Assassin’s Creed III and its Vita counterpart, Liberation, are on the way at the end of this month. As revealed this week on the PlayStation Store, there will be at least $30 worth of downloadable content for the game. Three separate packages were listed on PSN. The standalone PS3 version is available for preorder at the regular $59.99. Also available is the Gold Edition ($89.99), which includes the Season Pass for DLC. The third option includes the Gold Edition and Liberation $119.99. The Season Pass is reportedly a 25% discount versus buying whatever’s included separately, and gets you access to the first add-on one week early. Ubisoft has said they plan five DLC packages, four multiplayer add-ons and a single player story pack, “The Tyranny of King Washington.” This will let you play an alternate history sequence of events that could have occurred if Washington had succumbed to the power of leadership and become our nation’s first king. If you want the Gold Edition and Liberation, you’re insane not to buy it this way. PSN is also running the promotion to give you $20 in PSN credit if you spend $100 or more this month. Easy math: ACIII+Season Pass+Liberation=$60+30+40=$130. The bundle is $120, saving you $10 instantly, plus another $20 next month. Effective price=$100. Total savings=$30. Yeah, that’s practically a free copy of a retail Vita game anyway. In case you’ve forgotten, both games release October 30th.

Crystal Dynamics’ Tomb Raider reboot has an Amazon-exclusive special edition on the way. The “Final Hours Edition” gas no extra cost, and comes automatically when you preorder through Wonder Woman’s online store. This version includes a 32 page art book, an in-game skin for Lara, and “The Final Hours of Tomb Raider: Director’s Cut” for the Kindle Fire. The documentary has already been released in two parts elsewhere. This seems more like an “Expanded but Not Very Special” edition. The developer has promised other preorder incentives will also be forthcoming. You may want to wait for a more attractive deal. The game is available March 5, 2013.

Hot on the heels of Muzyka and Zeschuk’s departure from Bioware comes the news of Cliff “CliffyB” Bleszinski leaving Epic Games after 20 years. Plans for his future haven’t been announced, nor has Epic made any mention of how his design director will be filled. CliffyB has been a luminary in the business for two decades and was integral to the evolution. But, all things change, and it will be interesting to see how the industry evolves without him – or with him in a different role. In a goodbye on their Cliff had this to say:

“I’ve been doing this since I was a teenager, and outside of my sabbatical last year, I have been going non-stop. I literally grew up in this business, as Mike [Capps] likes to say. And now that I’m grown up, it’s time for a much needed break.

I will miss the projects, the playtests, the debates, and most importantly, the people. Epic only hires the best of the best, and it has been a joy working with each and every one of you on a daily basis, whether you were hired weeks ago or decades ago. I have been fortunate enough to collaborate with a variety of disciplines, from code to art to marketing and PR – it’s been one big, rewarding learning experience. I’m confident that each project that is being built, whether at Epic, Chair, PCF, or Impossible will be top notch and will please gamers and critics alike.”

We know that Omega is on its way, so it’s not a secret that Bioware isn’t finished with Mass Effect 3. But it’s been recently announced that another huge chunk of multiplayer DLC is also on its way. “Retaliation” brings back Mass Effect 2‘s lead villains, the Collectors. This will be the biggest multiplayer add-on yet, with six new maps, sixteen characters, and more. New gear will include the Collector’s assault rifle and other equippable items. A new Challenge feature will be incorporated which rewards completing objectives with “challenge points” you can spend on banners and titles (bragging rights). “Hazards” like sandstorms and acid baths will also make their way into the existing maps, just to make your battles a little more taxing. And, like the multiplayer DLC before it, it’s free!

If you haven’t already seen it, check out the ultimate in gag (literally) marketing for Resident Evil 6. I actually kind of wish this were somewhere near me.

This past week Arse-bot and I had the awesome opportunity to speak with Frank O’Connor of 343 Industries. Frank is a really great guy and we had a lot of fun. We talked Halo 4, Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn, and bit about 343 Industries:

Chris: So Frank, you are Franchise Development Director at 343. What is a normal day like for you and what does that role entail?

Frank: There isn’t a normal day, because it entails so many different things. Last week I was in most countries in Europe doing a press tour showing off the game and just being a spokesperson. But most of my real proper job is crafting stories and a universe in and around the Halo game franchise. That can be anything from, in the case of Forward Unto Dawn sort of the inception and creation of that product and the story, all the way to working with our writers and narrative director on our video game. Of course the extended franchise: the action figures, and skateboards, and you name. It is all a business that all has to be run and all has to be appropriately and correctly tied into the rest of the universe all in the service of the game.

What was your specific involvement with Forward Unto Dawn?

Helping craft the idea in the first place with Matt McCloskey, one of our business directors, and helping to coalesce a small kernel of team for the thing to snowball around. It had been 5 years since the last numbered Halo game, and you know, that’s most of the life of a new hardware platform, the 360 in this case. We knew there were a lot of people curious about the Halo universe, and were going to be curious about it, and we wanted to give them a piece of fiction and a piece of story that could tell them a little bit about the Halo universe without being intimating and without being too gamey. The 2nd half of it was kind of an organic evolution of conversations that we’d had about our live action TV commercials for the big game launches. The fans love those. We made some shorts with Neil Blomkamp and fans loved seeing the Halo universe brought to life. Those two ideas sort of met in the middle and we decided to make a TV show. It was as vague and organic sounding as that sounded.

After production of Forward Unto Dawn was complete, what was your first reaction to seeing the Halo universe brought to life in such a cinematic way?

I mean, we had seen it a little bit with working with Neil Blomkamp on the shorts with Peter Jackson back in the day before the movie kind of went away. So I’ve seen this stuff lots and lots of times and it never ceases to amaze me. I think the really interesting thing about this product is that we’ve done all these vignettes and they never had any real narrative content, they were moments. It was like, this is an action moment in the life of a Spartan, or this in action moment in the life of the Warthog as it were. That’s cool and its great to see that stuff, but its not satisfying in terms of having an actual narrative arc. So the exciting for me was really the first day of work with Todd and Aaron Helping, the screenwriters, as we modeled through what the story was going to be and what these characters were going to be, and we started to realize we had this germ of a really amazing story.

Obviously fans have been hoping for a full length feature Halo film, and Forward Unto Dawn seems like it will certainly scratch that itch, but do you think this will be as close as we will ever get to a full length studio Halo movie?

No, we obviously own the full rights to Halo as a franchise. There’s really nothing stopping us from doing that other than bandwidth and timing. One day if all the stars align and the right script and the right director and everything is there, then sure we’d absolutely love to do it, but there’s no plans at this time.

Spartan Ops has been likened to a TV series. It sounds really unique and exciting. Has it been difficult to approach and plan missions for it that could have possibly been saved for Halo 5 and 6?

No, in fact one of the really cool things about Spartan Ops is that, you know when you are playing the main Halo campaign, let’s say it takes a player 10 hours to go through, we can’t control the pace of either the narrative or the gameplay experience because 10 hours is too much to expect most people, and there will be people that do it, but you can’t expect most people to sit down and play it for 10 hours. So you can’t really predict the holistic experience, whereas if you are making a movie or TV show, a movie is an easier metaphor, if you are making a movie and its an hour and 45 minutes, you know where the beginning the middle and the end is you can really kind of use music and drama and story to manipulate the viewer’s experience, right? With a video game you can’t really control it to that discreet level of detail. This actually gives us the ability to do that both with the episodes of story that accompany Spartan Ops, but actually also the missions. We knew that we could make a mission, let’s say 15 or 20 minutes long, we know where the lows and highs are going to be in that and we can craft, actually a fairly different type of campaign experience even though its similar to the co-op campaign in the main game, we can actually control the pacing in a much more accurate way. So it does have a really different feel to it.

