Mr. Torgue likes masculine things. Like explosions, suplexing sharks and sick guitar solos. He's a great mouthpiece blaring in your ear during the otherwise ho-hum missions that make up Borderlands 2's Mr. Torgue's Campaign of Carnage DLC campaign.

The premise surrounding Mr. Torgue's Campaign of Carnage is simple: Mr. Torgue wants to know who the biggest badass on Pandora is, and he just so happens to own an arena, conveniently situated within a massive crater called the Badass Crater of Badassitude. What he lacks in naming craters he makes up for with loud exuberance.

Being a Vault Hunter, it's only natural that you be considered for this contest. Mr. Torgue is on your side though. He clues you in on a double-cross early on because he likes to break the fourth wall and tell you these things. It's what makes the Macho Man lookalike the endearing highlight of this Borderlands 2 DLC adventure.

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The Walking Dead retail version has been pushed back a week in North America, now scheduled to launch on December 11. The standard and collector's editions were originally slated to hit in physical form on December 4. We assume the undead don't shuffle as quickly as Telltale originally thought.

The standard edition includes all five episodes on-disc for $30, while the collector's edition runs $70 and features the full game along with the first 48 issues of the comic in an exclusive version of The Walking Dead Compendium One, all wrapped up in a special box.

The Walking Dead will be available at all participating retail locations for PS3 and Xbox 360, but the PC version is sold only at Best Buy.

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We'll bet even Theresa didn't see this one coming. The downloadable version of Fable 2 has been removed from Xbox Live Marketplace, both via Xbox.com or the console itself. The news comes courtesy of a GameSpot tipster, and we have confirmed that Fable 2 has been pulled from Xbox Live in both its episodic and Games on Demand forms. Associated Fable 2 content, including DLC, trailers and avatar items, is still available for download. Furthermore, both the original Fable and Fable 3 remain available to download.

We've put word into Microsoft to see what's up. It's too early to be certain, but we suspect Hobbes were involved.

Steam Big Picture, the mode that transforms Steam into a big-screen service easily controllable with a gamepad, is officially live now, following a beta that began in September. To celebrate, a range of games that fully support controllers are on sale through December 10 at 10 a.m. PT, some for up to 75 percent off.

A few games on sale are Tiny and Big: Grandpa's Leftovers, Castle Crashers, Portal 2 (now with split-screen), Left 4 Dead 2, A Virus Named Tom and Mark of the Ninja. There are more than 30 games on sale, all of them featuring full controller support.

Steam breaks down games into full and partial controller support: There are 41 games with full support and 387 with partial, though on the Big Picture sale page Steam lists 70 with full and 851 with partial, so there may be some hiding in the rafters. All games are accessible in Big Picture mode, though not all support gamepads, of course.

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The hideous, multi-limbed beast shambles on, and we're not talking about Necromorphs. No, we're talking about retailer specific pre-order items for Dead Space 3. Those who plunk down their cash early will receive an in-game gun. GameStop pre-orders get the EG-900 SMG, a "compact but deadly" firearm. Amazon pre-orders, meanwhile, will pick up the Tesla Enervator, which "delivers a precision blast causing instantaneous electrocution and molecular destabilization in the target." We try not to pick favorites when it comes to guns – we love our death-dealers equally – but the Enervator sounds just a tad more interesting.

These bonuses come in addition to the content included with the Dead Space 3 limited edition. Those who pre-order Dead Space 3 automatically receive the limited edition, which features two bonus suits and two bonus guns.

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Bethesda Softworks confirmed that Skyrim's "Dragonborn" downloadable content add-on is expected to launch "early next year" on PS3 and PC. The add-on is scheduled to launch tomorrow for Xbox 360, as part of Skyrim's exclusivity window for the platform.

The PC launch falls in line with previously released Skyrim packs "Dawnguard" and "Hearthfire," while the PS3 announcement is a bit of a surprise. Although the publisher had previously stated DLC was "close" for PS3, this latest announcement only recognizes "Dragonborn." We've followed up with Bethesda for clarification and will update when we hear back.

Update: Bethesda responded to our specific request for clarification about "Dawnguard" and "Hearthfire" for PS3 by stating: "We think Dragonborn is our best add-on for Skyrim yet and we didn't want fans to wait long, so that's our current focus. Each platform takes a lot of time and attention."

The Kickstarter drive for Evil Controllers' lithium-ion powered Xbox 360 controller has ended successfully, with the company receiving $24,624, well above its $15,000 goal. The modified controller charges over USB and can be used for "well over 10 hours of straight gaming between each full charge."

The battery pack kits go to everyone who pledged $50 or more, and will ship starting in January. The full controller, with the pack pre-installed along with new thumbsticks, went for $150.

