Although I'm not a huge fan of Internet memes, the noble facepalm has a special place in my heart. There are times when no other gesture will do, especially on weeks when I'm talking about both GameStop and Ubisoft DRM in the same column.

GameStop's Deus Ex Debacle

It wouldn't be a year in the gaming industry without several examples of shady behavior from the GameStop corporate offices. This week's debacle surrounds the Deus Ex: Human Revolution (DEHR) release. New Copies of the PC version of DEHR include a voucher for OnLive, a cloud gaming service that happens to compete with GameStop's own Impulse service.

Several GamesStop employees have gone to the press with copies of instructions they've received to open up all copies of DEHR in the store and remove the coupons before selling the game. Of course, having tampered with the boxes, GameStop continues to sell the game as new. In answer to inquiries, a GameStop employee confirmed that the coupons were being removed and discarded because publisher Square Enix didn't provide advance notice to GameStop that a competitor's coupons were included in the package. Basically, employees were being instructed to steal something out of a game's package, and the word is that quite a few refused to do so.

In response to the backlash that occurred when its voucher-stealing policy went public, GameStop decided to pull all PC copies of DEHR from the shelves. Industry watchers eagerly awaited Square Enix's response, wondering if a lawsuit would be filed. Instead, Square Enix publicly apologized to GameStop for the incident, even though it honestly doesn't seem like the publisher had anything to apologize for. Why should a publisher need to inform a retailer about pack-in deals in its games? Facepalms all around to this one.

From Dust to Dust

When From Dust's delayed PC version came out last week, gamers cried foul for several reasons. First, it was poorly ported, with a low frames-per-second cap and a lack of graphical options, not to mention a large number of bugs and issues that have kept people from being able to run the game at all. Second, even after a promise that From Dust would require only a single online activation, the game launched with Ubisoft's always-online DRM and would not run unless the user was connected to the Internet. This understandably upset quite a few customers, who set about asking for refunds.

After several days of confusion over the DRM issue, Ubisoft finally announced that it would be removing the online authentication entirely in an upcoming patch. The patch is due in two weeks, but in the meantime, Steam has been sending out e-mails to From Dust owners stating that they can get a refund if they don't want the game anymore. Now, let's see if we can convince Ubisoft to completely stop implementing DRM policies that only inconvenience paying customers, shall we?

Nintendo or Nintendon't?

There are rumors swirling around that Nintendo is planning to launch a redesigned 3DS in the near future. Supposedly the company regrets not adding a second analog stick to the design, and will add a snap-on second stick to the new console. There's also reported to be a decreased focus on the glasses-free 3D as a feature, and possibly even a name change for the device.

When Nintendo announced a 3DS-centered trade show on September 13, some news outlets speculated that these rumored changes would be announced then. I have strong doubts both about the rumors and that any sort of major hardware announcement will be made at the trade show. Nintendo is likely to be pushing the holiday software lineup for the 3DS and re-emphasizing the many new features of the 3DS, not issuing a new version of the device so soon after the launch and price drop. After all, the most-wanted feature for the 3DS is a strong software lineup, not a hardware change.

Have you bought a 3DS yet? If not, are you planning to do so once there are enough good games out for it? Or are you instead waiting for the PS Vita or just playing portable games on a smartphone? I bought a 3DS after the price drop, and I think it's a solid little machine that just needs more games to get off the ground.

By Becky Cunningham
CCC Contributing Writer

*The views expressed within this article are solely the opinion of the author and do not express the views held by Cheat Code Central.*