Trackmania 2 is growing into a frenzy, with 'Stadium' and 'Valley' joining 'Canyon' in early 2013. The Stadium environment returns from Trackmania Nations Forever, updated with all of the features available in Canyon. and made over in the new engine. Meanwhile, Valley introduces a new rally-like environment, albeit with highways and the series' penchant for the ludicrous thrown in. Both updates are coming to the ManiaPlanet platform early next year, with Eurogamer reporting Stadium is free-to-play.

Nadeo also announced a January 23 release date for Shootmania Storm, the developer's shooter-come-shooter-builder. In the meantime, you can check out the trailer for Valley above, while Stadium's is after the break.

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In good guy news, EA Sports is putting up $500,000 worth of in-game advertising for Movember, free of charge. You may have already spotted the ads, which will run this month, in the latest iterations of FIFA, Madden, and NHL.

Movember's been going for several years now, but in case you're yet to link it to the surge of facial hair above November lips, the charity's website can fill you in. In short, dudes grow their mustaches out across the month, all in the name of raising money for men's health charities like the Prostate Cancer and LiveStrong foundations.

While this is excellent of EA Sports, we're a little disappointed to not hear of EA CEO Peter Moore growing out his whiskers - we mean really growing out his whiskers. We reckon he could totally pull off this little number. Of course, even that 'stache woudn't compare to a certain reviews editor's super sexy stylings.

Mass Effect 3 will be available for purchase alongside the Wii U when it launches on November 18 in North America, BioWare confirms today. Mass Effect 3 will also be a launch title in Europe on November 30 and in Japan on December 5.

Mass Effect 3 on Wii U includes the game's Extended Cut and From Ashes DLC, along with an updated version of the Genesis comics from Darkhorse. According to BioWare external producer Melanie Faulknor, the Wii U version also packs the multiplayer add-ons Rebellion, Resurgence, and Earth.

The Genesis comic was first introduced in Mass Effect 2 on PS3, giving players a chance to mold the events from the first game, which was not available on the platform. In the Wii U update, players will be able to craft their stories from the first two Mass Effect games and bring those decisions into Mass Effect 3.

The Omega DLC slated for later this month wasn't addressed, so we imagine Wii U players will have to download the DLC just like everyone else. No more special treatment!

PlayStation Home is getting a new arcade game this Wednesday, and this one has some indie chops. From the minds of Dyad, studio ][ and Shawn McGrath, comes A Game About Bouncing, which McGrath briefly discussed in an interview with Joystiq earlier this year. Originally developed as a prototype sketch at a quick game jam, Bouncing is now featured as a premium arcade cabinet in PlayStation Home.

Purchasing the cabinet gives players access to the game along with a full avatar skin, some themed glasses to wear, and even a Shawn McGrath-inspired outfit, complete with cowboy hat and beard.

There's also a bevy of other new avatar items available for purchase, and some tweaks and additions to the Avalon Keep area in Home (including a new crystal-collecting minigame you can play with friends). Sony says the update, including that new arcade cabinet, should be out and available on PlayStation Home on this Wednesday, November 7; however, no price was revealed.

Jordan Mechner's revamp of his classic martial arts fighting game, Karateka, is set to launch on XBLA on Wednesday, but the PSN and PC release will come at a later, unspecified date along with a newly announced iOS version.

We have a few new screens from Karateka below. At first glance, we're having trouble reconciling the new vision with the original look – although we appreciate Mechner's bold leap forward. After all, this is the man who created and helped revamp Prince of Persia.

THQ's second quarter earnings conference call today totaled 12 minutes. Executives rattled through the financial quarter, noted game delays and CEO Brian Farrell concluded that the company had been "advised not to conduct a [question and answer] session" following prepared remarks. Since these calls usually last about an hour, this was unusual.

THQ's sudden case of tongue-biting has to do with it "exploring strategic alternatives" with a company called Centerview Partners LLC. This company's job is to evaluate financing alternatives to improve THQ's overall cash. The company notes that it does not plan to disclose developments or progress until the board deems it appropriate.

We spoke to sources with knowledge of companies like Centerview Partners and their take is THQ is attempting to go private. Centerview Partners is a broker for private equity deals, which means THQ's shareholders would preferably be out of the picture. THQ's stock is currently trading at $3.02, following drastic measures to retain its listing; it should also be noted after hours trading has been suspended.

Pro wrestling is all about details. Devoted fans know the nuances of some of the biggest moments in the business' history well, from the formation of the Brothers of Destruction to Stone Cold Steve Austin soaking Vince McMahon in beer. A video game that dives into the rich history of the WWE is forced to reconcile all the details of the entertainment product. WWE 13 often meets those expectations, but is not the best there is, was, or ever will be.

