If gamers know one thing, it’s quality, and Bastion’s success is a testament to that fact.

Bastion is one of those titles that I’d heard for a while, but just never got around to playing. That is, until the other day, when it was available on the cheap during the Holiday Steam sale. I took the minor bruising to my wallet and bought in, because hey, it could be good right?

Turns out it was beyond good, it was great, excellent even, excellent enough that I felt a profound connection to a protagonist that never spoke, to a world that was only known through the eyes of an old mustached man. While playing Bastion, I felt moral dilemmas deeper than the nuances of real life, and that is why I’m not surprised in the least bit that developer Supergiant Games reported that they broke the half a million milestone in sales through both Steam and Xbox Live.

Published by WB Games, Bastion had the luxury of having an enterprising indie developer team with a publisher with pockets deeper than the Grand Canyon, creating an experience that is both rich in quality and storytelling. So rich in fact, that after playing through the entire game in two long sittings, I decided to buy four additional copies for good friends of mine for the Holidays. If that isn’t a testament to how deserving Bastion is of all the sales and attention it has been receiving, then I don’t know what is.

It feels great to contribute to the over 60 million hours that have been logged so far on Star Wars: The Old Republic, described by publisher EA as “the fastest growing subscription MMO in history.”

It’s no surprise that Star Wars: The Old Republic had, and is continuing to have, a hugely successful launch period. Developer BioWare made a point to make a pretty immersive storytelling experience, and while the gameplay has been described by some as “World of Warcraft in space,” and not exactly incorrectly so, the overall narrative structure goes far beyond that, to a level that is unheard of in most single player RPG’s, let alone MMORPGS, which are not exactly known for the subtlety of their storytelling.

In accordance with this huge success, publisher EA capitalized on the statistics by releasing a ton more somewhat irrelevant ones, detailing the number of characters created, the capacity with which we have to fight each other in PvP battles, and just how many NPC’s Old Republic players have slaughtered. Here’s a look at some of the more noteworthy statistics:

Over 60 million in-game hours — roughly equivalent to watching all six Star Wars movies over 4 million times
Over 850,000 Sith Warriors and over 810,000 Jedi Knights created
Over 260 million quests completed
Over 44 million PvP battles
Over 9 million space combat missions completed
Over 3 billion NPCs killed

While these statistics are certainty impressive, it’ll be interesting indeed to see if BioWare and EA can keep the momentum up and satiate their rabid fans with enough new content to keep the Old Republic strong. Regardless, it’s been a great ride so far in this galaxy, and hopefully we’ll see this MMO go topside and overcome the likes of World of Warcraft.

The legal battle between Rock Band developer Harmonix and parent company Viacon continues to rage, and the results seem to be in Harmonix’s favor.

Legal battles in the video game industry, or any entertainment industry really, never turn out well, and that’s exactly the seeming results of the legal struggle between Rock Band developer Harmonix and their parent company Viacom, over exactly who owns what. Harmonix had previously sued Viacom over the claim that Viacom and EA set up a backdoor agreement regarding the Rock Band intellectual property that benefits its own interests rather than those of Harmonix. However, proof of this is still not determinate.

However, the latest finding reportedly show that Viacom owes Harmonix $383 million in damages, countermanding the suit that Viacom filed against Harmonix that claims that Harmonix owes them $131 million due to some appallingly bad math.

The whole legal battle between Harmonix and Viacom began when Viacom acquiried Harmonix in 2006 and owed substantial bonus payments to the former owners of Harmonix. Viacom paid a good deal of money up front, then paid a little more of a bonus in 2007 following the commercially successful Rock Band, but then gave nothing the following year and asked for a refund of all money previously paid. I guess Viacom had no idea just how successful Rock Band would be.

Like I said, lawsuits in the entertainment industry never really turn out well, and as a rooter for the underdog, I hope that legally Viacom is forced to do right by Harmonix.

Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 2 will be making its way on to the Xbox 360, PS3, iOS, Windows Phone 7 and Android sometime in 2012. Also Ken Balough wears a sweet Tails beard.

While this news likely doesn’t come as a surprise, Sonic the Hedgehog: Episode 2 has been officially green-lighted by SEGA and production is now underway. Making the announcement is Ken Balough, the Digital Brand Manager for SEGA, all the while wearing a pretty furry-tastic beard that looks Tails, Sonic’s favorite boy wonder. This announcement is how off the release of Sonic Generations, and will receive a larger budget than Sonic the Hedgehog: Episode 1 due to the recent commercial success of the franchise.

Sonic has been playing on nostalgia now for about as long as he has been playing on original content, and while it’s unlikely that this latest Sonic title will break this cycle, Balough has confirmed that Ken Balough has confirmed that the hated physics engine from Episode 1 have been fixed, and that Sonic will more resemble his SEGA Genesis incarnation.

Although there is no official announcement for a Wii version of the title, its possible that its being held back in order to be released along with Nintendo’s upcoming Wii U console. To check out the full interview with Gamespot’s Maxwell McGee, take a click on the link right here.

Despite American’s general lack of interest in the Fire Emblem series, it is highly popular in Japan, popular enough that Nintendo decided that its latest incarnation should be the first Nintendo title to feature paid DLC.

Fire Emblem, for all intents and purposes, is while not virtually unknown, a bit obscure in America. Its biggest claim to fame is probably Ike in Super Smash Brothers Brawl, who was played joyously by twleve year olds in the heydey of Super Smash Brothers Brawl. Other than that, Prince Marth, the protaganist of the original Fire Emblem that was introduced to Westerns in Super Smash Brothers Meele, is the next most identifiable character that was introduced via the crossover franchise.

