Tomb Raider: Underworld, PS3 - £9.99 in store at Morrison's
Not sure if this is nationwide or not, but Mattias Werner spotted it in Teeside Park, let me know if you spot it in any other stores.
Tomb Raider: Underworld, PS3 - £9.99
Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena, PC - £6.98
Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena, PC - £6.98 delivered
I'm pretty shocked to see such a massive discount on this so soon, especially since a lot of retailers have been struggling to keep it in stock at full price. It is alsready at low stock, so don't delay, it will sell out pretty soon I bet.
UPDATE:
It's out of stock now, but it appears they are still letting you order at this price, and will deliver it "within a week".
Cheap games at Amazon
Amazon have got a bunch of games available for cheap right now. I've bundled them together because if you spend £5 or more you get free p&p.
Fallout 3, PC - £12.99
GRID, Xbox 360 - £9.99
Astonishia Story, PSP - £7.47
Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror, PS2 - £7.71
Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars, Xbox 360 - £6.79
Daxter, PSP - £6.59
Geometry Wars: Galaxies, DS - £5.49
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, PC - £2.06
Beowulf, PC - £1.85
PSN Collection: Power Pack, PSP - £2.06 (includes fl0w, Beats and Syphon Filter: Combat Ops)
Might and Magic IX, PC - £2.50
Paraworld, PC - £2.59
Another World: 15th Anniversary Edition, PC - £3.99
Fallout 3 [GOTY Edition], Xbox 360 - £29.99
Fallout 3 [GOTY Edition], Xbox 360 - £29.99 delivered
Includes all the DLC.
Fallout 3 [GOTY Edition], PS3 - £29.99
Fallout 3 [GOTY Edition], PS3 - £29.99 delivered
Includes all the DLC.
The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion [GOTY Edition], PC - £11.99
The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion [GOTY Edition], PC - £11.99 delivered
Burnout Paradise: The Ultimate Box & Trivial Pursuit, Xbox 360 - £14.47
Burnout Paradise: The Ultimate Box & Trivial Pursuit, Xbox 360 - £14.47 delivered
SNK Arcade Classics - Vol 1, Wii - £5.99
SNK Arcade Classics - Vol 1, Wii - £5.99 delivered
Contains:
Art of Fighting,
Baseball Stars 2,
Burning Fight,
Fatal Fury,
King of Fighters '94,
King of the Monsters,
Last Resort,
Magician Lord,
Metal Slug,
Neo Turf Masters,
Samurai Shodown,
Sengoku,
Shock Troopers,
Super Sidekicks 3,
Top Hunter and
World Heroes
Wii Sports Resort + Motion Plus, Wii - £37.99
Wii Sports Resort + Motion Plus, Wii - £37.99 delivered
Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops/Coded Arms, PSP - £8.95
Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops/Coded Arms, PSP - £8.95 delivered
Street Fighter IV [Collectors Edition], Xbox 360 - £24.99
Street Fighter IV [Collectors Edition], Xbox 360 - £24.99 delivered
Steam is pretty expensive
I've had a look at ten recent releases and 'coming soon' games on Steam, and compared their prices with the cheapest available retail prices. I've included delivery, and any coupons available.
Pro Cycling Manager Season 2009
Steam: £29.99
Retail: £22.95
Street Fighter IV
Steam: £29.99
Retail: £14.98
Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood
Steam: £34.99
Retail: £22.73
Virtua Tennis 2009
Steam: £26.99 (that's 10% off, normal price £29.99)
Retail: £21.49
Trine
Steam: £19.99
Retail: £14.99
ARMA II
Steam: £29.99
Retail: £17.99
Overlord II
Steam: £29.99
Retail: £14.95
Bionic Commando
Steam: £26.99 (that's 10% off for preordering, normal price £29.99)
Retail: £17.73
The Steam version unlocks on the 28th of July, the retail version ships on the 17th of July.
East India Company
Steam: £34.99 (Comes with free "Pirate Bay" DLC)
Retail: £24.99
The Steam version unlocks on the 31st of July, the retail version ships on the 7th of August.
Aion
Steam: £34.99
Retail: £23.99 (use coupon "buyat0902" to get that price)
The Steam version unlocks on the 25th of September, and the retail version ships on the same day.
So, of the ten selected games, the average Steam price is £29.89 and the average retail price is £19.68, meaning that in this sample, Steam is 52% more expensive than buying retail. Put another way, buying all ten of these games from Steam would cost £298.90, and buying them all from retail would cost £196.79. Also, for new releases, sometimes Steam is the quickest way to get your game, and sometimes retail is.
Now, this is a far from scientific study, but it's certainly somewhat damning of Steam. How I (and I suspect a large proportion of it's customers) use Steam is as a portal through which I get some great special offers from, but there are obviously people buying new releases at these high prices.
