Last week's vigil in Paragon City was misunderstood (including by me) to be a protest against the announced shutdown of City of Heroes, the eight-year-old superhero MMO. It was intended as a statement of support and tribute, particularly to the Paragon Studios development team that, let's not forget, is seeing the end of something it cares for, as well as the end of all their jobs.

The City of Heroes community followed that up this week with a touching gesture that can't be mistaken: In just three hours, they raised $1,000 for the sole purpose of treating the City of Heroes team to dinner at a restaurant they were known to frequent.

More events are being organized in-world to show support for the game. Massively has the details.

City of Heroes fans buy Paragon Studios a meal and proclaim allegiance [Massively. h/t amori]

Late last night, reports WoW Insider, Death Knights in World of Warcraft contracted a bug which allowed them to cast plagues upon friendly targets. The afflicted death knights, as per their namesake, went apeshit with this newfound power, laying waste to Azeroth's population in a way not seen since the infamous "Corrupted Blood" plague—which celebrated its seventh anniversary on Thursday.

The Death Knight bug was patched out very early this morning, WoW Insider said, but what makes it different is the fact this plague couldn't spread by itself. It required action by the knights themselves. It still was the worst epidemic seen since Corrupted Blood, a 2005 incident later studied by epidemiologists.

Here's an image from the outbreak, via WoW Insider; there are four more at the link.

Death knight plague epidemic strikes Azeroth [WoW Insider]

We've seen some swell Borderlands cosplay leading up to Tuesday's release of Borderlands 2, but those were in still photos. Here's a video tribute to the original characters from Gearbox Software's smash hit from three years ago.

Don't go looking for much of a big story, surprise or sight gag—though I do like the post-production attention paid to the loot drops and Lilith's Phase Walk (and the shitheaded AI of the bandits at the beginning. Seriously). It's just a love letter to Borderlands from some skilled cosplayers and filmmakers.

In Pac-Man if you were trapped by two ghosts, all you could do was jiggle the joystick and hope the pattern backed one off at the last minute. In PacMan Portal, you can just fire at the wall, slip through, and get back to chompin'.

Created by Russian programmer Dj_smart, the game was updated about a month ago and is available for free at this link. It works only on Windows machines (sorry, Mac gamers), but testimonials say PacMan Portal pulls off the concept very well. Keyboard arrows move Pac, the mouse aims his portal gun, and the two mouse buttons select whether he fires red or blue.

Freeware Game Pick: PacMan Portal (Dj_smart) [IndieGames]

What's happened in the business of video games this past week ...

QUOTE | "Wii U feedback from retailers is extremely strong."—Reggie Fils-Aime, President of Nintendo of America, talking about pricing the Wii U at $299 and $349, higher than some analysts expected.

QUOTE | "It's about gameplay, stupid."—Seamus Blackley, co-creator of the Xbox and founder of Innovative Leisure, talking about what makes a game great and why a small team can do things a big team can't.

QUOTE | "Once we get past March, I think that the price point will appear high to many."—Michael Pachter, Wedbush Securities analyst, commenting with other analysts about what they think of the Wii U price and launch details.

STAT | 2 million—Number of copies of Guild Wars 2 sold in two weeks, according to NCsoft; the number of concurrent players regularly peaks at over 400,000.

QUOTE | "This is still ultimately a business that's about selling games. Nintendo still does that better than almost anyone else."—Rob Fahey, former editor of GamesIndustry.biz, talking about the lineup of games at launch for the Wii U.

QUOTE | "The performance of the A6 looks on par with Xbox 360."—William Volk, CCO of PlayScreen, talking along with other developers about the new A6 CPU in Apple's iPhone 5 and what it means to games.

QUOTE | "This places tremendous pressure both on game makers and hardware manufacturers to raise the bar."—Scott Steinberg, analyst with TechSavvy Global, talking along with other analysts about the impact Apple's iPhone 5 will have on game publishers.

QUOTE | "This might be a case of different vibes for different tribes."—Meelad Sadat, PR director for [a]list games, talking about whether Nintendo holding their press event the day after Apple will reduce its media coverage.

