The oldest memory I have is of catching a baseball. Coming from a sports fan, this may sound like treacly, lump-in-your-throat stuff, but it's true. I was three years old. My father was mowing one side of our front lawn, I was standing in the other, and I underhanded a pop fly into the air. It hung up there forever and I got dizzy trying to follow it. When the ball smacked into my hands, I had no idea how I'd caught it.

Thirty-seven years later, I'm sitting on a suede easy chair recreating that moment in MLB 13 The Show. Not necessarily in a good way, either. Don't get me wrong, The Show's latest release still places it in the top echelon of sports gaming. But its improvements are mostly subtle, which is to be expected of an annual sports release near the end of a console life cycle, especially one made by a company that just announced the next piece of hardware. Some of its more overt changes are head-scratching, if not off-putting.

Let's start with Road to the Show, a very popular career mode that indulges your superstar fantasy, and a bulletproof feature every year since its introduction. MLB 13 The Show introduces a new camera perspective for both hitting and fielding, but I'm not sure what it adds to the experience. If you hit or catch a lot of fly balls, prepare to spend a lot of time staring up.

In fielding, you're now following the flight of a fly ball, visually, as you respond to an onscreen icon telling you where to move your player. For high pop flies, even to the warning track, there's almost no way where to judge where you are in the field—that's why there's a warning track, after all, the crunch of clay under your cleats lets you know, hey, you're close to the wall. Not that single-player fielding was a breeze in MLB 12 The Show—taking good routes to corral a shot in the gap is a little easier in MLB 13 thanks to the new onscreen indicator. But in Road to the Show, the new fielding view makes a high fly ball—especially one in which you have to range back—an adventure. This, plus the continued lack of a fielding minigame to acclimate yourself to these responsibilities—your only means of learning is to go out there in a live performance—means your debut month is going to be filled with needless mistakes that a professional ballplayer, of any caliber, simply wouldn't make.

In batting, you will also follow the flight of the ball, with it centered on your screen (unless you hold a shoulder button to keep your eyes on a base coach). Longtime fans know why a ballclub's comp seats are directly behind home plate—they offer the poorest perspective on the flight of the ball. In Denver I'd go to Rockies games and laugh at the minivan crowd from Douglas County sitting behind home, shouting at anything hit in the air. In The Show, I've hit towering flies that I thought for sure were over a fielder's head, only to see one trotting in to pull it down. I've chopped them to the opposite field, expecting to be caught out, and seen the ball sail into the corner or even over the fence—which has its own consequence as effective baserunning always requires thinking a step ahead.

The new camera view is a mandate of a more personalized focus in Road to the Show, not that last year's was, really, wanting for intimacy. Before the game, the commentary booth will remark specifically on your career, the milestones you reach, and the expectations set before you. (If you miss a promotion to AAA or the majors, they'll bring it up.) RTTS, which for many is the only mode they will play in the game (it is for me), removes the player from the broadcast presentation and depicts him more in the mode of playing the game. In some areas, the execution is fantastic. Your base coach yells situation-specific instructions at you. Infield chatter is authentic to the ball-strike count and number of outs. It's more than window-dressing, it's actionable information.

During a game in MLB 13's Road to the Show, however, the regular broadcast audio is gone. You only hear commentary after the end of a meaningful play. Yes, I know real baseball players don't hear what the guys in the booth are saying as they play. But every 12-year-old who fantasizes about hitting a game winning home run also mimics the radio call as he does so. The inclusion of TV audio—or a camera view of your hit—doesn't shatter immersion. What does is the distracting whoosh noise you get as you either enter or leave your player's head to hear on-field sounds or a deliberately tinny broadcast commentary. In many cases, the audio doesn't kick in soon enough, and is cut off mid-sentence when you return to play. It even slows the game down relative to MLB 12 The Show's RTTS.

If you're a veteran player 10 seasons into an RTTS career under MLB 12 The Show, you already know how to hit in this game, and probably won't feel much of an urge to start all over again in MLB 13 on Day One. That's for a single mode of play, however, and my disappointments in The Show are almost entirely limited to it. There still is palpable improvement in two critical areas elsewhere in the game: Its online play, and in hitting.

