Battlefield 3, Mass Effect 3 Is Now $30

Origin is hosting a pretty massive promotion for Memorial's Day weekend. They're slashing the prices of several high-profile games available through the service, including Battlefield 3 and Mass Effect 3, from now until May 29th.

There's no rhyme or reason to the list of discounted games. A lot of them are published by EA. For example, the Battlefield, Sims 3, Crysis and Mass Effect franchises are all 50% off. However, select games from other publishers (like Batman: Arkham City) got the discount as well. In some cases, it's a PC-only sale while in others the console versions got some love, too. You can find a partial list of games covered by the promotion here. Your best bet is to just search the store for your desired game, though.

Surprisingly, Star Wars: The Old Republic isn't one of the games available on the cheap. It seems like that game's always getting discounts or free weekend. Maybe those promotions will be drying up now, though, now that the game's experiencing tough times. It's been bleeding subscribers this spring, forcing BioWare to lay off part of the development team.

If I had to pick just one game in the store to buy during this sale, it'd be Battlefield 3. It's pretty much the only game from the holiday season that I'm still playing. The reasons that I'm still logging time in BF3 probably require their own piece. Suffice to say, it's a deep and satisfying shooter that's unlike anything else on the market.

Should you have an aversion to Origin, note that some of these discounts are also available elsewhere this weekend. For example, Amazon is currently offering Mass Effect 3 for $29.99. Presumably that price cut will expire at the end of the weekend as well.