QUOTE | "Games were centre stage for Apple's announcement."—Rob Fahey, veteran game journalist, talking about why Apple's iPhone 5 is important to game developers and gamers.

QUOTE | "If players pay something you can provide ad-free gaming, and if they don't pay why should you care if they stick around?"—Michael Pachter, Wedbush Securities analyst, talking about why he thinks the free-to-play business model for games is ultimately doomed.

STAT | 172,000—Number of copies of Square Enix's Sleeping Dogs that sold at retail in the US last month; the PC version was a download only, so its sales are not included in that total.

STAT | 11,074—Number of Guild Wars 2 accounts that have been hacked or blocked; hackers are using stolen email addresses and passwords from other sites to try and access accounts.

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Remember when the Wii launched? What were those things going for on the gray market, like $700 or something? Actually, yeah—Fahey did this analysis after the 2006 holidays and found the price, for a pre-order listing on eBay, spiked at $707, almost three times its MSRP. (That's not counting this jackhole, trying to sell one plus a PS3 for six grand. God, those were dumb days.)

Well, anyway, as preorders are now being taken for its successor, Wii U, and retailers are one-by-one selling out the deluxe-o model, speculators are already on eBay trying to recapture that magic from six years ago. This guy's offering his preorder for $900, which is only two-and-a-half times the MSRP of $349. You won't get it day of release, of course, because he's got to pick it up and mail it to you all the way from Alabama. But hey, since he listed it at $900, it qualifies for 18 months financing with Bill Me Later, so there's that.

Nintendo Wii U 32GB Deluxe Set (Pre-Order) - Release Date: 11/18/12 [eBay via NeoGAF.]

The big upcoming release is Borderlands 2 and we've found a sale on the DLC subscription so you can be ready when those extras start rolling out. None of the big three (Best Buy, Gamestop, Amazon) have the console versions discounted, so you'll probably only find deals if you're looking for the PC download. Elsewhere, you can get the new NHL 13 collector's edition for the same price as the standard edition, and Green Man Gaming is really showing THQ some love. These deals and more than 60 others are below!

Software

• Borderlands 2 Season Pass (PC DLC) is $22.50 from Green Man Gaming. Elsewhere $30. The season pass gets you all 4 DLC packs to be released from Oct. 16 through June 2013, which will run $10 each if bought separately. [Dealzon]

• Last Tuesday's release NHL 13 Stanley Cup Collector Edition (360, PS3) is $59.99, free shipping from NewEgg. Next best is $75. Standard edition is still $49.99 from Amazon and Toys 'R' Us. [Dealzon]

• Oct. 23 release Forza Horizon (360) is $47.99, free shipping from NewEgg through Sunday. Next best is $58. [Dealzon]

• Oct. 30 release LEGO Lord of the Rings (360, PS3, Wii, Vita) is at full list price everywhere, but does come with $10 bonus credit from Amazon. [Dealzon]

• Max Payne 3 Special Edition (360, PS3) is $35.99, free shipping from Buy.com. Next best is $44. [Dealzon]

• Men in Black: Alien Crisis (PS3) is $24.11 from Amazon. Next best is $40. [Dealzon]

• Ace Combat: Assault Horizon (360) is $18.33 plus $4.98 shipping from Amazon. Next best is $34. [Dealzon]

• Akai Katana (360) is $19.99, free shipping from NewEgg. Next best is $25. [Dealzon]

• Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor (360) is $19.99, free shipping from NewEgg. Next best is $25. [Dealzon]

• Silent Hill: Downpour (360, PS3) is $15.99, free shipping from NewEgg. Next best is $27. [Dealzon]

• Mortal Kombat (360, PS3) is $15.99, free shipping from NewEgg. Next best is $26. [Dealzon]

• Get Fit with Mel B (PS3) is $9.99, free shipping from NewEgg. Next best is $15. [Dealzon]

• The Sims 3 (PC) is $14.99, free shipping from Best Buy. Amazon price matched but elsewhere it's $26 and up. [Dealzon]

• The Sims 3 Showtime Expansion Pack (PC) is $14.99, free shipping from Best Buy. Next best is $28. [Dealzon]