Online play has long been a bugaboo for The Show, especially for a game so dependent on timing (or defeating it, as a pitcher). In the online games played I played opening night, I've never had the feeling that my hitting was thrown off by input lag. I doubt The Show rewrote its codebase and hit it perfectly on the first try; it's more likely that opening the hitting window—the time in which you can make effective contact on the ball—helped move online play into a more enjoyable state. The flipside is, playing casually, you're going to see a lot of slugfests. While shooting the bull with a friend, we traded eight-run innings. That said, the huge totals were totally the fault of my lack of attention. The home runs I hit (or surrendered) came in authentic situations, and swinging for the fences on every pitch with Jason Heyward still got me five strikeouts with him in a game.

In offline play, experienced Show players may find themselves bumping hitting difficulty up to All-Star or higher soon into their Franchise or RTTS careers. Hits are very easy to come by at lower difficulties, but that's fine with me. In past iterations of The Show, I played a lot of station-to-station baseball, grateful for any hit or one-run advantage. The opening of the hitting timing window means you don't have to approach every situation with a man on base like it's your last. You can stand in there, be selective, and wait for the pitch you prefer to hit.

There's a new fielding system as well, something called "Button Accuracy" which combines a throwing meter (for accuracy of the throw) with how hard you jam on the button of the base you're going to. It takes some getting used to, and in my first few games I was pulling a lot of guys off the bag with what should be routine throws. Still, Button Accuracy does make the business of scooping out ground balls and turning double plays into more of a deterministic exercise than past versions of The Show (or other baseball games, in general.) It gives worthy attention to fielding, the second-most unloved phase of the game (next to baserunning). But if you don't prefer it, The Show lets you employ older control methods.

That is, somewhat secretly, the greatest strength to this series: The endless customization of the controls and the means that offers to challenge your true strengths (mine is pitching) while minimizing your weaknesses (fielding and baserunning). No other game offers this level of assistance without making you feel like you're cheating or ignoring a critical phase of play. To this, Sony's San Diego Studio added a "Beginner Mode" that I've already sampled, and anyone with more than a year's history on The Show won't need to spend much time with it. It's not so much a tutorial as it is a difficulty (or lack thereof) setting, applicable to any game mode. It only trains you up in pitching and hitting however; this is a game that could seriously use instruction in baserunning and fielding, acts that are taken for granted but mystifying to a newcomer once the ball is in play.

As always, MLB The Show is one of the most beautiful video games—sports or otherwise—period. NBA 2K is a close rival in the genre, but even it has quirks—in the way tank-top jerseys hang, for example—and is a sport played inside an enclosed arena. The Show presents a game principally in outdoor lighting with impeccable quality throughout. There isn't a flat or unnaturally low-contrast surface on any part of the screen, even during a night game. The crowd, one of the atmospheric features everyone loves to bring up when discussing next generation hardware, is alive, interesting and distinct. You really see it in the game's postseason presentation, which you can jump to in a new tournament mode without having to wade or sim through an entire Franchise season. When I ponder how the next console generation could possibly make a game's graphics more stunning, MLB 13 The Show on the PlayStation 3 is the first thing I think of, because Christ almighty, no other sports video game, every year, is this good looking.

Yes, a lot of MLB 13 The Show's quality is banked on the excellence that preceded it. It's no bold leap forward, which should be expected as we come to the close of this console generation. Its peers in the sports genre—FIFA, NHL and NBA 2K—likewise took few risks in their most recent releases. These are the supermodels of sports video gaming: visually stunning, impeccably manicured, desired by the public and envied by their peers, and if they have recognizable flaws or grating annoyances, they're overwhelmed by beauty and sophistication.

But I'm struck by how I can still fall in love every year with a game so dependent on such repetitive acts spread out over a 162-game season. I will always, always love watching the cleanup hitter pivot slightly, check his swing, and see my 1-2 slider drift across the plate like an extinction-level asteroid in a near-earth trajectory. Every sports video game has its moments. In MLB The Show, they are memories.

"I had a rough night, and I hate the fuckin' Eagles, man."

That line from The Big Lebowski is one of my favorites from a movie chock-full of amazing lines. It was the first time Hollywood told me that as it turns out, it's okay that I find The Eagles super annoying. Hey, The Dude feels the same way!

Er, anyway, what were we talking about? Oh, right. Today is The Big Lebowski's 15th anniversary, and now that you feel good and super-old, you can listen to this chiptune reimagining of the film's music by Chipocrite, also known as Paul Weinstein.

