"Hang on a minute," I thought as I played Guitar Hero: World Tour at Activision's booth at the Leipzig Games Convention, "Isn't this Rock Band?" The layout on the World Tour screen is almost identical to Harmonix's series, with the guitars on either side, the drums scrolling down the middle (with the same horizontal bars displaying bass notes, except in World Tour they're purple, not orange) and the vocals on top. The star power meter, along with the rock meter, is kept in the top left, which means that if you're playing drums or bass guitar, it's not very easy to see.

It took a little while to get used to the drums. The two-tier structure with the cymbals feels great, but can be slightly confusing at first. The drums are a lot bouncier than the Rock Band ones, making them not only quieter, but more fun to play. With Rock Band, the bounce seems to come more from the way the sticks are held, rather than out of the structural nature of the pads. Not hearing the constant thok, thok is definitely preferable too, as anyone who has bought silencing pads for their Rock Band drums will know. [Editor's note: Rock Band 2 also features quieter, bouncier drums.]

Each week Mark Methenitis contributes Law of the Game on Joystiq, a column on legal issues as they relate to video games:

Despite the relatively small amount of time I've had to play them, I've so far enjoyed Fable II's Pub Games, especially Fortune's Tower (pictured above). The idea of minigames has been around for ages, but Pub Games adds deeper elements than the norm, as well as pre-release hype for Fable II. Of course, this begs the question: Is this a sign of things to come?

I could certainly see other RPGs following suit, pre-releasing a related Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network, or WiiWare game that interacts with the core game, like a Final Fantasy XIII card game stand-alone. If this becomes a trend, then developers will be looking to the next evolution of this idea. I would imagine the next step would be external games that affect MMO environments; and beyond that, perhaps gambling with real currency. Think of the evolution this way: You start with a game like Texas Hold 'Em, where your play only affects that game, then the next logical step is something like Pub Games, which affects you alone in a virtual environment. From there, the evolution would logically move to impacting a multiplayer virtual environment and, ultimately, to affecting a real world environment, specifically your bank account. It's these last two steps that present some legal issues.

This hands-on report is based on the Xbox 360 version of the game, though the developers assure us that the PS3 version will be almost completely identical.

While I may not be the biggest Bond fan, and only watched Casino Royale because the Blu-ray came free with my PS3, Quantum of Solace was probably the most interesting game in Activision's Leipzig lineup. Going in with very few expectations and, to be honest, little interest in the title, I was impressed and intrigued with what I saw. It's easy to dismiss QoS as just another licensed movie game that will inevitably suck, but that's certainly not the case here.

The first section of the game that I played was set in the sewers of Sienna, where I'm chasing someone (the developers weren't allowed to say who). The first thing you notice about the game is that the environments are gorgeous. For the most part these have been lovingly recreated from reference photos taken on the set of the movie, so they'll look identical to the film. As a result they're incredibly detailed and, in parts, colorful.

The controls are both solid and fluid (if that's even possible!), leaving you to worry about what's going on on-screen, and not in your hands. Thanks to various set pieces throughout the level, you feel like you're interacting with the environment, rather than restricted by it. Everything feels a little less static and rigid when you're jumping over railings, falling through rotting wood and clambering over mounds of earth. Even if they are sometimes scripted.

So, you know how this works. Sony releases yet another PS3 SKU and, suddenly, you're tasked with keeping the entire lineup in order. Which one comes with HD compatible cables? (Spoiler alert: none). Which currently shipping model has PS2 backwards compatibility? (Spoiler alert: none). But it's not all bad news. Want to know which models are packing the cooler, quieter 65nm chips? Or which models come with free stuff? It's all in here. If there's anything we've missed or anything we've gotten incorrect, please let us know in the comments. We're quite certain this won't be the last time we update this table.

