The Gearbox Software Website has word there's phat lewt to be had in Borderlands 2 beginning now in the "Borderlands 2 Gear Up Weekend" (thanks nin). Here's word:

Gear up for the release of Sir Hammerlock’s Big Game Hunt -- the third campaign add-on for Borderlands 2, arriving January 15 -- with special in-game events this weekend!

The festivities begin today, January 11, with Vault Hunters reporting an influx of powerful shotguns throughout Pandora. To join in the fun, simply boot up Borderlands 2 while connected to the internet and start looting before the supply runs dry -- based on current conditions, expect the excess to be exhausted on Saturday, January 12 at 10:55AM CST / 4:55PM GMT (What time is that for me?).

What will tomorrow bring? Check back on GearboxSoftware.com at 11AM CST / 5PM GMT (What time is that for me?) to find out!

Steam News announces this is a free weekend for Ravaged, which is also on sale:

Play Ravaged for FREE starting now through Sunday at 1PM Pacific Time. Plus, save 66% until Monday at 10AM Pacific Time during the Weekend Deal!

The Scavengers are an overpowering band of murderous savages hell-bent on taking every last inch of land and every critical resource for themselves. They will stop at nothing. Their success seems certain unless someone can rise up against them. The Resistance is the world’s last best hope and humankind’s only chance to restore civilization. Days before the Apocalypse, these freedom fighters were able to seek shelter deep below the Earth, gathering just enough to survive. Finally, they are ready to emerge and rebuild the planet. But it’s a new world, overrun by the miscreants and madmen, warlords and hapless refugees. Only the most savage can survive.

Gratuitous Space Battles: The Outcasts is now available as new DLC for Gratuitous Space Battles, Positech's space strategy game. This includes 10 new ships, six new equipment modules, and a pair of new scenarios.

Distressed Debt Investing tweets that Double Fine is one of the companies vying for one or more of the IPs being sold off as part of THQ's bankruptcy proceedings: "THQ: Both Warner Brothers and Double Fine productions have asked for bankruptcy filings in the THQ case." Thanks VG247, who also note that THQ declined the opportunity to appeal its delisting from the NASDAQ stock market.

EA Gear now offers sales of the Dead Space 3 Dev-Team Edition, a limited edition version of the game they say "is squarely grounded in-fiction" (thanks VG247). This includes a region 1 version of the game, but they also have an add-on version which does not include the game, just the goodies. Here's word on what the version with the game includes:

• 13" SCAF Tin Crate
• 8" Ployresin Black Marker Statue
• Aluminum Data Pad
• Med Pack Water Bottle
• Bound SCAF Jotter
• 3 SCAF Posters
• 6 Peng Postcards
• 96 Page Mini Art Book
• A copy of Dead Space 3 on the platform of your choice (PC copies are disc only; we are unable to provide a downloadable version)
• DLC: First Contact bundle (includes the First Contact Suit and Negotiator weapon for precise dismemberment)
• DLC: Witness the Truth bundle (includes the Witness the Truth suit and tactical Evangelizer weapon)

Thanks nin and Joystiq.

• Alice: Madness Returns The Complete Collection on Amazon.com. Save 60%.
• Darksiders Franchise Pack on Amazon.com. Save 67%.
• Digital Game Factory Collection on GOG.com. Save 60%.
• Doom 3: BFG Edition on Gamefly.com.
• FTL: Faster Than Light on Steam. Save 50%.
• Hitman: Absolution on Gamefly.com. Save 50%.
• Rage on Gamefly.com. Save 75%.
• Saints Row the Third - The Full Package on Amazon.com. Save 58%.
• Transformers: Fall of Cybertron on Gamefly.com. Save 66%.
• Viking: Battle for Asgard on Steam. Save 66%.

• How Nintendo is making Wii U indie-friendly.
• End of the line for "razors and razorblades".
• Far Cry 3 patch 1.03 now available for PS3, 360 version still in certification.
• Rock Band 3 DLC Week of 1/15 - Rick Springfield 3 Pack.

• FCC to Free New Chunk of Unlicensed Wi-Fi Spectrum.

Thanks Ant.

• Google Fiber Has No Problem With Customer Demand.
• IEEE approves WiGig, clearing way for faster wireless networking.
• CBS Bans CNET From Giving Dish Hopper CES Award. How's that conflict of interest working out?
• Times Digs Into Verizon Complaints About NYC Landlords.
• Intel Announces Groundbreaking 'Women and the Web' Report. Thanks HARDOCP.
• Facebook Charging $100 to Message Mark Zuckerberg. Thanks HARDOCP.

