Europe is joining Japan in the "cool yellow Pikachu 3DS XL" club, leaving us Americans crying bitter tears on our boring red and blue systems. No date was announced during today's Nintendo Direct presentation, aside from "later this year." It's also not known whether it will be limited to certain retailers as it is in Japan.

Man, look at that adorable thing.

The latest entry in Nintendo's even-more-two-dimensional Mario franchise, Paper Mario: Sticker Star, will launch for European 3DSes on December 7, Nintendo just announced during a European Nintendo Direct presentation.

New footage of the game was shown, which featured Mario knocking over a tree in the foreground to cause a Rube Goldberg-esque chain reaction and grant access to a previously unreachable part of the level. American scrapbooking enthusiasts can get their hands on Paper Mario: Sticker Star on November 11.

Nintendo of Europe has a Nintendo Direct starting at 7PM British Time (2PM ET), and you can watch the live stream right here on Joystiq - right above where these words are, in fact. NoE President Satoru Shibata is set to take us through some 3DS games coming to the continent, and we're ready to report on all the goings on.

Look, times are tough in America and now, more than ever, game-buying people all over the country are asking themselves "How many space bugs will I get to murder for the money I'm spending?"

Sony's and Insomniac's newly announced Resistance Collection for the PS3 has a remarkably high bug-murder-to-cost ratio, packing Resistance: Fall of Man, Resistance 2, Resistance 3 and "the best DLC" for Resistances 2 and 3 into one $39.99 package. The Aftermath Pack and skin bundle for Resistance 2 and the Brutality and Survival packs for Resistance 3 are the only DLC specifically mentioned by name, though whether that represents the full extent of the included content remains uncertain.

Release date and various further information will be made available "in the coming weeks," according to the PlayStation Blog. For now, maybe consider saving $20 and just buying the good one.

I've always had problems with game systems built around disposable items. I simultaneously hate and love the Grand Theft Auto series because of its sweet rides that ultimately get destroyed 10 seconds after you get in them.

And now the same can be said of Paper Mario: Sticker Star, a game with a combat system built around collecting and disposing of wonderful, colorful stickers.

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Mass Effect 3's multiplayer suite will be bolstered by a new enemy race and unlockables. The "Retaliation" DLC pack will be free to all Mass Effect 3 owners when it launches next week on October 9 – PS3 owners in Europe will have to wait an extra day, October 10.

Retaliation adds the Collectors as a new enemy faction to face off against and new unlockable kits: the Turian Havoc Soldier and Turian Ghost Infiltrator. You'll also be able to unlock new Collector weapons and outfit them with new upgrades, plus BioWare is adding new "hazard" versions of existing maps to Mass Effect 3's multiplayer – certain environmental dangers like sandstorms and lightning will now challenge players in addition to the enemy.

Finally, "Retaliation" adds a new challenge system to multiplayer, a database that chronicles your performance across multiplayer and awards "challenge points" for reaching certain milestones in multiplayer. Players can spend these "challenge points" on new titles and banners to customize their character profile.

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Etrian Odyssey IV: Legends of the Titan is journeying to North America early next year, Atlus today announced. It's no surprise to see the 3DS dungeon crawler localized following the Western release of the first three entries in the portable series, but now we have a release window along with a RRP of $39.99.

As per the Japanese version, the fourth entry comes with a 'Casual' mode, set to an easier difficulty to help newcomers acclimatize to the usually unforgiving series. Casual mode gives you a permanent item that lets you warp out of dungeons back to town. There's also no Game Over screen, with dying in Casual mode instead sending you back to town too.

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The War Z, the upcoming zombie-themed PC MMO, will go into closed beta on October 31, publisher Arktos Entertainment has announced. The game is also now available for pre-order. Three packages are available, each granting access to the beta and offered at a discount until October 20*.

The Survivor package is available for $19.49 and grants access to the beta when it begins on October 31. Meanwhile, the Pioneer package is $29.99, grants access to the beta on October 15, $15 of in-game currency, a special forum badge, one month of map server hosting and 3 guest keys. Finally, there's the Legend package for $49.99, featuring October 15 access, $30 of currency, a forum badge, 6 months of server hosting, 3 guest keys. Legend purchasers will also have their survivor names highlighted on leaderboards and in the game's chat.

After October 20, the pre-order prices jump to $29.99 and $49.99, respectively. The game can be pre-ordered on The War Z website.

*The War Z website states that the discounts only apply until October 17, but Arktos informs Joystiq that the correct date is indeed October 20. The website is being corrected.

No Doubt and Activision reached an out-of-court settlement this week over the band's lawsuit against the publisher, finally bringing an end to three years of legal dispute. The Californian rock band first filed the lawsuit back in 2009, claiming their likenesses were only to be used in Band Hero with their own in-game tracks, not with the entire catalog. Despite Activision's best efforts, the case was due to finally appear in the Los Angeles Superior Court on October 15, but instead the two parties agreed to settle.

How things have changed since 2009. Music games like Rock Band 2 and Band Hero were ruling the roost, and No Doubt had only just reformed after the Stefani-imposed hiatus. Three years on and there won't be any more Hero games, while No Doubt recently released their sixth album. Now, following some Push & Shove it seems things will finally Settle Down completely for the Hero franchise so that it can rest in peace.