• THQ 5-Pack (PC download) is $9.37 from Green Man Gaming. List price is $25. Includes the 5 titles: Metro 2033, Company of Heroes, Red Faction: Guerilla, Warhammer 40,000 - Dawn of War II and Saints Row 2. [Dealzon]

• Alice: Madness Returns (PC download) is $4.99 from GameStop. Next best is $14. [Dealzon]

• Homefront (PC download) is $3.75 from Green Man Gaming. Next best is $9. [Dealzon]

• Gungnir (PSP) is $14.99 from Amazon. Next best is $27. [Dealzon]

Hardware

• Corsair Vengeance 2000 Gaming headset is $109.99, free shipping from NewEgg. Next best is $129. [Dealzon]

• Corsair Vengeance K90 Mechanical Gaming Keyboard is $89.99 after rebate, free shipping from NewEgg. Next best is $109. [Dealzon]

• Newegg's rebate drops Corsair Neutron Series SSDs to their lowest prices ever: 120GB model is $84.99 (next best $108) and 240GB is $174.99 ($210). [Dealzon]

• Lenovo IdeaCentre K430 31093AU desktop with Quad Core i5-2320, 12GB RAM, Radeon HD 7450 is $599, free shipping from Lenovo. That's cheapest ever by $40. [Dealzon]

• Toshiba Qosmio X775-3DV80 3D laptop with 17.3-inch 1080p 120Hz display, Quad Core i7-2670QM, 1.5GB GeForce GTX 560M, Blu-ray plus 3D Glasses is $1,279.99, free shipping from B&H Photo. That's a new low by $350. Next best is $1,700. [Dealzon]

• MSI GE70 with Ivy Bridge Quad Core i7-3610QM, 17.3-inch 1080p display, GeForce GTX 660M 2GB is $1,069.99 after rebate plus $9.42 shipping from TigerDirect, $130 off the next best price ($1,200). [Dealzon]

• Toshiba Satellite P850-BT2G22 Ivy Bridge 15.6-inch laptop with Quad Core i7-3610QM, 6GB RAM, GeForce GT 630M 2GB is $749.99, free shipping from Toshiba Direct. That's cheapest ever by $50. [Dealzon]

• Lenovo IdeaPad U410 437683U 14-inch Ultrabook with Core i5-3317U, 8GB RAM, GeForce 610M, 1TB HDD plus 32GB SSD is $749, free shipping from Lenovo. That's cheapest ever by $74. [Dealzon]

• Lenovo's 14-inch IdeaPad Y480 209388U with Ivy Bridge Core i7-3610QM, 8GB RAM, 1TB HDD, GeForce GT 640M LE is $749, free shipping from Lenovo. New low by $45. [Dealzon]

• Dell's 14-inch Alienware M14x r2 laptop with Ivy Bridge Core i5-3210M, 6GB RAM, 1GB GeForce GT 650M is $999, free shipping. No coupon required but still cheapest ever by $100. [Dealzon]

• Dell Small Business has a Vostro 3560 with 15.6-inch 1080p display and Ivy Bridge Quad Core i7-3612QM, 6GB RAM, 500GB HDD plus 32GB mSSD, Radeon HD 7670M for $859, free shipping. That's cheapest ever by $80 and comes with a bonus $100 Gift Card. [Dealzon]

Digital Distribution

The following listing of digital download bargains are grouped by distributor. For more, see Deals4Downloads' roundup.

Amazon
plus The Over-The-Top TopWare Bundle is $14.99, save 85 percent.
plus Two Worlds 2: Game of Year: Pirates of the Flying Fortress Edition is $9.99, save 75 percent.
plus Supreme Commander 2 is $4.99, save 67 percent.
plus Risen 2: Dark Waters is $22.97, save 54 percent.
plus Tropico 4 is $19.99, save 50 percent.

Desura
plus Defenders of the Last Colony is $1.39, save 65 percent.
plus Miner Wars Arena is $1.00, save 50 percent.

DotEmu
plus Gabriel Knight 3: Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned is $2.40, save 60 percent.
plus Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines is $8.00, save 60 percent.

GameFly
plus L.A. Noire: The Complete Edition is $7.49, save 75 percent.
plus Rise of Flight: Iron Cross Edition is $9.99, save 70 percent.

