Oh boy, do we ever love Aether, and we bet you're going to as well. Simply put, it's the story of a boy dealing with feelings of alienation as he discovers (with the help of his pet monster) that he is, in fact, not as alone as he once imagined.

As the game begins, you leave your home planet on the back of your beast, which gets through the universe via his long, elastic tongue, allowing him to snap to nearby clouds and planets and then hurtle to the outer reaches of the galaxy. There you'll find several planets, each with their own unique puzzles to solve, requiring a combination of quick reflexes and some non-linear thinking. It's all presented in attractive, washed out pastels and with a hauntingly otherworldly soundtrack.

It's everything you want an "art game" to be, with a unique visual style, a creative gameplay mechanic and a real sense of an artist's touch (two, in this case, Edmund McMillen and Tyler Glaiel). It's a uniquely personal, touching game that we can't wait for you to try and share your thoughts on in the comments.

There's been quite a bit of mystery and confusion regarding Halo 3 lately, which is almost exactly what was happening at this time last year. It's enough to make one nostalgic. Bungie spokesman Luke Smith recently waded in to try to clear up some of what's in store for the game and its still-thriving community.

First, the list of Achievements you saw here recently is on the money, though Smith isn't talking about all of them. What he will say is that they're part of Title Update 2, which is due before the end of the month. TU2 will also include some under-the-hood stuff, a separate military rating in each playlist and a new type of ban. According to Smith, it's a "spike on the banhammer [that] will soon drip wet with the blood of jerks and the innards of sinners." Sounds delightful.

The whole point of Guitar Hero Aerosmith is to give you a taste of what it would be like to be part of the seminal classic rock band. So, what would a taste of a taste of Aerosmith be (besides bitter with a hint of copper)? That's right: A demo for the game, now available on Xbox Live, including "Sweet Emotion," "Dream On," "Walk this Way" and others.

Also on XBL is the demo for NBA Live 09, the taste of which we can't even begin to contemplate.

Beginning this Thursday, junior rockers that prefer PS3 can rip their Rock Band tracks right to their system in preparation for Rock Band 2. But, much like Ziggy Stardust, the Sept. 11 patch will be hiding a secret under all the glam: The addition of Guitar Hero III Les Paul controller support. If you've managed to hold out this long from getting a second RB guitar, your patience has finally been rewarded.

You'll also be happy to hear that Harmonix is hammering out a fix for the busted PAX Pack, which will also be included with the export patch. Now, if you'll excuse us, we've got to go update the Instrument Matrix ... again.

[Thanks, Chris]

What's the problem with not having demos for WiiWare games like Groovin' Blocks (Empty Clip Studios, 1-2 players, 800 Wii Points)? It forces you, the consumer, to make your purchasing decision based on a game's name (which, let us remind you, is "Groovin' Blocks") or on a short gameplay clip like the one after the jump, which you should watch only if your Monday morning is just a bit too exciting and you need to slow things down a bit.

Armed with both of these tools, we assume you'll come to the same purchasing decision as the rest of the planet.

Well, of course it's Spore. Let's not even waste too much time examining the whys and wherefores, the biggest release is the 27-years-in-development existence simulator. Naturally.

But even if you don't feel compelled to reenact the entirety of a civilization, there are other, less taxing diversions ... like, say, TNA Impact! or ... two different hockey games.

See why it was an easy choice?

It's no secret: You love Geometry Wars 2, we love Geometry Wars 2, everybody loves it. We recently talked with Bizarre Creation's Stephen Cakebread, Senior Coder, and Craig Howard, Games Manager, to find out how they crafted the game that won our hearts.

It would seem to the layman that, with as popular as Geometry Wars was, a sequel would be pretty easy to crap out. Why wait so long?

Howard: Because the first one was so well received, it would have cheapened the game if we just knocked something out and not given it a lot of thought. We wanted something to make sure it was something we'd be really proud of.

Cakebread: Our inital plan was to get it our a year later and then the plan was to ship it when Gotham 4 shipped and that didn't work out either. It really was a case that we weren't going to ship it until we were ready to ship it. It might seem silly, but it took us quite a while to figure out a graphical style that still looked like the original. One of our big things was when people came to our stations we wanted them to say "Oh, is that a sequel to Geometry Wars?" rather than "Is that Geometry Wars?" It took us quite a while to come up with something that really worked. We tried some mad stuff.

Like what?:

Howard: What didn't we do? [laughs]

In this week's Allspark-powered show, we say hello to Boston PAX and 360 price cuts, goodbye to Jeff Green and "we'll probably never, ever see you" to the Buffy MMO. Also, somebody's going to win a copy of Castle Crashers, and if you don't listen, you'll never know that it's not you.

