Dead or Alive 5 Plus for Vita includes a new first-person mode, in which you hold the Vita vertically and use the motion sensor for a "first-person, full-screen view of your opponent."

The port also has new touch controls, which go beyond the expected touchscreen macros – "Simple taps, swipes, and pinches on your opponent trigger a variety of devastating moves," Tecmo says. In addition, DOA5+ offers detailed frame data for serious study. Uh, for tournament play.

Last night, EA hosted a preview event focusing on its early 2013 lineup, including Crysis 3. There, Crytek founder Cevat Yerli announced Crysis 3 will launch on February 19 in North America and February 22 in Europe.

Last month, EA revealed the pre-order bonuses for Crysis 3, which include multiplayer perks – the Predator Bow, Recon Arrow, Hunter Nanosuit Module, an instant start at level five and three exclusive dog tags – plus a free digital copy of the original Crysis.

When asked about how he and the team at Sony Santa Monica are bringing multiplayer into the God of War series with God of War: Ascension, game director Todd Papy digs deep for inspiration. The single-player side of the game is obviously an influence, he says, as multiplayer side of the game attempts to enhance the always cinematic world of Kratos with a new character called the Avatar.

But then things get a little nuts. "You can look at Allegiance levels," says Papy, referring to the mode's customization choices defined by the four gods Zeus, Hades, Poseidon, and Ares, "and you can look at Diablo and Call of Duty and other games that have skill trees that you basically level up.

"And then you can look at Power Stone," says Papy, "as far as that old school melee feel to it." Yes. That's the one. Playing God of War: Ascension's renamed "Favor of the Gods" mode, and running around with up to eight other players flipping switches, executing combos, and earning favor points does feel a whole lot like the Dreamcast classic. In a strange way, to be honest. But a good one nevertheless.

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Austin Wintory must be floating on air after learning his Journey soundtrack is nominated for a Grammy. Wintory's work for thatgamecompany's PSN adventure is going up against scores from the likes of John Williams, Howard Shore, and Hans Zimmer as it bids to take home only the second Grammy ever won for video game music.

While Journey represents the first game to get a Grammy nod for its soundtrack, the accolade for the first game music ever nominated belongs to Civilization 4 and Christopher Tin's "Baba Yetu." Tin went one better after he took home the golden gramophone for "Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalists" back in 2010.

As for the 2013 awards, the full list of nominees for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media are Journey, The Adventures of Tintin, The Artist, The Dark Knight Rises, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and Hugo. Wintory learns if he's to follow in Tin's footsteps on February 10, 2013, when the 55th Annual Grammy Awards are held at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.

Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 Plus is the enhanced Vita port of the enhanced PS3 port of Ninja Gaiden 2. With that confusion in mind, it's good Tecmo Koei clarified some of the game's details such as its new modes, as well as releasing an assortment of screens.

One of the new modes is 'Tag Mission,' which allows players to switch between two ninja heroes on the fly, swapping in and out as they see fit. On the ninja heroes front, the three ninja ladies of Ayane, Momiji, and Rachel all get newly designed costumes in Plus 2.

The other new mode is 'Ninja Race,' which really is as it sounds. The twist is a sort of Ninja Gaiden take on Mario Kart, in that you can collect items and take down enemies to increase speed and attack power. Unlike Mario Kart, though, there's no indication it can be played outside of single-player.

It also seems much of the Vita-specific functionality is returning from Ninja Gaiden Sigma Plus, with Tecmo describing touchscreen and Sixaxis controls that very much sound like the first game's gyroscopic first-person aiming. The easier 'Hero' difficulty also makes a comeback in Plus 2, which is scheduled to release in Q1 2013.

Need for Speed: Most Wanted gets some new cars and events this month. A press release from EA's UK branch pulls back the tarp on the Ultimate Speed pack, a collection of new cars – the Pagani Zonda R, McLaren F1LM, Lamborghini Aventador J and Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport Vitesse – and 25 new events to conquer. There's also a new Most Wanted car to take down and own, the Hennessey Venom GT Spyder.

The Ultimate Speed pack will be available for download on December 18 in the UK, for 800 MS Points ($10) through Xbox Live, PlayStation Network and Origin. There is no specific announcement for North America yet; however, most of the time DLC launches worldwide so it's safe to assume we'll get the goods on December 18, too.

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Mass Effect series developer BioWare Edmonton is working on a new piece Mass Effect 3 DLC, and it's "all hands on deck," level designer Jos Hendriks said on the BioWare forums.

"It's all hands on deck for this one. Pretty much every ME3 DLC writer here in Edmonton is involved (which would include both Patrick Weekes AND John Dombrow)," Hendriks wrote. Other writers included Jay Watamaniuk and Cathleen Rootsaert. Additionally, composer Sam Hulick tweeted that he's working on "unannounced Mass Effect 3 DLC."

"Tossing in piano and muted strings for this one particular piece. High potential for tears. #ME3DLC," Hulick tweeted.

