We're officially halfway through this week, so what better way than to celebrate with Late Night Computing for September 26, 2012.

Lots of goodies were announced today, including a preview of Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 and its zombie mode. The most interesting thing to me is the Mass Effect Trilogy compendium. All three games for $59.99? Ok, you have my attention. Really though, I'd really rather have an announcement after all of the Mass Effect 3 downloadable content is published with all three titles and all of the DLC content included. It's one of the few series I'd go out of my way to re-buy the'complete' package, but without including all of the DLC.....it can't really be called a 'complete' collection sadly. Maybe next year, BioWare?

News bits:

• Can Google searches predict how well a particular game will sell prior to launch? A new study, titled "Understanding the Modern Gamer," says yes. [via BGR News]

• NHL 13 overall looks fantastic, save for one. The "Hercules Check." Ignore the rather annoying commentary. [via Yahoo! Puck Daddy]

• Driverless cars are now legal in California. John Connor begins his resistance movement. [via Bloomberg]

• Control your computer with your eyes, all from a $30 head-mounted gadget created by two cameras from video-game consoles. [via CNN]

• Amazon begins offering lockers at local convience stores for you to pick up your latest purchases. [via WCSH6]

Chatty posts of the moment.

Make sure you log-in and check your filters if you can't see the following:

• "FTL mens: it appears as though our thread has been lost to the sands of time. Here is another. The bad news].The good news: unlocked stealth ship!" [by wendigo]

• "Guild Wars 2 Menz. How is the Maguuna scene these days? We rolled our first characters on Borliss Pass. It's a nice quiet server, but we haven't had much luck getting into an active robust guild. If we can get over to Maguuna, can my co-worker and I have a space in the Shacknews guild? " [by hatelull]

Nightly file.

• StarForge build 0.1.5a. "StarForge is a game about gathering resources, building bases, buying weapons, using strategy, and destroying your opponent’s bases to win the match. It is real time and set in a first or third person perspective. Set on an alien planet, the theme is high technology, mixed with old world building mechanics. Earth has been depleted and the humans transferred as much technology and resources as possible and left on a one way mission to populate another planet. They must forge a new star." Download the free alpha for Windows.

Media.

Far Cry 3 Vass and Buck Savages trailer:

The first part of a series of character portraits in Far Cry 3, two of the most twisted savages are outed as Vass and Buck.

We also have the first short gameplay trailer from Carthage for Total War: Rome II, a launch trailer for Marvel vs. Capcom Origins, a featurette trailer for The Hip Hop Dance Experience, and new screenshots for Transformers: Fall of Cybertron and Marvel Heroes.