Let’s talk a little bit about multiplayer. Last week Ragnarok, which is a remake of the fan favorite Valhalla from Halo 3, was revealed. Why was this map chosen and what was the process like for recreating it?

Valhalla was obviously a fan favorite. It was really suitable for a lot of different elements of the whole Halo sandbox and that’s obviously true of Halo 4. One of the main reasons to pick Valhalla this time was because of the way the Spartans move in Halo 4. Its not a big deal for players in most other video games, but its a big deal for Halo players, is that now every single Spartan has sprint. The weird thing about Valhalla is that even though its quite a long map, once you have sprint it meant we were able to make it really really multipurpose. It totally worked for vehicles, but now it actually works for on-foot combat as well. Of all the remakes that we could have considered it gave us the most flexibility for the most different types of gameplay and that’s the reason it was picked.

Nice, I’m really excited for it. Another exciting thing on Ragnarok is the mech, Mantis. How does that work?

Its very powerful. Its very slow. Like everything in the Halo sandbox its about sort of empowering the player, but keeping things nice and balanced. It is armed with a machine gun, a missile launcher, and a stomp move where you can basically run up to Spartan or a vehicle and stamp on it and destroy it. Of course that’s balanced with it being a lumbering, noisy, mechanical object so its not horrifically overpowered. In fact one of the most satisfying things to do in the game is to carjack the Mantis and yank the occupant out of the little pilot’s wheelhouse.

When you stomp a vehicle or a Spartan is there a medal you get specifically for that?

I believe there is actually. I think that we will be revealing the medals in the upcoming weeks, but yeah I believe there is a special something for proficient Mantis users.

Awesome. Tuesday morning Ryan over at IGN and 343’s Kynan Pearson revealed a new multiplayer map called Abandon. What can you tell us about the map’s location and unique look?

Oh my god, I do not have a good time on that map at all. Its definitely one my weak points. When maps have a lot of verticality my 42-year-old twitch reflexes get killed. Its like most of the maps set on obviously an alien world. Its overgrown and in ruins. Actually its funny, a lot of the maps that we have in Halo 4 are very new, sterile, clean spaces because its this living Forerunner world so this is one of the rare instances were you are going to things that are really overgrown and sort of decrepit.

Yeah its got a really unique look from what we’ve seen.

Yeah and it works really well for close quarters combat so if you are using things like the Scattershot, there’s loads of ways to surprise people. Its got lots of sort of honeytraps where you think “I’m going to go there” and people can lay in wait for you.

You may not be able to answer this yet, but what new additions and improvements can we look forward to in Halo 4 and Halo Waypoint in terms of stats tracking and will there be a developer API?

We aren’t going to expose a developer API at least in the immediate term or at launch. Its definitely something we think about for the future. There will be significant upgrades to all of Waypoint’s current functionality in time for launch and a little bit before.

My group of friends and fellow bots here at Big Shiny Robot really got into Bungie Pro and rendering film clips to show off cool things we did. Can we expect a similar feature?

We will have more information about video rendering and other features of that kind closer to launch. Sorry, I know you hate those kind of answers.

Can you tell us about a key moment during development that you thought was really cool or interesting?

You know, its not really a moment, but there was a point where there were literally 9 members of 343 Industries and we were being tasked with taking over the entire Halo universe, we suddenly had this realization that we were going to have to grow from 9 people to almost 300 by the time we shipped. It was sort of terrifying, but maybe in the first couple of interview loops we started to realize something which was that every single person that came to interview for the job was a Halo fan. Of course it makes logical sense, but its not something you are thinking about when you are trying to poach people form AAA studios and trying to bring them to Seattle from different parts of the world. That turned out to not only one of the easiest parts of that challenge, and it wasn’t easy at all let me be clear about that, but it actually gave us some of the best opportunities because for all the people who were Halo fans and knew what made Halo cool and knew what was special about Halo, they had all these techniques and perspectives and abilities that they were able to bring from the other studios and from the projects that actually helped us grow and evolve the game.

So Halo 4 went gold about a week or so ago, congrats on that by the way, what does it feel like at 343 and how is the team reacting?

Thank ya. Its weird because there’s a few more parking spaces and people are of course off crunch more or less, but there’s still little segments of team. I mean to your point earlier the Waypoint guys are working on getting the website and the backend stuff ready for launch. We’re still working on Forward Unto Dawn doing final color correction and VFX for the last couple of episodes. We’re doing all of this launch activity and marketing stuff and for some of us we just keep going. I’d like to say there’s a huge sense of relief but not for me, not quite yet. I think the team is really, I think they’re really elated about the project, I think they are rightfully proud of the game. I think that they are really sort of pleased and proud at how they’ve come together as a team and as a family. To grow that quickly, to grow from 9 people to 300 people in 3 years and build a game and come out of that process with what we hope is a great game and a really sort of happy, successful, collaborative culture is way more than we could ever have hoped for when we started this.

The sense of camaraderie and team spirit that is gathered from places like Twitter and forums is just really awesome. It seems like everyone is really tight tight-knit there.

Yeah. I think that was part of the process of having to grow so quickly I think actually worked in our favor because you know we had this shared passion and it was all Halo, Halo, Halo. Then of course you get to know each other as colleagues and friends and it seems artificial from the outside but from the inside it felt, it really did feel like family.

One more question then Arse-bot has one. As a fan of Halo what are you most excited for?

I honestly, this is no word of a lie, every day I go back to my house and I have a recumbent bike in my basement gym, which is all creepy, and I get on the bike and I play Reach every single night. I play various multiplayer modes. So I’m excited just as I was to move from Halo 3 to Halo: Reach, I’m excited to move from Halo: Reach to Halo 4, and to just get a fresh new multiplayer experience for my workouts. I always burn more calories when I’m losing, because I can’t rage quit really, because I’m on a bike, so the worse I do the more calories I burn, and luckily I’m very bad at the game.

Tyson: You had kind of touched on this a little bit when we were talking about the map Abandon. My friends which includes Chris who is conducting the interview, and some of the other guys who run our site, we get together, we played Halo: Reach, we played Halo 3, we’re big into hopping online, getting a squad together, and just trying to tear things up. We all have a different style of play. I’m kind of the running gun type, we’ve got friends who hang back and snipe, we’ve got the guys who go for the vehicles. Could you describe your play style? How do you play the game and how would you describe your Halo style?

So you actually brought up a really brilliant point about Halo, which is that its not monolithic. I mean obviously you have role players in Counter Strike, but my experience in Counter Strike is that everyone is some sort of genius at killing me. Its a very sort of specific game and game style that you play depending on the mode obviously but there’s always the same feel. Halo players are really not monolithic. They do tend to be role players. I’m great at, I’m not great at a lot of things, but I’m a good driver, and I’m excellent at sneaking and getting flags. Right? I can’t hold a territory, but I can get a flag when a good team is otherwise occupied. Those are my skills. One of the cool things about Halo 4, and I think that people tend to think of the career progression as a way to get more power, but it doesn’t really empower you, what it does is it empowers you to create a player that maps to your style. A good vehicle specialist for example is going to be able to customize his character to be not only better at driving, but to be rewarded for being a good driver. That’s what its really about. Its about customizing your character to suit your style of play, rather than to simply make your character more and more and more powerful as you grow. Its more about about giving your more fine tuned controls over doing the kinds of things that you like to do and we hope that that promotes really interesting dynamic and teamwork. Other than that I’m a pretty decent SWAT player. That’s about it.

*Laughs*

Again I’m 42 and often we’ll go play MLG players and I think they expect because I work on the game that I’m going to be good, not great, but at least good, and they’re very pleasantly surprised when they absolutely destroy me.

Tyson: Well you know, we’ve had discussions too about its not always about the win necessarily. Obviously we all love to win, and there’s always some friendly trash talking going on, but sometimes its just about how close the game is. We’ve had talks about this with some of the other first person shooter games how it seems to be really off balance, but with Halo it seems like you guys have really been able to fine tune it to where even if you are losing, you get matched up with a group where its like “Gah, you know we lost but that was an awesome match.”

