Editor's note: Metal Gear Solid HD Collection is released in Europe this week. Here we present our review of the North American release of the game, first published in November last year. To the best of our knowledge it's still accurate with respect to the European version.

Metal Gear Solid's Snakes may resemble Escape From New York's hero right down to their names and eventual eye patch; however, their penchant for ideological musing about the nature of war reminds me more of another mulleted eighties action hero, Dalton, the bouncer with a philosophy PHD from Road House. And much like that 1989 cult classic, in Metal Gear Solid, it's never clear when the creators are in on the joke.

More esoteric and cerebral than the pro-war action movies from which they draw so heavily, Metal Gear Solid games are equal parts melodrama, political thriller, science-fiction, whimsical meta-humour and surreal theatrics. They're as much war games as Twin Peaks is a police procedural.

Often, their lengthy exposition is meandering, over-explaining simple facts ad nauseam while glossing over important twists in the labyrinthine plot. But just when you start tuning out, something will suddenly grab your attention like a guard alerted to Snake's presence. The games' tone varies from jaw-droppingly majestic - like a field of flower petals changing colors paired with a Harry Gregson-Williams score - to drawn-out philosophical debate or goofy comic relief. It's not always on point, but series creator Hideo Kojmia's schizophrenic sensibilities are never less than stimulating.

This HD collection brings together definitive editions of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, 3: Snake Eater and the previously PSP-exclusive Peace Walker. Curiously, neither MGS3 nor Peace Walker actually stars series protagonist Solid Snake, and even MGS2 soon turns the spotlight off him. Both Snake Eater and its direct sequel Peace Walker are prequels set a generation before the series began, while MGS2 takes place nearly 30 years after Peace Walker. MGS2 likely won't make a whole lot of sense without the original Metal Gear Solid, but then, it probably won't make much sense anyway.

Regardless of this lack of cohesion, all three games (or five, rather, as the 8-bit Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake are included as a bonus in Snake Eater) stand up as being some of the most daring and inventive titles to come about in the last decade.

The long-awaited King of Fighters 13 patch has been released.

It's out now on PlayStation 3 and will be out soon on Xbox 360, Rising Star Games said.

The patch focuses on improving the fighting game's much maligned online play.

The patch notes in full:

• Ranked Match Filtering: One of the most requested additions, players may now set conditions for their opponent's connection. When a player who doesn't meet the standby conditions tries to enter the Ranked match, a warning message will be displayed and the match cancelled.
• Improved Filtering: Filtering functionality in general has seen dramatic improvements. Previously, certain connection data was not filtered sufficiently and the player had a chance of connecting to opponents with poor connection quality. Now, more aggressive filtering should ensure that players are only matched with opponents who meet their filter settings.
• Improved Connection Antenna: The computation behind the players' connection antenna, the meter indicating the quality of a player's connection, has been improved, resulting in a more accurate and consistent measurement.
• Temporarily Saved Custom Match Settings: Players may continue searching for opponents with the same settings as long as the player remains in the PLAYER MATCH/RANKED MATCH menu.
• Character-specific Bug Fixes: "NESTS-Style" Kyo and Iori with the Power of Flames no longer become unresponsive under certain circumstances.
• Additional refinements, fixes, and more.

Meanwhile, US publisher Atlus announced a $10 price drop for the game ahead of its appearance at the EVO 2012 fighting tournament later this year. No word yet on whether UK publisher Rising Star Games will follow suit on these shores.

Digitally-delivered versions of PlayStation Vita games will be cheaper than their boxed counterparts, Sony US has confirmed.

A NeoGAF poster spotted Best Buy listings for Vita download codes with prices 10 per cent lower than the games' standard boxed RRPs.

For example, Little Deviants was listed at $26.99 rather than $29.99, Uncharted: Golden Abyss at $44.99 rather than $49.99 and Hotshots Golf at $35.99 rather than $39.99.

A Sony representative has subsequently confirmed that downloads will be slightly cheaper, as is also the case in Japan, though refused to confirm precise details.

"I can confirm that there will be a discount on the downloadable PS Vita titles from PSN. Exact details have not yet been revealed, but be on the lookout for an announcement in the very near future," they told Shack News.

We're chasing Sony UK to clarify the situation on this side of the Atlantic and will update when we learn more.

The long-running Humble Indie Bundle initiative has finally made the leap to smartphones.

The latest pack includes Android-compatible indie gems Osmos, Edge and Anomaly: Warzone Earth. What's more, you'll also get versions for Mac OSX, Windows or GNU/Linux.

As is traditional, you decide how much you pay, and what proportion of your donation goes to the developers, to charity (choose Child's Play Charity or the Electronic Frontier Foundation) and to the Humble Indie Bundle organisers.

If your payment is above the current average ($5.29 at the time of writing), you'll also get World of Goo thrown in.

The pack has got off to a solid start, with over 24,000 sales so far and revenue of $131,000.

It's not about being the first to market, it's about being the best when you do finally get there - that's Zynga boss Mark Pincus' response to accusations that the social gaming giant has been cloning other developers' games.

