Tekken 6's lengthy Scenario campaign was a decent addition to last year's brawler, but as we noted in our Tekken 6 review, it sported a pretty noticeable omission--the lack of two-player co-op support. Namco Bandai's recent free update to Tekken 6 remedies the situation, adding in the ability to play the campaign with a partner online.

While the offline Scenario campaign was a multi-hour romp featuring dozens of levels, the online version truncates the experience down to 10 levels and can be beaten within a couple of hours. Just as in the offline game, you and your partner have to face wave after wave of increasingly tough enemies, with characters from the Tekken 6 roster acting as bosses. You need to work closely with your online partner because either player's death will cause both of you to fail the level completely. You do, however, have the ability to revive a fallen partner once, but this is annoyingly tied to a timer. If you fail to resuscitate a downed player within 30 seconds, it's game over. This can lead to moments of frustration, particularly during the more hectic fights as you urgently try to reach a comrade while numerous enemies get in your way.

You have three difficulty settings to choose from, and even at the easiest difficulty, the mode can be quite a challenge because of the sheer number of enemies the game throws at you (significantly more than you'd experience in the offline mode). You need to equip the best items you've already earned so far if you want to tackle the higher difficulties, although if you don't have anything decent, the online mode features pretty generous item drops that can help bring you up to speed quickly. You'll come across plenty of high-level gear here, making it an ideal way to quickly build up your characters. Playing online is quite stable, with most sessions running smoothly during testing. Slow connections result in serious input lag, however, and even connections that read as healthy can sometimes be choppy.

This latest Tekken 6 update also includes a fix for Mokujin in online matches, with the wooden pugilist's fighting style now changing with each round. But the big news here is the addition of co-op to the Scenario campaign. However, with its limited levels and occasional connection issues, it's not something that will convert you if you weren't already a fan of this bashing side quest.

The word "epic" gets thrown around a lot these days, but there are very few games whose scale is so large and imposing that even the simple act of climbing a set of stairs feels like a momentous experience. God of War is able to turn this mundane chore into something that feels significant--a pivotal moment in your quest to destroy an all-powerful deity--though it's little more than a quick buildup before you get to the real action. Have you never had the pleasure of climbing a staircase carved into the brittle stone of a spiraling rock face? Or have you always wondered how it would feel to make those bold steps in snazzy high definition? God of War Collection turns such fantasies into a full-fledged reality. God of War and God of War II are both included in this budget-priced disc (just $39.99 for two classic games), and though there are few updates aside from the visuals, the epic stair climbing and the blood-gushing combat easily stand up to modern releases.

Of course, the games are still deliciously violent, but you may be wondering if ripping off the three heads of Cerberus one at a time looks as vicious as it did when these games were first released. Have your puke bib handy, because the copious amounts of blood and gore have been painstakingly updated, making them seemingly splash right off the screen in high definition. If you thought it was nasty to see a giant bird eat the savory insides of Prometheus before, then just wait until you see his juicy vital organs gobbled up in exquisite detail.

God of War Collection retains the gross factor and epic scale that helped make the original games so memorable, but this remake doesn't look nearly as good as the best modern releases. Kratos and his enemies are sharp and detailed, but the environmental features are uneven. You can still see miles into the distance in some levels, but the foliage up close is way too pixelated, and the floors look downright bland. The most troubling visual problems crop up during cutscenes, though. Kratos has made the transition to HD intact, but the supporting characters are blurry with lots of jagged edges. The scripted cutscenes have not been updated at all, and the transition between the fancy HD visuals from the main quest and the blurry visuals in these scenes is jarring. These small problems certainly won't destroy your blade-chopping fun, but they do make it obvious that these games were originally created for the PlayStation 2.

Aside from the updated visuals, the biggest addition in God of War Collection is a complete set of trophies to go after in each game. This is an expected feature for PlayStation 3 games now, but that doesn't make it any less fun to go after some of the challenges. For instance, if you can somehow make it to the top of that treacherous spiked column in the depths of Hades without taking any damage, you get a solid gold trophy as a reward. And this may be the first game in which you receive a tangible reward for performing well in bed. There's one for the history books!

