Five hours into Dark Void, developer Airtight Games' history of working on Crimson Skies games is clear: this is pulp-action with leading ladies (not damsels in distress), gritty heroes and -- most importantly -- beautiful aerial combat that makes you feel like an ace.Five seconds in, you find yourself fully powered up and ready to fight. But like so many "fully powered up" starts, this doesn't last long, and soon after the game hits the reset button and installs your amateur status. In fact, you find yourself thrown back to Earth in 1938. There, you step into the shoes of Will, a devil-may-care pilot-for-hire who finds himself shaken when his new client (a private courier) turns out to be Ava, an old flame. And then of course their plane crash lands in the mysterious Bermuda Triangle.Will's time in "the service" seems to have prepared him for "the Triangle." He picks up one of the human resistance rifles and starts mowing down the serpentine robot enemies, called Watchers, without even an eye blink. Despite Will's machismo, Ava is clearly the senior partner. She eggs him on, jolts him to action, and even leads them to sneak through a local human tribe to meet Nicolai Tesla. That's not a jumpy recap because this is a preview -- that's about how the pacing of the story moves.

  It seems like it wasn't that long ago that a Tiger Woods PGA Tour videogame hit the shelves. And that's because it wasn't all that long ago. With the 360/PS3 versions out, along with that great MotionPlus integration for the Wii version of Tiger, some may have wondered where the PC version was. Enter Tiger Woods PGA Tour Online, a browser-based Tiger Woods for PCs that looks to integrate social networking aspects and multiplayer golf, all for a monthly subscription.The subscription fee hasn't been finalized yet; a detail I'm told that EA is still ironing out. Until then, the game is free to play since it's still in beta (you can head over to Tiger Woods PGA Tour Online right now and sign up to be in the beta).

  You can pretend Lucidity is about beautiful watercolor-style artwork, a light story told through artsy postcards, or a puzzle game disguised as a downloadable $10 platformer. But it's really about killing a little girl. Many, many times.Not intentionally, of course -- and technically, you're in her dreams, so the developers probably use a loophole like she "wakes up" when you fail -- but because of the game's design, you fail a lot. And that works as both a positive and negative.The idea here is this girl, Sofi, automatically walks towards the right side of the screen at a slow, consistent pace. You don't directly control her, but instead stamp platforms and power-ups around the screen with a cursor, using them to indirectly guide her. You set up fans to boost her into the air, slingshots to fling her across gaps, bombs to clear paths, etc. Think of it as a game-long escort mission, a la Lemmings or Mario & Wario -- you spend your time trying to construct the ideal mousetrap-style path so she doesn't get stuck for too long, run into an enemy, or fall into a pit at the bottom of the screen.

  Frontier announced today that LostWinds: Winter of the Melodias will be coming to WiiWare next Monday, October 19. The game has been available in Europe for just over a week, and company founder David Braben commented on its impending release here in the States in the press release. "The original LostWinds was embraced by the U.S., and the sequel has major new gameplay features and improvements across the board," he said. Among those new gameplay features are a season-changing mechanic, the ability to swim, and new wind powers, along with an in-game map and hint system for those who may have gotten lost in the first title. Even without these tweaks, the first game was a critical success, earning a very positive review from us and generally favorable ones across the board. Based just on the reviews garnered from its European release, the sequel has a higher Metacritic score, so fans of the adorable puzzle adventures should have something to look forward to next week.

  Looks like the concerns that the God of War Collection would be pushed back next year were indeed unfounded. Sony has released a brand new trailer, showcasing the first two games while confirming that the compilation will indeed be arriving this fall. The trailer features several great moments from God of War and God of War II, newly remastered in 720p. The collection will be contained on a single blu-ray disc, and both games will include trophies.