	160GB	80GB	80GB	40GB	60GB	20GB
Hardware
Model #	CECHP01	CECHK01	CECHE01	CECHG01	CECHA01	CECHB01
Available	Nov 2008	Aug 2008	Aug 2007	Oct 2007	Nov 2006	Nov 2006
Price	$499.99	$399.99	$499.99*	$399.99*	$599.99*	$499.99*
Chrome trim	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
USB 2.0 slots	2	2	4	2	4	4
802.11 b/g	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Flash card reader	No	No	Yes	No	Yes	No
Size (Cell / RSX)	65nm / ?1	65nm / ?1	65nm / 90nm (built 2008) 90nm / 90nm (built 2007)	65nm / 90nm2	90nm / 90nm	90nm / 90nm
Bundled Accessories
Ethernet cable	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes
Video cables	Composite	Composite	Composite	Composite	Composite	Composite
Software	Uncharted, PAIN	None	MotorStorm	Spider-Man (Blu-ray)	None	None
Backwards Compatibility
PS2	No	No	Software3	No	Yes (NTSC), Software3 (PAL)	Yes
PS One	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

Notes:
* This model is discontinued. The price on the chart represents the original retail price.
1. PS3 graphics chip going 65nm this Fall; New 80GB PS3 may be sporting 65nm RSX to match 65nm Cell
2. 40GB PS3s have 65nm Cell chips, 90nm GPUs
3. SCEE: No plans to offer PS2 backwards compatibility later as DLC for 40GB PS3

Each week Jeff Engel and Geoff Brooks contribute Counting Rupees, a column on the business behind gaming:

Braid was released just over two weeks ago to critical raves and a few complaints regarding its slightly higher than "standard" price of $15. Despite Jonathan Blow, the creator of the game, having to defend the price for essentially a full week bracketing its release, Blow has now confirmed via his blog that his Braid will probably make back enough money to allow him to work on his next game. This is certainly great news, as Braid is one of the best games to be released on Xbox Live Arcade, or if you use Metacritic, the 8th best game to be released so far on the Xbox 360. Jonathan Blow certainly deserves the chance to follow up his brilliant effort, but something about his post regarding the success of his game actually revealed a warning sign to me for indie games overall.

Over the past week, we've had a chance to check out ION's premium Rock Band 2 drum set, the Drum Rocker (We've played it once before at E3 2008). We're waiting for a copy of RB2 for our final impressions; in the meantime, here are our initial thoughts of the set with the original Rock Band.

• Our order arrived in two boxes weighing in at 33 lbs. and 6 lbs., respectively. The lighter box contained the third cymbal and colored discs to put on all three cymbals for differentiation.
• Total time to unbox: 20 minutes (although, to be fair, we were taking a lot of pictures). That said, total time for setup (no camera usage) was close to an hour, with a large amount of time spent trying to screw in the cymbal clamps. Just another 2 or 3 mm on the screw length and we would've had a much easier time here.
• Protip: Make sure you screw everything in very tight, or you'll be having to either pause the game to make fixes mid-song or learn to adjust to the added difficult of a drooping tom or cymbal. Even then, adjustments will have to be made to get the toms placed just right.

Read on for more impressions.

Killzone 2's multiplayer gameplay was shown off behind closed doors at the Leipzig Game Convention this week and we were there to get our hands well and truly on. As is customary for these breakdown sessions, we were given a short presentation by members of the development team.

We were told about the Squad system, which allows players to form 4-man groups mid-game. Doing so will show your squadmates' health bars, allow you a private headset channel and let you use the squad leader as a spawn point, keeping you together constantly. Setting up squads is easily done in the spawn menu. When a player receives a squad invite, they will receive a flashing notification. Accepting or declining takes only a couple of button presses from that point, making sure you're kept in the game at all times.

Guerilla Games also ran through the extensive community features found in the game. Full clan support, featuring 64 players each, 16 vs 16 clan challenges, four separate leaderboards, a mind-boggling array of stats being tracked and a clan currency system. "Valor" is wagered by each clan at the start of inter-clan skirmishes, with the total being awarded to the winner. Earning valor will propel you up the leaderboards and the intention is to host official clan tournaments, made up of 256 clans, with the entire valor pot going to the overall winner.

Lots going on at X3F this week. We've got a Dennis Dyack interview, a video hands-on with Galaga Legions and more. Best of all, Fanswag Weekly returns with five XBLA redemption codes for Bionic Commando Rearmed (which is awesome, by the way). Peruse the links below and feed your inner fanboy. We won't tell anyone.

Community

• X3F @ Too Human Hometown launch signing
  We have pictures
• X3F Interview: Five minutes with Dennis Dyack
  Still won't talk about Eternal Darkness 2
• Fanswag Weekly: Bionic Commando Rearmed
  Get into the swing of things
  
• Ask X3F: Friendship edition
  Borrowing games can be a tricky business
• Xbox 360 Fancast 080 -- Football!
  They actually let us make 80 of these...
• X3F TV -- XBLA in Brief: Galaga Legions
  You can move up and down now!

