If you preorder Darksiders at EB Games – and only EB Games – you’ll score yourself the ‘Guide to the Underworld’, a 100-page book featuring:

* Darksiders Graphic Novel – Prequel based upon comic artist and Vigil Games founder Joe Madureira’s vision of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse
* ‘Joe Mad’ Concept Art – Exclusive in-depth look at the creation of the epic Darksiders
* Exclusive Fold Out Poster – Original concept art illustrated by Joe Madureira
* War’s Weapons Feature – Master the weapons of Darksiders with this exclusive guide

Plus, you’ll get a code to unlock an in-game weapon called the Harvester, described as:

“This powerful weapon belongs to the rider of the pale horse. Its enormous, fearsome blade can cleave through flesh, bone, and even the ethereal demons of Hell. Though its jagged blade is deadly, the power locked within makes its master like unto a god.”

It’s $108 RRP at EB. Here, have another screenshot.

[Thanks Sam T!]

The highlights will be at Liverpool Westfield in Sydney and Knox City Shopping Centre in Melbourne, the two stores designated to host what EB predict will be the biggest gaming launch ever in Australia.

“EB Games are extremely excited to be the premier launch destination of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. We look forward to being an integral part of this historic event as this will be the biggest gaming launch in Australian history,” says Shane Stockwell, EB Games merchandising director.

“We are expecting tens of thousands of people to come out at midnight to get this game, it will definitely be a sight to see and I would encourage everyone to come along and be part of these very special events right across Australia.”

Those heading down to the two official midnight launches will be in the running to win a bunch of prizes, too, including:

* Dress in camo and get your head shaved for your chance to win a Modern Warfare 2 Limited Edition Xbox 360 console
* Free cans of V energy drink
* Energizer Torches
* Plus the chance to get a free upgrade from Standard Edition to Hardened Edition

Oh, and if you’re going, don’t forget to take some pics and send them to us.

Harada-san will be making an in-store appearance at EB Games in Bondi Junction Westfield. He’ll be there from 1pm to 3pm. You can:

* Get your photo taken with Harada-san and ask him to sign your Tekken games
* Win a life-size Tekken statue of Jin and Kaz
* Cosplay and win a copy of Tekken 6 a week prior to release
* Score a Tekken 6 poster just for turning up

If you go, take some photos and send them to us at the usual address.

The 250GB PS3 is bundled with Uncharted 2 as standard, although Ratchet & Clank and EyePet bundles will be available in the coming months as those games are released. It’s priced at $599 RRP.

Despite the presence of perhaps the PS3’s biggest game of the year, retailers are offering some extra incentives. EB, for example, is also throwing in a copy of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare for a total of $596. that’s my pick of the best of the bunch. In fact, I might pick one up myself since I don’t actually own a retail PS3 – I make do with a “debug” console that plays all pre-release and final code.

Anyone else spotted a better 250GB PS3 deal?

We’ve heard that EB Games is refusing to stock the PSPgo in Australia.

If you go the EB website you won’t find any mention of the handheld, despite its launch date being next week. If you call your local EB store—and we have spoken to several Sydney stores in the last 24 hours—you’ll find the PSPgo is not in their system. We even spoke to one rival retailer who urged us to preorder the PSPgo from his store because “EB aren’t stocking it.”

Yesterday we contacted EB’s head office to verify the rumours. We were told EB would not be commenting on the PSPgo.

Today we spoke to Sony and received the following statement from an SCE Australia spokesperson:

In relation to our business and the launch of PSPgo, we are already experiencing solid support for launch day on October 1 in Australia. Retail support of the PSP platform, includes both PSP-3000 and PSPgo. Many retailers will choose to range both PSP models side-by-side, as we continue to offer expanded choice for the consumer for the handheld device platform. As with any new product, there will be continued discussions with retail partners to continue to expand reach over time in line with growth of the entire PSP platform.

SCE are also committed to delivering more PSP content including strong IPs like Gran Turismo and LittleBigPlanet this year, plus increased networked services and applications for the platform such as the Digital Reader service which will launch with Digital Comics this December. In 2010 users will also be able to enjoy access to a Video Delivery Service.

The spokesperson informed us they could not comment on another company’s business and thus could neither confirm nor deny EB’s support of the new handheld.

If the rumour is true, why would EB refuse to stock the PSPgo?

Traditionally, gaming hardware is sold close to cost price. The retailer makes its money on the sale of software. With the PSPgo, those retailers are no longer selling the software.

Sony has perhaps factored this in to the hefty price tag on the PSPgo, supporting retailers with a higher profit margin than typically found in other hardware. But it seems EB isn’t biting.

Secondhand sales are a huge part of EB’s business. With the PSPgo, they miss out on that too. Other retailers, with less invested in the sale of secondhand games, might not be so concerned.