Apart from anything, purely from a consumer standpoint, it is crazy that it costs less to get some data, print it on a disc, put in in packaging, ship it to a retailer and let them ship it to you that it costs to make the same data available for download. Bear in mind that it is impossible to sell, or otherwise transfer the license of Steam versions games, and the retail version seems like a far better deal for gamers.
Which is a shame - I certainly would prefer to use DD more than retail, it is more convenient for me, and it is better for the environment, but I am not willing to compromise on value to do so.
PSN Collection: Power Pack, PSP - £2.17
PSN Collection: Power Pack, PSP - £2.17
Spend £5 or more for free P&P.
Contains:
fl0w
Beats
Syphon Filter: Combat Ops
Bully: Scholarship Edition, PC - £2.99
Bully: Scholarship Edition, PC - £2.99 delivered
Cheers to Sam for the tip off.
Dark Messiah of Might and Magic, PC - £4.99
Dark Messiah of Might and Magic, PC - £4.99 delivered
£1 cheaper that on Steam, and you can just use the serial to add the game to your Steam account.
Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena, Xbox 360 - £17.95
Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena, Xbox 360 - £17.95 delivered
Review here.
Pro Evolution Soccer 2010, PC - £17.85
Pro Evolution Soccer 2010, PC - £17.85 delivered
Out later on this year (2009).
Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles - Ring Of Fates, DS - £8.99
Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles - Ring Of Fates, DS - £8.99 delivered
Scene It: Box Office Smash + controllers, Xbox 360 - £17.99
Scene It: Box Office Smash + controllers, Xbox 360 - £17.99 delivered
Fender Precision Bass, Xbox 360 - £25
Fender Precision Bass, Xbox 360 - £25 delivered
Wired Fender replica Rock Band guitar, RRP £70. The £20 price includes delivery, so if you live near a Tesco store that allows for store collection you can nab this for £20. I believe it's only compatible with Rock Band and Rock Band 2 and not the Guitar Hero games, but I'll research/test that and update the post.
Update: It appears not to matter, as they are now sold out.
Alone in the Dark [Collector's Edition], Xbox 360 - £6.93
Alone in the Dark [Collector's Edition], Xbox 360 - £6.93 delivered
Contains:
15cm Alone in the Dark Edward Carnby Figurine
Alone in the Dark Artbook
Bonus 'Making Of Alone in the Dark' DVD
Alone in the Dark CD Audio Soundtrack
Please don't buy COD:MW2 at RRP.
Activision have set the RRP for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 at £55 for consoles, and £40 for PC.
I'm not going to suggest some sort of boycott, or that Activision are some evil corporation trying to rip off it's customers. But I will say this:
If the game sells well at those prices (roughly a 25% increase on RRP for basically every other game), you can be damn sure that Activision will continue this practise this kind of pricing whenever they think "the market will bear it" (translation: When they can get away with it), and it won't be long before other publishers join in.
If it does not sell well at launch, and sales only pick up after the price is dropped, it will probably be considered a failed experiment.
Cause and effect, it's pretty simple really.
I also don't believe a word Activision say, they have proven themselves to be greedy fuckers at every single opportunity.
I'll be keeping track of the best prices before and after release on all formats.
Burnout Paradise: The Ultimate Box, Xbox 360 - £9.99
Burnout Paradise: The Ultimate Box, Xbox 360 - £9.99 delivered
Make sure to go for the one from "Amazon.co.uk" on the right, not the marketplace seller for £16.55.
Logitech DriveFX Axial Feedback Wheel & Pedals, Xbox 360 - £19.99
Logitech DriveFX Axial Feedback Wheel & Pedals, Xbox 360 - £19.99 delivered
Gaming Made Me
You guys might have been following RockPaperShotgun's "Gaming Made Me" series of articles, where they chronicle what games have had a large impact on them.
I contributed to one of them, which has just been posted.
What games made you?
Ikaruga, XBLA - 400 MS Points
Ikaruga, XBLA - 400 MS Points
Only for xbox live gold subscribers, it's this weeks deal of the week.
Guitar Hero Xplorer guitar, Xbox 360 - £9.95
Guitar Hero Xplorer guitar, Xbox 360 - £9.95 in store at Blockbuster
Not sure if this is a nationwide deal or not, if someone can confirm/deny that, please do, but Will just saw preowned guitars in the Blockbuster in Macclesfield for under a tenner. Great if you need a spare one.
Terminator Salvation - Review
Terminator Salvation, Xbox 360 - £20.95 delivered
Terminator Salvation, PS3 - £20.95 delivered
Terminator Salvation, PC - £20.99 delivered
Review by 043
When Epic’s Gears of War was released in 2006, it made a splash on the console shooter scene by bringing the controllability of a first person shooter to the third-person perspective, while retaining a certain cinematic flair. Of course, its over-the-shoulder view was used in Resident Evil 4 a year earlier, and even cited as an influence on the game; but it brought more clones to the market than RE4 ever did. GRIN’s Terminator Salvation can be considered one of those clones, taking Gears’ perspective, cover system and even gameplay segues straight from its Great Uncle Marcus. Only this time, there’s a film license, and such, a lack of creativity behind its production.