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The whole thing was arranged for a single Game Boy using Little Sound DJ. My favorite track is "Just Dropped In," since, well, of course it is. Check the album out at Bandcamp but be be careful, man, there's a beverage here.

Yesterday, Buzzfeed published an article featuring Turkish oil wrestling. People took note, because the sport involves men oiling themselves up heavily before wrestling. Winning involves putting your hands down your opponents pants, as you can see in the video above.

Probably not something we'd get to do in a game, right? Actually...

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Fighting games, bless their hearts, take inspiration from many things. Including, yes, Turkish oil wrestling. Meet Hakan, from Super Street Fighter IV:

From his Wiki:

"Hakan is the president of the world's leading edible oil manufacturer and a leader in Turkey's national sport of Yağlı güreş. He enters the S.I.N. tournament to showcase his skills, while also travelling the world in search of inspiration for a new oil recipe (after beating up and interrogating a trespassing thug whom he accuses of being an industrial spy)."

Huh, interesting. Except, there's almost an erotic undertone to the real Turkish wrestling, isn't there? Look at this. Just look at it.

Whereas Hakan barely looks like a real person (though he is beefed up), and he's also rather goofy (which is in-tune with the rest of Super Street Fighter IV, sure). Check him out in motion in the video here.

I guess you could find the ultra he does in the second half of the video as sexualized given what he says and what he's doing, but only if you're being kind of immature about it.

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I can't help but wonder what it would have been like to play Super Street Fighter 4 with a more serious, if not more erotic Turkish wrestler. Either way, I doubt many of us will look at Hakan the same now.

Image Credit: Cemil Kömürcü Photography via Buzzfeed

Imangi Studios' Temple Run: Oz launched on iTunes yesterday morning. Today it's at the number one position on the paid charts, and Mila Kunis isn't even in it. The mind boggles.

I suppose the blockbuster film coming out in two days has something to do with the success of the $.99 app. I mean, Temple Run 2 proper is a free app, and it's slipping off the free charts while this paid tie-in debuts in the top spot.

I do find it nice that a quality movie-based game can hit virtual stores before the movie hits and still deliver a quality experience. Even if it is a copy of another game with a few twists thrown in, it's nice to not be let down.

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Top Paid iPhone Games — 3/6/2013

Rank	Game	Last Week	Change
1.	Temple Run: Oz	N/A	N/A
2.	Toy Story: Smash-It!	N/A	N/A
3.	Minecraft Pocket Edition	1	-2
4.	8-Ball Pool	N/A	N/A
5.	Vector	N/A	N/A
6.	Angry Birds Star Wars	3	-3
7.	Clear Vision 2	2	-5
8.	Plague Inc.	10	+2
9.	Plants Vs. Zombies	10	+1
10.	Arms Cartel Global	8	-2

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Top Free iPhone Games — 3/6/2013

Rank	Game	Last Week	Change
1.	94 Seconds	N/A	N/A
2.	4 Pics 1 Word	1	-1
3.	Real Racing 3	N/A	N/A
4.	Candy Crush Saga	4	0
5.	Battle Monkeys	N/A	N/A
6.	Flight Unlimited: Las Vegas	N/A	N/A
7.	Bridge Constructor Playground	N/A	N/A
8.	Bubble Galaxy with Buddies	N/A	N/A
9.	What's the Pic?	N/A	N/A
10.	Temple Run 2	8	-2

Let's get this out of the way up front: Mass Effect 3's latest—and last—downloadable add-on, titled Citadel, is terrific. In fact, if you're a fan of the Mass Effect series, particularly one who's been there from the start, it was more or less made for you.

Citadel is fan-service of the highest order. That term can often be made to feel like a pejorative, but in this case, it's purer than that. At every turn Citadel displays an irresistible fondness for the series' history. It's an adventure written and designed with nothing but love for Mass Effect, an often goofy, ultimately touching farewell to the world and the characters that we've followed for the last six years.

I'm going to have to keep this write-up pretty short and light on spoilers, because much of what made Citadel work so well was that I had absolutely no idea what to expect going in. I previewed a bit of the Leviathan DLC but never finished it, and I skipped the Omega add-on. I hadn't even watched a trailer for Citadel. In fact, for a little while yesterday, I couldn't even remember how to activate the new content.

