Dark Horse Comics recently unveiled a 18.5" tall replica of the Reaper Sovereign from the Mass Effect series. The replica is estimated to ship in June 2013 for $350, and can be pre-ordered with a hefty $100 deposit on the BioWare store.

The Reaper statue is in limited production, with fewer than 1,000 being made. It also comes with a code for as-yet-unannounced multiplayer bonuses for the Xbox 360 and PC versions of Mass Effect 3.

PomPom Games (the folks behind Mutant Storm Reloaded, among a few other shooters) has released a brand new game on PlayStation Mobile-compatible devices called Rebel, and as the developer says, the game came from an interesting plan to try and make a shooter ... without shooting. The result has the player running around an island in between slower enemy bullets, trying to aim those bullets at other bad guys, all the while collecting gems and power-ups.

Sounds fun. There are multiple levels and game modes to unlock as you play the game, which you can open up by collecting more and more gems. Rebel is available right now on any PlayStation Mobile device (including the PS Vita) for $1.99.

Zen Studios announced standalone DLC for Marvel Pinball called Civil War at a New York Comic Con panel. The theme for this pinball table was taken from a multi-part comic event from 2006 of the same name that pitted Iron Man and Captain America against each other.

No specific release date was given for the DLC, though the trailer above teases that it's "coming soon" to PSN, XBLA, Apple's App Store and the Google Play store.

Spider-Man, in addition to doing whatever a spider can (catching thieves just like flies, spinning webs of various sizes, etc) will also be swinging his way onto Nintendo's forthcoming flagship console this spring when The Amazing Spider-Man is released on the Wii U.

Announced during Marvel's New York Comic Con panel earlier today, the port leverages the WiiPad's unique stable of features by integrating optional motion controls and menu navigation functionality via the touchscreen. As is the case with that other Wii U reissue of a current-gen superhero game, all of Amazing Spider-Man's DLC will come packed in, including the Stan Lee Adventure Pack seen above.

I love sports, but I know next to nothing about hockey. Maybe my lack of NHL love has something to do with my Wisconsin upbringing, a sort of "no-man's land" for professional hockey. The Milwaukee Admirals AHL team doesn't excite me, and picking between the Chicago Blackhawks, Minnesota Wild and Detroit Red Wings is an uncomfortable proposition.

My knowledge of the sport itself is even more limited. Aside from the terms "icing" and "line changes," hockey is alien to me. Joystiq recently ran an editorial discussing how simulation sports games don't do enough to assist people like me in learning the ropes in the sports they feature. To test that theory, I attempted to learn more about hockey through NHL 13.

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Suda 51 and Level 5's 3DS anime shooter Liberation Maiden will make its stateside debut on the North American 3DS eShop on Thursday, October 25, according to the eShop's news ticker. Previously, Liberation Maiden was featured in a Japan-exclusive 3DS multi-cart called Guild01. The other two titles in the set are set to release on the eShop later this year.

Liberation Maiden puts players in the shoes of Shoko Ōzora, a young high-school student who also happens to be the President of Japan, on account of the unfortunate assassination of her father. An invading force is attempting to steal all of Japan's energy resources, so obviously the best solution is to have Shoko pilot the "Kaihoki" mech herself into battle.

Animated cutscenes in the shooter come courtesy of Studio Bones, whose previous work includes the anime Wolf's Rain, Full Metal Alchemist and Soul Eater.

Sony's SingStar Viewer app for the PlayStation 3 previously just allowed players to check out SingStar content for free; they'd have to put the game's disc in if they actually wanted to sing along with any of the game's songs. But a new message in the app hints that will be changing very soon. The Viewer app has reportedly been discontinued, and a message when the app is loaded says that "The complete SingStar experience will be available as a free download very soon!" Presumably, that means that anyone will be able to download SingStar, and then play Sony's karaoke game for zero cost (with extra songs being purchaseable separately).

