Robert Bowling has shown up on Major Nelson’s podcast today to unveil some more details on the upcoming Modern Warfare 2 map pack. The Stimulus Map Pack will be priced at 1200 MS points ($14.99) and will include 5 new maps. The 5 maps are the same as those on the early listing of the map pack on the Xbox Live Marketplace. Bowling also notes that both of the COD4 maps have been revamped a bit for this game. However, don’t be afraid, there are no major geographical changes to these classic maps.

Bowling also mentioned that Salvage will be the “run and gun” map where campers might want to reconsider their strategy. The package will also come with a new update to the game that will add some more maps to Hardcore Headquaters, a Hardcore Moshpit playlist and more. You can listen to the entire podcast on Major Nelson’s website linked below.

Show #353: MW2 Stimulus Package [MajorNelson]

Well it looks like Microsoft had a little slip-up this morning and revealed details on the upcoming Modern Warfare 2 DLC package. According to the marketplace listing, the package will include 5 multiplayer maps, 2 of which are returning fan-favorites from the original Modern Warfare. There were previously leaked details and images of these new maps floating around for several weeks now but now we have our first “solid” leak. The new maps include:

• Bailout: multi-level apartment complex
• Storm: open industrial park with “heavy machinery”
• Salvage: a snow level featuring a junkyard with debris and crushed cars stacked up
• Crash: Original MW map with crashed helicopter in middle and several buildings
• Overgrown: Original MW map with “grandma’s house” with two sides of the map separated by a dry river bed.

Xbox 360 owners will be able to pick up these new maps on March 30th while PS3 and PC owners will have to wait another month before they are able to pick them up.

Modern Warfare 2 DLC [Xbox Live Marketplace]

Today Ubisoft released its first part of the Q&A developer videos that it will be slowly rolling out. Ubisoft previously asked users to create video questions for the developers of the game to answer and today marks the first video of answers to those questions. Most of them were trivial questions, not revealing too much about the upcoming game.

However one question and answer did catch out ears: Will there be a demo coming to Xbox Live? The answer is a simply “yes”. There were no other details shared in the video other than the demo will consist of possibly one level. It is unclear whether or not the demo will be a singleplayer or multiplayer demo but I would count on a SP demo showing up sometime early next month.

You can watch the video after the break

LittleBigPlanet was just shown off with a new co-operative gameplay that allows one player to use the Playstation Move controller to help create paths for your teammate to progress to the end of the level. This reminds me a lot of Jet Force Gemini (N64) where your co-op partner utilizes another controller to help you through the levels. At the time it seemed like a simple way to introduce co-op to a game that couldn't utilize two players simultaneously in the story. However with LBP you are already able to do co-operative play with another controller, so the new Move controller seems "wasted" on this game, although we'll have to wait and see.

Today at GDC Sony announced one of the first games designed for the Playstation Move, Sports Champions can be seen as “HD” Wii Sports and will feature games like table tennis, a gladiator-style fighting game. Also announced was Move Party which utilizes the camera to create an augmented-reality affect much like the original Playstation Eye does. Pictured above is a small game apart of the Move Party game which utilizes almost all aspects of the Playstation Move.

Shuhei Yoshida, the President of Sony Computer Entertainment, just unveiled at GDC the official name for the PlayStation motion controller, the PlayStation Move. The Move is Sony's latest PlayStation 3 add-on that will introduce motion-controlled gaming to the "next-gen" system using a design very similar to the Nintendo Wii. The new system is broken down into three parts: the camera, wand and subcontroller.

You will have to purchase at least two of the products to get the motion-controlling experience, both of which will be bundled in a starter pack along with an unannounced game that will retail for under $100. You will also be able to purchase a PS3 system with the starter pack bundled together in the future (Price TBD.) The other part of the system, the wireless "subcontroller", will allow for more precise control and movement of on-screen characters by introducing an analog stick and a few more face buttons. However, this subcontroller will not come bundled in the starter pack, is not motion-sensitive.

On Monday Blur was made available to the public in the form of a multiplayer beta “demo” of sorts. This beta was accessible through registration on the official Blur game website with a special beta token, acquirable from various online websites. I was eager to snag my code the second I was able to, doing so during one of my lecture classes and then anxiously awaiting for the beta a week later to start off my Spring Break.

The racing genre has recently been lacking many “arcade-style” racers and has opted more so in the favor of simulation racing games such as Gran Turismo 5, DiRT, Need for Speed: Shift, GRID, etc. However a few games provided relief with arcade-style gameplay including Burnout Paradise and a personal favorite of mine, Pure. Bizarre Creation’s latest game, Blur, is the next great racing game following the studio’s very successful Project Gotham Racing 4 released with the launch of the Xbox 360. So it’s been several years since Bizarre has made a racing game and in this length of time they’ve decided to change things up a bit with Blur.

Robert Bowling, FourZeroTwo, just tweeted a link to a teaser site, Mapathy. According to the site, which has logos for Modern Warfare 2, Xbox 360/Xbox Live, Activision and Infinity Ward Logos, the “cure” to Mapathy is coming to Xbox Live on March 30th, 2010. Mapathy is described simply as "a state of indifference to the same old maps one has been playing for the last several months." I’m pretty sure you can all put the pieces together yourself, but if not I’ll do it for you:

The first DLC for Modern Warfare 2 will be coming in 3 weeks on March 30th, 2010 which will include several new maps, details of which will be slowly revealed throughout the week. Remember, the first DLC pack for MW2 will be a timed Xbox 360 exclusive, sorry PS3/PC owners, no love for you yet.

FourZeroTwo [Twitter]

Tomorrow, at 8:00am GMT (3:00am EST), EA will be resetting their BFBC2 servers for maintenance and will remain down for an undetermined amount of time. Luckily this scheduled time won’t have a large impact on those playing the game as it is either early in the morning or late at night when this downtime will happen (depending on your time zone).

The BFBC2 servers have been suffering from several problems since the release of the game, preventing a lot of players from playing the game’s multiplayer so hopefully this downtime will address and fix the majority of their problems.

EA Maintenance & BC2 [Battlefield Blog]

A few days ago Nintendo issued a US patent for a new cartridge design for their Nintendo DS handheld. This patent reminds me a lot of one of the first Slot1 flashcarts for the Nintendo DS, the NinjaDS (which I reported about back at my days on QJ). The patent application is very sparse on details and just shows some photos of the device and a photo of it in the Nintendo DS Lite. I think it’s pretty safe to say Nintendo has a little secret up it’s sleeve and I have no clue what it could be. You can see more pictures after the break and feel free to speculate about this new cartridge in our comments.

Cartridge for Electronic Game Machine [US Design Patent] [Warning: PDF]