When it comes to MMO news and special features, Joystiq sister site Massively.com has you covered. Whether you're looking for info on the hottest new MMO, or you're just curious about an old favorite, you'll find it at Massively. Check out our biggest features of the week:

	Massively's 2009 Winter Holiday Event Guide It's that time of year again -- whatever holiday you are celebrating, the denizens of your favorite MMO are sure to be celebrating it too. Whether it's Festivult in Dungeons and Dragons Online, Wintersday in Guild Wars, or the Starlight Celebration in Final Fantasy XI, the theme is the same. There are presents, some sort of sugary treats, and tons of fun.
	NASA releases new information on their upcoming MMO Back in November, we talked about an exciting space MMO in the works from NASA, called Astronaut: Moon, Mars, and Beyond. The information they had at the time was pretty extensive, and left us anxious to find out more and try it out.
	Hi-Rez Studios announces Global Agenda launch date Hi-Rez studios officially announced that the game will launch on February 1st, 2010, and pre-orders are available through Steam, Amazon.com, and the official site beginning today. Those who pre-order will enjoy all sorts of perks, including access to the January beta events, ability to reserve their player and agency names, and special in-game items.
	Funcom offers unlimited free trial for Age of Conan With the Age of Conan expansion Rise of the Godslayer approaching, opportunities for new and returning players to explore the game (or revisit it) have been more frequent than usual these days. The latest offer comes via FilePlanet. If you're a FilePlanet subscriber, you can play the first part of the game for free in an unlimited trial. The offer is good until December 31st, but as long as you download before then, your trial will not expire.

Continued →

Never ever underestimate the power of nostalgia -- just ask Nintendo or Capcom. FingerGaming's list of the top-grossing iPhone/iPod Touch apps reveals Where's Waldo? The Fantastic Journey is outselling Call of Duty: World at War Zombies, which held the top spot for three weeks. To put this in perspective: some world-traveling goof who blends into a crowd with the ease of a fully-trained CIA operative is beating out a game with Call of Duty and Zombies in its title. That is a skill.

EA's iPhone port of Dragon's Lair took the third spot. Actually, EA is doing well on the iPhone, as Tetris, The Sims 3, Need for Speed Undercover and Monopoly also made the top ten list. EA is also having a major sale right now on iPhone games, so that might be helping a bit.

[Via Gamasutra]

Out of the handful of mainstream media outlets that handle video games in a capacity beyond when controversy strikes or the occasional blockbuster's release, Slate.com's "Game Club" annually gets together for a critical discussion on the year in games. This year's crew includes Chris Suellentrop, Leigh Alexander, Mitch Krpata and Jamin Brophy-Warren, and covers everything from the beauty and simplicity of Canabalt to the "shocking and meaningless" Modern Warfare 2 airport scene (their words).

Rather than present a top 10 list list some mainstream publications choose (we're looking at you, Time Magazine!), the group discusses various themes that pervaded some of their favorite (and less than favorite) games of 2009. You might call it "game criticism," but we just call it "an interesting read."

Feeling left out by today's Army of Two demo news, PSP owners? You may not get to play the PSP version of Army of Two: The 40th Day today, but EA sent out a trailer, ensuring that you'll be able to ... watch it being played. And this trailer does feature a good amount of footage of the Commando/Ikari Warriors-esque top-down shooter.

Not that you won't get the chance to step into the shoes of a masked, bloodthirsty murderer before the January 13 release in North America. A PSP demo will be available on PSN January 7 (January 14 in Europe). Just try to hold out until then. Maybe seek comfort from one good friend.

This past Saturday brought us the Spike TV Video Game Awards and – before experiencing the litany of world exclusives that awaited us inside – we spent some time outside cruising the red carpet and talking (briefly!) to many of the game developers and talent. We squeezed them for information as fast as we could while simultaneously wishing them holiday cheer and good tidings. Yes, it was as awkward as it sounds. HHere's what we learned from Bungie's Curtis Creamer about Halo 3: ODST.

Was there a decision made to have no DLC for Halo 3: ODST?

Well, that was something that we didn't really think we could do for ODST because traditionally all of our DLC has been about competitive multiplayer. That's something that we had the systems in place for. But, since Firefight is more based on the co-operative campaign mode, that was a technology that we hadn't built up to a point where we could add DLC to the game. It would have been too much of an investment to make that happen.

This past Saturday brought us the Spike TV Video Game Awards and – before experiencing the litany of world exclusives that awaited us inside – we spent some time outside cruising the red carpet and talking (briefly!) to many of the game developers and talent. We squeezed them for information as fast as we could while simultaneously wishing them holiday cheer and good tidings. Yes, it was as awkward as it sounds. Here's what we learned from Jean-François Boivin, Production Manager on Assassin's Creed 2.

