XBLA's excellent Ticket to Ride is ready to cross the Atlantic to receive the Europe expansion board next Wednesday. According to developer Playful Entertainment, the new continent will cost 600 MS points ($7.50) and add new gameplay elements like ferries, tunnels and train stations.

In the retail board game world, Ticket to Ride and Ticket to Ride: Europe -- which are sold separately -- would cost over $60, so we're not that sore about getting both on XBLA for $17.50. No word yet if the painfully close red/orange color blending will be fixed on the new board.

We just got off the phone with Sony, trying to see if we could get more info on Fat Princess, and were told that the demo for PixelJunk Eden will be available tomorrow with the regular PSN update. We're looking forward to people finally being able to test the game out for themselves, instead of us trying to explain its simple and addictive gameplay. If you can, grab a friend and play co-op, since the title is even more enjoyable with a companion. The full game will be available next Thursday, July 31. The price for the full game has not been confirmed.

Thanks to Brain Age, millions of kids have been able to trick their parents into thinking that the Nintendo DS is being used as an educational device. With the help of popular college prep company Kaplan, the trickery can continue. They announced their plans to create a SAT prep game for the Nintendo DS with the help of developer Aspyr only a few months ago. Now, they have a fully functional prototype ready, and a name to boot.

FutureU will feature at least four different question types, and over 1200 questions. Now, we asked why it wasn't called something a bit more marketable, like R0x0rz the SATs, or SAT Test Prep DS, and a Aspyr representative informed us that The College Board has strict control over the SAT brand. The title won't have "SAT" in it, but the packaging will make it very clear what the product's purpose is.

A very early version of the game we saw featured some rudimentary character customization, added to give the illusion that FutureU is more of a "game" than a "learning experience." The DS version of the game won't offer any real questions from the SAT, nor will it try to grade you. Instead, players will go through various games that test the concepts found in the SATs. For example, Glyphs will have players attempt to figure out the meaning of a word by deconstructing the word's various roots. Predictions train reading comprehension by removing a word from a passage. Players can then scribble predictions on what should be in the missing blank(s). Then, players will be able to choose from a selection of possible words, and use their predictions to choose the correct missing word.

While its interface is more "game-like" than most edu-tainment titles, it's still clear what FutureU is and what its purpose is. And that's to let you carry your DS around and claim you're "studying." FutureU will be available on DS, PC and Mac this Fall.

But Nintendo hasn't forgotten about the mythical "hardcore" gamer crowd, Cammie Dunaway tells Wired. The executive VP of sales and marketing, who insists that she's a "genuinely smiley, nice person," explains that "the Zelda and Mario teams are hard at work," possibly on something that could rival the infinitely desirable Super Mario Sluggers. "And even Super Mario Sluggers, which is certainly an expanded audience title, but what core gamer doesn't love Mario and baseball and finding out which combination of characters are going to do what kind of crazy things in the field?" she ponders.

Dunaway also notes that Nintendo is committed to a variety of games, catering to casual players with titles like Cooking Navi, and exciting tougher crowds with the DS iteration of Grand Theft Auto. We mean, she must have seen it, right? "I have not looked at the product. Have you?" Well, no ... but we haven't been incorporating it into our sales pitch either.

Target is offering up pre-sale cards for LittleBigPlanet that claim an October 21st release date for this eagerly awaited game. We've known it would be coming (hopefully, keep your cute little fingers crossed) in October of this year, and hopefully this date won't be changing. Plus we're still itching to get our hands on a demo before then so we can practice our sponge-collecting skills.

There's still no definitive word if Sony will be offering this up for download as well as the retail Blu-ray version. In this Gamespot video at about three minutes in, they say "We're hoping to have it on the Playstation Network Store as well." Maybe Sony's planning on releasing a trimmed-down version of the game for download, and opening up the full game to retail customers, similar to what EA has done by putting out the Spore Creature Creator as a free download in advance of the full Spore game coming later? Either way, October can't get here fast enough. Free candy and LittleBigPlanet? Sold.

[Thanks, Eric!]

Before E3, the last time we heard anything about flOw dev Thatgamecompany's newest project was November 2007. Cut to last week, when TGC Creative Director and co-founder Jenova Chen guided us through an early build of their upcoming PSN title flower (note the 'o' is now lowercase).

Like flOw, it's really hard for us to confidently form an opinion on the abstract idea (check out PS3 Fanboy for their praises). We hope Sony decides to release a demo with this game. Videos and previews will not do flower justice; it's a game worth trying for yourself.

"We're in a new era of acceptance for video and computer games."

