Mass Effect 3 gave me a sad. This is a good thing. You see, BioWare has been up to something with this series (and Dragon Age), something relatively new to video games. Mass Effect 3 has thrilled me with its action-packed, cerebral combat sequences and satisfied my need to tinker with character leveling and squad management. But most of all, it’s thrown around more genuine emotional weight than any video game I’ve played.

Sounds hyperbolic? Allow me to back it up.

It’s great to see a publisher learn from its mistakes. After XCOM got such a negative reception, the 50′s-style first-person shooter sequel/reboot of X-Com was pushed back to 2013 while X-Com: Enemy Unknown came to the top of 2K’s to-do list of X-Com games. I previewed the game last week, and while I only saw an early build for a few minutes, I can safely say that this will be the X-Com you know and love, at least in design and concept.

Well, against my efforts to break up with Star Wars and avoid MMOs, I’ve started Star Wars: The Old Republic. Star Wars meets World of Warcraft. That can’t possibly be a life-destroying game. I’ve gotten to level 5, so I can’t offer a full, or even remotely thorough review, but I can give my first impressions. No PVP, no advanced classes, no vehicles, just the bare basics of what the game is and how it looks.

The Humble Bundle is breaking my balls. It seems like every month gets a new one that gets more of my cash and, probably, more of yours. The Humble Indie Bundle 4 is now out, barely a week after the Humble Introversion Bundle finished. And this bundle is… awesome. Seven great games for just $5 (or more, or less, depending on how generous you’re feeling).

First, the details if you’re not familiar with the Humble Bundle. You can pay however much you want. If you pay more than the average, you get an extra game or two. The games have no DRM and you can get them on multiple platforms. You can decide how much of your money goes to the developers, the bundle people, or the Child’s Play and EFF charities. That’s it.

Now, the games this time around are a who’s who of the best indie games of the last few years. There’s Cave Story+, Super Meat Boy, Jamestown, Gratuitous Space Battles, Bit.Trip RUNNER, Shank, and NightSky. I can name four of those games that are worth $10 alone.

The headline says it all. Steam usually has some pretty good deals, but they might have outdone themselves with this one. The sale runs through Sunday, so pick up these games while you can. Highlights include, for today alone:

• Fallout: New Vegas – $5
• Monkey Island Special Edition Bundle – $5
• L.A. Noire – $25
• Total War Mega Pack – $12.50

Other sales going on for the weekend include:

• Portal 1 and 2 – $17.50
• Orcs Must Die! – $7.50
• Mass Effect 2 – $10
• Dungeon Defenders – $7.50
• Sam and Max Complete Pack – $33.50

If you want some PC games, now’s a great time.

Last week, Eurogamer broke the news that LEGO-based MMO LEGO Universe would be shutting down on January 31st, 2012, only 15 months after servers first went live. According to LEGO group executive Jesper Vilstrup, the game was well received and had over 2 million active accounts, but “unfortunately, we have not been able to build a satisfactory revenue model in our target group.”

LEGO Universe strikes me as one of those games that should have worked really well. Most kids in this country played with LEGOs, or at least knew what they are, and they remain some of the most open-ended imagination fodder around. I used to stage battles between a pirate ship and a royal frigate before I discovered I could disassemble them and create a freakin’ bomb-ass Super Mega Ship. This play concept should have benefited immensely from translation into digital form. Sure, the LEGO Star Wars, Batman, Harry Potter, and Indiana Jones games are popular, but those only scratch the surface of the infinite scope of endless rebuilding inherent to LEGOs. If Universe was the culmination of those aspirations, it seems like a slam dunk. Why did it fizzle out? It boils down to a few reasons.

The Humble Bundle is back, and it has all-new games. The Humble Voxatron Debut Bundle includes Voxatron in an alpha build, The Binding of Isaac, and Blocks That Matter. The Bundle’s main thrust is to see Voxatron go out the door and get a final version released, which gamers will get along with the bundle, as soon as it comes out. The Bundle’s other thrust is charity.

Like other Humble Bundles, the Humble Voxatron Debut Bundle lets gamers pay as much as they want, and to distribute the money developers, the Humble Bundle organization, or the Child’s Play and EFF charities. The average donation is between $4 and $7, which isn’t bad considering you get three games and give to charity. Since this is just the start of the bundle’s two-week run, it’s safe to say they’ll add a few more games before it ends. Keep an eye out, and don’t be stingy! It’s for charity. Also, pixel art and nightmare babies.

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.

Spiteful dickwad that I am, I kind of hope this news bunches the collective panties of the sort of PC gamers who regard consoles with haughty condescension. In an interview with PC Gamer (via The Escapist), Diablo 3 game director Jay Wilson spoke highly of the idea: “With some of our early experiments in putting a direct control scheme into the game via a 360-like analogue controller, I’ve been ‘Oh this feels even better, with direct control…’” He went on to mention “if we decide to do a console version,” further hinting at Blizzard toying with the idea of taking Diablo 3 into the console market. However, he doubts that such plans would be ready to go by the time the game launches on PC, the date of which has yet to be announced.

The PC faithful need not worry that their mice and keyboards will be left behind, and would do well to remember that the first Diablo game was actually ported to the PlayStation, back in the days before analog sticks were standard on console controllers. Anyone else think a gamepad option for a game like this is a sweet idea? I tend to find the more action-intensive the game, the more I like the “feel” of the controller. Shooter enthusiasts point out that you can be more precise with a mouse and keyboard, but there’s something more visceral about the feel of the controller in your hand with an actual trigger you can pull (at least on the 360) that a little *click* of a finger on a mouse just can’t replicate. And I could see analog sticks being vastly superior to the mouse and keyboard for navigating in an isometric perspective like Diablo has. Perhaps menu navigation would be less nimble, but I would consider that an acceptable trade-off.

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.