On the other hand, games publishers see secondhand sales as sales lost to them. With the PSPgo, they don’t have to worry about it.

But someone still has to sell the hardware. Looks like the road towards digital distribution still has plenty of twists and turns for the industry to negotiate.

I came late to the party and by the time I’d snapped a few photos of the Warthog and taken some amateur video footage the organisers of the event were calling out raffle numbers. Winners of this raffle were to receive a free ‘hot lap’ in the Warthog on Wednesday. The guy in the line next to me (I ended up near the very, very back) showed an organiser his bona-fide Halo tattoo and scored a free one. I was glad he got some sort of compensation for corporate sponsorship.

Over a loudspeaker that wasn’t very loud, the reverberant calls of ‘Red Forty Seven!’ and other combinations of colours and letters were a fitting counterpoint to the American Gridiron game I’d been watching literally right before attending. The crowd of fans snaked around the upper level of Westfield Penrith an easy 200-deep, looking so much like a rabble of linebackers. Teens and young adults, kids with parents, they were all waiting patiently for Halo 3: ODST’s Australian launch.

16 minutes till midnight. The two mid-twenties gamers in line next to me (one being the be-tattooed gentleman, the other his bespectacled friend) were quizzing each other on Halo trivia – “What was Johnson’s first name again? Leroy? No? …Oh, that’s right, Avery!” They were effervescent in their excitement (they later joked about how one of them had had two coffees and wasn’t really a coffee drinker). A father and his two sons were in front of me in the queue and I bet the Dad plays more of that game than the kids tonight. I kinda wish my Dad were into games, but then if he were I’d probably never get to play them.

10 minutes. The heat was becoming stifling as Westfield staff didn’t seem to think it worth turning on the air con for 200 sweating (mostly male) gamers. It started to feel like every LAN party I’ve ever been to, and not in an entirely good way. The list of games name-checked by the two gamers next to me in line will by the time I leave with ODST in hand include: Command and Conquer 2; Metroid 3; Total Annihilation; Supreme Commander; Counter-Strike.

We chatted about nerd stuff—the usual things you do at a midnight launch, I suppose—and discussed a mutual appreciation of political science, The Late Show era comedians like Tony Martin and Judith Lucy, a hatred of all the Resident Evil film sequels, and sharing a love for movie soundtracks. We miss the actual count down to midnight in no small part because I’m impressing my two companions with the information that I once interviewed Marty O’Donnell for a university thesis. We’re so far back that we barely hear it anyway and it’s another 25 minutes before we get to the door into the store.

As the line inched forward, I overhear organisers reminding people to get their pre-order receipts out and I pondered the fact that I had neglected to pre-order the game. I also consider skipping the new Halo 3: ODST game altogether and instead present at the counter with a nice copy of Nintendogs Daschund edition. A store employee however suggests that the Labrador version is clearly the superior product.

Unfortunately my skills lie outside the realm of deadpan comedic timing and delivery so I line up like everyone else, bribing the guy on the door to get me in without a pre-order receipt. He really was very kind about it, and the manager at the counter let me off with a warning and made me promise to ‘never do it again’.

My purchase complete, I stumbled outside collecting my poster and lanyard and that was that. I somehow lost my line companions inside the store, however, and I felt kind of sad that I didn’t manage a polite goodbye. It highlights the kind of beauty of midnight launches — and indeed of the often accepting gamer culture in general. Sure there are plenty of idiots online who hide behind the anonymity of Xbox Live to try and insinuate derogatory things about your sexual orientation, but in person most gamers are lovely.

If you know the Halo tattooed man and his bespectacled friend, whose girlfriend apparently lives next-door to a friend of my own (small world, huh?), would you mind saying hi to them for me? And then remind them they owe me a copy of Nintendogs. The Daschund edition, thanks.

One last little bit of analysis: I’m not really sure why Penrith was chosen for the national midnight launch. If it was purely a business decision with the Penrith EB store willing to pay the most money for the privilege that would be a rather boring footnote. I’m hoping, however, there’s a bit more of an interesting story behind it. Maybe the #1 Halo fan in Australia lives in Penrith or something, even if it’s just “Western Sydney has the most Halo fans”. If I hear back from my contact at Microsoft I’ll update to let you know.

Ben Abraham is the author of the SLRC blog and co-founder of Critical Distance. When he’s not writing about video games there, he’s writing about them here.

But try telling EB that. Australian Nintendo site Vooks picked up a copy at a Western Australian EB store yesterday. And it looks like other EB stores are also going on sale ten days before the street date.

Dead Space Extraction escapes confinement in Australia early [Vooks]

Below I’ve listed all 11 games available day one for download via Games On Demand. Under each I’ve listed the Games On Demand price in Aussie dollars, plus the currently listed prices one the websites of the three major specialist games retailers (EB, GAME and JB) plus one online retailer plucked at random (Games Warehouse).