So you have already announced two DLC packs. Will there be packs after that? How are you filling in Chapters 12 and 13? Is there a Chapter 15?

You guys will find out soon enough ... there's nothing really announced yet as to anything that would support the next two DLCs. It will all make sense. [Ed. note: here's that announcement, and we're springing out of our seats]

What has surprised you since launch?

One of the things that is really cool is that right now, the numbers show us that 40% of the people are actually finishing the game. What that tells us is that people are really submerging themselves into the world of Assassin's Creed.

Where would you want to set Assassin's Creed 3?

That's something we don't even know yet ourselves. Right now we're just taking a break after shipping this game. But we're thinking about where this license can go, and we're working on concepts in the next few months.

Here it is! If you can't access the PlayStation Store on your PSP, you can download the English language demo of Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker right here. Make sure you have the latest firmware update on your PSP and at least 103MB of free space on your system. Connect your PSP via USB, extract the ZIP file and copy the NPUH90066 folder to your PSP's Memory Stick, under PSP/GAME.

This will be the final "normal" PSN Thursday of 2009. Next week the update will occur on Tuesday, December 22, and there will be no update the following week.

Let's be honest, though, there's plenty of great downloadable games and DLC available that one week without an update isn't going to be that painful. For those who've been practicing their aversion to fun this year and are ready to accept joy, now's the time to check out some of this year's PSN titles like Fat Princess, Critter Crunch and PixelJunk Shooter. Also, today's update adds Final Fantasy VIII. Any other great downloadable titles from 2009 worth mentioning? Check out the full PSN update after the break.

Continued →

During the always thrilling Take-Two Interactive quarterly investors call this afternoon, the ever-elusive Mafia 2 received an almost, kinda sorta release date: Q3 2010. When applying Take-Two's Q3 dates to the Gregorian calendar that most folks on this planet use, we can infer that the game will arrive somewhere between May 1 and July 31. This isn't to say that the title is a shoe-in for release, though, with company CEO Strauss Zelnick saying the game is "scheduled to fall in our third quarter." Remember when Max Payne 3 was scheduled for release in Winter of 2009? Exactly.

This past Saturday brought us the Spike TV Video Game Awards and – before experiencing the litany of world exclusives that awaited us inside – we spent some time outside cruising the red carpet and talking (briefly!) to many of the game developers and talent. We squeezed them for information as fast as we could while simultaneously wishing them holiday cheer and good tidings. Yes, it was as awkward as it sounds. Here's what we learned from Paul Crocker at Rocksteady about Batman: Arkham Asylum.

So when are we getting real DLC?

We can't talk about DLC, I'm afraid. [Note: with the announcement of Batman: Arkham Asylum 2, if that indeed ends up being the name for the sequel, it seems highly unlikely that we'll get any more DLC for the first game. Rats.]

Well, that's not a no! What has surprised you all the most about the game since launch?

Well, for us we're just really happy that people liked it. We worked really hard to do the brand justice and to try and make a good Batman game. Obviously when you're working on something like that you're really inside a bubble, and you don't know what people really think. And the reaction has been quite cool, so everyone at Rocksteady is really excited.

Speaking about that reaction, how does it work for a developer on launch day? Is it like in the film industry where people get the box office numbers coming in right away? Are you getting sales figures? How do you know it's doing well?

In all honesty ... we look at websites. [laughs] I mean if some website says it sold X number of copies, we don't even know if that's true. I guess we're the last to find out. But we look at the reviews and read what people are actually saying about the game. The afternoon when all the reviews went live, we were all sitting in the office and it was just really exciting. If you get an 8 out of 10, you're like "Awww, that's bad" because the other ones were 9, you know? But we were seeing scores at 9 or more and it was an interesting afternoon, and quite a nice evening at the pub.

Fielding a question on today's quarterly investors call regarding the performance of Grand Theft Auto 4's DLC double-header and the accompanying retail bundle – The Lost and Damned, The Ballad of Gay Tony, and Episodes from Liberty City, respectively – Take-Two chairman Strauss Zelnick admits, "Both we and Microsoft believed there was a big market for GTA 4 episodic content and some factors affected their performance." Calling the two companies' relationship "a historic, strategic partnership" – remember this? – and calling the episodes themselves "profitable contributors to the company," Zelnick nevertheless offered some insight into what his company could have done to make them even more profitable.

