Zen Studios announced standalone DLC for Marvel Pinball called Civil War at a New York Comic Con panel. The theme for this pinball table was taken from a multi-part comic event from 2006 of the same name that pitted Iron Man and Captain America against each other.

No specific release date was given for the DLC, though the trailer above teases that it's "coming soon" to PSN, XBLA, Apple's App Store and the Google Play store.

I love sports, but I know next to nothing about hockey. Maybe my lack of NHL love has something to do with my Wisconsin upbringing, a sort of "no-man's land" for professional hockey. The Milwaukee Admirals AHL team doesn't excite me, and picking between the Chicago Blackhawks, Minnesota Wild and Detroit Red Wings is an uncomfortable proposition.

My knowledge of the sport itself is even more limited. Aside from the terms "icing" and "line changes," hockey is alien to me. Joystiq recently ran an editorial discussing how simulation sports games don't do enough to assist people like me in learning the ropes in the sports they feature. To test that theory, I attempted to learn more about hockey through NHL 13.

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Sony's SingStar Viewer app for the PlayStation 3 previously just allowed players to check out SingStar content for free; they'd have to put the game's disc in if they actually wanted to sing along with any of the game's songs. But a new message in the app hints that will be changing very soon. The Viewer app has reportedly been discontinued, and a message when the app is loaded says that "The complete SingStar experience will be available as a free download very soon!" Presumably, that means that anyone will be able to download SingStar, and then play Sony's karaoke game for zero cost (with extra songs being purchaseable separately).

The one catch: The game will still require a mic, so if you haven't bought one of those yet, you'll need to do so. But the good news is that the mics are available for just a few bucks in certain places, so those interested should be able to pick one up easily. We'll look for more official news on this next week from the PlayStation Blog.

The PSN store is about to get an overhaul next week and Sony's announced some planned PSN maintenance prior to the relaunch. This Monday, October 15, from 4am PT/7am ET until 4pm PT/7am ET, PSN will experience some downtime.

If you've logged into PSN over the past few days or make some time to do so this weekend, you shouldn't be affected. That's not to say you'll have access to all of PSN, though – during the downtime, the PSN Store, PlayStation Home and Account Management sections of PSN will be unavailable.

Metro: Last Light will no longer include a multiplayer component when it launches early next year, developer 4A Games announced today on the game's official blog. Multiplayer had previously been revealed soon after the game's 2011 announcement, something the blog notes was "probably a mistake."

"Throughout the development of Metro: Last Light a small, dedicated team had been working on a number of multiplayer prototypes," the entry reads. "After E3, we decided to fold this multiplayer team back into the main group and focus 100% of the studio's resources on the single player campaign. As a result, Metro: Last Light will not ship with a multiplayer component." 4A Games believes that the game's single-player campaign is "what the fanbase cares about the most."

Whether multiplayer will be added post-launch as DLC or an update is uncertain. "Right now we're 100% focused on the single player campaign and not thinking beyond that. We don't like throwing away work though, it's a project we could potentially return to after Metro: Last Light ships."

You're reading Reaction Time, a weekly column that claims to examine recent events, games and trends in the industry, but is really just looking for an excuse to use the word "zeitgeist." It debuts on Fridays in Engadget's digital magazine, Distro.

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This holiday's unceasing glut of games is a go, with store shelves making room for the onslaught of snarling aliens, sneering assassins, and slow-mo soldiers walking away from large explosions – or sometimes partially melted helicopters. These are the usual, commercially sexy suspects.

It's best not to judge a game by its cover, though, and this week's front-facing embellishments are exceptionally deceptive. At a shallow glance, XCOM: Enemy Unknown may seem like another case of meathead military dudes mowing down extraterrestrials. Dishonored, meanwhile, conveys a stylish stab-a-thon with its masked, supernaturally talented anti-hero out for revenge. Look longer and you'll find that both have roots in classic PC gaming, and both sell something console owners might not even know they want.

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Players of The Walking Dead on PlayStation 3 have identified a major issue affecting save files. Developer Telltale tells Joystiq it is aware of the problem, which causes Walking Dead save files to become corrupt or disappear in Episode 4, entitled "Around Every Corner."

