360 owners are finally going to get their downloadable content for GTAIV. Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost And The Damned will be available via download on February 17th, 2009 exclusively on the 360. Little is known at this point, but according to a press release from Rockstar, the add-on quote “features a new main character and plot that intersects with the storyline of Grand Theft Auto IV; new missions that offer an entirely fresh way to explore Liberty City with new multiplayer modes, weapons and vehicles; and a diverse soundtrack with additional music.” Sounds pretty cool.

Looks like not everyone is feeling the love of The New XBOX Experience. The good people at Bungie are recommending against installing Halo 3 onto your hard drive. Since the game was developed before The New XBOX Experience was announced, Bungie claims that installing Halo 3 will actually increase load times, not reduce them. No fix is in the works, either, with Bungie saying quote “it would be a significant undertaking to try and retroactively patch/update Halo 3… the risks of doing that… has to be carefully considered against what could really be a rather insignificant change to the player experience." I guess they’re too busy working on Halo 3: Recon.

Majesco has responded to PETA’s recent criticism of Cooking Mama. As reported earlier this week, PETA or The People For The Ethical Treatment Of Animals recently blasted Cooking Mama on the DS. The group claims the kitchen sim doesn’t offer enough vegetarian recipes, and is unsympathetic to the treatment of animals. Majesco has responded, saying their recently released Cooking Mama World Kitchen for the Wii quote “includes more than 25 vegetarian-friendly recipes including delicious breakfast, dinner, dessert and snack options. And, while Mama is not a vegetarian, she fully supports the humane treatment of animals.” Good to know where a fictional character stands on the issue. We’ll see if this gets PETA to remove their flash game Cooking Mama: Mama Kills Animals from their website.

While that controversy continues, we can close the book on the big box issue. THQ has dropped its lawsuit against Activision over the box for their upcoming Baja racing game. The lawsuit claimed the cover art for Activision’s SCORE International Baja 1000 was virtually identical to THQ’s own Baja: Edge of Control. Activision has changed the box art to something less infringement-inducing, and the lawsuit has been dropped. Controversy over.

Apparently Sony doesn’t like XBOX 360 gamers. Who knew? Down in the United States, 360 gamers can no longer download Sony-owned movies from Netflix. Although Sony claims the problem is not specific to the XBOX, the Sony movies are still available to Netflix users on other devices. This calls into question the future of games based on Sony owned IPs on competing consoles. Imagine a world where Spider-Man 3 and Quantum Of Solace were PlayStation 3 exclusives, and we have to wonder if Sony will limit the new Ghostbusters game as well.

Here’s a unique punishment for a crime, banned from playing video games. A judge in Edmonton has banned a group of convicted youth offenders from playing video games after they committed a violent crime. Not just violent games like GTA or Manhunt, but every game, even the new Harvest Moon. I guess I’ll have to be good if I don’t want my games taken away from me.

It’s official, there’s a new fastest selling PC game of all time. The new World Of Warcraft: Wrath Of The Lich King has sold a record-breaking 2.8 million copies in the first 24 hours alone. Pretty good, considering it an expansion and not technically a full game. After this, it should be interesting to see how fast Diablo III and StarCraft II sell.

Looks like not everyone is a fan of Guitar Hero. Canadian rocker Chad Kroeger of Nickelback says games like Guitar Hero are causing less real bands to start up. In an interview with MTV, Kroeger encouraged kids to quote “set down the Guitar Hero, [and] learn how to play an actual guitar and start a band.” Also of note, no Nickelback songs are available on any edition of Rock Band or Guitar Hero. But not everyone has it in for the game, check out the latest YouTube sensation called ‘Bike Hero’. The video has gotten almost a million hits in only three days, and is made by fans who were actually funded by Activision. I can do that, I just don’t want to.

The new Terminator movie will soon be coming to a game console near you. Warner Bros. Interactive will publish a Terminator Salvation: The Videogame to coincide with the release of the film next year. The game will be developed by Swedish company GRIN, who previously worked on Bionic Commando Rearmed and the PC version of Tom Clancy’s GRAW 1 and 2. This will be the first Terminator game since 2004’s Terminator 3: Redemption from Atari.

The film adaptation of Jonah Hex has hit a bump in the trail. Crank creators Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor were previously tapped for the DC comics adaptation, but have quit the movie over creative differences. No word on who’s taking over, but dubya himself, Josh Brolin, is expected to play the lead.

The latest comic book to get a movie adaptation is Gearhead, from Arcana Comics. The comic tells the story of a young woman and a group of rebels fighting a group of corrupt superheroes who rule the United States. The movie rights have been picked up by Valhalla Motion Pictures, the company owned by Terminator and Aliens producer Gale Anne Hurd. We’ll give you more details as they develop.

We’ve got word of another new X-Men movie in the works. 20th Century Fox wants to take a new direction in the series by introducing a younger group of mutants in X-Men: First Class. They’ve reportedly hired up Gossip Girl creator Josh Schwartz to write the movie, with a possibility he might direct. This isn’t the only upcoming X-Men movie though, expect X-Men Origins: Wolverine to hit theaters next year.