But sill, Nintendo deems Fire Emblem, a richly deep turned based strategy/RPG hybrid, a worthy enough franchise to bestow upon it the first paid DLC courtesy of Nintendo. Nintendo has long been against the concept of DLC (downloadable content), as Reggie Fils-Aime has previously had the following to say about why Nintendo doesn’t include DLC for its titles:

“When we sell a game, we want the consumer to feel that they’ve had a complete experience. We’re unwilling to sell a piece of a game upfront and, if you will, force a consumer to buy more later. That’s what [Nintendo representatives] don’t want to do, and I completely agree. I think the consumer wants to get, for their money, a complete experience, and then we have opportunities to provide more on top of that.”

However, with the announcement of paid DLC that will reportedly cost a “few hundred yen” for Fire Emblem 3DS, it seems that Nintendo has reneged on their previous philosophy. Ultimately, DLC = $$, and Nintendo has clearly seen the potential in this.

Fire Emblem 3DS will release in Japan sometime in March, but there is currently no word on when the title will receive an American or European release.

Some well placed meta commentary is always funny, but its rare that you see that in the video game industry. Luckily, DLC Quest for Xbox Live Arcade Indie is an exception to this rule.

Going Loud Studios has done a wonderful thing with DLC Quest. Released for 80 Microsoft Points ($1) on Xbox Live Arcade, DLC Quest is a commentary on the industry’s increasing reliance on the nickle and dime DLC to make a quick buck. The objective of DLC Quest is to collect coins, in order to buy more DLC, so luckily you aren’t spending any real money to unlock these DLC. Some of the ridiculous things you can unlock, which is a hilarious commentary on the industry, is sexy outfits, map packs, zombies, hats, the ability to move left, and yes, even horse armor. There really doesn’t seem to be much more to the game than the concept, but it’s a pretty funny one that is actually quite cheaper than buying some actual DLC.

For a dollar, it’s always worth it to support something clever, so take a look at the trailer for some grade A satire.

And you thought people liked reading biographies.

Well, this is apparently not the case, as EA’s Battlefield 3 outsold Steve Job’s authorized biography written by Walter Isaacson, which was released just nineteen days after the Apple CEO’s death. To draw a comparison from the chart above, Battlefield 3 sold an estimated 5,000,000 copies its first week and generated $300 million of revenue, while the Steve Job’s biography sold approximately 379,000 copies and earned $13.2 million.

Now, this says less about our culture and the forms in which we choose to entertain ourselves than you might think. The book industry in the US is still a $40 billion industry, worth over twice the amount of the collective video game industry. And this is also not a typical book we are looking at, it’s a biography, which as Billy Pidgeon, a game analyst at M2 Research said in an article over at VentureBeat:

“When it comes down to it, it’s more fun to play games than it is to read a biography.”

There are very few people that I personally know of that read biographies for pleasure over memoirs or mystery fiction, so it’s more than understandable that Battlefield 3 would sell over three times that of the Walter Isaacson written Steve Jobs biography. Plus, as much effort as Mr. Isaacson put into the biography, creating a game like Battlefield 3 takes quite a bit more manpower and resources and is inherently more fun.

And the location is…LA!

While the recent announcement of GTA V wasn’t exactly a surprise, the world premiere trailer for the upcoming title certainty is. Despite rumors to the contrary, the game seems to take place in a fictional version of Los Angeles, and has nothing to do with 2012 or Mayans.

Although details are still limited, the direction that Rockstar is taking the protagonist actually seems quite interesting. He seems to be an Al Pacino type figure from about ten years ago, a middle aged man with children, who planned on getting out of the business but for some reason decided to stick with it. Unfortunately, while that’s about all this trailer reveals, this new protagonist seems to have plenty of narrative possibility, and hopefully Rockstar will treat him right.

While Nico from the previous Grand Theft Auto IV was also a very good narrative character, as you very much got the ‘yokel’ feel from him, the execution of his supporting cast left him still feeling somewhat estranged to Liberty City, even at the end of it all. He never really found his place in the world, but what seems great is that this new protagonist is an old pro, and will likely have a colorful cast of connections that will play great roles in the story.

Take a look at the trailer below and let us know what you think of the new direction Rockstar is taking this, and you can also go to Rockstar’s official website for the latest GTA V news.

Although the full roster had been leaked long ago, Capcom has officially announced the final two slots for Frank West and Rocket Raccoon for the upcoming release of Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3.

Capcom has a way with hype, which is not always a good thing given the low quality of recent releases such as Marvel vs Capcom 3 and Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition. They try as best as they can, but like Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign, the hype is just impossible to live up to.

To create more hype for the release of Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3, Capcom has released two character vignette trailers showing off the moves of Frank West and Rocket Raccoon.

Frank West, the protagonist of Dead Rising and a fighter in the highly underrated Tatsunoko vs Capcom, seems to play much like he does in Tatsunoko, and has also been given his own leveling system that is built up when he takes photos with his camera. The leveling up system is not detailed in the trailer, but looks to increase his damage and chip damage output.

While Frank West is probably the only reason to justify picking this up, Rocket Raccoon is an unusual addition, as Marvel likely wanted to promote their cosmic characters and their Guardians of the Galaxy lineup by including his likeness. He utilizes many weapons to create both offensive and defensive combos, but seems a bit uninspired in his execution.

While I wouldn’t endorse this game by any means, you can pick it up on November 15th for both Xbox 360 and PS3. Besides for Frank West and Rocket Raccoon, the new characters include Doctor Strange, Ghost Rider, Hawkeye, Iron Fist, Nova, Firebrand, Nemesis T-Type, Strider Hiryu, Vergil, and Phoenix Wright.

Another insane trailer from the mind of Suda 51 for the upcoming sexy zombie beat ‘em up Lollipop Chainsaw.