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Irrational Games today announced a $150 Ultimate Songbird Edition for BioShock Infinite. The bundle’s premier item is a 9.5-inch statue (below right) of the game’s Songbird creature, which has been designed by System Shock, BioShock, Thief, and Freedom Force concept artist Robb Waters.

The developer also took the lid off the $80 Premium Edition for BioShock Infinite, which includes a 3-inch keychain, a propaganda lithograph, a 25 millimeter Handyman miniature, and an art book. Additionally, it features various digital items, including in-game gear and the title’s digital soundtrack.

Everything included in the Premium Edition is also bundled with the Ultimate Songbird Edition. At press time, the bundles were not available for preorder in the United States, although a website promising to take preorders has gone live. Irrational said both packs will be available for reservation in Europe and Australia beginning October 22. For more on each bundle, check out the landing page at Irrational’s website.

BioShock Infinite was originally expected to ship on October 16, but was delayed to February 26, 2013 earlier this year. Several top developers have quit the studio, and its multiplayer modes were recently axed.

BioShock Infinite is set in Columbia, a flying city in an early alternate 20th century where utopian ideals have given way to chaos in a sea of weaponry, plasmid-like powers, and political upheaval. Into this mess steps the game’s protagonist, Booker DeWitt, a former member of the feared Pinkerton National Detective Agency, which was America’s largest security company in the late 19th century.

According to GameSpot’s latest preview, DeWitt will enter a world where steampunk robots have replaced horses and people, and where crazed citizens foment revolution with strange powers–and lots of guns.

Criterion may be focused on the Need for Speed series at present, but that does not mean the company is abandoning its Burnout franchise. Speaking to The Guardian, Criterion creative director Craig Sullivan pledged the Guildford, London studio will return to the series at some point in the future.

“There’s still a lot of stuff we want to do with driving,” Sullivan said. “We will make another Burnout game at some point. Obviously, as we’re working on NFS we’re thinking of really good ideas that aren’t right for this series; there are ideas that we’re going to explore with Burnout. And we wouldn’t be making NFS or Burnout games if we didn’t think the driving genre had a long shelf life and that we could push the boundaries.”

The most recent core Burnout game Criterion made was 2008’s Burnout Paradise. The studio took the franchise to Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network in 2011 with Burnout Crash, and is currently wrapping up development on Need for Speed: Most Wanted, due out October 30.

As for where Criterion may head in the future, Sullivan teased that the studio may develop something without vehicles at all, but a Road Rash game is more likely.

“We might make a Road Rash game…But then we might make a game without vehicles in it,” he said. “I mean, we made Black, I was the lead designer; we might make a game about blowing the crap out of each other. But Road Rash seems like a good fit for Criterion…”

In 2009, Electronic Arts re-trademarked Road Rash, but nothing has come of it since.

Wii U gamers will not be able to access the Call of Duty: Elite social service when Call of Duty: Black Ops II launches next month. An Activision representative told Kotaku that the online platform may support the Wii U some day, but not at launch.

“We are currently evaluating options for Call of Duty Elite to support Nintendo’s Wii U game system, however Call of Duty Elite for Call of Duty: Black Ops II will not support this platform when the game launches on November 13th,” the Activision representative said.

Earlier this week, Activision announced that all Elite features would be free. Additionally, the company said four planned map packs and Zombies add-ons for the game will release in 2013 for $15 each or through a $50 season pass.

Wii U gamers will miss out on Elite (at least at launch) and they may also be skipped over for the game’s DLC. Activision’s season pass and DLC map packs have been announced only for Xbox 360, and “may not be available on all gaming platforms,” according to Activision.

Black Ops II launches on November 13 for PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3, with the Wii U version to arrive November 18 as a launch title for the system.

After an initial delay earlier this year, Rockstar is finally ready to release the next instalment of Max Payne 3 multiplayer DLC.

The Hostage Negotiation Pack will be released across all platforms on Tuesday, October 30.

The Hostage Negotiation DLC will add four new multiplayer maps (Club Moderno, Estadio Do Galatians, O Palacio Strip Club, and Favela Heights), as well as three new items: Intimidation Mask (slows down opponents’ reload time), Bomb Suit (protects against explosive damage), and Explosive Burst (creates fiery booby traps).

Additionally, the Hostage Negotiation DLC for Max Payne 3 will add two new weapons to players’ arsenals. These include the M24 Sniper Rifle and the IA2 Assault Rifle.

The DLC will be free for those who hold a $30 Rockstar Pass, which unlocks all planned add-on content for Max Payne 3, and will cost either 800 Microsoft Points on Xbox LIVE or $9.99 on PlayStation Network and PC.

The 2012 holiday season is closing in and according to research group Nielsen, sequels Halo 4, Call of Duty: Black Ops II, and Just Dance 4 are the season’s most-anticipated games for consoles.

The research group released its annual holiday wish list study today, revealing Xbox 360 gamers have shown the most interest in Halo 4, but only by a narrow margin over Black Ops II.

PlayStation 3 gamers are most eagerly anticipating Black Ops II, the study found, with Assassin’s Creed III in a close second. As for Wii players, Ubisoft’s Just Dance 4 proved the most desirable for that platform, on top of Zumba Fitness Core in second.

The full top-ten lists for each platform are below. They are based on Nielsen’s “Game Rank,” which is the result of the firm combining “key consumer metrics” like awareness and purchase interest into a total rank, and then comparing it to scores for previously released games on the same platform. This is represented in a percentile ranking, denoted in the chart below.

