Vikings are set to invade 1970s England this Tuesday, November 6. When Vikings Attack, from new developer Clever Beans, launches for PS3 and Vita as a PSN cross-buy title. The game tasks players with corralling English villagers and uniting them against the invading viking hordes – the more villagers you've amassed, the bigger the items you can pick up and hurl.

Anyone who actually lives in England (or elsewhere connected to the European PlayStation Network) can shave 30 percent off the game's £7.99/€9.99 price by pre-ordering it now through the PS3's PSN Store. Shaving the beard off a viking, however, is considerably more difficult and not something we should ever have tried.

This is it: the month that breaks the backs of many men and women in the video game industry. While we're buried in reviews (like our recent Halo 4 and Assassin's Creed 3 critiques), the industry keeps rolling along with major releases.

Later this month? Hitman: Absolution, Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, and ... oh, and little thing called the Wii U. Yeah, our wallets are already screaming for relief.

What else is everyone playing?

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Though we suspect you'll be busy doing donuts in Master Chief's Warthog on November 6, the date also marks the release of the "Bondurant Car Pack" for Microsoft's other first-party fall release, Forza Horizon.

Priced at 400 Microsoft Points on the Xbox Live Marketplace, the November DLC includes a six-pack of new vehicles to augment the moments our review called "incredibly beautiful." But who needs to stop and smell the roses when you can inhale the sweet fumes of a 1965 Shelby Cobra or that 2012 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon? (Okay, we probably should have used the new Lamborghini Gallardo as our second example.)

Full list and details on the new rides can be seen after the break.

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Hundreds, the new iOS game from Semi Secret Software (Canabalt) and Greg Wohlwend (Solipskier), will be on display for the public this weekend in Austin, TX, at Juegos Rancheros, the monthly Austin indie game get-together.

Hundreds is a game in which you hold numbered bubbles to grow them (both in size and number) in an effort to add up to 100, without letting any bubbles touch while you're growing them. It seems much easier to understand in motion than to explain, so watch the video. And go see it!

This is a column by Kat Bailey dedicated to the analysis of the once beloved Japanese RPG sub-genre. Tune in every Wednesday for thoughts on white-haired villains, giant robots, Infinity+1 swords, and everything else the wonderful world of JRPGs has to offer.

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Between Final Fantasy XIII-2, Xenoblade Chronicles, and The Last Story, it's been a surprisingly good year for RPG enthusiasts who prefer the home console experience. It's been nice to sit on the couch and really dive into a console RPG outside of the Mass Effect and Elder Scrolls franchises.

But it's November now, and things are getting back to normal. I've put more than a hundred hours into Pokemon Black 2/White 2 and I've just downloaded Persona 4 Golden. As usual, I will be playing a lot of handheld RPGs through the holidays.

And yet, not all handheld RPGs are created equal. Depending on the sub-genre, it can be a great fit for your mobile device of choice, a better fit for home consoles, or both. I got to thinking about the differences while downloading Persona 4 Golden, itself an odd fit for handhelds, and decided to break them down a bit.

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Father of all things X-COM, Julian Gollop, has revealed that his next project will revive the 1985 ZX-Spectrum game, Chaos: The Battle Wizards.

Gollop revealed the game's revival on Twitter, saying, "OK it's official! I am working on a sequel/remake to my classic ZX Spectrum game 'Chaos' – for iOS, PC, Mac – maybe more." Despite one fan pleading for a PS3 release, Gollop said extending the revival to that platform (and presumably other consoles) would only be possible if the current planned platforms see a profit.

Gollop noted the game "will be 3D for sure," revealing it will be powered by the Unity3D engine. Work has only just begun, so we aren't likely to see a finished product for "about a year or so."

The original turn-based game was written by Gollop and published by Games Workshop, garnering enough of a following that a sequel, Lords of Chaos, was developed by Gollop's Mythos Games, which went on to make 1997's X-COM: Apocalypse.

