Last week’s massive E3 “return to form” saw more than a few celebrities poking their heads around the Los Angeles Convention Center. I ran into Eliza Dushku while checking out a demo of Bethesda Softwork’s WET, for instance; the Dollhouse actress is providing the voice of the game’s main character, Rubi.

I also ran into a member of the Wu-Tang Clan, Raekwon the Chef (note: I can’t personally vouch for his culinary expertise), at Capcom’s cocktail mixer for their upcoming title, Dark Void. When I asked what he was doing there, I was told that he’d be working on a remix track that would be used to promote (or appear in) the upcoming Xbox LIVE/PlayStation Network release of Marvel vs. Capcom 2.

The melodrama over Left 4 Dead 2 continues apace. When we last left the story, a protest group had started on Steam, which now has over 17,000 people in it, promising not to purchase the game.

With only a few short days until Burnout Paradise gets its next large add-on, “Large Surf Island“, it’s about time we heard a tiny more about the DLC pricing- and content-wise. Thankfully, we have got those exact details from the fine people at Criterion Games.

The price of “Big Surf Island” is $12.99 on PlayStation Network and 1000 Microsoft Points on Xbox LIVE; about what people expected, I’d state.

The DLC is bringing three silver and seven bronze Trophies to PS3, and five Accomplishments totaling 110 Gamerscore points to Xbox 360. As expected, these awards range from smashing hidden objects, getting large air, and more of those lovely Freeburn Challenges. Catch the full list over on Kotaku.

I skipped out on “Cops and Robbers,” but this is sounding like a must-buy for the average Burnout Paradise player. Also, Dtoider Vegas has given us a link to the newest episode of Crash TV, which you should watch and ought to thank him for.

EA Invites Players on a Burnout Vacation to Large Surf Island

Extend Your Paradise on June 11 for $12.99

REDWOOD CITY, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Criterion Games, an Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ:ERTS) studio today announced that the Burnout™ Paradise Big Surf Island expansion pack will be available to download for $12.99 on the PLAYSTATION

While at Electronic Entertainment Expo, I hooked up with Nathan Fouts. He’s the developer of the award winning Xbox LIVE Community Game Weapons of Choice and probably soon-to-be-award-winning Community Game Grapple Buggy — a game announced only weeks before the huge event.

After Nathan and I shook hands for the first time, I dived into the game.

Grapple Buggy is like Bionic Commando, except you’re not in control of a smallish man with a freakish arm. Instead, you control an alien automobile (buggy) with two freakish arms, whose mission is to explore a new and odd (stress on odd, mine) planet. The car’s wheels can grip the planet’s surface, but the preferred method of travel for anyone playing the game is through the buggy’s mechanical arm — an arm that can grapple and grant the alien craft to take to the skies and propel it throughout the game’s environment.

Aside from the artistry, there were two things that grabbed me: controls and puzzle complexity. Grapple Buggy’s swinging mechanics are fluid like the Xbox 360 rehash Bionic Commando. The puzzles are organic and challenging. While I would have preferred a bit more of a clue at some points, I enjoyed having to consider what the buggy can do and what the level focused on. The first puzzle in the demonstration, for example, has you spit a captured creature into the mouth of a larger creature blocking a cavernous doorway. Seems simple, but the catch is that the creatures you can capture are located at the beginning of the level. The puzzle, therefore, required awareness and not just an immediate solution.

Keep your eyes peeled for this one and check out the screenshots in the gallery and the video available after the break. Grapple Buggy looks enjoy it could be spectacular.

Via Destructoid