The folks at Harmonix are nothing if not busy. Sometime next month, the developer of the Rock Band franchise will surpass the 1,000 song mark (including both disc content and DLC) for its music game franchise. This week we got to see two sets of upcoming DLC, both of which will be available on Tuesday.

First up, we had a chance to try out the new DLC for The Beatles: Rock Band, the full version of the group's 1969 album Abbey Road. Five of Abbey Road's songs were included in the disc version of The Beatles: Rock Band but fans will still have some real gems to experience as part of the DLC, including the clanging groove of "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" and the epic 16-medley that serves as Abbey Road's climax. Here's the full track listing as the songs appear in the game:

• Come Together
• Something
• Maxwell's Silver Hammer
• Oh! Darling
• Octopus's Garden
• I Want You (She's So Heavy)
• Here Comes the Sun
• Because
• You Never Give Me Your Money
• Sun King/Mean Mr. Mustard
• Polythene Pam/She Came In Through the Bathroom Window
• Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight/The End
• Her Majesty

As you can see, several of the songs that make up the medley have been strung together to make slightly longer game experiences. If you're playing the 360 or PS3 version of The Beatles: Rock Band, you'll be able to either play these combined tunes individually (for example "Sun King/Mean Mr. Mustard") or as part of a setlist; you'll also have the choice to play the Abbey Road medley in its entirety, eliminating the loading times that typically come between songs on a Rock Band setlist.

Unfortunately, the option to play the Abbey Road medley uninterrupted will not be available on the Wii version of this DLC. Incidentally, Harmonix reps told us that playing the Abbey Road medley in its entirety is a relatively simple way of getting the "One Million Points" achievement in the game. In addition, for a song like "Because" that features no drum track, you'll be able to play through the song even if you're signed into the game as a drummer--something you couldn't previously do.

There aren't any new dreamscape visuals created for the DLC of Abbey Road; instead, the game will be pulling from the art assets that are already on the disc featuring the band recording their songs in the Abbey Road studios. In all the highlight of the Abbey Road DLC will surely be playing the medley straight through--after all, who isn't going to enjoy belting "Carry That Weight" at the top of their lungs?

Next up is the Queen track pack, which features ten of the English rock band's finest songs. Here's the tunes that will be available in Queen pack:

• Another One Bites the Dust
• Crazy Little Thing Called Love
• Fat Bottomed Girls
• I Want It All
• I Want to Be Free
• Killer Queen
• One Vision
• Somebody to Love
• Tie Your Mother Down
• Under Pressure

If you're familiar with Freddie Mercury and Crew, you know that Queen songs are often vocal showcases and it will take your best chops to emulate Mercury's signature style and range. We tried out the anthemic "I Want It All" (which you might recognize from its use in a bank commercial these days) and the classic "Killer Queen" which originally appeared, as a cover, in the first Guitar Hero game. Brian May's delicate and melodic guitar part in the latter is still a highlight for us and we're happy to report it's still a blast to play in Rock Band 2.

Abbey Road DLC will be available on Tuesday, October 20 and run you $16.99 or 1360 MS points. The Queen track pack (1280 MS points, $15.99) will be released on Xbox 360 and Wii on October 20, and on PSN on October 22.

Are you dying to know who's going to join Naruto and his buddies in Tomy's upcoming fighting game? Here are the latest characters that have been confirmed on the growing roster.

Itachi

Sasuke's older brother Itachi likes to use clones, as well as his genjutsu, to throw off the enemy. The aerial crow-kunai is one of his special attacks, which allows him to teleport to the ground after releasing the dangerous projectiles. He can also quickly teleport to the backside of an opponent to gain a distinct advantage. Itachi's other specialties include creating an exploding clone as a counter move, and in this game, he's gained a new aerial fire ball jutsu move that can be executed by hitting the jutsu button in midair.

Kisame

The former member of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist, Kisame is a lethal adversary in close-quarters combat. His sharkskin sword attack drains chakra, and he can also summon a clone to take down an opponent with water prison jutsu for some extra free hits. The key to playing as Kisame is to stay within close range while attacking with your sword so that you can break an enemy's guard and suck its chakra. If enemies understand this and hover too far away, he has a water shark bomb jutsu that will close the gap.