Space shooter Strike Suit Zero, from developer Born Ready Games, has achieved its Kickstarter goal of $100K with 14 days to go. With the first objective accomplished, it's on to stretch goals. The first, $130K, will see mod tools created for the game. Should the project make it to $180K, Mac and Linux versions will be created in addition to PC.

The pledge that pushed Strike Suit Zero past its goal was made by Steve Masters, lead designer of Assassin's Creed 3. Eurogamer reports that Masters, as it turns out, once worked for Born Ready head James Brooksby doing QA for a "space game" called Halcyon Sun. It was Masters' first job in the game industry.

Dust 514 isn't in open beta just yet – that happens early next year – but it's open to you. Joystiq readers can jump into the closed beta on PS3 right now, simply by clicking the link below and getting a code for beta entry.

There just happens to be a Double Skill Point event going on right now, so you can catch up in terms of skill points while you're catching up in ... actual skill.

Several of EA's classic PC games have had their prices slashed to ridiculous levels on GOG for this weekend – games like Alpha Centauri, Syndicate, Populous and more can be had for under $3 each.

Other EA games taking part in the sale include a whole bunch of Ultimas, the Wing Commander series and SimCity 2000. All of the games listed on GOG's weekend promo page will set you back $2.39 a pop. If you want to purchase all 26 eligible games, it'll cost $62.14.

Dare we assume you'll be out at midnight on Monday, driving from store to store in the hopes that just one will sell you a copy of Halo 4? It's a pretty safe assumption, but just to be certain that you know, GameStop has announced 4,400 of its US locations will be open at midnight to ring you up for a copy of Halo 4.

All participating stores will kick off the festivities starting at 9pm local time – though, if you're on the east coast, Hurricane Sandy may have thrown a monkey wrench into the midnight launch plans like it did with Assassin's Creed 3. Some east coast stores are likely to cancel or alter their midnight launch plans, so GameStop suggests calling ahead.

This week's Super Joystiq Podcast accidentally puked in its helmet.

The season of huge releases is in full swing. Xav, Ludwig, JC and Richard head up the first segment to talk Halo 4, Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask, Assassin's Creed 3, Assassin's Creed 3: Liberation, and Hotline Miami. Some fare better than others, but the inside of Master Chief's helmet somehow managed to stay mostly clean.

Alexander Sliwinski is the Joystiq Profile this week, and then it's on to news. Alexander, Jordan, and Dave hit the week's big stories. Get ready for discussion on Disney's acquisition of Lucasfilm, Nintendo's first US Wii U commercial, Borderlands 2, XCOM Enemy Unknown, the new GTA V release window, Rhode Island's 38 Studios lawsuit, and Kickstarter crossing the pond.

Also, be sure to jump past the break to check out this week's giveaway.

Listen to the Super Joystiq Podcast:

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• Download the MP3 directly

Details about each segment are available after the break.

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Dreamfall Chapters is the long-awaited return of a classic adventure game series, so you've probably already guessed that it'll be funded by Kickstarter.

"We will be doing a Kickstarter," creator Ragnar Tørnquist told Rock, Paper, Shotgun. "Not right now, but we will be doing it in the near future, simply because although we received a grant from the Norwegian Film Institute, which was announced today, that is only for the preproduction phase. That allows us to get started on a prototype but in order to fully develop Dreamfall Chapters we're going to need more money and we will be going to Kickstarter."

The new studio working on Dreamfall Chapters, Red Thread Games, will be "completely independent of Funcom," Tørnquist said, though Tørnquist will continue to work as creative director on The Secret World for Funcom, and the two companies will share revenue from Dreamfall.

The third game to make it through the Steam Greenlight process is a game whose sequel was already on Steam. Postal 2 Complete, the compilation of the infamous, crude 2003 first-person shooter and its Apocalypse Weekend expansion, is now available on Steam after being voted in by the community.

