Monday means fresh Nintendo downloads. This week, we're definitely noticing a puzzle theme to the proceedings. WiiWare gets Overflow for $5 (500 points), in which you twist and turn your Wii remote to shift plans and funnels to guide fluids to their proper channels.

DSiWare brings Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords for $8 (800 points). That's the original Puzzle Quest, an RPG-Bejeweled hybrid. It's already available on just about every platform imaginable, including the DS, but the downloadable version may just be the cheaper (and more convenient) way to snag it if you haven't before. Read more »

Shacknews receives a slew of new screenshots and trailers for upcoming games everyday. The most anticipated titles receive their own post, because we know you're eager to see that content. For the rest, we have the Daily Filter, a place to feature all of the media we add to our enormous database on a daily basis.

Today's Filter features Dance Paradise, Rift, Fantastic Pets, Jack of All Tribes, Warriors: Legends of Troy, Hard Corps: Uprising, Marvel vs. Capcom 3, DC Universe Online, Lord of Arcana, Overgrowth, LEGO Battles: Ninjago, Battlefield Heroes, Mindjack, and Country Dance. Read more »

Shacknews receives a slew of new screenshots and trailers for upcoming games everyday. The most anticipated titles receive their own post, because we know you're eager to see that content. For the rest, we have the Daily Filter, a place to feature all of the media we add to our enormous database on a daily basis.

Today's Filter features media for Medal of Honor, Art Academy, Battlefield Heroes, League of Legends, Monday Night Combat, Earthrise, Epic Mickey, Dead Rising 2: Case West, and Rift. Read more »

To celebrate the one-year anniversary of its free-to-play online shooter Battlefield Heroes, Electronic Arts is offering players a bundle of "thank you gifts" in the form of in-game awards, for a limited time. Using a special redemption code -- available on the game's official site -- players will have access to XP and VP stat boosts for two days, as well as box of 25 fresh bandages for their cartoon-style soldier.

According to the press release the redemption code expires on June 30; however, the expiry is listed as today, June 29, on the official site. We recommend using the one-use per account code as soon as possible, if Battlefield Heroes remains in your regular rotation. Read more »

EA's E3 2010 press conference saw the unveiling of its 'Gun Club,' an "affinity program" which "rewards gamers for doing what they love best"--buying EA shooters.

"Benefits ranging from in-game content unlocks, early access to beta tests and demos" are promised to Gun Club members, plus "exclusive access to development teams."

Read more »

Developer DICE has updated its free-to-play web-based multiplayer shooter Battlefield Heroes with a new gameplay mode, an accompanying new map, and yes, jetpacks.

Dubbed "V2 Vengeance," the mode instructs players to "capture and hold the rocket and keep it from enemy hands in the new "Midnight Mayhem" arena. As for how the jetpacks factor in, check out the trailer: Read more »

As Battlefield Heroes seemingly celebrates Halloween in a rather belated manner, night has fallen on three maps, bringing with it vampires, werewolves, and more microtransactions.

"Anyone can fight alongside these preternatural beings but to become one players must purchase the all-new outfits as a special bundle on the website or as separate items in the in-game store," explains Electronic Arts. Read more »

Exclusive downloadable content items for EA titles including Mass Effect 2 and Battlefield: Bad Company 2 will be given away in a new promotion with soft drink Dr. Pepper kicking off this week, the development and publishing giant announced today.

Every participating bottle will bear a code redeemable online for exclusive DLC such as Mass Effect 2 armour and BC2 kit packs which even bring an extra achievement. Read more »

To celebrate the "three million registered players" milestone for its free-to-play web-based multiplayer shooter Battlefield Heroes, developer DICE has released a new map (Sunset Showdown) for the ad and microtransaction-supported online game.

But while Battlefield Heroes general manager Ben Counsins boasts that there are "over 50,000 new players joining us every week" and "the vast majority of our players play for free," some are protesting a recent shift they claim goes against the game's initial promise of not favoring those who buy new items with cash and/or play all day. Read more »

A proper sequel to the addictive color-matching puzzle-RPG Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords is slated to hit Nintendo DS and Xbox 360 (as an Xbox Live Arcade download) in the spring of 2010, D3Publisher officially announced today.

Original developer Infinity Interactive is handling the sequel, with studio owner D3 promising "an enhanced real-time experience using all-new weapons, spells, and shields that make every decision meaningful...in the deepest puzzle adventure yet." Read more »

Infinite Interactive's addictive puzzle RPG Puzzle Quest is this week's Xbox Live Marketplace deal.

Effective immediately, Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords has been marked down to 400 Microsoft Points ($5) for Xbox Live gold members. The sale will run through next Sunday. Read more »

A new report by IGN says that of players purchasing Battlefield Heroes items are spending quite a bit of money doing so.

The average buyer spends $20 at the Battlefield Heroes store, with 76 percent of all money spent going toward in-game clothing. Roughly 20 percent is spent on in-game experience boosts, with the rest attributed to emotes. Read more »

DICE's free-to-play web-based multiplayer shooter Battlefield Heroes, originally expected to launch last summer, is now available for all to play via BattlefieldHeroes.com.

The launch comes as a moderate surprise, with no formal announcement whatsoever. The oft-delayed game had been running in closed beta for some time.

Though free-to-play, real-world currency can be used to purchase a variety of in-game items and bonuses, including the ability to "level up faster [and] get Valor Points (VP) faster," new clothes, "ultra exclusive limited-edition items," and special emotes. However,, you must first purchase the virtual "Battlefunds" currency available in $5 (700 Battlefunds), $10 (1400 Battlefunds), $20 (2800 Battlefunds) and $50 (7000 Battlefunds) bundles.

Christopher Livingston is a freelance writer with plenty of time for games but not enough money to buy them. Thus was born The Demoman; a shadowy yet helpful figure dedicated not to helping you decide which expensive games to buy, but which free game demos to play.

As the saying goes, those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Frankly, I don't know jack about history, but I imagine the saying works for pop-culture as well. I've learned a lot from all the years spent sitting on my ass watching movies and playing video games, lessons like: don't read from a flesh-bound Book of the Dead, don't conduct experiments in an effort to open a gateway to another dimension, don't dig up an ancient relic on a alien planet, and, of course, don't open Pandora's Box. Read more »

The v1.20 patch for Rockstar's PC release of Bully: Scholarship Edition is now available on FileShack, a 15MB download said to fix "poor streaming performance, random lock ups, and random crashes affecting 64-bit Windows with over 2 GB of RAM."

Previously, those that encountered RAM-related issues with the action-adventure game were required to manually limit the amount of memory recognized by Windows.