I found this at a street fair near NYU on Saturday, at a stand that sold some awesome sci-fi scrap metal sculptures. There were plenty of Darth Vaders, alien xenomorphs, and Iron Men, but what really stood out was this homemade gem from Bioshock: a solid metal, spot-welded Big Daddy. Alas, the statue cost $75, so I didn’t take it home with me.

The booth was run by Metal Park, a  New York-based company that specializes in scrap metal sculptures. Of course, none of its products are licensed, so the Big Daddy is actually “Big Dad,” Darth Vader is actually “Darth Warrior,” Iron Man is “Iron Hero,” and Wall-E is “Wall Robot.” The sculptures are so awesome that I can forgive the lame names that sound like rip-off toys sold in dollar stores.

Look after the jump for pictures of Darth Warrior and Boba Fett Space Warrior.

The other day, Will and I were able to get some hands-on time with LittleBigPlanet 2 coming to Playstation 3. Though I’ve admittedly not played the first, the game has always been one that I’ve wanted to try because of just how fun it looks. And the sequel is very, very fun. The extra emphasis on fun comes from the forgiving nature of the game and the ultimate customization and creation of worlds.

And so it begins. Blizzard has released details on the first of what will undoubtedly be many tweak-and-balance patches to the newest horse in its stable, StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty. The meat and potatoes of this version 1.1 patch are increases to build times for certain infantry units (Protoss zealots and Terran reapers take longer to train) and nerfs to some of the heavier units (Terran battlecruisers and Zerg ultralisks are weakened). Apparently Terran siege tanks and battle cruisers have been wiping the deck with everything they encounter.

If the World of WarCraft community serves as any precedent, expect the StarCraft forums to be awash in the tears of those who feel Blizzard has trampled on the very spirit of justice herself by making even the most modest of changes to unit and faction balance. Other, less politically contentious updates involve new hotkey options for left-handed players, and a tweak to friendly units so they no longer provide vision after they’re killed.

A GameFly listing (via Siliconera) reveals that Atari is scheduled to bring German developer Deck 13′s fantasy RPG Venetica to stateside consoles in January 2011. Originally developed in German for PC and Xbox 360 in 2009, Venetica was available only in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Fans elsewhere either brushed up on their Deutsch or went without.

Venetica takes place in a fictional sixteenth-century version of Venice, where heroine Scarlett discovers herself to be Death personified, finding herself in the middle of a struggle between the powers that control the natural – and unnatural – course of death. The stylish characters, cityscapes, customizable gear, morality system, and action-RPG mechanics are all reminiscent of the Fable series, but Venetica adds a twist with the use of the “Twilight world.” It’s a parallel dimension of departed souls where Scarlett winds up either by choice or when killed. It offers its own rules, abilities, characters, and quests, many of which have consequences in the world of the living. Deck 13 certainly talked a good game about the necessity of storytelling in RPGs and Venetica enjoyed both critical and commercial success in its native land, so this could be a post-holiday treat for early next year.

Nintendo was notorious for censoring potentially offensive or graphic content in its games, especially in the 8-bit and 16-bit days. That’s one of the reasons why ICOM Simulations’ 1990 release Deja Vu is so impressive. This first-person adventure game, in the same vein as Shadowgate, brings some genuinely gritty and dark storytelling to the NES (the game was released before then on the Amiga, Commodore 64, PC, Apple, and Atari ST).

There are few games I’m really excited for. The Kingdom Hearts series is some of them. The Secret World is another. It’s a very ambitious game, combining MMO gameplay with social networking and alternate reality aspects. It takes place in a parallel version of the modern world with influences from “ancient mythologies, real and false history, urban legends, and pop culture.” The game is about three secret organizations that serve as the playable factions:  the Illuminati are based in New York City and are described as “Machiavellian pragmatists who believe that it’s a tough world where only the strongest will survive,” the Templars of the clip above are based in London and are “pious zealots who would burn an entire village down to get their hands on one demon,” and the last faction is the Seoul-based Dragons, who “take a neutral stance between the other two and are all about deceiving, orchestrating chaos, and waiting patiently for its time”.