At the outset, Admiral Hackett contacts Shepard and instructs her to take some shore leave back at the Citadel, allowing her to stay in Admiral Anderson's swanky, massive apartment. In fact, Anderson more or less bequeaths the apartment to her, giving players a pretty sweet pad on the Citadel that they can upgrade and customize. Shortly after Shepard arrives, Joker calls her down to meet at a posh Citadel sushi place, and things go haywire in a hurry. As usual.

Before long, Shepard and her team are swept up on a fast-paced adventure through the Citadel, which ends up involving a casino heist (!!), plenty of difficult shootouts, and more story surprises than you can shake a stick at. The whole thing feels something like a one-off episode of Star Trek, with a self-contained villain, a bunch of wacky hijinks, and all the banter you can handle. Perhaps a bit more specifically, it plays out like the 18th episode in the old 22-episode season length, the breath of air before the plunge into the dramatic season (or in this case, series) finale.

The story certainly doesn't feel connected to the plot of Mass Effect 3, but that's almost surely intentional. After all, it's been almost exactly a year since many of us embarked on the epic (and somewhat controversial) grand finale of the Mass Effect saga.

Here we are a year later, so it's okay that the story of Citadel, ostensibly set during a forced "shore leave" period while the Normandy is undergoing repairs, feels less like canon and more like a dream-episode or a Christmas Special. Given how awkward it would have been to try to get players re-invested in the story of Shepard, the Reapers, and the end of all life in the galaxy, BioWare made the right call.

The focus here is on the team, not just on Shepard. And not just the team from Mass Effect 3, but eventually the entire cast of the trilogy, in one way or another. In a nice touch, Shepard starts the adventure alone and is eventually accompanied by an ever-growing cohort of followers. As they join her, the one-liners and gags increase in frequency until the game has become half action-spectacle and half out-and-out buddy comedy. Some of the past games' lightheartedness was necessarily set aside during the third game's apocalyptic storyline, and it's nice to see the jokes return.(Sample banter: "Commander, you got a plan to get out of here?" "James, I'm a professional!" "That's not a yes!" "It's not a no!")

Eventually the whole squad is reunited, quipping and wreaking havoc without missing a step. While Shepard is still fighting alongside the requisite two companions, the rest are up in the wings, visible but not directly engaged in fighting, hopping onto the radio and cracking jokes along with everyone else. Some of the best exchanges are written for the entire crew, so the writers were free to write a single joke, rather than having to write it multiple times for various possible squads. That makes the jokes feel bigger and more ensemble-oriented, and also a heck of a lot more fun. For example: The players who aren't in Shepard's squad form two groups: "Team Mako" and "Team Hammerhead." They immediately begin a playful competition to see who can take out more bad guys. "We all know the Hammerhead's better than the Mako," says a member of the crew, in one of many meta-jokes that are just cute enough to work.

The main adventure took me around two to three hours to finish, but Citadel actually continues for a while after the battle's won. It contains a lengthy denouement that has players exploring a festive new chunk of the Citadel seemingly untouched by the refugee crisis and war outside, drenched in neon and filled with minigames and diversions. (Again: The disconnect is for the best.) You can hang out with every member of your crew and share lovely little character moments, or you can go gamble, or engage in a very involved combat simulation tournament that's even got its own built-in economy.

There's plenty more: Every scene is stuffed with in-jokes and references, a bit in the Citadel archives allows you to relive various key moments in Mass Effect lore, and there's some great overheard enemy dialogue, if you take the time to listen. Some of the social sequences towards the end seem like they could play out dozens of different ways, given the fact that they involve each player's specific cast of surviving characters. I play as a female Commander Shepard, and the wonderful actor Jennifer Hale brought her A-game to Citadel. Shepard's last hurrah is a rangey, well-written part that's as surprising as it is warm and genuinely funny. Hale must have had a lot of fun bringing her character across the finish line.

And okay, sure, I could see people grumbling that it's all just too much—the wackiness may be over the top for some, and others may find the more blatant fan-service to be cloying or annoying. If we're bloodlessly analyzing the pacing and design, it's all a bit of a mess, and the whole thing doesn't remotely jibe with the elegiac energy that Mass Effect 3 often conjured so effectively. If you're just a casual fan, or came to the series at the second game and never got all that into the details or lore, this might not be your thing. And the combat can be a real nuisance, particularly the climactic encounter, which takes place in an oddly laid-out room that doesn't feel built for combat and highlights the weaknesses of Mass Effect's aging combat system.

