Shacknews' feature picks:

• The Shacknews Holiday Buyers' Guide 2007
• Shacknews' Guide to Underhyped Holiday Titles
• Shacknews' PlayStation 3 Buyer's Guide
• World of Warcraft: The Guilded Age
• Super Mario Galaxy Review

1. First Crysis Patch Arriving Within Two Weeks
2. Report: GameSpot's Gerstmann Fired Due to Negative Kane & Lynch Review
3. Call of Duty 4 Online Woes Being Addressed
4. Wireless 360 Guitar Hero III Controller Compatible with PC Version
5. Update: Star Trek Online to Become 'More Casual,' Developer Perpetual Acquired by New Ownership

1. Crysis Review
2. Hellgate: London Review
3. Gears of War PC Review
4. Mass Effect Review
5. Kane & Lynch: Dead Men Review

The month of November will come to a close tonight, heralding the arrival of December and its multitude of traditional celebrations. But November has much to be remembered by in in the world of gaming news.

The month started with the creation of a hack for the PSP version of Rockstar's Manhunt 2 (PSP, Wii). Although the developer as well as the ESRB mostly dodged a bullet through playing by the rules, retailer Target pulled all versions of the game from its shelves, and senators like Hillary Clinton (D-NY) have refused to let the issue rest.

A game based on the Ghostbusters franchise was announced, with original Ghostbusters writers/actors Harold Ramis and Dan Aykroyd heavily involved in penning the script. It was later revealed that Terminal Reality would be handling the flagship Xbox 360 and PS3 versions.

Halo 3 (X360) players' wishes were granted with the Rocket Race game type added to the game's official multiplayer playlists. And as an early Christmas present from Bungie, the game's first map pack will arrive December 11.

Eidos announced a third entry in the Deus Ex franchise, with development headed by Eidos Montreal. The Shack staff isolated the imagery from a mysterious trailer for the game, and learned the game will make use of a modified Tomb Raider: Legend (PC, PS2, X360) engine from Crystal Dynamics.

Following Black Friday, all three of the console gaming companies released numbers of some sort trumpeting their system's success at retail, although Nintendo's Wii came home with the largest Thanksgiving-week sales. Nonetheless, Nintendo execs continued to reiterate their failure in underestimating demand for the console.

The month ended on the sour note of multiple game industry firings. BlackSite: Area 51 (PC, PS3, X360) creative director Harvey Smith publicly trashed his own Midway Austin studio and the development of BlackSite, and was subsequently fired. Longtime GameSpot employee and acting editor-in-chief Jeff Gerstmann was also let go, following a harsh review of Io Interactive's Kane & Lynch: Dead Men (PC, PS3, X360) that supposedly garnered the ire of publisher Eidos who had paid for a considerable advertising campaign on GameSpot's site. CNET has denied that Gerstmann's dismissal resulted from any external pressure.

For the holidays, the Shack staff handcrafted buyers' guides a-plenty, covering all of Sony's PlayStation 3 models, underhyped holiday titles, Rock Band, and the season's best games.