Updated visuals and fancy new trophies may be worthwhile bonuses, but those features are for naught if the original action doesn't hold up. That is thankfully not the case in God of War Collection. These two games are both an absolute blast and are still among the best in the genre. The focus of both games is on the vicious combat, but the layers surrounding your bloodlust are what make these games so incredible even years after their first release. The well-crafted, vengeance-fueled story is easy to get sucked into; logical puzzles are a welcome change of pace from the chaotic action; the symphonic score makes your powerful actions carry even more weight; and the beautiful artistic design brings these demon-filled temples to life. These are both outstanding games that are every bit as fun and rewarding as they were when they first came out.

God of War Collection is an awesome update for people eagerly awaiting God of War III's release early next year. These two games have easily stood the test of time, and the updated visuals make it a pleasure to relive Kratos' blood-soaked vengeance on an HD TV. The graphical problems are so slight that they are but a tiny blemish on God of War's otherwise pristine facade. If you have yet to experience Kratos' tale, then God of War Collection is a must-play rerelease. And even if you've already slain a minotaur and ripped out the eye of a cyclops, God of War is worth going back to once more.

At the time of this writing, there's not a single review for Tony Hawk Ride to be found anywhere. That's because, to the best of our knowledge, Activision didn't send finished copies of the game to anyone prior to release. We haven't received a copy in this morning's mail either, so it looks like we'll be making a trip to a local video games emporium this afternoon so that we can start work on a review.

In fairness, Activision did organize a "review event" for the game last weekend, but it's our policy not to review games in controlled conditions, so just as we have for a number of big game review events in recent memory (Grand Theft Auto IV, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, and Halo 3: ODST spring to mind), we politely declined to attend. I imagine a lot of other reviewers declined on this occasion as well because while most review events appear to involve overnight stays in hotels and afford ample time to both play the games in optimal conditions and mingle with representatives of the company that's paying for your accommodation, this particular event was nothing of the sort.

The Tony Hawk: Ride review event was originally pitched simply as a "Family Fun Event" and then later, when the full invitation arrived, as a "Family Fun/Review Event." Apparently, we were expected to review the game based on just three hours of "activities, music, and gaming" in the company of Tony Hawk and, if we wished to bring them along, our families. Yeah, not gonna happen.

We'll bring you our review just as soon as we can track down copies of the game and play them the same way that we do all games we review--on our own terms.

Going off-topic for a second, you might have noticed that our video reviews for both Modern Warfare 2 and Assassin's Creed II have spoiler warnings at the start. Going forward, we'll be including this at the start of all our video reviews because, depending on how sensitive you are to spoilers and how much you know about the game already, we figure that every video review we do could potentially spoil something for you. We always try to make our video reviews as free of spoiler as possible, and we'll continue to do so.

Hi everyone. You may have noticed that GameSpot has opened up a new mobile games channel. We'll be starting off covering games for five major operating systems: iPhone, BlackBerry, Palm WebOS for the Pre, Google Android, and Windows Mobile. We are covering mobile games in response to the huge growth we've seen in mobile gaming, particularly in the case of the iPhone, which has thousands of games to play on the App Store. The site itself is intended to be community-focused and powered by your opinions, so please feel free to dive in, discover new games, and submit your own thoughts on your favorite (and not-so-favorite) games in a reader review.

And yes, with a new site comes some new GameSpot reviews of mobile games. Keep in mind we're not looking to cover every single mobile game on the planet right now, which is why you'll see GameSpot's reviews appear in a limited fashion on the site. This is because the world of mobile games is both enormous and constantly changing, so rather than focus on every last little detail, we're instead working to bring you coverage on the most important developments and absolute best of the best top games in the world of mobile gaming, to help you cut through all the clutter and zero in on the good stuff, and on the stuff you should know about. So, we're starting off GameSpot's mobile reviews covering a combination of both the absolute best in mobile games and also the highest-profile mobile games you may have heard the most about...the two are not always exactly the same. (And so, if you're wondering why your favorite mobile game wasn't covered, this would be why. Please do feel free to leave your own thoughts in a reader review for that game in the meantime.)

To this end, we've enlisted help from a content partner site, SlideToPlay.com, a site that fully focuses on covering mobile games, to help us with our reviews. Note that although the reviews are coming from a different source, they are still edited and checked by GameSpot's editors to be consistent with our site's standards of quality and consistency. Also, please note that GameSpot does not currently plan to post new mobile reviews every day, but rather, in regular updates throughout the year. Again, rather than looking to cover every last little detail in the mobile space step-for-step, we're looking to encourage you, our readers, to use the mobile site to discover and share your thoughts on new games while we here at GameSpot periodically weigh in with our own thoughts on the absolute cream of the crop.

