Keeping in line with previous Need for Speed entries on the iPhone, EA today announced the release of Need for Speed: Shift on Apple's handheld for $9.99. The game features 20 cars to maneuver through 18 tracks with your phone's tilt functionality, and even play with your (presumably wealthy) friends via Bluetooth or over Wi-Fi.

EA included a handful of impressive screens below, though we can't imagine the graphics (which are enhanced for iPhone 3GS and third-generation iPod touch) will do much to mask the frustration of clumsily trying to control a simulation-style racing game with a mobile phone. We've been burned before, folks.

Need for Speed: Shift ($9.99) :

While we certainly appreciate the comedic plight of last week's Wrapup winner, Dipswitch's "Oh The Weather Outside is Frightful," we're not certain we understand that title. Was Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne's classic holiday tune secretly about parents who are uneducated on the Entertainment Software Ratings Board's system of classifications? Considering it was written in 1945, that seems a little anachronistic, but, hey, who knows?

Second and third place went to Nerf Now's "Die Monster" and Brawl in the Family's "A Mushroom Kingdom Carol Part 4," respectively. If you've got a favorite comic you'd like to see in this week's Wrapup, drop a link in the comments section, or send in a tip!

You gotta give it up to Criterion Games. Throughout the lifespan of Burnout Paradise, the developers at Criterion worked their buns off to give us all kinds of juicy DLC, from a new island to explore, a new game mode, right down to motorcycles and many, many car packs. Now, the company has prepared a lengthy diatribe documenting some of the updates that never got off the ground.

For one, did you know that Criterion initially planned to have motorcycles vs cars? Yep, sure was planned -- and did you know that Criterion wanted to create a whole series of islands, not just the one? The devs even wanted to give players the ability to go to the moon, complete with lunar challenges for Freeburn addicts. Also: the planes thing wasn't an April Fool's joke -- the dev actually wanted to add them (and other vehicles) into the game.

Overall, it's a pretty great read, if only to show you just how committed the studio was to the game and raising the bar for DLC in general.

Recently released for iPhone / iPod touch, French indie dev Press Start Studio's side-scrolling homage to classic hack-n-slashers (and really big guns), Twin Blades: The Reaping Vanguard, is making the unlikely leap onto Xbox 360 via Xbox Live Indie Games.

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Considering the high-profile Q4 2009 retail release schedule is going to go well into 2010, which then hurts the downloadable games market, let's talk downloadable games in this week's WRUP. Let us know the titles from WiiWare, PlayStation Network, Xbox Live Arcade or PC from 2009 that you think shouldn't be missed. What's everyone playing this weekend?

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Thus far, Bayonetta has exposed us to a litany of disturbing oddities. First we were exposed to the expression "non-stop climax action." Then came the uncomfortable revelation of Bayonetta's "sexy" dancing. And now, we must forever live with the term "hair moves." As the ancient Egyptians figured out long ago, hair is gross. Short of the occasional Rita Hayworth hair toss, hair really shouldn't be moving at all. And it certainly shouldn't be transforming into giant boots, fists or demons.

Alas, this is the proposition you face should you desire to play Bayonetta. You've been warned.

This past Saturday brought us the Spike TV Video Game Awards and – before experiencing the litany of world exclusives that awaited us inside – we spent some time outside cruising the red carpet and talking (briefly!) to many of the game developers and talent. We squeezed them for information as fast as we could while simultaneously wishing them holiday cheer and good tidings. Yes, it was as awkward as it sounds. HHere's what we learned from Epic's Cliff Bleszinski.

So you segued from Gears into Shadow Complex ... what are you working on now?

I can't tell you that! It's actually quite agonizing for me right now, because there's a bunch of awesome shit we're working on, but I can't say a damn thing about it no matter how many alcoholic beverages you might try and feed me! Well, maybe if you bribe me with hookers and blow, that might work.

Shadow Complex will be on sale during the holidays. Was that Microsoft's idea or Epic's?

Microsoft is doing that promo. They're doing some other stuff as well to help drive the holiday sales. I mean, in this day and age look how crammed Christmas is, and it's like March is the new holiday. Everybody's moved out to March. I think it's good because the good games will rise, and the bad games will sink, right? I was getting tired of the fact that everyone had to cram everything into the holiday season. Hopefully we'll get some quality releases in March that will do well, and the gaming industry can sell more than 80% of its games outside of a three month period.

What are you playing right now?

I'm playing the hell out of Modern Warfare 2 and I hate those guys, because those guys are so awesome. Uncharted 2 I beat, which was absolutely stellar. Borderlands co-op is amazing ... that's the only way to play, really. I gush about it not just because it's our engine but because Randy and those guys are good friends, and it's the kind of game I really want to play. It's the perfect blending of the shooter and the RPG.

So when will we hear about this "awesome shit"?

Maybe sometime when the weather's warm, you'll be hearing something.

Earlier this week, we got a brief sampler of the explosive additions coming to Trials HD in the "BIG Pack" DLC ... pack. Today, a RedLynx press release has shared a few specifics with us regarding the downloadable content's ... contents. These specifics include how to unlock the pack's three new achievements, a list of some of the new physics objects (car, rocket turbine, gravity field, wind and motor, to name a few), and some of the additions that will come in the simultaneously released title update. You can find these details posted after the jump.

