Little Big Planet, PS3 - £8.95 delivered
Xbox 360 Play and Charge Kit - £9.14
Xbox 360 Play & Charge kit - £9.14
Having needed to replace mine recently, I thought it would be a good idea to draw attention to this again:
It's £9.67 at Currys, and £14.99 at PC World, so PC World Price Match brings it to £9.14.
Sorry things have been quiet for the past few days
Hey guys,
Sorry I've not been posting many bargains over the past week or so, I've been going through something pretty tough, that has been taking up most of my spare time.
Normal service shall resume shortly.
Peggle, Xbox Live Arcade - Review
2100 MS Points £16.63
Peggle - 800MSP
Review by Will Templeton
Peggle on PC, for the uninitiated, is the poster child for the casual game that can break through to the hardcore (or vice versa). It's Positive Reinforcement: The Game, essentially a mash-up of Breakout and Pachinko wrapped up in pretty colours, classical music and characters based entirely on puns.
Each level has a certain amount of pegs, twenty of which are orange. Clearing all of the orange pegs completes the level. Levels progress in difficulty, achieved with placement of pegs, obstacles and restrictions. And to be honest, I'm probably over-explaining it.
Unfortunately, now you know that, there's not much new to say about Peggle on Xbox Live Arcade; It's Peggle, and it's on Xbox Live Arcade. For eight hundred moon pounds you'll get the same adventure mode and challenges as the PC version, with the added bonuses that you'd expect from a Live Arcade title - leaderboards and online multiplayer.
As well as the local hotseat multiplayer of the PC version, Peggle XBLA now has an online 'Peg Party' mode, where four people play simultaneously to achieve the best score. This is essentially the same thing as single-player mode, just with a real-time competitive element - nothing you do affects other people's boards. While it's a nice addition, I would have enjoyed a mode similar to that available in most versions of Tetris, that allow you to mess with your opponent's screen or whatever.
There's also the suspicious absence of Peggle Nights, an expansion that is entirely included on the DS version of the game. Yes, it's an expansion of equivalent size to the main game, and it would perhaps be unreasonable to expect it, but the reason it's so stark an omission is that there's really nothing new about Peggle on XBLA. The single-player and challenge modes are exactly the same, the online mode is essentially single-player again, and there isn't even a score comparison to your closest friend on each board in the style of Geometry Wars 2, which is a glaring oversight.
For some people, Peggle again will be enough. It is and always was an incredibly addictive game. But if you own neither and are deciding between which to pick up, I would have trouble recommending one over the other.
(Apologies for the lateness of this review. I was distracted by Peggle.)
2100 MS Points £16.63
Peggle - 800MSP
ATTN ShopTo customers - possible credit card leak
It appears that a German hacker community has discovered a leak in ShopTo's security certificate, and as a result several credit card numbers have been leaked online. Anyone who has used ShopTo in the past should take a look at their bank balance and take the appropriate action to minimise any loss.
ShopTo's official statement on their forums is that the issue is external, and that if you have only ever entered your information on ShopTo's website that you should be okay. We've contacted ShopTo for a statement.
UPDATE 5:29 PM
It appears that this leak may be related to an earlier incident from late March. Details are very sketchy at the moment but it seems that the ShopTo security certificate weakness may not be related to the leak of 19,000 credit card numbers. However, if you are in any way unsure about the security of your details, contact your bank or card issuer to take the appropriate action. ShopTo have updated their security certificate today to eliminate this weakness.
Source: Virenschutz via NeoGAF
Competitions at RPS
Rock Paper Shotgun have 2 competitions on today.
The first is to win a boxed copy of EVE Online.
The second is to win a copy of Zeno Clash.
Good Luck!
Cheap MS Points! Go go go!
HMV are selling MS Points for £9.99. I am 99% certain that these are 2,100 points cards, since apart from the special edition ones, like the Lost and Damned ones, that is the smallest size they come in. And they are reduced from £17.99, the rrp for 2,100 points.
MS Points - £9.99
They are in stock, and ready for shipping in 24 hours. Also, if you've been to McDonalds recently and got some of the HMV vouchers from there, they can also be used online for this purchase.
UPDATE 8:30PM: Looks like these were a misprice, as they are now adding to the cart at £17.99. Hope you got in there while you could if you wanted some, and here's hoping they'll honour it.
UPDATE 22:44PM:
HMV.co.uk:
Xbox 360 Accessory - Official Microsoft Points Card - Completely shipped. Shipped Date - 20/04/2009 £9.99x3. £29.97
Looks like they are honouring at least some of them. Let us know if you get them too.