Playing as John Connor (who looks or sounds nothing like Christian Bale’s portrayal from the film), the player has to work from set piece to set piece defeating the namesake androids, and completing a few objectives. The gameplay isn’t varied at all, and when I make the comparison to Gears of War you know exactly what you’ll be getting into; the environments are extremely linear, filled with cover and weapons/ammo, and the enemies usually flow from one or two spots until the area is cleared. The one real break in all this mediocrity is given in the form of on-rails shooter levels, almost entirely from the back of vehicles that lets you destroy some flying SkyNet ships, and just wreak havoc upon the landscape (with no destructibility) while you make your move out of enemy territory. These stages are pretty fun, but aren’t enough to pull the game up a notch in replayability or overall fun rating.
The controls are straightforward enough, with the usual control stick usage, A is strictly for cover, B switches weapons, Y takes control of the camera to show off points of interest, and RB throws your grenades, while LB goes completely untouched. I felt like this scheme worked fine, except that everything felt slowed down; even on the highest sensitivity setting, the movements felt sluggish and unnatural. No real problem with the camera, as it stays its constant two feet behind, eliminating the chance to hang on any of the objects. The only thing I feel missing is a sprint button, which is needed to flank some of the bigger enemies, but regenerating health combined with a ridiculous amount of cover makes up for this.
The enemies and weapons, what I consider to be the two biggest chunks of a shooter’s playability, are the biggest complaint I have about the game. The franchise is best known for the T-800, a huge, silver-bodied skeletal robot, with glowing red eyes and a clinched, metal jaw; and they’re here in a slightly older T-600 form. There are also smaller, flying drones called “Aerostats” and four-legged walking ones called “T7-T Spiders” – but they are so easy to take out that it just adds to the game’s blandness. Every enemy in the game, with a bit of movement and distance, can be defeated just by strafing in one big circle (or taking cover) and shooting weak points. The weapons don’t help either, consisting of your basic shotgun, assault rifle, a single machine gun, rockets, and grenades – I know the series strives for some realism (at least at this point in the timeline), but where are the awesome laser rifles from the intro to Terminator 2: Judgment Day? The game would’ve benefited from a shift away from the “movie prequel” angle, and more into the future war we’ve only seen in a few key moments from the films.
I guess that’s what sequels are for, huh?
Basically, when it gets down to it, Terminator Salvation is a rental, at best. The overall length of the game only spans nine chapters, taking about four hours to complete it, with three difficulty levels (which can deceive you, as even on easy there are one-hit kills; damage taken and given seem to be the only differences) and co-op that might extend the game’s life by another playthrough with a buddy. The visuals are acceptable, but it’s not gonna do anything to push your console to its graphical limits, and the voice over work is simply okay, lacking 95% of the cast from the film. I finished it once on single player, and played it a little bit with a friend of mine, and found myself dragging to complete it, simply because it is so very cookie cutter. If you want a shooter, the market is so saturated that there is no reason to try this one short of a sale bin at the local shop or getting it for free.
Terminator Salvation, Xbox 360 - £20.95 delivered
Terminator Salvation, PS3 - £20.95 delivered
Terminator Salvation, PC - £20.99 delivered
Far Cry 2 [Collectors Edition], Xbox 360 - £14.99
Far Cry 2 [Collectors Edition], Xbox 360 - £14.99 delivered
It comes with:
Artbook,
Map,
T-Shirt,
Map Guide Book,
Making-of DVD.
Far Cry 2 [Collectors Edition], PS3 - £14.99
Far Cry 2 [Collectors Edition], PS3 - £14.99 delivered
It comes with:
Artbook,
Map,
T-Shirt,
Map Guide Book,
Making-of DVD.
50 Cent: Blood On The Sand, Xbox 360 - £14.99
50 Cent: Blood On The Sand, Xbox 360 - £14.99 delivered
Review here.
50 Cent: Blood On The Sand, PS3 - £14.99
50 Cent: Blood On The Sand, PS3 - £14.99 delivered
Review here.
Mirror's Edge - Pure Time Trials pack, PS3 - Free
Mirror's Edge - Pure Time Trials pack, PS3 - Free
The Pure Time Trials pack ha been made a free download on for the PS3. Head to the PSN and download it now. No idea if this is permanent or not. Appears to still be 800 ms points on the 360.
It's a fantastic game to, you can get it for £12.99 delivered here, and see my review of it here.
Magic: The Gathering - Duels of the Planeswalkers - Review
Magic: The Gathering - Duels of the Planeswalkers - 800 MS Points
2,100 MS Points - £15.85
Review by Bill Hyatt
If you don't know anything about this game you need context. As you are here, on this wonderful site, then by the selection effect it means this game has a very good chance of getting its claws into you. The demo is great, it has a decent enough tutorial and lets you play full games, so you don't really need me to tell you if you will like the game, you need me to tell you what you are getting into.