RedLynx also sent along a new trailer, which we've posted above. You're going to feel awfully silly when you realize that you've read all this when you could have been watching a dude ride a motorbike in a space station. The BIG Pack is due out next Wednesday, December 23. According to the presser, it will cost 400 -- which is half the price we heard earlier this week. Typo? Or Christmas miracle? We've contacted RedLynx to find out.

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Hey, Star Wars: The Old Republic, you know what other MMOs are doing right now? They're helping with the harvest and aren't hanging out on Tatooine down at Toshi Station, wasting time with their friends and checking out all of the power converters for sale. They're adult MMOs who understand the need for a few helpful hands to repair the units in the South Ridge. They aren't zooming around in their landspeeder, checking out the scummy alleys of Mos Eisley or stopping by Uncle Owen's farm for a friendly chat about that crazy coot Old Ben Kenobi -- not like you.

So go ahead, have fun zipping around the dunes and avoiding the Sarlacc Pits, while we're over here wearing the big boy pants, behaving like adults.

Speaking to Develop, Traveller's Tales director Jon Burton voiced concerns about Microsoft's motion control solution, Project Natal. Specifically, Burton stated that Natal's lack of controller input as well as input lag could limit the kinds of games made for it, though he did admit that the device is "exceedingly clever." Burton prefers Sony's motion controller, noting that it will be "cheap, accurate and will put buttons at your fingertips," which should make it suitable for a wide range of games.

Still, Burton admits he was "stunned" by the technical wizardry of Natal. With the experience of having his own motion capture studio at TT, Burton states that getting "anything resembling mo-cap" in real-time from a single camera is "nothing short of amazing."

For what it's worth, Burton has not used a final version of the device. We noted Natal's input lag when we tried it at TGS earlier this year, where Microsoft's Kudo Tsunoda assured us the final product would iron out, or at least ameliorate, the issue.

Kotaku reports that a survey from IPSOS Online Research has been sent out, gauging interest (again) in premium subscriptions to PSN. One of PSN's most-touted features has been its low price of free, so if Sony's thinking about asking for membership fees, it had better offer some extra goods, right?

Well, the survey hints at such goodies as hour-long trials for full PS3 titles, access to PSOne Classics and cross-game voice chat; the latter being a feature that PS3 gamers have been waiting on for decades but, if this survey is to be believed, would be exclusive to premium members. The survey also discusses the addition of Cloud Storage -- online space that allows users to store saved data, instead of housing it on their hard drive -- and Tokens. These Tokens would be a kind of added currency, which can then be used to redeem goods on PSN. But that's not it! It gets even crazier. The survey also adds member-exclusive programs into the mix, such as streaming Netflix without a disk and special Hulu support, as well as free access to Minis and premium themes.

The survey also details a few different subscription models, including a $69.99 yearly plan and several options for monthly fees. Hit up Kotaku for some supposed screen grabs from the survey detailing the subscription plans.

We were really hoping this Nier trailer would help answer some of the questions we had about the title. For example, what's up with the two different games? We're getting just one game on PS3 and 360 -- but that game is a 360 exclusive in Japan, with a different Nier game being released on PS3. Why not release both games in the larger North American market? And how will the gameplay be evolved since the E3 demo? Because if there's not some improvement, the number of Nier games may not matter.

It does not answer any of those questions. In fact, we have several more questions after this trailer, which features the voice (but not much else) of the AI partner, Kaine. Questions like "what?"

Announced earlier this month (though fate had ensured its arrival since the beginning), Brütal Legend's second pack of downloadable content landed on Xbox Live and PlayStation Network this week.

In celebration of the release, Double Fine has handed over a brand new trailer for the grab bag of multiplayer maps, skins for Eddie Riggs, and items with which to brutalize (as seen above). As we previously noted, the DLC also gives players the opportunity to endow Mt. Rockmore with Tim Schafer's beautiful face. If that doesn't sell you on it, we can't imagine what would.

This past Saturday brought us the Spike TV Video Game Awards and – before experiencing the litany of world exclusives that awaited us inside – we spent some time outside cruising the red carpet and talking (briefly!) to many of the game developers and talent. We squeezed them for information as fast as we could while simultaneously wishing them holiday cheer and good tidings. Yes, it was as awkward as it sounds. HHere's what we learned from Bungie's Halo-matic composer, Marty O'Donnell.

Why was the music such a departure for Halo 3: ODST?

It was just a completely different story with different characters, it was a small scale, it took place in a lonely city where it was raining. It was a detective sort of story where one lone ODST was looking for his buddies. From the very beginning Joe Staten, the writer, wanted to create an atmosphere that felt very film noir, very detective story. I'm the main composer, but my partner Mike Salvatore in Chicago and a couple of other guys in Seattle, Stan Laparte and C. Paul Johnson contributed stuff. I tried to keep all of the themes in that noir, jazz, dark area. There's a few times where we're in the rooftops or doing some high-action regular old Halo stuff in vehicles and we went back to that big, bombastic, epic stuff, but I always wanted to bring it back to that noir feel.

Were there any musical references to classic Halo during those moments?

I didn't do any actual thematic callbacks. I still wanted to do .... well, number one was no monks. But I still thought the big orchestral epic sound had a place. With some other stuff, you know. Piano, guitar, etc. It's like three hours of music, and you can't narrow yourself down to a small palette, you have to really be as expansive as possible.

So now you're working on Reach?

Yes, we're premiering the first look at the opening section of Reach. It's right out of the game. I'm really excited about it. It has a really different feel.