Sometimes, some folks have nothing better to do then to carve two fictional video game characters into a mountain. I don’t know what do you guys think about this publicity stunt by Namco Bandai commemorating the launch of Soulcalibur V, but read on and sound off in the comments section.

To celebrate the release of the game for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, Katana-wielding  Mitsurugi and sword-fighting Pyrrha have been engraved in granite on a mountain in Tanum, Sweden, where they will remain until the end of time. The game makers describe Soulcalibur V as tougher than anything that has gone before it – and have cut the two characters into the Earth to prove it.

“Everyone knows the Soulcalibur characters are among the hardest fighters in gaming – so we’ve decided to immortalise them in granite for thousands of years” says Lee Kirton, marketing director, Namco Bandai. “These characters have only ever existed digitally, so it’s brilliant to record them permanently in a format which remain visible until the end of time.”

Master Stone Engraver Göran Andersson from nearby Hunnebostrand performed the engraving. He is the last remaining stone engraver on the Swedish west coast who performs engravings out in nature and has done engravings for notabilities such as movie star Ingrid Berman and the kings of Norway and Sweden.

“This is the by far most complex and detailed engraving I have ever performed”, Göran Andersson. “But it was very fun to do.” Namco Bandai enlisted the help of SavedInStone, who have engraved the characters on their mountain close to a UNESCO World Heritage Site filled with Bronze Age stone carvings.

Soulcalibur V is available for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 from tomorrow.

You read the title right, the following are video game bargains that are not to be missed this week, and this includes titles for the Nintendo Wii, DS, Sony PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360. Click on the titles to find out more about each title:

Nintendo Wii

• Metroid: Other M (NTSC U/C) ~ USD 19.90
• Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All Stars (NTSC U/C) ~ USD 26.90

Nintendo DS

• Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective ~ USD 28.69
• Chrono Trigger DS ~ USD 21.90

Xbox 360

• Castlevania: Lords of Shadow (NTSC U/C) ~ USD 29.90
• Bayonetta (NTSC U/C) ~ USD 22.90

Sony PS3

• Mass Effect 2 ~ USD 24.90
• Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Classic Trilogy HD ~ USD 29.90

Looking to purchase Christmas presents for a gamer? Well, aside from our 2011 Christmas Gift Guide (here), the folks over at UTV Ignition Games have announced their holiday sale prices for two of their greatest hits this year, namely El Shaddai and Quarrel.

Currently in the running for Game Informer’s ‘Best Action Game of 2011,’ and nominated for G4 TV’s ‘Best Art Direction of 2011′ awards, El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron is one of the most critically-acclaimed titles of the year and is now available for just $29.99 (orig. $49.99).  Curiously it’s now available for USD 19.99 on Amazon, check it out here.

Deemed “ingenious” by IGN and “brilliant” by GamesRadar, Quarrel has been one of the highest-rated iPhone/iPad games of the year, and is now available on the Apple App Store for just $2.99 (orig. $4.99). In this Scrabble-meets-Risk word game, players must create the highest-scoring word possible from an eight-letter anagram in order to conquer their opponents land. Check it out over here.

Christmas has always been known as a time for giving and we would like to kickstart this year’s Nine Over Ten 9/10 Christmas 2011 Gift Guide with a question: why not gift a gift and do your bid for charity as well? The Humble Indie Bundle 4 is the perfect avenue for this. Not only can you purchase this bundle which consists of amazing indie games such as Gratuitous Space Battles, Super Meat Boy, Bit.Trip Runner and many more, as a gift, part of the purchase goes to American Red Cross and Child’s Play Charity. Check it out over here.

If you are feeling a little more generous, you can always head over to the nearest NGO or Charity out there and donate. Here are some organizations that are closer to home in my case:

• National Cancer Council of Malaysia: http://www.makna.org.my/
• National Council for the Blind: http://www.ncbm.org.my/
• National Kidney Foundation: http://www.nkf.org.my/

OK, with that charity bit out of the way here’s our annual gift guide for Christmas 2011, this time it has something for everyone, I think, ranging for the bookworms to tech heads (I’m actually adapting my Amazon wish list for this year’s Christmas guide):

Books

1. Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson (Hardcover)
2. Sex, Lies and Handlebar Tape: The Remarkable Life of Jacques Anquetil, the First Five-Times Winner of the Tour de France by Paul Howard (Paperback)

