Copies of Ubisoft’s popular core games are supposed to ship with a valid one-time code required to access multiplayer features, meaning that second-hand buyers would have to pay to get in on the action. Due to Uplay Passport printing codes in error for Driver, however, Ubisoft has had to quickly rethink its strategy.

“We wanted to make you aware of an issue with copies of Driver: San Francisco,” Ubisoft added in a statement. “Due to a printing error on the insert of some copies of Driver: San Francisco in North America, Ubisoft has elected to provide the Driver Uplay Passport content for free.”

This free worldwide content doesn’t expire and is available on both the Xbox 360 and PS3. Although this problem does not affect players outside of North America, they have decided to mirror this offer to everyone in the world in order to be fair to all their players. Ubisoft detailed the first DLC updates for Driver: San Francisco yesterday, which includes 12 new routes for all online modes on September 15 free of charge. Following that, it’ll launch another free route each week for the following ten weeks.

Well, that seems to be the impression Patrick Bach, executive producer of Battlefield 3, has. When questioned by a competition winner from Rock, Paper, Shotgun he remarked, “If you put the player in front of a choice where they can do good things or bad things, they will do bad things, go dark side – because people think it’s cool to be naughty, they won’t be caught… In a game where it’s more authentic, when you have a gun in your hand and a child in front of you what would happen? Well the player would probably shoot that child.” As a subsequence Battlefield 3 is not going to be keen on letting you strafe any civilian life you encounter. Personally I think his comments are a little naive and at best uncharitable to us gamers.

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EA Labels boss Frank Gibeau stated that the company does have a date in mind for The Old Republic launch (the official stance is “holiday 2011″), but fan reaction to the beta will be the deciding factor. Gibeau admitted that EA and BioWare were striving to avoid the technological glitches that hampered the launch of Blizzard’s World Of Warcraft.

“You’ve got to have a great launch and as more and more user feedback comes in we make those polishing decisions on what we’re going to get right and nail,” he said. “We don’t want to happen to us what happened to WoW and a couple of other services where in the first week there were queues trying to get on to the servers, the entire service crashed – we don’t want that to happen. So we need to nail and make sure that it’s up 24/7 and it’s high quality. We’re totally focused on quality, so whatever the beta test tells us is what will be the determining variable on when we will hit.”

Microsoft has secured timed exclusive releases for the first two DLC add-ons for Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. The first two add-on content drops for the game will be released exclusively for the Xbox 360, thirty days before they’re available anywhere else. The precise content of the DLC is yet to be discussed, but it is understood that Bethesda wants fewer add-ons. Bethesda game director Todd Howard said in June that the company wanted to launch fewer but “more substantial” pieces of DLC than it has with previous titles, with an “expansion pack feel.”

Skyrim launches November 11 for Xbox 360, PS3 and PC.

With the Xbox 360 reaching middle age, Microsoft has now commented on rumors of its successor, dubbed the 720. Chris Lewis, vice president of Interactive Entertainment Business for Microsoft Europe recently stated, “As you can imagine, of course we’re working on all sorts of different things. We do that all the time. Frankly, in all aspects of Microsoft, not just what we do with Xbox, our R&D investment is second to none. I would only say it’s too long if things are stagnating. If developers are finding they’re bumping their heads against the glass ceiling of development scope, if we weren’t bringing revolutionary technology like Kinect, if we weren’t able to, frankly, completely update the UI of Xbox Live without predicating that on people buying new hardware, were those things not true I might be more in agreement with your assessment.”

With the recent concentration on Kinect, Microsoft will obviously continue to support the 360, but the Wii U is out next year, so how how much longer can they hold off without a new console?

Check out this GamesCom footage of the first third-party game to use CryEngine 3. Sniper: Ghost Warrior 2, from Polish developer City Interactive, is due for a 2012 release on the PS3, Xbox 360 and PC. Lock and load!

Clint Hocking posted a link on his Twitter account to a new job opening on the recruiting site of LucasArts’ parent company, Lucasfilm. The posting is for a gameplay engineer to work on an open-world role-playing game. The listing included no details about the title, but the ideal candidate would possess console development experience as well as “passion for making and playing innovative games.”

Hocking was a former Ubisoft Montreal creative director before switching allegiances to work at LucasArts. He is best known for his work with Ubisoft’s, Splinter Cell series and Far Cry 2.

LucasArts has since followed up his tweet with a Twitter post of its own, saying, “It should be noted that we’re hiring for a number of positions and games,” in addition to the one Hocking posted about.

Ahead of PAX 2011, Sega has released a fine looking debut trailer for Aliens: Colonial Marines. Distancing itself from such games as Aliens vs. Predator, Aliens: Colonial Marines captures James Cameron’s 1986 ‘Aliens sci-fi classic. In the game, you join up with a squadron of Marines as they invade an alien-infested planet, wiping out everything they see while they attempt to survive. The hard bit is staying alive, and as you can see in the footage, that doesn’t seem to be easy! Going by the trailer this looks to be one intense, atmospheric gaming experience. The game is set for release in the spring of 2012.

Activision’s Dan Amrich revealed on his blog that following on from the success of the original Wipeout, a sequel is in the works, and is planned to be released soon. The sequel features obstacle courses taken straight from the most recent episodes of the ABC show. There is also some in-built fun that allows on-screen characters to throw things at other game characters while they try to run the course. While no specific date was announced, Wipeout 2 will be coming this holiday season for the Xbox 360 with Kinect, PlayStation 3 with Move, Wii, DS, and 3DS.

New screens have just been leaked for Goldeneye 007: Reloaded. The new HD version which has been re-mastered for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 looks pretty, and is due to release this fall. So there’s plenty of time for some martinis, Mr Bond.

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Lightbox Studios and Sony have released a new trailer at GamesCom for their upcoming PlayStation 3 exclusive, Starhawk. This trailer shows off a western portion of the game. The multiplayer sci-fi space opera game is due out in 2012.

Just when you were safely assuming that all Zelda games suffered from a slight release delay, Nintendo goes and surprises you! The latest Zelda adventure, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword for Wii, will release in North American on November 20. That date falls within the holiday timeframe announced at E3, meaning it will actually arrive on time. What isn’t clear yet, is whether the game will be packaged with a Wii Remote Plus (which has the extra motion sensor built in).

Codemasters has announced a new demo for Bodycount. This demo for the testosterone-fueled shooter is now available for download via Xbox Live. You’d better have something to do while its downloading its 1.45GB content, though! What about PSN, you ask? We understand a PS3 demo “will follow” at some point in the future.

Spanish film maker Guillermo del Toro (Hellboy) has said there are still two or three more years to go on his THQ horror game Insane.

“We’ve been working for a year,” del Toro said recently. “We have two or three more years to go. It’s really weird, but it’s Lovecraftian in a very sick way, which I like. It’s truly, truly entertaining. Full of action, but also a very shocking game.”

Del Toro and Volition are currently designing its lighting, art and cinematography style. Creatures are also being designed, with the help of comic artists Guy Davis and Francisco Ruis Velasco.

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LEGO Universe, the MMO, has opened an unlimited free-to-play zone affording all you LEGO enthusiasts an area to explore your architectural skills. This new experience offers a selection of game content, including two adventure zones and one player property area for building your own virtual LEGO models. In addition to your own area, you will have access to thousands of other players’ properties. You will also be given an option to upgrade to a membership account ($10 per month) at any time and receive full game access. This will admit you to over 15 adventure zones as well as more than 5 property worlds. Membership will also grant you access to new expansions. Get building!