Halo: Reach
Was it just me or did Reach seem to have the quietest launch of any $200 million seller in history? Franchise fatigue has definitely set in for Halo, but it didn't stop Bungie from delivering its masterpiece. What this game lacks in variation, it makes up for in refinement of one of the all-time great first-person shooters. Reach may be lagging behind Call of Duty -- both Black Ops and Modern Warfare 2 -- in the Xbox Live numbers game, but its campaign is so much more epic. The Covenant are classic video game bad guys, and no one does enemy AI like Bungie. No one.

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DJ Max Portable 3
I blame myself for not pimping out PM Studio's excellent DJ Max Portable 3 more this year. The Korean music game is quite possibly the only music game you'll ever need on a handheld, thanks to its seemingly endless soundtrack, varied modes, rewarding progression, beautiful graphics, and note charts that will make your fingers cry. Oh, and for the first time in the franchise's history, you actually feel like a DJ. Ludwig makes fun of me for the epileptic fit I get into when playing it, but he just doesn't understand.

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The Gears of War franchise is no stranger to re-releases, having "Platinum" and "Game of the Year" collections across its two titles so far. However, it appears Microsoft is planning one more re-release, tentatively titled Gears of War Ultimate, according to a GameStop listing spotted by IGN. Pegged with a February 15th date, Ultimate has a $29.99 price tag.

Although the listing has since been removed, a Microsoft representative confirmed plans for a "forthcoming bundle SKU," suggesting that Ultimate is, at the very least, a compilation of the two Gears of War games. Don't expect to see any Gears of War 3-related content, though. The representative confirmed "it will not involve Gears of War 3 or the beta." You'll have to pick up Bulletstorm instead if you want entry into the beta.

Here's a nice bonus for fans of the original Dead Space. If you have any save file -- completed or not -- from the first title, you'll unlock the original plasma cutter right off the bat for use in the upcoming sequel. Hardcore players should be more than familiar with the gun, thanks to an Achievement that forces players to complete an entire playthrough using only that gun.

But don't expect the plasma cutter to give you much of an advantage at the beginning of the Dead Space 2 campaign. Although you'll get access to the gun, Visceral Games' Louis Gascoigne told us that the upgrades you purchased for the weapon won't carry over into the sequel. Isaac Clarke just can't get a break, can he?

As practice for the kind of quick thinking required to play Hero 30 Second ... and to promote Hero 30 Second (mostly that last one), Japanese publisher Marvelous has launched a Twitter caption contest. Participants are asked to come up with clever captions for a selected screenshot in 100 characters or less.

Of course, given the nature of the game, participants are also limited to 30 seconds. After you've come up with your impromptu masterpiece, it'll go on the "Twitter30" website and your own Twitter feed. As 1UP notes, it's technically a Japanese contest, but there's likely someone at Marvelous who will be able to read and appreciate your frantic attempts at humor.

You may not know much about Catherine, the action-adventure game from Atlus that's been teased with some strange trailers, but don't worry -- all will be revealed, says the game's director, with a demo coming early in 2011. Katsura Hashino says that although people have been intrigued by the weird media released so far, many have been confused about what the game actually is, and the demo is apparently designed to reveal exactly that.

No word on when the demo will drop, but the game is due out in Japan on February 17, so presumably it'll be out before then. We look forward to making some sense of all the weirdness so far.

The ESRB has posted its rating for Rayman 3D, previously rated in Australia. The ESRB's rating offers a bit of new information about the mysterious title -- specifically, the platform. If you want Rayman's disembodied, floating arms to get all up in your face, you'll have to get a 3DS to do so.

There are still plenty of mysteries around Rayman 3D, like when it's coming out and whether it's an original game or a port -- and, if the latter, on which Rayman game it's based. There's no question, however, that Ubisoft has a lot of faith in the new handheld. This is the seventh planned 3DS game from the publisher.

You've seen our "best of 2010" and (some of) our "best of the rest" for 2010. What were your favorite games this year, and will you be playing any of them this weekend?

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Well, you made it. You survived to the end of 2010. Let's celebrate our collective fortunes together by analyzing the Joystiq Top 10! What's that, you say? Not enough? How about an impromptu iPhone buyers guide? Perhaps a free Spoiled Rotten on Castlevania: Lords of Shadow? (Sorry about Chris' robot voice, by the way.)

No? Well, forgive us. It's the end of 2010, and we have nothing left to give. Also, thanks to Conor O'Byrne for his humble photoshop.

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See all of this week's links after the break.

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The Advertising Standards Authority on The Citadel greets every visit from Commander Shepard with a deep, disgusted sigh and a disdainful eye roll. The moment that guy sets foot inside the galactic nexus -- home to millions of aliens and bustling market to many more -- is when all the complaints start rolling in. Yeah, he's saved a planet or two, but the man's obviously a duplicitous douchebag who loves nothing more than inflating his ego through endorsement. Seriously, how can every single store on the Citadel be his favorite?

The simplest explanation is that it's a video game, and giving the store a highly marketable nod of approval is something that comes up on the dialogue wheel whenever Shepard talks to a clerk. In return, you receive a discount on your purchases. It's obviously sensible and entirely beneficial to endorse all space shops. The video game you're playing simply does not care.

