The Warhammer 40,000 universe is a grimdark place, where a corrupt, crumbling empire rules over millions of worlds, endlessly warring with aliens, demons, and other nightmarish creatures (and said empire is the only “good” faction, save for the psychic space elves of the Eldar). Life is short, brutal, and often meaningless except as fuel for the for the Imperial war machine. Few aspects of this setting are as emblematic as the Space Marines: immortal, genetically enhanced, psychotically xenophobic super warriors clad in power armor and charged with defending humanity from terrible threats both without and within. As such, it’s no surprise that an action title featuring Space Marines prominently would appear at some point, especially after nearly every sci-fi shooter since Doom has effectively involved less badass versions of them. Relic and THQ’s Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine is the game fans have been waiting for, since it finally puts them in the power armor of an actual Space Marine.

Space Marine is a third person action title that follows Captain Titus of the Ultramarines as he attempts to secure a valuable strategic asset on a world ravaged by Orks. The greenskin horde has shattered the planetary defenses and what few defenders are left are fighting a desperate, losing battle for survival. Players are immediately thrust into the action with little exposition, starting with Titus’ arrival to Forge World Graia.

As you may have heard, the latest PSN update, among other things, opted you out of any “collective legal action”.

“Any dispute resolution proceedings, whether in arbitration or court, will be conducted only on an individual basis and not in a class or representative action or as a named or unnamed member in a class, consolidated, representative or private attorney general legal action, unless both you and the Sony entity with which you have a dispute specifically agree to do so in writing following initiation of the arbitration. This provision does not preclude your participation as a member in a class action filed on or before August 20, 2011.”

What that means is that you can’t be a member of any class action lawsuits against Sony if you intend to keep using PlayStation Network. However you are able to opt back into class action law suits and all you’ll need is a stamp. In order to opt out of the class action waiver, you need to confirm it with Sony in writing within thirty days. You need to include your name, your address, your PSN account number, and a clear statement that you do not wish to resolve any potential legal disputes with Sony through an arbitrator. The catch is finding your PSN account number. Thus far, no one has located said number; when called, a Sony phone rep said that the email address, PSN ID, and PS3 console serial and model numbers for your PS3. To streamline the process, a PSN forum member made this letter template; all you’ll need to do is fill in your info, print and mail the letter to:

SONY NETWORK ENTERTAINMENT INTERNATIONAL LLC
ATTN: Legal Department/Arbitration
6080 Center Dr. 10th Floor
Los Angeles, CA 90045

Remember, you have to send your letter within 30 days, else you’ll only get to sue Sony by your lonesome.

There are two types of tactical JRPGs. One type is the unforgiving, tactics-minded, chess-like game where you can lose units permanently and will reset maps hundreds of times just to get through them. These games include Fire Emblem, Tactics Ogre, and Final Fantasy Tactics (the original one). The other type is the grind-heavy, brute force, wacky, full-scale war game where you build tons of powerful units and steamroller through enemies as you build levels in the four digits range. These games include anything NIS America makes, including Disgaea 4: A Promise Unforgotten. The two tactical RPG game types are like comparing a delicious gourmet meal to really good junk food. One game is an artistic indulgence, one so rich and satisfying you can’t enjoy it all the time and, after getting through it, couldn’t possibly have another playthrough for a while. The other game is a tasty, mindless meal you can shovel down at lunch and, depending on how drunk, stoned, or lazy you are, will feel both guilty and happy after finishing it.

Yes, I’m calling Disgaea 4 video game junk food. It’s not good for you, but it’s so damn mindlessly enjoyable. After you’ve beaten all of the secret bosses and realize that you put hundreds of hours into a game that really doesn’t have “tactics” so much as endless grinding and massive squad building, you’ll feel guilty. And you’ll know that when the next Makai Wars (that’s the Disgaea series, including both the main Disgaea games and side games like Makai Kingdom, Phantom Brave, and others) game comes, you’ll do the same thing.