Its a combination of the way the game’s interior systems work and TrueSkill and obviously the way matchmaking playlists are split up. But you are right in Halo it tends to never be a complete blowout unless someone on your team quits and that’s one of the reasons we added join-in-progress is to ameliorate that problem and keep those games balanced. You’re absolutely right, I don’t feel bad if we lose 50 to 48, in fact I feel pretty good about that. That’s one of the hard things in game design is that for competitive play to be satisfying, you can’t always win and you can’t always lose so it should really be about how you performed on that day and that moment and that should be where the satisfaction comes in.

Tyson: I can tell you right now we get a lot of satisfaction from Halo games, and we are huge fans, and we appreciate all the work that you and everyone at 343 has put in. We’re really excited for Halo 4 and we’re looking forward to Forward Unto Dawn as well. We appreciate you taking time out of what I’m sure is a busy schedule to talk to us today.

Absolute pleasure. Thanks so much for your time guys, seriously.

Halo 4 comes out November 6 and the first episode of Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn is out today on  Machinima Prime and Halo Waypoint! You can check out our review of the first episode here!

Leading up to the release of Halo 4 on November 6, installments of the web series Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn will be released each week on  Machinima Prime and Halo Waypoint. Last week, Senador Kooch and I had the pleasure to speak with John-117 himself, Daniel Cudmore! Cudmore is no stranger to playing a hero – he’s Colossus for God’s sake! – and now he is the man under the helmet portraying Master Chief in this anticipated web series.

We had the opportunity to chat with him a bit about what it was like playing the iconic character and what we can expect from the series:

Tyson: Hi Daniel, this is Tyson and Chris with Big Shiny Robot! dot com! How are you doing?

Cudmore: Good Tyson and Chris! How are you guys doing?

Fantastic! We are really excited to talk to you, we are huge Halo fans.

Right on!

So let’s just jump into things here. Can you tell us a little about Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn and how it’s going to tie into the upcoming release of the game?

Yes, totally. It’s really is a stand alone live-action series that really kind of starts at the beginning with the humans and their surviving, and then also the Covenant are involved. And it’s the story of a young cadet at Corbulo Academy just trying to find himself and who he really truly is and what he wants to be when it comes to the military, and it kind of goes along from there.

So we have to ask the obligatory question; Are you a gamer? Do you play Halo, have you played any of the past Halo games at all?

Yeah, funny enough there are certain games I will play. I bought an Xbox a long time ago and my girlfriend at the time, who is now my wife, she bought me a Halo game -I think it was Halo 3– and that was really the only game, it’s funny how this sounds, it’s really the only video game that I actually played front to back. The rest I’d play for half an hour and then I’m kind of bored with it.

In the Halo 4 [series] that’s coming up, the main character from Forward Unto Dawn is Thomas Lasky, the guy who Master Chief interacts with the most. In Halo 3 and all the other games, a lot of how Master Chief is portrayed is by how he interacts with the other characters and the situations around him, can you tell us how Master Chief is defined a little further in Forward Unto Dawn through his interactions with Lasky and the events in the film?

Right, his interactions are very specific. And unbeknownst to Master Chief he really inspires the young Thomas Lasky with his heroism, with Master Chief’s just sheer determination to do his job and unbeknownst to him he just really inspires him. The interactions are really there, they are more or less between Master Chief trying to save these kids really.

Master Chief is obviously, in the video game world, an extremely iconic character. So what was it like getting into the boots of Master Chief?

It’s intimidating man! It’s a funny character in the fact that everyone who plays the gamebecomes Master Chief, so I think each person who plays the game has their own idea of who they think he is besides the fact of what’s been created in these great video games. So, for me it’s just really trying to – I just did research on him, I wanted to research what the fiction was that’s been written about where he kind of came from, and what training he’s had and that kind of development to kind of get and idea of who he is and what he does. And obviously just watching as many different things I can of what has been created, whether it’s been video games or advertising or what not – just kind of get a feel of how he walks, how he moves, how he shoots a gun, and he does all those sorts of things. So, trying to get as much info as possible and not totally screw it up for all the fans.

It’s a lot of pressure!

Yeah, I think it’s more now since I’m done with it. I think at the time I was just kind of “Alright, let’s do this job!” And now I’m like “I hope it’s right!”

Now you’re just waiting for the fan reaction, right?

Yeah, exactly, I mean I’m either going to be beloved or I’m going to be maimed.

So, you mentioned a big part of the video games is that the player takes on the role of Master Chief. So did you kind of get an opportunity to as you were in the Master Chief suit interact and maybe ad-lib a little bit with your interactions with the set and with the people on how you would maybe react if you were Master Chief?

A bit. I mean there was a plethora of experts there all the time, so when I saw something and I thought this could work a different way I always had such a great Halo encyclopedia of guys around me to tell me “No, this probably wouldn’t happen, that would happen, this would happen.” So, yeah I mean there’s always – as an actor you always kind of interact and interpret a scene differently than another person would, so there would be things where I’d be like maybe I can change it or ad-lib, but I didn’t do anything that strayed too far from who he is. I think I just had such a great group around me that knew pretty much everything there is to know about this world so that helped a huge amount.

I bet! Was there anything, I mean you obviously have had many other movie roles previous to this – you were Colossus. Was there anything different that you had to do when you’re in the Master Chief suit? Was there anything you did to prepare differently for this role as you have maybe have for any of your previous roles?

I did take some military firearms training when I was in L.A. which were kind of cool, so I got to shoot live rounds – I think they were the M4 Carbine guns on this sort of obstacle course and got used to really firing the guns properly and moving properly with them. But, besides that it’s tough because you’re in the suit and whenever you’re wearing a suit you’ve kind of got to over act in a way so that it translates better on film because slight movements don’t really work in suits, you have to kind of be larger than life. But then at the same time I’m acting through the mask with these other actors, so that itself has to be just normal acting, you can’t be over the top, you can’t be campy, so I’m kind of counteracting, going against everything, like everything is kind of off and weird because little bits are huge and big, but the acting and the voice and everything is normal, so it was a strange kind of place to be.

So, when you’re in that suit – I mean, we’ve read that the suit was made so that you could obviously move in it and it wasn’t so stiff, but what was it like wearing that suit? How long did it take to get into it, and be perfectly honest when you answer this: Did you feel like a total badass?

[Laughter] You know, 100% of the suit was made over by Legacy in L.A. and it was amazing because it was a 3D model of my body, so it’s to the exact specifications of who I am and my shape. The under suit was a sort of thicker rubber, it sort of felt like you were with a really, really tight wetsuit on and then the pieces all go over the top. It added some weight and some restrictions so you just had to – everything was exaggerated with movement, you just kind of had to push that much harder. So after, you know, five hours is fine, but when you’re on the eight, ten hour sort of mark on a shooting day you really start to feel it, and you’re just sweating constantly. It’s definitely a unique thing, but I mean the first time I put the suit on it was just raw rubber and plastic and it was all black, it was one of those moments whenever I look in the mirror and I’m like “How could you not feel badass?!”

[Laughter] That’s awesome! Aside from the suit, we’ve kind of covered all that, what was production like on a film like this? Was it any different than any other films you’ve been in before?

That’s the thing you start thinking about because right now webisodes and web series are so much in their infancy, but I sort of feel that’s the direction that things are going to go. So everything you kind of see is people doing it in their backyard with a very limited budget, but a big imagination, so you kind of see them and the production value’s not there because they don’t have the money. So, whenever something like this comes along you think “Oh, it’s a webisode, it’s kind of going to be this lower budget thing and it’s just going to be scrambling to get this thing together.” but the production value on this was like any film or TV show I’ve worked on. It was very high, everyone was unbelievable, and from what I’ve seen -image-quality wise- it’s going to be really cool, it’s going to be feature-quality.

