Rockstar has sent out a press release today announcing their DLC plans for L.A. Noire.  Three new suits, one challenge, a new gun, and four cases are scheduled to release, with most of them available today.  The DLC can be purchased individually for a total of $20, or you can pick up the Rockstar Pass for $10.

If you join Rockstar’s Social Club, you get the Chicago Lightning Detective Suit for free, and you should also be able to download the Chicago Piano Machine Gun for free today, as well.  Two of the cases, “The Naked City” and “A Slip of the Tongue,” were launch-day retailer exclusives (GameStop and Walmart, respectively), while “Nicholson Electroplating” and “Reefer Madness” will be two new cases dropping in June and July.

The price of the pass goes up to $12 on June 14th, so you’ll want to pick it up sooner than later.  I’ve got my MS Points card and am headed to my 360 as soon as I publish this.

I was given a subscription to Nintendo Power when I was ten or eleven.  While I realize that the magazine is little more than a corporate mouthpiece, I was a Nintendo fanboy as a child.  The Nintendo Power masthead conjures up strong nostalgic feelings from my early gaming days.  As such, Sonic on the cover is… disconcerting, to say the least.

Food for Thought: Is Competition Among Sports Games Dead?:

Owen Good has an excellent article on Kotaku exploring the demise of various sports games franchises.  We all know about EA’s exclusive license with the NFL, and 2KSports third-party-exclusive deal with the MLB, but those aren’t the only sports with only one video game.

Good points out that golf, NASCAR, wrestling, and boxing all only have one franchise apiece, and there are no exclusive deals in place there.  In addition, EA’s practically axed their NBA game, and 2KSports has dropped their NHL title.  Do you think we’ll see competition in the sports genre return?

Page 2: InFamous 2 Trophy Import Modifies the Game:

Bioware has been making use of saved data from previous games for years, but InFamous 2 developer, Sucker Punch, has decided to take a different approach.  Rather than accessing InFamous save files, InFamous 2 will feature a Trophy import system.  Based on what trophies you’ve unlocked in game, bonuses will be awarded, and dialogue and side missions will be altered.

It’s a cool approach, as some people are prone to deleting their save game data.  Since Trophies are kept on Sony’s servers, they never expire, and can be reliably accessed.  I am curious, though, how the game will hand completionists.  If you have both good and evil trophies unlocked, do the changes reflect both?  Either?  Whichever path you’re on at the time?

Franklin Richards: Son of a Genius: Ultimate Collection Book 2 Story & script – Chris Eliopolous & Marc Sumerac, art & letters by Eliopolous and colors by Brad Anderson

Isn’t calling Book 2 an “Ultimate Collection” unfair to the ultimateness of Book 1? Anyway, this volume collects the “Spring Break”, “Not So Secret Invasion”, “Summer Smackdown”, “Sons of Geniuses”, “Its Dark Reigning Cats & Dogs”, “April Fools!” and “School’s Out” one-shots…

One thing Marvel manages to do well are their all-ages books. Whenever their mainline is swimming in angst or cynicism or disappointing Big Event cross-overs, I can count on books like Franklin Richards: Son of a Genius to bring back the fun. Eliopolous and Sumerac always do that with their stories about Franklin and his robot baby-sitter H.E.R.B.I.E. Franklin is a well-meaning, but impulsive little kid. One who, no surprise, would rather treat a lab full of super-science as the World’s Greatest Toy Chest then do his chores or homework….

Ignore the date at the end of the video; Hunted drops in two days.  Co-op hack-and-slash fantasy action: you in?

Reaching two hours in MindJack was difficult.  The gameplay is dull.  The story is incomprehensible.  The level designs are boring.  The dialogue is representative of the “best” of the early Resident Evils.  All of which is disappointing because MindJack has some interesting ideas.

First, you can jump in and out of various innocent bystanders’ minds, commandeering them to fight for you.  The trouble is, nothing changes when you jump into a new body.  If unarmed, the mindjackee materializes a gun out of thin air, and the enemy immediately recognizes you as a threat, ruining any stealthy options.  No special abilities. No new ways to overcome obstacles.  Just another body for the firefight. 

Also interesting, you can open up your game, allowing others to jump in and fight for or against you, gaining experience as you progress.  Unfortunately, I never felt like I was playing a well-crafted single-player game, but rather a series of random multiplayer maps with some terrible connecting dialogue.

The gameplay is passable, and could be enjoyable if the story was compelling, but it’s not.  Yahtzee explains why better than I can here. I’ll just say skip this one.  MindJack didn’t deserve the two hours I gave it.