Steve Jobs, the Apple co-founder who helped to pioneer the personal computer industry, died earlier today. After exhibiting significant weight loss in mid-2008, he took a six-month medical leave of absence in 2009, during which he received a liver transplant. He then took another medical leave of absence in mid-January, before stepping down as chief executive in August.

“Steve’s brilliance, passion and energy were the source of countless innovations that enrich and improve all of our lives,” Apple said in a statement. “The world is immeasurably better because of Steve.”

He is survived by his wife, Laurene, and four children.

The Modern Warfare 3 community got some good news this week, as new information on MW3‘s multiplayer tweaks has been revealed. Gone are the Full Metal Jacket rounds that made SMGs so lethal. In MW3, bullet penetration is now a gun characteristic. Explosives have been toned down a bit, and new gear is being introduced, like the Flak Jacket, that will further protect the player from blowing up.

PlayStation 2 titles are finally available for download on the PlayStation Network. Yesterday saw the release of PSN versions of Odin Sphere, Ring of Red, Maximo: Ghosts to Glory, God Hand and GRIMgRiMoiRe. Each title is available for $9.99 and range in size from 580 MB to 3.28 GB. More PS2 titles will be released throughout the month.

There’s only a few days left before the North American launch of Dead Rising 2: Off The Record on October 11 for the PS3, Xbox 360 and PC. To get you ready for the return of Frank West, today we have an all-new trailer featuring him and what he’s been doing since we saw him last.

Dead Rising 2: Off the Record sees the photojournalist and original hero of Dead Rising’s Willamette incident, Frank West, take center stage as players experience a reimagining of the Fortune City outbreak.

Casual game publisher G5 Entertainment has released a list of its upcoming releases. On October 6, Virtual City 2: Paradise Resort will hit the Mac and PC, featuring over fifty levels worth of city-building challenges. Later in the month, on October 13, Stand O’Food and Stand O’Food 3 will release for Android and iOS, respectively. The Stand O’Food series follows Ronnie the Chef as he tries to make his chain of food stands successful.

Not even criminals can resist the siren song of free stuff. Using this knowledge to their advantage, law enforcement officials in Chicago set up a ruse promising free televisions and video game consoles to thousands of fugitives wanted for everything from violent felonies to unpaid child support. As the fugitives showed up at the warehouse, they were greeted with empty plasma TV and console boxes. After they willingly gave up their identity, police officers moved in and recorded over fifty arrests.

Today we have an inside look at the never before seen co-op campaign in Rocketbirds: Hardboiled Chicken.

For those of you not in the know, Rocketbirds: Hardboiled Chicken tells the story of the rebel cock, Hardboiled, who’s caught in the middle of a struggle against an evil penguin regime. The full co-op campaign features 10 chapters and a narrative all its own. The evil penguins have kidnapped the General’s daughter and it’s up to you and a friend to save her. Choose from six different Budgie commando characters, each specializing in a different weapon, and work together to wreak havoc, rescue the General’s daughter and prove who the ultimate mother-cluckin’ soldier is.

Rocketbirds: Hardboiled Chicken is rated M, and will be available October 18 on the PlayStation Network for $11.99.

The Xbox 360 is trying to change the way you watch television by providing all of your cable access through the console. Xbox Live’s Major Nelson has announced the list of entertainment partners that will have content available for the 360. There are over 40 partners signed up for the service, which is set to begin rolling out in over 20 countries this holiday season. While pricing information is still a mystery, you can check out the full list of providers here.

At the end of September, Sony began running the first half of a commercial advertising their new “Long Live Play” slogan. At the end of the commercial, today’s date was displayed, and our minds were full of questions. Sony has since released the full version of their “Long Live Play” commercial, and it is incredible. I don’t want to spoil anything; click the attached video and see it for yourself.

There is no denying that technology has forever altered the way people communicate and learn. Acknowledging this, the White House has launched Digital Promise. Digital Promise is a partnership aimed at incorporating technology into the classroom. In a statement about Digital Promise, President Obama said, “Digital Promise is a unique partnership that will bring everyone together — educators, entrepreneurs and researchers — to use technology to help students learn and teachers teach. There’s no silver bullet when it comes to education, but technology can be a powerful tool, and Digital Promise will help us make the most of it.” You can learn more about Digital Promise and its goals here.

A new Mahjong game is usually not very news-worthy. Mahjong has been done and redone on just about every platform and smart phone in existence. Atlus is trying to change the familiar formula of classic Mahjong with upcoming 3DS title Mahjong Cub3d. Cub3d uses the 3D capabilities of the 3DS to display a Mahjong board that extends in all directions: up, down, side-to-side, and front-to-back. Mahjong Cub3d will be available on October 11.

EA has confirmed that they are already developing the next Dead Space game, and they’ll be taking the gamer back down to the ground. In Dead Space 3, Isaac crash lands on a new planet and will need to survive alone on this frozen world. It’s also reported that he will find survivors, and Ellie will be among them. New character Jennifer rounds out the threesome, as they trek across the ice and snow struggling for survival. One of the great things about Dead Space was the claustrophobic ship settings. Will EA be able to transfer this experience to an outdoor environment?

Indie developer Rampant Games has announced the release of its role-playing game, Frayed Knights: The Skull of S’makh-Daon. According to Rampant, the title embraces the style and mechanics of role-playing games that have been largely abandoned by major publishers. It features a first-person perspective, turn-based combat, a statistics-heavy game system, a party of four characters, and thousands of lines of unvoiced dialogue presented in comic-book style word balloons.

Frayed Knights: The Skull of S’makh-Daon is now available as a digital download, and while unrated, the folks at Rampant believe that it should be content-appropriate for most teens and adults.

Today we have the new Afterfall: InSanity trailer.

Following a World War II with an inconclusive outcome, the world’s most powerful superpowers signed a series of treats, that were thought to secure long lasting peace for mankind. Despite all the assurances of friendship and cooperation, past grudges remained. The dawn of the Twenty-first Century saw the world seemingly united under the banner of organizations like NATO, but at heart they remained divided. A Global Cold War lasted for 67 years, resulting in an unprecedented arms race and the development of such advanced defensive measures as Project Afterfall in the Polish Republic.

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Star Wars: The Old Republic takes place in a vast universe filled with planets. Navigating such a large area can be daunting to the unprepared, so BioWare has released a Galaxy Map featuring the various planets and stars of The Old Republic. The Galaxy Map, found here, makes traveling to a galaxy far, far away as easy as the click of a mouse.