Three new releases—Armored Core V, Ninja Gaiden 3, and Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City, highlight our weekly roundup of savings, bonuses and values to be found in video gaming. We've got them and more than 50 other offers inside!

Software

• Amazon has 19 Ubisoft PC download games DRM-free in a "Buy 1 for $5, get a 2nd game free" sale that ends Sunday. Titles include Assassin's Creed: Director's Cut Edition, Far Cry 2: Fortune's Edition, and Call of Juarez 2: Bound in Blood. [Dealzon]

• March 20 release Armored Core V (360, PS3) is $56.99, free shipping from Buy.com. Elsewhere $60. [Dealzon]

• March 20 release Ninja Gaiden 3 (360, PS3) is $54.96, free shipping from Amazon. Elsewhere $58 and up. [Dealzon]

• March 20 release Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City (360, PS3) is $56.99, free shipping from Buy.com. DeepDiscount has for $59, elsewhere $60 and up. [Dealzon]

• March 20 release Silent Hill HD Collection (360, PS3) for $39.96 comes with a $5 bonus credit from Amazon. Then it's $39 at Buy.com and $40 elsewhere. [Dealzon]

• Tuesday's release Yakuza Dead Souls (PS3) is $44.99, free shipping from NewEgg. Next best is $60. [Dealzon]

• April 24 release Prototype 2 (360, PS3) is $47.99, free ship from NewEgg through Sunday. Next best is $59. [Dealzon]

• Twisted Metal (PS3) is $49.99, free shipping from Buy.com. Next best is $60. [Dealzon]

• The Darkness 2 is $34.75 for 360 and $39.99 for PS3, free shipping from Amazon. Next best is $45. [Dealzon]

• Best Buy has a Buy 2, Get a 3rd Free sale on Pre-Owned games. Ends today. [Dealzon]

• Mario games (Wii, 3DS, DS) and accessories are Buy 1, Get 50% off another from Toys ‘R' Us. Choose from 98 items. [Dealzon]

• Just Dance 2 (Wii) is $19.99, free shipping from NewEgg. Next best is $27. [Dealzon]

• Bit.Trip Complete (Wii) is $19.99 from Amazon. Next best is $38. [Dealzon]

• Battlefield 3 (PC Download) is $29.99 from Amazon. Next best is $40. [Dealzon]

• Dead Rising 2 (PC Download) is $9.99 from GameStop. Next best is $18. [Dealzon]

Hardware

• SteelSeries Siberia V2 51103 Gaming Headset with Retractable Microphone Volume is $39.99, free shipping from eBay deals. Next best is $106 at Amazon. [Dealzon]

• SteelSeries Shift Gaming Keyboard is $34.99, free shipping from eBay deals. Next best is $75 at Amazon. [Dealzon]

• Official Nintendo Star Wars Wii Clone Trooper Blaster is $6.32 from Amazon. Next best is $15. [Dealzon]

• EVGA GeForce GTX 580 SuperClocked 1536MB GDDR5 PCIe Video Card is $419.99, free shipping from Amazon, a $70 price drop from last week. [Dealzon]

• Asus 24-inch VS248H-P 1080p 2ms LED Monitor is $189.99, free shipping from NewEgg. Next best is $200. [Dealzon]

• Intel's new 520 Series Cherryville SSDs are on sale at Newegg without coupons or rebates at NewEgg. The 240GB SSD is $329.99 (next best $370) and the 60GB SSD is $94.99 (next best $107). [Dealzon]

• Kingston 240GB HyperX SSD is $299.99 after rebate, free shipping from NewEgg. Next best is $335. [Dealzon]

• Samsung 128GB 830 Series SSD Laptop Upgrade Kit is $169.99, free shipping from NewEgg. Next best is $190. [Dealzon]

• HP Envy 17 1080p laptop with Quad Core i7-2670QM, Radeon HD 7690M 1GB is $1,109.99, free shipping from HP. That's $90 off the price from earlier this week (was $1,150). [Dealzon]

