Lisa Eadicicco

?Diablo 3?s? release date is approaching, and fans have been counting the days ever since Blizzard announced the game on March 15th. It turns out that the upcoming third installment to the dungeon-crawler action RPG isn?t only the most pre-ordered game from Blizzard; it?s also shattering Amazon records.

There?s been a lot of hype surrounding video game releases as of late, with titles such as ?Diablo 3? and ?Max Payne 3? quickly approaching. But what about the second half of 2012? With the holiday season being a critical time for retail sales, players should know what they have to look forward to. It?s no secret that ?Assassin?s Creed 3? will be launching at the end of October, but a list of other titles are set to launch around that time as well.

One ?Skyrim? fan has taken his obsession out of the virtual realm and into the kitchen. Vera of Baking Obsession has created a dessert that could be mistaken for a creature straight out of Tamriel.

The world premiere of the first gameplay footage from 'Assassin's Creed 3' launched on May 10th. Ubisoft's next installment of the stealthy action adventure franchise will take place during the American Revolution, is set for an Oct. 30th release date.

On May 10th Bethesda Softworks announced that ?Dishonored? will have a release date of Oct. 9th in North America, according to the official press release. The supernatural assassin game is being developed by Arkane Studios, and will launch in Australia on Oct. 11th and throughout Europe on Oct. 12th. ?Dishonored? will be a multi-platform titled available for Microsoft?s Xbox 360, Sony?s PlayStation 3 and PC via Games for Windows.

Fans of the ?Elder Scrolls? have been harboring excitement for the upcoming ?Skyrim? downloadable content. However, attention has recently shifted to the massive multiplayer online release ?Elder Scrolls Online,? which was confirmed on May 3rd and will be developed by Zenimax Studios.

Although ?Black Ops 2? may be hogging the spotlight when it comes to the ?Call of Duty? franchise, Activision hasn?t forgotten about ?Modern Warfare? fans. A new multiplayer mode has just been announced for ?Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3? that will be included in the second DLC collection released later this month.

The long-running ?Halo? franchise is more than just a widely-successful first person shooter; it has been a flagship title of Microsoft?s Xbox system for over a decade. And just as the gaming console has evolved since its inception, so has the action-shooter game formerly owned by Bungie Studios. The Official Xbox 360 Magazine UK (OXM) notes that Xbox Live developed alongside ?Halo 2,? and the case may be the same for ?Halo 4? and the next-generation console.

?Dead Space 3,? the follow-up to Electronic Arts action adventure horror, may include drop-in drop-out co-op, reports IGN. Players will have the option of slaying aliens alongside a male character with a ?gnarly scar? on his face, his own engineering RIG, and ?glowing red eyes peering from his helmet.?

The passionate fans of 'Mass Effect 3' that have been tirelessly campaigning for a new ending may have something new to fuel their reflections on the controversial conclusion. A feature-length documentary has just launched to explore the ending theories behind the final segment in BioWare's space-adventure RPG.

BioShock Infinite, which was supposed to have a release date set for this October, will now be delayed until February 2013. But gamers shouldn?t be too disappointed, as the pushed-back launch only means that fans will get an even better game.

The release date for LightBox Interactive?s ?Starhawk? is finally here, but the surprise isn?t over for gamers. LightBox Interactive announced that all future downloadable content maps will be free.

The ?Assassin?s Creed? franchise is more than just a sandbox-style video game; it?s a piece of historical fiction. Ubisoft plans to uphold and further the themes of history present throughout the series, tackling the American Revolution with its third installment.

Sony has announced that a white version of the PlayStation Vita will launch in Japan on June 28th. It will sell at the same price as the original black base model and is sold in Wi-Fi only or 3G versions, reported CNet.

The band members of British pop sensation One Direction have been the object of Twitter gossip for quite some time. But a recent Internet rumor may have just crossed the line.