Following a public complaint from independent developer Nimblebit last week that Zynga's Dream Heights appears to be a straight lift of its popular Tiny Tower game, Pincus sent out a company wide email detailing the company's stance.

That email has since found its way to VentureBeat.

In it, Pincus explained that while it might not always be the first developer to use a particular gameplay idea, it earns its spot in the marketplace by innovating on that core concept.

"We don't need to be first to market. We need to be the best in market," it read.

"There are genres that we're going to enter because we know our players are interested in them and because we want and need to be where players are. We evolve genres by making games free, social, accessible and highest quality."

He went on to claim that Tiny Tower itself was not a new idea and was just as guilty of borrowing ideas from other developers.

"With regard to Dream Heights and the tower genre, it's important to note that this category has existed since 1994 with games like Sim Tower and was more recently popularized in China with Tower of Babel in 2009 which achieved 15 million DAUs," he wrote.

"On iOS there has been Yoot Tower, Tower Up, Tower Town, Tower Blocks and Tiny Tower. Just as our games, mechanics and social innovations have inspired and accelerated the game industry, its 30 year body of work has inspired us too.

"And, this has always been the case for our company and the rest of the industry. Zynga Poker, FarmVille, CityVille and Words with Friends, none of these games were the first to market in their category but we made them the most fun and social, and the most popular.

"Our teams continue to build and improve these games every week which has been an important part of our success model. We run our games as a live service and we continue to iterate, innovate and improve on them to give our players the best possible experience."

Nimblebit's Ian Marsh has subsequently fired back a response of his own, rejecting Pincus' insistence that Tiny Tower is just a new take on an old idea.

"It is a smart idea for Mark Pincus and Zynga to try and lump all games with the name Tower together as an actual genre whose games borrow from each other," Marsh told Touch Arcade.

"Unfortunately sharing a name or setting does not a genre make. The games Pincus mentions couldn't be more different. Sim Tower is a true 'sim' with macroscopic management and fine tuning of a buildings facilities. Tower Bloxx is a timing based high score game."

Marsh then pointed a number of uncanny similarities between Nimblebit's game and Dream Heights.

"If you take a quick look before 'pulling the lens back' as Pincus suggests, you'll find an innumerable number of details in the game that were painstakingly crafted to be identical to Tiny Tower. These are core gameplay mechanics and rules, not similar settings or themes that games in the same genre might share.

"Why are there five different business types like Tiny Tower? Why do five people fit in an apartment instead of four or six? Why are there VIP elevator riders that perform the same functions as Tiny Tower? Why do businesses employ exactly three workers and produce exactly three products that are stocked in exactly the same way as Tiny Tower. Even the tutorials at the beginning of the game follow the exact same steps.

"All of these things are poorly hidden underneath an uninspired veneer which has become Zynga's trademark."

Nimblebit isn't alone in accusing Zynga of pillaging others' work. Yesterday, Buffalo Studios played spot the difference between the social gaming behemoth's new bingo game and its one-year-old Bingo Blitz effort.

Speaking in a follow-up interview with VentureBeat, Pincus countered that if anyone is guilty of plagiarism, it's Buffalo, not Zynga.

"It was a little ironic to look at Bingo Blitz," he said.

"Pull that lens back. Look at our game Poker Blitz, and then Bingo Blitz, you see striking similarities in those pictures."

343 Industries will be in total control of the Halo universe from 31st March, franchise creator Bungie has announced.

A blog post on Bungie's site today explained that the transition of all Halo data will be complete by that date, and 343 will be the sole custodian.

"Bungie will no longer be able to update game stats and player service records, to host new user generated content, or to operate the Bungie Pro service. All currently supported, Bungie-developed Halo titles will be impacted by this change," it read.

However, it promised to preserve all existing historical Halo data on Bungie.net "for as long as the internet and Bungie's data storage systems remain functional".

"Thanks for making the Halo-era version of Bungie.net more successful than we could have possibly imagined. You complete us," the post signed off.

Bungie is currently hard at work on a mystery new multi-platform IP for Activision. 343, meanwhile, has already turned in its first Halo title - November's Combat Evolved remake. Its second, Halo 4, is due out later this year.

Scribblenauts developer 5th Cell has revealed a few new details of its forthcoming multiplayer Xbox Live Arcade shooter Hybrid.

First announced back in 2010, the studio went back to the drawing board following its first public showing at GDC in March last year. Nearly a year on, and it's ready to show off the results.

As seen in the new trailer below, players can now fly between cover points at the push of a button. While in flight you'll have full control of your horizontal and vertical movement, speed and landing location.

The game's art style has also undergone a revamp, with 5th Cell claiming more detailed environments, a new interface and redesigned character models. It'll apparently all run at 60fps at 720p.

The game's ambitious core concept remains unchanged however. You'll be picking a side and duking it out in a massive persistent online world war.

It's due out some time in the Summer.

PlayStation Plus subscribers can pick up the impending re-release of 1991 coin-op classic The Simpsons Arcade free of charge for a limited time this month.

Konami's cartoon tie-in is available at no charge from 1st February to the end of the month.

It's a bumper few weeks for PS Plus members, with Far Cry 2 and Final Fantasy V among the other freebies up for grabs. There's also substantial savings to be had on Rayman Origins, Sonic Adventure and House of the Dead 3.

