Welcome to the newer, earlier, more Tuesday-flavored North American PlayStation Store update, which brings with it more shooting, shootin' and shoot fighting.

The rescheduled PlayStation Store update brings with it the no-longer-timed-exclusive Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Stimulus Package, the PlayStation Network version of Lead and Gold and the UFC Undisputed 2010 demo. Hey! Where are you going? We have all these other new additions to tell you about!

Games & Demos For PlayStation 3

Lead and Gold: Gangs Of The Wild West ($14.99)
UFC Undisputed 2010 demo

Games & Demos for PSP

Fat Princess: Fistful Of Cake ($19.99)
Armored Core Last Raven ($14.99)
What Did I Do To Deserve This, My Lord!? 2 ($29.99)
Iron Man 2 The Video Game ($29.99)
PSP minis: Sneezies ($2.99)
PSP minis: One Two Boat Racing (PSP Only) ($1.99)
PSP minis: Ramen Heaven (PSP Only) ($1.99)
PSP minis: Finger Connection (PSP Only) ($1.99)
Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Heroes 3 demo

Add-ons & Expansions

Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Stimulus Package ($14.99)
Record Of Agarest War: Add-On Dungeon 3: Generation 3 Magma Val (free)
Record Of Agarest War: Add-On Dungeon 4: Generation 4 Tresor Island (free)
Record Of Agarest War: Item Pack 3: Recovery Kit + (free)
Record Of Agarest War: Item Pack 4: Combination Pack (free)

Rock Band tracks

• "Different People" – No Doubt ($1.99)
• "End It On This" – No Doubt ($1.99)
• "Happy Now?" – No Doubt ($1.99)
• "Hey You" – No Doubt ($1.99)
• "Sixteen" – No Doubt ($1.99)
• "The Climb" – No Doubt ($1.99)
• "Tragic Kingdom" – No Doubt ($1.99)
• "World Go Round" – No Doubt ($1.99)
• "You Can Do It" – No Doubt ($1.99)
• No Doubt Tragic Kingdom: The Deep Cuts ($14.99) – "Different People," "Happy Now?," "Tragic Kingdom," "Hey You," "The Climb," "End It on This," "World Go ‘Round," "You Can Do It," and "Sixteen"
• No Doubt Tragic Kingdom: The Complete Album ($19.99)
• "According To You" – Orianthi ($1.99)
• "Deartest (I'm So Sorry)" – Picture Me Broken ($0.99)
• "Bodies" by Drowning Pool ($1.99)
• "I Know What I Am" by Flight of the Conchords ($1.99)
• "Little Black Backpack ‘09" by Stroke 9 ($1.99)
• "Semi-Charmed Life ‘09" by Third Eye Blind ($1.99)
• "Survive" – by Lacuna Coil ($1.99)

Game Videos

Pulse 5/4 Edition
3D Dot Game Heroes Trailer
EyePet video
Dead Space 2 Reveal Trailer
PlayStation Move video
Kevin Butler video

PlayStation 3 Themes & Wallpapers

Drops ($1.49)

Can one hideously ugly man facing impossible odds to save his daughter from a mysterious disease make for a beautiful action role-playing game? Find out in our review of Square Enix's Nier.

Dog-faced Nier's young daughter Yonah has been infected with the strange Black Scrawl virus, and he'll do whatever it takes to free her from pain and weakness, even if it means teaming up with a young boy with a deadly secret, a sword-wielding hermaphrodite with a penchant for fighting in lingerie, and an odd talking book that grants him access to powerful magics.

I mean, what father wouldn't?

Loved
A Dark New Story: I've played a lot of role-playing games over the past twenty-five years, so for one to come along with a storyline that actually surprises me is rare, and Nier does that. At heart it's the tale of a father trying to find a cure for his daughter's strange illness, and the lengths he'll go to protect her. As the story progresses the magnitude of the threat grows larger and the characters' plight more dire, but the game never loses sight of that heart, coming about full circle for the dramatic climax.

What also struck me about Nier's story is the fact that it's quite a downer. Every time you experience a moment of triumph, something horrible happens. This is especially evident in the storyline for the character of Emil, who spends the game going from one terrible situation to the next. I truly felt bad for the characters and their situations, which I suppose made those few triumphs that much sweeter, and the fact that they've managed to do all of this while still maintaining a wry sense of humor throughout the game is borderline genius.

Kainé: I was going to single out each of the three characters accompanying you on your journey to cure Nier's daughter of her strange affliction, but the more I thought about it, the more I thought about Kainé and how she completely made the game for me. This foul-mouthed hermaphrodite swordsperson pulls you into the game from the moment you first hear her voice, cursing like a sailor before the title even shows up on your screen. While everyone else struggles to fit into the fantasy mold, Kainé is the only one with balls enough to call the giant rampaging monster a shit hog. As Grimoire Weiss points out, "That's not even a real word," but I don't care. You have to love Kainé.