News

• A dirty PURE demo to release to the XBLM in Sept
  ATVs are dangerous
• Rare promises Banjo Kazooie demo before its November release
  Try the vehicle editor. Seriously.
• Viva Piñata 2 demo in certification, releasing soon
  Multiplayer gardening FTW!
• Rumor: Xbox 360 price cuts; 60GB $299, Elite $399, Arcade $199
  Cheaper than Wii?
• New Sacred 2 trailer shows off 4-player co-op
  Mmm ... dungeon crawling

Each week Mark Methenitis contributes Law of the Game on Joystiq, a column on legal issues as they relate to video games:

There are a lot of theoretical claims an injured party could make against a game manufacturer, but the one I'd like to focus on is the world of products liability. After all, the crux of most of these claims is "this video game product caused this person to do this act, which resulted in damages." It would certainly be a novel claim, and one that tweaks the traditional definition of products liability, which surprisingly can be applied to video games outright in certain circumstances.

The reason I've picked products liability is because if the current laws were expanded to account for the kind of civil liability for game makers that has been talked about, then products liability would be a logical place to put the new causes of action. Not to get ahead of ourselves, it's probably a good time to explain what products liability is: Products liability is the area of the law where parties on the chain of a product, from the retailer to the manufacturer to the manufacturers of sub-assemblies or parts, can be held liable for damages caused by their products. So, if for some reason the video game console you're playing randomly exploded, this would be the theoretical means for recovery.

Warning: This preview includes spoilers for one of the game's bonus levels. Those of you fearing spoilers for the game's main story are welcome to read on.

While Heavy Rain's teaser video is awesome enough, we were lucky enough to be given a demonstration of the game by Quantic Dream's David Cage.

Before showing us any gameplay, Cage reiterated the thought processes behind developing a game like Heavy Rain. It's an adult thriller with a mature, emotionally driven story. "You're not fighting a war. There are no gangsters, knights, princesses or zombies. You're not going to save the world in this game." We're hoping this grounding in reality saves it from the bizarre tangent Indigo Prophecy (Fahrenheit for those outside the US) took towards the end of the game.

What's that? Oh, well, we've missed you too. But let's not waste time with nostalgia, we've got some new podcasts to talk about.

Console Gypsies: This is a brand-spanking new podcast, but it's already making an impressive showing. This week, we're most touched by the early discussion of Pepsiman, one of the absolute best PSone games that you've probably never played.

1UP Show: We're recommending this video podcast this week solely because of the bit about Dead Space, which starts at about 2:45. Watch, and become a believer, both in the game and in Nick Suttner's complete inability to judge a game's scientific radness.

LucasArts has sent us a rather hefty excerpt from The Art and Making of The Force Unleashed book (itself a whopping 224 pages) that came out this week. We're guessing it doesn't end with a note on the dev team being cut.

Click above to peruse the gallery (Protip: Click on the Hi-res button on each gallery page to view a high-resolution version of the image). A demo for Star Wars: The Force Unleashed drops this Thursday, with the full game arriving mid-September.

With Sony shedding some new light on the sea of plastic instrument compatibility nonsense, we thought it was time to update our compatibility charts for the Guitar Hero and Rock Band series, as well as newcomer Rock Revolution. Introducing the Instrument Compatibility Matrix, version 3.0. We'll keep updating this page as new information percolates out, hoping one day to fill in every square with a green "yes." Until that time, check out our chart skills.

Update: Now with more green care of Microsoft's compatibility commitment.

Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure combines a block-matching, DS puzzle game--think Panel de Pon/Planet Puzzle League--with a side-scrolling platformer. This puzzling mash-up keeps the blocks on the bottom screen, Hatsworth jumping up top, and you toggling between each to maintain progress. We recently played this stylish title, due at the beginning of 2009. With so many small things to get right, we're uncertain that the puzzle-platformer will work, but we're impressed by its potential.

Five months ago we asked NIS America why its forthcoming turn-based strategy game, Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice, would make the next-gen leap to the PS3."It's simply because PS2 lacks the processing power and memory capacity to support Disgaea 3," commented marketing coordinator Jack Niida at the time, a response we didn't buy entirely back then and after pouring over the game in recent days we're even less convinced.

Not that the game isn't fun. The fact that this article is being penned at 4am after 9 hours spent playing and losing track of time should be a testament to Disgaea 3's addictive nature, a trait that the series has had in spades since its freshman effort.