Of note, NBA 2K13 and WWE ’13 are the only two titles to rank in the top ten for all three platforms. Additionally, holiday 2012’s most-desired titles are all sequels to existing franchises. Lastly, Nielsen said Dishonored “narrowly” missed a top ten spot, possibly due to the general gaming public not being “acutely aware” of the game amidst a heap of sequels.

Nielsen’s list was based on data collected between September 9 and October 6, 2012 through online surveys of more than 4,800 males and female “active” gamers between ages 7 and 54. Respondents needed to own at least one current generation console and “actively” play and purchase games on that system to qualify for inclusion in the survey.

Below are Nielsen’s most-anticipated holiday 2012 titles, denoted by platform. Italicized titles are platform-exclusives.

Most-anticipated 2012 Xbox 360 titles:
Halo 4 – 99 percent
Call of Duty: Black Ops II – 99 percent
Assassin’s Creed III – 98 percent
Resident Evil 6 – 96 percent
NBA 2K13 – 87 percent
Need for Speed: Most Wanted – 82 percent
Medal of Honor Warfighter – 77 percent
WWE ’13 – 75 percent
Hitman Absolution – 74 percent
Fable: The Journey – 72 percent

Most-anticipated holiday 2012 PS3 titles:
Call of Duty: Black Ops II – 99 percent
Assassin’s Creed III – 98 percent
Resident Evil 6 – 98 percent
NBA 2K13 – 91 percent
WWE ’13 – 83 percent
Need for Speed: Most Wanted – 82 percent
Hitman: Absolution – 80 percent
007: Legends – 76 percent
Medal of Honor Warfighter – 74 percent
LittleBigPlanet Karting – 67 percent

Most-anticipated holiday 2012 Wii titles:
Just Dance 4 – 98 percent
Zumba Fitness Core – 95 percent
Lego: Lord of the Rings – 88 percent
Just Dance: Disney Party – 87 percent
Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two – 83 percent
NBA 2K13 – 83 percent
WWE ’13 – 80 percent
Transformers Prime: The Game – 79 percent
Skylanders Giants – 62 percent
Nickelodeon Dance 2 – 62 percent

Obsidian Entertainment’s Kickstarter campaign for isometric, party-based PC role-playing game Project Eternity has finished with a total of $3,986,929, becoming the highest-funded video game on the crowd-funding platform behind Double Fine’s point-and-click PC adventure game Double Fine Adventure, which ended its Kickstarter with a total of $3.3 million.

Project Eternity’s final goal will most likely stretch to over $4 million once Kickstarter counts the campaign’s PayPal donations.

The Obsidian team live-streamed the final Kickstarter countdown, and celebrated by thanking everyone for their donations and joking that they’d start work on Project Eternity “tomorrow morning”.

The project started on September 14 and had exceeded its pledged goal of $1,100,000 within 24 hours. According to Obsidian–the studio behind Fallout: New Vegas and the upcoming South Park: The Stick of Truth–the extra funding could be used to help the development team to put more resources behind new playable races, factions, crafting systems, and a personal stronghold for players to store gear and weapons in.

“Additional money we raise will go straight into the game to add new levels, companions, NPCs, features, and even entirely new parts of the world which will add hours and hours to the adventure,” the developers said.

Obsidian also plans to attempt to enlist the aid of Neverwinter Nights 2’s creative lead George Ziets and, since the campaign reached beyond $3.5 million, will add a final goal to the game called “Big Big City”, where the game will feature a giant city hub, reminiscent of Athkatla from Baldur’s Gate 2: Shadows of Amn.

Project Eternity will combine elements of past Infinity Engine role-playing projects like Baldur’s Gate, Icewind Dale, and Planescape: Torment. Players will create their own character in Project Eternity, and will gather companions along their journey, which will be replete with “complex, difficult choices,” according to Obsidian.

Obsidian turned to Kickstarter for Project Eternity because the company said it was “almost impossible” to secure the necessary funding through traditional publishing means. Additionally, the studio said it is asking for more than most Kickstarter projects because it is “creating a whole new world.”

Breaking Bad star and Emmy award winner Aaron Paul will play the lead role in DreamWorks’ upcoming film based on Need for Speed, the company has announced.

According to Electronic Arts executive vice president Patrick Soderlund, the cast for the movie needs to be “edgy and cool,” making Paul the right choice for the lead role.

“Aaron Paul is a rising star,” Soderlund said. “A great choice for the film lead. We’re looking forward to announcing the rest of the actors that will bring this racing franchise to the big screen.”

Paul won two Emmys for his performance on AMC television series Breaking Bad. Other credits for the actor include Smashed, Mission: Impossible III, and The Last House on the Left.

The Need for Speed film–due February 7, 2014–is being described by EA as “a fast-paced, high-octane film rooted in the tradition of the great car culture films of the ’70s while being extremely faithful to the spirit of the video game franchise.” The project will not be based on any single game in the series and will enter production next year.

Directing the film will be Scott Waugh, who is best known for helming Act of Valor, a military movie starring active-duty US Navy SEALs. Possibly more relevant to the Need for Speed project will be Waugh’s experience on stunt crews for dozens of films, including Torque, The Italian Job, and Biker Boyz.

Waugh will be filming a screenplay penned by George Gatins, the executive producer of DreamWorks’ 2010 comedy She’s Out of My League. Gatins developed the Need for Speed film’s story with his brother John, who is producing the film and also wrote the scripts for Real Steel and the upcoming Flight.

As for the gaming franchise, it too has a new installment on the way in the form of Criterion Games’ Need for Speed Most Wanted, which is set for release on October 30.