Hiruko

Once a great shinobi of Sunagakure, Hiruko is now a slow character but he has a dangerous reach with his long tail. While he may skulk and lumber around the field, his tail is quick and lethal, as well as poised to do a ton of damage. He can poison his opponents and confuse them by inverting their controls, and one of his special abilities is a latent ninja ability that involves time-sensitive poison. It's a secondary jutsu that allows him to poison enemies who then have to defeat him before a timer runs out or they will die. Playing keep-away and run-the-timer-down is another way to win if you feel like you can't win the old-fashioned way.

Sasori

Sasori of the Red Sand has a lot of variety in his move set. He can do heavy close-range damage with his mechanical wings or take out opponents from afar with the cord that comes out of his body. If that doesn't work, he also has a stream of fire he can unleash. Sasori has hyperarmor, which protects him from knockback effects as he's walking forward. Damage can still be dealt, but he won't be stunned. His secondary jutsu allows him the ability to poison opponents and break down their guard. In partnered matches, Hiruko and Sasori can team up as one character if Hiruko dies first.

Deidara

The youngest member of the Akatsuki, Deidara likes to utilize his explosive clay creations and keep his distance in a fight. He can set explosive spiders and birds, which is important in distracting his opponents. In latent ninja mode, he can drop three times as many explosives, and the spiders will actually track down enemies. His secondary jutsu allows him to use a giant bomb to take out almost everything onscreen, which will come in handy during four-player free-for-all matches. In the latest game, Deidara has a new custom throw in which he attaches an explosive spider to an opponent's face. And watch out for his counter jutsu--it deals a ton of damage.

Naruto Shippuden: Clash of Ninja Revolution 3 is set to be released on November 17.

Unless you're watching the Cartoon Network on Friday nights, Ben 10 Alien Force: Vilgax Attacks and The Secret Saturdays: Beasts of the 5th Sun are probably not going to mean much to you. But chances are that you've at least heard of Astro Boy, given that the movie is set to hit theatres next month. D3 Publisher came by our office to show us the video game version of the three properties, and even though there's a stigma surrounding games based on TV shows and movies, the games we saw had some engaging gameplay elements that held our attention.

Astro Boy: The Video Game

The last time we saw Astro Boy was at the 2009 San Diego Comic Con where we met up with producer Cameron Rains to check out the game. This time, we were shown a never-seen-before Arena mode, in which Astro Boy takes on waves upon waves of enemies with a friend in air- or ground-based combat. The gameplay hasn't changed much since we last saw it, but we did play on the hard mode and then ended up bumping it to hero difficulty, which made things a bit more challenging. Luckily, the person demoing the game stayed alive for the most part, so as long as one player is still at it, the other person can die as many times as he or she wants without having to worry about starting over.

We also had a chance to check out the final boss battle against Peacekeeper (not a spoiler because everyone knows that it's Astro's arch nemesis). Playing cooperatively makes a huge difference because Astro Boy is a frantic and fast-paced shooter. We won't reveal too much about the final fight, but if you have quick reflexes and want to play as Astro Boy, then be sure to keep an eye out on the game when it is released October 20.

Ben 10 Alien Force: Vilgax Attacks

Young Ben Tennyson is on another adventure and armed with his omnitrix to explore the galaxy via the Xbox 360. This is the first time that Ben will be able to transform into 10 different aliens, using their unique superpowers to get through the levels. The world is in 3D now, with a fully rotatable camera and numerous platforming sections. We fought these ghostlike aliens, which we had to lure to a nearby lantern before being able to hit them. The controls felt good, and you can easily come up with combo attacks as long as you keep pressing the X and Y buttons for light and heavy attacks.

The ability to swap into any alien form at any given time is also new, and it doesn't drain your energy gauge either. You can swap to swampfire and use its fire-breathing skills and then switch back to spidermonkey to quickly maneuver through hazardous areas. The game should last anywhere between seven and nine hours, and fans of the show will appreciate the fact that all the voice actors are involved with the game and the original story is penned by one of the show's writers. Ben 10 Alien Force: Vilgax Attacks will be released October 27.

