This week, we took a look at a Better Business Bureau bloggers' claim that EA's pre-release hype for Mass Effect 3 amounted to false advertising, and found the reasoning a little bit wanting. We also talked about rumors that Microsoft's next console will sport a ridiculous 16 cores, looked over a few demos from PAX East, and reviewed an indie puzzle platformer nearly five years in the making.

Those of you who reload the Valve job postings page every morning hoping to find a way out of your meaningless, dead-end career may have noticed that the esteemed game developer is now looking for a couple of hardware engineers to "conceive, design, evaluate, and produce new types of input, output, and platform hardware."

The job postings don't go into any specifics on what kind of hardware Valve is looking for help with exactly, but the company says it wants to "invent whole new gaming experiences" that can "enhance" the kinds of software it's already making. Some might immediately try to connect the job postings to recent rumors of a PC-based "Steam Box" game console designed to run Valve's digital distribution service. But it's just as likely that the company is looking for people to further develop the kind of biofeedback devices it talked about at last year's Game Developers Conference, or even work on its patent for a "pivotally translatable handle" controller that came to light last year. Or maybe it's something the company hasn't spoken about publicly at all.

In any case, it seems clearer than ever that Valve has its sights set on expanding out of the software business, even as it says it's "a long way from... shipping any sort of hardware."

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It's hard to think of an indie game that has had more prerelease buzz and attention than Fez. Polytron's Phil Fish has been working on the game for nearly five years now, teasing fans with trailers and small trade show demos as he constantly put off planned release dates to perfect it just a little more. The game that is finally seeing the light of day today shows the care that went into creating a world full of hidden depths, but some players might find those depths a little too well-hidden.

When I heard that Harmonix would be showing off a new game at PAX East, I was incredibly excited to see what my favorite rhythm game developer had to offer. When I heard that the game was going to be cross-compatible with the hundreds of Rock Band songs already on my Xbox 360 hard drive, I got even more excited. When I actually got to play Rock Band Blitz on the PAX East show floor, though, that excitement quickly gave way to disappointment and boredom.

Bethesda Softworks announced today that a free update coming to The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim later this month will add support for over 200 voice commands for Xbox 360 players that have a Kinect hooked up.

What kind of voice commands? Well, players will be able to access their "entire menu of shouts" just by speaking the magic words, so screaming "Fus Roh Dah!" at the TV will actually do something other than making you look like a crazy person. You'll also be able to give commands like "follow" and "attack" to your allies simply by speaking them, and assign hotkeys for weapon and spell combinations without having to dive into a menu.

Kinect-equipped players will also be able to navigate menus more easily, by simply saying the names of on-screen options, or by asking the system to sort tradeable items by weight or value, for example. Quick-save and quick-load functions will also be mapped to your voice, saving a bit of time as you continue your quest.

The announcement continues what seems to be a growing trend of developers using Kinect to augment the controls of traditional games, rather than trying to replace them completely with motion and voice. Recently, Mass Effect 3 let Kinect-equipped players control their squad, special abilities and even dialogue choices using their voices, and Capcom's upcoming Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor uses quick, Kinect-sensed gestures on top of the primary dual-stick controls.

Skyrim's Kinect commands were first developed as part of Bethesda's internal "Skyrim Game Jam," where the game's developers experimented with hundreds of features that could potentially be added to the game. Game Jam experiments like ranged and magic kill cams have already been added through previous updates, and the company said it is also working on a new Xbox 360-exclusive update featuring new quests, locations and features, which it hopes to officially announce soon.

Masochistic PC gamers that were not masochistic enough to buy a game console just so they could play one of the hardest dungeon crawling RPGs ever made have reason to rejoice today, as Namco Bandai has announced Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition will be coming to the PC on August 24.

The new edition will feature additional bosses that were not in the console versions, but otherwise will be a direct port of the 2011 Xbox 360 and PS3 original, which was itself a spiritual successor to 2009 PS3 exclusive Demon's Souls. Both games gained notoriety for an old-school sword-and-sorcery sensibility and a completely brutal difficulty that punished players mercilessly for even small mistakes.

In an event announcing the PC port version in Las Vegas today, From Software director Hidetaka Miyazaki reportedly thanked the game's fans for pressuring Namco Bandai into the PC port through an online petition that has drawn over 90,000 signatures since early January. The statement follows earlier encouraging words from a Namco Bandai forum administrator, who said that he would "make a personal objective to make sure every relevant people [sic] in Namco Bandai Games is in touch with this formidable [petition] effort."

Speaking of Internet petitions, a new online effort has already sprouted up to protest the PC port's apparent use of Microsoft's Games for Windows Live to manage online functions, as suggested by box art shown at the game's announcement. As of this writing, over 1,280 people have signed on to protest the use of GFW Live, which the petition says is "unpopular, difficult to use, inconvenient, has terrible online support... and is downright unpleasant." It's funny, because you'd think people who liked Dark Souls' unforgiving gameplay would be all in favor of downright unpleasant experiences...

The difference between used games and new copies that include free downloadable content will be a bit clearer to many customers at used game giant Gamestop. That's because of a class-action settlement that is forcing the retailer to post warnings about those differences in its California stores and on its website for the next two years.

According to the lawsuit, Gamestop misled many consumers by displaying game packaging that claimed DLC was available for free with purchase, even though used copies required an additional fee of up to $15 for that content. Attorneys at law firm Baron and Budd alleged that Gamestop used this confusion to inflate the prices of used games at their stores, often to levels only $5 less than their new counterparts.

In announcing the settlement, Baron and Budd argued that the victory will help even knowledgeable used game consumers by forcing Gamestop to lower the price on used titles missing downloadable content. The firm even claims that "GameStop lowered prices for used copies of many of the game titles identified in the lawsuit," though we think that just as likely has to do with rapidly declining demand for those games as any legal threat.

Customers in California who purchased select games from Gamestop will be able to receive $15 in Gamestop coupons and checks as part of the settlement. The law firm says it's also busy "investigating similar GameStop practices in other states" and encourages anyone else who has had a problem with Gamestop's used game sales tactics to get in touch.

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One of the major complaints among those still enraged over the cryptic ending to Mass Effect 3 is that EA and Bioware essentially pulled a bait and switch. The company promised that players would be able to shape the story's conclusion to a degree that wasn't borne out by the final product. A blogger at the Better Business Bureau has now taken a look at those claims and determined that they actually have some merit.