The Secret World takes a different approach to making an MMO. First, there will be no leveling, nor is there a class system, instead focusing on skills. This will allow new players to join more easily and function without level grinding. Second, there will be a heavier focus on fighting AI opponents with actual tactics; if you don’t pay attention, you’ll die. The third point ties into that: you can play by yourself. Even though you can team up and fight foes together, the game is designed in such a way that you can take the whole thing on by your lonesome.

The final and most exciting point is the fact that it will be heavily story driven. While this may not seem to be that big a deal, the story is being crafted by Ragnar Tørnquist, the man who brought us The Longest Journey and Dreamfall, two critical darlings heavily praised for their mature storytelling. Tørnquist classifies the genre of the story as dark fantasy, mentioning vampires, demons, and zombies. You can travel to both real locations like London, New York and Seoul, and mythical locales like Agartha, the legendary city located within Hollow Earth. You will also travel in time, to pursue the overall plot and investigate new mysteries. The Secret World’s story will have a solid conclusion, but the designers are leaving room for future expansions.

Check out the video above demonstrating Templar gameplay, explained by Tørnquist.

I can understand a love for most older games, but MMOs? Once the newest version or expansion pack of an MMO comes out, is there any reason to stay in the old version’s world? MMORPGs are fundamentally a massive time sink and if you can show me someone who can balance two at the same time, I’ll show you someone with two computers, two brains, and four arms.

Still, Square-Enix is trying to entice Final Fantasy fans to embrace Final Fantasy 11 and Final Fantasy 14 simultaneously with a set of bonuses to players who subscribe to both games at the same time. To start, if you get Final Fantasy 14, you’ll get $5 off your subscription to Final Fantasy 11, cutting your rates down to $7 per month. The discount only works for the base subscription of FF11, and you can only get one discount per FF14 service account. According to Square-Enix, if you have two FF14 accounts and three FF11 accounts, you’ll only get $5 off on two of the FF11 accounts. According to me, if you have two FF14 accounts and three FF11 accounts, you are completely insane.

We’ve had some pretty weird game bonuses before. From Record of Agarest War‘s “mouse pad” (one of the rare cases of that type of bonus making it out of Japan) to the full body pillows accompanying many ren’ai games, there has been an irregular stream of odd game bonuses. Sega aims to top them all.

Siliconera (via 4gamer) reports the preorder bonus for upcoming Japanese Xbox 360 game Virtual-On Force will be boobs. No, I’m not making this up. More specifically, preordering will net you a “fetish code” (their words, not mine) that will allow you to adjust the breast sizes of characters Fei-Yen and Angelan, both of whom happen to be mechs.

Virtual-On Force is actually not the latest game in the series. It’s actually the port of an arcade game that came out in 2001. The most recent chapter is Virtual-On Marz, a 2003 PS2 exclusive outing based on Virtual-On Force and the only one to not appear in arcades. The second game in the series, Virtual-On Oratorio Tangram, is already available on XBLA.

It seems like single males are at the bottom of the food chain when it comes to even nerd orgies. Joystiq discovered via Craigslist that there is an orgy that will be going down on the Friday night and perhaps followed up the next night.

Siliconera reports that The Last Story director Hironobu Sakaguchi said the game’s system took precedence over the story in an Iwata Asks interview. “During 23 years there are 3 times when I considered the [gameplay] system first” said Sakaguchi. The first was the original Final Fantasy and the second was Final Fantasy VII. “There was a considerable amount of trial and error.” Final Fantasy was when they first set up the systems that the RPG would use for decades, while Final Fantasy VII was the first shift to three dimensions.

Hironobu Sakaguchi created the Final Fantasy series in 1987 with the last of then Squaresoft’s money; the game was named ironically as Sakaguchi expected it to be his last game. He went on to be the head of Squaresoft all the way through Final Fantasy X-2, soon after which he left the company to form Mistwalker with funds from Microsoft. Mistwalker’s games have been critically successful, but haven’t been the financial hits they were expected to be. There is some speculation that The Last Story may also be ironically named, fueled by a mistranslation that Sakaguichi was quitting the industry after this title.