If you've played Minecraft, chances are you've built something so cool that you wish you could immortalize it and put it on your mantle. Thankfully, there's Figureprints, a company who in the past have recreated your Xbox 360 avatars and World of Warcraft characters.

Now, you can export you favorite Minecraft creations and they'll make them into a reality, for a price determined by how complicated your model is. Man. I might have to get one of these.

FigurePrints - Minecraft [Main Page via Wired]

The next Star Wars movie, Episode VII, is just the tip of a money-coloured iceberg Disney plans to harvest in the wake of its takeover of the franchise from George Lucas.

Speaking with Entertainment Weekly, Lucas' anointed successor, Kathleen Kennedy, says that the company wants to produce "two or three films a year", which aside from the odd Indiana Jones flick certainly suggests we can expect all kinds of Star Wars output over the next decade.

Which is exactly what I was hoping for when this deal was announced. Let the main movies come and go, but potentially more interesting would be the other movies that get made, from children's animated flicks (maybe with a Pixar touch) to darker, more adult content that long-time fans have only been able to get in comics and books.

The full interview with Kennedy will appear in the next issue of EW.

Star Wars, the once and future franchise [EW]

If you head on over to the Metacritic page for Natural Selection 2, you might notice something strange. Of the seven reviews listed, only one is scored below an 80.

Also, it doesn't actually exist.

Last week, GameSpot reviews editor Kevin VanOrd pulled his site's review of Natural Selection 2. The review, scored 60/100 and written by a freelancer named Eric Neigher, had been eviscerated by readers and commenters who pointed out a number of mistakes—for example, the review said the recently-released indie game was $30, when it actually costs $25. Other errors involved the game's engine and load times.

So VanOrd removed the review, citing "several inaccuracies" and apologizing to his readers. Yesterday, GameSpot ran a re-review by a new writer, Ashton Raze, who scored the game an 80.

But the original review is still on Metacritic. A big yellow 60 sits right on Natural Selection 2's front page, warning readers that "disappointing execution holds it back." Clicking "read full review" will take you to a broken link.

So why hasn't the review been replaced? I asked Metacritic head Marc Doyle, who told me that they have a one-shot policy for all reviews and all gaming outlets. (Kotaku is not listed on Metacritic, as we do not use review scores.)

"Yes, the critics we track know—and I spoke to the GameSpot team about this this week - that we only accept the first review and first score published for a given game," Doyle told me in an e-mail. "I'm explicit about this policy with every new publication we agree to track. It's a critic-protection measure, instituted in 2003 after I found that many publications had been pressured to raise review scores (or de-publish reviews) to satisfy outside influences. Our policy acted as a disincentive for these outside forces to apply that type of inappropriate pressure."

(Note: GameSpot and Metacritic are both owned by the same parent company, CBS Interactive.)

It's a policy that seems to be enforced with the best of intentions—just about every reviewer in the gaming industry has heard shady stories about publishers trying to get scores changed—but it doesn't account for situations like this, where a writer's mistakes could seriously impact the fate of a game. I asked GameSpot's VanOrd how he felt about this whole situation, but he wouldn't comment on the specifics. "The review had multiple factual inaccuracies that cast a shadow over the entire piece, so we chose to pull it and reassign, which is a rarity, of course," he told me.

"So what?" you might be asking. "Why does it matter what kind of review scores this game has on Metacritic? Aren't review scores just arbitrary anyway? You guys don't use them!"

For better or worse, Metacritic has become an important tool for people in the gaming industry; some publishers even use it to decide whether to give out bonuses, a practice I've criticized in the past. And studies have shown that a game's Metacritic score can have significant impact on its sales.

For an indie game like Natural Selection 2—a game made over the course of six years by a team of just seven people—one mediocre score could be catastrophic. (Although they seem to be doing okay, and Kotaku's Kate Cox had a ton of praise for the competitive game in our review.)

I asked Hugh Jeremy, community manager and jack-of-all-trades over at Natural Selection 2 developer Unknown Worlds, what the team thought of this whole situation.

