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Trying to keep up with all of the downloadable games and content that's out there these days is enough to make a person cry. But cry no more, because Download Lowdown is here to help. I'll sift through the good, the bad, and the weird to help you get the most from your game system of choice without leaving your house.

Today I destroy geometric shapes in everybody's favorite Xbox Live Arcade twin-stick shooter, Geometry Wa...er, Death by Cube.

Game: Death by Cube
System: Xbox 360
Price: 800 Points ($10)

The Lowdown:
If you asked me to condense Square Enix's Death by Cube into one word, I would say to you: hard. Two words? Really hard. Three? Really, really hard.

See, Death by Cube is for the old-school arcade rats who fondly remember pumping 15 dollars' worth of quarters into Ikaruga only to run out of change at the final boss. It's decidedly not for soft-bellied, checkpoint-craving fans of modern games -- gamers like yours truly.

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If you read our huge Blur preview yesterday, you already know that the game’s Xbox Live online multiplayer beta begins on Monday, March 8. But you can’t just go on Xbox Live and download the beta - you’ll need a key.

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May 3, 2010 looks like it's going to be a pretty important day for some people, and not just because it's World Press Freedom Day either. 

Video Blips:

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Editor's note: Think video games are a big waste of time? If so, check out Brian's humorous list of other things many people do that are far more boring and pointless. -James

As gamers, we share a sense of identity. We're all lazy man-children (or tomboys) who sit around in our underwear chugging six-packs of Mountain Dew, so that we can stay awake to beat the game. Besides being lazy, we're all unintelligent, repulsive bastards who burn books in bonfires. And who knows, we may even eat babies.

All jokes aside, any of us with an ounce of intelligence realizes that most stereotypes about video games and gamers aren't true. I mean, we all know that they don't really rot our brains, right? They may occasionally distract us from more valuable pursuits, but they don't dumb us down or turn us in to mass murderers.

Since we're now all aware that video games aren't a waste of time, I'm going to provide you with a list of handy alternatives that'll make your days go by faster than an Olympic skier on a training run. If you're looking for activities that'll truly insult your intelligence, I encourage you to keep reading.

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Most of us abhor fanboys. When debates about Mario and Marcus Fenix appear on message boards or IRC channels, we attempt to avoid them entirely. But the sheer number of brand loyalists currently occupying the Steam and NeoGaming Age forums makes ignoring the issue impossible: Modern Warfare 2 and Battlefied: Bad Company 2 are ready to throw down.

Instead of defusing the childish arguments, DICE -- the developers responsible for BC2 -- have egged on the Internet agitators. Throughout the single-player campaign, the members of Bad Company call out and poke fun at the unrealistic super soldiers who star in the Call of Duty series. Take a look:

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If the recent events are any indication, it's not a good time to be Activision right now -- corporate upheavals such as this tend to have some pretty dire consequences.

News Blips:

After a very "confused" situation that arose yesterday at the offices of Modern Warfare 2 developer Infinity Ward, CTO Jason West and CEO Vince Zampella have both left the company. The updated Linkedin profiles for West and Zampella reflect the departures, coinciding with Activision's earlier investigation into what it claimed as "breaches of contract and insubordination by two senior employees at Infinity Ward." The public outcry so far is palpable -- but other minds, like Double Fine's Tim Schafer (Brutal Legend), doesn't believe it will make a difference. [G4TV]

Halo: Reach developer Bungie has teased of new multiplayer details that will be released soon. After remarking on the successful results of the game's first full campaign playtest on Bungie's official blog, Creative Director Marcus Lehto concluded with the promise of an "MP bomb" that will be revealed in about a day. I'm a little confused -- is Lehto heralding our destruction through a thinly veiled terror threat?

After eight years of development, Activision has shut down a fan-made King's Quest project. Initially named The Silver Lining, the project aimed to deliver episodic content that utilized the King's Quest IP. After some brief negotiations, Activision had no interest in a non-commercial license and stopped the project. I get the feeling that Activision is actually buying into CEO Bobby Kotick's comments on sucking the fun out of video games.