But when all's said and done, Citadel is a winner. It's a loving tribute to Mass Effect fans everywhere—fans who, it must be said, can't have always all been that easy to love, even when their gripes were legitimate. BioWare didn't have to go all-out; they could have given us another adventure along the lines of Leviathan or Omega, or even the fantastic Lair of the Shadow Broker. Surely they're ready to move on to new things, to more-exciting, fresher projects. But these people seem to have had some things left that they wanted to say, and damn it all, they weren't leaving until they said 'em.

Citadel has the nostalgic enthusiasm of an action-movie reunion, a team of old heroes putting the gang back together for one final caper. It's a fine reminder of just how much care, talent and love went into building the world of Mass Effect in the first place. While debates over the actual ending of Mass Effect 3 will never truly be resolved, it's nice that the trilogy could go out on such a light-hearted, affectionate note. This is the sendoff Commander Shepard deserves.

When season one of The Walking Dead hit last year, a lot of people assumed that the episodic adventure series would turn into an annual thing. Many of us thought season two would be out in 2013.

But alas. Season two of the critically-acclaimed series might not hit til fall of 2014, according to Telltale boss Dan Connors, who spoke to Eurogamer at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) awards last night.

"We're aiming for fall next year," Connors said, adding that something else will help fill the gap while we wait. "We'll probably have something to announce fairly soon about what we're going to do... It'll be different."

Hopefully it's a first-person shooter. Just kidding.

Update: Speaking with Game Informer, a Telltale representative said that the second season is in fact targeted for the coming fall, not next fall.

"The current estimated release window for Season Two of The Walking Dead is for fall of ‘this' year (2013), and not ‘next' year (2014) as has been reported after a recent interview. We apologize for any confusion and thank you and all of our fans for your continued excitement for Telltale's series."

Season Two of Telltale's The Walking Dead "aiming for" autumn 2014 [Eurogamer]

This Wednesday edition of Kotaku's The Moneysaver catches all the offers, promotions and bargains that can't wait until the weekend. The Midweek Moneysaver is brought to you by Dealzon.

Downloadables

GameStop
• Crysis 3 is $39.99 (next best $42 at Origin, elsewhere $60)

GameFly
• Yesterday's release SimCity: Limited Edition is $47.99 (elsewhere $60. GameFly changed its offer to the standard edition after this was originally published.)
• June 25 release Company of Heroes 2 is $47.99 (list $60)
• Far Cry 3 is $39.99 (next best $50)
• Dead Space 3 is $31.99 (next best $42)
• Battlefield 3 is $9.58 (next best $40)
• Battlefield Bad Company 2 Ultimate Digital Collection is $8.16 (next best $30)
• The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings Enhanced Edition is $7.99 (next best $20)
• L.A. Noire Complete Edition is $5.99 (next best $30)
• Alice: Madness Returns is $3.99 (next best $15)
• Bulletstorm is $3.99 (next best $15)
• Burnout Paradise: The Ultimate Box is $3.99 (next best $20)
• The Saboteur is $3.99 (next best $20)
• F.E.A.R. 3 is $3.99 (next best $20)
• Mirror's Edge is $3.99 (next best $20)
• Battlefield 2 Complete Collection is $3.99 (next best $20)
• Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit is $3.99 (next best $20)

Origin
• Crysis 3 Digital Deluxe is $55.99, free ship (list $80)

Green Man Gaming
• Yesterday's release Tomb Raider is $40 (next best $50)
• Today's release Dollar Dash is $6.80 (list $10)
• Mar. 12 release Sniper Ghost Warrior 2 (PC download) is $24 (list $30)
• Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - Dragonborn (PC DLC) is $16 (next best $20)
• Dishonored is $32.99, free ship (next best $60)
• F1 Race Stars is $21.60 (next best $40)

Steam
• Star Conflict: Galaxy Explorer Pack (PC DLC) is $37.99 (list $50)
• RPG Maker VX Ace is $34.99 (list $70)
• ArmA X: Anniversary Edition (6 downloads) is $24.99 (list $50)
• ArmA II: Complete Collection (5 downloads) is $19.99 (list $40)
• ArmA 2: Combined Operations (2 downloads) is $12.49 (next best $25)
• NBA 2K13 is $14.99 (next best $30)
• Syberia Bundle (2 downloads) is $3.74 (list $15)

GamersGate
• Sleeping Dogs Digital Edition with Triad Enforcer Pack is $12 (next best $40)
• Legacy of Kain Midweek: 75% Off is 75% Off (list $0)