Very cool, we are definitely looking forward to it. So you have done some stunt performing roles, did you get to do any of your own stunts in the full get-up, and did any of that help you land this part at all?

Yeah, first part of the question, I did everything, every stunt that the character does in this thing I did. It was definitely – you know you find that landing on your back a lot of times will come close to knocking the wind out of you, when you have sixty pounds extra on top of you you feel like a small child lands on top of you at the same time. So I definitely had some days in the morning when I wasn’t walking quite as as briskly as I was before. And at the same time just the fact that I have done a lot of stunt acting has really helped in me getting the role. Like you said, you needed someone that could do everything in the suit and be the right size and be the right height and I just happened fit into there.

The big thing about Master Chief is that his face is never revealed. Did you have any reservations or anything about just essentially being the guy behind the mask for this whole film?

Yeah, as an actor you always have those feelings, you’re like “I’d rather be playing characters where I am kind of more out there, I’m not hidden.” Especially when you’re trying to move forward because someone is going to want to look at your past work and you’re in a suit, you can’t even see yourself. And then you kind of really think about the character and the universe this is a part of and it’s kind of almost impossible to say no to something like this, it’s just so cool. Like I said, when I got into that suit I was like, “Man, this is awesome!” And yeah, there are some moments where you’re like “If I could only just take the helmet off…” but it really kind of would ruin the project, it would ruin the whole thing because that just never happens, right? There’s a bit of both, but at the end of it I was pumped that I got to play the character.

With Halo 4 we are starting into a new Halo Trilogy as far as the video games go and 343 Industries has taken that over as the new caretakers of the Halo franchise, and part of what they are saying is they want to reach new audiences with the video game and Forward Unto Dawn is definitely them attempting to do that, so do you think this film is going to play a big part in that, and how does it feel to be adding to that to bring Halo to perhaps a new generation and a new realm of fans aside from the hardcore gamers?

When you look at just this project that we were working on, Forward Unto Dawn really is just a full feature that stands on its own, and with that the whole marketing ploy with this is to see how this can look on film, and for fans who just have no idea, they don’t know – well I guess not fans, but people who just really don’t know about the video game, they can sit there and they can watch it and they don’t even need to know the video game, it’s really all self-explanatory and runs just like a great sci-fi movie. And then hopefully that will kind of get them going more “Hey, there’s a whole other background with sci-fi books and also a plethora of great video games.” So if you want to jump in to that then it’s somewhere they can just walk into it, and they don’t feel like they are just going to go into the video game and feel like they have no idea what they’re doing.

Did you get a chance to play Halo 4 at all? Did they let you get hands on with the game to prepare?

When I was down at Comic Con I played sort of like – they had I think just a couple of missions and small pieces for everyone to play and I got linked up with the guys who pretty much play it every day and test the game. So I’m going against these guys, and I was like literally walking two feet and dying and then coming back to life and then dying again, and then coming back to life and dying again and I don’t even know where I’m getting shot from and these guys are just laughing, howling the whole time. So, the quality of the game was amazing.

[Laughter] You have our sympathies! We know how that goes! Chris, who’s helping me with this interview, we have an obligatory question [from his wife] we have to ask. She is a big Twilight fan and we understand that you play Felix who’s from the Volturi in Twilight. So, she wants to know who you think would win in a fight between Felix and Master Chief.

Oh man! This is going to get me hated by one side of fans! I think it’s got to be Master Chief, man. Yeah, I mean, he’s got guns, and he’s got the armor and he’s bigger and stronger, so I mean, I think Felix would be going down pretty quickly.

Awesome! That’s pretty much all we had for you Daniel, we appreciate you joining us. Just to kind of wrap things up, what’s a final thought you’d like to leave with the fans of the Halo series on why they should be excited for Forward Unto Dawn and something you’re the most excited about with the film.

I just think as a stand alone movie with this huge, vast universe that we can kind of pull from, what the two brothers, the Helbing brothers, wrote and what Stewart Hendler directed us on and the young actors we got and the quality of it, it’s just going to be such a cool, exciting project that I know a ton of people have been waiting for and it’s not going to disappoint. And I think that’s the great thing about it, you know, again, just the quality and how cool this is going to be from what I’ve seen, it’s badass, and Master Chief’s in there having a good time.

Well Daniel, thank you so much. We are really looking forward to checking out Forward Unto Dawn, and just best of luck to you and all your endeavors man, I mean, you’re Master Chief now so congratulations!

Well thank you very much, I appreciate it.

Watch for the interview soon on our iTunes feed, and be sure to check out Daniel Cudmore being a badass as Master Chief in Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn on  Machinima Prime and Halo Waypoint! You can check out our review of the first episode here!

I had the opportunity to have an early look at the first episode of the Halo web series Forward Unto Dawn so here’s my thoughts on it. For those that don’t know, Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn is a live-action web series set in the Halo universe and will feature Master Chief and other characters that will appear in Halo 4. It takes place at the start of the human and Covenant war and leads up to the events of Halo 4. The series will be initially released weekly as individual episodes and will also see a Blu-ray and DVD release on December 4, 2012, which after seeing this first episode I’m likely to pickup. Both existing Halo fans and people unfamiliar with the Halo universe should be able to watch and enjoy it as it is meant to stand on its own. I love the Halo universe so I hope that it acts as a great way for new fans to jump in and share the experience.

I don’t want to discuss the plot much or spoil any of the story so I’ll just touch on it here. The opening was probably my favorite part and gave me pretty good nerd chills. It seems to take place somewhere close to the start of Halo 4 and implies some pretty cool things about how the game might begin. It then quickly jumps back in time. The first episode follows Thomas Lasky and sets up some of the story. He is a cadet in a military training program and seems to be struggling with the morality of the decisions being made around him and the direct orders he is given.

This first episode is somewhat uneventful, and Master Chief has yet to make an appearance, but I’m OK with that. I’m just glad we are able to see the fidelity and get a taste of where this is going without being overwhelming. I imagine that the Chief will be making an explosive entrance to save the cadets or something. That is to say, it’ll be an exciting introduction.

Do yourself a favor and watch, or rather listen, with headphones at minimum. The sound is phenomenal. Voices are clear, loud, and strong. Weapons sounds are realistic with a nice punchy sound not unlike the new audio sound direction for Halo 4. The music is great and sounded distinctly Halo at one specific part where the camera takes you on a high flyover above a dirt road. Definitely watch with sound from something other than your standard laptop speakers as the sound design and extra bass from nice speakers really added to the experience for me.

There was previous talk about the preview footage not looking quite right on various sites and forums. I feel confident in saying that the final version looks damn awesome. I feel that shots are framed quite well, the locations and scenery look great, and the effects of editing and polish show. More importantly though, it looks and feels like Halo. I always worried about what a live action Halo show might look like from a military or civilian perspective, and I wasn’t sure in my own head what that would look like, but I feel that Forward Unto Dawn nails it. The military base looks futuristic with some familiar Halo structures, and one very familiar and tall structure just outside. A Pelican can even be seen flying above the base. While the living quarters of the cadets looked fairly cold and barren, the smooth metallic surfaces of the walls, floors, and bunks felt appropriate for Halo. The cadet’s helmets feature an electronic heads up display that looks very similar to the HUD in Halo games, including the radar with red dots for enemies. Muzzle fire from the famous Halo assault rifle is bright and flashy. Orange glowing holographic screens make a showing in a few scenes and their sections are flicked and dragged around with the motion of the operator’s hands, reminiscent of both Human and Forerunner terminals from the Halo games. An awesome full size vehicle makes a brief appearance, one I can’t wait to see in action in later episodes. The only think that felt off were the suits the cadets wear. The helmet looks very plastic like and oversized making the actors wearing them appear smaller than they are. The chest, shoulder, knee and foot pieces also seem very plastic like and very loose fitting. They don’t quite look right, but perhaps its due to the young cadets being in training and maybe the armor sets are not battle-ready. I will say that their overall shape and look is very fitting and looks very similar to what the marines in Halo games are wearing.