• VMWare joins Open Source Software Institute. Thanks Ant.
• Why entrepreneurs innovate better than managers.
• Most glamorous CES 2013 celebrity sightings.

• Hack turns the Cisco phone on your desk into a remote bugging device. Thanks Dorian.

• Verizon's 'Six Strikes' Anti-Piracy Program Details Leaked. Thanks Ant.

• Fox Reporter Tries Hard to Get Gaming Expert To Attack Violent Video Games. Thanks nin…

Link of the Day: You Won’t Believe These Pedestrians Make It Out Unscathed. Thanks nin.

Kalypso Media USA announces the Windows and Xbox 360 editions of Omerta – City of Gangsters are gold for North America, and due in stores February 12th. "We are thrilled to be able to release yet another great strategy IP with Tropico 4 developer Haemimont," says Mario Kroll, Vice President, Kalypso Media USA. "Omerta – City of Gangsters will let players choose brass knuckles and tommy guns, intimidation or bribes, or a combination of all of these, to carve out their own criminal empires on the Atlantic City Boardwalk." Kalypso recently also announced an OS X edition of the game, which will support cross-platform multiplayer with the Windows edition when it follows sometime this quarter. Here's word on this opportunity to start your own boardwalk empire:

Omerta – City of Gangsters is a simulation game with tactical turn-based combat. Taking the role of a fresh-off-the-boat immigrant, with dreams of the big life, the player will work his way up the criminal hierarchy of 1920’s Atlantic City, New Jersey. Starting with small jobs, his character recruits a gang and expands his empire by taking territory from other gangsters. Eventually he establishes his own crime syndicate and becomes the de facto ruler of Atlantic City.

The player strategically manages his business and his minions in a real-time format, slowly but steadily increasing his influence over the city. The player sends his henchmen out on missions ranging from assassinating an informant, to raiding a warehouse, springing a friend from prison, robbing a bank or attacking a rival gang’s hideout. Nobody is above the law in Atlantic City, so it always helps to have a little cash handy to bribe a policeman or pay off a politician.

The turn-based combat in Omerta – City of Gangsters focuses on the tactical command of “The Boss” and his henchmen. Cover and stealth are essential parts of any shootout in the game. Finding the best vantage point to gun down an enemy, while taking cover from a hailstorm of bullets, can be just as satisfying as sneaking quietly behind a foe and taking him down.

Activision and Terminal Reality respond to last week's release of a trailer for The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct that turned out to be unofficial with the release of some new details about the upcoming first-person survival game, along with a brief official trailer. The video does not contain any gameplay footage, but does feature actors Norman Reedus and Michael Rooker revealing a March 29th release date for this game featuring their characters of Darryl and Merle Dixon (the 28th is a Friday and the trailer has a European PEGI rating, so its altogether possible the North American release date will one of the surrounding Tuesdays). We also have some new details on gameplay to share:

The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct brings the authentic, heart-stopping horrors of The Walking Dead to life in a way that’s unlike anything the series has ever seen. Terminal Reality’s upcoming video game is an all-new, first-person, do-whatever-you-need-to-survive game based on AMC’s Emmy award-winning series. In the game, players assume the role of the mysterious, crossbow-wielding survivor Daryl Dixon, alongside his overbearing brother Merle, on a haunting, unforgiving quest to make their way to the supposed safety of Atlanta.

FEATURES

Continue here to read the full story.

The latimes.com has some year-end reporting from the NPD Group with sales figures for the game industry in North America in 2012. Word is sales of physical discs and consoles declined 22%, compared with a 9% drop the previous year, as the transition to digital distribution accelerates and the current console generation hits the geriatric stage. Here's more:

Total spending in the U.S. on physical game products was $13.26 billion, according to NPD Group. The research firm did not estimate the annual total including other avenues for game spending, but did say that used games, rentals and digital formats accounted for about half of total spending in December.

The bestselling game of the year was "Call of Duty: Black Ops II." Annual sequels in Santa Monica-based Activision Blizzard's military shooter franchises have been the top-selling video games for four years straight.

The Atlantic - How the Video-Game Industry Already Lost Out in the Gun-Control Debate.
As it happens, that's just what happened to games (and popular media more generally) in the NRA's good guy with a gun response to the Newtown shooting. Guns aren't a factor in gun violence for the NRA—rather, games, media, and law enforcement failures must take the blame. Once the terms of the debate are set like this (and set they very much were thanks to the over-the-top bravado in this press conference) then it's very hard to extract oneself from the debate without shifting the frame, without changing the terms of the debate.