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The Old West was not a pretty place. For decades, films and TV shows depicting this part of American history have run the gamut between sugar-coated idolization -- see: The Lone Ranger -- and, in more recent years, downright brutal (HBO's Deadwood). In games, though, the "Wild West" was at best a mild West, and then we got Red Dead Redemption.

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The generosity of indie developer Semi Secret apparently knows no bounds. Not only did the studio lend its runaway (geddit?) hit Canabalt to the Indie iPhone sale, which has already raised over $25,000 for the Child's Play Charity with its ongoing $0.99 offers on iPhone hits such as Osmos, Drop7, and Solipskier, but the two-man team behind the grayscale game has opened up the Canabalt source code for everyone's perusal.

You can download and learn more about the Canabalt source on Semi Secret's official site -- all that we ask is that, should you go poking around in the game's brain, you finally program in whatever the agile protagonist is running from. We've spun off a number of theories involving the Illuminati, but it's entirely possible that we're way, way off base.

Turns out we'd been thinking of "episodic" gaming the wrong way. Episodic pioneers like Telltale long-since realized that consumers won't stick around episode to episode unless they buy the season upfront; so, episodic gaming isn't so much about a new business model as it is about a new (well, for gaming at least) method of storytelling. And that's where Alan Wake comes in.

When Finnish game developer Remedy Entertainment announced it was turning in wronged NYPD cop Max Payne's badge and gun, only to pick up mystery writer Alan Wake's uh, pen ... and hoodie ... it was clear something was different. Over the game's prolonged five-year development cycle, Alan Wake morphed from an open-world, sandbox-style game set in the Pacific Northwest's fictional town of Bright Falls to a carefully scripted, episodic creation that had more in common with Twin Peaks than Grand Theft Auto.

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Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood took the single-player mechanics of one of our top games for 2009, Assassin's Creed 2, and sharpened them to a fine point; but that's not why Brotherhood clambered so high on our best of 2010 tower. The sequel is here for blindsiding us with a panic-fueled, engrossing multiplayer component.

Like many of you, we've grown cynical watching companies cram unnecessary multiplayer into games with solid single-player experiences. Upon its announcement, that's exactly what Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood's stab-or-be-stabbed multiplayer sounded like: typical padding to a cash-in sequel, still riding high on the last game's wave of success. Wrong. Not only did Brotherhood's single-player campaign offer a focused, distilled romp through Rome, but its multiplayer gave us a unique experience that, refreshingly, didn't have shooting at its heart.

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Act before the strike of midnight tonight, and you'll be able to get a copy of Limbo for 800 Microsoft Points ($10) -- a 33% discount from its original price. Nothing says "happy new year" like running away from a menacing giant spider, while having a slug eating away at your brains.

We'd like to think it's in celebration of its esteemed position on the Joystiq Top 10 of 2010 list, but apparently it's just part of Microsoft's "Countdown to 2011" promotion. That means in addition to Limbo, you can download the Kick-Ass movie for 29% off. Like peanut butter and pickles, this pairing makes so much sense.

Dragon Quest IX
DQIX is secretly two games: when you're playing through the main quest, it's a traditional JRPG with a light but interesting story populated by unexpectedly engaging characters and perfectly brisk pacing; then as you approach the end, it becomes a dungeon crawler driven by a dungeon map trading mechanic using the passive communication of the DS.

How compelling is that "tag mode" mechanic? I can't think of any other game for which I would go hang out at a GameStop and then a Best Buy, but that's exactly what I did when Nintendo held DQIX events this summer. I needed those maps. That's how I know this is my favorite game of 2010.

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Dotcom; Amazon dotcom. The online retailer has bled half the price off of Bizarre's non-movie-affiliated James Bond game, James Bond 007: Blood Stone. For today only, you can pick up the latest Daniel Craigventure for $29.99 on PS3 and Xbox 360. The PC and DS versions aren't part of the deal, selling for $44 and $24 respectively.

Here's our insane theory: if enough people buy this today (like, eight million or so, depending on how many of these Amazon has in stock), then either Activision will reverse its decision to shutter Bizarre Creations, or some other company will become more eager to throw money at it.

Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers is a game originally released back in 1997 for the Sega Saturn in Japan. It was a sequel to Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner, itself a game within the same Megami Tensei universe inhabited by the Persona series. Publisher Atlus has tried a few times to bring the title to the states, but Sony hasn't yet allowed it, so a group of fans calling itself "Devil Hackers" is working on a fan-made translation of the title, playable on the PSP.

You can watch a "teaser trailer" of the translation after the break -- but someone needs to translate the word "teaser" for the Devil Hackers, because it's thirteen minutes long. Assuming things work themselves out, fans interested in playing the game in English should get their chance soon.

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The price-conscious folks over at Thrifty Nerd have picked up on a few more solid end-of-the-year gaming deals. If you somehow still haven't bought enough games to last you through 2011 (or at least until Dead Space 2 hits on January 25), here are a few more great titles to get on the cheap:

• Amazon's got that WoW deal back on again: Buy the original World of Warcraft and get Burning Crusade for free.
• Amazon also has Halo: Reach for just $39, Batman: Arkham Asylum GOTY for $20 and Dance Central for $39.
• Newegg has NBA Jam for just $30 on PS3 and Xbox 360.
• Buy.com is selling arcade racer Blur for just over $17.
• And finally, Walmart has underrated shooter Metro 2033 for under $20.

There. Are you happy? Have enough games now? Sheesh!