GetGamesGo
• Darksiders 2 is $9.99 from . Next best is $17.
• Hotline Miami is $4.94 (next best $10)
• Serious Sam games are 80% off

GOG.com
• The Real Texas is $5.99 (list $15)
• Waking Mars is $4.99 (list $10)

Amazon
• Farming Simulator 2013 is $18.99 (next best $30)
• Talisman Prologue is $4.99 (next best $10)
• Wallace & Gromit's Bundle is $4.99 (list $36)
• All in Poker Bundle is $4.49 (list $15)

NewEgg
• Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 (PC) is $29.99, free ship (next best $48)

• The Humble Bundle with Android 5 is live this week. Pay what you want for 6 DRM Free games compatible with Android, PC, Mac, and Linux.

• BundleStars.com has released their 4th bundle. Entitled Fire and Ice, it includes 10 PC download games from indie developers for $4.97 at time of writing. Normally you'd pay $130 for these games separately. If you only pay $1.26, you'll still get the first two games on the list - Tiny Troopers and Airport Control Simulator. [Dealzon]

Console Games

GameStop
• Crysis 3 (360, PS3) is $39.99 (next best $42 at Origin, elsewhere $60)
• Yesterday's release MLB 2K13 (360, PS3) is $54.99 (list $60)
• Yesterday's release Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3 (360, PS3) is $54.99, free ship (list $60)
• Yesterday's release MLB 13 The Show (PS3) is $54.99, free ship (list $60)
• Red Faction Armageddon (360, PS3) is $5.99 with $3.49 shipping (next best $14)

Amazon
• Yesterday's release Atelier Ayesha: The Alchemist of Dusk (PS3) is $49.96, free ship (list $50)
• NBA 2K13 (Wii U) is $38.49, free ship (next best $46)
• Madden NFL 13 (Wii U) is $34.99, free ship (next best $39)
• XCOM Enemy Unknown (PS3) is $32.72, free ship (next best $40)
• NCAA Football 13 (PS3) is $28.63 with $3.99 shipping (next best $54)
• Madden NFL 13 (PS3) is $29.99, free ship (next best $56)
• Wonderbook: Book of Spells (PS3) is $9.99 (next best $30)

Origin
• Dead Space 3 (360, PS3) is $41.99, free ship (next best $57)

Hardware

• You can get an Xbox 360 Live 12-month card or instant digital code for $31.49 from NewEgg when you pay with V.me by Visa. Signup is free, no Visa card required. Next best is $35.

• Wii U Console 32GB Deluxe Set with Nintendo Land for $349.99 comes with $20 gift card from Best Buy. [Dealzon]

• Wii U Console 8GB Basic Set is $288 on Amazon from a couple third-party sellers. List price is $300. [Dealzon]

• Turtle Beach Ear Force X42 Gaming Headset is $104.99, free ship from Best Buy. New low by $13. Next best is $130. [Dealzon]

• Tomb Raider and Limited Edition Wireless Controller (360) is $99.98, free ship from Best Buy. List price is $120. [Dealzon]

• Nintendo Wii Console (pre-owned) with Wii Sports and Wii Sports Resort is $79.99, free ship from CowBoom. [Dealzon]

• Alienware TactX Gaming Keyboard is $67.99, free ship from Dell Home. New low by $2. Next best is $78. [Dealzon]

• Xbox 360 Wireless Controller for Windows PC is $39.99, free ship from NewEgg. Next best is $45. [Dealzon]

• Mad Catz RAT 3 Gaming Mouse is $29.99 after rebate, free ship from TigerDirect. Next best is $59. [Dealzon]

• Acer 27-inch HN274Hbmiiid 2ms 3D LED Monitor with nVidia 3D Glasses is $379.99, free ship from NewEgg. Next best is $400. [Dealzon]

• AOC 27-inch E2752VH 2ms LED Monitor is $189.99, free ship from Best Buy. New low by $10. Next best is $200. [Dealzon]

• Samsung 20-inch S20B350H 2ms LED Monitor (Refurbished) is $86.99, free ship from Rakuten. Next best is $100. [Dealzon]

• Kingston 128GB V200 Series SSD is $69.99, free ship from Staples. New low by $5. Next best is $100. [Dealzon]

• HP Envy dv7t-7300 17.3-inch laptop with Ivy Bridge Quad Core i7-3630QM, 1080p display, GeForce GT 650M 2GB, Blu-ray, Windows 8 is $959.99 with $9.99 shipping from HP. New low by $40. List price is $1,200.