GamersGate
plus Stronghold Collection is $9.98, save 67 percent.
plus Unreal Anthology is $19.95, save 55 percent.
plus Two Worlds II Castle Defense is $5.98, save 50 percent.
plus X–Com Complete Pack is $7.48, save 50 percent.

Gametap
plus Total War: Shogun 2 is $11.98, save 60 percent.
plus Binary Domain is $15.98, save 60 percent.

Get Games
plus RHEM Trilogy is $2.99, save 85 percent.
plus Jagged Alliance 2 is $2.99, save 80 percent.

GMG
plus Beyond Divinity is $1.99, save 80 percent.
plus Raven Squad: Operation Hidden Dagger is $3.74, save 75 percent.

GOG
plus Baldur's Gate 2 Complete is $6.99, save 30 percent.
plus Baldur's Gate: The Original Saga is $6.99, save 30 percent.
plus Neverwinter Nights Diamond Edition is $6.99, save 30 percent.
plus Planescape Torment is $6.99, save 30 percent.

Impulse
plus Gothic Bundle is $9.99, save 80 percent.
plus Two Worlds II GotY is $9.99, save 80 percent.

iTunes Store
plus Infinity Blade (iPhone) is $0.99, save 83 percent.
plus Command & Conquer Red Alert (iPad) is $2.99, save 40 percent.

Mac App Store
plus DeathSpank: Thongs of Virtue (Mac) is $2.99, save 70 percent.
plus Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Mac) is $19.99, save 50 percent.

Steam
plus Deus Ex Collection is $14.99, save 75 percent.
plus Deus Ex: Human Revolution" is $7.49, save 75 percent.
plus Sam and Max Complete Pack is $14.99, save 70 percent.

Kotaku thanks our coupon partners for providing these and other great deals. Be sure to bookmark and search their Kotaku hashtags (#dealzon, #deals4downloads and #dealtaku) for updates throughout the week. Further, to our friends across the pond and north of the border, check the #ukdeals, #europedeals and #canadadeals hashtags and be sure to flag any deals you might have with that.

As always, smart gamers can find values any day of the week, so if you've run across a deal, share it with us in the comments.

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Welcome to the Best of Kotaku, where I round up all of this week's best content.

This week's best image is a re-highlighting of that awesome Borderlands cosplay Luke showed us this week. It's also very fitting since Borderlands 2 comes out so soon and I'll be spending my weekend playing it for a review for you guys.

Moving on to our Best Of content this week, we kick things off as usual with a comment from the community.

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The Best Comment From The Community

Our favorite comment of this week comes to you from devwild:

No, I'm not looking backwards, I'm looking forwards, and I know that while there is room for improvement and even brand new gameplay, because of the limitations of the controls there are some game-types that I simply will never want to play on mobiles.

Developers are enjoying mobile, because the development is simpler and so is the sales model - plus you have a much larger customer base. It's much easier to go from concept to bank account on an iPhone than it is on a PS Vita. That doesn't mean gamers have to accept it as the future, or that the market should be shoehorned into it by hype.

I don't trust developers who tell me "mobile is the future", I trust developers who really enjoy creating games and experimenting with new and exciting platforms regardless of what they may be, and have the brains and foresight to put out products on platforms that work rather than platforms that are convenient.

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Valve Is Bringing Steam To Your TV Today. Watch Out, Consoles.

Jason Schreier gives us a sneak peek at Valve's Big Picture mode for Steam. More »

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Slender: The Eight Pages: Short, Crude, And One Of The Scariest Games Of The Year

Kirk Hamilton explains the meme and game behind the creepy Slenderman. More »

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Why I Buy Weird Games

Chris Person explains why he prefers weird games. More »

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NFL Punter Chris Kluwe Has Strong Opinions On Gay Marriage. Also, RPGs.