Much like past games, WWE 13 continues to push the illusion of wrestling, which is perfectly acceptable. It's a combat game with fighting mechanics, and some of those mechanics have been cleaned up since last year. One-button reversals now have an added indicator to tell you if your trigger finger is too fast or too slow (based on the small window to execute reversals, it often is). The "OMG" moments addition provide spectacular, albeit circumstantial events that can turn the tide of matches – things like trucking an opponent through the outside barrier by the crowd or heavier opponents actually causing the ring to collapse. Aside from these improvements, the in-ring action hasn't seen much change; players seem to transition a little more smoothly between moves, and most of the buggy, "jarring" animations in WWE 12 were cleaned up. Wrestling feels largely the same in this game, just a touch more fluid.

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A bright spot in THQ's awkwardly brief investor call today: the company reports that Saints Row: The Third has shipped five million units, in line with the performance THQ expected from the crass sandbox game over its lifetime.

A sequel is currently underway, due "beyond fiscal 2013," meaning sometime after April 2013. It incorporates content from a canceled SR3 expansion, Enter the Dominatrix.

"Oh, great. Another multiplayer game where humans and dinosaurs duke it out for battlefield supremacy." If the game industry had evolved differently, maybe made that left turn at Turok, that's what we might have uttered when Primal Carnage was first revealed. With a few exceptions, however, the mash-up of dinosaur and man at war has mostly eluded the video game industry.

Having the foresight to predict what should be the "next big thing," developer Lukewarm Media has delivered its first game, Primal Carnage, under Reverb Publishing. Though there are a few meteor-sized holes in the game's feature list and polished sheen, Primal Carnage makes a good first impression, with some deep thought put into its strange (and awesome) gimmick.

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THQ posted net sales of $107 million and an operating loss of $19 million in fiscal 2013's second quarter, which ended September 30. This is compared with 2012's Q2 results of $146 million in net sales, and an operating loss of $97 million.

In a bid to stay afloat, in 2012 THQ has undergone corporate reshuffling, has closed studios, laid off staff, rearranged its product line and enacted a reverse stock split. THQ's most recent mainstream launch was Darksiders 2, which sold 1.4 million copies in Q2 2013. THQ CEO Brian Farrell said these sales were "below our expectations."

THQ delayed South Park: The Stick of Truth, Company of Heroes 2 and Metro: Last Light today, citing a need for more time to realize the games' full potentials. This means THQ may seek more money from outside investors and through internal shake-ups in the interim, the fiscal report said.

"The calendar movement for the release of games will likely create a need for additional capital. THQ has engaged Centerview Partners LLC to assist the company in evaluating strategic and financing alternatives intended to improve THQ's overall liquidity, including raising additional capital, preserve the company's ability to bring the best possible games to market during the most advantageous release windows and to help address the $100 million 5% convertible senior notes due August 2014."

PlayStation Plus's latest offer is pure gold. And pure evil. And ... Resident ... Okay, before we get too mired in failed wordplay, allow us to explain. Starting tomorrow, Resident Evil 5 Gold Edition will be available for download at no additional cost to PlayStation Plus members.

Other noteworthy discounts include Portal 2 for $13.99, and its new In Motion DLC for $6.99. When Vikings Attack, you can save money by being a Plus member – that new PSN game is 30 percent off, priced at $6.99 for a Cross-Buy purchase of both PS3 and Vita versions.

Dead Island: Riptide will add a fisticuffs-based character to the zombie survival simulator. John Morgan is a master of hand-to-hand combat and can be played from the beginning of Riptide, along with the four members of the original game's cast. We've confirmed co-op play is still set to four players, so don't take this as a sign of party of five antics.

According to publisher Deep Silver, Morgan was "inspired by some very popular fan mods" for the original game, which we wanted to know more about.

"So one thing we really like about our community is that they did so many crazy mods for Dead Island on PC. One of the mods was an awesome Fist of the North Star thing and a dude made a hilarious video out of it," a representative for Deep Silver told us, digging up the YouTube we've placed after the break. "Obviously, our character is not exactly like this, but since people liked this mod so much, it made us think about doing a hand-to-hand combat character."

Dead Island: Riptide washes in late April next year.

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Capy Games announced earlier this afternoon that Fez programmer Renaud Bedard has joined the team at the Critter Crunch, Clash of Heroes and Super TIME Force developer. Bedard was one half of the Polytron team, with Phil Fish, who put out the critically acclaimed game, Fez. The game's lengthy and volatile development was chronicled in Indie Game: The Movie (on Netflix streaming).