Lost Planet: Extreme Condition, Xbox 360 - £4.99
Lost Planet: Extreme Condition, Xbox 360 - £4.99 delivered
Ratchet & Clank: Tools of Destruction, PS3 - £7.99
Ratchet & Clank: Tools of Destruction, PS3 - £7.99 delivered
Dead Space, Xbox 360 - £9.99
Dead Space, Xbox 360 - £9.99 delivered
Excellent action-horror game. Pisses all over RE5.
Weekend Special Roundup 17/4
Steam:
Football Manager 2009 - £14.99
GamersGate:
Kane & Lynch: Dead Men - £13.99
or get it for £6.42 from Amazon
Kudos 2 - £5.99
Good old Games:
Stronghold and Stronghold: Crusader - $11.98
Direct2Drive:
Zeno Clash - £6.95
When it releases next week, you will get a serial, which you put into Steam, and it will be added to your Steam account.
Henry Hatsworth In The Puzzling Adventure, DS - £14.73
Henry Hatsworth In The Puzzling Adventure, DS - £14.73 delivered
$5 off $50 at Play-Asia
$5 off $50 at Play-Asia
Just realised that I have had this voucher for a while, and it is about to expire. It's one use only, so first come, first served
"UK-NCI-JBP"
Skate 2, PS3 - £14.99
Skate 2, PS3 - £14.99 in store at Morrisons
Didn't have any of the 360 version on the shelves, but it might be the same price, let me know if any of you see it.
The Atari Collection, PC - £14.96
The Atari Collection, PC - £14.96 in store at PC World
Just saw this in my local PC World (Teeside Park), they had 3 in stock.
Contains:
Test Drive Unlimited
Dungeons and Dragons: Storm Reach
Act of War: Direct Action
Never Winter Nights 2
Baldurs Gate 1+2, and expansions
Wat front: Turning Point
GTR 2
The Path of Neo
Tycoon city: New York
Rollercoster Tycoon 3
Appears to be listed on their site as £24.96, but they were all stickered up as £14.96. Could be an error limited to my store, but worth a try.
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, Wii - £14.99
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, Wii - £14.99 in store at Toys R Us
Buzz! The Hollywood Quiz + Buzzers, PS2 - £4.47
Buzz! The Hollywood Quiz + Buzzers, PS2 - £4.47
£5 in HMV, £9.97 in PC World, so £4.47 via PC World's pricematch.
House of the Dead: Overkill, Wii - £16.49
House of the Dead: Overkill, Wii - £16.49
£17.99 in Gamestation, £32.99 in PC World, so £14.49 via PC World's pricematch.
Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, Xbox 360 - £14.49
Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, Xbox 360 - £14.49
£14.99 in Gamestation, £19.99 in PC World, so £14.49 via PC World's pricematch.
Burnout Paradise, Trivial Pursuit & Connect 4, Xbox 360 - £14.07
Burnout Paradise, Trivial Pursuit & Connect 4, Xbox 360 - £14.07 delivered
Apply code "COOL 12" for 12% off.
That's Burnout Paradise (I think it's The Ultimate Box too), Trivial Pursuit and the XBLA Connect 4 for £14.07. Hell of a bargain.
I ordered it. Willeth will be happy.
Update: I am like 99% sure it is The Ultimate Box version of Burnout Paradise, which includes all the free updates on the disc, and the Party pack DLC.
Update2: I am now 100% sure it is The Ultimate Box, since it just arrived at my door.
Immortal Defense, PC - £3.50
Immortal Defense, PC - £3.50 on direct2drive
Cheers to Kieron for the tip off.
Ahahaha! How much?!?!?
GamersGate have got Ubisoft's pretty terrible "Prince of Persia" on the PC for £44.96.
Just shy of £45 quid.
The same game is available for £11.99 (with an exclusive sleeve, no less) elsewhere.
H.A.W.X., EndWar and Far Cry 2 are all £44.96 too.
Or £17.99, £14.99 and £9.99 (with free DLC, which is an extra £4.49 on GamersGate).
Buying all four of these games from GamersGate would cost £179.84, buying retail versions of the same games would be £54.96, less than a third of the price.
Who do we blame? Ubisoft or GamersGate?
I'm not too sure, but I am sure of one thing. Do not buy these games from GamersGate.
GamersGate also have one of the worst deals I have ever seen available too. Legendary for £44.99.
Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume, DS - £17.81
Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume, DS - £17.81 delivered
Mystery Dungeon: Shiren The Wanderer, DS - £8.73
Mystery Dungeon: Shiren The Wanderer, DS - £8.73 delivered
Modern Warfare 2 Preorders post
A lot of people really liked Call of Duty 4. So much so that the price of it still hasn't dropped hugely since release.
Not as many people liked Cod·Wah, but even still it's price is pretty high.
Anyway, it's a fairly logical assumption that Modern Warfare 2 will follow a similar pricing trend to COD4.
I'll be using this post to keep track of the best preorder price for Modern Warfare 2 across all platforms, and will try to keep it up to date from now until it's release. Maybe keep this post bookmarked if you want the best deal.
Modern Warfare 2, PC - £29.99
Modern Warfare 2, Xbox 360 - £37.98
Modern Warfare 2, PS3 - £37.98
Braid, PC - £9.99
Braid, PC - £9.99 on Steam
An odd quirk of the international pricing policy of the various digital distribution platforms is that whilst USA gamers pay roughly $15 wherever they get the game from, UK gamers pay different prices depending on where they get it from.
According to GamersGate, $15 = £13.45.
Greenhouse charge $14.95 wherever you buy from, which is £10.23 right now, according to xe.com.
According to Impulse, $14.95 = £10.22.
And according to Steam, $15 = £9.99.
I think I'll trust Valve on this one. The only downside of getting it from Steam is that for some reason, the release seems to be delayed by about 24 hours compared to the other places, and they aren't preloading it, but it is only 119mb. Available from steam right now.
It's an excellent game too. Demo here.
Weekend Special Roundup 10/4
Steam:
Peggle Complete - £6.99
Includes Peggle Deluxe and Peggle Nights.
GamersGate:
Prey - £4.99
Prey was very underwhelming for me. It has a few nice ideas, and a very good opening, but honestly, there are a lot better games for you to invest your time in.
Helldorado - £12.99
Also of note, GamersGate seem to be charging UK folks in GBP now, instead of just charging us in Euros. I've not conclusively worked out if this makes it a better or worse deal for us, but at the very least it makes the pricing a bit more transparent.
Good old Games:
Spring Promotion -
Giants + Sacrifice - $8.98
ToCA Race Driver 3 + Screamer - $11.98
Arx Fatalis + Stonekeep - $8.98
Painkiller Black + Redneck Rampage Pack - $11.98
Second Sight + Messiah - $11.98
Perimeter + Hostile Waters: Antaeus Rising - $11.98
Freespace & Expansion + Freespace 2 - $8.98
Greenhouse:
Defense Grid: The Awakening - $9.95
And Yet It Moves - $9.95
On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness, Episode One - $9.95
Impulse:
Not up yet.
Gears of War 2 [Limited Edition], Xbox 360 - £24.99
Gears of War 2 [Limited Edition], Xbox 360 - £24.99
Just seen this in store at Blockbuster.
Red Faction: Guerilla demo
THQ are giving codes for early access to the Red Faction: Guerilla demo for the PS3/Xbox 360. You have to sign up to myTHQ, which I bet none of you want to.
Easy (and ironic) solution, use guerrillamail.com to get a temporary email address.
Once you have signed up, head here, and you can get a demo key.
PSN Sale
There is a sale on the PSN right now. Until the 23rd of April, the following games are on special offer:
PAIN - £3.99
Crash Commando - £4.79
Ratchet and Clank: Quest for Booty - £7.99
Echocrome - £4.79
High Velocity Bowling - £4.79
SIREN Blood Curse - £14.99
Elefunk - £3.99
Riff: Everyday Shooter - £3.99
Snakeball - £3.99
Nucleus - £3.99
Toy Home - £3.99
Pixeljunk Racers - £3.99
Blast Factor - £3.99
Calling All Cars - £3.99
Dark Mist - £3.99
Piyotama - £2.39
Wipeout HD - £11.99
Everydays shooter is pretty incredible. Echochrome is worth a pop too I reckon.
GOG Spring Promotion
Good old games are having a Spring promotion. The following bundles are on offer:
Giants + Sacrifice - $8.98
ToCA Race Driver 3 + Screamer - $11.98
Arx Fatalis + Stonekeep - $8.98
Painkiller Black + Redneck Rampage Pack - $11.98
Second Sight + Messiah - $11.98
Perimeter + Hostile Waters: Antaeus Rising - $11.98
Freespace & Expansion + Freespace 2 - $8.98
Details here.