Cheetos mascot Chester Cheetah is finally returning to video games. The star of Chester Cheetah: Wild Wild Quest and Chester Cheetah: Too Cool to Fool is bringing his natural charisma, charm, and insatiable desire for cheese-flavored corn snacks to Just Dance 4.

By entering codes found on Cheetos bags into the Wii or Xbox versions of Just Dance 4, orange-fingered dancers will be able to unlock Cobra Starship's "You Make Me Feel" – featuring dance moves from the giant-headed cat monster himself – and Anja's "Brand New Start." The promotion is available from the October 9 release date through December 31.

Did you know there are "Salsa Con Queso" and "Smoked Cheddar" Cheetos? We didn't, until just now, when we learned that from our job writing about video games.

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In the Medal of Honor: Warfighter single-player mission "Shore Leave," Tier 1 Operators are assaulting an Al-Shabaab pirate stronghold on the Somali coast. The mission opens up with a beach siege by boat while our stalwart crew of Stumps and company are under heavy fire.

This particular mission features a diverse array of set pieces and gameplay scenarios that keep things from stagnating and falling into the usual shooter doldrums. What starts as the usual cover-based shootouts eventually segues into breaching heavily defended rooms full of Somali pirates, leading to a portion where you must control a heavily-outfitted drone to clear the debris of a recently bombarded building full of errant pirates.

Shore Leave ultimately culminates in a particularly tense sniper segment where the Tier 1s must clear distant rooftops of RPG-wielding baddies so that a chopper convoy can come in and clean up the town. And by clean up the town I mean shoot every single guy who doesn't have a ZZ Top beard.

In addition to Shore Leave, another single-player mission was available: Hot Pursuit. This mission places players behind the wheel as they chase down a suspect through the streets of Karachi, a massive city in Pakistan.

Danger Close Games tapped talent from EA Canada to help develop this driving mission, which sees a Tier 1 operator tear through vendors and shacks with reckless abandon. Honestly, I felt like kind of a jerk just plowing through peoples' lives like that.

Hot Pursuit has a lot of the same principles seen in Shore Leave – spectacle and large set-piece moments. I was impressed with the mission and the driving felt very solid, not the heavy tank-on-ice vehicle I expected from a driving mission in a shooter. Even though Hot Pursuit is quite the juxtaposition, the mission didn't feel out of place in the slightest. See a trailer of the Hot Pursuit mission after the break.

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4.5 million copies of Resident Evil 6 shuffled onto retail shelves worldwide for the game's launch, Capcom today announced. Along with the shipment figures, the company revealed a total of 50 million sales for the Resident Evil franchise as of June 2012.

Of course, shipping figures are not the same as sales figures, but that doesn't stop Capcom from proclaiming the numbers prove Resident Evil is "just as popular today as it was 15 years ago when the first title made its debut." Our review of Resident Evil 6, along with the overall consensus of the press and indications from the public, suggests current popularity isn't so clear cut.

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2 Player Productions is laying the foundations for a December 7 release of its Minecraft documentary. Speaking to Eurogamer, Minecraft: The Story of Mojang director Paul Owens said that while an exact date hasn't been settled on, December 7 is the aim.

After getting the documentary funded on Kickstarter back in March 2011, 2 Player also committed to a similar production for Mojang's upcoming Scrolls. The Oregon-based production company has a strong history of gaming documentaries, having made videos for Double Fine, Sony, and Penny Arcade among many others.

Lest you hadn't heard, Hasbro and Zynga recently teamed up to create board game versions of its popular video games. That includes a CityVille-themed version of Monopoly, a weird mash-up of FarmVille and Hungry Hungry Hippos, and Draw Something (the board game mechanics of which should be self-explanatory).

Bizarrely, the collection also includes a board game version of Words with Friends. Words with Friends is often cited as being very similar – practically to the point of infringement – to Scrabble, the classic word game published by ... Hasbro. Just to reiterate: this is the board game version of a video game version of a different board game published by a company that should be, in theory, a competitor.

Try not to let your head explode.

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The forces of Mass Effect 3 are back at it again this weekend, running a weekly event called Operation Overdrive. Just like the other events in this series, there's both a squad and an allied goal, with separate rewards for each.

The squad goal this time will be to hit full extraction on any map in just 20 minutes or less, and that will nab you a Commendation Pack if completed. The Allied Goal is across all of the game's players, and asks for 200,000 extraction waves to be beaten in total. Completing that goal will get everyone involved a Victory Pack. Not to mention all of the lives that will be saved from repelling the Reaper invasion, right?

This Friday, Xbox Live Gold subscribers can download a free Medal of Honor: Warfighter beta. The Xbox 360 exclusive beta will feature multiplayer mode Hotspot, which tasks players with attacking and defending randomly chosen locations.

Twelve of the total 72 Tier 1 Operators can be unlocked in the multiplayer demo, ranging from the British SAS, to the German KSK and US Navy SEAL. The particular map available in this Medal of Honor: Warfighter multiplayer demo is Bosnia's Sarajevo Stadium, known for hosting such festivities as murder and the annual Sarajevo Saucejam. So many sauces!