"We have received a small number of reports surrounding this issue since the launch of Episode Four: Around Every Corner and have been working with users on our forums to clearly identify a solution which will be resolved as quickly as possible," says a Telltale representative.

Telltale says players can avoid the issue by "refraining from use of the third save slot in the game menu." If they do get a corrupted save error, Telltale recommends returning to the PS3 home screen and waiting for an update to be released.

"We are working with our partners at Sony to push the patch to users as quickly as possible, and will update our customers as soon as we have confirmed when the patch has been released." The developer asks any affected users to contact them via email to report the bug and identify the problem.

Even though Borderlands 2 bested sales of the first game by 234%, it wasn't able to sell more copies than Madden NFL 13 in September. According to Macquarie Capital analyst Ben Schachter, 1.4 million physical copies of Borderlands 2 were sold in the US at retail since its launch – we've reached out to the NPD for exact September sales. Update: NPD has confirmed with Joystiq that Borderlands 2 sold 1.4 million copies at retail in September.

That figure doesn't take into account copies of Borderlands 2 sold digitally, via Steam on PC or as part of the Day 1 initiative on the PlayStation Network. GI.biz says Schachter forecasted a total of three million in sales during the last three months of this year, accounting for the aforementioned digital distribution channels.

Borderlands 2 recently released its new character class – the Mechromancer – and will get the first of four DLC content packages on October 16. 'Captain Scarlett and her Pirate's Booty' will be available across all platforms for $9.99 and free to owners of the Borderlands 2 content Season Pass.

The Walking Dead Episode 4: Around Every Corner promised us two things in the lead-up to its launch: brilliant writing by Book of Eli scribe Gary Whitta, and a dark, nigh-depressing story. The question now is if it delivers on these promises.

Around Every Corner tackles the extremes of child endangerment and mutilation, forces players to slowly and deliberately bury the recently deceased, and it portrays the thoughtless slaughter of the living, by the living. The writing is fraught with tense pauses and biting, yet humane, dialogue among survivors of the zombie apocalypse.

If the question is, "Does Episode 4 live up to its predecessors?" the answer is, "No, it's even better."

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Sure, everyone and their mother has made a custom Portal gun at this point, but the fine folks at Hackaday have raised the bar into the stratosphere. The floating Companion Cube effect was accomplished by ripping out the magnets in a floating globe, and the cube itself was created to proper size and weight specifications.

The gun itself is not custom, however – it's store bought. The process of creating the Companion Cube and applying the magnetic housing to the Portal gun itself is pretty interesting, all of which you can check out in the video above and through the source link below.

Insomniac's Fuse began as Overstrike, a colorful co-op spy game with a humorous flair. Fuse continues the co-op direction of the game, but has shifted its look to a style that tilts more toward realism than fantasy.

Some internet reaction has labeled the new style powering Fuse as just another 'standard military shooter,' but Insomniac says it's not totally shunning the game's fantastical elements.

"We have our underwater bases. We've got missiles and volcanoes. We have a lot of exotic situations but at the same time we want people to take the universe seriously," Insomniac Creative Director Brian Allgeier told Joystiq at the 2012 New York Comic Con.

But over-the-top elements still exist in the more mature-looking multiplatform game, as evidenced by the game's weapons and abilities.

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Street Fighter X Tekken is getting a "'hefty free" update later this year, Capcom announced. The update is expected to substantially re-balance the game, as well as provide some visual and mechanical tweaks. While every character is likely to receive some balancing tweaks, as always with these things some characters need more tweaking than others.

Capcom outlined some of the tweaks already planned for implementation, which include a range of tweaks at varying levels of impact. Characters listed so far for tweakage include Ken, Kazuya, Cammy, Julia, Bob, Abel, Xiaoyu, Balrog, Heihachi, Ibuki, and Paul.

Less hefty but just as free is the trailer above, a new one for SFxT's Vita edition. It outlines some of the new features (not tweaks) coming to that version, which is due on October 23.

