Thursday shorts: Gears of War board game, Kojima and Nomura, The Old Republic

Its Thursday, so crush it and eat it alive before the weekend. But read some shorts first, yo.

• There is an actual Gears of War board game. Whowouldhavethunkit.
• Have a whazz at this: it's The Witcher II taking the p**s at Assassin's Creed.
• GameSpot and Raptr have teamed up to provide stats for the launch of Portal 2 last month. Did you know that that over six percent of players finished course four in co-op without them or their partners dying? You do now.
• Here's a mod for The Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth 2. Go nuts.
• Crystal Dynamics has kicked open the new Tomb Raider blog. Get it here.
• This is the biggest controller for an NES ever. Have at it.
• Hideo Kojima's actually told Final Fantasy Versus XIII boss Tetsuya Nomura to remake FFVII. We don't know what to make of that one.
• There's some new info on the sith inquisitor for Star Wars: The Old Republic here.