• Dell Inspiron 17R Special Edition laptop (refurbished) with 900p 17.3-inch display, Quad Core i7-3630QM, 8GB RAM, 900p, GeForce GT 650M 2GB is $749.99, free ship from eBay Deals. List price is $1,300.

• HP Envy dv6t-7300 Quad Edition laptop with 1080p display, Quad Core i7-3630QM, GeForce GT 650M is $879.99 with $9.99 shipping from HP. New low by $20. List price is $1,100.

• Alienware Aurora overclocked 4.1GHz desktop, Quad Core i7-3820, GeForce GTX 660 1.5GB dropped back down to $1,374, free ship from Dell Home. List price is $1,499.

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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We all know Uncle Sam. The guy in the Old Glory-styled top hat and tails is the personification of the United States that American schoolkids grow up learning about. You probably know him from the famous poster strongly urging that you enlist and maybe you've seen him done up as a superhero.

But did you know that Uncle Sam has an older sister? And that she's where the floating city in BioShock Infinite gets its name from?

As an article on The Atlantic pointed out yesterday, the personification of the U.S. used to be a woman named Columbia, one who predates Uncle Sam. But, where Sam's still a familiar icon, the idea of a distaff counterpart has faded from memory. The Atlantic article showed how she's been portrayed in political cartoons throughout the ages and included images where she's advocating for immigrants from Germany and China.

But the version of Columbia seen so far in Irrational Games' upcoming first-person shooter appears to be the polar opposite. As she's portrayed in BioShock Infinite's promo art, Columbia isn't welcoming people in. No, she seems dead-set on keeping people out.

In the image with George Washington, she hovers above the nation's first president as he stands fast against foreign hordes. And, yeah, it's worth noting that those caricatured foreign hordes include Native Americans. And, on a banner shown in an early peek at Infinite, Columbia rejects a baby held out on outstretched hands, while cradling another. That piece of artwork gives you pause with how mean its implied message is. But the whiplash it generates is more significant when you think about those cartoons with Columbia demanding a fair shake for everyone.

It looks like BioShock Infinite will be focusing in on a warped, fanatic ideal of what it means to be American. And, from what we've seen at this point, the game's vision of Columbia—both city and persona—doesn't think everyone belongs in its society. This use of a mostly forgotten personification of America falls in line with the thought process behind making a robot George Washington one of the game's big enemies.

It's a provocative practice in reality when radical factions twist symbols from American history to ugly ends. In real-world and game-related posters, Columbia calls fighting men to arms. Based on what Irrational co-founder Ken Levine has said about the game, you get the idea that the battles that follow are very different in what they're trying to achieve.

Deadpool is my second-favorite Marvel Comics character. Seeing him come to life (courtesy of IGN) at the hands of the studio that brought me two stellar Transformers games should be a dream come true, but the more I see of the Deadpool game the more I realize the character I fell in love with back in 1997 has spiraled out of control.

To High Moon Studios' credit, they are staying amazingly faithful to the character in his current incarnation. Feeling up Cable, cutting to a half-naked bouncing woman holding an "I Love DP!" (ha. ha.) sign wouldn't be out of place in any comic currently harboring the "Merc' With a Mouth." What was once a subtle, almost charming sort of mania has devolved over the years into batshit crazy. He's become a parody of his own parody.

I wasn't all that fond of Deadpool when he first showed up. His 1997 debut took place in New Mutants, a comic book I had subscribed to since its debut that was in the midst of being completely ruined by artist (well, he does draw things) Rob Liefeld and Fabian Nicieza. Liefeld's design reminded Nicieza of DC Comics' mercenary Deathstroke (titter), so Deadpool was eventually given the real name of Wade Wilson, a play on Deathstroke's Slade Wilson.

The love came in 1997 with Deadpool's first ongoing, with words by Joe Kelly and visuals by the amazing Ed McGuinness, the only comic book artist I've ever taken the time to bug for a sketch. Deadpool was crazy here, sure, but he had a heart as well. There was a depth to the character that only grew when Christopher Priest (Quantum and Woody!) took over writing duties.