Jason interviews Chrise Kluwe about his love for RPGs and gaming in general. More »

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Farewell to the Wii, A Great Gaming System After All

Stephen Totilo writes out a eulogy for the Wii. More »

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Tekken Tag Tournament 2: The Kotaku Review

Evan Narcisse finds Tekken Tag Tournament 2 to encapsulate everything fans love about the fighting franchise with clever new features to boot. More »

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Time Travel, Lasers and Dinosaurs Add Up to the Video Game of One Man's Dreams

Zac Gorman's latest comic is all about a game that includes everything he's ever wanted. More »

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One Year after DC Comics' New 52 Reboot, The Same Old Problems Linger

Evan reflects on the reboot of a series of DC Comics. More »

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The Resistance People Are Making a New Shooter. This One Should Be Better.

Evan tells us about Fuse, which used to be Overstrike, and what's changed. More »

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8 Things You Should Know About LittleBigPlanet On The PlayStation Vita

Kirk gives you a rundown of his impressions of LittleBigPlanet six hours into the game. More »

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Jet Set Radio: The Kotaku Review

Chris' video review tells us how it's aged as a game, and how it remains worthwhile. More »

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Guild Wars 2, Log Three: I Made A Thing! Then Another Thing, and Another Thing...

Kate Cox begins to craft in Guild Wars 2. More »

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The iPhone 5 Might Be the Best Smartphone for Gamers

Evan tells us what's great about the reveal of the iPhone 5 and what it means for gamers. More »

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How Video Game Fans Mourn the Death of One of their Own, Slain in Libyan Attacks

Kate tells us about a tragic loss, and a gaming community's touching reaction. More »

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NHL 13: The Kotaku Review

Owen Good appreciates the strategy and realism in NHL 13. More »

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Everything You Need to Know About The Wii U (That Nintendo Was Willing To Tell Us)

Stephen Totilo gives us a round-up of all of Nintendo's news from their recent conference. More »

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Tokyo Jungle: The Kotaku Review

Richard Eisenbeis finds Tokyo Jungle to be a very unique experience. More »

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How The Wii U's Launch Price Stacks Up

Kate compares hardware/console prices with the new Wii U reveal. More »

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Nintendo Wants To Take Over Your Living Room

Jason tells us all about the TVii. More »

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Forget The iPhone 5's New Tech. I'm Switching Back Because I Miss My Friends

Kirk wants to swtich back to an iPhone to play games with his friends. Also Kirk doesn't have any friends (sorry Kirk I had to). More »

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He Went To War So He Could Make Video Games

Patricia Hernandez tells us about a developer who went to war to get the education he needed to make video games. More »

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Do Modern Shooters Take Themselves Too Seriously?

Patricia wants to know what happened to the Hitlers in mech suits in shooters. More »

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Here's How The Wii U Could Make RPGs Better

Jason has ideas for what the Wii U could do with JRPGs. More »

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The Triumphant Resurrection Of A Vanishing Video Game Move

Kirk misses leaning in games. More »

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The Wii U Start-Up Screen Is Like Nothing Ever Seen On Consoles Before

Jason talks to Reggie Fils-Aime about what you'll first see when you boot up the Wii U. More »

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Resident Evil: Retribution: The Kotaku Movie Review

Matt Hawkins tells us how Retribution is the film most like the video games its based on. More »

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I'm on the record saying that I've been disappointed by AMC's treatment of The Walking Dead. The books are better. The video game is much, much better.

That said, I'm more optimistic about the upcoming season than the past ones, largely because it will recreate my favorite storyline from the books and introduce Michonne, my favorite character.

Here's another drip-feed trailer, which mostly shows glimpses of the zombie fights on the prison grounds. However, it also gives another hint of that other storyline. I may have skipped the middle part of season 2 and jumped right to the finale, but I'll be with this one from the get-go.

How about you? Are you a big Walking Dead fan? How do you think the show is doing? (Let's keep away from big book spoilers in the comments, but say that anything from the first two seasons goes as long as you give a warning.) Are you pumped to see Michonne do her samurai thing? Are you completely indifferent to The Walking Dead, and to zombies in general?

Chat about zombies, brains, or whatever else, here or over in the Talk Amongst Yourselves forum. It's the weekend. We made it! Have a good one, and be kind to one another.

Obsidian's wonderful-sounding "Project Eternity" RPG Kickstarter has already raised $630,000 and counting. That's more than half their goal.