Video Game Quick Hits 10/19/12

I love October. I like the weather turning chilly, but not yet horrible winter. I like the Fall colors, the seasonal beers, the fresh pumpkin, and football. I also love that it sees the beginning of “video game season.” Dishonored, X-COM: Enemy Unknown, and Borderlands 2 have kicked it off nicely. Unfortunately October also see me getting ridiculously busy each year and I haven’t played any of those games yet. I’m always a little behind, but my wife’s Fit in Six has seen the inside of my PS3 lately more often than my action games. As I look at my calendar (deer hunting, football, Halloween parties) for the next couple of weeks, I realize the soonest quality time I’ll be seeing with my thumbs on a controller will likely be October 30th. If all goes according to plan, that’ll be the day I finally get a PS Vita, with the Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation bundle.

That’s going to tap the budget pretty heavily though, so it looks like I’ll be keeping its PS3 counterpart at the top of my Gamefly GameQ instead of buying it. Revelations went pretty cheap on a Black Friday sale; maybe I’ll get this latest entry at a discount next month. But I’m getting ahead of myself. NEWS!

Speaking of the PS Vita though, Jet Set Radio for Sony’s handheld has been delayed for “necessary development optimizations.” How’s that for vague PR speak. My guess, they need to tack on some touch screen and motion controls. The PSN version released last month, and SEGA is promising a Vita release date “soon.”

Many gamers have never even heard of Deadly Premonition, and that is their loss. Yeah, it’s sort of like Twin Peaks: The Video Game, but more weird, but it’s also very unique and awesome in its own milieu. If you’re one of the many that missed out on this one back in 2010 on XBox 360, keep waiting. Deadly Premonition: The Director’s Cut will be coming to PS3 with added content sometime in first quarter 2013. The newer edition will come with revamped and updated graphics, a reworked control scheme for better combat, a new scenario from Hidetaka Suehiro (the game’s director), and additional DLC to expand the story.

Still looking for a reason to get an XBox 360, or just need a new one? Microsoft has revealed three new bundles for holidays, as well as discount on existing SKUs. Depending on what you want from your bundle, one of the three is probably right for you. Just looking for a Kinect and a low-cost entry point? You can get a 4GB system with Kinect, Kinect Disneyland Adventures, Kinect Adventures, and one month of Xbox LIVE Gold for $299.99. That package doesn’t pack much punch in the hard drive department, but it’s a good option for kids. Maybe you’re a hardcore gamer and want something that will allow plenty of downloads and installs, and you don’t really care for Kinect. they’ve got one for you too. Also at the $300 price point is a 250GB Xbox 360 with The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Forza 4 Essentials Edition, and one month of Xbox LIVE Gold. The third option costs a little more, $400, but gets you the 250GB hard drive, the Kinect, and three games: Dance Central 2, Kinect Sports, and Kinect Adventures. It’s unfortunate that they include three games, but none are for the core gamers. If you’re not in the market for any of those games, four other bundles will be offering a $50 discount for the holiday shopping season. Those bundles are the 250GB Xbox 360, 4GB Xbox 360 with Kinect, 250GB Xbox 360 with Kinect, and the Xbox 360 Limited Edition Halo 4 console bundle (November 6th).

Much as the Captain Scarlett’s release was outed ahead of schedule, the next chunk of campaign DLC for Borderlands 2 has been revealed through a title update that’s exposed its three new trophies/achievements. This is expected to be the second of four packs included in the season pass and appears to be titled “Mr. Torgue’s Campaign of Carnage.” Since this hasn’t been officially announced by Gearbox, we obviously don’t have a date yet, but I’m guessing it’s within the next two weeks.

One of next year’s most anticipated games, Bioshock Infinite (February 26, 2013), is getting the double special edition treatment. The Premium Edition will include 3-inch keychain version of the Murder of Crows vigor bottle, A 5″ x 7″ lithograph from Jorge Lacera, A 25 millimeter Handyman miniature from the BioShock Infinite board game, a mini art book with a hand-distressed cover, exclusive in-game gear, a digital soundtrack, and platform specific downloadable content (themes for PS3, avatar costumes for 360). The Ultimate Songbird Edition will come with all of that, plus a nice bonus. The 9 1/2″ statue of the game’s terrifying Songbird is quite the thing to behold. It’s striking, but I’m prone to nightmares so I’m not sure I could actually display this thing in my house.

Whatever that weird guy is supposed to be from Scribblenauts, he’ll have some familiar friends this November in Scribblenauts Unlimited for the WiiU. According to the press release, “Players can summon dozens of their favorite characters and items from the Mario™ and Legend of Zelda™ franchises.” I’m not sure which characters or objects they mean, but the promo art they sent may provide a clue. I just know that if I can’t use a Tanooki Suit and the Master Sword then the concept has failed. The game is being developed by 5th Cell and is coming in November for WiiU and 3DS. The handheld version, however, will not be getting this exclusive content.

Disney’s upcoming Wreck It Ralph has managed to get a licensed characters from several different gaming companies onboard for one film. and it appears the House of Mouse is returning the favor. SEGA’s Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed will feature the film’s star as a playable racer. He looks right at home in the screen shots we received, and he should make a great addition to the cast. The game releases November 20, 2012.

We’ve got a timely report about 007: Legends to match up with our month of Bond. The game released earlier this week and many of you have probably noticed by now that the Skyfall mission isn’t on the disc. Sorry, no preview for you. The content will be released as free DLC on November 9th for PS3, the same day the film releases. Unfortunately for 360 players, there’s a timed exclusivity deal. You won’t be getting the content (still free) until November 20th. Ouch. As if it isn’t bad enough that Eurocom and Activision have held back an “integral” part of the game’s story, they managed to burn a huge segment of the audience twice.

Regardless of your ending in Mass Effect 3, Bioware assures that Shepard’s story has ended. That doesn’t mean they’d walk away from such a valuable franchise though. Mass Effect 4 is happening. But it will feature not just a different star, but a different type of star. Bioware Montreal’s Producer Fabrice Condominas states they “don’t want to make ‘Shepard 2′, or Mass Effect 4 with like, ‘oh there’s no more Shepard but you’re a soldier in the universe’. So this will be a very, very different context for sure, and nothing has been decided on the rest.” He did clarify that the game will take place after Shepard’s trilogy, but no time frame beyond that is decided. Will it be the rebuilding phase? Or the next cycle? We’ll just have to wait and see. For the impatient ones, you will be getting more Mass Effect soon when the “Omega” DLC releases November 27th.

If you’ve been hiding under a rock, Telltale’s The Walking Dead is amazing. PC and console players are already on Episode 4. But, if you’re on iOS, you’re running behind. Good news though. Episode Three became available earlier this week. It sucks that you’re sucking hind teat on this one, but reports say the game is just as fun on iOS, so go ahead and pick it up now.

Finally, Halo fans, SenadorKooch has a couple fun things for you from Halo 4. First is the live action trailer produced by David Fincher. Next is a review of the third episode of Forward Until Dawn. Kind of a fun series, good hope for an actual Halo movie, but not necessarily the best episode so far.

That’s all for this week. Come back Tuesday for more, and hopefully it will be written by a ‘bot made fat on venison.