Once that series ended I took a break from comics. I'd check in with Deadpool now and again, but more often than not found that creators had a hard time reining themselves in when faced with the freedom of a character capable of breaking the fourth wall, speaking directly to the audience. I still loved his video game cameos, and Ryan Reynolds' Wade Wilson was the best thing about the X-Men Origins: Wolverine movie, but in comics I felt him slipping away.

Now Deadpool is in a new series, written by Brian Posehn (I do not look like him) and Gerry Duggan and illustrated by Tony Moore. The first several issues had him fighting zombie versions of dead American presidents. It was pretty hideous. He's also in the new Thunderbolts, completely out-of-place among the likes of Elektra, Flash Thompson's Venom, The Punisher and General Red Hulk Ross. That's four of my least favorite Marvel characters, and the low point of the book Deadpool.

I should be excited about the Deadpool video game. This trailer neatly summarizes why I am not.

It's not often I respect my enemies in a game—how could I? They're just a target. A bundle of HP. An obstacle. Something to conquer.

But when you're a legendary Witcher, your (equally legendary) enemies demand respect. Monster hunting is not for the reckless; approaching creatures in the world of Temeria with an unsheathed sword can only get you so far.

You must educate yourself on your enemy. In this case, it means scavenging for information—you can ask townfolk what they know, you can pick up a book, sure. But the best way to learn is out there, on the field.

In this case, out in the middle of the Floatsam forest; that's where I'm at right now. I'm playing the Witcher 2 for the first time, actually —a couple of us here at Kotaku have (re)picked it up in anticipation of the recently announced The Witcher 3.

I'm a bit in awe of the sense of setting in this game, the forest in particular. It's bustling, it feels alive—like a creature onto itself. The paths wind further and further in, the foliage rustles in the wind. Frogs croak in the distance, beckoning me forward.

I can't see it, but I can hear the Endregas crawling down the trees as I navigate my way through the forest. Loathsome creatures, those ones. They look like giant reptile scorpions. Reptile scorpions that can spit poison: tell me that doesn't sound awful.

I learned about the poison first-hand—and learned that, given enough of them, an Endrega can take down a novice Witcher easy. Of course the villagers want these things gone.

Nekkers (another creature-type) on the other hand like to burrow in the ground. Until you get too close, that is. Then they'll burst out of the ground and attack. But finding their nests in the forest is no easy task—knowing the nests exist in the first place takes a few encounters and sharp eyes. It's a game that actually expects you to pay attention.

I wasn't prepared for that, not at first. I've been babied! Games just tell me where everything is now. But the map in The Witcher 2 isn't much help, not that it denotes where my marks are anyway. I'll just have to find them on my own.

It feels like playing a game that respects me—respects my choices, respects my ability to figure quests out, respects my ability to scavenge for things. It's also remarkable how well the game builds the world up—in this specific case, the ferocity of monsters and the utter necessity of people like you, the monster-hunting Witchers.

I can't look at them as an obstacle in my way, because I know that without them, the world wouldn't need me, either. Also, they're terrifying and, initially at least, kind of a mystery to me. Both of these together creates a sense of respect and fear. Normally, at best, a game can make me fear something—say, the absurdly difficult Deathclaws in Fallout. Respect is trickier.

If only I hadn't undermined that all. As fearsome as, say, the Endrega queen is (think a much huger, much more difficult Endrega), it's still just AI. If I played by 'the rules,' it would destroy me with ease. So what did I do? I abused its attack radius by going way farther than its AI would let it, and I also made sure it got stuck on stuff so I could wail on it easily.

I'm ashamed. The queen deserved more, I know. My gaming neurosis—the one that does look at enemies like bundles of HP—won out.

Thankfully, The Witcher 2 put me back in my place. This was my next contract, the Kraken-like Kayran. Look at it:

You have to defeat that thing. It's huge. And, admittedly, how you go about killing it isn't clear—what preparations do you take? And once in battle, how do you damage that thing? You can see the weak points, but how do you get to them?

Normally that would seem like obtuse game design, but in this case, again, it's really just a game that requires you to pay attention and deduce. You have to ask yourself, what would a Witcher do? A Witcher might ingest potions, might set traps, might learn more and observe the creature. And those are all things you can do, obviously, but the game leaves most of that up to you.

I'm nearing the end of act 1 now, but I'm looking forward to (if not dreading!) what other creatures the game throws my way.

Like Return To New Vegas, we're doing a series that looks back on an older game—in this case, The Witcher 2. Stay tuned for more over the coming weeks.