The one catch: The game will still require a mic, so if you haven't bought one of those yet, you'll need to do so. But the good news is that the mics are available for just a few bucks in certain places, so those interested should be able to pick one up easily. We'll look for more official news on this next week from the PlayStation Blog.

As we're sure you're well aware, being able to track and locate hedgehogs is an important life skill, one that should be learned early and thoroughly by the youth of today. Everyone knows this. The only contentious factor in childhood hedgehog training lies in determining what curriculum to use: Smitty Werbenjagermanjensen's Guide to Woodland Spikes, perhaps? Trilliby Wimbletoe's Pointing Out Pointy Things?

That already difficult decision maybe have just become even more complicated, as Sega and UK publishing house Pan Macmillan have announced the release of Where's Sonic? A Search-and-Find Adventure, hitting British book shops and Sonic Merchandise next Friday, October 19. The book contains artwork inspired by classic Sonic zones and can also be used to train children in the art of spotting wisps, badniks and gold rings.

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A new batch of DLC has been released for Magicka. Entitled "Dungeons & Daemons," it plops the game's enrobed heroes into a dank (probably smelly) dungeon, where they battle monsters and demons. The DLC seems awfully familiar – let's just say that Magicka's wizards (and designers) have been practicing their blizzard spells.

'Dungeons & Daemons' is available now for $4 on Steam.

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The PSN store is about to get an overhaul next week and Sony's announced some planned PSN maintenance prior to the relaunch. This Monday, October 15, from 4am PT/7am ET until 4pm PT/7am ET, PSN will experience some downtime.

If you've logged into PSN over the past few days or make some time to do so this weekend, you shouldn't be affected. That's not to say you'll have access to all of PSN, though – during the downtime, the PSN Store, PlayStation Home and Account Management sections of PSN will be unavailable.

Whether you're simply behind on your gaming or have emerged from a block of ice after that hiking expedition in Antarctica went awry ten years ago, you may like to catch up on some of Ubisoft's PC wares. Good Old Games is making it much easier – at least on your wallet – to play catch-up by slashing the price on 36 Ubisoft games.

There are many highlights in this Ubisoft sale, including several games for $3.99 a pop: Far Cry, Far Cry 2: Fortune's Edition, Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, Warrior Within, The Two Thrones, and Beyond Good & Evil included. Rayman and its two sequels are also on sale for $2.39 each.

If you're not into the whole piecemeal thing, you can snag all 36 discounted games for $134.04, a total savings of $201.60.

Okay, we hope a lot of you out there are playing XCOM: Enemy Unknown and/or Dishonored. Both games are pretty great and deserve attention.

This week we have two questions to conclude WRUP. 1) If you're playing XCOM, what's your thought process in naming your soldiers? 2) What's everyone playing?

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Metro: Last Light will no longer include a multiplayer component when it launches early next year, developer 4A Games announced today on the game's official blog. Multiplayer had previously been revealed soon after the game's 2011 announcement, something the blog notes was "probably a mistake."

"Throughout the development of Metro: Last Light a small, dedicated team had been working on a number of multiplayer prototypes," the entry reads. "After E3, we decided to fold this multiplayer team back into the main group and focus 100% of the studio's resources on the single player campaign. As a result, Metro: Last Light will not ship with a multiplayer component." 4A Games believes that the game's single-player campaign is "what the fanbase cares about the most."

Whether multiplayer will be added post-launch as DLC or an update is uncertain. "Right now we're 100% focused on the single player campaign and not thinking beyond that. We don't like throwing away work though, it's a project we could potentially return to after Metro: Last Light ships."

This is a weekly column from freelancer Rowan Kaiser, which focuses on "Western" role-playing games: their stories, their histories, their mechanics, their insanity, and their inanity.

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Here's the moment I realized I loved Torchlight 2: It's the screenshot right above this. This is an Engineer. He's actually my second engineer, and probably the sixth or seventh character I made – although most of the others had only been played for a few minutes. In this case, I created him because my previous main character, around level 40, was running into extreme, frustrating difficulty in the third act. He was also intended to be used primarily in multiplayer, built upon the Engineer's more supportive skill tree (Construction) for which hand cannons are the ideal weapon.

