I've only ever dipped into World of Warcraft, so I can only imagine how the past eight years have felt for those who fell in love with Blizzard's new online world back in 2004. Maybe they passed quickly, in a flash of boss fights, raid wipes and ding explosions. Maybe it feels as though it's been around forever. Mists of Pandaria seems to have rekindled the post Cataclysm subs slump somewhat, so WoW will be a long while yet. But if WoW were to die, the sequence that would flash before its eyes in its final moments might look a bit like this celebratory 8th anniversary video, which revisits many of Azeroth's well-trodden lands.

November 23 is the precise anniversary date, but Blizzard say that "players who log in to World of Warcraft between November 18 and December 1" will automatically get a "unique Feat of Strength achievement and Celebration Package item.

"Using your item will kick off the celebrations by shooting off fireworks*, applying a (cosmetic only) tabard to your character, and granting an 8% bonus to experience and reputation gains from any enemies defeated while active," they add.

Guess what secured six million dollars of funding? Here's a clue, it's about space, and it rhymes with Spar Witticism, tenuously. That's two clues actually, but you've got it already because the answer's in the headline. STAR CITIZEN has received a colossal collective thumbs up via its two pronged crowdfunding spree. Kickstarter raked in $2,134,374 and the drive on the Star Citizen site took the rest to form a grand total of $6,339,594.

Wow, if I had that sort of money I'd make some sort of ambitious space game with a rich universe focused on epic space adventure with trading and dogfighting in first person. Considering I have no game development experience whatsoever, and Cloud Imperium Games Corporation is helmed by Chris "Wing Commander" Roberts, everything's turned out okay.

"The battle is over and we—PC gamers, space sim fans, WingNuts, Lancers and the rest—have won," says a statement on the Star Citizen site. "You’ve not only met every goal we set, you’ve exceeded them. Star Citizen will be released because of your dedication and your willingness to put your money where our mouths are. Our gratitude is immeasurable; we owe you our livelihoods and will not soon forget it."

The drive smashed the final six million dollar stretch goal target, which means there will be "100 star systems to explore on launch," the massive Bengal carrier class will be "unlocked for persistent universe play" and backers will get an extra 16 mission campaign. Star Citizen has leveraged a few lovely CryEngine 3-powered tech demos to encourage donations, but there's still a long way to go before we see anything that looks like final form. Now we just have to keep everything crossed and hope that the team can deliver on all those promises.

Guess what secured six million dollars of funding? Here's a clue, it's about space, and it rhymes with Spar Witticism, tenuously. That's two clues actually, but you've got it already because the answer's in the headline. STAR CITIZEN has received a colossal collective thumbs up via its two pronged crowdfunding spree. Kickstarter raked in $2,134,374 and the drive on the Star Citizen site took the rest to form a grand total of $6,238,563. The ticker on the official site has been kept open after a community vote, and it looks like money is still rolling in.

Wow, if I had that sort of money I'd make some sort of ambitious space game with a rich universe focused on epic space adventure with trading and dogfighting in first person. Considering I have no game development experience whatsoever, and Cloud Imperium Games Corporation is helmed by Chris "Wing Commander" Roberts, everything's turned out okay.

"The battle is over and we—PC gamers, space sim fans, WingNuts, Lancers and the rest—have won," says a statement on the Star Citizen site. "You’ve not only met every goal we set, you’ve exceeded them. Star Citizen will be released because of your dedication and your willingness to put your money where our mouths are. Our gratitude is immeasurable; we owe you our livelihoods and will not soon forget it."

The drive smashed the final six million dollar stretch goal target, which means there will be "100 star systems to explore on launch," the massive Bengal carrier class will be "unlocked for persistent universe play" and backers will get an extra 16 mission campaign. Star Citizen has leveraged a few lovely CryEngine 3-powered tech demos to encourage donations, but there's still a long way to go before we see anything that looks like final form. Now we just have to keep everything crossed and hope that the team can deliver on all those promises.

It's heartening to think that you could just pick up a pen and make a PC game, but as anyone who's wrestled with game development programs knows, that pesky 'computer' part currently insists on getting in the way. Still, they're good for making graphics, as this homemade indie shoot-'em-up shows. As discovered by IndieGames, Ballpoint Universe's art assets were done entirely with a ballpoint pen, before being scanned into a computer and turned into the player, enemies, bullets and so on. The result is rather beautiful - and there's a beta version available here.

You play as a sketchy guy named Doodle, who spends his downtime between shmup stages wandering around an exquisite 2D landscape. As developers Arachnid Games point out, the bulk of the game involves horizontally-aligned shooting, but with the ability to customise and upgrade your ship, and explore the doodle realms on foot to meet a number of eccentric characters. There's no word on a release date yet, but the first open beta version is now available to download. This is definitely one to watch out for.

World War 2 multiplayer military sim, Red Orchestra 2, now contains more war courtesy of the latest free Fall update. It adds a new map and a streamlined version of the Countdown game mode, which is now "much simpler to understand." Blue's News note that those playing Countdown will now earn double experience to celebrate. The new map, meanwhile, is a modern take on popular Red Orchestra 1 map, Barashka, which stars alongside bands of warring men in the latest update trailer below.