So did ESA CEO Mike Gallagher kick off his "State of the Industry" E3 keynote speech this afternoon. "When we look back, we'll see now is the time that our industry became an accepted part of our cultural landscape," he added.

The signs of this change are all around us, according to Gallagher, such as the prominent participation of Texas Governor Rick Perry in another keynote speech this morning. "In my predecessor's time, we were fighting government officials, not working with them," he said. While there are still problems with the game industry's image, he said, projects like Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor's planned civics education game show that "those who write about the industry in narrow demographic terms are behind the times."

Don't panic, but famed British comedian and noted Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy voice (he's done the audio books and narrated the movie) Stephen Fry will provide narration for LittleBigPlanet. Media Molecule's Alex Evans made the announcement during a press briefing for the game, although he had the TV muted at the time. Seems fitting for when we make our whole sort of general mishmash.

Scott Austin, Microsoft Director of Digitally Distributed Games, tells us that there are talks in progress with "a potential partner who has lots of board game IP." He says that XBLA's boardgames are considered evergreen content by Microsoft -- games like Catan and Carcassone sell well all the time -- and that Microsoft is definitely looking to include more traditional board games in the Arcade. They expect the same kind of evergreen popularity for their Xbox Live Primetime service, which will combine online gaming on XBL with a television-style format.

We asked Austin if the potential partner in question was a maker of more complex board games -- a D&D-esque board game like BattleLore or Runebound would likely work very well on Xbox Live -- but he was not forthcoming. For all we know a deal is being struck with a more traditional board game maker like Parker Brothers. Either way, fans of board games on Xbox Live will definitely have more to look forward to.

Update: The relationship between potential board game content and the Xbox Live Primetime service was clarified.

Tragically, Age of Booty may receive our second-annual award for "worst game title," but this should not at all reflect on the game's quality. Once known as Plunder, Age of Booty is a name change and not much else from the game we've had a positive hands-on experience with in the past.

Age of Booty is an RTS action/European board game expected sometime this fall and the title already feels incredibly polished. It will release with a fairly robust map editor to create and share user-generated content for the game on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC. Yeah, but in this age of microtransaction shenanigans, where's the catch? We were informed that DLC for the game will actually involve legitimate expansion content. As a Capcom representative informed us, "We're not going to nickle and dime with this game."

At their E3 press conference today, Sony announced a few new titles for PSN. And when we say they announced the titles, we mean exactly that ... they announced the titles, and practically nothing else, save for some quick video footage. The titles include:

• Crash Commando
• Fat Princess
  
• Pain: Amusement Park
• Rag Doll Kung Fu: Fists of Plastic
  

These titles join the previously revealed PixelJunk Eden, Ratchet and Clank: Quest for Booty, Siren: Blood Curse and Flower among the PSN games mentioned at the conference. More on all these titles as we hear about it.

Nintendo has announced Wii Sports Resort, a sequel of sorts to the most popular title on the best selling console system this generation. It will include the previously announced Wii Motion Plus controller, and allow players to experience a fun "day at the beach" -- there will be a frisbee game, as well as a jetskiing experience, and a... sword dueling game?

Nintendo plans to replicate the success of Wii Sports and Wii Play, and throw in a new accessory with the pack as well. The game is set for a release in spring of next year.

Grab your welding goggles – that there's a video of the XBLA-exclusive Galaga Legions, the latest update of Namco's coin-op classic. This one's being handled by the team behind Pac-Man Championship Edition, which equals eye-searing effects that are the graphical equivalent of spirit fingers.

Keep reading after the break for another salvo of videos showcasing incoming XBLA titles including Uno Rush, South Park, and Word Soup. You can take your welding goggles off for viewing those. We promise it's safe.

The recently rumored game show channel for Xbox Live was officially announced at this morning's Microsoft press conference in the form of "Xbox Live Primetime." TV producer Endemol has teamed up with Microsoft to produce the new massively-multiplayer game show channel, which will include a version of the semi-popular NBC show 1 vs. 100, complete with real prizes (no word on whether host Bob Saget is involved). Primetime is part of Microsoft's new "Live Party" community channel, which includes the long-rumored Avatars. No word on what, if any, other game shows will be coming to Primetime, but we're hoping for a version of Ninja Warrior that involves rampant button mashing.

Harmonix has just unveiled the full song set list for the upcoming Rock Band 2. There will be a whopping 84 songs on the disc, and an additional 20 songs available as free DLC after the game's release. The set list is comprised entirely of master recordings, and features AC/DC, Guns N' Roses, Bob Dylan, Metallica, Pearl Jam and more.

The entire list is available after the cut.