Jonathan Blow, creator of the platformer Braid, has started a fund to assist indie developers with publishing costs. Dubbed the Indie Fund, the finances help promote financial independence amongst smaller developers by pooling resources as an alternative to traditional publishers. I'm sure I'm not alone in hoping that Blow's ambitious project will meet with success.

Got any hot news tips? Send 'em over to tips@bitmob.com.

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In an attempt to "provide the greatest benefit to the Xbox LIVE community," Microsoft will pull the plug on XBL support for original Xbox games on the 15th of April.

This discontinuation extends to all backward-compatible games playable on the 360. So bid farewell to Conker: Live and Reloaded, Star Wars: Battlefront 2, and -- most of all -- Halo 2.

While the 15th of next month will undoubtedly be a sad, somber day, Bitmob plans to liven our spirits with a Halo 2 Game Night!

So keep your Battle Rifle close and hope that Dan Hsu, Demian Linn, Brett Bates, and Rich McGrath provide adequate cover fire this Friday. Here's the game plan:

1. Add Dan Hsu to your XBL friends list. His Gamertag is Bitmob Shoe.

2. Log on to Xbox Live at 5 p.m. PST (8 p.m. EST) this Friday and wait for an invitation.

3. Guard that flag, hold that skull, and drive that Warthog like you life depended on it!

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Every battle-hardened soldier should have the option of piping strangely fitting orchestral music into their radio sets.

Video Blips:

• EA and DICE's launch trailer for Battlefield: Bad Company 2 seems fairly balletic. The graceful tumble of defeated soldiers in slow motion really demands some of those ubiquitous doves you see in action movies. [G4TV]

Continue after the break for an(other) Australian report on video game violence, some snarky words from the Terran army in Starcraft 2: Wings of Liberty, and a trailer for MLB 10: The Show.

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Editor's note: I don't understand all the flak that Dark Void has taken in the press. I thought it was a pretty good game. Mark does, too, and after avoiding it for several weeks due to bad press, the title has him reevaluating whether or not he should place his sole faith in game reviews. -James

I learned an important lesson this weekend. It is a lesson that I sadly should have already known, but I guess I never truly grasped the true concept of it: My opinion on video games should matter more to me than someone else’s.

First and foremost, we’ll set the scene: I’m a huge fan of Capcom. Mega Man is, to this day, one of my favorite series, and it was one of the games that actually got me in to the hobby in the first place. As I’ve aged and my opinion on video games has matured in to what it is today, Capcom has always been the company that I've given more leeway than any other. The reason I've done so, with the exception of a couple games, is because they have introduced and published mostly quality titles.

When Capcom announced Dark Void, I was extremely excited. Aerial combat with a jet-pack, the ability to climb and shoot from cover at the same time, Tesla making your weapons, and a crazy story involving the Bermuda Triangle during World War II? Sign me up!

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It's always good to have a friend. Can you match these video-game characters to their loyal companions?

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I'm normally a very calm and patient gamer. I've never broken a controller in anger or rage-quit from a game. If I actually believed in the source material, the act of playing Dante's Inferno would have landed me firmly in the outer ring of the Seventh Circle of Hell. I'd be suffering eternal torment in the Phlegethon -- a river of boiling blood -- alongside the other violent sinners.

I endured the brutally difficult early years of gaming, but I can't remember the last time I was so thoroughly annoyed at a game. Some of the things I encountered on this journey through hell were such an affront to my gamer's sensibilities, I'd go so far as to call them sins against gaming.

Sin Number One: Trial and Error Should Not Be a Major Game Mechanic

The entirety of Dante's Inferno follows the same basic pattern: You first get trapped in a room by some sort of physical or supernatural barrier, and you're forced to kill everything in it to proceed. You then travel down a short corridor and are presented with a puzzle in which failure causes instantaneous death. Once you die numerous times trying to figure out the puzzle, you eventually succeed and earn passage to the next room with enemies to kill. Rinse and repeat, ad nauseum.

After enduring several of these puzzles, I actually found myself wishing for more combat. From beginning to end, I died a grand total of two times in actual combat. However, I would estimate my total number of deaths at around 200. The rest of these are instant deaths from falling off of ledges, falling in various liquid substances, or coming in contact with spiked surfaces.

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