Treyarch recently announced their next venture into the ?Call of Duty? franchise, confirming rumors that the game will be a sequel to their 2010 title. ?Black Ops 2? is slated for a November 2012 release, and fans are gearing up for the Los Angeles-based Cold War shooter. However, Activision could be facing some legal troubles over the new game?s setting.

The world of ?Skyrim? will make its way to the to the Massive Multiplayer Online (MMO) realm, which Bethesda Softworks officially announced on Thursday, May 3rd. Known as ?Elder Scrolls Online,? the company has referred to it as the ?best MMO ever made.?

Ubisoft's next installment in the 'Assassin's Creed' franchise won't be released until Oct. 30th, but the company is beginning to entice fans with some hidden gameplay footage. A one-minute trailer for 'Assassin?s Creed 3' was released on May 7th, and if enough gamers 'Like' a post on the game's official Facebook page, the entire trailer will be unveiled.

Fans aren?t the only ones gearing up for the ?Mass Effect 3? downloadable content set to launch this summer. ?Mass Effect? voice actors are returning to the studio and being recorded for the new package of epilogue scenes, as the game?s producer Mike Gamble confirmed on Twitter.

A list of potential titles for Nintendo?s upcoming Wii U console has leaked from Blockbuster UK?s internal point of sale system, according to IGN. The list features alleged photos of 25 titles, and was originally discovered by GoNintendo.

Beneath all the action-packed body-twisting combat scenes and explosive three-dimensional graphics, Marvel's The Avengers is truly a story of what happens when the forces of good unite to overpower evil. Joss Whedon's take on the classic comic series, originally published in 1963, embodies an engaging action film that manages to portray the overarching themes that define the original comic collection

Mass Effect's Jennifer Hale and Metal Gear Solid's David Hayter will be offering their voice-acting talents to the projected iOS game Republique. The game's creators are in the process of fundraising via Kickstarter, which is where the big announcement was made on Friday.

Treyarch just unveiled the first trailer for the upcoming ?Call of Duty: Black Ops 2,? which is slated with a Nov. 13 release date. The announcement came on May 1st, and the upcoming first-person shooter is already breaking records. Amazon revealed that the pre-orders for ?Black Ops 2? are already three times the amount of those for the original ?Black Ops,? according to The Market for Computer & Video Games.

Microsoft?s next generation Xbox, rumored to be called the 720 and codenamed Durango, is in its manufacturing stages according to IGN. A source told the gaming website that assembly of the upcoming console?s hardware has started recently at the Austin, Texas division of Flextronics. The electronics company is also responsible for manufacturing the current Xbox 30 console and the original Xbox.

?God of War: Ascension,? set to be the fourth installment and a prequel to the original, was recently revealed at the end of April. The game will take place before protagonist Kratos became the Ghost of Sparta, and the game?s official trailer gives a vague yet enticing glimpse for fans. But one of the most anticipated features to come with the new title, set for a spring 2013 launch, is the integration of multiplayer gameplay.

With the ?Diablo 3? release date drawing near, Blizzard plans to launch an animated short called ?Diablo 3: Wrath? that will detail the game?s backstory. The company released a behind-the-scenes video on May 3rd to give fans insight as to what the video short will entail.

The latest issues of Xbox Magazine and PSM3 put a real-life face to the characters of some of the most widely-received games in the industry. The magazines list the casts and crews for nine games that players would like to see translated to film.

On May 3rd THQ announced that a new expansion for ?Saints Row: The Third? is now in development. Called ?Enter the Dominatrix,? the upcoming DLC will have a release date slated for the fall, according to the Saints Row official website.

In early March Ubisoft revealed that the next ?Assassin?s Creed? game will take place in New York and Boston during the American Revolution. With a brand new Native American/British protagonist, frontier-based maps, and possible historical cameos, fans have a lot to look forward to with this Oct. 30th release. But artwork posted by Ubisoft takes fans back in time to sneak a peek at the original concepts behind the widely-renowned series.