360Sync nailed down a date with publisher D3 for the new Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords expansion.  Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords - Revenge of the Plague Lord (could the name be any longer?) launches this week on Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008.

The basic details are as follows:

• Four new hero classes: Bard, Rogue, Ranger, and Warlock
• New area on the southern map
• 25 new quests
• 50 new spells
• 40 new items
• New monsters, bosses, and a new archenemy
• Adventure with new or existing characters
• 3 new achievements
• Level cap raised to 60

All that content will set you back 700 MSP.  The expansion arrives on the heels of Puzzle Quest's induction into the Arcade Hits portfolio (which meant a drop to 800 MSP from 1200 MSP).  Good timing or clever marketing?  You decide.

Anyone looking to snap this up on Wednesday or are there other games you'd prefer to play?

[via 360Sync]

In totally unsurprising (but fun) news, D3 has subtly informed the world of the presence of a Puzzle Quest sequel.  Thanks to the hawk-like eyes over at Joystiq, D3's most recent press release has provided such important information to the masses.  The game is slated to arrive this calendar year.

What can we expect in a sequel to Puzzle Quest?  Surely there will be more jewel matching, spells, character classes, and pretty maps.  Hopefully they'll avoid a repeat of some of those ridiculously impossible boss characters and the (hands down) worst voice acting in an XBLA game to date. 

Seriously D3.  I can't bear to hear that horribly fake sounding accent again.

[via Joystiq]

Wow, it's a busy XBLA weekend with not only a pile of Rez HD media but also the first screenshots and detailed info on Rocket Bowl. Without further ado here is all of the XBLA media that has been released this weekend:

• Rez HD - System Shutdown Movie
• Rez HD - Beat Blasting Movie
• Rez HD - Polygon Pounding Movie
• Rez HD - Security Breach Movie
• Rez HD - Screenshots
• RocketBowl - Preview + Screenshots

Everyone is shocked. Rumor proved true. Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords, everyone's favorite match-three roleplaying game mashup (okay, only match-three RPG mashup), will be arriving in just two short days.

And what's tagging along beside it in the trip from vaporware to gaming reality is the little promotional car game that could: Yaris. Oh, and it's free. Yaris just went from your "whatever" list to your "download now" list, didn't it?

Oh, and Puzzle Quest is indeed 1200MSP. Let the debate begin!

Full details after the break.

Screens on Gamerscoreblog's Flickr for: Puzzle Quest or Yaris

[Update 2]: Apparently Yaris is only free/available in the U.S./Canada North America. Mexico may commence rejoicing.

John Porcaro of Gamerscoreblog says:

The Yaris game isn't available worldwide because the game's portrayal and model options of the Yaris aren't available in all global markets, and the specific brand positioning of the Yaris is unique to the U.S. and Canada.

[via Gamerscoreblog]

Since I seem to be the last to know about this I'll make it short. IGN is reporting that Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords is coming this Wednesday to XBLA. They are citing a mysterious press release (will someone please track this thing down for me) from publisher D3 which states that Puzzle Quest will arrive if "all goes well".

And here I was about to write a story about the recent appearance of a theme and picture pack for Puzzle Quest making me think the game was near. Silly me.

And in case, mysterious press releases aren't good enough for you, how about a very unsubtle visual hint seen this week OnTheSpot (at about 35:00-direct video player link).

Who's ready to shell out 1200MSP for some matchin' and questin' in and around good ol' Bartonia?

[via IGN, thanks Wasabi and McLean78]

In Japan you can acquire all kinds of products and services on the cheap. Broadband is very cheap, hotels can be rented by the hour (of course that's true here sometimes too), and then there's the Simple Series of video games.

The Simple Series comprises budget titles for every last-gen system under the sun. They churn these games out faster than humanly possible (it's widely believed that Simple is run by evil cyborgs) and delivery basic gameplay and visuals for a very cheap price. The games may not be anything to write home about, but they are cheap. I cannot emphasis that enough -- cheap.

And now they're heading to XBLA. Kotaku milked a D3 (publisher of the Simple Series) rep for information and here's what they found out. At least two Simple games are heading to XBLA. They may or may not be branded as part of the Simple Series. They will be cheap!

No word on what the games are, when they will arrive, or if they will even arrive in the West at all. We will just have to wait and see if they can squeeze some localization into the Simple budget.

[via Kotaku]

In what seems like an obvious price point for a brick-and-mortar retail title, the Xbox Flash Fall email has announced that Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords will be priced at 1200 MS Points. The real question you have to ask to yourself when you gasp at the price point is $15 worth the price of the title for you? I for one think yes considering the title retails for between $19.99 and $29.99 on Amazon. This makes the Xbox Live Arcade and (probably) the PSN version of the game the cheapest way to become addicted to Puzzle Quest.

[Via Xbox 360 Fanboy]

Impatient? Go here.

Otherwise, let me spin you my epic Puzzle Quest tale.

After a long silence we're proud to announce today contestants on the ESRB show.

In the red corner, weighing in with more rumored name changes than actual game details. It's a good game for the whole family with a rating of E. Once, it was called Tetris Splash...then Tetris Online...but now we're proud to announce the actual definitive title is...Tetris Splash. (Don't you just love a good anti-climax?)

And in the blue corner, weighing in with 33 characters including that pesky colon. It's as simple and addictive as Bejeweled and has nearly as many orcs as World of Warcraft (not really). It garnered a risque rating of E10+ for some seriously suggestive themes. It's...Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords.

It will be a heated open-ended fight to see which game will actually be released in a reasonable amount of time. My money is on both fighters passing out from cert heat exhaustion and taking months to recover. Hopefully I am wrong.

[via the ESRB]