So sure, you can skip past all this flavour text, skim the last paragraph of the review and pick the game up. But don't come crying to me for not heeding what I have to say...
I have a dirty secret. Back in the early nineties I played Magic: The Gathering at school. A lot.
Because as a geeky child I had been collecting stickers (the first Batman film sticker set was a highlight) and it made fiscal sense to move onto collectable card games (aka CCGs). You got to collect them AND play with them. Talk about value for money!
The CCG was a bit of a Western phenomenon. Before Yu-Gi-Oh and even before the Pokémon CCG there was a bunch of these CCG games, based on everything that was geeky and awesome; Lord of the Rings, Star Trek, Star Wars, hell even games about Werewolves and Vampires.
But the grand daddy is Magic: The Gathering (lets just call it MtG shall we?). Now people can pretend that other CCGs are better, but they're lying. Deep down they know it is the geeky subject matter that has dragged them there and not the raw mechanics of the game. MtG (see I told you we would call it that) is unmatched when it comes to the raw game mechanics. Comparing it to Yu-Gi-Oh is like comparing chess to draughts. Technically it is possible, but no one is going to believe that draughts is the better game, even if the pieces are all characters from Death Note and it comes with a little book to to write the names of the pieces you take (wait... hang on, this is a good idea...).
Now to try and show that, I'm going to spend the next few paragraphs explaining how the game kinda works. If these following paragraphs dull your eyes then it is probably best you wait till LewieP put's up a deal on a game about shooting people in the head. There's no shame in it. Oh and if you currently play MtG then this explanation will no doubt annoy you, and make you hate me.
You play the role of a bad ass wizard and you are aiming to kill your mate, who is another such wizard. You both start with 20 health and the first to lose it all dies.
Your deck consists of three main types of cards; Land, Creatures and Spells.
Land gives you mana you can spend of casting the other cards. It is your resource that you have to manage, and you use it to cast all your other cards.
Creatures are the monsters you use to fight with. The better the creature the more land you need to have available to summon it with. A little goblin might only need you to tap (aka rotate 90 degrees - something you get to do once to each land during every turn) one mountain, but a giant worm might need you to tap 6 forests to bring it out onto the play field. Oh thats another thing, every creature, spell and land comes in five colours White (plains), Red (mountains), Green (forests), Blue (islands) and Black (swamps).
Spells do everything else. From fireballs that hurt the other player directly, enchantments that improve your creatures and instant effects that can prevent the other players attempt to cast his own spells. Once again the more powerful the spell the more land you need to use to cast it.
Each turn you draw a card, play one of the lands you might have in your hand, summon creatures and cast spells. Then you choose which creatures to attack with, you opponent choose which of his to block with and any unblocked creatures damage the player.
More or less anyway. It's a lot better than that dry description sounds. I mean, try describing Backgammon, or Risk, it's incessantly tedious, but that doesn't stop the games being awesome.
But that isn't everything about the game you need to know. You need to know what it is wrapped in. I started with the 4th edition 'standard' cards, after I got given a 'starter pack' which is enough cards to make your first deck (typically about 40 to 60 cards). Then by buying 'booster' packs you would get another 15 cards to play with and modify your deck with.
The thing that makes MtG stand out from other game is the balance that Lands provide. Having more cards than your friends increased your options rather than your power. Or a least you think that at the start. It was a businessman's dream come true, driving kids to buy countless boosters to both collect all the cards and get an advantage over their friends (as an aside, a cynic might draw connections between this business model and what some publishers, especially Namco, think DLC should become).
So now we get to the bottom of why I've included all this rambling context. This is a game that to this day has a huge, rabid fan base of people who spend ridiculous amounts of money on this pastime. Whilst researching this review I read forum posts where people argued that the game was NOT expensive because you could make a 'competitive deck' for only £100 to £200.
For the same price of putting together this 'competitive deck' you could just buy the £6.80 XBLA game, which comes with 8 pre made decks, AND of course the £150 Xbox 360 to play it on.
It is the vast money sink that MtG represents that pushed so many players away, especially when you could start fooling pubs into serving you. It sounds trite, but that spare £2 you would drop on a pack of cards, could be a pint instead. So you became more hesitant. That or you had a moment of clarity and realised just quite how much you had spent on your collection and quit out of self preservation.
Of course, when the internet became The Big New Thing it gave Wizards of the Coast (who make MtG) an opportunity to reinvent the wheel and try out different ways of generating revenue that would draw in everyone who quit due to the cost. But of course they didn't. Instead they made MtG: Online. You buy virtual cards in starters and boosters in the exact same way at the RRP price of the physical cards. A booster pack still costs more than a pint but instead of getting printed bits of card you now buy jpegs and perl scripts (and, to be fair, servers and so on). But then why would they dare to mix things up when have a fan base who will happily pay? According to Wikipedia MtG:O generates about half of their revenue. It is A Big Deal. And fair play to them.