The Secret Saturdays: Beasts of the 5th Sun

The Secret Saturdays is a Cartoon Network show about a family of scientific explorers who fight to protect and hide cryptids, which are exotic creatures that evil people want to exploit. The game is a 2.5D action platformer, in which you play as Zak, an 11-year-old kid armed with a big stick that also functions as a grappling hook. Zak has the power to control the minds of cryptids and scan them for information. We spent most of our time platforming, but in combat, we were able to tag team with other members of the family to fend off enemies. If you're a perfectionist, you can collect fireflies as you make your way through the levels, which will unlock goodies.

The controls are easy to pick up, and it's fun to hop into the body of your family pet Fiskerton because Fiskerton can scale walls and get to hard-to-reach places. There are more than 50 cryptids to encounter, as well as racing and target-practice minigames to change up the gameplay. The Secret Saturdays: Beasts of the 5th Sun is probably not going to interest you unless you enjoy the cartoon series, but at least the game is shaping up to be a solid platforming/action experience. Look for the game on the Wii, DS, PlayStation 2, and PSP when it is released October 20.

Order of War is a PC real-time strategy game published by, of all people, Square Enix, and developed by Russia-based Wargaming.net. The game was originally released in Russia as Operation Bagration, but has been retrofitted with an all-new American campaign, new cinematic cutscenes, and full English voice acting. We recently had a chance to play a few quick multiplayer sessions in head-to-head competition (the game will offer both one-on-one team competition modes).

Tough guys go into battle as infantry, but real men drive tanks.

In multiplayer, you can play as one of three factions, the US, the Germans, or the Russians, each of whom has between 25-30 units apiece. While the factions are roughly symmetrical, they differ somewhat in their unit mix and strengths according to approximate strengths that Wargaming.net has built into each faction, such as the tank superiority of the Germans.

Multiplayer is more or less a completely tactical exercise in deploying the right troops at the right time and right spots. There aren't any in-game bases to build or resources to harvest--just a requisition meter that gradually fills up over time, which can then be spent on purchasing units, though your meter will fill up faster if you're nimble enough to capture the various control points on the map. You can even capture your oppponent's home base, which acts like a control point, and if you do so, you cut him off from gaining any more points until he either recaptures his home base, or captures yours. The game will launch with six multiplayer maps, and two of these maps will appear in the upcoming multiplayer demo.

Though you start off a new match with a squadron of light infantry (who are perhaps better utilized when garrisoned in buildings once the heavy armor starts rolling out) and a medium tank squad, though you can commission different types of tanks, transports, infantry, and stationary artillery, as well as calling in one-off assistance attacks offscreen, such as artillery strikes and airstrikes.

Order of War, and its multiplayer demo, are incoming later this month.

Matches seem fairly fast-paced and, in some of the smaller maps, you may even face a decision to go after control points or try to rush your enemy, since you start new matches with a small chunk of requisition points in the pot. Different maps will have different layouts (one map will have several narrow chokepoints, which makes swarming your opponent with massive clusters of tanks unfeasible), but the general path to victory seems to be doing more than one thing at once; locking down as many control points as possible while either defending yourself from your opponents' rush or staging a rush of your own.

Order of War ships later this month, and the multiplayer demo will be available soon.

Originally released on the PlayStation 2, Nintendo Wii, and the PC last year, Obscure: The Aftermath will now be available on the PlayStation Portable so that you can take this college drama/survival horror game on the go. It might not be the easiest game to get into while commuting or waiting in line, but if you want increase your chances of having dreams about monsters and poisonous plants, then it's probably best to play this in bed after you've turned off the lights. It was difficult for us to get into the game with the fluorescent lights in our office, but from what we've played, it's very similar to what we saw on the consoles last year.

The Aftermath takes place a couple of years after the events of the first Obscure game, and the survivors have graduated from high school and moved on to Fallcreek University. The distinct, cheesy teen-slasher vibe is written all over as the group tries to fend off mutants that like to rip apart fellow students. You're not alone on this adventure, however, because a friend can always accompany you via ad hoc as you try to unravel the mysteries surrounding a strange flower.

All of the individuals you played as on the consoles return in this version, and each has his or her own unique ability to solve environmental puzzles. If you need brute strength or a brilliant mind to hack into a system, you can swap characters with the triangle button to get the job done. It's unfortunate that the camera still doesn't work very well and makes it hard to see what ahead of you when you're exploring narrow hallways or peeking around the corner. After picking up various pieces of sports equipment, you can attack by holding the R button and swing using the X.

