Harmonix, MTV Games, and Electronic Arts announced Rock Band 2 today. Set for release in September on the Xbox 360 with the PS3 version "to follow", one of the most exciting features appears to be full compatibility with all the content you downloaded for Rock Band 1. The press release also cites "improved guitar and drum peripherals" while maintaining backwards compatibility with the old instruments.

Rock Band is certainly a big hit at ICHQ and at Icrontic events. Rock Band 2 is sure to be in our future somewhere.

A forum member at The Mega Man Network scanned in some pages from Nintendo Power showing the new Mega Man 9, which is supposedly getting released simultaneously on WiiWare, Xbox Live Arcade, AND the Playstation Network - making this the first triple-release game on DLC networks ever.

The most exciting part of Mega Man 9 appears to be the return to the roots thing. Keiji Inafune, Mega Man's creator, says, "The moment you've been waiting for is here! We're not just giving you Mega Man 9, we're giving you a new NES game."

That should say it all. Those of you who grew up playing NES Mega Man games should be going crazy for this one.

Two decades have passed since the demonic denizens, Diablo, Mephisto, and Baal, wandered the world of Sanctuary in a vicious rampage to shackle humanity into unholy slavery. Yet for those who battled the Prime Evils directly, the memory fades slowly and the wounds of the soul still burn.

Today Blizzard let loose a fury of Diablo III information, in the form of a teaser splash page, Diablo III job opportunities, and an official D3 website for the EU. The EU website hints at a new character class, the Witch Doctor, and there are lots of screenshots and gameplay videos to be found.

Shwaip, it was nice knowing you.

CB sums up, and comments on, the differences between Rockband for Wii and Rockband for Xbox/PS3

>> Continued

Sony sent out a PixelJunk Monsters survey a couple of months back and me, being sappy, sent in my response.

Little did I know they'd pick it as one of their stories.

Sweet-n-sappy aside, PixelJunk Monsters is an awesome game. I recommend it for anybody who wants to try co-op gaming with a "non-gamer".

Today in Playstation.Blog, it was revealed that the 2.40 PS3 firmware update will introduce "Trophies". Nothing more is said about it, but from the name one can reasonably surmise that this will be the answer to all the completists' prayers. Given the choice between an identical game between the 360 and the PS3, many people opt for the 360 version just because of the achievements.

Whether or not achievements can be retroactively added to already existing games remains to be seen.

One other feature being added to firmware 2.40 will be XMB access in-game.

Sony has clearly taken a page from Microsoft's playbook, as these two features bring the PS3 closer to parity with the 360 in terms of usability.

As we grow, we bid a fond farewell to the Rizon IRC network, with our most sincere gratitude... However, we've outgrown Rizon's 5-machine-per-IP-per-server limit, and every time we have events at ICHQ we get k-line bans... Therefore, our good friend Mondi has set us up with our own IRC server. Please update your clients to connect to irc.icrontic.com.

If you haven't ever visited us on #icrontic, you are missing out. So many fun things happen there, and if you feel like you're missing out on some inside jokes or some kind of hidden camaraderie, you probably are. It all happens in #icrontic.

Thanks Rizon! It was a fun run :)

If you take the actual Garfield out of the comic "Garfield".... you end up with something completely bizarre and morbid.... Check it out.

Valve's next "Meet the..." video has been released. You can see it on Steam.

We meet our beleaguered hero as he tries to juggle his professional life with his family problems. Apparently his parents aren't happy with his career choice.

Meet the Sniper - a true professional assassin; polite, discreet, and precise.