Here's the full list of offers, as seen on the PlayStation Blog:

From 1st February:

• The Simpsons Arcade - 100 per cent off (you save £7.99/€9.99)
• Final Fantasy V (PSone Classic) - 100 per cent off (you save £7.99/€9.99)
• Hungry Giraffe (minis) - 100 per cent off (you save £2.49/€2.99)
• Farm Frenzy (minis) - 100 per cent off (you save £2.49/€2.99)
• Sonic Adventure - 50 per cent off (you save £3.15/€4.00)
• Sonic Adventure DX Upgrade - 100 per cent off (you save £3.19/€3.99)
• Rayman: Origins - 50 per cent off until 08/02/12 (you save £24.00/€30.00)

Second chance offer:

• Sega Megadrive Classics: Sonic the Hedgehog - 100 per cent off; Sonic the Hedgehog 2 - 100 per cent off; Golden Axe - 100 per cent off; Streets of Rage 2 - 100 per cent off; Altered Beast - 100 per cent off; Comix Zone - 100 per cent off (you save £24.00/€30.00)
• Jellybeans Dynamic Theme - 100 per cent off (you save £1.59/€1.99)
• Skulls Dynamic Theme - 100 per cent off (you save £1.59/€1.99)
• Rayman: Origins Globox Toe-Grab Avatar - 100 per cent off (you save £1.20/€1.50)
• Rayman: Origins Darktoon Avatar - 100 per cent off (you save £1.20/€1.50)
• Rayman: Origins Baby Dragon Avatar - 100 per cent off (you save £1.20/€1.50)

Still to come later this month:

• Far Cry 2 - 100 per cent off from 14th to 22nd February (you save £15.99/€19.99)
• Vandal Hearts: Flames of Judgment - 75 per cent off (you save £7.50/€9.75)
• House of the Dead 3 (Move) - 30 per cent off for two weeks (you save £1.45/€1.79)
• Splinter Cell, Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow and Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory - 50 per cent off for one week (you save £12.00/€15.00)

The Darksiders series is to get a scene-setting novel tie-in, THQ has announced.

Written by fantasy veteran Ari Marmell and published by Random House's Del Rey imprint, Darksiders: The Abomination Vault is set thousands of years before the events of the first game in the franchise.

The book follows twin Horsemen Death and War as they attempt to scupper a mysterious plot to resurrect powerful ancient weapons and trigger a devastating conflict.

It's due on shelves in May this year, a month before Darksiders 2 is expected to launch.

For a closer look at the Vigil Games-developed sequel to the well-received 2010 Zelda riff, head on over to Eurogamer's Darksiders 2 preview.

A new update for the PC version of Need For Speed: The Run goes live today, bringing with it some new content, publisher EA has announced.

As well as the various fixes and enhancements listed at the bottom of the story, the patch also includes the extra cars from last month's Signature Edition Booster Pack DLC.

While console owners had to pay 240 Microsoft Points/$1.99 for expansion, it seems PC users are getting the following vehicles for free:

• Puppet Chevy El Camino SS
• Fatlace Nissan Skyline 2000GT-R
• Venom Nissan 370Z
• Scoundrel Subaru Impreza WRX Sti
• Victory BMW M3 Sport Evolution
• Nicolas Mazda RX-7
• Mega Nissan GT-R (R35)
• Falken Porsche 911 GT3
• Conroy Ford GT

Here's the full changelog for the patch itself, available to download via Origin:

General:

• 30 FPS cap is disabled when v-sync is set to OFF in advanced display settings
• Miscellaneous fixes for gamepad and peripheral support
• Tweaked reset behavior for a number of tracks in The Run where resets seemed too close to the main race route

Single Player:

• When players go off track, they will be reset back onto the track instead of at the last checkpoint. Crashes will still result in a reset to the last checkpoint.
• Fixed issue where Autolog split time HUD would sometimes disappear after a vehicle reset

Challenge Series:

• Updated car images will now be displayed in Challenge Series loading screen

Multiplayer:

• Added Quick Match option from multiplayer menu
• Players now have the option to mute VOIP of other players in multiplayer sessions
• Reduced unrealistic behaviors when multiplayer opponents drive off-road or collide with world objects
• Fixed issue where sometimes icons wouldn't display for playgroup members in the intermission screen
• Animated recently completed solo and group objectives in the intermission screen
• Display active objectives in the pre-race loading screen
• Tabs will now auto-cycle during the intermission screen, manually tabbing between screens will disable the auto cycling
• Countdown timers in MP will flash orange in the last 5 seconds
• Will still display session rewards for players that finish the last race in a session after all other players have left the session
• Hide the empty race results and session standing tabs in the intermission screen when joining a race in progress

Autolog:

• Gallery - Fix to extend scroll bar for entire length of gallery
• News - Fixed alignment of news list and top of news image
• Friends - Now displays whether a friend is online, joinable or offline in player badge
• Friends - Added option to join a friend's multiplayer session from the friends list, if friend is in a joinable session
• Photo - Now displays the proper error message when a photo upload fails due to being out of space