You've probably seen the Sackboy of Kratos, of God of War fame, announced as a downloadable character for Little Big Planet.  Ripten reports that the GameStop preorder bonus will include quite a bit more.  Those who preorder will get Kratos, Minotaur, and Medusa Sackboys (Sackpeople?), plus a God of War-themed level.  Quite a nice bonus, I must say.

It looks like more familar characters will be available in Sack form, too.  According to the latest EGM magazine, characters from third party games will also be making appearances as DLC for the game.  Even Disney characters included!  Let's hope these characters are free, or at least, quite inexpensive.  If the game ends up being as popular as the hype would suggest, I'm sure companies will be lining up to get their characters featured in LBP.

Lastly, For those of us who aren't lucky enough to be in the beta, Wired has posted a top 10 list of their favorite user created levels.  I personally enjoyed the "Red Rings of Burninating" level, myself.  The list is definitely worth checking out, here. 

How many of you went to the store...bought Rock Band 2...drove home...opened the package...and then read the instruction booklet through to the back cover?

Most likely very few have even glanced at the instruction booklet for what has to be the easiest-to-learn game since Pac-man. Yet if you had, on the back cover you'd find a redemption code for twenty free downloadable tracks that will be available in the coming weeks for Xbox 360, Playstation 3, and Nintendo Wii rockers.

Harmonix has opened pre-registration for the free download, which requests your e-mail address in order to notify you of the DLC's official release once confirmed. You'll doubtless receive your share of junk mail to complement your free content, but it's a small price to pay, right?

At this time, there's no official set list for the DLC pack; but don't get your feathers ruffled, friends, it's free!

There must be something in the air this morning, because all I can smell are achievements.  The latest achievements to be confirmed are a fairly large set for Halo 3 bringing to light the previously rumored "Mythic" Map Pack.  While it's unknown whether or these are single or multiplayer maps, we are going to lean towards Single Player and Co-Op Maps due to the existence of new skulls.

The original secret skulls were available one per map based on the level name, therefore the new skulls; Assembly, Citadel, Heretic, Longshore, Orbital, and Sandbox, should reveal the names of the new maps.  

In total the Mythic Map Pack will add 500 Gamerscore to the recently added 250 Gamerscore for the title update that went live today.  Looks like it's about time to fire up Halo 3 again and get the crew back together for some Covenant slaying co-op action!

Criterion Games has announced on their blog that the Burnout Paradise free update originally codenamed "Davis" is now available on the Live Marketplace and PlayStation Network.

With it, you get:

• Pick from 2 motorcycles featuring male or female characters and start on a whole new progression to earn your Bike License.

• 38 new against-the-clock race events – Burning Ride and Midnight Ride.

• A brand new in-game 24 hr day / night cycle that impacts traffic density and available events.  (It's fully customisable – you can make it day/night/change the clock speed – it's up to you.)

• Dynamic weather brings an all-new look to Paradise City

• And if that's not enough, we've got 70 more Freeburn Challenges too

The update clocks in at 445 MB for Xbox 360, and 120 MB for Playstation 3 (thanks, Rogue_hunter!).  Of course there's plenty of co-op challenges to be had in the game, and with 70 more hopefully there are some new unique ones.

The free goodies just keep coming!

There's nothing better than getting more co-op content for an already superb cooperative game.  Ok, there is something better, getting free content for an already superb cooperative game!

EA has just announced the Veteran Map pack will be available this Thursday, May 29th on both Xbox Live and PSN for FREE!  The pack is sponsored by Pontiac and features two brand new co-op missions and a new 2 vs 2 multiplayer map.

The first mission takes place in a subway station in Kiev where you must find and destroy the central hub of a dangerous militia.  The second mission takes you back to SSC headquarters in Miami where you get the chance to take out Dalton, Rios and Salem’s ex-boss and the man responsible for framing them, in an "intense boss fight where the glory of revenge is finally felt."  The final map, a multiplayer versus map, is set in a China Canal Lock.

The map pack is said to have "dynamic and destructible enviornments" not available in the original version of the game.  Could that mean something along the lines of the aircraft carrier mission?  I guess we'll know this Thursday.

Good news for fans of Army of Two.  EA has announced that the first set of downloadable content entitled "The Security and Strategy Corporation Challenge" will hit Xbox Live and PS3 next Thursday for the low price of $7.50.  The pack contains four maps and a series of obstacle courses, and upon completion, players will be invited to join the SSC.  What that means is anybodies guess, perhaps you'll be allowed to wear scary face masks in public.

"We want to support our fans with new content that delivers on the two-man gameplay but with a unique twist," said EA Montreal's Alain Tascan, adding, "The SSC Challenge gives players a chance to test their skills in a different setting while retaining the action packed co-op intensity that gamers have come to expect in Army of Two."

Be sure to check out our review of Army of Two for more info on the game.

Excuse the above pun, but we might as well get it out now. On to the news! 2OP Gaming has reported that Turok has passed 1 million sold. More important is that with this announcement has come details about a new DLC co-op map.

* Co-Op – A brand new Turok co-op map for 2-4 players. In this co-op map your Whiskey Company squad has been captured and is being held in a Mendel-Gruman facility designed for holding dinosaurs. You and your team have to break out and make it to the rescue chopper before the Wolf Pack troops decide to feed you to the captured raptors.

This is good news for those of you who love to kill dinosaurs, but don't want your friends to feel left out. This map, along with four other maps (which are multiplayer-only) will come out tomorrow, March 27, and will set you back 400 Microsoft Points on Xbox Live Marketplace, or $4.99 on Playstation Network. Three cheers for co-op dinosaur killing!

Several bits of news have come up as of late regarding the world's loudest co-op game, Rock Band.  Joystick reports that a jaw dropping six million songs have been downloaded since the game's release.  6,000,000.  To put things into perspective, that is like an album going platinum, 6 times over.  By anyone's measure, Rock Band DLC is a success.  It's no surprise then, that the wait for the long-promised release of entire albums may be shorter than you think.  A patch for Rock Band will be available soon, and one of the (long overdue) main features of the patch is an in-game Music Store.  Albums are listed under new releases as "coming soon".  Hopefully we can all be playing Who's Next and Nevermind by summer.  Additional features of the Music Store are previews for each song and the ability to sort through available music as you like. This will make finding just the right song to download that much easier for you, and that much harder on your wallet.

Can't get enough of the game that "redefined underwater action games"?  Well you are in luck!  The folks from Chair Entertainment have announced a brand new expansion pack for their game Undertow on the Xbox Live Arcade.  It features a brand new 5 mission campaign that is playable via co-op.  It also adds a new race, and several new multiplayer maps.

The expansion pack will set you back 400 MS Points...not a bad price when a lot of us got the game for free.

Major Nelson brings word that there's a new map pack for Ghost Recon Advance Warfighter 2 on the Xbox 360 entitled - GRAW 2 Co-Op Collection 2. 

GRAW 2 Co-op Collection 2 brings back some of the greatest maps in Ghost Recon history and let’s you cooperate and compete in exciting new locales. An all new co-op campaign with 5 missions takes you back to some of the greatest locations from the Ghost Recon franchise. Inspired from the original Ghost Recon and remade to the stunning benchmark from GRAW 2. 9 new adversarial maps – 7 inspired from the greatest in the franchise and 2 brand new maps. 8 new Achievements with a total of 125 points. Exciting new challenges that encourage different tactics. The ghosts are back again.

The pack will set you back 400 MS Points.  I gotta say, the folks at Ubisoft have done an amazing job supporting GRAW 2 after launch with plenty of free and premium content, with extra attention to co-op!