I certainly believe that the White House would like nothing more than to see an end to mass gun murders in America's elementary schools. But the fact remains that gun violence takes place every day, all across this country, at a rate of dozens of deaths a day, and as the leading cause of death among African-American youth. But when the vice president establishes a task force on gun control and violence that includes the media industries that the NRA has once again chosen as their patsies after a particularly heinous and public example of gun violence, all it can do is shift attention away from guns.

IGN - Let's Talk About Violent Video Games.
Distinctions between games for adults and those for kids are fairly clear these days, thanks to the Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB). Formed in 1994, the ESRB rates all video games as a guide for parents similar to the way movies are rated by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). Games are rated ranging from E for Everyone and T for Teen to M for Mature, 17+.

There is a fundamental misunderstanding that games are only for children. This needs to change for the 'violence in games' dialogue to advance.

• Cliff Bleszinski to give PAX East 2013 keynote.

• Mars: War Logs on Blue's News.

• Solving the PS3's restoring file system loop with Linux. Thanks Ant via Linux Today.
• Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon box and artwork revealed, coming March 2013.
• Skylanders series hits $500 million in US lifetime sales, 3rd best-selling UK franchise of all time.

• Intel Preview's Haswell's GT-3 and Shows Off Razer's New Gaming Tablet.
• Kingdom Conquest II – Pre-Register Now and Get Two Rare Cards.

• Bitcoin- Making Online Gambling Legal in the U.S.? Thanks Ant via Slashdot.
• Microsoft Messenger Service not going anywhere just yet.

• PC sales drop in fourth quarter of 2012 for the first time in five years.
• AMD Senior Manager Talks Gaming Tech at CES 2013.
• New details, early benchmark data revealed for 15W Kabini APU.
• Trusted source confirms soldered-on Broadwell CPUs.
• CES 2013 Coverage Round-up – Techgage.
• Micron and Crucial introduce next-gen M500 SSD.
• IBM's Watson Gets A 'Swear Filter' After Learning The Urban Dictionary. Thanks Ant via Slashdot.

• Forge on GameSpot.com.
• Mionix Naos 8200 Gaming Mouse on TweakTown.
• Grimind on True PC Gaming.
• Pangolin on The Indie Mine.
• Seduce Me on IncGamers.
• Waking Mars on Original-Gamer.com.

• ADATA DashDrive UD310 Jewel-Like Flash Drive on ProClockers.
• CM Storm Quick Fire TK Keyboard & Inferno Mouse on t-break.
• Cooler Master Silencio 650 Mid Tower Case on Mad Shrimps.
• Fractal Design Node 605 on techPowerUp.
• FSP Aurum 92+ PT-650M 650W 80 PLUS Platinum Power Supply on TweakTown.
• Gigabyte Z77X-UD4H Motherboard on Hardware Secrets.
• Mionix Naos 8200 Gaming Mouse on TweakTown.
• MSI GT70 Limited Dragon Edition - 17.3" on Gaming Laptop Review.
• SilverStone HE02 on Vortez.
• Steelseries Flux headphones on RBMODS.
• Vogel's LCD WALL MOUNT Superflat EFW 8105 S 19”-26 on Mad Shrimps.

• Massachusetts removes violent games from rest stops…
• Cinder Kitten Raises More Than $2.3 Million…

Well, my daring picks last week were as almost disastrous as could be imagined once the word "daring" entered the conversation. My only winner was the Seahawks, but that's good enough for me, since I've heard enough of RG3's perspective just how great everybody thinks he is to last a long time. We still have Ray Lewis doing that, but at least he's done more to earn the enormous self-respect that's his favorite topic of conversation.

Here's what I was able to piece together of last week's results: Verno 4-0; LiTh, Sepharo, Creston, Rigs, and Mag 2-2; and Blue, Jivaro, and Cutter 1-3.

Here goes for the divisional round: Broncos, Seahawks, Patriots, and Packers.

Divisional Links:	Thanks Ant and Acleacius.
Play:	Qoosh.
Stories:	Actor has terminal cancer: Wilko Johnson will not undergo chemotherapy. ABC to look at 'Star Wars' live-action TV series. Son Of Hobbit Scribe J.R.R. Tolkien Finally Speaks Out. Thanks nin via Dubious Quality.
Science:	The Science of the "Friend Zone". FDA warns that Ambien's effects could linger in body.
Media:	Puppy vs. Orange. Thanks nin. The "Knife Guys". Guy catches mouse, releases in countryside, aaaaand...
The Funnies:	Dilbert.