Twitter previously outed Seth Green and Raphael Sbarge, voices of Joker and Kaidan Alenkowere, as working on something for Mass Effect 3. Neither appeared in Omega, the DLC that hit last week.

Guitar Hero 7 was a game that existed, at least in a development phase, until Activision canceled it in early 2011, Kotaku reported, citing an anonymous source.

Guitar Hero 7 had only a guitar, ditching the drums, mic and bass that surfaced once Rock Band entered the market. The guitar saw some changes, however, and had a full six strings and an extra button in the neck. It was expensive, unresponsive and development was, overall, a "disaster," Kotaku said.

Vicarious Visions, the team in charge of developing Guitar Hero 7, had some great ideas about creating a morphing, unique music video for each song. The songs themselves posed a problem: "The game had all of the worst hits from the 1990s," Kotaku wrote, quoting its source. "They realized that, with our lack of budget and time, they couldn't get quality music so they bought bargain-basement music like 'Closing time' and 'Sex and Candy.' There were some songs in there that had been used at least three times in the GH franchises before."

The music video idea quickly became unwieldy, too, and development fell apart. Guitar Hero 7 was canceled in the middle of an expected two-year development cycle. Just think, we could have had a new Guitar Hero on our GOTY lists this year. Maybe.

Maybe not.

This is Making Time, a column about the games we've always wanted to play, and the games we've always wanted to play again.

I never owned a PlayStation during the 32-bit era. I had a Sega Saturn, which I loved, though that didn't stop me from envying my PlayStation-owning friends. I was lucky enough to play a handful of games on friends' consoles – Resident Evil, Silent Hill, Vagrant Story – but I missed out on most of the games that would help solidify Sony's legacy in the game industry.

One of those games was Jumping Flash. It was a platformer, and it was in 3D, a mind-boggling concept back in 1995. With no PlayStation, all I had were magazines filled with glowing reviews and screenshots, showcasing a beautiful, colorful world and a cool mechanical rabbit. With YouTube still a decade away, I couldn't even watch a Let's Play. All I could do was imagine, imagine what it must be like to leap and soar over those wonderful floating islands.

Now, thanks to the magic of PSOne Classics and a Black Friday Vita purchase, I can play it pretty much whenever I want. I've done so for the past few days, and it turns out that Jumping Flash holds up surprisingly well. Not only that, it makes for a great portable game.

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Activision may have skipped its annual five-day totaling of Call of Duty sales, but the publisher announced this morning the latest installment, Black Ops 2, grossed $1 billion in 15 days.

The publisher announced shortly after Call of Duty Black Ops 2's launch the annual blockbuster made $500 million in 24 hours at retail, eclipsing Modern Warfare 3's record of $400 million the year prior. The lack of a five-day total, which the company had done for three years running, gave some analysts "cause for concern" that Black Ops 2 wasn't selling as well as previous installments.

Seeking a new way to contextualize the achievement, Activision noted the $1 billion milestone was achieved faster than James Cameron's Avatar, which in 2009 reached a billion in ticket sales in 17 days. Modern Warfare 3 reached the one billion milestone in 16 days.

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In June 2011 we learned that BioShock Infinite for PS3 comes with a free copy of the original BioShock – this is still true, but only for US customers, 2K Games tells Videogamer.

"I can confirm that the PS3 version of BioShock Infinite in North America contains a copy of the original BioShock," 2K says. "This is not the case in UK as it's a local promotion in North America."

The second half of that promise made in June last year is still completely true, at least: BioShock Infinite includes Move support, as solidified by the North American PS3 box art. It doesn't, of course, have a separate, new peripheral for Move.

This week marks the debut of the original Mass Effect on the PS3, available as either a standalone purchase of $15 through PSN or as part of the Mass Effect Trilogy package. If free is more your speed, you can grab demos for Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch, Guardians of Middle Earth and LBP Karting.

On the PS Vita, treasure hunting transitions to trading cards in Uncharted: Fight for Fortune. PS Plus members can snag a free copy of BioShock 2 and enjoy discounts on Puddle, Rockstar Games Collection 1 and more. For the full list of this week's content, hit up the PlayStation Blog through the source link below.

Joining the esteemed ranks of Capcom and MonkeyPaw Games and nobody else ever, publisher Gungho Online America has released a suite of weird, random Japanese games to the PSOne Imports Store on the PlayStation Network.

The six simultaneous releases include shmup compilation Zanac X Zanac, Kendo Rage sequel Makeruna Makendo 2, mech vehicle combat game Vehicle Cavalier, Art Camion Sugorokuden – a board game about the garish "dekotora" trucks in Japan – and no fewer than two games with stars in their titles, the match-three puzzle game/platformer hybrid Lup★Salad and the action rock-paper-scissors game Finger★Flashing.

All six will be available on PSN today when the store updates, for $5.99 each.

