Remember the Star Trek from E3 that was oozing with Mass Effect undertones? Well it’s still in development. Unfortunately, the release date has been pushed back. The Star Trek game was originally going to be released this summer, but will launch in the first quarter of 2013 instead. This places the game within the same release window as the new Star Trek film from J.J. Abrams. Coincidence? Of course it isn’t.

We also learned today that Namco Bandai will co-publish and distribute the Star Trek game “for all major home consoles and PC.”

Digital Extremes, the developer of Star Trek, is creating a standalone storyline that will be separate from the film. The story is also being worked on in part by a writer and producer who are working on the film as well.

Read [Joystiq]

This is probably one of the coolest videogame promotions I’ve seen in a while. Shoot My Truck is a Twisted Metal launch event that will take place on February 14 and will continue for two days. During this time, some of us will get the opportunity to shoot a M249-SAW automatic machine gun at Sweet Tooth’s ice cream truck until it literally blows up. The best part is we don’t even have to get our fingerprints on the gun to make this happen.

Through the power of the internet, the two machine guns have been connected to a satellite and will be waiting for your orders to fire. All you have to do is click a button and the guns will start shooting. Amazing right? The event will also be live streamed.

To qualify for your chance to shoot, you have to sign up at the Shoot My Truck website. There are over 100,000 bullets to shoot. Check out the video below for more information.

Read [PlayStation Blog]

Check it out. It’s filled with lots of voice-acting goodness from FemShep voice actress Jennifer Hale.

Yeah, I think she does a much better job than Mark Meer, who voices the male version of Commander Shepard.

As you can see, it’s very similar to the Mass Effect 3 trailers we’ve seen before. If anything, it’s a little more informative. We see lots of in-game footage. There are also tons of character cameos. Aside from FemShep and Anderson, Kaidan, Liara, Jacob, Samara, Miranda, Joker and Garrus all appear. Of course, you could always argue that it’s Morinth and not Samara making the appearance.

In case you’re curious and never saw the awesome “The Many Faces of FemShep” Mass Effect 2 fan-made video, here you go.

Mass Effect 3 is less than a month away and we’ll finally get to see what happens on March 6, 2012!

Site [Mass Effect 3]

The Last Guardian will most likely not be released anytime soon. We’ve only learned a few details since it was revealed in 2009. Development on The Last Guardian hit a significant speed bump last year when designer Fumito Ueda decided to leave Sony as an employee in favor of working on a contractual basis. Since then, The Last Guardian has continued its development, but it’s a slow and steady process.

1UP spoke to Sony Worldwide Studios president Shuhei Yoshida at DICE recently and managed to get a few more details about The Last Guardian‘s development. The good news is Ueda is still very much involved with The Last Guardian. Even though he’s a contractor now, he still puts in long hours.

“He comes in every day, and he’s probably one of the people who works the longest hours,” Yoshida said. “The project has been making progress, but slow progress. So that’s tough, but we haven’t changed any focus. It’s still a really important project and a vision we want to see realized, and Fumito’s vision is really causing a very difficult challenge for the developers, so there’s some scrapping and rebuilding — iteration in the process.”

Yoshida hopes Ueda will continue working with Sony when The Last Guardian is complete, but nothing is certain.

Via [1UP]

All you impostors out there are in for a treat. The folks at Monolith are working on the first DLC pack for Gotham City Impostors, and it’s going to be free. You can expect the DLC to go live sometime in March. Along with new content will come fixes to balance weapons, optimize maps and fix exploits.

The contents of the free DLC were detailed on the Gotham City Impostors forums. It’s a pretty extensive update too. There’s going to be a new map that takes place on the 25th floor of the Gotham Times building, two new weapons called The Falcon Blade and the Kingmaker, more costume options and a new Fun Fact called Nimble Fingers.

Players across all platforms have also been experiencing matchmaking issues since launch. These problems were also present during the beta. Once the DLC hits, Monolith promises matchmaking errors will be “a thing of the past.” Players will also be able to join matches that are already in progress.