I've been unwittingly preparing for this review for eight months, since I joined Pottermore on the day it launched for the public.

Pottermore is an official, browser-based supplement to the Harry Potter series, inspired by social networks. Each member has a profile and travels through the Harry Potter books in a series of active illustrations, collecting trinkets, learning more about the characters and events, and earning points for whichever house they are sorted into. There is a set of spell-casting and potion-concocting minigames that eventually lead to the House Cup celebration, where the house with the most points wins. Pottermore now has more than 4 million members worldwide, and yes, even as a woman in my mid-20s I think this whole thing is perfectly normal and necessary.

When I learned there was a new badge for finding Miranda Goshawk's Book of Spells in the Restricted Section on Pottermore, I was excited (again, totally normal). My heart pumped half a beat faster, my cheeks flushed and I smiled, for Merlin's sake. I was filled with joy at the prospect of uncovering secrets about a fictional book within the universe of an already fictional book, and I reveled in it. It wasn't until I discovered the tome, which played a quirky promo for Sony's Wonderbook: Book of Spells, that I finally understood how this related to my professional life.

If I could be excited for Book of Spells within Pottermore, I should give the actual PlayStation Move game the same chance.

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If you've ever wondered if high quality cosplay could get you a job in the games industry, here's the story for you. Irrational Games hired Anna Moleva, a Russian veterinarian, precisely because her BioShock Infinite cosplay bore such a strong resemblance to its source. Moleva is now the official face of Elizabeth, as featured on the back of the game's box art (see after the break).

In case you're wondering if she's some kind of Jenny-come-lately, Moleva has a seven-year history with cosplay, as evidenced by her impressive Flickr portfolio. While Irrational's photos prove she makes an excellent Elizabeth, she's also a decent Alice, Commander Shepard, and Poison Ivy.

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Jordan Mechner's rhythmic Karateka remake is out on PC today, available through Steam for ten percent off its normal $10 price. The price will flip-kick back up after a week. It's still listed only as "coming soon" to PSN and iOS.

Coinciding with the release of Karateka on a new platform, creator Jordan Mechner has released an ebook about the development process of the original Apple 2 Karateka. The making of Karateka: Journals 1982-1985 collects Mechner's private journal entries about the time spent in college creating the martial arts game. It's on Amazon digitally today, and Mechner plans to release it in print later. Mechner has already released a journal book about Prince of Persia.

Update: Karateka is now available on Steam.

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22 Cans Kickstarter project Godus will hopefully have a downloadable prototype by Christmas, Peter Molyneux told us in a recent interview. The 22 Cans founder, who is painfully aware of his public persona of over-promising over the years, recognizes Kickstarter projects are currently in that same precarious position.

"I hope by Christmas we have a prototype that people can download and say, 'Actually, you know what, they're already doing good work,'" Molyneux told us. "And this is what needs to happen with Kickstarter and games. The promises... wouldn't it be amusing if I was the one to prove this right? These promises have to result in great games."

Godus reaching its Kickstarter funding goal isn't a guarantee. The game (as of this writing) has £193,613 pledged of a £450,000 goal, with 18 days left to go. According to Kickstarter stat tracking site Kicktraq, the game will just make its funding goal if it sustains its average per day pledge total, but backers have been diminishing every day.

Keiji Inafune's Comcept surrenders Soul Sacrifice to Japanese gamers on March 7, 2013. The dark fantasy action-RPG also gets a Premium handheld bundle in Japan, featuring a snappy 'Cosmic Red' Vita. Also included are matching earphones, a 4GB memory card, and a title-sporting pouch, strap, and cloth. The bundle's priced at ¥29,980 ($365).

Inafune originally hoped to release Soul Sacrifice this year, but at September's Tokyo Games Show the Mega Man creator ceded that plan. Inafune said Comcept wanted to tweak the game based on feedback gathered from the exhibition.

Soul Sacrifice is confirmed as coming to North America and Europe, although publisher Sony Computer Entertainment has yet to relinquish release windows for either region.

Crysis 3 having high-end PC specs is about as eyebrow-raising as Cliff Bleszinski posting a photo of a courting game studio. Nonetheless, EA has published the shooter's minimum, recommended, and hi-performance system requirements for your perusal.

For starters, DirectX 11 support is a minimum, which means Windows XP isn't on the guest list. Also minimums are a 1GB graphics card and dual core CPU, with EA detailing Nvidia GTS 450 & Intel Core2 Duo 2.4Ghz (E6660) and AMD Radeon HD5770 & AMD Athlon 65 X2 2.7 Ghz (5200+) as example minimalist Intel and AMD setups respectively.

The full list of specifications is after the break.

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Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 is staying right where it is, enjoying the high vantage point atop the UK charts for a third week in a row. Sales of the shooter were down 35 percent from the previous week, but loss was mitigated due to the debut of the Wii U version.