Far Cry 3 concludes the 2012 holiday review season for big budget games on a high note. Beyond explaining the game's excellence, our review of Far Cry 3 also held a valuable life lesson: "Goats ... are not to be trusted."

• Eurogamer (100/100): "Far Cry 3 is all the best things about open-world gaming. It's a glorious anecdote factory, where you manufacture brilliant new memories every time you wake up in a safehouse and head out into the jungle. ... And it always lets you play, but it also controls the tempo - sometimes a little heavy-handedly, but always with good intentions."
• Gamespot (90/100): "Stretches of unpredictable exploration and free-form hunting alternate with challenging pirate confrontations, sometimes culminating with a rocket blast to the helicopter hounding you from above. This is an ambitious and finely tuned adventure that gets better and better as you play."
• Game Informer (90/100): "After two remarkable but uneven offerings, Far Cry finally pulls everything together in the third installment. The diverse open-world action, compelling story, and an alluring environment that begs exploration are all high water marks for the series. This is an island adventure all shooter fans should experience. "
• IGN (90/100): "Far Cry 3 is important for the same reason as Far Cry 2. It's a shooter that considers shooters thoughtfully, both in the way they're designed and the way we play them, and then asks us to do the same. Should massacring hundreds be a great way to entertain ourselves? Maybe not. But it is. "
• Destructoid (80/100): "While riddled with minor gripes, there is no one overwhelming, glaring fault that threatens to drag the whole experience down. With the third installment in the Far Cry series, Ubisoft has managed to deliver a game that provides not one, not two, but three well-crafted experiences that may vary in terms of longevity but all manage to be of uniform quality."

A new PS3 bundle available only at Target gets you the system and Move controller you'll need to play J.S. Joust (assuming the Sportsfriends Kickstarter is a success!) and throws in Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Illusion for good measure.

The $300 bundle comes with a 250GB PS3, a copy of the game, a Move, a Navigation Controller, a PS Eye camera, and 30 days of PlayStation Plus. We didn't find Epic Mickey 2 to be strong enough to anchor a bundle, but the character is at least more recognizable than, say, Infamous guy.

Two additional Far Cry 3 co-op chapters will be available for download on PS3 starting in January and you won't even have to break out the metal detector. Titled Jailbreak and Redemption, these free DLC chapters will be exclusive to Sony's platform and document events following the conclusion of the co-op campaign.

Over on the PlayStation Blog, Meghan Watt from multiplayer side developer Massive Entertainment describes these additional chapters as "the final moments" of the four co-op campaign survivors. So a lot of lounging around and sipping on cocktails inside of coconuts? That's how we'd spend our "final moments" on a tropical island.

Vita action-RPG Soul Sacrifice has a ghostly co-op feature which lets you play on with your friends even after you're dead. Keiji Inafune, founder of developer Comcept, detailed this week how 'Ghost Mode' lets you help your party post-mortem, albeit as a phantom.

In ghost form you have both your allies and enemies' status info to hand, and are able to strengthen party members and weaken enemies via the Vita's touchscreen. You're a bit like your party's guiding spirit, except presumably covered in a white blanket with eye holes cut out. Either way, it sounds like an intriguing way to keep players involved after death.

Inafune also went into the lore of a Soul Sacrifice monster called Leviathan, the beastie pictured above. Apparently Leviathan's origins relate to a tormented prince, and his wish to claim the throne by having his twin brother killed by a tortured pet crocodile. This is just one of the reasons we advise caution in choosing a crocodile for a pet.

Soul Sacrifice hits Japan on March 7, 2013. North American and European releases are confirmed, but publisher Sony Computer Entertainment hasn't disclosed their timeframes.

Assassin's Creed 3 Season Pass holders get the game's first piece of downloadable content on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC today. Titled 'Hidden Secrets,' the content becomes available for everyone else to purchase on December 11, except for Wii U owners who'll see it come to their systems at a later date. In Europe, Season Pass owners on PS3 must wait until tomorrow to access the DLC, and those without Season Pass until December 13.

Hidden Secrets contains three extra missions including Lost Mayan Ruins, Ghost of War, and A Dangerous Secret, all of which featured in various pre-order bundles. The trio totals in at an hour of bonus gameplay, according to Ubisoft. The DLC also comes with Colonial Assassin and Captain of the Aquila costumes for single-player, as well as Redcoat and Sharpshooter characters for multiplayer.

Ubisoft also confirmed today the upcoming The Tyranny of King Washington campaign is split into three separate packs. An Assassin's Creed 3 online survey discovered last week suggested each pack is around two hours in length. Also now officially revealed is 'The Battle Hardened' pack, which includes new maps and characters for multiplayer.

Hidden Secrets, Battle Hardened, and the King Washington trio appear to make up the five packs announced as coming to Assassin's Creed 3. All five are unlocked via the game's Season Pass, available on Xbox Live Marketplace for 2400 MSP and PSN for $29.99.

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