So this first generation of quitters have grow into their mid twenties and have bought themselves an Xbox. They'd love a game with a bunch of cards they could build a deck out of, and then play people on line. Wrap up 300 cards in an 800 point download and you'd have a lot of very happy customers. Give us a bunch of cards to get started but then give us a pretend booster every time we win a match say. Sell expansions of more cards to unlock as DLC. But of course if they did Wizards of the Coast would fundamentally undermine their very successful business of nickel and diming people.
And so you have this very strange half way house of a game which at every stage is designed to be welcoming to new players whilst drawing back in the lapsed players. The last thing they want to do though is let the addicted 'downgrade' to this version. You start off with a choice of two prebuilt decks, and then you can win a further 6 decks by beating your opponents in the single player campaign.
If you've played MtG you'll know the vast entertainment that comes from building your own deck. Carefully constructing themes and ideas that will crush your friends. Cards that seem useless can suddenly become the corner stone of a lethal deck.
Well you can't do that in the XBLA game. Hell you can't even decide how many Lands you want in your deck. Sure for each of the 8 themed decks you can unlock an additional 17 cards to be optionally added to your deck but you can't thin out any of the starting 60 — leading to decks unthinkably large to any experienced MtG player.
This might seem like a minor complaint, but it removes the soul from the game. The XBLA game comes with 280 odd cards and if it allowed you to make your own decks out of them then every game you played over live would be different and endlessly interesting, as you stole and mutated ideas that wiped the floor with your first game. But instead all the originality, all the personality you could bring to the game is washed out into 8 decks. With the Future Of Gaming (TM) being User Generated Content it seems a very backwards step to cut it from the game.
Unless you are Wizards of the Coast of course. 280 cards and the ability to play people on line would be enough for so very many of the people who play (and thus pay for) MtG: Online that there would be an appreciable drop in their business. So the game is crippled with all the originality, all the personality you could bring from the game being washed out into 8 opponents. It intentionally limits the life of the game.
But lets stop being so negative, because I am being so very negative. The game is bloody brilliant. It has 8 decks for £6.80. You get a decent campaign (16 increasing difficult matches), an equally compelling local co-op campaign of Two Headed Giant (2v2, where you share health), 8 puzzles where you are given a bleak looking situation and have one turn to turn it into a win, online ranked and player matches for 2, 3 or 4 players (along with two headed giant) and for every win you unlock a new card for your currently chosen deck. The net code is brilliant, with top notch responsive play. The production values are sky high, with beautiful crafted graphics, not just on the cards themselves but on everything from the virtual table you play the cards on, the battle effects and hell even the loading screens. The controls at first seem clunky, with strange timing windows effecting your ability to respond to the other persons actions, but it all soon clicks into place and the benefits these tightened controls bring to online play is substantial. Otherwise griefers dragging a game they were losing into the mud would become a real issue. In fact the controls are a good example of the contradictory aims the developers have, whilst perfect for an experience player they can be really confusing for the new player, based on my girlfriends experience at least. Talking of new players, my girlfriend has become obsessed with this game, to an almost fanatical extent, so that's a good sign.
A few warnings though; firstly if you play your 360 on an SDTV you need to check that the text is readable on your screen. The brilliant zoom function (mapped to the triggers) negates this issue to a large extent, but buyer beware and all that. Secondly the game seems to get stuck every so often but a quick change of camera angle gets it going again. It's also crashed a few times as well, once when we were a turn away from winning too. Of course your mileage may vary. I mention these issues as my responsibility as a reviewer but they are pretty minor issues.
The one last thing I need to mention is DLC. Wizards recently announced that there will be more decks released as DLC and kept reiterating that MS would be setting the price. It will be interesting to see if this is an attempt to justify an unusually high XBLA DLC cost, or an unusually low cost for MtG cards. Or most likely both. This matters because of the tendency of Wizards to release expansion decks that massively weaken your current cards/decks. For instance, one expansion introduced 'shadow' cards that could only be blocked by other shadow cards. This meant that if you didn't start buying the expansion like your friends you were pretty much screwed. And with multiple expansions every year it was this kind of behaviour by Wizards of the Coasts that drove a lot of players away from the real game, myself included. Whilst I hope this isn't the case for the XBLA game, the increasing ability of DLC to retroactively hurt your original purchase means I feel a warning might be in order.
This is the most curmudgeonly and cynical review I've ever written especially for such an extremely good game. But it all comes down to this, Magic: The Gathering is Chess sold by drug dealers. It is one of the best card games you will ever play, but it is sold by dealers, and the cost is massively prohibitive.
If you are former junky like me, this game isn't quite hit you were looking for, but it is superb, and as long as you accept what this game offers you'll get a superb amount of content at an extremely good price. You would be a fool to miss out.
If you are a newcomer, then by all means get on board, but be careful, because Wizards of the Coast will give you your first hit for cheap, and then two years down the line you'll be trying to convince people that spending £200 on a competitive deck is actually really cheap.