Far Cry 3 was the big debut of the week, entering in second. According to Chart-Track, Ubi's first-person shooter franchise became the ninth biggest launch of the year, "just behind last week's Hitman: Absolution," which slipped two spots into fourth."

Although there isn't any official data on Wii U's UK sales, MCV's math pegs it somewhere around 40K units. A more interesting sign of the launch is that none of the console's exclusive titles broke the top ten. Nintendoland, New Super Mario Bros. U and ZombiU were the best performers at spots 11, 14 and 17, respectively. Swipe on over past the break for the UK top ten.

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One thing floating around the web this week was a wonderful reminder of the intro to Madden NFL 2000, the hard-hitting EA Sports football game that had more of a chip on its shoulder than Madden games seem to have today.

With the constant concerns for player safety in the NFL, it's hard to imagine EA Sports glorifying some of the big hits seen in this intro video today. But if Ludacris took Ray Lewis' spot in the intro video to Madden NFL 13, we're not sure there would be many complaints.

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Microsoft Studios Vancouver has been rebranded as Black Tusk Studios, and the team is tasked with creating Microsoft's "next big entertainment franchise," or as the layman says it, "the next Halo."

Black Tusk has 55 employees and looks to double that number within a year; those already there have an average of 12 years experience building AAA games. This includes studio manager and former EA man, Mike Crump.

"We are working on Microsoft's next big entertainment franchise," Crump tells The Vancouver Sun. "We're not working on an existing franchise; we're looking to build the next Halo here in Vancouver, for example, which is really exciting. We are building something from the ground up."

Microsoft laid off a small number of people in Vancouver earlier this year, but said it remains invested in the British Columbia games industry. If it's pouring enough money to build another Halo franchise into Black Tusk, we'd say Microsoft is heavily invested, indeed.

Garry's Mod, the physics sandbox game made in Valve's Source engine, is coming to the Kinect SDK for PC from creator Garry Newman. Newman is aiming to launch Garry's Mod for Kinect on Thursday, December 6.

Newman has shown off a few ways Garry's Mod can use Kinect, with full-body character control and realistic world-reactions – and yes, it will be accessible in multiplayer mode. "You can join a server and take control of a ragdoll," Newman writes in the description for the below video. "Your friend can join and take control of one and you can dance together." Because that's what friends do.

Potential motion controllers will need a Kinect and Kinect for Windows Runtime v1.6. There is no Mac version ("Sorry, Mac guys," Newman writes).

Check out all the wacky wanderings you can get up to with Garry's Mod for the Kinect SDK in Newman's introductory post and today's follow-up, and watch his second Kinect demo video after the break.

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The Kickstarter for Sir, You Are Being Hunted ended today and was a resounding success, raising £92,551 of a requested £40,000 ($148,303/$64,096). This fell short of the £100,000 goal that would allow character creation and customization, but Big Robot said it "will endeavor to get some aspects of it into the game."

Donations unlocked six of seven stretch goals, including a multiplayer mode. Multiplayer will not ship with the game, but it will be free for those who own it. Big Robot didn't alter the launch window of July 2013, but did add caution to its tale:

"With plans to add a lot more content via stretch goals, it's sensible for us to say that the current July 2013 release goal might be subject to some slippage. We're still aiming for that date, of course, and we'll keep you guys aprised of any changes."

A Steam version was still unconfirmed, but Big Robot said, "Naturally we are hoping to get on to Steam. All Kickstarter backers will get a Steam key when that happens. Stay tuned for news on that in the next few months." The game's PayPal donation page will remain open for "a while longer."

Sir, You Are Being Hunted is a tweedpunk, first-person, singleplayer game that has players attempt to survive in a world overrun with robotic aristocrats who hunt humans for fun. No wonder its Kickstarter succeeded.

Terminal Reality's The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct is a first-person shooter based on AMC's television series, which is of course based on The Walking Dead comic series from Robert Kirkman. It's the first new-media extrapolation to be based on something based on The Walking Dead, rather than on the graphic novel itself, which is probably a smart move when a game directly from the comic has already proven extremely successful.

All that said, Survival Instinct integrates AMC's TV show directly, grabbing Norman Reedus, the actor who plays Daryl Dixon, to voice the main protagonist.

"Norman is super-cool, generous, and a real joy to work with," writes Terminal Reality Creative Director Drew Haworth. "And man, does that guy deliver! He gets the scene, the line, and what you're going for instantly and then doubles down on it, effortlessly 'Darylizing' lines for maximum punch. He's the kind of actor that really makes writers look good."

From our own experience with the TV show, we have to agree with that last statement. No one on The Walking Dead nails "looking dramatically at another cast member, in silence, for five whole minutes" quite like Reedus.