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]

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]

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]

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.

Well that didn’t take too long did it? PC players have been rolling around in Skyrim‘s improved world since the release of patch 1.4 at the beginning of the month, but PS3 and Xbox 360 players are about to get their chance too. Bethesda tweeted not too long ago the PS3 patch for Skyrim should be available sometime tomorrow. The Xbox 360 patch should also go live early tomorrow morning.

Both platforms will benefit from the large number of general bug and quest fixes the patch will bring, but PS3 players should be especially excited about this patch. Many players have been plagued by crippling frame rate issues ever since Skyrim was released. This patch promises to correct those issues. Specifically, the patch notes say the patch improves “long term play optimizations for memory and performance.”

We’ll keep an eye on social media to see if this patch actually does fix Skyrim‘s biggest problems.

Via [Bethesda Twitter]

This is going to end up being the ultimate Xbox 360, regardless if someone’s a fan, as it’s the first to have a 320gb hard drive. It also has a white Kinect packed in with the system for the first time. The system itself is white and looks a bit like the Star Wars character R2-D2. It also plays R2-D2 sound effects when used. The gold wireless controller is designed to look like C-3PO. It doesn’t have any custom sounds. A standard wired headset will be thrown in, as well as an Xbox Live Token for some kind of unrevealed, downloadable item.

The bundle will also include Kinect Star Wars, a brand new Star Wars adventure where players move around to complete 20 adventures. There will be missions where you shoot, take part in pod racing, duel bad guys, ride landspeeders and bikes and sometimes even take part in a Galactic Dance Off. This bundle also happens to be the only place to get C-3PO in the dance mode. Maybe that’s what the XBLA token is for?

If that sounds exciting, there’s a chance to try out the Kinect Star Wars game a little early. Select AMC Theatres will hold a preview event on February 11, 2012. The AMC website says theaters in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, New York, Phoenix and San Francisco are participating, so you can check there to find out how to get to those theaters.

Read [Gaming Age] Product Page [Amazon]

Good news for those of you that have decided to purchase a 3DS. GameStop has given the handheld a temporary price cut. From now until February 12, 3DS units at GameStop are $149.99 which is $20 off the original price. The price price drop applies to all 3DS models including the Pearl Pink model that releases on February 10.

It seems GameStop is trying to make the 3DS a little more attractive in time for the PS Vita First Edition Bundle release on February 15.

With the money you’ll save, you may want to put it towards the Circle Pad Pro. It’s only available from GameStop and also happens to be $20. The Circle Pad Pro sacrifices the 3DS’ portability in favor of a second analog stick. At least you won’t have to worry about changing the battery in the Circle Pad Pro for a very long time.

Here are some more deals at GameStop this week.

• Batman: Arkham City – $39.99
• Battlefield 3 – $39.99
• Kinect with The Gunstringer, and Fruit Ninja Kinect – $99.99
• 12 month Xbox Live Gold membership – $39.99
• 250GB Xbox 360 Kinect Holiday Value Bundle – $349.99

Site [GameStop]

About a year ago Activision canceled the release of True Crime: Hong Kong because the company felt the game would not bring in the buckets of money Activision has come to expect from the titles it publishes. The fate of True Crime: Hong Kong remained in limbo until Square Enix purchased the rights from Activision later in the year. Square Enix is finally ready to announce it has renamed True Crime: Hong Kong to Sleeping Dogs. The trademark that was discovered recently wasn’t for a new Kane and Lynch game after all.

Sleeping Dogs is scheduled to be released in the second half of 2012 for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360. It stars an undercover cop named Wei Shen who is working to take down the Triads within Hong Kong. Sleeping Dogs will retain the open-world gameplay as originally conceived. You’ll be shooting and kicking people all day in this game.

Sleeping Dogs may not sell as well as Red Dead Redemption, but it has an opportunity to still turn a profit.

Site [Sleeping Dogs]