Really, folks? Are you really going to complain about multi-disc games now? Of all the injustices in the world, of all the legitimate issues you can have with technology, you’re going to rally around this stupid issue? Good God.

How long until this is announced for North America? Microsoft plans to release a 250GB add-on hard drive for the Xbox 360. The thing is, so far, it’s only been officially announced for Japan.

Whoa. Rockstar just announced that the two DLCs for Grand Theft Auto IV, The Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony, will be released for the PS3 and PC on March 30. That’s March 30 world-wide, mind you. The games will be sold separately (as downloads on PSN and Games for Windows Live) as well as in the familiar Episodes from Liberty City double pack.

Looks like we have ourselves yet another DRM-related controversy for your amusement. The star this time is BioShock 2, the upcoming FPS developed by various 2K studios. The usual suspects abound: SecurROM, limited installations, and Games for Windows Live.

Oh, the ironing. Big Daddy Cool, John Biggs, just interviewed Casey Hudson, from BioWare, about Mass Effect 2. It was streamed live! The beauty is, while they were talking about the game, kids with modded Xbox 360s all over the world were already playing the game. Yes, the game has leaked. Granted, it’s only a few days before the game actually comes out, but still, the biggest release of the year (so far) is now available where you find such things. I’ll be getting the PC version via Steam, thank you very much. (There’s nothing after this. Clicking Read More is a waste of your time.)

Looks like the recession is helping at least one industry. NPD Group reported that the video game industry turned in $5.53 billion dollars in sales for December, topping the results from last year by 4 percent!

Boring as all these statistics are, the bottom line is people spent a whole lot of money on video games last month. The previous record was set in December of 2008, which was the first time that sales went over $5 billion.

March 9 is slowly creeping up on us, which means we’ll all be sitting on our coaches and playing Final Fantasy XIII until the wee hours of the morning. To keep us busy, Square just released a new trailer set to the game’s main theme, “My Hands,” performed by Leona Lewis. (At least I think that’s the main theme.) This trailer features the English voice cast, so put on your headphones and take it all in!

Yeah, you probably could have guessed that one already, but now someone from Wedbush Morgan has said it, validating your opinion in the process. So the deal is that both Microsoft and Sony are likely to cut the price of their respective consoles this year, probably around summertime. The thing is, because Microsoft’s manufacturing costs are lower, it has the ability to lower the cost more than Sony does

You knew this already, but Microsoft told the Guardian at CESlast week that there won’t be an Xbox 360 2 (“Xbox 720″) anytime soon. Microsoft would have told me this, too, but I wasn’t able to make my scheduled meeting. (My adidas meeting went much longer than I thought it would, if you want to know why. You probably don’t.) The point is, between software updates and Project Natal, we’re going to be stuck with the Xbox 360 for quite some time.

Thankfully, Razer is finally getting into the console market. In addition to the Onza controller we told you about yesterday, Razer is also launching a wireless gaming headset to use with your Xbox 360.

The boys at Razer are at it again, with the new Onza controller for the 360. They’ve manage to significantly improve on the standard 360 controller by improving the control buttons, adding a tension control, and making it easy to pwn your buddies with a programmable multi-function button.

The Xbox Live Arcade port of Perfect Dark still carries that frustratingly (well…) vague “winter 2010″ release date, but we’re beginning to see more and more screenshots trickle out from wherever these things trickle out from. Who knows. Anyhow, there’s a series of new screenshots on some dude’s Photobucket that may interest you.

It’s probably not a huge stretch to think that some people may very well be purchasing an Xbox 360 just to play Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. Wal-Mart knows this and, as such, is offering a pretty enticing deal: Xbox 360 Arcade console, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, and 12 months of Xbox Live Gold service for just $249.

Good news, people who play Modern Warfare 2 online multi-player. It seems Infinity Ward has fixed the dreaded “javelin exploit” that has plagued multi-player matches since the game’s launch.

Would it be foolish to begin this story with the words “poor Microsoft”? I mean, the company isn’t exactly hurting for money, and yet it looks like 2009 was the year that the Xbox 360 finally died in Japan. Not that the Xbox 360 ever really did well in Japan, but this year it looks like everything fell off a cliff.

Ubisoft needed to publish something amazing given their anemic financials thus far this year, and Assassin’s Creed 2 delivered. Assassin’s Creed 2 was simply put, amazing. The sequel vastly improves upon Assassin’s Creed which given all the hype, was disappointing to say the least. The game plays on the strengths of Assassin’s Creed, most notably the free-running, and is no longer monotonous and repetitive, like its predecessor. If you want to complete all of the quests in this game, I would suggest setting aside around 35-40 hours. It took me a little over 25 hours to complete the main quest, as well as completing about 80% of the side quests (feathers notwithstanding, there was no way I was going to look for 100 of those).

If you never played Assassin’s Creed, I suggest taking the time to look online for synopses of the game so that you get a feel for what happened as Assassin’s Creed 2 does a poor job of rehashing the tale. I played the first game almost a year ago so i was hazy on the plot and was a bit disappointed that I had to look up the Wikipedia page to figure out what was going on. Ubisoft could have done a better job here by having some flashbacks, or even some dialogue at the beginning of the game to help those who are new, or haven’t played in a while.

Does your Xbox 360 look out of place on your equipment rack? Does it just look too juvenile with the concaved case? Are you a boring old fart that still want the the Xbox 360 but need it to look more like a VCR than a gaming system? If so, the Xbox 360 Elegant Edition is for you.

Another Xbox 360 lawsuit? Oh, yes! Datel, which makes all sorts of video game accessories, has filed a lawsuit against Microsoft because it “has taken steps to render inoperable the competing Datel memory card for no visible purpose other than to have that market entirely to themselves.”

At least 2 million Xbox Live users have logged into Facebook this past week, which I guess means the feature is a bit of a success. (You’ll recall that Microsoft launched Facebook and Twitter to so much enthusiasm last week.) Mysteriously, Microsoft didn’t reveal the number of people who logged into Twitter. Is this the end of Twitter?

You’ll recall that Microsoft recently banned a bunch of people from Xbox Live because they had modded their 360s. Modding is against the rules, don’t you know? Microsoft told VentureBeat not to believe the numbers being thrown around—the number most relayed is 1 million banned 360s—because it never releases numbers to anyone.