• HP Envy 15 with Radiance 1080p IPS Display, Quad Core i7-2670QM, 6GB RAM, Radeon HD 7690M 1GB is $1,109.99, free shipping from HP. Cheapest ever for this config with display upgrade, and it's $90 less than earlier this week (was $1,199). [Dealzon]

• Lenovo Y570 15.6-inch laptop with Quad Core i7-2670QM, 8GB RAM, GeForce GT 555M, Blu-ray is $849, free shipping from Lenovo. That's cheapest ever by $20 and $150 off last week's price of $999. [Dealzon]

• Lenovo IdeaCentre K330 desktop with Quad Core i5-2500, 8GB RAM, GeForce GT 545, Blu-ray is $749, free shipping from Lenovo. That's cheapest ever by $50. [Dealzon]

Digital Distribution

The following listing of digital download bargains are grouped by distributor. For more, see Deals4Downloads' roundup.

Adventure Shop
• Nostradamus Series: The Last Prophecy - Full Pack is $13.96, save 30 percent.

Amazon
• The Settlers: Rise Of An Empire Gold Edition is $5.00, save 75 percent.
• Bulletstorm is $4.99, save 75 percent.
• Dead Space 2 is $6.99, save 65 percent.
• Battlefield 3 - Back to Karkand DLC Pack is $7.49, save 50 percent.
• Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc is $5.00, save 50 percent.

Beamdog
• MDK2 HD is $7.49, save 50 percent.

BigFish Games
• Mystery of Mortlake Mansion is $2.99, save 57 percent.

Desura
• Depth Hunter is $9.99, save 50 percent

EA Origin
• Battlefield 3 is $29.99, save 50 percent.
• Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12: The Masters is $19.99, save 50 percent.
• Ultima Online: Stygian Abyss (Account Upgrade) is $9.99, save 50 percent.

GameFly
• Zuma's Revenge! is $9.99, save 50 percent.

GamersGate
• Commander: Conquest of the Americas is $7.49, save 75 percent.
• Dungeons and Dragons: Daggerdale is $4.49, save 70 percent.
• Baldur's Gate: The Original Saga is $4.98, save 50 percent.
• Neverwinter Nights Diamond is $4.98, save 50 percent.

Get Games
• The Settlers 7: Paths to a Kingdom is $8.99, save 70 percent.

GMG
• Conflict: Denied Ops is $7.48, save 75 percent.
• Post Apocalyptic Mayhem is $4.97, save 50 percent.

GOG
• Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold is $2.99, save 50 percent.
• Duke Nukem 3D Atomic Edition is $2.99, save 50 percent.
• Rise of the Triad: Dark War is $2.99, save 50 percent.

Impulse
• Amnesia: The Dark Descent is $4.99, save 75 percent.
• Batman - Arkham Asylum GotY Edition is $9.99, save 75 percent.

iTunes Store
• Spider-Man: Total Mayhem (iPhone) is $0.99, save 86 percent.
• Reckless Racing HD (iPad) is $0.99, save 80 percent.
• Assassin's Creed - Altaïr's Chronicles (iPhone) is $0.99, save 80 percent.

Mac App Store
• Modern Combat: Domination (Mac) is $0.99, save 92 percent.

Microsoft Store
• Prototype is $14.99, save 50 percent.
• X-MEN (XBox360) is MP400.00, save 50 percent.

Steam
• Dungeon Defenders is $7.49, save 50 percent + Free Weekend.
• Anno 2070 is $29.99, save 40 percent.

THQ Store
• Darksiders is $5.00, save 75 percent.
• Saints Row 2 is $3.75, save 75 percent.

Kotaku thanks our coupon partners for providing these and other great deals. Be sure to bookmark and search their Kotaku hashtags (#dealzon, #deals4downloads and #dealtaku) for updates throughout the week. Further, to our friends across the pond and north of the border, check the #ukdeals, #europedeals and #canadadeals hashtags and be sure to flag any deals you might have with that.