Magic: The Gathering - Duels of the Planeswalkers - 800 MS Points
2,100 MS Points - £15.85
Maths with Red Faction
GamersGate have got a promotion on for the impending PC release of Red Faction: Guerilla. Buy the game for £35.95 from them, and you get the first two Red Faction games for free.
Alternatively, you can buy Red Faction: Guerilla from Play.com for £17.99 delivered.
If you like, you could then get Red Faction 1 for £6.98 delivered, and Red Faction 2 for £5.73 delivered. A combined total of £30.70, £5.25 cheaper than what GamerGate are offering.
The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall, PC - Free
The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall, PC - Free
Bethesda have just made Daggerfall a free download. Nice one guys. You'll be wanting DOSBox to play it with.
Sega Superstars Tennis, Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts & Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise, Xbox 360 - £19.99
Sega Superstars Tennis, Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts & Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise, Xbox 360 - £19.99 collect in store
Onechanbara: Bikini Samurai Squad, Xbox 360 - £11.73
Onechanbara: Bikini Samurai Squad, Xbox 360 - £11.73 delivered
Red Faction: Guerrilla, PS3 - £17.99
Red Faction: Guerrilla, PS3 - £17.99 delivered
Ace game, I have a review on the way.
Blood Bowl resolution
As a follow up to the previous article about blood bowl serial, I have finally heard back from G2play:
"Yes we have sent email to our Blood Bowl customers explaining the situation and offering refund on the product. The keys were acquired in unlegitimate way by our supplier which we banned from our services and we are considering legal steps towards him. But since we do not have any proof against him but only the publishers claims it will be hard to proceed against. We have refunded promptly around 150 customers."
So that settles that, to some degree. They have passed on the blame to their supplier, but also done the honourable thing and accepted full responsibility for it themselves, and are doing what it takes to set things right. This whole saga has given me a better opinion of G2play, and a worse one of Focus. I think I am going to be fairly happy to post deals from G2play in the future, but I will always put a disclaimer on them I think.
Excellent work Lucasarts
Lucasarts have just put a bunch of their old old old games on Steam. I thought to myself when they announced they were doing so "Excellent, I may pick a few of those old adventure games I never played first time around in the inevitable weekend sale". But that wasn't good enough for Lucasarts.
They have priced a bunch of genuine classics at only £2.99 each. Bargainalicious.
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, PC - £2.99
Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, PC - £2.99
LOOM, PC - £2.99
The Dig, PC - £2.99
Star Wars Starfighter, PC - £2.99
I actually saw The Dig in a charity shop for £4 not all that long ago, I kid you not. There are lots more to come too.
Tales of Monkey Island Chapter 1: Launch of the Screaming Narwhal - Review
Tales of Monkey Island, PC - £21.95 (you'll get each chapter as they are released)
Demo here.
Review by Dimrill
After doing a fantastic job of resuscitating the Sam & Max story, Telltale Games have turned their attention to the lamentably neglected Monkey Island series with this first episode of a planned 5, The Launch of the Screaming Narwhal. Personally, I didn’t hear any rumblings or rumours of such a resurrection, and so was shocked when confronted with the first episode release within a few weeks of the announcement that it was being worked on. Pleasantly shocked, mind.
So what have Telltale got to work with? In my opinion, the series as a whole took a massive nosedive after the third instalment, Curse of Monkey Island. The ditching of the 2D graphics and SCUMM interface for the console friendly GrimE system was a massive letdown. The character and atmosphere was stripped out of the series and we were left with clunky controls and cursing at the screen when Guybrush got stuck on some scenery. Although all of these problems seemed symptomatic of the decline in point and click adventures coupled with the bizarre industry drive towards “everything must be 3D!” It’s taken until the Nintendo DS for the 2D genre to regain a foothold in marketplace, and I for one applaud it.
First things first, Tales... actually feels like a Monkey Island game as soon as you load it up. The art direction is bang on, the music is faithful to the original series, and most importantly Dominic Armato and Alexandra Boyd reprise their roles as the voices of Guybrush and Elaine. I doubt I could’ve accepted it if any of these components were missing. No doubt this is thanks to the return of original designer Dave Grossman as the design director.
The script writing is sharp and witty thanks to Michael Stemmle on this episode, and if the reports can be believed, Ron Gilbert also had a hand in the creation of these new episodes in the early design stages. For instance, there are some wonderful lines early on referring to the gap in the game’s development timeline. The characterisation of Guybrush remains true to the original series, with him being an atypical loveable failure, but the incidental characters could’ve done with a little more work to make them memorable. Series staple Voodoo Lady appears later on, and mention is made of Stan by an ancillary character.
