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I know what you all want to see that newly announced cloud-computing supposed console-killer is proof that OnLive isn't going to be ruined by lag. I don't have video proof of that. But you can watch the menu in action, to at least see their aesthetic and to imagine you're booting up a game.

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After seeing reports this morning that Xbox 360 owners were saying that the newly released "The Pitt" downloadable content for "Fallout 3" was buggy, I e-mailed Bethesda marketing v.p. Pete Hines to find out when a remedy was coming. He had already told Kotaku that the file people downloaded was corrupted. That was mid-day. Just a couple of hours ago, Hines e-mailed me with an update: "We are doing some final verification tonight that everything is ok but this should be up tomorrow. " Stay tuned, "Fallout 3" players.

I played the new "Pixel Junk Eden" expansion "Pixel Junk Eden Encore" today and learned what's new about this: five new levels. They are accessed through a portal in the standard "Eden" garden menu, which leads to an "Encore"-specific garden. The levels share the aesthetic of the original game's, but I was told by a Sony rep that they are larger and full of new ideas. The biggest idea may be the new move which will also be retroactively added to "Eden" itself when "Encore" comes out next month: Activating three seeds in one move causes all of the pollen-filled floating entities on the screen to detonate at once, releasing a massive amount of pollen.

The first level of "Encore" that I played was set up for the big new move. It presented three seeds in a vertical stack. I set them all up for activation, then triggered them in one go. The screen filled with pollen. It was clear that "Encore" is working on a larger scale than "Eden," presenting a bigger spectacle of its elements than the original. I joked that instead of being called "Encore," it should be called "Extreme." Read more...

This morning I saw a demo of a very early build for "Split/Second," the new racing title by Black Rock Studio, the developers behind last year's "Pure." Global brand manager Mitch Powers showed me the game, and called it an "action-arcade street racing game set in the world of a primetime reality TV show." While that description sounds unwieldy, the HUD for the game was simple: all the information the player needed (rank, score, number of laps) was displayed on the bumper of the player's vehicle.

"We're investigating different ways of showcasing the HUD without putting to much on screen, really keeping it minimal," Powers said, adding that this was far from the final product. When I asked if he thought other racing games' HUDs were too cluttered, he said, "I think games in general can have too much stuff in their HUD. We're always looking at innovative ways to incorporate important information into the HUD, or at least give gamers the option [to see what they want]. If I want to see it, I'll see it. But I don't want it to be persistent if i don't want to see it. In 'Split/Second,' we really want to showcase the blockbuster action that's happening within the race; we don't want to cover it up with HUD elements."

How much do you want in your HUD? Do you think less is more?

"Split/Second" is slated for release on PC, Xbox 360, PS3 early next year.

At the Game Developers Conference, this week, Microsoft is unveiling new blue- tinted Xbox 360 development kits that will be available to game creators in the summer. More important than the new color is that it doubles the memory of the standard Xbox 360 to 1GB, making life easier for developers trying to tweak their software. See more shots of the system below. Unfortunately, none show that the green ring of light is blue on this dev kit. Read more...

After trying the newly announced OnLive gaming service, I was impressed but skeptical. So I asked its lead creator Steve Perlman nine questions, many of them doubting his project will work against a Wii or without a "Halo." He replied.
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This is "Prince of Persia" producer Ben Mattes defending the controversial no-death difficulty mechanic in his game at a small Ubisoft gathering of press and developers last night. Instead of the player dying after a failed jump in Mattes' game, they would be rescued by a partner character Elika and placed on the last flat piece of land they had touched:

"I guess I made the mistake of projecting my own attitudes... I believed that, as a consumer base, the gaming industry had evolved to the point where they were punishing themselves for their failures... The idea with the Elika mechanic was [that] if you were a really good player, a single fall -- when she had to pull you up -- would be devastating thing because it ruined your perfect run."

But people complained. So his lesson learned is: "We can't continue to punish players for not being super leet haxxors but we have to do enough of that so that the guys on NeoGAF [hardcore message board gamers] won't sell the game back."

Overheard at GDC, from what I assume was a game developer trying to impress a friend: "I can beat the first 'Resident Evil' in under an hour." Is that possible?

'Most Powerful Game System In The World' set for winter release. Full details below. Read more...

GDC speakers received a special deck of cards with last year's "top rated" speakers on them. See who's in it. Read more...