As always, smart gamers can find values any day of the week, so if you've run across a deal, share it with us in the comments.

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Welcome to another week of The Best of Kotaku. For this week's best image found on the Internets, we have this Pokémon artwork done by Reddit user Jord-UK.

It's my personal hope that I am continuously making you all change your desktop background, so here you go. Or save it for a rainy, "I can't believe I got sick of Calvin and Hobbes standing under the stars" day.

Before we dive into the best articles, opinions, and news from the Kotaku staff, let's see what the Kotaku community has been up to.

Want to suggest an article, comment, tweet, or any other content on Kotaku to be featured for a weekly Best Of nomination? Drop me a line at tina@kotaku.com with the subject line of "Best Of Nomination." Or any other subject line that will help me sort through and search for them. I'm not too picky.

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The Best Comment From The Community

Jackslaps has a little bit of fun with Photoshop and the face of the millionaire who needs more millions.

I first call upon thee to honor my will
But you do not answer
Thou fear my truth
Thou fear thine true salvation
It is your time my children
I hath come to reap the sinners
Mock me if ye will
Let thine visions be blurred
Turn around
Escape
But this comes at a price
Would you sacrifice thine soul?
The essence of thine being?
Look into my eyes young ones
What you see is not thy end
It is thy future

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The Best Kotaku Wallpaper

Artist Michael Myers put together an awesome Kotaku-branded wallpaper for you. More »

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The Best Blizzard Timeline

Mike Fahey gives us a visual look at Blizzard's release schedule. More »

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The Best (Saddest) Inspiration For A Game

Stephen Totilo tells us the story of a woman's sad death that turned into an idea for a game. More »

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The Best Game of Tic-Tac-Toe

Stephen Totilo learns something new about Tic-Tac-Toe from some game developers. More »

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The Best Troll Warfare Techniques

Totilo shares video game designer Mike Drach's techniques of dealing with Internet trolls. More »

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The Best Game Inspired By A Nonexistent Game

Kirk Hamilton introduces us to the game that was inspired by a non-existent, Myst-like game. More »

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The Best (Worst) Result of Review Scores

Jason Schreier criticizes publishers who give out bonuses based on Metacritic scores, like Bethesda may have for the developers of Fallout: New Vegas. More »

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The Best Kickstarter That Revived A Hopeless Franchise

Jason tells us about Brian Fargo's successful Kickstarter campaign to bring Wasteland 2. More »

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The Best Story of a Hacker Getting Busted

Brian Ashcraft reports on George Hotz's arrest for drug possession. More »

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The Best (Most Touching) Community Effort

Kate Cox tells us the touching story of a last wish of a dying boy, and how the community of Everquest II granted it. More »

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The Best (Worst) Cancelled Project

Jason uncovers the game that was canceled after unfortunate layoffs at Obsidian. More »

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The Best Biff Tannen Predictions of March Madness

Owen Good puts together predictions of March Madness winners. More »

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Millionaire Wants Your Million Dollars To Make His First Game

Jason talks to the millionaire that needs more millions to make a video game. More »

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The Best Argument Predicting the Death of Game Consoles

Totilo gives Ben Cousins' opinion on the imminent death of consoles a chance. More »

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The Best (Most Disappointing) Mass Effect 3 Ending

Luke Plunkett makes a case for why Mass Effect 3's ending was so damn terrible. More »

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The Best Mass Effect 3 Ending

Our resident Mass Effect expert, Kate Cox, makes a case for why she enjoyed the threequel's ending. More »

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The Best (Weirdest) Fan-Fiction Crossover

Mike Fahey finds this very peculiar fan-fiction crossover featuring Commander Shepard and Sephiroth. More »

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Over at the fabulous video game criticism archive Critical Distance, they've run their first "Critical Compilation" in a while, this one written by Johnny Kilhefner and dedicated to all of the best critical writing about Naughty Dog's Uncharted 2: Among Thieves.

These compilations are always smart and interesting, weaving the arguments put forth by a huge number of video game critics—from Kotaku writers to independent bloggers—and organizing them into a coherent essay. Very cool.

