Delivering news, columns, reviews, quick looks and diaries

Dec 16, 2012 11:01 GMT  ·  By

We have three reviews to offer this week, as we seek to travel through some of 2012’s back catalog before we move onto next year: ZombiU, the survival horror for the new Wii U, Karateka, a revival of an 1984 title that mixes rhythm mechanics with a martial arts theme, Frozen Hearth and Lucius.

We also have our customary Weekend Reading features: talking about how movies based on games can learn from Halo 4: Forward unto Dawn and another about Wii U and local multiplayer.

We also have Quick Looks for Rayman Legends, ZombiU and New Super Mario Bros. U.

We also deliver a finished Gamer Diary for Baldur’s Gate Enhanced Edition and a series of articles that show our choices for the Softpedia Game of the Year awards in a variety of categories.

The EndWeekGame article offer an insight into how we plan to spend out gaming time and we also have a selection of the most important news from the week that passed us by.

On Monday Nintendo talked about the prototype for the Wii U, which was apparently made up of Wiimotes, a monitor and sticky tape while the developers promised that Dark Souls 2 will be more approachable.

Tuesday Crystal Dynamics talked about the way the rebooted Tomb Raider will use a modern filter for Lara Croft and Gearbox announced that Borderlands 2 will get a sixth character via DLC.

Wednesday BioWare talked about Mass Effect 4, which might arrive during 2014, and Crytek talked about how Crysis 3 uses the power of home consoles and the PC.

Thursday BioWare revealed that original Mass Effect 3 ending involved Illusive Man battle and a rumors suggested that the Xbox 720 might be out in fall 2013.

On Friday Irrational Games gave fans a chance to vote on the BioShock Infinite cover while the team also talked about Elizabeth as an A.I. companion.

Saturday the shooting in Connecticut was blamed on Mass Effect 3 and developers revealed the second faction for Total War: Rome II, Carthage.