Through November 9, Postal 2 Complete is discounted ten percent, available for $13.49.

The specifications for the Wii U's internet browser have been made public, and it's no surprise that the software shares its technical underpinnings with the 3DS' browser. Specifically, the Wii U's window into the web is actually NetFront NX, which is a WebKit-based browser designed for smart TVs, mobile devices, game consoles and the like. NetFront, in one form or another, has powered the 3DS, PSP, PlayStation 3 and Vita's browsers.

Like some other first-party applications, the browser can be pushed to the WiiPad's screen and used from there, freeing up the television for other activities. Since the WiiPad's resistive touchscreen doesn't support multitouch, however, familiar tablet maneuvers like pinch-to-zoom will not be present. It also won't be possible to save any images found while browsing, or conversely to upload anything saved in local memory.

Flash support is a no-show, as is compatibility with any other plug-in, although HTML5 is supported and in fact, the browser renders HTML5 websites more efficiently than any other console (and even IE 10 on PC), according to this benchmarking site.

If it's possible to have a favorite "type" of game – not genre, mind you, but favorite "type" – I'd have to say that the games I love most are "ambitious but imperfect." These are games that try to do intriguing, daring things: meld genres together, build themselves around an interesting theme, tell a story in an unconventional manner. Often they run into more than a few technical and design hiccups, perhaps because the developers' ambitions outstripped their team's capability to realize them. But in spite of their flaws, there's something secretly awesome about them that makes wrestling with all their foibles worth it.

Having read all that, you've probably already guessed that Orgarhythm falls into this category. It's a bizarre mix of god-sim, rhythm game, and RTS that mostly – mostly – works. When it shines brightest, it's a fabulous and unique experience.

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Gilt is a site that allows members access to special sales on clothing and other fashion items. The latest fashionable accessory available through the site: the pink and white 3DS XL. Gilt is the first retailer to offer this 3DS XL color in North America, bundling it with either Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask (which is currently sold out) or Style Savvy: Trendsetters for $219.99, $20 less than buying the system and a game separately.

Note that the bundles will arrive between November 26 and December 6, so don't buy it expecting to play Style Savvy right away; it'll show up fashionably late.

The last shooter Raven Software shipped was 2010's Singularity and since then the outfit has mostly helped out on Call of Duty DLC. But some job listings over on the developer's site suggest a new game is in the works, potentially for next-generation consoles.

Raven is looking for a senior lighting artist and senior environment artist to help out on "an exciting next generation title," the developer's job listing section shows. Another open job mentions an established team working on a first-person shooter right now, though there's no indication that these two projects are related in any way.

Sega Sammy has reported its financial results (PDF) for the first half of its fiscal year, ending March 31, 2012. The company reported sales of over ¥136 billion ($1.7 billion) a decrease of ¥16 billion ($199,000) over the same period last year. Net income reached ¥3.87 billion ($48 million), a slight decrease over the ¥3.98 billion ($49 million) reported for the same period last year.

Sega Sammy attributes the decline to "turmoil in the global financial markets, mainly in Europe, and the economic slowdown of emerging nations." As a result, sales of amusement machines (pachinko, etc) slowed, as did the sale of packaged video games.

It's not all bad news, however, as Sega's consumer video game business is one of the few sectors of the company to see some growth. The division posted an operating loss of ¥780 million ($9.7 million), a dramatic improvement over the ¥6 billion loss ($74.7 million) posted during the same period last year. Part of this growth is attributed to strong Japanese sales of Hatsune Miku Project Diva F for the PlayStation Vita. Phantasy Star Online 2 has also done well, registering over a million players and exceeding Sega's in-game purchase forecasts.

Earlier this year, the company announced plans to restructure and streamline its consumer video game business, resulting in staff cuts in Europe and America and the closure of offices in Europe and Australia. Going forward, the publisher plans to focus on digital distribution and its core brands, including Sonic the Hedgehog, Total War, Football Manager and Aliens.