Thanks to Danny Lujan of the JPAG for crunchy, reduced sodium photochopping greatness. (As an aside, we're running low on photochops, so join the group and fill the reserves!)

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Hosts: Chris Grant, Ludwig Kietzmann and Justin McElroy

Music: "Get Ready for Love" by Nick Cave, "Red Eye" by Ben Kweller

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See all of this week's links after the jump.

If you love classic games but feel the need to own things in order to bring some sense of stability to your life, GOG.com (that's Good Old Games) could be a good alternative to GameTap for you. The company recently announced that you'll be able to find out for yourself if you sign up for the beta before Sept. 8, at which point the gates will be opened to the masses, or at least the masses that signed up.

We love GOG.com's approach, with $5.99 and $9.99 DRM-free releases that you can download as many times as you want and don't need an internet connection to play, but we wish the selection was a bit better. But who knows? With a beefier roster GOG could be a real Steam contender.

Jeff Green is the kind of game journalist we want to be when we grow up: Seasoned, funny and imbued with the perfect blend of skepticism and passion, even after 17 years on the job. Now, the former CGW and GFW editor and (just as importantly) GFW Radio/Brodeo cornerstone is leaving Ziff-Davis to join The Sims development team.

We have too much respect for Green to use this as an opportunity to note all the high-profile names that have jumped the Ziff-Davis ship recently. We'll only say that we'll miss you Jeff, and we wish you all the best.

[Thanks, Jonah]

When the Joystiq staff goes back to Call of Duty 4, it's usually because we're tired of getting our asses handed to us on a little silver platter in practically every other first-person shooter. Before too long we pine for the one game we've played enough that we're not embarrassed to admit to our team that we write about video games professionally.

But, according to Infinity Ward spokesman Fourzerotwo, we'll have additional reason to go back Sept. 13-14, when CoD 4 will be offering up double XP on PSN and Xbox Live. Come, play with us, and tremble before our staggering (and doubly rewarding) moderate competence.

Update: Ack! It seems the release date is still unconfirmed. Why are you doing this to us, Sony? Why?

Is this what the "day of awakening" was hinting at? Just a couple of days after we got that promise of new info from Sony, we hear that Famitsu has nailed down a date for White Knight Chronicles (that's White Knight Story to you and me): December 11.

Now, does that mean that you'll be getting your hands on this terrifically sexy PS3 RPG anytime soon? Well, no, not necessarily. But it's certainly not bad news if you've been salivating since our 2007 hands-on with the game.

[Thanks, erico316]

Though Master Chief is little more than an adorable baby during the events of Halo Wars, it should come as no surprise that his Spartan brethren are a pretty big factor on the battlefield. Ensemble recently went into detail about the role of the Spartan in a fight on their official site.

The secret to nailing the right feel for the Spartan according to Ensemble? Not nerfing them. Spartans aren't just dudes in good armor: They're one-man tipping points, able to grab an enemy vehicle and turn the tide. Sounds good to us; now, if there were only some way to get some more Spartans on the box.

[Via X3F]

When our parents split up, both of them tried to convince us that the other would just be "devastated" if they didn't get to have custody of us. (Puzzlingly, each insisted that the other had just bought a pony and ice cream farm, which doesn't even make sense.) Why are we choosing this Thursday morning to flashback to that awkward moment? Once again, we don't know who to believe.

Last month, VG247 had a super secret Rockstar source telling them that the Grand Theft Auto IV DLC wouldn't be available until January. Now, Eurogamer has a different super secret source saying that things are still on track for a November release. We don't know which one is telling the truth, and we don't care ... we just want one of them to love us.

The review embargo lifted on Spore today, and the critics wasted no time weighing in on Will Wright's oft-delayed opus. The general consensus seems to be that an amazing level of quality is there, but depth may not be, which is really the last complaint we ever expected anyone to level at Spore. Go figure.

• PC Gamer UK (91/100): "Spore falls a little short of its promise at every stage, but bear in mind that its concept is as close as we've come to a game incarnation of the Lord our God."
• IGN (88/100): "In fact, Spore is essentially five distinct games woven together. And here, Maxis demonstrates a weakness, as a number of these games come off as lightweight or limited. However, Spore is a prime example of something that is much more than the sum of its many parts.
• Gamespot (80/100): "Taken on their own, its pieces are nothing special. As parts of a singular ambitious vision, they work far better. Throw in the best customization tools seen in years and an enthusiastic community brimming with creativity, and you have a legitimately great game that will deliver hours of quality entertainment. "