  Two days past the one year anniversary of SOCOM: Confrontation's release in North America, Sony has announced a big downloadable content pack that is in the works. Known as the Cold Front pack, this is the DLC that was hinted at this summer and includes, among other things, two new maps and three rebuilt classic maps from previous SOCOM games. An entirely new Eastern European area should breathe some new life into game, provided you're willing to pay for it.Here's what you'll find in Cold Front:New Russian / Eastern European Area of OperationSnow setting complete with snow effects, new snow gear and camo for both the Special Forces and Mercenaries, and thermal visionNew ARMS RACE gameplay mode5 New Maps: Uprising, Entrapment, Blizzard, Night Stalker, VigilanceAll new mercenaries characters with new looks and new VO.New Special Forces squad, the Russian SpetsnazGun turrets emplacementsNew musicAll new character specialization/progression systemAllows players to pick a primary and secondary specialization and unlock new equipment exclusive to those specializationsNew weapons, including: 3 new weapons, 6 enhanced versions of weapons available as part of the new weapons specialization system, 2 new weapon attachments (including the thermal scope), 5 enhanced versions of weapon attachments also available as part of the new weapons specialization system.2 new grenade launcher ammo types (flash and smoke)New TrophiesMore details will be forthcoming on the PlayStation Blog -- specifically, we're waiting on a release date. Whenever Cold Front does makes its way onto the PlayStation Store, you can expect to pay $14.99 for the pack. It's not an outrageous sum, given that you're getting more than just the usual slate of new maps you often see in DLC releases for shooting games.

  The PSP Go has been out for a couple of weeks now, and it's been hard not to notice that despite a launch that brought tons of existing PSP games to the service, some newer ones haven't made the trip. Joystiq reports on at least five UMD titles that have come out since the PSP Go launched, but haven't come to the PlayStation Network. Apparently, the third parties simply opted out, and Sony isn't requiring them to change. "It's up to individual third parties to decide if and when to publish their UMD releases on PSN," said PSN director Eric Lempel. "Most, if not all, are on board, as this is a revenue opportunity for them."Deciding not to require publishers to put games on the Network might be the easier road, but it's unlikely to be a popular one. The device is already fighting a much higher price tag than the PSP-3000, and now it seems it will have a smaller library to boot. Considering that we've already heard reports of slow sales in some areas, choosing not to make UMD/PSN simultaneous releases a requirement may be a mistake that convinces some not to invest in the handheld.

  The wait for the second game in the Mass Effect trilogy is now done to just a few months -- BioWare has announced that the release date for Mass Effect 2 is January 26 in North America, and January 29 in Europe. As promised, the release will be simultaneous on both PC and Xbox 360, unlike the first game."Our fans are in for a genuine thrill in the New Year with Mass Effect 2 -- the second installment in the trilogy will be of amazingly high quality," said BioWare co-founder Dr. Ray Muzyka. "BioWare's fans worldwide have been eagerly awaiting this epic sequel, and we couldn't be more excited to reward them for pre-ordering by delivering some awesome bonus content!"Along with the release date, which is obviously the big news, BioWare also revealed two different pre-order bonuses, one of which is, of course, exclusive to GameStop.

  File this under idiotic criminals: Reginald Johnson, a former United States postal worker, has admitted to stealing over 2,200 shipments from GameFly customers in and around Philadelphia, according to a Philly.com report (via GamePolitics). The 34-year-old was caught during a covert surveillance operation of the mail processing center where he was, at the time, employed as a truck unloader.The feds launched the investigation when the Postal Service's Inspector General caught wind of missing GameFly rentals back in late 2007. According to their estimates, Johnson stole roughly $86,000 worth of videogames between April and September of 2008 -- at least some of which he then handed over to GameStop for what must have been a record-shattering pile of store credit.The best part of the story? When federal agents moved in to arrest the culprit, he jumped into his SUV and attempted to escape -- only to crash his vehicle and, ultimately, wind up captured on foot nearby. Between the backpack that agents recovered from his wrecked SUV and the duffel back he ditched while sprinting toward freedom, Johnson had a total of 160 GameFly packages on him that day.