I must admit that I am not one that is great at critiquing acting. I felt the actors did a great job playing the parts and I am interested in learning more about the characters. A few insults were thrown around and their banter definitely made them feel like fresh young cadets.

Halo fans will love Forward Unto Dawn, but anyone should be able to watch, especially those that like sci-fi. Its not over the top and everything feels grounded. Prior Halo knowledge isn’t necessary, but for fans there’s lots to pickup on and its right at home in the Halo fiction.

I found myself watching with a giant grin that didn’t let up. The ending implies some awesome stuff is about to happen, and I’m excited to see where the series goes. This is Halo live-action done right and I can’t wait for more.

You can catch the first episode of Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn today on Machinima Prime and Halo Waypoint.

Fall marks the arrival of many things I love. Pumpkin Spice lattes, long sleeve plaid shirts, and the beginning of the NHL season. Well guess what jerks! You probably ain’t getting any hockey. So you I you want to be involved in the world’s fastest sport while drinking pumpkin spice lattes and wearing a sweet long sleeved plaid shirt you should march down to your local electronic game distribution house and pick up NHL 13. If no one else is going to win Lord Stanley’s Cup it might as well be you.

I have played ever incarnation of the EA NHL franchise since 1994. The systems on which I played them have all come and gone but the excitement for the new release has never left. I’ve had my hands on NHL 13 for about a week now and I have to admit that EA has set the bar insanely high with this release. I have made a quick write up concerning the bad, the good, and the indifferent of Electronic Art’s latest puck fueled offering.

The Bad

Heaven forbid EA release a title without one thing going wrong. Last year it was the near game breaking bug that caused NHL 12 to freeze at the beginning of every third period of an online versus match. This is an issue that to my knowledge, they NEVER addressed. Gamers were forced to do a manual install and deletion of certain files just to get the game to run properly.

This year, the major boner occurred with the Game Stop pre-order codes. These codes allowed you access to one Gold Pack of player’s cards every week, for 13 weeks. This is a huge deal. The Hockey Ultimate Team feature is very popular amongst online players and to not have your bases covered for such a huge incentive is just lame. It’s been out for nearly 8 days my STILL doesn’t work (white people problem). EA addressed the issue on their forums on launch day. No information other than “Yeah we know” has come to light.

A small glitch that’s affecting a few players is what’s being called the “Attack Glitch”. When a player is behind the net at the same time a player is within the crease, a small striped box appears in the attack zone. It’s nothing that stops the flow of play it’s just damn distracting. I’m going to wait until Friday to see if an update gets put out that fixes this. If not, I will return my copy for a new one and see if that solves the problem.

The Good

Last year’s game was all about puck control. Using your analog stick to direct all things stick handling, pushed the game to a whole new level. This year is all about speed. By pushing down on the left analog stick, you now control the speed of your skater. NOT ALL PLAYERS ARE CREATED EQUAL! If the opposing team’s attacker is a speed freak then he is going to blow past the slower defense. However, this also makes him susceptible to poke checks and being knocked off balance. You definitely sacrifice control for speed. If you give the analog stick a quick push your player will make a quick sprint and pick up the pace of his sprint for the first few strides. If you hold the stick down longer, the player hit’s a mad dash into the attack. There’s no more stopping on a dime and instead the player can make a quick turn back towards the play. Depending on your speed, prior to your change in direction, determines how sharp of a turn you can make. If you’re hauling ass and you try to pop a 90 degree cut, your player will mostly likely spin out and fall over like someone doing a dizzy bat relay. This goes for players with and without the puck. It’s a big step for the game to make and it does it very smooth and effectively.

Aside from the ability to sprint EA has raised the bar with how goalies react within the game. The franchise has always wanted their goalie animations to look fluid and realistic. Unfortunately the emphasis on appearance caused the goalies to be super predictable. It used to be very easy to skate the puck down one side, allow the goalie to make the move toward you, and then quickly fire it back across for a one-timer. NHL 13 offers goalies that are soo self aware that I now thoroughly believe SKYNET will be the death of us all. Goalies no longer appear to be on a track and instead seem to be making their own decisions based on where the puck is, how many attackers are in their line of site, and how is the puck being played in the attack zone. You can get a goalie out of position, but it’s going to take some time and creativity to really sneak one by them.

The puck is more alive now than it ever has been. Handling a piece of 1×3 rubber on a frozen plane of water isn’t easy in real life and it’s not easy here. The puck will take crazy bounces, hit dead spots in the boards, and get misdirected just like it would if you were really out there trying to beat Iceland in the Goodwill Junior Games. That’s a D2: The Mighty Ducks Are Back reference. Quack….Quack….Quack. Gordon Bombay. Charlie Conway.

My favorite addition to NHL 13 is the ability to play the puck off of the goalie’s pads. Previous games had the goalies giving up few rebounds. Most likely a shot would get caught with the glove, or directed off to the side of the net and away from the play. In NHL 13 you have the ability to take a hard, low shot directly at the goalies pads and because of the adjustments to how the puck moves, you can position yourself and your teammates to drive the rebound home. This works great in a 2 on 1 situation where you can’t make a pass. Direct a slap shot to the low, far side pad and hope your other attacker is there to get it. It doesn’t sound like a huge deal to people unfamiliar with hockey. To those in the know, this is a real strategy that teams utilize all the time and one that I always hoped EA would incorporate.

The Indifferent

The hits are more realistic. Unless your player is tearing ass across the rink and lands a blindside check, you’re not going to get the rag doll slams that you would have last year. Hitting is a big part of the game sure, but it’s more about gaining position than destroying a dude against the glass. NHL 13 does a good job of making sure not every check looks like a career ender. It doesn’t add or take away from the game play it’s just a neat adjustment.

I don’t know if it’s something I just never noticed or if it’s something the developers fixed but all the arenas look more true to life. I’ve spent many a nights in the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville and when the game displays the arenas in in-game cut scenes you can definitely see the attention they paid to making the game as realistic as possible.

Like I mentioned before, these yearly installments are the only reason I own a console. Other games are merely time killers or things I play between long stints of me yelling at my TV because I out shot some 12 year old 35 – 10 and they still beat me 1-0. My neighbors have twice banged on the floor because they don’t seem to understand that I play for keeps. They have ZERO room to talk. Every time some first person shooter comes out my apartment building sounds like a Gaddafi sponsored BBQ. Now if you’ll excuse me I have to go lace up.

Gamertag – Patrick 3009 . PLEASE add me and play me. All my friends play Madden or Call of Doodie.

When Nintendo announced the WiiU Launch Date and pricing, they also unveiled a few other things. The title for Platinum Games entry onto the console was one of the biggies. The Wonderful 101 looked to be pretty funny from the video shown at multiple conferences, but the airstream showed me what it was truly capable of.

Imagine if you will being able to recruit any citizen in the city to your cause, your groups “superness” being so influential that they themselves will don a mask and begin fighting crime by your side. Your group has 2 methods of attack at their disposal, method 1 is your standard punching and kicking where your group en mass will dive at opponents, option 2 is a little more complex. The player will draw a shape on the wii U tablet signifying the attack they’d like. You can draw an “L” shape to give the leader a giant gun, a horizontal line to turn the entire group into a sword, or circling everybody up turns them into a big angry fist. These moves of course require energy, and that energy is gained by smashing baddies with normal attacks. Your group also has a dodge button “RT” which turns the group into a sort of snake that then dives over the attack coming at them. That is a basic rundown of the combat system, it’s pretty simple to begin but definitely unfolds as you level up your team, and get further into the story line.