Via [Gotham City Impostors Forums]

Shank 2 gives us more action with the violent star of the 2010 2D sidescroller. His games are inspired by old school titles such as Double Dragon and Final Fight, but feature the kind of blood and guts now allowed in Mature titles. One of Shank’s new upgrades is the ability to quite violently counter any enemy and use their weapon against them. There’s also a survival mode that has you defusing bombs while a slew of enemies attacks. Shank 2 is 800 MP.

Square Enix offers discounts on some of its games in the Deal of the Week.  The Crimson Alliance All Characters Pack is 800 MP. Individually, the Wizard, Mercenary and Assassin are 560 MP each.

Just Cause 2 is $22.49, while Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light is 600 MP. The Missing Link add-on for Deus Ex:Human Revolution is 600 MP.

In case you missed it, we had a rare Friday release in the arcade last week. It’s definitely one worth mentioning, the Xbox 360 release of the classic arcade game based on The Simpsons. It’s 800 MP.

Read [Major Nelson]Also Read [Warp Zoned]

So, it’s time to start the investigation! It’s the perfect time for DS and 3DS owners to get into the series, if they haven’t already. Also, iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad and Wii owners can get in on the fun since many of the games received iOS or WiiWare ports.

Objection! How did this get started?

Gyakuten Saiban has been a thing in Japan since 2001, when the first game was released on the Game Boy Advance. Apparently, Capcom didn’t have a lot of faith in gamers and their willingness to accept a comedic adventure game about a defense attorney. It’s probably for the best, as when the 2005 Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney port was released, it contained the original four cases and an all new fifth case with special DS features. That’s when Capcom realized it had a hit series on its hands, and went on to port the original game to Windows PCs in Japan, and to the Wii and iOS in Japan and North America.

Its success also ensured the release of the next three games outside of Japan. We still missed out on GBA released, but DS and WiiWare versions of Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney: Justice for All and Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney: Trials & Tribulations both appeared. Plus, the first DS exclusive game Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney was released worldwide without any hesitation.

All of the main games proceed in the same way. There are typically four or five cases. First, there’s an investigation phase where the defense attorney, Phoenix Wright in the first three games and Apollo Justice in the fourth, searches the crime scene, talks to witnesses and meets the client. Here’s when people collect evidence for trial and piece together how a murder happened with the help of an assistant, in Phoenix’s case Maya Fey and sometimes Pearl Fay help. Apollo has Trucy Wright by his side. The second part of each case is the trial phase, where players have to help their lawyer defend the client by picking holes in the testimony of the witnesses by showing their lies and presenting evidence so the true murderer can be revealed.

Now that you’re interested, there’s a little bit of a problem. You may have trouble finding some of the Ace Attorney DS games. The original Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney is fairly easy to find, and you shouldn’t have to look too hard for Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney. However, Ace Attorney: Justice for All and Ace Attorney: Trials & Tribulations may be a bit more difficult to find, and odds are you’ll have to pay more than usual for a new copy. If you own a Wii, you’ll have no problem as first three games covering Phoenix’s adventures are always just a click away on the Wii Shop Channel. The same goes for the iOS version of the original game.

As for the future, Phoenix Wright has a lot of things planned. A 3DS mashup game by the name of Professor Layton vs. Ace Attorney is in development and Gyakuten Saiban 5 has just been announced. Gyakuten Saiban 123HD has just been released on iTunes in Japan too, and it is a HD remaster of the first three Ace Attorney games.

Hold it! So just how popular is Ace Attorney?

It’s incredibly popular worldwide, though its fame started in Japan. The result is a huge number of spin-offs and merchandise for fans to enjoy. Fortunately, people don’t necessarily have to import to enjoy all of it. Some of the Ace Attorney tie-ins were released worldwide, among them the forthcoming Gyakuten Saiban movie. The most prominent releases are of the various manga volumes. The Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney manga is being localized, and so were the Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Official Casebooks, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Edgeworth Files and the Miles Edgeworth: Ace Attorney Investigations manga is in the process of being translated and will be released in North America this year.