"The remaining employees of the Polytron Corp. would like to say goodbye and thank you to [Bedard] for all the years of amazing work," Fish tweeted out.

Asked for more details on how Bedard came to Capy, studio founder Nathan Vella told us that the company wasn't saying anything beyond the tweets it put out.

Now that Grand Theft Auto 5 has an official launch window of "Spring 2013," several retailers have opened up pre-orders for Rockstar's latest. You can reserve your copy through Amazon, Walmart, Best Buy, GameStop and more right now.

The full list is available over at Rockstar, though we'd warn exercising caution at this point. Sure, you may want to pounce because you believe Grand Theft Auto 5 will sell like crazy – it probably will – but keep in mind that no retailer-specific pre-order incentives have been revealed yet. We can't imagine playing Grand Theft Auto 5 without the right bonus outfit and car like some kind of cretin.

Battlefield 1942 is currently free on Electronic Arts' Origin digital distribution system. The gratis download is in celebration of the Battlefield series' 10 year anniversary and Battlefield 3 Premium's 2 million members making bank for the publisher.

According to EA, Battlefield 3 has sold over 17 million copies so far. The game's latest expansion, Aftermath, begins its month-long release campaign at the end of the month.

DmC is capped at 30 FPS on consoles, but according to director Hideaki Itsuno, the game will feel like it's running at 60 FPS – and it all comes down to mind games.

"60 FPS is a speed the brain and the eye can catch up with and understand," Itsuno tells Eurogamer. "But at 30 FPS there's a technique where you take advantage of the brain's ability to fill in the blanks. So even though you have it running at 30 FPS, you create the motions and the poses in such a way that the brain will naturally fill in what would have been the extra frames."

Of course 60 FPS "would be better," Itsuno says, but DmC's button-response design and visual style make 30 FPS just as good. DmC features living, moving environments that would have been forced static if Capcom and Ninja Theory pushed for 60 FPS on consoles, Ninja Theory technical art director Stuart Adcock adds. Remember, the PC version of DmC does run at 60 FPS.

Previous games in the series, such as Devil May Cry 4, run at 60 FPS on consoles. Devil May Cry 4 was built with Capcom's MT Framework engine, while DmC uses Epic's Unreal Engine 3. This engine swap contributes to the 30 FPS cap, Adcock says: "We were limited a little bit by the engine capabilities."

"We did a lot of work trying to simulate the effects of fluid motion even at 30. We simulated more motion blur and made sure the animations had solid in-betweens and nothing that might feel too jerky," Adcock says.

Persona 4 Arena isn't coming to Europe this year, now leaving it without a release window. Zen United, the company distributing the fighter, announced the delay via the Persona 4 Europe Facebook page. Zen says it will announce a projected release date once it receives the EU build, but currently the distributor doesn't even know when that build will be ready.

Europeans originally expected the game on August 31, in the same month as the North American launch. Following that delay and today's news, fans are now left uncertain when the game will actually be released. This further delay only adds to scrutiny over the decision to enforce the game's region lock, a decision Atlus claims it took to prevent the North American version 'cannibalizing' its Japanese counterpart. Maybe Atlus should've consulted Murphy's law before making Arena the first PS3 game to have such a constraint.

The Persona 4 tie-in fighter may be beaten to European retail shelves by Vita re-release Golden. Publisher NIS America is projecting a tentative February 22 for the latter's release.

Pier Solar was developed for the Sega Genesis and released on cartridge in 2010. With the benefit of fifteen years or so of technological advancements, developer WaterMelon Co. was able to put it on a 64MB cart, making it the biggest Genesis RPG ever. It's a traditional role-playing game about a botanist named Hoston on a quest to find a rare herb and cure his sick father. Now, the developer wants to update its turn-based throwback RPG for platforms people still use ... and Dreamcast too.

Pier Solar HD is planned for Xbox 360, PC, Mac, Linux, and Dreamcast – that last one won't actually be in HD. The style is reminiscent of the original, but places more detailed 16-bit style sprites on hand-drawn HD backgrounds. To fund the redrawing of assets and licensing for new platforms, WaterMelon is seeking $139,000 on Kickstarter.

Backers get a copy of the game for PC, Mac, Linux, or Xbox 360 by pledging at least $15; $49 is required for the Dreamcast CD or a physical copy on the other platforms. Naturally, there are more expensive collector's editions, as well as luxury items like a Pier Solar branded Dreamcast or arcade stick.