The circle brings a fist!

While recruiting citizen’s there are certain ones that become “SPECIAL HEROES”, the good folks at Nintendo wouldn’t go into too much detail on exactly what the heroes do, but having them seems to unlock content, and make your team more powerful.

I find it tough to describe the game play exactly, but the closest comparison I could find was Marvel Ultimate Alliance meets Pikmin. Your heroes combine to fight together, and they definitely have combo attacks, but they travel in a pack very similar to the creatures in Pikmin, and unlocking different heroes that add new abilities to your crew allow you to progress further. My biggest surprise was how fluidly the game controlled through the touch screen and analog stick. The tablet control fell into my hand like any controller would, and it wasn’t challenging to reach to the touch screen and draw the desired shape, before returning to my normal buttons. It also saves the previous shape drawn, so if for example, the fist is your thing, you can simply press the super power button and the fist will form up, you would only need the touch screen to change attack styles.

If this game makes it out at launch, I imagine it will be one of the top seller’s. Among Indie games and DLC, which are looking to be the biggest category for the first few weeks. Nintendo hasn’t given us any specific details as to which titles will be available in just over a month, but this one will be here before the end of March 2013.

[Sound Off Below}

Welcome to October. The Fall season is officially upon us, along with baseball playoffs, cooler temperatures, great games, and planning in earnest for your Halloween costume. I’ve got mine designed, it’s just time to start coalescing the parts into a whole costume. I need one more element, a championship belt, to complete the costume. It’s only an accessory, not required, but it will save me from explanations to the non-geek crowd. Anway, let’s talk video games. Assassin’s Creed III is only four weeks away after all.

Just Add Water has finally confirmed a remake we’ve been expecting for some time. But, it won’t just be called OddWorld: Abe’s Odysee. A contest was held to rename the title, and it will now be known as New ‘n’ Tasty. We still have a while to wait yet, as release is scheduled for late next year on XBLA and PSN (for PS3 and Vita).

Konami fans now have two special editions to preorder. The limited edition version of Zone of the Enders HD Collection will include both games (Zone of the Enders and the European special edition of Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner), a Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance demo, remix soundtrack, and a 100 page art book from Yoji Shinkawa. It all comes in a metallic gold package and will be available at the end of this month, October 30th.

Speaking of that demo, that’s Konami’s other special edition announcement. The limited Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance bundle comes with the game official soundtrack, two-sided steelbook, and an “exclusive high-frequency katana blade plasma lamp.” What?!? It comes with a lamp? That is awesome. This one’s coming February 19, 2013.

If you recall, there are two games coming in the refreshed XCOM franchise. XCOM: Enemy Unknown is the strategy title coming very soon and it’s been previewed extensively enough that we can rest assured it will be a good game if you enjoy the genre. Less is known about the upcoming first-person shooter, simply called XCOM. In fact, if a recent survey from 2K is any indication, it may not even be a first-person title. 2K is not commenting on the marketing survey, other than the standard “We have not made any new announcements regarding the XCOM title currently in development at 2K Marin, and it is our policy not to comment on rumors or speculation.” However, if reports of this survey are correct, it may now be a squad-based third-person shooter. And it also may be shifting from a full priced disc at retail, to a high-end downloadable game ($30 range). I’m not sold, though this wouldn’t be the first time a game shifted focus and scope in the middle of development. My own theory is that the franchise has plenty of legs and can fit in many different categories. Could it be that the FPS is still coming, but a third game is also in development?

Remember that Mass Effect Trilogy package I mentioned on Friday? Apparently there will be some console-specific DLC included. The PS3 content hasn’t been revealed, but XBox 360’s has. It will come with the Cerberus Network for ME2 (Normandy Crash Site, Zaeed – The Price of Revenge, Cerberus Weapon and Armor, Arc Projector, and Firewalker Pack), and the online pass for ME3‘s multiplayer. None of the DLC for the first game will be included. Nor will you find Lair of the Shadow Broker, Overlord and Kasumi for ME2; and ME3’s Leviathan, and Omega. All of the unincluded content will presumably still be available for purchase. The bundle is coming November 6th, just in tmie for N7 Day.

In the news without the news category today we have some unearthed “cover art” for a new game apparently coming to XBLA. The Star Wars First Assault name was trademarked in August, but we’ve heard literally nothing about the game. We have no release date, no concept art, not even a genre. But, apparently we do have a cover. Frankly, when it comes to Star Wars and video games, that’s enough to get me excited. As long as I choose to forget about Star Wars Kinect anyway.

Halo 4 is definitely one of the biggest releases on the immediate horizon, and Microsoft is promoting the hell out of it. These promotions come along with partners at Mountain Dew, Doritos, and… the presidential election? I don’t comment on promotions too much, but that last one is weird enough I’ll cover all three. For the food promos, first register at DEWXP and/or DORITOSXP. Then, pick specially marked packages of Mountain Dew and Doritos. These items will come with special codes that let you push double XP matches to your gamertag. Eat and drink enough of these stereotypical gamer foods and you’ll be levelling through the game with your friends at a record pace. For the presidential promotion, simply watch at least 30 minutes each of three of the four presidential debates via Xbox Live’s Election 2012 channel. Your reward for doing this simple, civic duty? A Halo 4 Warrior avatar. The debates are October 3rd, 11th, 16th, and 22nd at 9PM Eastern, 6PM Pacific. The U.S. general election will be November 6th.

Financials make for boring news, but Sony has some significant reports that actually look a little interesting. According to Jack Buser, SCEA’s senior director of PlayStation digital platforms, says “membership sales in PS Plus almost doubled” during the week of E3. The suits are crediting the announcement of the Instant Game Collection with the boost. I would guess it’s more related to the free month of membership they gave away to the press conference attendees. I would be more curious to know how many of those new subscribers are still around. That’s not to denigrate their achievement. They’re obviously doing well, as April-June was their best quarter yet for “transactional sales” on PlayStation Store. And how do you keep the numbers moving? Offer a promotion $20 credit in November if you spend $100 in October, of course. Yeah, that’s happening. Buy $100 worth of PSN content, which won’t be hard with multiple day one releases dropping this month, and you’ll get $20 store credit back next month.

But the boon isn’t just in the digital space. The recent release of the Super Slim PS3 has helped their numbers in the physical space as well; the newly designed console boosted PS3 sales by 138% last week. The new version was 37% of those sales, though it was only available for two of the seven days.

All of which has given the Sony UK managing director, Fergal Gara, an idea. He’s bouncing around the idea of PS3+Vita bundle, possibly in time for this Christmas. His proposition would be both systems, with titles that utilize the cross-buy or cross-play features, and a PS+ subscription to provide bonus content for both devices. Price is important for a package like that; it needs to be cheap enough to attract someone with no current Sony platforms, yet priced to insure a profit margin for the company. I can see this happening more on the retail level. I can see Wal-Mart offering $50 PSN card and a $50 Wal-Mart gift card with the purchase of a new PS3 Super Slim and PS Vita. I also wouldn’t mind seeing a games and PS+ package without the hardware, for players who have the devices but aren’t using them efficiently.

What do you think of these potential packages? Do you have Sony platforms already? Would you still buy a package to update your machines? Have you been wanting to get in on Sony gaming and like the idea? Or do you simply not care? Let us know. There’s that comments section thingy below.

Thanks to SuperSolid games for the review items.

What would happen if Temple Run was suddenly cute, and full of rainbows? You’d get Penguins of course! The premise to this game is simple, your chosen penguin will run forward as long as possible, and using the accelerometer and various power-ups you must keep him/her away from the dangers of the arctic. Believe it or not penguins have a lot of natural enemies: killer whales, anchors, octopi, big red TNT barrels, rock piles. You know the usual stuff you see on the nature channel.

Cute	PENGUINSAURUS REX!!

