Weekly Recap Jan 21st: Steampunk Batman, Ong Bak Game, Katy Perry Joins The Sims

This week started fresh with news about a steampunk Batman game that eventually hit the can...although not before some concept art leaked out. Fans of international martial arts movie star Tony Jaa can take refuge in knowing that they are not a forgotten niche in the world of video games. A Thai studio has picked up the rights to produce an Ong Bak game for home consoles later this year. And EA and Katy Perry signed on the dotted line for exclusive Katy Perry material to appear in an upcoming expansion for The Sims. These stories and more in this January 21st, 2012 edition of Gaming Blend Weekly Recap.

Sunday

Mass Effect 3 Won't Be On Steam It's all because of Origin -- wait, no it's because EA really cares about the gamers. Yep, that's it.

Gods & Heroes Rome Rising Going Free-to-Play After battling with forces of pay-to-play Heatwave Interactive has decided to fold up camp and contend with free-to-play instead.

Diablo III Gets Approved In Korea; Real-Money Transactions Removed Blizzard finally gives into the Korean ratings board and removes the RMAH from Diablo III.

TellTale CEO Not Happy About Digital Price Cuts, Bundle Sales Because volume doesn't equate to revenue.

God of War III Play Arts Kai Kratos Action Figure Revealed Play with Kratos in a whole new way thanks to the new action figure.

Monday

Wii U Details Arriving Before E3, During E3 And After E3 This is how you announce a console...all throughout the year.

Rumor: iPad 3 Coming In March Could Apple really have a new iPad in development so soon? Well, check out the details to see for yourself.

Modern Warfare 3 Deus Ex Human Revolution Were Amazon's Best Seller Check out some of Amazon's hottest digital downloads throughout the year.

XCOM Enemy Unknown Three Leaked Gameplay Screenshots A couple of new screenshots for the upcoming XCOM Enemy Unknown.

2012 Predictions Include More Family Games, Cinematic Experiences Rokkan lays out what they predict will be the motto of the big budget game publishers throughout 2012.

RIFT Top Fan Has Played Over 2700 Hours I guess this guy could say that RIFT is his life, eh?

Unstoppable Gorg PC, Mac, iPad Release Dates, Price Set Find out when the game launches and how much it will cost.

Jagged Alliance Online Features Bounty Hunter, Search and Destroy Modes Additional multiplayer modes and features have been unveiled for Gamigo's turn-based strategy title.

Dead Island Ryder White DLC Lets You Become The Villain It's always nice to get away from playing Mr. and Mrs. Goodie-Two-Shoes every once in a while.

Moonlight Online Vampire Elementalist Revealed This long range projectalist can do massive damage just not in melee combat. Click the link to find out why.

Tuesday

Team Fortress 2 Masks Coming To Saints Row The Third Give your custom character a bit of a Team Fortress overhaul with the new masks.

Star Wars The Old Republic Review: I'm The Baddest Motherf*cker In The Galaxy Find out how Pete Haas conquered the galaxy in the newest Star Wars game from BioWare.

Star Wars The Old Republic Update 1.1 Delayed There's a few things they need to iron out first.

RISK Factions Arrives on Facebook Take to the commanding post and control territories with RISK on Facebook.

Nexon Licenses Unity Engine For Multiple Games Nexon takes Unity into the big leagues.

TERA Online Official Release Date Set For May 1st No more guessing and no more wondering...BlueHole has a legitimate release date set for their upcoming big budget MMO.

Starhawk Public Beta Launches Full Version, Deploying In May Sony sets the release date for Starhawk in May.

Mortal Kombat Announced For PS Vita The fighting game of the year is being revamped for the PlayStation Vita.

Red 5 Creates League Of Gamers To Petition Against SOPA, PIPA Join a real league and fight against the Stop Online Piracy Act.

Katy Perry Teams Up With The Sims Eh, well, you know it's a slow news week when something like this headlines the Weekly Recap...moving along...

Prototype 2 Comics Reintroduce You New York Get a different glimpse at the Activision property with the Prototype 2 comic.