"Both were released significantly after the launch of the core unit," Zelnick says, referring to the April 2008 launch of Grand Theft Auto 4. "And therefore weren't able to leverage GTA 4's initial marketing campaign and initial launch fervor." With The Lost and Damned coming out in February of this year, some 10 months after GTA 4's initial release, and The Ballad of Gay Tony this past October, 18 months after the initial release, we'd have to agree that timing played an issue; the GTA 4 hype machine had worn off.

Continued →

French developer Golgoth Studio captured our attention this October when it announced it was working on a complete high-def remake of the classic arcade game, Toki. However, today Joystiq learned that Microsoft has decided against publishing the remake itself and has invited the indie dev to find another publisher willing to put the game on its platform.

According to Toki HD producer Anthony De Sa Ferreira, the Xbox Live Arcade approval process only allows titles published by Microsoft or an approved third-party company. Following its submission, Microsoft told Golgoth Studio that Toki HD "did not fit with the current needs of Microsoft Game Studio," and suggested the developer contact another publisher. Golgoth tells Joystiq that it is in active conversations with multiple publishers and is confident the game will see life on the Xbox Live Arcade, saying an agreement may be only weeks away.

Ferreira believes Microsoft's approval process may have become more stringent in light of the recent high-profile success of original games on the platform, such as Shadow Complex. "I think it's too bad, because it's the independent studios who helped the XBLA to [meet] the success it knows today," he said, adding that not many indie devs can achieve such an impressive result as the Chair-developed title.

Continued →

The always enjoyable Video Games Live concert series will have a performance taped and shown on PBS stations next year. The recorded performance will occur February 5, 2010, at the Lakefront Arena in New Orleans. Tickets, which start at $15, go on sale Friday, December 18 at 10AM CST (check Ticketmaster or call 800-745-3000).

We contacted VGL Executive Producer Tommy Tallarico to find out about special guests for this televised concert. He told us that the performance is still in the early planning stages and wishes he had more to share. Tallarico explained, "The only thing I could really say for sure right now is that we are not only going to have special guests from the gaming world -- game composers and game designers from around the world -- we're also going to have special musical guests and celebrities not from the gaming world, but who are very well known and fantastic performers."

For the rest of us not near Mardi Gras land, the concert will begin airing in June on your local PBS station and a DVD/Blu-ray version will be distributed worldwide. All of this sounds like a very clever way for PBS to attract a younger demographic. Also, if you attend the taped concert, make sure to dress business casual. Greasy gamers in T-shirts and jeans don't make for good crowd shots.

This past Saturday brought us the Spike TV Video Game Awards and – before experiencing the litany of world exclusives that awaited us inside – we spent some time outside cruising the red carpet and talking (briefly!) to many of the game developers and talent. We squeezed them for information as fast as we could while simultaneously wishing them holiday cheer and good tidings. Yes, it was as awkward as it sounds. Here's what we learned from Tony Hawk about Tony Hawk Ride.

You've been very vocal about the negative reviews of the game. What made you want to strike back?

Because I feel like a lot of people ... not just bad reviews, but some of them were just mean-spirited. You know what I mean? I felt like that wasn't fair to us, and it was also turning people away from even trying it. I feel like it's not for everyone, but try it! I see kids love it. I see parents that take to it and really enjoy it, and I just wanted a fair chance for people to try it objectively. When I see people just coming down on me personally, that got me going and I was frustrated with it.

But at the same time, I'm totally proud of it, I love the game. I spent two years of my life getting it going, and it was my idea ... I brought it to Activision. For people to say "Oh, you just stick your name on the game and that's it," that's not what it is at all.

The sales figures came out and they were disappointing. Do you think Activision will keep going in the same direction with this game or will go back to the old Tony Hawk?

I don't know, I guess that remains to be discussed. I really feel like the board is a good device, and we can make more games based on it. I really want to do that. This wasn't a gimmick, I didn't want people to think they have to buy a new one next year. I wanted to make this board so ... it's a platform to do other things with.

Does the game have the ability to be mapped to a standard controller? Could Activision implement that via a download?

You know what, we looked into it ... the way that you physically play the game, it wouldn't translate to a very challenging game with a joystick. The control scheme would have to be completely different, and we didn't want to make a game that was confusing like that.

Who's Tex Murphy, you might ask? No, not the guy who created Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck -- that's Tex Avery. Tex Murphy is the protagonist of a series of vintage adventure games, combining post-apocalyptic sci-fi with pulp detective stories. If that sounds intriguing to you, you can get the first two games in the series, Mean Streets and Martian Memorandum, for free from GOG.com! The games may not have aged gracefully, but the price certainly has.

The site is offering the two Access Software adventures as a holiday gift, from now through December 24. Or, if you already bought those games from GOG, you can get a mysterious "alternative gift."