Then I bought him a helmet that looked like a mask, and I realized: I'd just made a Big Daddy from BioShock. And playing my Big Daddy was some of the most fun I'd ever had in an action RPG.

Aesthetically, it's good to look at. It's not just the excellent paper doll effects, it's also the way the Engineer carries the cannon and the recoil when firing. I actually found the original Torchlight's aesthetics off-putting, but tweaks in setting, tone, and graphics did just enough that my distaste turned to enjoyment. While that's a necessary component of what made me enjoy my 'Construction' Engineer, it's not the most important aspect.

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Microsoft tells Joystiq it is investigating reports of a Halo 4 leak, and working with law enforcement to address the issue.

Images have surfaced on social sites NeoGAF and Reddit, depicting two Halo 4 retail discs, and the Xbox 360 dashboard featuring the game ready to be played.

"We have seen the reports of 'Halo 4' content being propped on the Web and are working closely with our security teams and law enforcement to address the situation," a Microsoft spokesperson told Joystiq.

In clarifying whether the images represent the actual artwork featured on retail copies of Halo 4, Microsoft explained the need for two discs.

According to the publisher, Halo 4's second disc "contains data that will need to be installed on an Xbox 360 hard drive or compatible flash storage device with at least 8GB of available memory in order to access 'Halo 4's' extensive suite of multiplayer features." Microsoft has employed a similar system for first-party games like Forza Motorsport 4.

Once the data is installed only the first disc will be required to access Halo 4's single- and multiplayer content.

Update: Happy Wars is now available on the Xbox Live Arcade and at Xbox.com.

Today was supposed to be the launch day for Xbox Live's first free-to-play game, Happy Wars. However, the free-to-play revolution hasn't taken hold on Xbox yet, because the game isn't there. As of writing, the only Happy Wars content available on the Xbox Live Marketplace is a trailer; the game's entry on the Marketplace as accessed on the Xbox only gives you the option to "rate" it.

"I know the team is aware of the issue and actively working on it," Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb told Joystiq, promising to tweet an update when information is available. In the meantime, you'll have to find another cheerful skirmish on which to take out your frustrations.

You're reading Reaction Time, a weekly column that claims to examine recent events, games and trends in the industry, but is really just looking for an excuse to use the word "zeitgeist." It debuts on Fridays in Engadget's digital magazine, Distro.

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This holiday's unceasing glut of games is a go, with store shelves making room for the onslaught of snarling aliens, sneering assassins, and slow-mo soldiers walking away from large explosions – or sometimes partially melted helicopters. These are the usual, commercially sexy suspects.

It's best not to judge a game by its cover, though, and this week's front-facing embellishments are exceptionally deceptive. At a shallow glance, XCOM: Enemy Unknown may seem like another case of meathead military dudes mowing down extraterrestrials. Dishonored, meanwhile, conveys a stylish stab-a-thon with its masked, supernaturally talented anti-hero out for revenge. Look longer and you'll find that both have roots in classic PC gaming, and both sell something console owners might not even know they want.

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Players of The Walking Dead on PlayStation 3 have identified a major issue affecting save files. Developer Telltale tells Joystiq it is aware of the problem, which causes Walking Dead save files to become corrupt or disappear in Episode 4, entitled "Around Every Corner."

"We have received a small number of reports surrounding this issue since the launch of Episode Four: Around Every Corner and have been working with users on our forums to clearly identify a solution which will be resolved as quickly as possible," says a Telltale representative.

Telltale says players can avoid the issue by "refraining from use of the third save slot in the game menu." If they do get a corrupted save error, Telltale recommends returning to the PS3 home screen and waiting for an update to be released.

"We are working with our partners at Sony to push the patch to users as quickly as possible, and will update our customers as soon as we have confirmed when the patch has been released." The developer asks any affected users to contact them via email to report the bug and identify the problem.