Honorable Mention: Pre-Order Bonuses with Dishonored

As much as I was looking forward the latest first person stealth magic slaughterfest from Arkane Studios and Bethesda Softworks, the pre-order bonuses for Dishonored were too nifty to ignore. Check out the best in whale oil-punk reproduction goods money can buy.

Review: Plants Vs. Zombies - Gambling Edition

Plants Vs. Zombies has to be my favorite "casual" game, which always seemed like an odd choice of words. Plenty of games are essentially casual. I mean, who really sat down to tackle the plot of GTAIII? I'm pretty sure most gamers, hardcore to not, just screwed around driving off ramps and into pedestrians a couple hours at a time. That sort of violence took way less patience and skill than PVZ. Thankfully, after playing the DS, Xbox 360, and PC versions, I've found the most casual form of Plants Vs. Zombies: The Lottery Ticket.

Playable Characters: Borderlands Psycho Bandit Figure

I consider myself a lucky individual when my wife hands me an action figure on my birthday, particularly an action figure from one of my favorite games. I've already received an Ezio from Assassin's Creed, now he's got a pal. A Psycho Bandit pal, but still a pal. Pics after the jump.

Lost Levels: Hey, I can read too ya' know.

I haven't had much luck tracking down retro gaming in recent months. I've come across the occasional SNES game or sealed DS classic, just nothing really remarkable. A couple of trips to local used book stores did produce some decent results, although not specifically video game software. While nothing rare these two strategy guides are two fine additions to the collection, each bringing a unique flavor to classic gaming literature.

Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance] - Mark of Mastery Unboxing

Sorry for the long hiatus. It took me a couple weeks to type out that title.Yikes.

It's nice to see a collector's edition for a handheld console, especially for the 3DS which has been missing true 3rd party love.  As far as limited releases go this one knocks others out of the park, considering the lackluster collector's editions made for the PSP. Check out the goodies for Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance] - Mark of Mastery Edition inside after the jump.

God that's exhausting...

Halo 4 Lithograph: Quoth the Raven, what a shine!

Jumping on the 'way-too-early-pre-order' bandwagon, Best Buy is currently offering a free lithograph with five bucks deposit towards Halo 4. Truth be told I don't know when the next chapter in the Master Chief saga is coming out, and frankly I couldn't care less. Remind me later when it's a month from release. Then I can stop playing Halo: Reach and drop $60 to play some more Halo. Because nothing is wrong with that picture. This picture, however, is what's right with Halo.

Lost Levels: NCSoft Collector's Editions - Part Two

My brief synopsis of NCSoft's past collector's editions ended up being more picture intensive than I planned, so I'm putting the overflow in a second post. Despite the game's lack of success, Tabula Rasa was a well-conceived action rpg with interesting weapons/magic combat mechanics. Without going into too many details, it played like an MMO of Mass Effect, which was also released during the same month. Coincidence? Probably. Still, Tabula Rasa has a much more comprehensive collector's edition pulled straight from its fiction.