One of the highlights of the game is Olivier Deriviere's soundtrack, which sets the mood and reminds you of what kind of game you're playing. It can be easy to forget when the dialogue is limited to sexual innuendo and cringeworthy one-liners, but that's also part of the game's charm if you can laugh it off. It doesn't look like the gameplay has been adjusted though, because the AI still isn't very bright, which makes The Aftermath ideal to play with a friend. It's not that often you get a chance to play a survival horror game with a buddy anyway. For more information, check out our Wii review of the game here .

We just had a chance to look at the PC version of Batman: Arkham Asylum, the recently released console game starring the caped crusader himself. While the console version of the game has a lot to offer, it seems like the PC version will have even more, especially if you're running Nvidia hardware. Be advised that this story may contain spoilers.

Get ready for explosive special effects in the PC version of Batman: Arkham Asylum.

The demonstration we watched took place on a machine with video cards set up in SLI. While users with lower-end setups will be able to enjoy some of the higher-end graphical effects, Nvidia suggests that the best way to enjoy all the graphical bells and whistles, particularly the game's implementation of PhysX, is to have an SLI setup with one card rendering graphics and the other set to handle the in-game physics. To have the best experience, the hardware manufacturer also recommends you use its handy-dandy 3D vision goggles, which have additional depth-of-field and out-of-screen effects similar to other games that support it, like Resident Evil 5.

We sat through a demonstration of some of the earlier levels in the game, which showed the way that the PhysX rendering will enhance all particle effects, while 3D vision will make them pop out of the screen. Batman looks good beating the stuffing out of thugs, but when the time comes to pry a grille out of a wall, the bolts will pop out of the screen, and the cobwebs in the air vent will sway procedurally to and fro. Batman uses his grapnel to vault up onto gargoyles in the shadows, and bits of stone and rubble go bouncing out of the walls each time the hook hits home.

Batman, his enhanced volumetric fog, and all his PC-exclusive special effects will ship out on September 15.

The physics rendering provides a lot of subtle visual effects, but there are also parts of the game where they're used to great effect. At one point, Batman rescues a team of Arkham therapists who have been gassed by the Scarecrow, who appears in the game as a gaunt figure with glowing eyes and syringes for fingers. It soon becomes clear that Batman has also been gassed as he begins to hallucinate about a dead Commissioner Gordon, the corpses of his parents returning to cuss him out, and an eventual attack by a giant-sized Scarecrow. This last encounter takes place in a hallucination-enhanced version of the asylum's morgue, where the walls and ceiling and floor have been all but torn away, and the room floats in midair. As regular-sized Batman, you need to sneak around the shattered room without attracting your enemy's attention to get to a bat-signal flood light and shine it on him to banish him, constantly staying on the move by hopping across floating floor fragments to avoid his gaze. In the meantime, surgical instruments and dozens of wall tiles swirl dramatically in the air as the gigantic Scarecrow peers over the fragments of the wall trying to hunt you down. The effect of the floating debris is pretty spectacular, and it's a shame it'll be exclusive to the PC version, which is scheduled for release on September 15.

We recently had a chance to visit with developer and distributor Stardock to get an update on the studio's software developments and on Elemental: War of Magic. Stardock is hard at work on its "GOO" (Game Object Obfuscation) copyright protection software--a simple copy-protection setup that requires users to enter their name, e-mail address, and serial code online to register the game once, then be able to claim full ownership over that game regardless of time passed or computer used. The software has already been adopted by such publishers as Ubisoft and Paradox and, according to Stardock frontman Brad Wardell, will be used by "all the big publishers" for their PC games in the near future. The studio will also soon be taking the wraps off the next revision of its Impulse online distribution client, which will feature a new "ready to play" system that will let you fill out a personal profile for yourself and then actually have prospective multiplayer partners suggested to you based on profile matches--assuming none of the people on your friends list are available for you to play.

The studio also made a brief showing of the next Sins of a Solar Empire microexpansion, Diplomacy. Diplomacy will, like the last microexpansion, Entrenchment, sell for $9.95 and will offer new gameplay content to the space strategy game. Diplomacy will add new interfaction diplomacy features and new diplomatic tech-tree options to research, including the ability to form treaties with other alien races and to trade treaties with other races. While Sins of a Solar Empire currently has an excellent space combat system, it doesn't have a way to manage relations with other space races, so the new microexpansion will draw inspiration from the diplomacy system of Galactic Civilizations II. Diplomacy will go into beta this fall and is planned to launch next year.