Give That Man A Giant Magic Hand: When I first saw Nier in action, I thought it was a 3rd-person action game, in the same vein as God of War, but Square Enix kept calling it an action role-playing game, so I started going with that. Having played the game, I'm still torn. Basic combat plays out like it does in your average hack and slash game, with three different weapon sets unlocked during the course of the game - the quick and versatile one-handed sword; the slow but area-devastating two-handers; and the deadly spear, which is immensely powerful but requires the most precision to wield. While Nier never gets quite as over the top as Kratos does, he does have his moments.

Then you add in magic, and things get even weirder. Suddenly Nier is summoning giant fists to punch the living hell out of his opponents, making spikes shoot up out of the ground, impaling his foes, or even firing off a shadow version of himself to attack his enemies. One of the powers (Dark Bolt) turns the game into a shooter, with one dungeon featuring a mine cart ride that effectively turns the game into an on-rails shooter. It's a little crazy at times, but I love it.

Damn Impressive Boss Fights: Nier features some of the most entertaining and innovative boss fights I've ever experienced in an action RPG, period. You take on these gigantic creatures, dodging beams of magic, throwing bombs, disabling appendages, and whittling down your massive opponents in multi-stage battles that rage across entire playfields, in some instances at least. One fight even has you playing a bizarre 3D version of Breakout. Sadly the fights get a lot more mundane as you wrap up your first play through, but that's what multiple play throughs are for, right?

Games On The Side: While you can easily speed through the main storyline in under 15 hours (there's a trophy for it!), Nier is packed with enough extra content to keep you going for days. There's the requisite fishing mini-game, growing and cultivating fruits and vegetables in your garden, collecting items to upgrade your arsenal of weapons, as well as your standard side quests. Side quests range from simple fetch quests, to complicated deliver quests requiring you make it across a dangerous playfield without getting hit, lest your valuable delivery be damaged. Figure in multiple game endings and an extensive narrative history of Kainé—accessed by loading your end game save after the credits roll—it can easily take more than 70 hours to see all Nier has to offer.

Siren Songs: Nier may feature the most beautiful soundtrack in any game released this year, and I don't say that lightly. The game made some of the most wonderful music come out of my surround sounds speakers, often accompanied by the mournful, haunting voice of a woman singing in some long-forgotten tongue. At one point in the game you even come across a woman singing the background music, and the vocal track fades while you interact, kicking in again once you move on. It's just a small little fade-in and fade out, but it speaks volumes on the sort of attention music was given in Nier.

The Forest Of Myth: I do not want to ruin the Forest of Myth for anyone, which makes it hard to sing the location's praises. Let's just say that there's a game play mechanic in place here that I never expected from an action role-playing game, and I was completely charmed by its addition. It's one of those things that no other game has really done before, and none other can do again for fear of being labeled derivative.

Hated
Doubling Back: For all its expansive beauty, I found myself doubling back and revisiting old locations in Nier much more than I normally prefer to. Going back once isn't so bad, but when I have to fight my way through the same dungeon three times during the course of one game, it begins to wear on you.

Who Jumps Like That?: Nier's jumping animations are very, very strange. There's an overall quirkiness to the animations that I found unappealing, but the jumping takes the cake. He kicks off the ground, chest jutting forward as if her were seeking out a protruding spear to impale himself upon. Like I said, very, very strange.

Why Am I So Ugly?: Nier is one ugly bastard. I'm not generally one to care about the physical appearance of the character I am portraying, but Nier is ugly to the point of distraction. I mean, there's rugged ugly, the sort of ugly you get after spending your entire life struggling against impossible odds, and then there's Nier's particular brand of ugly, with his dog-like face and hair that looks like someone piled white straw on his head. Later on in the game he wears a mask. I have never been so thankful for a mask.

Nier is not at all what I expected. At first glance, I was ready to dismiss the game as a generic action adventure title with a bland, muscle-bound hero on a quest to do something that would eventually blossom into full-blown world saving. As I played, I was pleasantly surprised to find a complex action role-playing game with some big ideas, a daring storyline, flashy combat, and enough extra content to satisfy even the most obsessive compulsive role-playing fan. Like its main character, Nier's thuggish exterior hides a very complex story for those willing to take the time to get to know it.

If that's not compelling enough, it has a scantily-clad hermaphrodite who says "Shit Hog." Everybody wins!

Nier was developed by Cavia and published by Square Enix on April 22 for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Retails for $59.99 USD. A copy of the game was given to us by the publisher for reviewing purposes. Played the PlayStation 3 version on standard difficulty through to completion. Total play time: 22 hours.

Confused by our reviews? Read our review FAQ.

It is true that betas are allowed to have glitches. That doesn't make them any less entertaining to watch. And, hey, who can complain if Halo Reach still has bugs? What people are playing now is just a beta.