That's it. Please feel free to start poking around and explore the site. Thanks.

It's been almost a week since I started playing Aion: Tower of Eternity and so, although the full review is probably still a week or two away, I wanted to update you all on how it's going. I'm also going to take this opportunity to call out some of the game's features that, for better or worse, have really made an impression on me. I already posted something similar on my personal blog earlier this week, but while some of what I talk about here will inevitably be similar, I promise not to go anywhere near the cut-and-paste button.

The first thing I should mention is Aion's launch which, at least from my perspective, was an incredibly smooth one. Two days before those of us with preorders were able to get in on the "headstart" early access program, we were afforded even earlier access to the character creations tools so that we could pick out our classes, reserve a couple of character names, and basically be ready to play as soon as the servers went live. I took this opportunity to create an Elyos scout and an Asmodian priest, the former being one of the "good" guys on what ended up being a high-population server, and the latter a "bad" guy on a less popular server. NCSoft was purportedly planning to prevent players from creating certain factions on certain servers if it became necessary to keep the two factions somewhat balanced, but I saw no evidence of this personally.

Not that it's unique amongst MMOs by any means, but creating a character in Aion is more like doing the same thing in an EA Sports game than it is World of Warcraft or any of the other MMOs that I've played personally. After settling on a class and a gender, you're presented with a few dozen preset characters to use as your starting point, and from there you can pretty much do whatever you want. There are dozens of hairstyles to choose from, there are skin tone color spectrums to play around with, and the seven or eight different preset physiques run the gamut from short-and-stout to lanky-and-lean. But that's not even the half of it, because after choosing all of your presets you can enter the advanced customization mode and use sliders to tinker with multiple attributes for facial features, limbs, and the like. The only downside to the character creation is that there are no safeguards in place to prevent people from making freakish looking beings with, for example, tiny heads sitting atop long necks and giant shoulders. Many, presumably PVP-oriented folks are also opting to create the tiniest characters they possibly can, at which point they're dwarfed even by the insects and other small enemies that you encounter in the starting areas.

Questing in those starter areas when the servers went live was, predictably, a little frustrating at times. With so many players trying to complete the same quests, the competition for both enemies to kill and items to collect was fierce. Nothing was taking very long to respawn, but there simply weren't enough enemies and items to go around. Both the headstart and regular launches are out of the way now thankfully, and as players level up at different speeds, so they're getting dispersed. That helps with overcrowding in the various zones that make up Aion's great-looking world, but it doesn't help with the overcrowding on certain servers.

On day one, some players were reporting queue times in excess of two hours, which is clearly unacceptable. I lucked out on that occasion since I was among the first people to log in and I didn't log out until several hours later. I've had to queue on one of my two servers a couple of times since then, though, for around 30 minutes on both occasions. This coming Saturday and Sunday will be the first full weekend since launch, so I'm guessing that once I log in I probably shouldn't log out. Something that's easily accomplished by setting a character up as a "personal store" with at least one item that isn't going to sell in a million years. Do that, and you can step away from your keyboard for as long as you like without any fear of being logged out automatically.

I'll admit that I've done that a couple of times, but for the most part when I've been logged in it's been because I'm busily running around completing the usual assortment of fetch quests, kill quests, and collection quests. So far I haven't had any problems finding enough content in each zone to level me up for the next, but this doesn't appear to be a game where you can afford to pick and choose which quest chains you want to take on since you should really be doing all of them. Not only do these chains earn you plenty of experience, cash, and some useful rewards, but some of them also reward you with titles for your character. One of the early Elyos chains gives you the option to precede your name with the title "Tree-Hugger" for example, and doing so affords you a +4 bonus to accuracy. Similar bonuses appear to be attached to all 50 of the titles that you can unlock, though at level 16 (hey, I have other games to review as well) I only have six or seven right now.

I'm told that PVP content and dungeons don't really kick in until somewhere between level 25 and 30, so I've got a ways to go before I can check out any of that stuff. Level 10 is a big milestone in Aion as well though, because at that point you gain the ability to fly (though only for a minute and in certain zones) and you have to decide which of two paths you're going to take with your chosen class. Having started out as a scout, for example, I had to choose between a ranger specializing in ranged attacks or an up-close-and-personal assassin. I opted for the latter and, without wishing to write too much about how combat works since I already talked a bit about that in my earlier blog (along with a little about gathering and crafting), so far I'm having a lot of fun it--even if the vast majority of my encounters do play out in much the same way. Surprisingly, to me anyway, all eight of the classes appear to be equally well represented right now, though tanks and healers are predictably the ones in demand when the LFG (looking-for-group) and LFM (looking-for-more) messages start flying.