Where a full price version was available, I have listed its price. If only a preowned version was available, I have listed that price (and noted its preowned status). I’ve also noted where a price was currently marked as discounted or where the game is part of a bundle or limited edition. Other costs such as postage for online orders, bandwidth for the Live downloads, petrol for your car to get to the store and that cappuccino your girlfriend bought while she waited for you… haven’t been factored in.

OK, let’s take a look.

What’s interesting is that only EB says it carries all 11 titles. JB has eight, Games Warehouse seven and GAME has a mere six listed in their systems, and even some of them are marked “not in stock”. Sure, many of the older games are only available as preowned copies at EB. But outside of the Xbox Live service, EB is the only place you could actually still buy all these games. That’s one of the benefits of a digital distribution channel: it’s no hassle to maintain stock. As Microsoft told us yesterday, it’s about “24×7 convenience.” And, hey, it’s true.

Moving on to price comparisons now. Microsoft also told us yesterday that “no one retailer has the lowest pricing for every product.” And, hey, that’s true too!

In not one instance is the Games On Demand price the cheapest, yet in six cases it was clearly the most expensive. Although, in most of those cases it’s by virtue of being one of just two or three outlets actually selling the game.

Finally, let’s look at the two outlets where all 11 games are on sale: Games On Demand and EB Games. If you bought all 11 over Xbox Live you’d pay $559.45. If you bought them all at EB you’d pay $332.50. Admittedly you’d have a few preowned discs there, but on the flipside you could trade in all 11 once you’re done and get maybe half your cash back.

BioShock
Games On Demand: $49.95
EB Games: $79.95 or $59.95 w/ Oblivion
GAME: $59.95 w/ Oblivion
Games Warehouse: $54.95 w/ Oblivion
JB Hi-Fi: $38.98

Call of Duty 2
Games On Demand: $49.95
EB Games: $22.95 preowned only
GAME: n/a
Games Warehouse: n/a
JB Hi-Fi: n/a

Kameo
Games On Demand: $29.95
EB Games: $14.95 preowned only
GAME: n/a
Games Warehouse: n/a
JB Hi-Fi: n/a

Mass Effect
Games On Demand: $99.95
EB Games: $79.95
GAME: $69.95 or $29.00 online only
Games Warehouse: $44.95
JB Hi-Fi: $89.98

Oblivion
Games On Demand: $49.95
EB Games: $59.95 w/ BioShock or $69.95 GOTY Edition
GAME: $59.95 w/ BioShock
Games Warehouse: $54.95 w/ BioShock or $63.95 GOTY Edition
JB Hi-Fi: $45.98

Perfect Dark Zero
Games On Demand: $29.95
EB Games: $14.95 preowned only
GAME: n/a
Games Warehouse: $29.95
JB Hi-Fi: $44.98

Prey
Games On Demand: $29.95
EB Games: $14.95 preowned only
GAME: $39.95 or $34.00 online only
Games Warehouse: $59.95 Limited Edition only
JB Hi-Fi: n/a

Rockstar Table Tennis
Games On Demand: $69.95
EB Games: $19.95 preowned only
GAME: n/a
Games Warehouse: n/a
JB Hi-Fi: $45.98

SEGA Rally
Games On Demand: $49.95
EB Games: $39.95
GAME: n/a
Games Warehouse: n/a
JB Hi-Fi: $38.98

Viva Pinata
Games On Demand: $29.95
EB Games: $9.95 preowned only
GAME: $39.95 or $19.00 online only
Games Warehouse: $29.95
JB Hi-Fi: $26.98

Viva Pinata: Trouble In Paradise
Games On Demand: $69.95
EB Games: $54.95
GAME: $59.95 or $29.00 online only
Games Warehouse: $34.95
JB Hi-Fi: $62.98

So there you have it. Who’s up for some Games On Demand?

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But it seems there is a way for PC gamers to get their hands on a novelty toy pretty cool limited edition bundle, after all.

Kotaku reader Brett tells us he was at an EB Games store in Sydney to pre-order the game and asked about the PC version. EB staff apparently told Brett if he really wanted the Prestige Edition for PC, there was a “workaround”.

Basically, it involves purchasing an Xbox 360 or PS3 version of the Prestige Edition, and a (regular) PC copy, then on release you can immediately trade in the Xbox 360/PS3 copy of the game for $80 cash back.

The key is that when you trade in the console version, you’re just trading in the game – not all the swag that came with it. Sure, you might end up spending slightly more than the $200 RRP of the console Prestige Edition. But at least you can play Modern Warfare 2 on your PC and wear night vision goggles at the same.

Any PC gamers out there interested in testing this “workaround”?