When I first heard that there would be a new Deus Ex game, I was uncertain. It was going to be a prequel. It was going to be made with no input from Warren Spector. It was going to have cover-based shooter mechanics. It sounded like a recipe for worse disaster than Deus Ex: Invisible War.

I was wrong. Deus Ex: Human Revolution is fantastic. It’s deeply flawed in many ways, but it’s also one of the best games of the year and stands as a worthy successor to Deus Ex, regarded by many to be one of the greatest PC games ever. This is the Deus Ex sequel we’ve needed, and despite its status as a prequel with cover mechanics and no development from Warren Spector, it’s incredibly deep and satisfying.

This has been a strange summer for video game numbers. You might have already read this, but Duke Nukem Forever was a horrible game. It also made money for 2K Games, despite the bad press. That’s kind of surprising. You know what else is surprising? Catherine being a hit in America, selling 200,000 copies for Atlus’ biggest game launch in the west yet.

Let’s forget about schaudenfreude and instead look at the facts: this is great news. Yes, both games’ successes are great news. Duke might have sucked, but it was made by Gearbox, which made a great little game called Borderlands. Duke Nukem Forever might have made money and maybe 2K Games will want to make a sequel in the future, but for now Borderlands 2 is being made, and that’s good news. As for Catherine, it’s a surprising victory for Atlus, a company which has focused mostly on niche Japanese games (including the excellent Shin Megami Tensei games), and to see a particularly weird and Japanese game like Catherine become a hit means the company might be more open to putting out even more surreal, unique games.

Nostalgic gamers might rip me a new one for this, but since Sega’s classic beat-em-up comic book adventure Comix Zone is hitting the PlayStation Network, it’s time to address something we all need to accept: it wasn’t a very good game. If you have PSN Plus, you’ll be able to play the game for free this Tuesday and realize it yourself, but for now let’s dig into the nostalgia fostered by decades of Genesis love and Sega’s habit of including it in every anthology it releases to every console.

YouTube user sithlord314 isn’t a cosplayer. He’s a freaking Turian. I’ve seen a lot of cosplayers and this is the best Mass Effect costume, and one of the best sci-fi costumes, I’ve ever seen. The mask alone is unbelievable, and the armor is both sculpted incredibly well and illuminated. All that’s missing is pop-out weapons that mount conveniently on the back.

The maker is the proprietor of My Wicked Armor, and based on his other projects it’s a puzzlement why he isn’t currently working for a major production house already. He does custom jobs, though.

Bruce Lee is possibly the greatest martial artist of all time. Even though he died suddenly in 1973, he’s influenced martial arts in popular culture for decades since. Even though video games didn’t become really popular until years after his death, and fighting games didn’t find their groove until the early 90′s, Bruce Lee is one of the biggest names you’ll see in the entire fighting game genre, even if you don’t actually see his name.

Nearly every martial arts fighting game series has a Bruce Lee. They don’t even try to hide it. They intentionally make a Bruce Lee lookalike that’s more shameless than The Clones of Bruce Lee or any other Bruceploitation movie. Sadly, they’re almost never the main characters, but they’re still there, waiting in the background for a player to master him and use him to drive his friends to a choking rage.

Here are the biggest Bruce Lees of gaming.

I wasn’t going to turn this into a whole big thing, but wow. What a difference a day makes. Huge scandal involving blacklisting threats from 2K Games/Gearbox’s PR company, the Redner Group, all coming from the torrent of negative reviews about Duke Nukem Forever. And why? We’ve waited 15 years, and to say the end result is underwhelming is being nice. Duke Nukem Forever is a game that would have felt like a mediocre shooter from any major publisher in 2006, and today feels like a piece of bargain bin shovelware.

Just got it in the mail this morning. Is anyone else still a little amazed? Duke Nukem Forever officially comes out on Tuesday.

Update; I still can’t confirm whether the game is real or not, because the installer is inexplicably tied to Steam. And Steam isn’t allowing installations until the game is actually released on Tuesday.