Hopefully those dungeon groups will have room for an assassin when I've leveled up some more, and it'd probably be a good idea for me to get into a guild sometime soon as well. And, with that in mind, I think it's time for me to log in again and get back to stabbing small animals, retrieving stolen items, and running errands for villagers who are too lazy to do anything themselves. Check back next week for another update or two, and in the meantime be sure to check out the new screenshots in the gamespace.

So Champions Online came out this week, and if you're like me, you've been eagerly awaiting Cryptic Studio's newest superhero-themed massively multiplayer online role-playing game (whew, that's a tongue twister). Well, the wait is over, though as with all MMOs, we want to spend as much time with the game as we can before delivering an official review. In the meanwhile, we wanted to give you a quick taste of Champions Online before then.Let's start with a quick impressions video.

The character creation is likely the best you'll ever see in such a game, even trumping that of City of Heroes/Villains. The creation interface takes a few moments to get used to, but is otherwise slick and easy to use. If you have an idea for a character, chances are, you can build a good approximation of it here. Fresh out of ideas? Let the game randomize a character for you. Some of the random combinations are actually pretty awesome.

Winged Hulkbeast isn't pretty, but he'll get the job done.

The starting area is an extended tutorial, and will give you a good idea of the basic mechanics, as well as your starting powers. You see, when you create your character, you aren't just selecting a costume, but an entire persona. You can select an existing archetype (sorcery, might, dual blades, and so on) or customize your own from a list of available powers. Champions Online offers a great deal of flexibility, so you can follow through on any specific concepts you dream up. This flexibility comes at the cost of effectiveness in some cases, however. There are some obvious balance issues at work, and they seem to be magnified after a release-day patch that altered the entire game's balance. That patch favors specific builds, so you may find that your creativity may not necessarily be rewarded with consistently exuberant questing and player-versus-player battling.

Millenium City: Home of heroes, thugs, and escaped prisoners. Wonder what the property prices are like.

It's worth noting that the patch also broke starting sorcery powers for existing toons, an issue that couldn't be overcome if you were in the initial tutorial area. There are some other bugs I quickly ran into as well--controls that keep getting reset, hotbar keys that stop working, and a few other oddities, like enemies that won't die and keep doing damage, even when their health drops to zero. Lag has cropped up a good bit as well, and an extended downtime just a few days in left a bad taste in many mouths. But now that the bad stuff is out of the way (and it's worth noting that few MMOs launch without issues), let's throw out the good stuff: So far, Champions Online has been fun, both in solo play, and when grouped.

Here's the Canadian wilderness. Canadians note: These virtual Canucks say 'eh?' a lot.

The combat is packed with action. My current character, Taoist Angel, is a sorceress that can summon a white wolf and a ring of electricity-spewing totems, and possesses a few more terrific moves besides. Many powers can be charged up by holding the button down for longer, you can block, and you break free from holds by tapping a button. As a result, combat will keep you busy, as you can tell in the following clip:

Taoist Angel: An Oasis in the desert.

There's a lot more to tell you about Champions Online, but it's time to get back to the game and prepare for the review, which should keep me busy most of the long weekend! We'll have an official review in the next week or two, but in the meanwhile, should you see Taoist Angel online, be sure to wave hello and tell her you like her hair, and her fancy trenchcoat.

Gears of War 2's newest downloadable content, Dark Corners, comes out next week on July 28. It's going to cost Gears fans 1200 Microsoft points ($15), but the good news is that it's a worthwhile package for anyone who has exhaustively explored every nook and cranny of the game. Seven new maps and a new single-player level are included--and most of the content is excellent, which makes Dark Corners a great value. (Consider, for example, the Halo 3 map packs, which only included three multiplayer levels and sold for $10.) Warning: the following content contains Gears of War 2 spoilers. Read only if you have finished the campaign, or if you don't mind discovering important plot points.