Executive producer of the Mass Effect series, Casey Hudson, has been asking fans where they'd like to see Mass Effect go next. "Parsing through your thoughts on the next #ME game," said Casey in a tweet spotted by Eurogamer, "Would you be more interested in a game that takes place before the trilogy, or after?" AFTER. No, wait. BEFORE. No wait, I DON'T CARE JUST LET ME BE A KROGAN.

The universe is left in quite a state after Mass Effect 3's ending, but it'd be possible to work around those multiple endings if the fourth game is set far enough in the future, and it'd be interesting to see how far each species has evolved in the centuries after the Reaper invasion. It'd also allow for the introduction of entirely new sentient species able to flourish in the wake of the Reapers' demise.

But there are many stories to be told before the trilogy takes place, too. There's the first contact war between the humans and Turians, and there's the situation that led to the creation of the Genophage. Of course, now Shepard's story is done, there's no reason we'd have to even play as a human in Mass Effect 4. Are you thinking what I'm thinking? Jelly McJello, first Hanar Spectre. Oh yes.

ME4 is being developed by Bioware's Montreal studio while the folk at Edmonton work on something new. It'll use Frostbite, and will be “enhanced by many of the systems that the Dragon Age III team has already spent a lot of time building," according to Montreal studio director Yanick Roy. "You can still expect the pillars the franchise is known for to be fully intact though, including diverse alien races, a huge galaxy to explore, and of course rich, cinematic storytelling," he says.

What do you think, sequel or prequel?

It's hard to imagine the circumstances in which yoinking your pre-order bonus less than a week after launch would be considered a really good PR move. Nonetheless, this is the peculiar position Treyarch found themselves in when they removed the Nuketown 2025 playlist last night - a multiplayer mode dedicated to the exclusive bonus map - leaving the content only playable in unranked custom games.

As Treyarch's game design director David Vonderhaar tweeted yesterday: "Double XP weekend is official over. That means Nuketown 2025 / 24-7 is as well. I know. RIGHT? Don't kill the messenger. Nuketown 2025 / 24-7 will be back for special events. You can always play it with your friends in Custom Games."

The internet, however, was not feeling merciful. (Sample Twitter response to Vonderhaar's message: "FUCK YOU") And shortly thereafter Treyarch launched a new "fast-action" playlist called Chaos Moshpit, featuring none other than the Nuketown 2025 map.

And quite right, too. Nuketown may be one of the egregiously awful multiplayer maps ever made - a mindless mosh-pit in which players plough into each other with no semblance of tactical thought - but nonetheless, out of my obligation as a reviewer, I did pay an extra £15 so I could play its reincarnation as a Black Ops 2 pre-order/deluxe bonus. £15 should buy me more than a weekend of access to the content in ranked playlists - leaving it accessible in custom matches is death by obscurity.

The value of pre-order bonuses is dubious at the best of times, and this can hardly improve customer confidence.

Super Meat Boy Galaxy is a prototype for a 3D version of Super Meat Boy set on a Mario Galaxy-esque globe. It was created by developer at Preloaded, Aubrey Hesselgren, as a 30th birthday present for Super Meat Boy programmer, Tommy Refenes. On his blog, Hesselgren has announced that he's decided to hold his own prototype to ransom in an attempt to raise £10k for the The Samaritans. Here's the ransom note.



Hesselgren describes the prototype as "just a bit of a throw away experiment. It was never intended as a “pitch” to make such a game." If the £10k goal is met, Super Meat Boy Galaxy will be released from its basement, wrapped in a police blanket, led away to safety and then released to the public for everyone to play. If it doesn't meet the target, those who donate will still get a copy of the prototype. Though Hesselgren has hinted that he'll probably end up releasing it for everyone to play anyway adding "I'm the worst ransomer ever."

"Bear in mind that this is a prototype, and as such will not be as friendly and polished as a final game," he adds. "Its main purpose was to investigate whether Super Meat Boy’s kinaesthetically pleasing platforming physics could survive the leap to 3D, given the right camera and level layouts." This video suggests that those pleasing platforming mechanics translate rather well, don't you think?

Clementine will survive. I will rescue her no matter the cost. She will surmount this nightmare—oh, sorry. This trailer for the November 21 season finale of Telltale's excellent Walking Dead series cranked my inner Lee into overdrive. Of course, the actual Lee isn't any different, exhibiting near-reckless abandon as he pursues the mysterious man from the radio in what Telltale calls "most depressingly emotional, intense, traumatic, and carnage-filled episode of the season." The remaining survivors carry their own burdensome issues threatening to split apart the fragile camaraderie like a freshly bisected zombie noggin. And that annoying train is still around. Choices: A peaceful Thanksgiving dinner or a glimpse into humanity's post-apocalyptic inhumanity?

Described as a streamlined '90s space sim back when we previewed it, Strike Suit Zero finally has a solid release date scheduled for January 24 next year. The announcement follows a Kickstarter campaign which saw the $100,000 target reached - and then exceeded by $74,804. Which is impressive.

As a result of the community's enthusiasm, developers Born Ready Games will release modding tools for the space mech title, and the first thousand backers with a pledge of $50 or more will receive beta access when it launches in December. There were 4,484 backers in total, and if you still want to donate now that the Kickstarter campaign has finished, you can do so via PayPal.

In a blog post on the Born Ready Games website, the team said there's still a tonne of work to do. "Now we begin preparing for the closed beta which will be starting in a few weeks time, getting the game working with our Oculus Rift dev kit, and then not long after that we'll be gearing up for launch in January."