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories, PSP - £7.99
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories, PSP - £7.99 delivered
ChoicesUK Clearance sale
ChoicesUK seem to have a pretty good clearance sale on.
I'm busy atm, but I will try to pick out the highlights later.
2100 Microsoft Points - what cost?
I recently bought 6300 MSP, as I am wont to do whenever I want to take advantage of a cheap deal, such as the recent one at Smiths. I bought three separate 2100 point cards, as it was the cheapest way to get them.
I received them yesterday. I received three items, exactly the same, whose serial numbers show were one after another from the same batch of cards, in three separate envelopes. Despite ordering all three in the same order, I got an invoice for each in each envelope. Take a look:
Now, this is ridiculous. I'll of course be letting WH Smith know what I think of this, and while I'll be re-using the envelopes for other things I'm sure you can see while I have an issue with it.
But the real culprit here isn't Smiths. Even if they bundled it together in one envelope, I'd still have a load of waste. Take a look at that image above again - each card has plastic shrink-wrap, a plastic DVD case, a paper sleeve, a card insert, and the card itself with the code on. And I can't see any reason for it - any information on any part of the package is actually repeated on the card. And to top it all off take a look at the inside: 
The case is specially manufactured for the card. It's not a regular DVD case. There is no other use for this piece of plastic than to provide a safe shipping container for a piece of goddamned cardboard. Your average person is going to extract the useful part of this, and throw the case directly into the recycling - or, more likely, the general waste bin.
Here's how I could have received these cards:
One standard envelope, one sheet of paper for an invoice, and three credit-card-sized cards. I could even just receive the codes through email, although I understand that might require a little more communication between Microsoft and retailers - the recent news that Amazon has opened a digital goods store for Xbox Live in the US is a great step in the right direction for this.
I really can't see the reason for this much packaging. I can see the reason for some, possibly to prevent theft from stores, but never this much, and retailers already lock the actual product behind the counter in any case. Protecting it in transit is not an issue. Neither is preventing the silver covering from rubbing off - in America, this has already been replaced with a tear-off strip in some instances, although reportedly they're still available to buy in even more mind-boggling packaging - those infernal impenetrable blister packs.
Are there any other reasons for this? To make the customer feel like they're buying something more tangible? Aren't we beyond that?
Street Fighter IV [Collector's Edition], Xbox 360 - £29.99
Street Fighter IV [Collector's Edition], Xbox 360 - £29.99 delivered
Cheers to more heat than light for the tip off.
Street Fighter IV [Collector's Edition], PS3 - £29.99
Street Fighter IV [Collector's Edition], PS3 - £29.99 delivered
Cheers to more heat than light for the tip off.
GH2 X-plorer Guitar, £9.99 - Xbox 360
Gibson X-plorer guitar for Xbox 360 - £9.99
This is the wired GH2 guitar, compatible with all the guitar games on the 360. Available for in-store reserve for free, and they'll hold it until the close of business the next working day. Total is £15.79 with home delivery.
For those going straight to a store without reserving online, the item number is 566/8935.
Thanks to $h@d0w for the tip.
Saints Row 2 [Limited Edition], Xbox 360 - £19.99
Saints Row 2 [Limited Edition], Xbox 360 - £19.99 delivered
Contains:
Limited Edition gun mould packaging (not actually a gun)
1gig Gold Bullet USB 2.0 Memory stick
Exclusive content, including buddy icons and wallpapers
Limited edition artbook
Stilwater Map poster
Exclusive 3rd Street Saints Poster
Cheers to more heat than light for the tip off.
The best price for the regular edition atm is £18.99, so this seems like a real good deal.
Edit: Well that didn't last long. Between posting it, and attempting to order it, it went out of stock...
Sid Meier's Civilization Revolution, Xbox 360 - £14
Sid Meier's Civilization Revolution, Xbox 360 - £14 delivered
Dragon Quest - Chapters Of The Chosen, DS - £9.73
Dragon Quest - Chapters Of The Chosen, DS - £9.73 delivered
Zack And Wiki: Quest For Barbaros Treasure, Wii - £11.73
Zack And Wiki: Quest For Barbaros Treasure, Wii - £11.73 delivered
Far Cry 2 [Fortune's Pack Edition], PC - £9.99
Far Cry 2 [Fortune's Pack Edition], PC - £9.99 delivered
Due for release on the 17th.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Subscribe to SavyGamer via RSS