Up top is the best glitch I've been about to find on YouTube so far from the Halo Reach beta that's been running since early-access began late last week. We are seeing a player, their character shot dead, revived in their character's corpse. The dead body can't movestand up, but it can fire aim a gun.

If, however, you're more of an unexploded-grenade glitch fan, you may prefer this:

Or do you like the old glitch stand-by of falling through a game world? Everyone loves that:

Wait, no? You're a fan if the Wingdings font? Then go to the 1:00 mark here for the Halo Reach glitch made for you:

I'm more of a dead-body-can-shoot glitch kind of guy, though, so I declare the top one as the best one.

This xtreme!!! It may not induce a thirst for tossing back a Mountain Dew or inspire us to shred something, but the PlayStation Network release of Castle Crashers is not tame looking by any means.

The official Behemoth Development Blog sets up our first look at the new competitive mode coming to Castle Crashers—you know, eventually—which appears to take a casual stance toward standardized volleyball rules. So when is all this revamped PlayStation 3-flavored Castle Crashers fun coming? The Behemoth doesn't know, only saying that the PSN game is in its "final testing" stages.

Perhaps the wait will become more tolerable once the developer unveils its other new secret feature...

Castle Crashers PS3 Update!! [The Behemoth Development Blog]

In a heartfelt letter on his blog, Clint Hocking, the main man behind Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory and Far Cry 2, explained yesterday why he's leaving the studio he's worked at for a decade, Ubisoft Montreal.

The full letter to fans and peers is a must-read, but if you're short on time, here is part of creative director Hocking's powerful sign-off:

I am too comfortable. I am too content. And I know where that can lead for me.

Fortunately, for the first time in my life, I know the way forward. The way forward lies in my having the courage that I did not know I had a decade ago to bid farewell to those tragically comforting habits. I need to walk on hot coals and sleep on a bed of nails. I need to chew on broken glass. I need to drink paint. This post has gotten long enough and I am still afraid to come to the point, but what I really need more than anything is to write these words;

I gave notice of my resignation to Ubisoft on Monday, April 26th, 2010.

Hocking's most recent game, Far Cry 2, was released in the fall of 2008. He's had no announced projects since then. No word on what that work might have entailed nor what he will be doing next.

Read the whole letter at Hocking's blog:

451 Weeks [Click Nothing blog]

Video games have given the world joy, joysticks and Super Mario. They've been accused of worse. Let us hope they have not inspired TV series, like Lost, to end simplistically (thus, badly!), the way so many video games do.

In the interest of not spoiling ABC's Lost for those who are not caught up — and of not getting too specific for those who don't care — just recognize, please, that the hit show Lost ends its six-season run later this month. How it may end is a subject of popular debate, at least for the millions who watch the show weekly.

Lost has been about survival: What do people who've crashed on a seemingly deserted tropical island go on living?

Lost has been about mystery — maybe there are other people and mad science experiments and even noisy monsters on this island too?

But in Season 6, Lost may also be about one of the worst storytelling sinkholes: the march toward a boss battle.

No Andross In My Lost, Please

Just as there is in Super Mario Bros, in every Zelda game, in both Bioshocks, in the Final Fantasy adventures and so many more video games, there appears to be an ultimate bad guy in Lost. And, with just a few episodes remaining until the late-May finale, it's looking like the series may end with our hero or heroes fighting one big, tough bad guy.

This is worrisome.

(I'm not saying who Lost's final boss appears to be, since some of you only watch this show via DVD boxed sets and have yet to view it. How nice of me!)

Video games didn't invent the idea of an ultimate enemy or a nemesis. King Arthur battled Morgan le Fay; Robin Hood, the Sheriff of Nottingham. The Bible had the devil. The 20th century had Hitler.

Still, video games have been relying on the boss battle as the primary way to signal that their adventure is complete with scant exception. They present a final nemesis, the grim reaper of the little life they've allowed players to experience for 20, 30 or 40 hours. And they provide the chance to kick him into oblivion. An ultimate evil conquered, roll credits.

The fault of video games has not been their inclusion of ultimate bad guys, but their reliance on them. They are the default device to ending a video game adventure. To end a game without encountering one is still a modern surprise.

Video Game's Favorite Storytelling Folly

The acclaimed Bioshock, an adventure through the madness of a failed undersea utopia may sport a slower pace and appeal to the thinking man, but it ends with a fight against a chemically-empowered giant. Shadow of the Colossus is an emotional journey of a boy sent to hunt grand beasts. Climaxes with a boss battle. Star Fox is the video game equivalent of Top Gun. Each entry culminates with a boss battle. Grand Theft Autos don't end with boss battles, nor do Halos. But Metal Gears do. Resident Evils do. Prince of Persias. God of Wars. Gears of Wars. One recent game, full of suave and sophisticated action, climaxed with a boss battle: beat up the pope.

