Word that Modern Warfare 2 won't be supporting dedicated server has prompted an outcry on the Internet as PC gamers lament the potential inability to use their own mods and mitigate latency problems, among other things. It seems that Best Buy is still in the mood to party though.The retail chain has just announced that more than 500 Best Buy stores will be open at midnight when the Modern Warfare 2 launches. They have the complete list on their website, along with a link to their store locator.Naturally, other outlets will be joining in as well, including GameStop. Of course, if you don't have a problem with dedicated servers, there's always Steam.

  Bayonetta is the newest addition to Famitsu's 40/40 club, garnering a perfect score in the magazine's latest issue. Well, the Xbox 360 version did anyway.Citing framerate issues, two of Famitsu's reviewers knocked a point apiece off the PlayStation 3 version, leaving it with a slightly less sterling 38/40. One reviewer said that the difference was relatively slight, but it was apparently enough.

  In order to play a game of soccer, you're gonna need a few things. Twenty outfield players and two goalkeepers. A referee. A couple of nets would be nice. How about some over-the-top goal celebrations? The ol' "pull the jersey over the head" always gets 'em going. Hmm... Now what am I forgetting?Oh, yeah. How about a ball? How could anyone forget that?Well, it seems FIFA 10 forgot! See, I wanted to play out a "what-if" scenario and pit the United States versus Uruguay in a North America vs. South America World Cup-qualifier playoff clash. But whenever I tried to load these parameters, a certain soccer necessity went missing: the ball.Click the image above to check out all FIFA Soccer 10 screens.

  With the original flavor Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) behind us, Gabe and Tycho have turned their attention toward the eastern seaboard, and passes are now on sale for PAX East. A 3-day pass will cost you $45 if you order before December 31, 2009. After that, pre-registration will go up to $50, and at the door will cost $55. Individual days are also for sale. For the recent event in Seattle, 3-day-passes were the first to sell out, followed by the ones for individual days. Panelists haven't been announced yet, but the event hasn't had trouble attracting talent in the past, and some developers on the east coast are sure to take advantage of the closer locale.The PAX East event will take place at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston. If you need a place to stay, the event organizers have partnered with a hotel service that groups the ones that have PAX-specific discount codes. Robert Khoo promises the usual PAX tropes with an "East Coast twist." We honestly have no idea what that means, but we'll probably find out soon enough.

  Like the title implies, Cooking Mama 3 continues the Mama series with a return to the kitchen. The game introduces new dishes, ranging from simple lollipops to complex chili con carne, and with those new recipes come new steps that retain the silly, lighthearted theme from previous titles; you rush to peel boiled tomatoes before your hand is burned, or quickly lift drying squid to keep a cat from grabbing them. But the overall premise is just as simple as always: Follow the recipe to gain points that determine your dish's final score. The better you complete the recipe's steps, the better your dish will be. Unfortunately, like the previous titles, some steps still have frustratingly unresponsive controls. The dreaded delayed "stir" action in stewing persists, where the game refuses to register your movement accurately. And circling different piles of food to extract a specific "weight" is nearly impossible, since you have no idea how much a selected potion will weigh until you drop it on the scale. Plus the often vague instructions tell you to "flip" or "fry" without providing hints on how you'll have to use the stylus until after the timer starts ticking down. This unfair obstacle almost ensures that you will mess up a step, and fail to achieve a perfect score the first time you face a new challenge.

  Microsoft may be considering creating its own rewards program for Xbox Live subscribers, according to a report from Kotaku. Apparently an e-mail was sent out to random subscribers recently, offering admission into an "exclusive pilot rewards program." The e-mail is vague and only hints at "cool stuff," and encourages users to register before October 21. "After that, the doors close and someone else gets the cool stuff," it states. That may mean the invitations to the rewards program will be coming in waves, so if you didn't get an e-mail this time, you might in the future.Unfortunately, the e-mail is unclear what would warrant a reward, or even what those rewards might be. It's totally open to speculation now, and most are leaning towards discounts or free Microsoft points. So far this sounds fairly similar to the recent news of Sony's PS Thanks program, which is also still shrouded in mystery.[Image courtesy of Kotaku.]