Electronic Devices and Gadgets

1. Apple iPad 2
2. Kindle Fire
3. Arduino UNO Board
4. Grado iGi In-Ear Headphones

Video Games

1. Nintendo 3DS
2. Batman Arkham City Collectors Edition
3. Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Collectors Edition

Movies

1. Star Wars: The Complete Saga (Episodes I-VI) [Blu-ray]
2. Harry Potter: The Complete 8 Film Collection [Blu-ray]

Music

1. Torches (Music CD) by Foster the People
2. Pickin’ Up The Pieces (Music CD) by Fitz & the Tantrums.

If you need more gift ideas, check out our super popular guide articles:

• Ultimate Guide to Getting the PlayStation Vita (click here)
• Ultimate Guide to Nintendo 3DS Accessories (click here)
• Ultimate Guide to Nintendo DSi LL/XL Accessories (click here)
• Ultimate Guide to Sony PSP Go Accessories (click here)
• Nintendo DSi Accessories Guide (click here)

I’ve been involved in building customer relationship management software for the timeshare (the holiday kind of timeshare, not the computing kind) industry, and one of the key components for any client would be a loyalty program. So imagine my surprise when I found a press release in my inbox concerning GAMINSIDE.

Founded by Thomas Aigner and Leonhard Brunnhofer, GAMINSIDE has developed a now available white label system which allows flexible custom solutions for loyalty programs in online games. One of the first games providers set to use GAMINSIDE’s new system is Berlin-based publisher Frogster. All I can about that is “Why didn’t anyone think about that in the first place?”

The modular system is tailored to meet publisher needs and offers everything from purely technical solutions such as cross-game CRM, ‘Loyalty Wallet’ or stores to services such as sourcing of specials for customers or the production of loyalty cards and branded credit cards. GAMINSIDE offers their customers turnkey solutions, taking over the complete process chain from strategic consulting through design, balancing and management to implementation of special needs.

“Loyalty and status programs are extremely popular in the travel and traditional retail sectors. But very few games providers have given the subject any serious professional consideration until now,” explains GAMINSIDE CEO Thomas Aigner. “With acquisition costs for publishers on the increase, however, it is becoming more and more important to keep existing users happy beyond the pure game content, as well. Here a well-planned concept can not only provide a significant competitive advantage, but also generate more profit through targeted customer activation and increased customer loyalty.”

Berlin-based publisher Frogster, operators of amongst others the online role-playing game ‘Runes of Magic’, is one of the first games providers to integrate the new GAMINSIDE system into their offer.

“The acquisition of new customers is just one of the building blocks to success in the highly competitive Online Games market for MMO providers such as Frogster. With scopes of several million players, retention policies are also very important,” says Frogster Online Gaming GmbH Chief Marketing Officer Daniel Ullrich. “In this context, GAMINSIDE’s outstanding loyalty and customer retention program represents a new white-label solution able to make a sustainable positive impact on key performance indicators.”

EU region gamers who have been waiting patiently for Wizardry: Labyrinth of Lost Souls to be available on the European PlayStation Network need not wait any longer. With  30 years of history, Wizardry is one of gaming’s oldest franchises. The latest in the series, Labyrinth of Lost Souls was earlier released for the Japan and North American PlayStation Network, and as of today, it becomes available for the European PlayStation Network for a price of €9.99.

Published by the indie-minded publisher XSEED, the release of Wizardry: Labyrinth of Lost Souls will provide fans of the series as well as fans of old-school, retro RPGs with the opportunity to experience one of the classics that inspired the genre as we know it today. Wizardry: Labyrinth of Lost Souls, developed by ACQUIRE, is the latest entry in the long-standing Wizardry series and the first made available for Next-Gen consoles.

With its roots stretching all the way back to 1981, Wizardry: Labyrinth of Lost Souls brings classic RPG-style gameplay to an all-new generation of gamers, pairing definitive in-game mechanics with modern, hand-drawn graphics presented in gorgeous high definition.

Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City may not be released until March 2012, but that’s not stopping publisher Capcom from ramping up its inventive marketing approach with Inserted Evil, an ARG conceived, designed and implemented by creative agency SJS.