Although Telltale have kept the easy and quick to generate 3D graphics in line with their Sam & Max episodes, they seem to have had troubles with deciding on the control system. Sam & Max was a joy to use, with a simple inventory system which worked on one or two clicks to get anything done. Here it’s a halfway house between Sam & Max simplicity and the traditional Monkey Island complexity. Any item can be examined with a single click, but using the inventory (by pressing “i” alphabet fans) to combine items seems needlessly complicated. Instead of picking up an item and clicking it on the other with which you wish to combine, you have to move both to separate boxes and click on a + symbol. Why? Unfortunately this has haunted me all the way through the episode, never seeming to fade into the background.
Also, the puzzles don’t appear to be particularly logical, with club cards left in socks and a particularly annoying section which involves following sound effects in the jungle. This was a problem I found afflicted Escape... quite profoundly. Hopefully it may be addressed later on in the series. One thing that can be said for this over Sam & Max, is that the episode is considerably longer and larger in scope, which bodes well for later episodes.
Despite these shortcomings, I’ve ended up liking The Launch of The Screaming Narwhal much more than the last Lucasarts attempt in the series. It would’ve been foolhardy in the extreme to expect quality levels to reach the same as the first three games.
Tales of Monkey Island, PC - £21.95 (you'll get each chapter as they are released)
Professor Layton And The Curious Village, DS - £17.99
Professor Layton And The Curious Village, DS - £17.99 delivered
Cheers to Rubix78 for the tip off.
Rock Band Portable Drum Kit, Xbox 360 - £14.89
Rock Band Portable Drum Kit, Xbox 360 - £14.89 collect in store
Review here.
Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles, Wii - £24.85
Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles, Wii - £24.85 delivered
Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga, Wii - £12.99
Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga, Wii - £12.99 delivered
Far Cry 2 [Collector's Edition], Xbox 360 - £19.95
Far Cry 2 [Collector's Edition], Xbox 360 - £19.95 delivered
Includes:
Artbook
Collectable 50km² map
Far Cry T-shirt
Map Guide Book
Making-of DVD
Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, DS - £9.99
Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, DS - £9.99 collect in store
Buzz: Quiz TV + Wireless Buzzers, PS3 - £14.99
Buzz: Quiz TV + Wireless Buzzers, PS3 - £14.99 delivered
Update: Expired now.
Experimental Gameplay Project is back
The Experimental Gameplay Project was a site I had a ton of fun on a few years ago, it was full of tiny interesting little games. It went away for a bit, but is back in action now.
One game in particular stuck in my mind, Tower of Goo, which went on to become the phenomenal World of Goo, and 2DBoy's Kyle Gabler is one of the site's founders.
Here's what they have to say for themselves:
"We're a group of indie game developers, running a friendly competition every month. The rules: Make a game based on the month's theme, and don't spend more than 7 days. New games posted at the end of every month."
Read more about the site here, and if you are still not interested, have a look at the list of names involved.
Cheers to indiegames for the heads up.
A question of what is right
UPDATE: Looks like Cyanide are not happy about being paid less than £40 for their game.
On the official forums, they have this to say:"Jessica has confirmed that all key's sold by these websites will be blacklisted and become unusable. Any further threads regarding these keys will be deleted."
Link here.
So, if that does happen, I fully suggest that you seek out a refund from G2play. I'm going to contact Cyanide now for a response. In the meantime, I suggest you hold off from buying from G2play. Cheers to Oliver M. for the heads up.
UPDATE2:
I've just heard back from Jessica, community manager from Focus’ games, the publisher of Blood Bowl."Concerning the website : G2Play, they sell player keys only. Thus this suppose that the person who buyed the key has already buyed an original version of the game (retail version or digital version). Because g2play don’t give you the file or the link to download the game, they give only the 2 serials [note: "2 serials" refers to the fact that the game requires two serials, one during installation, and a different one when it is first launched - Lewie].
-> If your readers buyed a key on the website they can send all the information concerning the first purchase (the “legal” purchase) and we will able to check with them the key and find a solution.
-> If your readers didn’t buy the game before they are in an illegal procedure (if they buy only the key on the website g2play that suppose that they install the game with the CD or link of someone, it’s forbidden) and we can’t do anything for them.
Can you send me an example of a serials buyed in this website in order to see why a website can sell our game illegally."
Language barrier seems to be a bit of a problem here, but as far as I can tell, according to Focus if you bought the serial from G2play, then either borrowed a disc, or downloaded an ISO, it is illegal, and will be blacklisted. If you bought the game, then for some reason lost your serial, and can prove it, they won't be blacklisting your serial, but I think that realistically that doesn't apply to anyone.
UPDATE3:
More from Jessica:"Concerning the serials, we are checking how the website could have the serial.
If they stolen the keys it’s illegal. Furthermore G2play is not a partner so they are not authorized to sell the game."
I agree if the keys are stolen, or generated by using some kind of keygen, then they should be blacklisted. However, if they have just been sourced from a cheaper international supplier, then it shouldn't be illegal. You can bet for sure that the packaging the retail release comes in won't all have been sourced in France, they will have gone to the cheapest international supplier, and in my opinion it would be hypocritical to accuse your own customers of being criminals just because they follow the same practise.