"We fully respect Gamespot's journalistic processes and are very thankful that they took the time to review NS2. Many critics will not touch smaller indie games with a ten-foot barge pole," Jeremy told me. He said they've reached out to Metacritic for an explanation, but they haven't yet heard back. [Update: After the publication of this piece, Metacritic's Doyle sent me a note to say he had offered to get on the phone with Jeremy, but that Jeremy never got back to him.]

"In general, it is extremely important that score aggregators reflect accurate and timely information about the reviews they are aggregating," he said. "Their scores are used by players, publishers, investors, other critics and even developers themselves to judge the success or failure of a product. Those scores can make or break dreams."

While Eric Neigher, GameSpot's original reviewer, was certainly entitled to give the game whatever score he felt was appropriate, that score was pulled. GameSpot has re-reviewed the game. Should the most important game score aggregator on the planet not update their listings to reflect that?

This isn't the first time that Neigher's reviews have come under fire. In 2010, the developers behind Monday Night Combat publicly questioned if he had played the game before writing a review for 1up. (I reached out to Neigher earlier today to see if he'd like to give his thoughts for this story, but I haven't yet heard back.)

And a glance through some of Neigher's old work shows some rather bizarre choices.

"And if you're all butt-hurt about not having the same stuff as the kids across the Pacific, I hear you, but please believe me when I say that if you allow that butt-hurtedness to prevent you from buying and playing this game, you fail at life and will never have sex. Yeah, I said it. Because it's true. Don't say I didn't warn you," he wrote in his review of Yakuza 3.

We'll continue to follow and update this story as we hear more.

See here, the official teaser for Faceless, a game previously known as Slender: Source. It's got a complicated lineage: inspired by another game which was in turn inspired by an internet meme.

Despite popularity on Valve's new Steam "Greenlight" crowdsourced game initiative, Faceless can't get itself onto Steam. Joystiq takes a look in a new article, speaking with Faceless developer Justin Ross about how Valve has blocked the game's move to steam, citing copyright concerns.

Despite the fact that Ross has gotten permission from the creator of Slenderman, who goes by the internet handle Victor Surge, as well as the fact that a similar Slendermanish game called The Intruder has already been Greenlit, Faceless languishes in Valve-imposed purgatory.

From Joystiq:

Valve writes to Ross, "The permission from Victor Surge/Eric Knudsen is fine but since he has an option holder we'll need their permission too." An option holder is not the trademark holder, but owns the contract on an IP and is able to license it out for a film, TV, book, video game, or other endeavor. Ross is currently in communication with the Slender Man option holder, and it looks like he'll have to sign a handful of documents to push Faceless through Greenlight.

It tracks that there might be more interested and possibly legally involved parties than just the Slenderman's creator, and it's understandable that Valve would want to be absolutely sure they aren't opening themselves up to a lawsuit before greenlighting the game.

It sounds as though the main mistake the Faceless team made was to start off calling their game Slender: Source, and to link it so explicitly to the existing meme. But it also sounds as though, so far, no one with any rights to the Slenderman has any real objections to Faceless, and that with some time, emailing, and maybe paper-signing, everything will work out.

I'm certainly intrigued by the premise of Faceless—it's hard to pull off a multiplayer horror game, but the way they describe it sounds like it could work. Hopefully everyone will cross the necessary t's and dot the requisite lower-case j's and we'll get to find out.

Faceless: Slender Man stalks, blocks Greenlight's top game from Steam [Joystiq]

This Wednesday edition of Kotaku's The Moneysaver catches all the offers, promotions and bargains that can't wait until the weekend. The Midweek Moneysaver is brought to you by Dealzon.

Software

• Yesterday's release Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 (360, PS3) is $44.99 with $4.99 shipping from Daily Steals. Toys 'R' Us is also $50, but unless you live in NJ or NY, you're better off buying from Daily Steals with no sales tax. Best overall value is still Dell Home for $60 with a $20 gift card. [Dealzon]

• Yesterday's release F1 Race Stars (PC download) is $35.99 from GameFly. Next best is $41. [Dealzon]

• Yesterday's release LEGO Lord of the Rings (PC Download) is $22.50, free shipping from Green Man Gaming. Elsewhere $30. [Dealzon]

• Nov. 20 release Hitman: Absolution Professional Edition (PC download) is $33.75 from Green Man Gaming. Next best is $45. [Dealzon]