One of the arcade games available within Yakuza 5's Club Sega game centers is Virtua Fighter 2, available in both revision 2.0 and 2.1 of the arcade game. The tenuous link to Virtua Fighter makes the Yakuza series even more Shenmue-like!

Meanwhile, the lascivious table tennis of past games has been replaced with an equally humiliating air hockey game, with the goal of staring at hostesses' cleavage, basically. It's a good thing these activities are fully optional.

Other minigames within Yakuza 5 include river fishing, snowball fights, and batting cages, along with ... chicken races? Taiko Drum Master is also available in arcades.

The NBA said it will "continue to work together with [EA] as we always have," when recently asked about the cancellation of NBA Live 13.

John Acunto, VP of Marketing Communications for the NBA told Joystiq that the NBA has "had a great relationship with EA for more than 20 years. We are obviously disappointed that EA will not be releasing NBA LIVE 13 this year, but have been assured by EA that the next release of NBA LIVE will meet our mutual standards of excellence."

EA's Executive VP Andrew Wilson said the team plans on "making next year's game great."

Take-Two recently revealed record sales for the other major NBA licensed game this year, NBA 2K13, which sold 49 percent more in its first week than past games in the series.

2K Sports' NBA 2K13 is reaping the benefits of EA's inability to develop a basketball game, with publisher Take-Two announcing the game has surpassed franchise sales records. Although no specific figures were provided, NBA 2K13 reportedly sold 49 percent more worldwide during its first-week sales than previous record holder NBA 2K11.

"Our early sales figures are a validation of our ongoing efforts to push this franchise to new heights," said 2K Sports VP of marketing Jason Argent. "We owe it to our great fans to continually improve our title - year in and year out - and that's exactly what we've done with NBA 2K13."

And, hopefully, Argent is sending an Edible Arrangement over to EA Sports HQ to thank them, as well. EA's canceled NBA Live 13, intended as a digitally distributed product, was the third year in a row Electronic Arts didn't show up for the basketball match.

Following its reveal yesterday, Capcom is hosting a live gameplay session of Darkstalkers Resurrection from the New York Comic Con, and you can watch it right here. Resurrection is a double-pack of Darkstalkers' Revenge and Darkstalkers 3 in one single downloadable game, and is coming to XBLA and PSN early next year for 1200 MSP/$14.99 respectively. The stream is set to kick off at 10AM ET/7AM PT.

Update: Capcom's live gameplay session is over. On a side note, the developers talked plenty about the potential for a future brand new Darkstalkers game, with comparisons to how Marvel vs. Capcom 2 came to Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network before MvC 3 came out. If Darkstalkers Resurrection is anything resembling a hit, chances are 'Darkstalkers 4' is on.

Mass Effect 3 DLC Omega is landing on November 27 and is priced at 1200 MSP or $15, if a video interview by Examiner's Beverly Lim Lee is accurate. The interviewee is apparently Mass Effect 3 Producer Mike Gamble, although he's introduced as "Mike, the producer of Mass 3 Effect Omega." According to the interview, the DLC is double the size of any previous Mass Effect 3 DLC, and lets players take on Aria, who is vying for control of the Omega space station.

The video was uploaded to Ms Lee's YouTube account, and was apparently taken at the New York Comic Con, a convention at which EA BioWare is certainly in attendance and showing off Omega concept art.

We've reached out EA BioWare for confirmation of these details and further information.

Update: A post on the BioWare blog confirms the details. The Omega DLC is coming to PC, PSN, and XBLM on November 27 for $14.99 or 1200 MSP. PS3 owners in Europe will have to wait until November 28 for the DLC to hit the continent. The blog post reads:

"Disturbing reports from the Citadel suggest that something big is about to go down. If our Intel is accurate, Aria is on the move. This was anticipated, as we did not expect her to sit idly by while Cerberus ran roughshod over Omega. With her biotic capabilities and well-documented mean streak, what happens next won't be pretty. Our informants believe that Aria intends to seek out Commander Shepard for assistance. We are aware of the Commander's ties to Aria, but are unclear about how deep they run. What we do know is that Aria will be relentless in her fight to take back Omega, and with the Commander at her side, she may very well be unstoppable."

The video linked above has now been made private.