Finally, the studio gave us an updated look at Elemental: War of Magic. Elemental is currently in a very early beta-testing phase where Stardock is testing only gameplay concepts. In fact, the early beta presented to the testers has what Wardell refers to as a "cloth map" interface--an interface that looks like a cloth map but is actually just the game zoomed out all the way back. The version of the game we saw was zoomed in, and even though it's still very early, the graphics already had a stylized look that resembled the faded color art you might expect to see from medieval European paintings.

You'll build a fantasy kingdom and rule it forever in Elemental. Or at least, until you win, or someone else defeats you.

Elemental is still very much in development--a work-in-progress--so we were able to see only the basics of the game in action. You start with nothing but an immortal sovereign unit who can commission new buildings, though later you can marry into one of the game's other 12 base factions and sire prince and princess children who can also be married off, increasing your standing with them. Unfortunately, while your sovereign, who is both a powerful wizard and a mighty military general, is immortal, his children aren't, so when that good-for-nothing son of yours kicks the bucket, his wife's family may not react kindly. Wardell compares the courtly intrigue of Elemental to one of his chief inspirations, the Game of Thrones novels by author George R. R. Martin.

An actual game session of Elemental will let you try to do the same thing you do every night in every other explore-and-conquer game--try to take over the world--but in a variety of different ways. Among other things, you can conquer the world through military force; you can amass powerful diplomatic ties; you can win through sorcerous means (a combination of extensive magical research and controlling different magical shards that may be attuned to one of five different spheres of influence: earth, air, water, fire, and life); or you can win by "questing." Elemental's maps will have lengthy, story-driven quests that are being crafted to resemble role-playing game content, and by completing an epic arc of story-related quests first, you can also attain victory.

The game's flexible 3D engine will let you zoom in and out as you please.

Elemental's graphical engine, while still being worked on, provides an impressive level of detail and seamlessly zooms out to multiple zoom levels with a single glide of the mousewheel--all the way out to cloth map view, and all the way in to a close-up view that lets you see the tiny peasants building up your kingdom as they putter around, hammering and chiseling the walls of your castle. Elemental will support robust level-of-detail rendering to play the game at different zoom levels and will let you lock in the zoom to support the best combination of zoomed-in graphics and performance that your desktop or laptop computer can handle. The engine (and map editor) will also support deformable terrain so that the randomly generated scenario maps will have valleys, volcanoes, and bodies of water (the latter will primarily act as obstacles that you'll need to traverse by putting your infantry units onto boats).

In preparation for extensive experimentation on the part of the fan community, Stardock is planning to ship the game with the same editing tools that the studio's in-house developers use. While Stardock expects that fans will definitely create new fantasy races to play (the base game will have only playable human factions), the editor will have no polygon limit, so as computing technology increases, the fan community might continue to build huger and huger maps. Wardell even suggests that the robust editor will be useful for applications beyond playing Elemental--as an old-time Dungeons & Dragons fan, the studio head pointed out that Elemental's robust toolset could actually be used to generate maps and campaign aids for game masters running tabletop games such as D&D.

Watch for Elemental next year.

Elemental is still a ways off and is scheduled to ship next year. Like Stardock's other games, and in keeping with the studio's "Gamer's Bill of Rights," of which Goo and Impulse v4.0 are a part, the game will ship free of any DRM software.

[UPDATE: Friday 17 July - Capcom has confirmed that the PC version of Resident Evil WILL run on XP machines running DirectX 9. The company has clarified that DirectX 10 will be required ONLY for use with Nvidia's 3D Vision goggles. Apologies for any confusion.]

We recently had a chance to see and try out the PC version of Resident Evil 5 at Capcom's California offices, running on both an upper-midrange rig and on a high-end rig with dual GeForce GTX 285 cards in SLI. Both machines were running Windows 7, though the game is planned to support both Windows 7 and Vista, as well as XP, at decently high resolutions, and while the lower-end machine had vsync enabled to keep the frame rate capped to work with the Nvviidia 3D Vision goggles we had handy, the higher-end box had the frame rate uncapped and ran the game at 1280x720x32 bit textures at frame rates of upward of 130-150 frames per second.

