Written by: Simon Moore

There are two ways to get your very own Cylon for Christmas. You can beg Santa or you can enter Battlestar Galactica Online’s latest competition. All you need to do is log into BGO five times during the month of December and you’ll be automatically entered to win. The fact that the game is both free-to-play and browser-based, means this shouldn’t be a big chore for anyone with an internet connection. Head over to the official forum for the terms and conditions.

Written by: Simon Moore

An unnamed Japanese developer seems to have leaked the technical specs of the upcoming Wii U. According to various internet reports, the new console will sport a 3 GHz PowerPC-based 45nm CPU, with 768MB-1GB of memory. It will also apparently have an ATI-based graphics card. While these specs are better than the current crop of consoles, they still fall somewhat short of those proposed for the new Xbox and PlayStation machines, expected in 2013-14. Developers have said that they would like to have at least 2GB of RAM to play with, so the Wii U might be behind the count on the first day of release. The console is expected to hit shelves in 2012.

Last week, we reported on a Half-Life 3 shirt making an appearance and speculated the game may be coming soon. Some of you were understandably skeptical. The HL3 sightings continue with the release of a screenshot featuring the alleged achievements from the game. Grab the biggest grain of salt you can find and head over here to check it out for yourself.

Two new Xbox Live apps are available today for smartphone users. Windows Phone 7 users can now download the Xbox Companion app, which allows you to search movies, music, and games and play them on your Xbox. iOS’ My Xbox LIVE app gives you access to your avatar, friends list, and more from the palm of your hand.

Written by: Simon Moore

Firefly Studios has released a small patch for their medieval castle storming title, Stronghold 3. In addition to the standard bug fixes and gameplay tweaks, this latest update features a new Free-Build mode control panel and “Threefish River” map. You can find the full list of updates here.

Written by: Simon Moore

Cyanide continues to work on the A Game of Thrones RPG. The plot centers around Night’s Watch brother Mors and formerly exiled Red Priest Alester. These original characters are set to cross with everyone from Queen Cersei to Varys to Night’s Watch Lord Commander Mormont. Apparently, the game’s “grand quest” will see you visit King’s Landing, The Wall, and many other well-known regions in Westeros. The official develop statements reads “In A Game of Thrones, you will choose the class of your characters, find your fighting style, reach a good balance between your strengths and weaknesses, and get ready for epic battles!” Check out some new screen shots below.

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Aeria Games has just launched the website for its upcoming free-play science fiction FPS Repulse. The game, which is still in development, aims to build its own brand of playing style. The sci-fi shooter will have an air of familiarity to fans of developer Queen’s Soft. Repulse began as the open beta for a Queen’s Soft shooter by the name of Genesis AD. Having incorporated Genesis AD‘s best-recieved features into Repulse, Queen’s Soft is working with Aeria on bringing the game to completion. The publisher boasts the new game will feature quick-change character classes, Havok physics, and 16-player battles across nine different gameplay modes. The game is now taking applications for next year’s closed beta.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation is making a submission to the US Copyright Office, under the exemptions for the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, to legally allow you to mod your game consoles. A previous EFF submission resulted in it being totally legal to jailbreak your iPhone, and so there is reason to believe that their attempt to allow you to alter your consoles stands a good chance of success. Even if the measure works out, however, it would still be illegal to play pirated games on your modded systems. DMCA exemption submissions will be considered in the spring of 2012, so hold in your creative urges until then.

Bethesda has confirmed that their latest game’s full dev tools will release in January. “Beginning in January, PC players will be able to freely download the same development tools we used at Bethesda Game Studios to create Skyrim,” said the developer on its blog today. Green to tool development? Fear not; Bethesda added, “in tandem with the Creation Kit’s release, we will roll out a new Wiki and videos to help you get started.” The kit will also integrate Steam Workshop, which will allow you to publish your creations for others to download.

A t-shirt has been spotted by Chandana Ekanayak, art director and executive producer at Uber Entertainment – the studio behind Super Monday Night Combat – who posted a picture of it on Twitter along with this message: “All I’m saying is I saw this at a local game developer event worn by a Valve employee.” Ekanayak used the hashtag #ValveTrolling, rightly pointing out this could be Valve fanning the flames of desire with some good old trolling. Adding fuel to these rumours was Valve’s recently leaked DOTA 2 beta client by a tester. In it was a folder called “ep3″ and resources for new weapons for the game.

Ken Kutaragi, the creator of the console that changed gaming forever, says he is working on something cool, and something new. Kutaragi, now senior technology advisor as of this year, refused to give details on what the project was, but hinted that some of Sony’s older members know a thing or two.

Personally, I am very interested. A “cool” new project from the man that brought the entertainment-defining machine is something to really be interested in. Maybe he has invented the first truly virtual reality game?

There’s some new DLC headed to the Xbox 360 for Robot Entertainment’s Orcs Must Die! The upcoming content, The Lost Adventures, will feature new fortresses, new enemies, new traps, and new upgrades. The DLC hits the XBLA this month and will cost 400 points.

Some people count down to a game’s release with a big clock that slowly ticks away seconds, minutes, and hours. BioWare is counting down to Star Wars: The Old Republic in a much more festive way. BioWare will release one of the game’s songs on YouTube every day until it releases on December 20. The first track, “The Mandalorian Blockade,” is accompanying this post.

First-person shooter Brink is free-to-play on Steam this week. The game features single and multiplayer combat, including several game modes and weapon types. People happy with the game can then purchase it on Steam for 75% off. More details on the sale can be found here.

Save your game and grab the popcorn! Zachary Levi, the Star of NBC’s “Chuck and voice actor for “Fallout: New Vegas,” will host Spike TV’s 2011 “Video Game Awards”. Telecasting from Los Angeles, and featuring some of the most notable names in gaming, the two-hour event honoring the outstanding achievements within the industry over the past year will premiere on Spike TV Saturday, December 10 at 8:00pm ET.