When you need to end dozens of hours of adventure, video games teach us, you do it with a boss battle.

Movies can get away with this. Compared to six-season-long TV series and 40-hour video games, they are short. Next to those baroque forms of entertainment, feature films are mere sonnets or songs, needing a final clever rhyme or a cymbal crash to end their brief run. Big-time video games and big-time TV series are a little closer to the length of life, and life ends, for most, with no boss battles. Neither do novels, whose creators know how to drift their story to completion if need be or at least just not bottleneck their portrayed evil into the shape of an ultimate man who must be shot three times and tossed to the moon.

For about four seasons, Lost did not appear to be destined for a video game ending. It had a shot of ending more like The Sopranos, with an abrupt exit, or mournfully without a heroically everyone-wins Star Wars end, a la The Wire. ABC's show seemed more likely to do those things than to identify its most evil element as a foe to be conquered, a most powerful enemy that would require, in video-game boss style, a specific plan and pattern executed by our heroes to overcome.

Should Lost end in such a way, with a boss battle, we can surely blame other influences than video games. But I won't be able to shake my fear that games did this. If Lost ends in the manner that so many games do, I will lament the nefarious influence of the medium that named the show's submarine (Galaga) and helped justify the inanity of pressing buttons mindlessly to possibly save the world (see all of Season 2).

I wish video games didn't end like video games as much as they do. I hope TV shows, Lost or otherwise, don't end like them either.

Over 1,600 Kotaku readers have shared their feedback with us via the 2010 Gawker Media Census. 70% of those who responded play at least 11 hours of video games per week—up from 60% last year. We admire your stick-to-it-ive-ness. Join the party—click through to submit your Census!

The Gawker Media Census 2010 is a way for us to find out about what you like and what you don't like about media, the Web, life in general, and Kotaku itself. Your feedback is essential to the site—not to mention good reading—and helps us make your Kotaku-perusing experience even more appealing than it already is.

So, commenters, click here to get started.

Everyone else, here's your Census.

Bonus! If you email the last question of the Census to surveys@gawker.com with "Gawker Media Census 2010" as the subject line, you will be entered to win a $300 AmEx gift card. (Winner will be chosen at random.) [Rules]

Thank you thank you thank you. You may now go back to your one true love.

You know what was missing from the original Hydro Thunder? That's right. Exploding barrels. Thankfully, developer Vector Unit has corrected that oversight in Hydro Thunder Hurricane, coming to Xbox Live Arcade.

The new developer taking the Hydro Thunder reins from Midway promises all-new ways to enjoy wet and wild speedboating action with a handful of new gameplay modes. In Ring Master, players must race through a series of rings as fast as humanly possible, with levels of difficulty ranging from novice to pro to expert. It's not only the best speedboat slalom racing you'll experience on Xbox Live Arcade, it's also a great way to discover hidden routes.

Also new is the Gauntlet time trial, which switches things up with a smattering of exploding barrels. Not only a great opportunity to enjoy the thrill of an exploding barrel, but a chance to test your Boost Jump skills.

Check out new screens of the XBLA game, then join me in rabidly anticipating its forthcoming release.

Street Fighter: Beginning's End is a fan film with amazing fight choreography, some tight special effects, better than normal Ken hair, and a terrifically bad sense of timing, releasing the same week as the Capcom-sanctioned Street Fighter Legacy.

Street Fighter: Beginning's End is the work of Los Angeles filmmaker Chris Cowan, whose Thousand Pounds Fight Team shot the entire short on a skimpy $400 budget, shooting it on a Canon EOS 7D and utilizing Final Cut Pro and Adobe After Effects for editing and special effects.

The premise is simple: Ryu is heading off to join the World Warrior tournament, and Ken asks for one last battle before they part ways. It's almost sweet, in a brotherly sort of way, even if Ken's wig nearly ruins everything.

It's really not a bad piece of filmmaking, especially when you take the budget into account. Hopefully it won't get lost in the hubbub surrounding Joey Ansah's Street Fighter Legacy.

At least Cowan is taking the bad timing in stride. "On a side note, it's amazingly random that two Street Fighter Fan Films get released within the same week (really only a few days apart). We had zero clue that the guys over at StreetLight Films were working on such a high caliber piece! When a buddy of mine linked me to it yesterday, I was completely shocked, yet so excited to see it. We definitely wish them the best of luck with their project. We're fans first and foremost! Nothing but respect for them and what they've been able to accomplish!"

Kotaku Talk Radio will be recording live from CBS Radio on Wednesday. 11am Kotaku Time. 1pm ET. 10am PT. Hosts: Crecente and me. Guest: Sid Meier. Call-in and live-streaming details will be on Kotaku at showtime. Join us!