I’m gonna go out on a limb here, and say this has a younger target audience. Definitely not the 18-34 married gamer arena, more like the 7-15 waiting for mom to finish grocery shopping variety. That taken into account, the game is fun. It wasn’t in my demographic, but I still had to figure out how to unlock every little thing. I’m still short the pirate penguin, and he will be mine, oh yes, he will be mine.

collectin’ fish	The Pirate Penguin

Characters are unlocked with fish collected during your lengthy runs of the randomly generated ice path. Ranging in price from a few thousand, to a few hundred thousand, you can also purchase buckets of fish with real world cash to escalate your in game situation, (you know if you’re against earning your rank). If I have to pick a favorite thing, it’s going to be the invincibility power up, turning into penguin-saurus rex and simply smashing through 200 meters is fun, and a little bit zany.

This app will probably get you weird looks from folks at the office. Make the guys at the bar wonder exactly where that joyful music is coming from, and make your kids absolutely silent while grocery shopping.

I’ve heard that’s important to parents, give it a go, you won’t be disappointed.

The Summer drought is coming to a close. Which means the tidal wave of Fall and holiday games is finally upon us. Gearbox kicked off the season a little early with Borderlands 2. Which is great, because that one has plenty of content to hold you over if you aren’t interested in the first wave this season. As usual, there are probably too many titles coming in 2012’s final quarter for you to play all of them right away. We’ll be looking at about one title per week as “must-haves” and where to buy them for the best preorder incentives. That does mean I’ll be skipping over a few that are definitely worthy of your attention. But most of those are probably worth waiting. It will give you more quality time with your top shelf games, and you can probably find some great deals on price drops in early 2013. Remember, all of this information is subject to change and it’s not my fault if it does.

In most cases Amazon tends to have the clout for the best offers, but Best Buy has a pretty great deal on most of the biggest upcoming games. Preorder from them and you’ll get $20 in Reward certificates for each title. This is on top of any other incentives they offer, and you can pick up in store instead of waiting on shipping. From Best Buy’s deals page, “To be eligible, you must be a Reward Zone program Gamers Club Unlocked member and meet minimum age requirements of purchased game at time of pickup or shipment.”

Let’s get started.

October 2, 2012:
Resident Evil 6
You know what? Just click that link. It’ll take you to Amazon where they’ve got (arguably) the best deal going: It’s one dollar cheaper than everywhere else, you get a $10 Amazon credit, shipping is free, and you get their exclusive Mercenaries stage (The High Seas Fortress). If you’re GameStop or Best Buy loyal, you’ll also get an exclusive Mercenaries stage (The Catacombs and The Rail Yard, respectively). This is one of the games with Reward Zone deal at Best Buy, so they top Amazon if you’re a member.

If you’re a hard-core RE fan, you’ll probably want to jump up to the Archives (360) or Anthology (PS3) editions for an extra $30. The PS3 Anthology will include Resident Evil Director’s Cut, Resident Evil 2, Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, Resident Evil 4 HD, and Resident Evil 5 Gold Edition. Archives on 360 drops the frist three games, but does include Resident Evil Code Veronica X and the feature film, Resident Evil Degeneration.

October 9, 2012:
Dishonored
I was intrigued by this one when I first heard the concept. What’s not to love about a steampunk, open-solution game that blends Hitman and Assassins’ Creed? Except, I don’t do well in first-person. Then I read about Dagobot’s hands-on with the game at PAX Prime. If he’s got the same problems with the perspective that I do, and it worked for him, maybe I can give it a shot. I’d hate to pass up something that looks so fun just because I’m afraid the viewpoint will bother me. When you order, you’ll get the Backstreet Butcher Pack from Amazon, exclusive tarot cards and Arcane Assassin Pack from GameStop, and USB oil lamp (plus $20 Reward Zone certificates) from Best Buy. I suppose if you really need a USB lamp or some tarot cards….

XCOM: Enemy Unknown is a good honorable mention this week. But if you didn’t play the original strategy game you probably don’t know how cool the franchise can be. If you’re still leery about the first-person elements in Dishonored, give this one a go.

October 16, 2012:
I can’t honestly claim to be a big fan of 007 games or movies. But this franchise is well-loved by the BSR! crew (as you’ll soon see). Also, the alternatives this week, Doom 3 BFG Edition and Dance Central 3, are even less appelaing to me. Preordering 007 Legends is typical: Nemesis Pack at Amazon, and 007 Pack at GameStop. Both are skins for multiplayer.

October 21, 2012:
Skylanders Giants
I’m glad I never got into this game the first time around. I think Zombietron had an addiction and this one’s coming the week of my anniversary. I wouldn’t want it to be the week of my divorce as well. I don’t see any incentives for preordering anywhere, so you may just as well save the three cents at Amazon. It will come in two flavors. The Starter Pack ($74.99) for n00bs includes the portal of power, three figures, character poster, three sticker sheets with codes, and three trading cards. If you’ve already got a portal from the first game, the Portal Owners Pack ($59.99) drops you down to one figure, one sticker sheet, and one trading card.

October 30, 2012:
Assassin’s Creed III
Assassins Creed III Liberation
You knew right where I was going this week. The series has its flaws, but it’s quickly become one of my all-time favorite franchises. Getting two games for it in one day? Ubisoft wants me to be broke. Oddly, the bigger chunk of my green will be going to Sony, because it looks like this will be the day I jump on the Vita bandwagon with the bundle. But, since there are no incentives for the Vita game, let’s look at where to buy the console release. Amazon wants to give you the Boarding Axe weapon and the Captain of the Aquila character. Their description says the character is for single player, but I don’t see how that would work. I’m happy to be wrong, but I think this is actually a mutliplayer add-on. Best Buy has a metal case for the game, but their real draw is that $20 Reward Certificate for members. The Lost Mayan Ruins single player mission and the Sawtooth Sword weapon come from GameStop, along with an extra $10 off a replica Ezio Auditore gauntlet just in time for Halloween.

I know where my focus will be as October ends, but there are a few honorable mentions if colonial assassinations aren’t your thing. You can never go wrong with LEGO, and Tolien’s saga is getting brickitized in LEGO Lord of the Rings. Because this is BSR!, I also have to mention Marvel Avengers: Battle For Earth on Kinect. Frankly, it looks terrible. But it’s The Avengers so I still kind of want to play it.

November 6, 2012:
Halo 4
Sure, it’s a whole new developer with new ideas. But it’s also Halo. And all of those new ideas have looked awesome in their media releases. I’ve already mentioned that I’m not personally a fan of the first-person perspective. This one might actually be worth the motion sickness. GameStop has Forest Armor skin, which is alright. Similarly, Amazon is offering the Web Armor skin, but they’ll also give you a $10 Amazon video credit. Still not much , but better than a kick in the pants. Best Buy is trying to up the ante again with their own Raptor Armor skin and Deadeye Helmet, plus a free poster and the aforementioned $20 Reward Certificates.

Microsoft may have the top release this week, but I’d be remiss not to mention Sony’s own exclusive, LittleBigPlanet Karting. It’s got all the cuteness and play.create.share of Media Molecule’s Sackboy franchise, combined with fantastic kart racing of UFG’s ModNation Racers.

November 18, 2012:
Nintendo Wii U Console
Yes, I skipped a week. But does anyone really care about yet another Call of Duty (Black Ops II)? The first shot in the “next generation” of consoles is far more important. But, as you’d expect from a new console, they’re pretty well sold out everywhere. If you were on the ball and already preordered yours, here are the games you need for it:

• New Super Mario Bros. U
• Scribblenauts Unlimited
• ZombiU

November 20, 2012:
Hitman: Absolution
Finally, the return to Agent 47’s world of violence. I’ve been itching for this one since it was first announced. How you play will probably determine your source on this one. GameStop has the Agency Kazo TRG Sniper Rifle if you like to hit your targets from afar. Teh Bartoli Custom Pistol and High Tech Suit from Amazon will still let you keep your distance, but it also gives you 50% more armor if things go badly. Best Buy’s Public Enemy Suit and Bronson 1928M Submachine Gun may not affect your strategy, but it will make you into a badass, retro killer so you look cool doing it.