Speaking of Ace Attorney Investigations, the popularity of the main series and its primary antagonist, Miles Edgeworth, lead to the prosecutor getting his own series. Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth received a worldwide release and involved more investigating and no courtroom drama. Instead, Edgeworth finds the suspect outside the courtroom at the crime scenes to assist with arrests. You may have to shop around to find a copy, as it’s gotten rather rare as of late. Sadly, despite the original being a fantastic game, Capcom decided not to take a chance on Gyakuten Kenji 2, making the sequel a Japan-exclusive. A fan translation is currently in progress to create an unofficial English patch.

However, some Ace Attorney extras can only be enjoyed if you’re in Japan or willing to import. In particular, the musical performances and concerts. Actually, even if you visit Japan now you probably won’t catch the musical. Gyakiten Saiban: Yomigaeru Shinjitsu and its sequel were only performed by the all-female Takarazuka Revue troupe in 2009. At least you can enjoy the music from the series. Aside from the official soundtracks for each game, Capcom has also released the Gyakuten Saiban Orchestra Album and Gyakuten Saiban Jazz Album, offering new arrangements of songs from the game. Supposedly they’ll be released outside Japan, but they haven’t appeared yet. You could also check online for Gyakuten Saiban Tokubetsu Houtei 2008, an official recording of a live concert of Ace Attorney music.

You may want to also try plugging Gyakuten Saiban into the search boxes at your favorite online import shops. You never know, you may find phone straps, bags, folders or other Ace Attorney merchandise.

COMING NEXT WEEK: Important Importables reviews Mother 3.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: Last week Important Importables talked about Marvelous Entertainment.

Follow Jenni on Twitter for more import game updates and general fangirl enthusiasm!

Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure was a really big hit for Activision. Activision said Skylanders was the single biggest new intellectual property launch in the company’s history. How big you ask? Well, Activision said Skylanders was the tenth best selling game in North America last year if you include the number of toys it sold. At this rate, Activision believes Skylanders could become its next billion dollar franchise.

It’s no secret Skylanders figurines were disappearing from store shelves shortly after being stocked. It’s not like toys were in short supply either. Activision said over 20 million Skylanders toys have been sold. This helped the Skylanders franchise bring in $200 million in revenue. The demand has been simply massive and we’re bound to see a similar response once the new Skylanders: Giants toys hit the market in the fall.

The Skylanders franchise will also come to iOS and Android, so we’ll be keeping an eye on that as well.

I know this isn’t much of a surprise, but here goes nothing. Activision has confirmed another Call of Duty game is in development for a 2012 release. We have no idea what it’ll be about or who the developer is, but chances are it’ll be released in late 2012 (probably in November). We really can’t blame Activision for doing this. After all, Call of Duty keeps setting records year after year.

During the Activision Blizzard earnings call, we learned Call of Duty Elite is the third most popular gaming-related online subscription service behind World of Warcraft and Xbox Live. By the end of January 2012, CoD Elite has over 7 million subscribers. Based on the huge success of CoD Elite, Activision will continue to expand the service for the foreseeable future.

Activision also shared a couple scant details on the free-to-play CoD game that is being developed in China. Activision says everything is going well in Shanghai and it believes the CoD MMO will be a breakthrough title in China.

If Twisted Metal isn’t enough to satisfy your need for vehicular combat, perhaps Smash ‘N’ Survive will help to fill the void. Smash ‘N’ Survive will be released on the PlayStation Network on February 22 for $14.99. It has some traditional vehicular combat weaponry, but it also utilizes environmental weapons such as tornadoes and catapults.

So far, two gameplay modes have been announced -campaign and versus. The campaign mode requires the completion of 19 primary and secondary objectives. Goodies such as new cars (over 30), maps (10 total) and game modes will unlock after successfully completing objectives.

Some of the missions have elements such as chases, territory control, escort missions and checkpoint races.

Additional modes will be revealed a little later. For now, take a look at the debut trailer.

Via [PlayStation Blog]