This week brought plenty of little tidbits, but nothing significant (apart from the continuing moaning and gnashing of teeth on the topic of Grand Theft Auto Online's rough start). No deep dive this week, so dig into the links! 

Quick Hits

• Team Meat's Tommy Refenes got his hands on a Steam Controller and posted extensive hands-on coverage.
• A report indicates more layoffs popping out of EA, this time via closure of a free-to-play studio in North Carolina.
• Sega has no current plans to bring Yakuza 5 to North America.
• Precursor Games has halted development of Shadow of the Eternals, and the studio's future is unknown.
• Rayman Legends should be headed to 3DS in fact.
• Twitch has announced $20 million in new funding from an investor group featuring Take-Two.
• Blizzard has filed a hallmark for something called Heroes of the Storm.
• The box art for Bungie's Destiny was revealed.
• Ubisoft has announced the creation of 5 hundred jobs over the following seven years in Quebec.
• Xi3 has announced pre-sales for his or her Piston Steambox, however the details aren't fully fleshed out.
• Eidos “life president” Ian Livingstone is leaving the corporate.
• Nintendo had a giant Direct presentation this week:
  • Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze is delayed into 2014.
  • Sonic returns to Smash Bros.
  • The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds will feature non-linear progression through dungeons.
  • A new Kirby title is coming to 3DS next year.
  • Pikmin 3 is getting paid mission DLC.
• Sony's Kaz Hirai could be honored on the annual Nite to Unite.
• Destiny pre-orders include beta access.
• Two Half-Life 3 related items this week: a brand new trademark filing (later revealed to be hoax) and an apparent accidental leak of Valve's project management system.
• Keiji Inafune's Mighty No. 9 closed out its Kickstarter campaign with over $4 million.
• Some of the PlayStation Plus services was extended to all PSN users.
• Author Tom Clancy gave up the ghost on the age of 66.
• Eidos Montreal has announced it’s engaged on a next-generation Deus Ex.
• Xbox Live Gold is free this weekend.
• A double punch of EA/Maxis news: studio head Lucy Bradshaw was promoted to senior vice chairman and her studio is now exploring bringing SimCity offline.
• Bethesda has opened a brand new business office in Australia.
• Capcom is within the means of cutting its European staffing by half.
• Sony and additional Life are teaming as much as raise money for charity.
• The Last Guardian isn't dead, it's just being re-engineered.
• You can pre-order Telltale's The Wolf Among Us straight away.
• A huge Borderlands 2 promotion will put $100,000 and funky prizes into the hands of gamers.
• Valve has released the fundamental specs for the various prototype Steam Machines.

Previews/Reviews

• Grand Theft Auto Online (Preview)
• Lego Marvel Super Heroes has a brand new villain: MODOK! (Preview)
• Nascar: Redline (Preview)
• Golem Arcana (Preview)
• Bioshock Infinite: Burial at Sea Episode 1 (Preview)
• Routine (Preview)

• Etrian Odyssey Untold (Review)
• Rain (Review)
• Rune Factory 4 (Review)
• Angry Game Nerd Adventures (Review)
• Disgaea D2: A Brighter Darkness (Review)
• F1 2013 (Review)
• Pokémon X (Review)

Announcements and Release Dates

• Sniper Elite 3 was announced.
• A Marvel Comics-themed Puzzle Quest was announced and released.
• The Bureau: XCOM Declassified is getting its first DLC next week.
• Deus Ex: Human Revolution Director's Cut has a release date: October 22, 2013.
• Ratchet & Clank: Into the Nexus is approaching November 12, 2013.
• Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition approaching November 15, 2013.
• NimbleBit and Disney have teamed as much as create Tiny Death Star.