Past highlights from the site include L.B. Jeffries' amazing spotlight "Ten Years of Penny Arcade," as well Michael "Sparky" Clarkson's critical compilation on Grand Theft Auto IV.

So, if you're looking for some weekend reading (and a trip down recent-memory late), head on over there and check it out.

Critical Compilation: Uncharted 2 [Critical Distance]

We've written about Mapstalgia a couple times before. On the tumblr, people submit maps of classic games that they've drawn from memory. This map of the Red Light District from Duke Nukem 3D, strains the whole "from memory" aspect of things, but it's still impressive. (You can view the full version by expanding the image above or clicking here). This guy should make maps for FAQs!

You can find plenty more gaming memory-maps (and submit your own) over at Mapstalgia.

But when it comes time to seal the romantic deal in a BioWare game, do things really need to be so awkward? Because damn, things have gotten weird. As Tom Bissell puts it in his Grantland critique of the game—"In fact, could we, as gamers, maybe politely band together to convince BioWare to can the sex scenes entirely, at least until the technology exists to make a non-hilarious one?"

I'm with Tom on this one. Every sex scene I see in a BioWare game (or in most games, for that matter) is goofy on a fundamental level that needs to be addressed. Well, every scene except one.

I'm not a programmer, but the problem here seems to come down to a difficulty rendering contact between two characters. In every Mass Effect game (including 3), scenes of physical intimacy wind up looking like two weird puppets attempting to dance together. Arms wrap around torsos but remain six inches from making contact, faces weirdly bump together in a pantomime of a kiss.

These scenes become an exercise in artful omission—in Dragon Age: Origins, sex scenes were a series of carefully composed shots separated by fades to black, with kissing blocked by the back of a head, most physical contact taking place just out of the frame.

Eventually, every BioWare game fades to black. And thank goodness for that! I love Allistair and Morrigan, but I don't want to watch my avatar explore their "uncanny valley," for any longer than necessary, ifyaknowwhatImean.

And yet while the fade-to-black represents an awareness on the part of the developers that their tech isn't quite up to the level of even portraying basic physical contact convincingly, they almost always wait too long to cut away. We see just a bit too much, we're jarringly reminded of the awkwardness what we're seeing.

But one game got it right—Jade Empire. I actually have a firmer memory of the culminating romance scene in this game than any other BioWare game, and it's not because I saw some hot ripped abs or some steamy side-boob. It's because the scene was actually somewhat romantic, and it didn't show me too much. (I believe Baldur's Gate did something similar, though that game wasn't rendered in nearly as cinematic a style.)

Furthermore, and this is a bit granular, but look how that Jade Empire kiss operates, for lack of a better word. Her hands actually touch his back, and the whole thing feels like two people actually going in for an old-school style cinematic kiss. It's not perfect, but the illusion is at least convincing. And then… fade to black. Did we really need to see more? Would the story have been improved in any way by seeing Sky and the protagonist mashing their weird half-naked bodies together?

No, I don't really think so. The technology does exist to make these scenes work: Look at this genuinely hot scene from Uncharted 2 between Drake and Chloe:

(Skip to 3:15.) Here, a scene in which two video game characters are in the same room and actually appear to be touching. Probably because they were—the Uncharted games are now famous for shooting their mo-cap scenes with the actors voicing their lines as they act out the scenes.

I think there's something to be said for leaving those scenes on the cutting room floor until BioWare is ready to make them look less laughable. As Jade Empire demonstrated, a video game love-scene can have a sweeping, enjoyable bit of romance. It doesn't need to be grimace-inducing or embarrassing.

After all, if this (Spoiler-filled, incredibly NSFW) Mass Effect porn tumbler tells us anything, it's that fans of these games do just fine if left to their own imaginations.

And welcome to Friday night's Total Recall, where we'll be looking back at some things that are old, but not that old.

Greetings, Kotaku readers. Welcome to your Friday night open thread. You've survived another week! And good for you.

