Weekly Recap Dec 15th: Steam Console Coming, Assassin's Creed 4 In Brazil, Diablo 3 On Console

The biggest news of the week is that Valve is actually launching a PC-style console for the living room, giving non-PC gamers a chance to experience some of the goodness of PC gaming via a controller and an easy-to-use system. Should Microsoft and Sony be scared? Uh, yeah! Ubisoft also potentially reveals the next setting for Assassin's Creed IV, possibly moving the series into the bright and sunny vistas of Brazil. And Blizzard has some big plans for Diablo III on console...or maybe not, but still they managed to get the game operational for the Xbox 360 and PS3, so that's something, right? These stories and more in this December 15th, 2012 edition of the Gaming Blend Weekly Recap.

Sunday

Valve To Release Console-Style PC For Steam Big Picture Mode And it will compete with next-gen consoles.

Mew-Genics Gets All Musical With Its Title Theme Grab a first look at Team Meat's Mew-Genics with its new theme song.

G4 To Become Esquire Channel From tech to fashion. That's the way life goes for some gaming channels.

Absolute Force Online Open Beta Release Date Set Net Dragon sets the date in place for their upcoming third-person shooter.

Wii U DRM Restricts Content To A Single System No file sharing for you Wii U owners.

Street Fighter X Mega Man Announced as PC Exclusive It's a neat looking game, too. Such a shame that it receives such small support from Capcom.

League of Legends Steam Release Isn't Happening With Valve supporting DotA 2, it's quite obvious that LoL has no place on Steam.

GTA Vice City Back On Steam, Nearly 10 Songs Removed Oh fail, it looks like the RIAA wins out again.

Monday

Amazon Offers Free Copy of Zero Escape With Select Vita Bundles There's almost never been a better time to grab the PS Vita than now.

Vampire Slayer FPS Launches for Xbox Live Take down vamps with friends in the new FPS.

Strike Suit Zero Brings Mech Combat and Arcade Shooting Together Although, it could use some work.

Petition Demands Wii U Version of Dark Souls 2 Do you think Namco Bandai will fold?

Grand Theft Auto San Andreas, Black Knight Sword Heads To PlayStation Store After lots of rumors and speculation, some classic and new titles head to the PS Store.

Dark Souls 2 More Understandable, Straightforward If you weren't fond of the hard-as-a-titanium dam difficulty and presentation of the first two games, then you'll be pleased to know that Dark Souls II will be more casualized.

Assassin's Creed 4 Setting in Brazil? Now that's an interesting twist if it turns out to be true

Tuesday

Mionix NAOS 8200 High Performance Gaming Mouse Now Available Competing with BMW and the Cyborg from Mad Catz, the NAOS 8200 brings a lot of customization and style to the table.

500,000 Register For Ace of Spades Launch It's not even out yet and there's already half-a-million gamers registered for the Minecraft meets Team Fortress 2 action game.

Morning Star Looks To Catapult Mobile FPS to the Stratosphere Next Spring A new IP built on the Unreal Engine is aimed at launching in spring of 2013.

Street Fighter X Hello Kitty Accessories Available Mad Catz joins in on the fun as Street Fighter and Sanrio combine forces.

Dishonored DLC Dunwall City Trials Launches The new DLC for Dishonored gives you a little extra to do in the open-world stealth game.

Xbox Live Getting Maxim, Karaoke, CNET Apps This Week If you were a little peeved that Xbox Live didn't have enough non-gaming apps, well all this week there are plenty of new non-gaming related apps launching for Xbox Live.

Metro 2033 Free Through Facebook Get one of the most visually atmospheric games of the generation for free on PC.

Wednesday

Trion Lays off a third of employees for Rift Well, it's what the market dictates, so it's what they do.

Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch Goes Gold The highly anticipated JRPG from Namco Bandai is nearing release.

God of War Ascension Beta Brings The Pain To PlayStation Plus January 8th Looking to get in on the beta of GOW: Ascension? Grab some PS Plus.

Steam Community Market Heads Into Beta Valve takes the next step in player-to-player monetization.

Ace of Spades Launches, Combines Team Fortress With Minecraft The next step in competitive FPS games launches with Ace of Spades.

Mass Effect 4 Launching in 2014 or 2015 BioWare is planning the next phase in the Mass Effect universe, but it won't be arriving at any point in 2013.

Assassin's Creed 3 Sales Reach 7 Million Worldwide Holy snaps that is a lot.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. License Purchased But Not By Bethesda BitComposer – of all people – snatchd up the license to S.T.A.L.K.E.R..

Diablo 3 Console Version Already Operational But is it playable? That is the question.

Thursday

Borderlands 2 DLC Sir Hammerlock Big Game Hunt Outed By Trophies More DLC is on the way for Borderlands 2.

Gears of War Judgment Gameplay Media Blowout Everything you could possibly want to see of Gears of War: Judgment in one giant media blowout.

Assetto Corsa Screenshots Features Sexy Black Racer A new Lotus 98T gets the spotlight treatment in the new set of screenshots for Assetto Corsa.

Borderlands 2 Most Played Game Of 2012 Is that surprising? Well, it beat out Call of Duty.

Star Citizen Will Compete With AAA Games, Says Roberts Chris Roberts makes some bold claims for the 2014 AAA crowd-funded game.

Humble THQ Bundle Wraps Up At Over $5 Million Does this help the company stay afloat just a little bit longer? Maybe....maybe.

Hitman HD Trilogy Announced for Xbox 360, PS3 Square wants to squeeze just a little bit more out of the Hitman series.

Friday

Minecraft Xbox 360 Edition Festive Skins Pack Coming Soon A new update is arriving for the Xbox 360 edition of Minecraft.

Nexon Publishing Ghost in the Shell Games Fans of the anime? Well a new series of games are on the way.

Unity Games Top iOS Charts The Unity Engine has a strong showing in 2012.

Holiday Gamer Gift Guide: What To Give Your Favorite Fanboy or Fangirl A complete list of goodies worth picking up for your special loved one over the holidays.

You Don't Know Jack Now Testing Your Pop Culture Prowess For iOS Take your skills to the next level with the new app based on the popular quiz game.

Metro Last Light Gets Pre-Order Bonuses For PlayStation 3 Check out THQ's pre-order bonuses for the upcoming FPS from 4A Games.

Mass Effect 4 Details Are Fake, Says EA Well now isn't that nice to know. I guess we all just wasted our time believing fake info...no?

Saturday

Far Cry 3 Co-op Review A complete co-op rundown and review for Ubisoft's recently released Far Cry 3.

Electronic Theatre Preview For Defiance The upcoming MMO is previewed and dissected by our good friends over at ET.

XBLA Popularized Indie Games On Console, Says Castle Crashers Dev Well, it's true. But if you want more than just a “it's true” you can read what else he has to say.

Free Devil May Cry App Launched Find out more about Dante and his world with the new app from Capcom.

Disconnected For he Holidays: Tabletop Games for Digital Friends A rundown of neat games to play when your net service goes spotty and you want to experience some old-fashioned fun.

Voltron Pulled From XBLA What happened and why? Co-Optimus investigates the mysterious disappearance of the recently released XBLA title.

In-Depth Preview For Age of Wulin Known as Age of Wushu here Stateside, there's an in-depth preview of the upcoming title, which is currently undergoing stress testing.

That wraps up this edition of the Gaming Blend Weekly Recap. You can check out a sexy new trailer for the upcoming Splinter Cell: Blacklist, which gives gamers a bit more of a physical representation of the badass that is Sam Fisher. Enjoy.

Will Usher

Staff Writer at CinemaBlend.