If your computer has the chops to run it at high performance levels, you'll be able to play Resident Evil 5 at frame rates in excess of 100 frames per second.

While the performance on the higher-end machine is more of a vanity accoutrement for those with space-age computers from the future, owners of decent computers will be able to experience good performance with crisp texturing and more importantly, full lighting (unlike the embarrassing PC port of Resident Evil 4, which shipped with stripped-down visual effects and no real allowances made for the PC's differing control schemes). Fortunately, that won't be the case with the PC version of RE5, which will have full support both for the USB Xbox 360 controller, as well as full-on mouse-and-keyboard free-look, just like your favorite PC-native first-person shooters. You can even switch controls on the fly--should you put down your USB controller and grab your mouse, the game will immediately recognize the change in input and also give differing contextual instructions onscreen (instead of instructing you to press your controller's blue X button to pick up that box of bullets, it'll instead prompt you to press your F key). The PC controls seem to work quite well and are very intuitive; while using a USB controller will activate the classic Resident Evil red laser gun-sight on your weapon to help you paint your targets, switching to a mouse-and-keyboard setup will turn off the laser sight and pull up a traditional targeting reticle with full, free mouse-look--without any console-style "sticky aim" or any other kind of aiming assistance. Using Chris Redfield's knife for close encounters or just to smash open barrels without wasting bullets will be a matter of pressing and holding the space bar to draw your knife, then left-clicking on your mouse (the default fire/attack input) to swing your weapon. What's most gratifying about the PC control scheme is that you don't have to use RE5's "real-time inventory" system, which would pull up your inventory in translucent windows onscreen right on top of the action and right before that raging zombie buried a knife in your face. Instead, you can swap weapons first-person-shooter style with the number keys on your keyboard. You can even reload by pressing the R key.

Aside from the better, more responsive controls, one of the more interesting new features of the PC version is support for Nvidia's 3D Vision goggles, which require you to have a monitor capable of running at at least a 120Hz refresh rate. 3D Vision in RE5 enables depth-of-field effects that appear to "layer" characters onscreen relative to where they're standing. For instance, the infamous execution scene that plays early on in the game actually looks like you're watching it from out of a window as Chris and Sheva are--nearer characters appear closer, while characters standing in the background appear to actually be standing farther away. The goggles also allow for "out-of-screen" effects (such as hurled hatchets that will actually fly toward you and appear to pop out of the screen or blood spatters that will splash up out of slain zombies and appear to momentarily fly out of your monitor). The setup we watched ran at a pretty consistent 30 frames per second with vsync enabled--the lower frame rate was a result of the 3D Vision effects, which actually render the game twice; once normally and once for 3D Vision. Obviously, in order to experience 3D Vision, you'll not only need a high-refresh-rate monitor, but you'll also need to own Nvidia's 3D Vision goggles. If you don't, but you have a fairly good computer, you'll be able to run at higher frame rates closer to 60 (or if you uncap vsync, possibly higher, in the hundreds). To get a sense of how your computer stacks up, you can use Nvidia's recently released Resident Evil 5 benchmark.

Chris and Sheva will have new outfits and a much more crowded Mercs difficulty level. All exclusive to the PC.

Aside from offering strong performance and good controls, Resident Evil 5 for the PC will offer the full experience of the original console versions, uncut. The PC version will also ship with exclusive content in the form of four brand new clothing outfits--two for Chris and two for his companion Sheva--as well as a new, even-harder difficulty level of the game's freeform Mercenaries mode that will triple the number of enemies in each map. It's still not exactly clear how the console's downloadable content (namely, Versus mode) will make its way to your PC--either out-of-the-box or as PC downloadable content--but we're told that the content will appear on the PC in some form, regardless.

Resident Evil 5 for the PC will be released on September 15 of this year. Though the base game will run on XP with DirectX 9.0c, playing the game with Nvidia's 3D Vision goggles will require a machine running DirectX 10 natively. So if you do have that kind of setup and the hardware to run it, you should keep an eye out for the game--it looks great, plays great, and seems to finally be a Resident Evil game built to play for the PC.