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Weekly Roundup compiles all the biggest news stories, reviews and features from the week into one handy post on the weekends.

A bit of a slow week due to the holidays, but it’s hard to complain with a week of great XBLA sales. XBLA Fans wants to know if you picked up anything good during the holiday deals.

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We love Xbox Live Arcade. The variety, the quality…the price! Today, Black Friday, the holiest of US shopping days, aims to make that last point even sweeter by slashing …
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The Civil War table for the Pinball FX 2 platform was developed by Zen Studios.  It was released November 20, 2012 for 240 MSP. A copy was provided for review purposes.

The Civil War table for Pinball FX2 is the latest in what is now a large string of Marvel-themed pinball tables. Zen Studios continues to innovate with each new release — the improvements they have made since earlier pinball tables are evident here. Civil War is oozing with nods to fans of the comic books — this might be the best-themed Marvel pinball table yet, and it shows through in the very polished presentation. Read More

Thanks to Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and Monolith Productions and their ongoing efforts of to get your MOBA skills up to snuff, the fourth video in their MOBA Mastery guide is available for your dissection. The video series, aimed at exploring the genre in broad strokes and progressively finer detail in preparation for the December 5 launch of Guardians of Middle-earth, continues to peel away another layer of strategy this week. Like an unending, informative, Tolkienian onion.

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A new map for Toylogic’s free-to-play adventure title Happy Wars, called Zodiac, released Nov. 16. PlayXBLA also has tips to ensure players are seeing all maps available while matchmaking.
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After multiple setbacks, Tony Hawk fans will be able to finally get their mitts on the Revert Pack downloadable content. Launching December 4 for 400 MSP, the pack includes three levels from Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3: Airport, LA and Canada. When playing each of these levels players will be able to perform a revert to keep their combos going a bit longer. Also included are professional skaters Steve Caballero and Geoff Rawley, plus newly announced Metallica band members James Hetfield (seen above) and Robert Trujillo  (after the jump).

Now that the Revert Pack has an official date, we can’t help but look back to our recent poll about what levels should be included in future DLC. College and Kona were clear winners from Pro Skater 4, so as long as we’re on that note we’re hoping Jango Fett will be included, too. What levels and skaters (be the professional or guest) are you still waiting for?

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The video game industry, like most entertainment industries, can be a cold business. It’s not uncommon for a few bad reviews of a game or debut sales numbers that fail to reach blockbuster heights to lead to massive studio layoffs, with the ax sometimes falling on entire teams or studios. As if that wasn’t depressing enough, layoffs can even occur when a release garners strong sales and decent review scores. Though gamers are just hearing about it now, five months ago that became the fate of the team at Reverge Labs responsible for developing XBLA’s Skullgirls.

In June, “the entire” group that developed the XBLA and PSN fighting game was laid off by developer Reverge Labs. Members of the development staff were gagged during the intervening months, but they have just recently been able to open up about the matter. In an introductory post on its new website, the team briefly discussed its severance from Reverge and revealed that it’s not all bad news: Lab Zero Games, a new studio comprised of the former Reverge employees, has been founded in Los Angeles. What’s more, Lab Zero is doing “everything in [its] power and then some” to return to working on a planned Skullgirls DLC character and a PC port “as soon as possible.”

It’s an unlikely development in the team’s saga, made possible by the fact that Reverge never owned the IP. Publisher Autumn Games apparently retains full rights to all things Skullgirls, and it “is fully behind the new studio,” according to Lab Zero. The two sides are going to continue collaborating on future content for the game thanks to Autumn’s support of the developer. More merchandise and “a few other things” are in the works on top of the previously mentioned DLC and PC version.

IP battles between developers and publishers have been well-documented over the years. Both parties traditionally seek to secure the rights to a game franchise and deals are regularly signed or passed upon based on insistence of ownership by one side, the other or both. This case is unique in that the creators of a new IP actually benefited by not being granted ownership of it. Had Reverge seized control, Lab Zero would obviously not be in a position to continue working on the game today.

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What’s better than new Minecraft skins? Halloween-themed Minecraft skins, of course. Oh, better than that? Halloween-themed Minecraft skins for charity? No? Halloween-themed Minecraft skins for FOUR charities?

That’s exactly what’s on the table in this, the final week, of Crafting for a Cause — the Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition event where all proceeds of the limited edition Halloween Skin Pack go directly to charity. Our friends over at PlayXBLA want you to know that Microsoft, 4J Studios and Mojang have selected four great causes, to which they’ll donate the full 160 MSP ($2) value of every pack sold.

In an amazing show of support, the Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition community has already purchased over $700,000 worth of the Halloween Skin Pack in the three short weeks this event has been running, but there’s still time to donate/get-your-hands-on-these-exclusive-skins. Each skin was handcrafted by the hardworking folks at some of the best development studios around, including: 343 Industries, Twisted Pixel, The Behemoth, Climax Studios, Rare, Tequila Works, Mojang and 4J Studios themselves.

In order to whet your appetite, XBLA Fans has lovingly compiled all 55 skins into easy to digest, alphabetically ordered slides for you to peruse at your leisure. Hit the jump for the goods. If even one of these great skins catches your eye, please consider purchasing the pack for 160 MSP before it’s too late! Crafting for a cause will continue to collect contributions until Monday, November 26. You really can make a difference!

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‘Tis the season to buy XBLA
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Responding to a fan question on Twitter, Minecraft Xbox 360 Edition developer 4J Studios confirmed early this morning that it has gotten the ball rolling on texture pack …
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