Max Payne 3 Release Date Pushed Back To May Well that rules out GTA V arriving in May, eh?

Wednesday

Unreal Engine 3 Licensed For Marvel Heroes Online Does this mean the game will suck a little less than it would have without the Unreal Engine 3? Well, only time will tell...only time will tell.

Seven Souls Online Coming To North America This Spring Blow up mobs by going into Rage Mode, utilize deadly martial arts and fight titanic bosses. Yeah this MMO is kind of epic like that.

Ong Bak Muay Thai Warrior Arrives For The Xbox 360, PS3 In 2012 Yes sir, this is the game to keep your eye on. I can't wait, how about you?

Warhammer 40,000 Space Marine Dreadnought DLC Adds Multiplayer Mode Extra multiplayer madness now available in THQ's 40K Space Marine.

Country Dance All Stars Coming To Xbox 360 Kinect In March Dance with friends or family in the music rhythm game.

Soul Calibur V Alternate Costume Screenshots Emerge

Tequila Works' Deadlight Coming To Xbox Live Arcade A hot new indie company has their very first title arriving for the Xbox Live Arcade later this year.

Mass Effect 3 System Requirements Revealed; Demo Launching Valentine's Day Find out if your system is capable of running Mass Effect 3.

Thursday

Vessel Invention Report No. 1 Released With Screenshots Take a look at some new gameplay footage for the upcoming Vessel.

Shank 2 Release Date Set For February 7th Get revenge with the vendetta-ridden anti-hero, Shank, in February.

Vessel Release Date Set For March 1st A concrete date is finally set for the liquid-physics based platformer.

Star Wars The Old Republic Trailer Looks Beyond Update 1.1 Find out what's in store for the Old Republic in a new preview teaser trailer.

Allods online Game of Gods Expansion Coming In February A new update expansion adds additional content, level caps and astral layers.

13 Members of Senate Withdraw Support From SOPA, PIPA Blackout The blackout protest worked and the Senate is listening. Way to go interwebz!

Syndicate Re-Released Through Good Old Games A classic PC title gets the re-release treatment on GOG.

PS Vita Mortal Kombat Has Touchscreen Fatalities NetherRealm confirms that you can use the screen to perform brutal fatalities.

Dungeons & Dragons Online Menace of the Underdark Coming This Summer Turbine has some additional content on the way for the now free-to-play MMO.

BioShock Infinite 1999 Mode Courts System Shock Fans A real hardcore mode for enthusiasts of old-school gaming.

Friday

Romance Not In Tomb Raider Reboot Lara won't have time to find a beau in this newest title.

Assetto Corsa Acquires KTM X-Bow R Super Car License The KTM Brand super car gets some special treatment in Kunos' upcoming Assetto Corsa

Aeria Games Opens Fifth Server for Call of Gods An additional server has been added to the game to handle the player load.

X-Com Creator: Shooter Revival Is A Great Shame Well, welcome to the party dude...we've known that since its announcement.

EA Releases Four Co-op Screenshots for Syndicate Check out a few shots of the co-op mode for the upcoming demo.

Xbox 360 MineCraft Could Get Constant Updates A minor change to the Xbox dashboard to accomodate Notch's new-age classic.

Tony Hawk Pro Skater HD Screenshots and Features Announced A few of the new features have been announced for the upcoming HD remake.

Saturday

Fallout Vegas Ultimate Edition Trailer Prepares For Launch Hopefully Bethesda fixed all the glitches this time...nah.

Diablo III Undergoes Big Changes Some major alterations are being made to the game.

Skyrim Patch 1.4 Now In Testing Some additional content is on the way for Skyrim

PSN Halo 4 Beta Sign-Ups Are A Scam If you were signing up for a Halo 4 beta then um, you might want to get your info back ASAP.

Borderlands 2 Live-Action Lilith Revealed In New Footage Check out the new live-action footage of Lilith in Borderlands 2.

That wraps up this edition of the Gaming Blend Weekly Recap. A brand new January community trailer was released for the upcoming Project C.A.R.S. be sure to check it out below.

Will Usher

Staff Writer at CinemaBlend.