Every week we’re going to try and do a quick wrap-up of some news items that may have slipped through the cracks. The wrap-ups will be shorter versions of our articles, lumped together to give you an idea of things you may have missed.

LittleBigPlanet Pre-orders = Bonus Content!

While the news and previews of LittleBigPlanetsteadily roll in and we avoid talking about it too much before we see the game, there has been a development that people even remotely considering buying the game should be aware of. It made its way around earlier this week that there would be bonus material included with pre-orders of the Media Molecule community-content driven game, including a Kratos skin for your Sack Boy (your in-game avatar or character) as well as pouches, stickers and other goodies. Although not all the details have been released yet, it seems that the Kratos Sack Boy and a Level Creator miniguide will be given along with pre-orders by GameStop and Amazon.com respectively. The news was put up on the official LBP news site yesterday, and promises that more details about the other items like the LitteBigPouch and Nariko (from Heavenly Sword) Sack Girl will be announced shortly. So, those who are eager to put a few bucks down on this game might want to hold out to see who is going to give you the best freebies to go along with it.

We contacted Amazon.ca who said that the offer is not likely to be extended to Canada, and has not yet placed LBP onto their site for pre-order. GameStop and EBGames Canada also did not have any news about pre-orders at this time. We’ll keep checking for updates.

What To Play This Week?

Although it feels like there has been a drought of retail games hitting the shelves in the last few weeks, there are quite a few titles to look out for right now. As this is the summer of downloadable games, 360 owners should be checking out Braid as well as Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2 and for both XBLA and PSN the newly (today) released Bionic Commando: Rearmed. All these games are excellent and a big jump for any fan of old school platformers or shooters. For Point & Click fans, or anyone who has run into the folks at Homestar Runner, Strong Bad’s Cool Game for Attractive People: Episode 1 has been released on WiiWare and should get a review from UGTV very soon.

And for the fans of sports games, or just the series in general, the 20th Anniversary of Madden is upon us and the release of Madden 09 is bringing back excitement for the fans across pretty much all the platforms. Unique and well tuned controls and graphics make the Wii version work very well, and the hi-def platforms are getting their normal boosts and improvements, so it is certainly worth checking out.

He Ain’t My Brother: He’s Heavy

Continuing their support for Team Fortress 2, Valve announced that the Heavy class would be getting its update, in line with the latest work on the Medic and the Pyro. This also comes on the heels of a few other updates to the game, including a new level and other announcements that are being gradually released this weekend. Fans of the series are eagerly awaiting the updates to their favourite classes (come on Spy) with bring with them new achievements and powers to empower and alter the gameplay in a game that continues to be dynamic and quite a long time into its release.

Valve’s schedule for class updates have been fairly good since the release of the first Medic update, which was released in late April of this year. Since the major map Gold Rush was released along-side the first class update, it was a disappointment to some not to see that along with the Pyro, and it seems that they’ve returned to form with a new official map, plus 3 other announcements to be revealed as the weekend rolls on.

For those who still haven’t picked up The Orange Box, there seems to be a growing list of reasons to do so.