It's rainy and miserable in San Francisco, but it's sort of okay. All the better for a weekend playing a ton of Mass Effect 3.

Here, gathered from the internet, are some things for you to read:

• Hey, Community gained viewers! - That's nice to see. I'm going to pretend it's entirely because I put 'em in the OT last night.
• The best thing to ever happen in a music video - I'm sure there are other equal things, actually. But this is pretty great.
• The Kony guy was found masturbating in public - Well of course he was.
• I totally want this Ninja Turtles shirt - Mainly because it's not a Ninja Turtles shirt.
• Law will allow employers to fire women for using whore pills - This is getting out of hand, people.
• Here's a great round-up of Breaking Bad Links - So much good stuff.
• Stephen Colbert sings "Friday" - Because it's friday! This is old. Whatever, it's the weekend!

And that's that. Have a wonderful weekend folks, catch you on the other side.

We've seen what top iPad game Infinity Blade II looks like on the new super-high-res iPad 3. But we're been looking for a comparison.

Enter Kotaku reader Alsandair, who has the new iPad and sent us two shots of essentially the same scene. There isn't a dramatic difference, possibly because all the IB2 developers have done so far is boosted the game's graphics.

Slightly more specifically, a spokesperson for the game's developers at Epic Games' Chair Entertainment says, "The new hardware enables Infinity Blade II to begin taking advantage of increased memory and processing power, yielding even higher performance and more sophisticated rendering features."

They're not yet tapping the impressive muscle of the new machine to really boost the game. This is a simpler visual boost and a fairly subtle one.

Click each shot to enlarge, and you'll get see the differences more clearly. Mostly, the iPad 3 version has fewer jagged edges, which is nice.

iPad 2.

iPad 3.

The people making this game are on the cutting edge of pushing iPad tech, so expect to see more updates either in IB2 or in future Chair/Epic titles that eventually show what the new iPad really is capable of.

One of the longest-running subscription-based massively multiplayer online role-playing games has finally succumbed to the sweet, sweet lure of the microtranscation-based business model, as EverQuest celebrates its 13th anniversary by going free-to-play.

I never thought I'd see the day. Over the past few years subscription-based MMOs not called World of Warcraft have doing their best phoenix act, burning away to ash and then triumphantly rising as free-to-play experiences. More and more MMOs are launching with the model (Guild Wars 2, sequel to one of the early adopters), and those that don't (Star Trek Online, Aion) don't live long before making the switch.

And now EverQuest has made the move, outlasting its own sequel by nearly two years. Players can opt to continue paying $14.99 a month for full access, pay a one-time five dollar fee to upgrade to an enhanced version, or just don't pay at all and play as long as they wish, albeit with some steep restrictions. Sony Online Entertainment is celebrating the move and the game's 13th year in operation with special events, double experience, and 24 hours of double Station Cash, the virtual currency players can use to unlock character classes and by special items and upgrades.

So who's still standing? Ultima Online, which predates EverQuest by two years, is still charging. So's EVE Online, which launched in 2003, and Asheron's Call, EQ's chief competitor back in 1999. Then there's World of Warcraft, of course, and BioWare's recently-released Star Wars: The Old Republic.

So there are still many games that folks will gladly pay a monthly fee to play. Would they get more players and make more money with a free-to-play structure? I'm sure we'll find out eventually.

I'm downloading EverQuest right now. Wish me luck.

Perhaps you have heard that The Witcher 2 is really good? Because you know what, it really is!

And even better, the version that's coming out for the 360 is still very much the same game that PC gamers fell in love with last year.

The trailer above breaks down all of the updates and improvements in the 360 version, and does a very good job of selling the game. It also contains a fairly hilarious sex-euphemism—as Geralt slides his hand up Triss Merigold's naked thigh, the words "No Quality Compromise" flash across the screen.

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Do you get it? Is it clear? Warner Brothers and CD Projekt would like you to know that the 360 version will contain all of the lustful, sexy exploits as its PC version did. Oh, goody.