  The folks over at Gran Turismo fansite GTPlanet happened upon an intriguing bit of info this morning: At least one version of Gran Turismo 5 may be shipping with up to three discs.Kazunori Yamauchi appeared in a recent Mercedes-Benz promotional video, where an observant tipster noticed the Gran Turismo creator fiddling with the box that's pictured above. No, that's not a Lost DVD box set in Kazunori's hands -- it's the packaging for Gran Turismo 5, which, curiously, features three separate blu-ray cases inside a larger sleeve.It's entirely possible that this is simply a premium, collector's edition bundle with bonus videos and other added content. Then again, Gran Turismo 5 sounds like it'll be one of the most utterly massive racing games to date -- including 1,000 cars with fully-modeled cockpit views, 60 tracks, and a totally revamped physics model. Forza 3 will be shipping on multiple DVDs next week; could Polyphony Digital's driving simulator be one of the first PlayStation 3 games to vastly exceed the storage limits of blu-ray?

  Sure, an ESRB listing early last month may have spoiled the sheer surprise of the announcement, but it doesn't change the fact that Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee and its sequel, Oddworld: Abe's Exoddus, are coming to the PlayStation Network on Thursday. For $10 a piece -- the premium PSone Classic price point -- you can have the first two games in the Oddworld series to play on your PlayStation 3 or PlayStation Portable.Lorne Lanning, the co-founder and creative director of developer Oddworld Inhabitants, offered up some insight into the decisions they made in developing the early Oddworld games over on PlayStation Blog. It's interesting, if all too brief.The notion of holding out hope for any of the later sequels appearing on PSN might seem silly -- they were only released on various incarnations of the Game Boy and the original Xbox, after all. Lanning did, however, reply to a comment on the PlayStation Blog post asking about the two Xbox Oddworld games, Munch's Oddysee and Stranger's Wrath, saying "We're working on a strategy to bring them over as well. May take us awhile, but we hope to achieve what you're asking for." He later confirmed that the entire series will be available on PC in 2010, and that they are working on bringing the Xbox games to PS3.

  2D Boy recently opened up World of Goo to a pay-what-you-want sale. Today the developer outlined the success of the promotion, and announced that they are extending it to October 25. Since the sale started, about 57,000 copies were sold, at an average price of $2.03. The blog explains that a large portion of the proceeds were lost to PayPal fees, and the company saw no money for transactions below 30 cents. The average was brought down by the vast majority of people paying a penny, which actually cost PayPal money for processing fees. As a surprise, the sales of the game on other channels rose too. Steam sales rose 40% from the prior week, and WiiWare rose 9%. And in a survey published with purchase of the game, most people responded that they paid all they could afford right now. These results don't themselves prove anything, and 2D Boy notes that the effort was bolstered by coverage on the blogs. Another company attempting a similar payment plan might not see the same success if it doesn't get the same kind of attention; still, the results do seem to indicate that when offered to pay what they want, enough people will generally contribute an amount large enough to keep sales healthy.

  Still can't get enough Queen, even after today's 10-pack of Rock Band DLC? Then keep on the lookout for Lego Rock Band when it launches early next month, because minifigures of Brian May, John Deacon, Roger Taylor, and, yes, Freddie Mercury will be showing up as playable characters in the kid-friendly band sim.Players will be able to take the stage as the original Queen lineup during in-game performances of "We Will Rock You" and "We Are The Champions". This announcement brings the current list of toy musicians in Lego Rock Band to Iggy Pop, David Bowie, Blur, and now Queen.The inclusion of deceased public figures is a relatively new occurrence when it comes to videogames. Activision caught plenty of flack over the last couple of months for inserting a playable Kurt Cobain into Guitar Hero 5, though much of that uproar was over the lack of restrictions on which songs players could select while using his avatar. Will Lego Rock Band be subject to similar backlash for reanimating Freddie Mercury?