Honorable mention:PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale is a must for hard-core Sony fans. Well, except for me. I’ve played the beta and it’s just as much of a button-mashing hair-puller as I expected. but, if you like Smash Bros. or other completely out of control fighters, have fun with it. As a bonus, this looks like one of the cross-buy games, so go ahead and get the PS3 version for the free Vita copy as well.

November 23, 2012:
BLACK FRIDAY
Nothing’s actually coming on November 27th, probably because of this day. The beginning of October is obviously too early to know what deals you’ll be finding, but watch your ads closely. If I have the time, I’m planning to write up quick guide to help you maximize your game savings this year. Last year had Batman: Arkham City and Assassin’s Creed: Revelations, both new releases, at half price. Hopefully we’ll get some similar deals this year. Not that they’ll do me a lot of good. I’ll be off hunting elk.

December 4, 2012:
The Walking Dead.
You really should have been playing this episodically for the last few months. But, we don’t always do the things we should. Don’t compound your mistake by holding out any longer. You own’t find preorder bonuses anywhere, but don’t let that stop you. Maybe it’s not a AAA release, but this one is probably making my 2012 Top Ten.

That pretty well wraps up the big releases for December, the quarter, and the year. I do have a bunch listed for December 31st, but that’s just typical retailer code for “announced but not scheduled.” If I skipped one that you’re really anticipating, please add it to the comments. I’ll be happy to check my sources for preorder incentives to help other shoppers.

The news has warmed up a little in this last week of September. The dam has already started to leak on the Fall/holiday flood of games, and the news is starting to reach out to tease Spring games. Let’s get right to it.

We now know that there will be a full season retail release of Telltale’s The Walking Dead in December. It was an odd announcement because the last two episodes aren’t even available yet. Good news, Telltale has announced that Episode 4: Around Every Corner “will be launching very soon this October.” Episode 5 is still scheduled for later this year, probably early November. Of course, not all of the episodes have released on time to date. Here’s hoping that the retail release means they’re back on a firm schedule.

Harmonix must have liked the results of their recent sale on Rock Band tracks. They’ve now announced a similar promotion for Dance Central. Good timing. Dance Central 3 is set for release on October 16th. The list is extensive, so read it on their site. Suffice to say, it looks like damn near everything is 25-50% off.

One of the most anticipated titles for geeks is the upcoming Injustice: Gods Among Us. Knowing us the way they do, NetherRealm and Warner Bros. aren’t content to just build a super hero fighting game that they know we all want. Nope, they had to make a Collector’s Edition. Actually, two of them. Both versions will have downloadable skins for Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman based on their New 52 costumes. Both will also include special editions of two new DC comics. And both will include a statue. The US version will include a digital download of the animated Justice League: Doom. The UK version skips the film, but gets a steelbook case for the game instead. Possibly the biggest difference is actually in the statue. I say possibly because the UK version has only been shown in a drawing, while the US version actually looks to be a prototype model. It’s possible they’ll all be the US version in the final builds, but the UK’s promo materials make that one look better. The US version has a ridiculously large-breasted Wonder Woman preparing to slam Kal-El’s intergalactic stroller (rocket) down on Batman’s head, which is also tangled in her lasso of truth. The UK version of the statue still has a Wonder Woman in need of a breast reduction, but they aren’t quite as absurd. The fight looks a little less ridiculous as well, as Batman is throttling Diana while her lasso is tangled around his arm, preventing the batarang he’s holding from bashing her skull. Also worth noting, the cover of that special edition comic has a Martian Manhunter logo. He hasn’t been confirmed for the game, but this gives me hope. I love Martian Manhunter. I also can’t confirm pricing, but it looks like it should be about $100. The Collector’s Edition will obviously be available with the basic retail release in April 2013.

In a market where series collections are all the new rage, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that a Mass Effect Trilogy package is headed to retail. What is surprising is that the bundle will be available on XBox 360 and PS3. Yes, Mass Effect 1 is finally coming to PS3! If you’re a Sony gamer and already have the second and third games, you don’t even have to buy the full $60 bundle to get the one that started it all. The first game in the trilogy will also be available as a standalone download on PSN. Release is scheduled for November 6th to coincide with “N7 Day” on November 7th. Bioware has apparently set aside that date for “a worldwide celebration of the Mass Effect franchise.” Look for events happening in-game, live, and online to celebrate the date. I’m currently in my third run of Mass Effect 3 and I can’t wait for my chance to actually play the first game instead of playing choose your own adventure with an interactive comic. But, does this mean they’ll also patch the PS3 version of ME2 to allow a character import?

Another great collection headed for retail, and another bonus for Sony players, is the Assassin’s Creed Ezio Trilogy. If you’re late to the franchise, this is the perfect place to start. The first game was good, but very repetitive. You could find a cheap, used copy if you’d like. but you might as well just skip Altair’s story and jump right in with Ezio. All three titles featuring the Renaissance Italian will be included (ACII, Brotherhood, and Revelations) for only $40. The announcement doesn’t mention any DLC, but I would presume all of it will be included. It’s coming on November 13th, and it’s exclusive to PS3. If you hold out for this one and complete all three games first, you’ll probably be just in time to see a price drop on ACIII, which is coming on October 30th.

Starbreeze Studios may not be the most well known developer, but their list of recent titles (Syndicate, two Chronicles of Riddick titles, and The Darkness) have earned them a loyal following. Yesterday saw the reveal of their newest project, Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons. Being published by 505 Games in Spring 2013, the game sees two brothers on a quest for “The Water of Life” to cure their dying father. The PR blurb seems to emphasize the artistic side: “One must be strong where the other is weak, brave where the other is fearful, they must be… Brothers.” Filmmaker Josef Fares is apparently the master of the creative end, and his thoughts seem a little a more assuring: “When I first visualized Brothers – A Tale of Two Sons I knew I wanted to combine the deep, engrossing storyline of a film with the physical experience of a video game, allowing players to emotionally connect with the characters as they trek across sweeping, interactive environments such as peaceful vistas, foreboding forests and dangerous mountainsides.” I’m more than a little curious. I also like that it will be downloadable for PS3 and XBox 360 (and possibly WiiU if I’m reading it correctly), instead of a full retail release.

I’m not sure if this is Microsoft’s answer to PS+, or just a rewarding promotion for their loyal customers, but the new XBox Live Rewards system is pretty awesome. If you game on PS3 and 360, this might be the extra incentive you need to get multi-platform titles strictly on your 360. Depending on your Gamerscore, you can actually earn MSP credit. There are three tiers to earning your rewards, starting at just 3,000 Gamerscore. At the Contender stage you’ll get a free gift, worth 15 MSP, during your birthday month. Not much, but free is free. The next level, Champion, falls in the 10-25,000 range. At this level you’ll get your birthday gift and a 1% rebate each month on your Marketplace purchases. If your score is above 25,000 you’ll become a Legend. Legendary status bumps your monthly rebate up to 2%. Frankly, this isn’t much unless you’re spending a lot of cash each month (not even enough to cover your annual subscription); if you are spending that much, it’s still not a lot in comparison. But, as I’ve already mentioned, free is free. To take advantage you will need a Gold membership and you’ll need to activate the Rewards program.

That’s it for the week, and the month. As we look forward to October and beyond, what are you playing right now in anticipation? Did you start the season early with Borderlands 2? Are you still playing something older (yeah, I’m still on Mass Effect 3) as you save up for that one game that excites you most? Which upcoming game(s) are you just itching to draw your wallet and play? Are you ignoring all games as you wait for the WiiU? Let us know in the comments!