GameStop.com is currently having a deal where if you buy one used game, you get one used game for free, plus free shipping. It's the best deal I've ever seen from them, and it's a biggie, too: a quick glance shows that they have over 500 used Xbox 360 titles for under $20. I personally bought Too Human (I know!) and Red Faction: Guerilla. Both of them (plus tax) for under $20.

The codes are UBOGO for the buy one, get one free, and SAVER for free shipping.

The deal lasts until March 22nd, so get on it! no comments

Periodically, I like to check out used game prices - usually from gamefly.com, half.com, and gamestop.com - and lately, I've been most impressed with Gamefly's prices. This is a recent trend, because half.com used to have the best prices around, but apparently people are greedy nowadays. Either way, I went to Gamefly and walked away (virtually, that is) with three games for about the same price as one new game at full price: Brutal Legend, Batman: Arkham Asylum, and Wolfenstein.

Here are some of today's prices. Apparently, PS3 owners have a much smaller selection and have to pay a premium for their entertainment:

Xbox 360:
Ghostbusters - $12.99
Red Faction: Guerilla - $12.99
Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood - $12.99
Wolfenstein - $14.99
Brutal Legend - $17.99
Dead Space - $17.99
Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 - $17.99
Batman: Arkham Asylum - $24.99
Fallout 3 - $27.99
The Beatles: Rock Band - $27.99
Guitar Hero 5 - $29.99
Halo 3: ODST - $29.99

Playstation 3:
Red Faction: Guerilla - $17.99
Ghostbusters - $19.99
Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood - $19.99
no comments

Truth be told, I don't like going into GameStop. I don't like being pressured to pre-order games, but mainly I just don't like how much they charge for used games compared to how little they give for trade-ins. That being said, I had a pretty good time at the store today.

I took 11 Xbox 360 games to trade in, ranging from good (Tales of Vesparia) to really bad (TimeShift). They're having a deal where you get an additional 50% on used game trade-ins, so I made more than I usually would have. 50% more, actually. What's even better is that there was a list of used games and if you brought two of those to trade in, they'd give you $40 towards Final Fantasy XIII; it just so happened that I had two of those games, and they would have only netted me $24 even with the additional 50% trade-in value.

All in all, I traded in 11 games that I'll never play again and I got Final Fantasy XIII, Heavy Rain, $24 in credit, and I renewed my GameStop "Edge" card for a year. Not a bad trip at all. no comments

There's this chain of stores that I had never seen until I moved to the DC area, and it's called FYE: For Your Entertainment. They basically sell video games, music and movies for slightly-outrageous prices. While at the mall today I noticed that they were selling a butt-ton of Xbox 360 and PS3 games for 50% off, so I investigated. I walked out of there with FEAR Files ($10), Perfect Dark Zero ($6) and Earth Defense Force 2017 ($5).

On a podcast, I recently vowed not to buy shitty games even if they were on sale, and this is my defense: 50% off games don't count. I have no idea how long the sale is going on, but it may behoove you to check out your local FYE in the near future. no comments

I wasn't a fan of red wine until recently, but that changed when I visited Italy a couple of months ago. Also, two fun facts:

1. I hate it when beer gets warm, and since red wine is already served warm, it never goes bad while you drink it.

2. As far as I can tell, there's no such thing as "wine shits".

Since getting back from Europe, my wife and I have been experimenting with various red wines. Our only rule is that we're trying to buy bottles that are under $10. We tried out all of the Yellowtail brand wines (too sour), and we read about this brand called Red Diamond, based out of Washington state. I spent the first 20 years of my life in Washington, so we decided to try it out.

It has a sweet initial taste and it goes down really smoothly. That's about the extent of my wine tasting skills. We're a quarter of the way through the bottle. More to come. Maybe. no comments

Just when he thought it had slipped quietly under the radar, we go and spoil everything. That's right folks, someone around here just had a birthday. However, to spare this person the pain of public humiliation, we have gone to great lengths to keep their identity a secret, with the exception of a few subtle hints. Nudge nudge, wink wink!

So readers, can you possibly guess who the lucky birthday boy is? Need another clue? Then hit the link below to read on!

no comments

PopCap Games has quite an offer going right now. If you sign up for their newsletter, you can gift a copy of Peggle Nights (PC or Mac) to a friend. In other words, if you have two email addresses floating around, YOU can be that friend.

I read about this offer last night, and I didn't plan on writing about it, but then I played a bit of Peggle Nights and decided that everyone deserves to play it. For free. It usually costs $20. no comments

If you have money, and you like video games, be sure to go to this site right now and check out the Indie Love Bundle. It features six award-winning games for $20, and two of them (Eufloria and Machinarium) were discussed on our last podcast. Four out of six work on the Mac, and all six work on the PC. The sale ends in eight hours, so thumb-twittling is ill advised. no comments

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I am back!

I returned from Vegas yesterday with a renewed spirit, a new wife, and a massive hangover. That's alright, though, because I'm ready to get back into some games! I haven't been able to play anything all week, and I'm suffering from major Mass Effect 2 withdrawals, especially since Russ was able to play more in one day than I was able to all week.

As a matter of fact, the only game related activity I did (aside from the massive amounts of craps and blackjack) was buy the pen that you see above. It's made from recycled game consoles, and is from a company called Remarkable (www.remarkable.co.uk) where they make pens, markers, and notepads out of recycled crap. Although it doesn't specify exactly which console my pen was recycled from, I'm pretty sure it was a Turbo Grafx-16. It just has that feel to it.

Oh yeah, and make sure you do something for the first time today, because it's Precendent's Day!
no comments

Just in time to get pumped up for the release of Battlefield: Bad Company 2, Microsoft is offering the XBLA title Battlefield 1943 for the reasonable price of $10, down from the reasonable price of $15. If you haven't tried it out yet, I'd say go for it. There's a lot worse things you could spend $10 on. Like TimeShift.

Details can be found here. no comments