EA have announced their plans for the next batch of DLC for Battlefield: Bad Company 2 with the previously delayed Kit Upgrade pack. The pack is scheduled for release on Xbox Live April 21st and will include 4 different kits for each player class, comprising of new uniforms and camouflaged weapons along with 12 new awards and 4 achievements.

In Europe, each kit will be available separately for 160 MS points or as an inclusive bundle for 440 MS points, whereas the DLC is only available in North America from promotional codes on selected cans of Dr Pepper, bizarrely. A release date for the PS3 and PC versions of the game has yet to be announced.

The question is, will you be willing to part with your cash for these cosmetic changes after the previous map packs were offered for free?

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Hot off the presses and fresh to tease your mind about the upcoming release of The Passing, Valve have just released the details of the new achievements associated with the game on the Left 4 Dead blog. While the mandatory golfing achievement makes an appearance to celebrate the new melee weapon, there are a few new details that should have you drooling.

While we do know The Passing takes place between Dead Center and Dark Carnival and our new lovable cast of characters gets to meet with the old cast, one of the achievements mentions a foot locker that must be opened. This sounds to me like it will be very much like the weapons caches in Borderlands, so it will be interesting to see how this plays out.

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Sick and tired of waiting for The Passing to come to pass? Well wait no more, my friend. Valve updated the official L4D.com blog yesterday to announce The DLC that brings Left 4 Dead 1 and Left 4 Dead 2 surviviors together for the first time will be available next week. Whew, that’s a lot of numbers.

For those of you who own the 360 version of the game, you can expect to plunk down 560 MS points for the download, or $7. For the clearly superior PC users, the DLC will be free.

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A splendid stash of content has been unleashed onto the PSN Store this week, including the belated arrival of Grand Theft Auto: Episodes From Liberty City (available from Friday) and the timeless PSOne classic Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee.

Elsewhere, episode 2 of FirstPlay has arrived with a free mini game and there’s some further downloadable content for Just Cause 2 and Dante’s Inferno to be had along with a playable demo of Skate 3.

The remainder of this week’s Store update can be found after the break.

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It’s PSN update time once again, and this week sees the launch of the new weekly digital magazine FirstPlay, SCEE’s answer to Qore for the modest price of £0.99 per episode or £8.99 for a 3 month subscription. Like Qore, it is set to contain video previews and reviews along with exclusive beta access and downloadable content, with the first instalment including some new content for Just Cause 2.

Elsewhere, there is a playable demo of 2010 FIFA World Cup for football fans, a new PSN game entitled Aqua Panic and a host of downloadable content for the likes of Blue Toad Murder Files, Mega Man 10 and LittleBigPlanet.

Check out a full listing of this week’s content after the break.

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Mass Effect 2 continues to see a good amount of support following its January 2010 release. Those that purchased the game new were treated to a plethora of content via the Cerberus Network. This time around, Bioware is asking for 560 MS points for the opportunity to befriend the renowned thief and hacker, Kasumi Goto.

The question on the forefront of most gamers’ minds is whether it is worth throwing down seven dollars for yet another excuse to play such a phenomenal title. And while Bioware does not have the best track record for DLC, warranting this almost 1GB download really depends on how you will play it. Read more… »

There have been few games quite as polarising as Heavy Rain this generation. While some scathed its claims to be the next leap in interactive entertainment, I thoroughly enjoyed it despite some of its apparent flaws – the pause menu alone was simply dazzling. Despite the game’s charting success, Quantic Dream has already ruled out the possibility of a direct sequel and will instead release a series of episodic downloads entitled Heavy Rain Chronicles, each focusing on a particular character from the full game.

Starring lead protagonist Madison Paige, Episode One: The Taxidermist finds the feisty young journalist on the trail of a possible link to the Origami Killer named Leland White (a taxidermist as you might have guessed) who resides in a secluded, horror-movie-esque house. And, predictably, all is not what it seems.

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While everyone is sulking over the latest Linux-shrouding firmware update, the latest PSN Store update has now gone live. There’s a healthy host of downloadable content this week, including the debut episode of Heavy Rain Chronicles and additional content for Army of Two: The 40th Day and Sonic & SEGA Allstars Racing. Retro fans will also be able to salvage some memories from Namco Museum Essentials a mere 9 months after its release on the US Store.

As always, you can find a full rundown of this week’s update after the break.

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Over the weekend word got out that the upcoming DLC for Left 4 Dead 2, dubbed ‘The Passing,’ will not make its original release date of “late March.”

While this is disappointing news, gamers will be pleased to know that the DLC will only cost 560 Microsoft Points ($7) on the Xbox 360. Not a bad price considering the content the expansion adds: a golf club for melee, an M60 machine gun, multiple new game modes, a new ‘Fallen Survivor’ special infected and a ‘Witch Bride.’ Read more… »

Another Thursday, another PSN Store update for us to savor. As usual, there is a fresh batch of special offers for outdated games that Sony need to shift (a lot of which are curiously from SEGA this week), along with a playable demo for Green Corp and a host of DLC for the likes of Alien vs. Predator and Batman: Arkham Asylum.

The LittleBigPlanet costume downloads have also made a triumphant return with no less than 4 new Sonic themed costumes and a level kit, and MAG even received a free DLC pack.

For a full listing of this week’s offerings, hit that jump.

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To date, I’ve beaten Dragon Age: Origins four times. Yep, that’s four entire work weeks devoted to slaying Dragons, Mages, and evil Darkspawn.  There was something special about the way Bioware handled morality in Dragon Age that kept me hooked: it wasn’t just a simple matter of black and white. That concept inspired me to create as many characters as possible, and each time, the game played out in a completely different way.

Awakening seeks to capture the essence of Origins in the form of a $40 expansion pack. Read on to find out if Bioware’s newest offering is a simple rehash, or an entirely new game. Read more… »

As an avid Ocean’s Eleven and Mass Effect 2 fan, I can safely say that I’m pretty excited for Mass Effect 2′s first premium add-on, “Kasumi: Stolen Memory”. Priced at $7 (560 MSP), this pack will net you an extra character, and a mission that’ll last around an hour.

Obviously you can get why ME2 fans would be stoked, but why would this DLC make Danny Ocean salivate? Kasumi, an inter-stellar thief, is looking for a pretty rare item, hidden in an eccentric trinket collector’s mansion. Your mission is to pose as a guest, locate the vault, and steal the contents. Interested? Hit the jump for a random video featuring some of Kasumi’s dialogue, straight off her sweet sweet Queen Amadala lips. Read more… »