According to developer Epic Games, the single-player level, Road to Ruin, is a "deleted scene," i.e., content that was originally conceptualized but didn't make it into the final game. The level takes place after Maria's death, but before Marcus and Dom enter Nexus, the central city of the Locust Horde. The action is typical Gears stuff in a number of ways; you battle it out in the series' signature stop-and-pop style, confront a hulking Brumak, and rain death upon a Reaver before you reach the end of the 20- or 30-minute mission. The twist is that you must make a choice at the beginning of the level: Either don Locust armor and try to sneak past your enemies, or gun down drones the old-fashioned way.

The idea of stealthy Gears is initially fascinating, but in practice it isn't as enjoyable as shedding Locust blood. You use the cover system to shift from one point to the next, occasionally pulling a lever or pushing a button, and staying far enough away from your foes to prohibit them from picking up your scent. It quickly becomes apparent that Dom and Marcus weren't meant to slink about; Gears-brand sneaking simply isn't as intense or as satisfying as curb stomping. Fortunately, an old friend from the original Gears of War joins you in the final third of the level, during which you must wreak havoc with your Lancer and Gnasher. Road to Ruin is much more enjoyable if you choose the guns-a-blazing route, not because it offers many surprises (it doesn't), but because it extends the experience and embraces the action that makes Gears of War 2 so great.

It's no surprise that the seven new multiplayer maps also embrace that action. You won't encounter many surprises within this suite of excellent battlegrounds, but there are some standouts amongst them. Two maps stood out as particular favorites: Memorial, and Nowhere. Memorial is set near the Eternal Flame and Tomb of the Unknowns, and its main feature is the monument in the center of the map. That memorial gives rise to intense action, and opportunities for flanking should keep you on the move, particularly during Annex matches. Nowhere is set in an abandoned village in the middle of the desert. The swirling sand is an authentic visual treat, and there are rusty derelict vehicles and stacks of tires that not only make the map look gritty, but provide plenty of opportunity for cover. Nowhere's highlight, however, is the vacant diner. A stairway leads to its roof, where a Mortar lays waiting for you. It's always fun to shower your enemies with fire, though you'll need to be careful, because you're highly vulnerable to anyone that would slink up the stairway. If you don't have anyone covering for you, an enemy can easily sneak up and blast you with his shotgun.

Rargh.

Most of the maps are more straightforward and symmetrical. One of these, Allfathers Garden, is visually striking. Cracked stone archways, crumbling sculptures, and temple columns provide plenty of good cover, while sconces glow softly and mist swirls about. This visual style is similar to what you find in Sanctuary, the third and final "exclusive" map from the PC version of Gears of War to be brought to Gears of War 2. The collapsing stone structures here are clearly more neglected than those in Allfathers Garden, though climbing vines of ivy lend some organic respite to the porticos they obscure. A couple of bridges and a web of stairways spread the action across multiple planes, so a coordinated team can spread across the map effectively and take the enemy unawares.

Way Station, War Machine, and Highway round out this septet of quality multiplayer offerings. The red-hued Way Station takes you clearly into Locust territory and features a trough of imulsion flowing down its center. Multiple platforms (look for the Scorcher on one of them) let you take higher ground, and some tight walkways make a well-aimed grenade toss particularly effective. Forsaken train stations have provided home to shooting action in any number of games, and War Machine is the latest to do so. Moonlight shines in from above, tinting the combat zone blue; and while cover opportunities are abundant thanks to numerous stacks of sandbags, you'll want to watch your step if you jump down on the tracks, since the tight corners and ledges restrict your movement a bit. You take the fight back to Locust territory in Highway, and it's one of the more atmospheric of the new maps, due to columns and altars inscribed with runes and elaborate patterns, almost a mixture of Gothic and Rococo sensibilities. Not only does it look creepy, but elevated areas provide good clear views across the map, handy if you've got the Longshot in your possession.

It just never gets old.

$15 is a good deal for all of this content. The additional scenario isn't as compelling as others in the campaign, but with two different ways to play it, there's reason to visit at least a couple of times, and of course, it supports the usual co-op play. While few of the multiplayer maps supply real surprises, they're laid out well and have a lot of visual character. If you're a Gears 2 fanatic, Dark Corners is a must-play. If you haven't downloaded any content for the game, you can get the new content as part of the All Fronts collection, which includes all downloadable content to date, including Dark Corners, for 1600 Microsoft Points ($20). Either way, you can't really go wrong: More Gears of War 2 is never a bad thing.