• This week Toys 'R' Us has a "Buy 1 Game $59.99 and up Save $10, Buy Two Games priced $59.99 each Save $30" sale on select 360, PS3, and Wii U games with 96 eligible games. [Dealzon]

• Toys 'R' Us also offers "Buy 1, Get 1 40% Off" all 3DS, DS, Wii & Wii U games priced $49.99 and up. [Dealzon]

• Walmart has a "Buy 2 Xbox 360 Games, Get 1 Free" sale with 36 eligible titles. [Dealzon]

• Rocksmith Guitar and Bass (360, PS3, PC) is $59.99, free shipping from GameStop. Elsewhere $80. [Dealzon]

• NBA 2K13 (360, PS3) is $49.99, free shipping from Amazon. Next best is $58. [Dealzon]

• Resident Evil 6 (360, PS3) is $39.99, free shipping from GameStop. Next best is $51. [Dealzon]

• Persona 4 Arena (360, PS3) is $39.99, free shipping from Amazon. Next best is $52. [Dealzon]

• Darksiders 2 (PS3) is $39.99, free shipping from GameStop. Next best is $47. [Dealzon]

• Zumba Fitness (360) is $16.79 from Amazon. Next best is $47. [Dealzon]

• Ridge Racer: Unbounded (360, PS3) is $15.99, free shipping from NewEgg. Next best is $41. [Dealzon]

• The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings Enhanced Edition (Pre-Owned: 360) is $14.99, free shipping from GameFly. List price is $50. [Dealzon]

• Akai Katana (360) is $14.99 from Amazon. Next best is $20. [Dealzon]

• Ninja Gaiden 3 (Pre-Owned: PS3, 360) is $12.99, free shipping from GameFly. Next best is $25. [Dealzon]

• Gears of War 3 (Pre-Owned: 360) is $9.99, free shipping from GameFly. List price is $30. [Dealzon]

• Too Human (360) is $5.99 with $3.49 shipping from GameStop. List price is $20. [Dealzon]

• Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City (Pre-Owned: 360, PS3) is $8.99, free shipping from GameFly. Next best is $22. [Dealzon]

• Big Time Rush Dance Party (Wii) is $19.99 with $3.49 shipping from GameStop. Next best is $33. [Dealzon]

• Shinobi (3DS) is $9.99, free shipping from NewEgg. Next best is $14. [Dealzon]

• Borderlands 2 (PC download) is $34.45 from Green Man Gaming. Next best is $48. [Dealzon]

• Medal of Honor Warfighter Limited Edition (PC download) is $45 from Green Man Gaming. Next best is $50. [Dealzon]

• XCOM Enemy Unknown (PC download) is $32.50, free shipping from Green Man Gaming. Next best is $45. [Dealzon]

• FIFA Soccer 13 (PC download) is $22.50 from Green Man Gaming. Next best is $40. [Dealzon]

• Chivalry: Medieval Warfare (PC download) is $16.25 from Green Man Gaming. List price is $25. [Dealzon]

• Iron Front: Liberation 1944 (PC download) is $14.98 from GamersGate. Next best is $23. [Dealzon]

• I Spy Game Pack (Wii) is $14.99 with $3.49 shipping from GameStop. Next best is $22. [Dealzon]

• Darksiders 2 (PC download) is $13.59 from GameFly. Next best is $17. [Dealzon]

• Darksiders II Season Pass (PC DLC) is $5.43 from GameFly. Amazon is the next best at $7. [Dealzon]

• Cities in Motion: Collection (PC download) is $13.50 from Green Man Gaming. Next best is $40. [Dealzon]

• Asguaard (PC download) is $10.86 from Green Man Gaming. List price is $29. [Dealzon]

• Prototype Pack (PC download) is $9.99 from Amazon. List price is $90. [Dealzon]

• Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II (PC download) is $9.99 from GameFly. List price is $20. [Dealzon]

• Star Wars: The Force Unleashed - Ultimate Sith Edition (PC download) is $9.99 from GameFly. List price is $20. [Dealzon]

• LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga (PC download) is $7.99 from GameFly. List price is $20. [Dealzon]

• The Darkness 2 Limited Edition (PC) is $5.99, free shipping from NewEgg. Next best is $16. [Dealzon]

