes from MTV Games, of course. But, no, that doesn’t mean that we already have a copy here at the MTV Multiplayer blog. The rest of my piece is at MTVNews.com.

Here’s the second part of what will be a four-part series GameTrailers Bonus Round E3 special, featuring me, Kotaku’s Brian Crecente, Newsweek’s N’Gai Croal and GameTrailers host Geoff Keighley predicting how E3 will shape up. Last week, GT aired our conversation about the Xbox 360. Next week, we talk Nintendo.

This was recorded a couple of weeks ago in Santa Monica.

While I was in Paris for the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational, I stopped by Gameloft’s headquarters to see what they were up to.

It turned out that the mobile game makers are quite busy. I can’t talk about what they’re working on until sometime in the near future, but I did get a nice tour of the office.

Check out photos of where the 100+ employees toil hard to put out games (as well as the countless phones, cables and chargers they have to deal with).

And to Gameloft: Merci de votre hospitalité!

[UPDATE 7/2: I posted some co-op impressions at this follow-up post. Best to read the post below first!]

In previewing “Too Human,” the ambitious Xbox 360 game slated for August 19 release, I can’t help but think of the other game I spent a good chunk of my weekend playing: “Metal Gear Solid 4.”

Is that unfair? Not totally. “Too Human” is made by Silicon Knights, the studio that last did… a re-make of the first “Metal Gear Solid.” Silicon Knights’ new game, like “MGS4″ has been made to tell a significant story. I found “Too Human” to be superior to “MGS4″ in at least one key way. But aside from all that, I just find it impossible to repress comparisons. We don’t play games in a vacuum. The achievements in one affect our appreciation of the successes or failures in another.

“Too Human” nestles in between “MGS4″’s extreme tendencies, for good and bad.

Read more…

Happy Monday. We hope you enjoy today’s link selections:

Jason’s Pick - 25 Rarest Nintendo Games: CVG put together the perfect list for the fanboy with money to burn.

Tracey’s Pick - The official “Diablo III” Website: Stay a while and listen…

Stephen’s Pick
Stephen’s Links To The Stories He Did At Kotaku Friday
Gamers Gush Over (Mostly) Make Believe Games
My Game Collection Is This Small
PC Gaming Barely Attending E3
Was There A Better Way To Pitch A Lego: Transformers Game?
DS Threatens To Make Textbooks Obsolete At Tokyo Girls School
Playing Fallout 2 While Stupid
Goodbye, Flintstones!

* R.T.F.A. stands for “Read The Full Article.”

Couldn’t make it out to Paris for Blizzard’s big event?

You can live vicariously through my collection of photos from the two-day Worldwide Invitational which featured some interesting cosplay (of course), Video Games Live performing, and Blizzard bigwigs turned rockstars (Level 70 Elite Tauren Chieftain!).

And yes, I even fulfilled a reader’s request. Click for all the images.

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While I was walking around in Paris on break from the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational, I noticed a lot of advertisements for “Super Smash Bros. Brawl.”

Why? Because it was just released across Europe on Friday. When I walked into a Virgin Megastore earlier today, I saw that they had plenty of copies.

European readers, I’m curious. Did you already get your copy of “Super Smash Bros. Brawl”? Was it torturous waiting this long? Or has the release lost its thunder by coming out in Japan and North America a few months ago?

A few hours after the announcement of “Diablo III” and a quick gameplay demo, lead designer Jay Wilson outlined the design goals for the game in a jam-packed panel at the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational.

He promised that “Diablo III” will stay true to the spirit and gameplay of previous “Diablo” games. Overall, they want to improve “Diablo” by adding more fast-paced action and expanding the RPG experience without sacrificing the ease of play. He said there are new systems, but they’re not talking about them this weekend.

However, Wilson did speak about plenty of other “Diablo III” game design elements, such as:

Read more…