The ever-popular Need for Speed Shift will be getting its first piece of downloadable content next month. Coming to both Xbox Live and PlayStation Network as a free download, the content includes five classic cars (listed below) as well as a new team-based Team Racing mode, which EA is hopeful will “completely redefine online racing.” Check the video below to see what it’s all about.

The DLC will arrive on XBL on December 1, European PSN on December 3 and North American PSN on December 10.

Along with the premiere of Halo: Reach, the Spike TV Video Game Awards next month promise to bring several other reveals and surprises, one of which it turns out is a new shooter from 2K Games. Beyond the teaser video below, absolutely nothing of the title is known, not even its name. But, it along with gameplay footage will air during the VGAs on December 12, so we’ll just have to hold our breath until then.

id Software’s upcoming post-apocalyptic bulletfest Rage will include a number of weapons from the company’s past games, creative director Tim Willits has told Total PC Gaming. Along with newly designed weapons, a number of which will have different ammo types by the way, Willits says Rage will feature “many of the classic id Software weapons.” Whether it’s weapons from Doom, Quake, Wolfenstein, or all of the above wasn’t mentioned, though I do believe the world agrees when I say there’s nothing more classic than the BFG, aka the all-mighty Big F***ing Gun.

While StarCraft II and the Cataclysm expansion for World of Warcraft are sure deals, a 2010 release for Diablo III was recently set in doubt, only to be now all but officially confirmed by VP of game design, Rob Pardo. “I think it’s safe to say that, yeah, [Diablo III] is not going to be out next year,” he told Techland.

“We always announce all of our games too early. We realize that and go, ‘You know what? Next time we’re not going to do that.’ And then we always fail at that. But I’d rather fail at that than fail at making the game great.”

Sad news, but those holding out any hope of playing the game next year should probably consider giving up right about now.

After being a tease with a closed beta, Cryptic has today announced the open beta dates for their upcoming ‘boldly go where no man has gone before’ MMO; The expanded beta for Star Trek Online will kick off on January 12 and ends on January 26, a week before the game’s launch in early February, lasting exactly two weeks. Keys will be given out on a first come first serve basis on startrekonline.com, so anyone interested better keep an eye on it.

Cryptic also sent over the “Space Exploration” trailer above, which shows us some sights and ships blowing up.

Heroes Over Europe offers a vision of World War II filtered through old British comic books, patriotic wartime posters and chirpy Pathe newsreels about ‘our boys.’ It’s a welcoming approach, a presentational style that accounts for much of the game’s strength. But the ‘chocks away’ charm wears away all too quickly. What’s left is a game with a real dearth of ideas.

The sequel to 2005’s Heroes Over the Pacific, HOE transplants the air-based arcade action to a rough approximation of the Battle of Britain. So you’ll be zooming over London defending the houses of Parliament, dispatching vast squadrons of bombers and dog-fighting ‘ace pilots’ over the white cliffs of Dover. All in the name of seeing off those dastardly Nazi chaps.

The game’s central gimmick is the addition of ‘Ace-Kills,’ a feature best described as the air-combat equivalent of bullet-time. Get in close to an enemy and a gauge on your targeting reticule will charge, keep them in your sights for long enough it will eventually turn red - allowing you to click a button, zoom in and pick off vulnerable sections of enemy plane. Think of it as an air-to-air headshot.

The above video has been posted on YouTube displaying a hacker’s proof that there are hidden multiplayer modes on the Modern Warfare 2 game disk. There are three hidden game modes found in the video: VIP, Capture the Flag and Global Thermonuclear War, where the objective is to be the first team to capture a thermonuclear base before the other team and then blow everything up.

The hidden modes, if true, will likely be unlocked as downloadable content from Infinity Ward in the future. Seeing that the game modes are allegedly already on the MW2 game disk, it would be really sweet of IW not to charge for that DLC, but that’s unlikely. We’ll just have to wait and see how this turns out.

With Gears of War and Gears of War 2 each selling over 5 million copies worldwide, and Shadow Complex becoming the biggest selling single-player title in Xbox Live Arcade’s history this summer, it’s been pretty safe to assume that Epic’s moving forward with the franchises. And if a recent job listing is to be believed, that indeed appears to be the case.

The listing reveals that Microsoft is looking for a Lead Producer to join Microsoft Game Studios among whose responsibilities will be leading “the publishing side of games made by Epic,” helping lead the Gears of War and Shadow Complex “efforts” as well as leading, growing, and managing “a small team of producers across both Gears of War and Shadow Complex.”

So, yeah, we’ll be seeing more of those games.

It looks like the failure that is the Modern Warfare 2 boycott for the PC staged much in the same way as the Left 4 Dead 2 boycott continues to fall very short of whatever lofty goal legitimate boycotters had in mind. It was already bad enough when on launch day a majority of people in the Modern Warfare 2 boycott Steam group were playing the game, but now according to Infinity Ward the PC version of the game has already outsold the first Modern Warfare.

The news came from a post on the community forums by creative strategist Robert Bowling, “The PC version of Modern Warfare 2 has actually outsold the PC version of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare in its first week. Making it the most successful PC version.” Unfortunately there were no official numbers revealed, but the fact that in the short amount of time it’s been out and that it’s already outselling the previous Modern Warfare, is impressive.

Some weeks ago, at the height of the dedicated server discussion sparked by Infinity Ward’s decision to go with IWNet instead, Aliens vs. Predator developer Rebellion’s senior producer David Brickley was asked whether or not the game would have dedicated servers. At the time, a clear answer was hard to come by, with the man finally saying that “running an operation like that is monumentally expensive”.

Today, a company rep shot over a message to set things straight, saying that Rebellion’s Jason Kingsley has confirmed support for dedicated servers. “Despite rumours, Rebellion has always been planning to support dedicated servers for AvP PC and we can now officially confirm that this is the case. Rebellion has always appreciated fan support. We’re really looking forward to the release of AvP as much as you guys are!,” the CEO says.

“Speculation over whether Rebellion developed AvP will support dedicated servers can now end!,” the rep adds.