• Hell Yeah! Wrath of the Dead Rabbit (PC download) is $5.62 from Green Man Gaming. List price is $15. [Dealzon]

• Mass Effect 2 (PC download) is $4.99 from GameFly. Next best is $16. [Dealzon]

• Commandos Complete Collection (PC download) is $3.75 from GamersGate. Next best is $14. [Dealzon]

• S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games (PC downloads) are up to 75% off at GamersGate. [Dealzon]

Hardware

• PS3 Slim 160GB Console Ultimate Bundle is $259 and comes with a bonus game and extra wireless controller from Walmart. Separately $373. [Dealzon]

• Logitech G600 MMO Gaming Mouse is $61.99, free shipping from NewEgg. Next best is $66. [Dealzon]

• Logitech Driving Force GT PS3 Racing Wheel (Refurbished) is $59.99, free shipping from TigerDirect. Next best is $110. [Dealzon]

• Turtle Beach Ear Force X31 Digital Wireless Gaming Headset (Refurbished) is $29.99 after rebate with $3.80 shipping from TigerDirect. Next best is $50. [Dealzon]

• PS3 DualShock 3 Wireless Controller is $29.99 after rebate, free shipping from TigerDirect. Next best is $40. [Dealzon]

• Linksys WET610N Dual-Band Gaming and Video Wireless-N Adapter is $29.99, free shipping from NewEgg. Next best is $48. [Dealzon]

• Logitech G105 Call of Duty: MW3 Edition Gaming Keyboard is $24.99, free shipping from NewEgg. Next best is $32. [Dealzon]

• MSI GeForce GTX 660 2GB GDDR5 PCIe Video Card is $191.99 after rebate, free shipping from NewEgg. Next best is $230. [Dealzon]

• EVGA GeForce GTX 560 Ti FPB 1GB GDDR5 PCIe Video Card is $149.99 after rebate, free shipping from TigerDirect. Next best is $206. [Dealzon]

• Verbatim 128GB SSD is $69.99 after rebate, free shipping from Buy.com. This is a $75 price drop from just over a week ago. Next best is $90. [Dealzon]

• Samsung 120GB 840 Series SSD is $89.99, free shipping from NewEgg. Next best is $100. [Dealzon]

• Alienware M17x r3 17.3-inch laptop with Quad Core i7-2670QM, 4GB RAM, Radeon HD 6870M is $1,299, free shipping from eBay Deals. Next best is $1,369. [Dealzon]

• HP Envy dv7t-7200 Quad Edition 1080p 17.3-inch laptop with Ivy Bridge Quad Core i7-3630QM, display, GeForce GT 650M 2GB, 8GB RAM, Blu-ray, Windows 8 is $1,083.74, free shipping from HP. That's cheapest ever by $41 and $191 off the $1,275 list price. [Dealzon]

• HP Envy dv6t-7200 Quad Edition 15.60inch laptop with Ivy Bridge Quad Core i7-3630QM, GeForce GT 630M 1GB, Windows 8 is $764.99, free shipping from HP. That's cheapest ever by $20 and $136 off the $900 list price. [Dealzon]

• Alienware Aurora Desktop with Quad Core i7-3820 Overclocked 4.1GHz, GeForce GTX 560 Ti, 16GB 1600 MHz RAM is $1,449, free shipping from Dell Home. That's cheapest ever by $50. [Dealzon]

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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Five years ago, an NCAA executive said EA Sports should be allowed to use actual names of its amateur athletes—commanding a higher licensing fee as a result—because players' likenesses were "rigged into the games now by illegal means." Permitting their use would clear up the matter and bring more money to the NCAA, he said.

The comments came to light in documents exposed by a lawsuit 15 former college players have brought against the NCAA and EA Sports, according to The Birmingham News of Alabama.

Though it is obvious to anyone who has played the game, as far back as 2003 the NCAA was aware that EA Sports was basing its rosters on real players, using their real numbers, and rating them accordingly to real performance. "We don't actually use player names but we do use all the attributes and jersey numbers of the players," an EA Sports representative said to Peter Davis, the NCAA's director of corporate alliances at the time.