The campaign, which originally began on 31st August, saw the launch of a recruitment site for the Umbrella Corporation (www.umbrellasciences.com) an omnipresent and somewhat sinister organisation within the Resident Evil franchise, which was subsequently hacked by a mysterious ‘Insider’ hell bent on exposing the truth behind Umbrella’s involvement in bio-genetic engineering…

The campaign then challenged players to solve weekly clues posted on www.insertedevil.com  which, created a transmedia treasure hunt, based within social media (involving a Facebook Connect login) and taking in sites such as Google, YouTube, Soundcloud and Flickr, as well as a range of proprietary, purpose built sites, red herrings and dead ends. The treasure at the end of each trail was a combination of in-game rewards, real-world prizes and meaty game world and character background.

The next phase has just begun – and looks set to build on the enormous popularity of the first stages, which have seen 500,000 core players from over 170 countries visit the site. SJS’s concept for the ARG saw the company creating video, static pages, online games, picture galleries, audio, tweets and a whole range of story and data files for the project, all of which combined to create the immersive experience that engaged with fans of both Resident Evil and ARGs.

Rachel Norman, Director at SJS London said: “We knew this was a great idea, but even we were surprised at the sheer number of fans who got involved – and to the lengths they went in order to bring down Umbrella.” Ben Wyer-Roberts, the game’s Strategic Marketing Manager commented: “The intention was always to inspire and excite the hardcore fans, and with the Inserted Evil campaign, SJS has helped deliver the most successful ever Resident Evil gaming community program.”

Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City will launch on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC on March 23^rd 2012. The ARG continues at www.insertedevil.com.

Japanese RPG title, Vanguard Bandits, previously released in 1998 by Working Designs and created by Human Software for the PSOne is set to hit the PlayStation Network on November 15th, 2011. The guys who are working on this release are none other than the folks who brought us BurgerTime World Tour (Xbox Live Arcade), MonkeyPaw Games, in collaboration with Gaijin Works.

Back in 1998, the game captivated users with its tactical combat and support-centric strategy role-playing. Set in a medieval fantasy world, armored mecha are controlled by the residing pilots who can maneuver on an isometric grid of squares. 3D battle animations take place over the grid, while cut scenes play out the story. The character list, location variety and event schedule add up to an incredible amount of intense gameplay and longevity spread over three story branches and five different endings.

As an added bonus, MonkeyPaw Games will offer a license for a free digital Vanguard Bandits strategy guide download from their website to help players through this enormous world of Vanguard Bandits. Stay tuned for more details on Nineoverten.com.

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment released new screenshots supporting the Action RPG title, The Lord of the Rings: War in the North. Developed by Snowblind Studios, today’s images focus on the skills and advancement of each of the three playable characters in the game – elf, human and dwarf – that make up the Fellowship of 3 at the heart of the game.

While the visceral action of the game cannot be denied, in this first mature rated game within The Lord of the Rings canon – these images center on the role playing components of the game, of character development and loot. Detailing the skill trees for each race, as well as providing snapshots of specific items for each character, today’s screenshot batch also provides a look at the depth of the character development, as players adjust characteristics such as Strength, Dexterity, Stamina and Will as they progress through the game.

More about the game:

The Lord of the Rings: War in the North is an intense Action RPG video game based on the renowned The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Through innovative online, interdependent co-op play for up to three players who form their own Fellowship, the game breaks new ground as the first The Lord of the Rings video game to embrace the gritty and brutal reality of Middle-earth.

Exploring previously unseen lands, storylines and characters as well as those familiar from The Lord of the Rings film and literary trilogy, gamers experience expansive co-op gameplay and upgradeable weapons, character customization and development, skills and special abilities.  Gamers must play together or perish as they work to defeat Sauron’s forces in the North. The Lord of the Rings: War in the North will be available on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Games for Windows

Batman is on a roll these days, first with the success of Arkham City and now, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and DC Entertainment announce that Gotham City Impostors will be available beginning January 10, 2012, on Xbox LIVE™ Arcade and PlayStation®Network, as well as for Windows PC.

Gotham City Impostors is an original download-only first-person shooter, where up to 12 players battle for control of an unhinged Gotham City overrun by Impostors inspired by the DC Comics characters Batman and The Joker. Gotham City Impostors is an online multiplayer game unlike any other, giving players the opportunity to engage in unconventional urbane warfare as they personalize their own Impostors.

Gamers will create their very own version of the Bats or the Jokerz characters using unprecedented customization options including insane costumes, homemade gadgets and a wide range of traditional and inventive weapons.  The game will feature maps and modes inspired by DC Comics’ Batman license. An open beta for the game is expected to go live in December.  Fans can go to www.GothamCityImpostors.com to register for their chance to take part in the beta.