Why would G2play not be allowed to sell the game? If that's the case, eBay should be pretty worried. I'm pretty sure that she actually means "we want more money".
UPDATE4:
Another serial retailer, Online Key Store, who are also selling Blood Bowl serials at a discount have responded to blacklisting concerns here."We buy keys cheap from asian countries so they cannot be blacklisted, this is a legitimate company not some cowboy illegal operation.
The keys will work fine and they will never be blacklisted because we get them from a reliable source."
UPDATE5:
I've just heard from an Anonymous commenter that serials have started to be blacklisted, with the message:Error occured!
Your Serial is deactivated.
Can anyone else confirm that this has happened to them too?
Original article:
It's come to my attention that Blood Bowl, a fantasy American football game based on the games workshop property of the same name, has just come out, and is £39.99 to buy.
G2Play, the slightly controversial web site that I have posted about for Steam codes before, are selling serial numbers for blood bowl for about £14. These aren't for use with Steam, these are just standard retail serials.
Now, all you will get from them is the serial number, from then on you are on your own. You will need to find a way of installing the game yourself. You could either borrow a copy off a friend (but I don't think it has had a retail release in the UK as of yet), or you could load up a torrent site, and download an ISO.
During the installation process, you will use the serial number you get from G2play, and a genuine license will be generated for you. In principal, this isn't too different to buying a game, accidentally breaking the disc, and then borrowing a friends copy to reinstall it, but using your legitimate serial number.
You will then have effectively the same game installed as if you had bought it from a shop. You'll be able to play online, patch it and the developers are being paid.
It's a very grey area, and in purely legal terms there is probably something wrong with it at some stage, but I think it is basically moral. How do you guys feel about it? Would you like me to link to deals like this in the future?
If you decide to go for it, let me know how it goes.
Blood Bowl, PC Serial - £14.02
Whilst I am at it, they have a few Steam serials for cheap:
Empire: Total War - £14.53
GTR Evolution - £10.25 (includes a free copy of Race 07)
(Those prices are using currency conversion, and might be a bit off)
N+, XBLA - 400MSP
N+, XBLA - 400MSP
This is a limited time offer until July 13th for Gold members only. Usually the game is 800MSP.
Currently, the cheapest Microsoft Points deal is £14.73 for 2100MSP here.
This was previously incorrectly priced at 560MSP. If you bought it at that price, call Support on 0800 587 1102 and they will refund you the difference - enough for a Rock Band song.
Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood, Xbox 360 - £33.26
Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood, Xbox 360 - £33.26 delivered
It is the Asian version, but completely region free, and in English.
Machinarium, PC/Mac - £10.43
Machinarium, PC/Mac - £10.43
$3 pre order bonus, and you will also get some artwork and 5 MP3s of music from the soundtrack.
Eliss, iPhone/iPod Touch - £0.59
Eliss, iPhone/iPod Touch - £0.59 (opens in iTunes)
Very nice almost-puzzler. The goal is to create supernovae by placing a core of the appropriate size and colour inside an appropriate receptacle. Cores can be combined and split to alter their size, and if two cores of the same colour overlap your life starts to drain - complete enough supernovae and you clear the level.
There's a free demo available here (opens in iTunes). The 59p price is a sale price for a limited period.
Drop7, iPhone/iPod Touch - £1.79
Drop7, iPhone/iPod Touch - £1.79 (opens in iTunes)
Discussed on this week's ListenUP, Drop7 gives you a 7x7 grid in which to drop numbered spheres. If, when a sphere is dropped, the number of any sphere on the grid is equal to the amount of spheres on its line, horizontally or vertically, it disappears. After a certain amount of moves, the board is shifted up one square and another line of blocks is added.
I don't want to call it a mash-up of Tetris and Sudoku, because that sells it as something trying to pander to the popular, and it's definitely its own thing. It's one of those things that's very hard to explain, but luckily enough there's a free demo available here (opens in iTunes). Isn't that fortuitous.
Columns Deluxe, iPhone/iPod Touch - FREE
Columns Deluxe, iPhone/iPod Touch - FREE (opens in iTunes)
The Mega Drive classic on the iPhone/iPod Touch. Free download for this weekend only.
Gears Of War 2 [Limited Collector's Edition], Xbox 360 - £17.73
Gears Of War 2 [Limited Collector's Edition], Xbox 360 - £17.73 delivered
The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks, DS - £21.49
The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks, DS - £21.49 delivered
Fight Night Round 4, Xbox 360 - £32.62
Fight Night Round 4, Xbox 360 - £32.62 delivered
It is the Asian version, but completely region free, and in English.
Mario Power Tennis (New Play Control), Wii - £4.99
Mario Power Tennis (New Play Control), Wii - £4.99 delivered
Street Fighter IV, PC - £17.73
Street Fighter IV, PC - £17.73 delivered
It was selling on Steam for £16.19, but they decided that was too cheap, and upped the price to £26.99.
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