NCAA amateurism policies prohibit athletes receiving any benefit tied to their notoriety or their performances. nor may they endorse any product on the same grounds. Appearing under their real names in either NCAA Football or the defunct NCAA Basketball (also known as March Madness) would violate that rule and threaten an athlete's eligibility.

For years, EA Sports has coded its collegiate rosters with nearly every identifying trait of a player except for his real name. User-edited rosters, shared through an in-game feature EA Sports established in 2007, fulfills the final step. Previous filings in the lawsuit showed negotiations between EA Sports and the NCAA for the use of real names, and indicated that the "EA Locker" roster share feature was developed as a response to it.

The latest documents show the NCAA leadership willing to consider the idea. In 2007, Greg Shaheen, then a vice president in the NCAA, argued that the association should adopt rules that permitted the use of players' names and likenesses in the video games EA Sports was making. Shaheen said the players' likenesses were effectively already being used, but "it's just that our membership doesn't benefit from it."

At the time, the NCAA was making between $4 million and $8 million annually in licensing payments from NCAA Basketball which was canceled after its 2009 release because of poor sales and high development costs. Permitting the use of players' real names in the shipped product would both improve the game's sales and, therefore, the payments the NCAA received from it, Shaheen argued.

Fifteen former basketball and football standouts have filed the lawsuit as a challenge to the NCAA's amateurism model, in which the organization and its constituent universities and conferences reap millions in deals concerning television broadcast rights and memorabilia sales, with no money going to athletes whatsoever. The plaintiffs propose a system where athletes are compensated for the use of their likeness through a trust fund that issues payments after the athletes have exhausted their eligibility or graduated.

NCAA knew EA Sports video games used real players, e-mails from Ed O'Bannon lawsuit show [The Birmingham News, via Pastapadre]

Assassin's Creed isn't the only movie that Ubisoft wants to get to the silver screen as soon as possible.

Rumors from earlier this year that Ubisoft was looking at making a Splinter Cell movie appear to have been well-founded, according to Variety. And what's more, the movie's got a star.

British actor Tom Hardy is reportedly on board to star as Sam Fisher, operative extraordinaire. Hardy most recently took to the silver screen as masked villain Bane in The Dark Knight Rises earlier this year. He also featured in Inception, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, and the sadly disappointing Star Trek: Nemesis.

The Splinter Cell game franchise dates back to 2002. The last was 2010's Conviction; the next is 2013's Blacklist.

Tom Hardy game for 'Splinter Cell' movie [Variety]

Who would go through such a painstaking process to recreate the poses and action of some of Grand Theft Auto V's screenshots, courtesy of Game Informer? RomanBOY123 would, apparently.

He put GTA IV on max settings on his PC (1920x1080 resolution, with HD tree mods) and came up with some amazingly accurate screenshots to match those of GTA V's. Check out one of them above by using the slider the reveal more of each. GTA IV is on the left, while GTA V is on the right.

Be sure to hit the GTA forums to see the rest of them, because they're truly well done.

GTA IV vs GTA V graphics comparision [GTA Forums via Reddit]

When I was growing up, my dog, like most dogs, didn't like thunder. I bet she wouldn't have liked the dragons in Skyrim, either.

This image of "Maggie," tweeted by Skyrim-makers Bethesda, shows a dog reacting quite viscerally to, we have to assume, a charging winged beast in Skyrim.

Now that I've bumped up the difficulty and modded the dragons to be more difficult, I often have the same reaction.

If you look at a red and black square with two white dots and immediately think "Mickey Mouse", then Icon Pop Quiz is for you.

Reducing beloved pop culture characters, television shows and movies into simple colored squares is officially a thing, and where there's an official thing there's a game. In this case it's Alegrium's collection of more than 400 icons, assembled by category and difficulty and set loose for you to identify.

Identifying is done by typing out words, which can be a little problematic—Bart Simpson was wrong, but Bart was correct. The game is also riddled with ads, pulling the player out of the experience at every turn. The ads are especially annoying as the game links to a store where merchandise featuring the icons can be purchased, from t-shirts to iPhone cases. One would think that would be enough to release a simple free app.

You can purchase ad removal in-game for $1.99, thankfully, making Icon Pop Quiz an uninterrupted good time. The ads aren't insufferable, but the icons look so much better without them.

Pop Icon Quiz — Free [iTunes]