Category: Deals

GamerSushi Asks: Gunning for Deals?

black-friday

One of the biggest shopping weeks of the year, the week of Thanksgiving isn’t just a good time for us Americans (sorry everyone else) to get some good game playing in—it’s also a great time to find some awesome deals on games. Whether you’re lining up for a Black Friday sale or staying at your computer to hunt for deals, it’s always nice to get a deal on a game you’ve been dying to play, but you didn’t want to spend full price on.

In case you guys weren’t aware, here are some of the Black Friday deals going on this week in various parts:

Amazon
Walmart
Target
GameStop
Best Buy

So with all of that information available to you, I thought I’d ask: what games are you hoping to catch on sale this week? Anything in particular that would be hard to pass up? Personally, I’ve got my eye out for PS Vita prices, since I’d love to have that for my PS4 for remote play. I’m also watching for certain 3DS games.

What about you guys? What are you looking for? Go!

The Video Game Bundle From StoryBundle

Story Bundle

You’re probably familiar with the Humble Bundle and its regular offerings of pay-what-you-want games bundles, but they’re not the only bundle in town. Most of the well-known bundle deals are focused on software or games, but there’s also a site called StoryBundle that sells collections of DRM-free ebooks from indie authors. Previous bundles have all been fiction offerings, but the newest bundle focuses entirely on the games industry, including criticism, game history and a scifi novel about alien games. Pay at least $10 to get all ten books, including two from Jordan Mechner, the creator of Prince of Persia and Karateka. You can also choose to donate part of the proceeds to charity.

If you’re at all interested in the history of the industry or game development, this seems like a pretty fantastic deal. I’ve never purchased any of the previous bundles, which were full of indie authors that didn’t appeal to me, but I might pick up this bundle just because it sounds like a pretty wide-ranging collection. For example, one of the books, Killing is Harmless, consists entirely of a long-form critique of  Spec Ops: The Line. I’m also really curious to read more about the history of the industry going back to the very beginning. Anyone else thinking about picking up this bundle?

PSN’s Caravan of the Dead Scares Up The Deals

inFAMOUS: Festival of Blood

You have to give it to Sony. They’ve been working hard at making things right since the infamous (get it?) PSN Hack. From rolling out tons of perks on Playstation Plus to making Triple A titles available digitally on Day 1, the Big S has really made some strides. So it should come as no surprise that they have something special in store for us for October: The Caravan of the Dead.

It sounds slightly ominous, but it’s actually a good thing: great deals on horror-related video games, with even better deals if you are a PSN Plus subscriber. The deals include Dead Space 2 for $13.99 ($9.79 for PSN+ members), Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City, Dead Nation and the must-buy game of the collection: inFAMOUS: Festival of Blood for only $4.99 ($2.50 for PSN+). I have heard really good things about the stand-alone expansion and for that price, I intend to find out. The sale runs from now until October 30th. Hit the link for the full list of games and DLC, which is an unlucky number 13.

See anything you fancy? Tell us in the comments!

Source: PSN Blog

Holiday Steam Sale 2011 Is all kinds of Ridiculous

Steam SaleLeave it to Valve to organize a holiday sale that puts Black Fridays, Cyber Mondays, Koala Tuesdays and ever other kind of wacky sale days to shame. I’m not sure if someone pumped some kind of happy gas all throughout the Valve offices, or if Gabe Newell finally cracked under all the Half-Life 3 pressure, but nonetheless, things are looking good for the rest of us.

So what’s on sale? The better question is: what isn’t on sale? Here is a glimpse of just a few of the daily deals going on:

  • Fable series: 75% off
  • Entire 2K games pack: 86% off. This comes out to $75 for everything 2K has on Steam, including Borderlands, Civ V plus expansions, DNF, the Mafia series, NBA 2K series and MLB 2k series
  • Entire Id games pack: 83% off. That’s 24 items for $45
  • Portal 2: 75% off
  • Just Cause 2: 75% off

And that’s just for starters. On top of that, for every challenge you complete between now and the New Year, you will receive either a gift (to be used however you want) or a lump of coal. Don’t worry, though, lumps of coal can be horded like Pokemon and used for gifts as well. Better yet? You can trade all of these things with friends on Steam. Best yet? If you save all of your lumps of coal, each one earns you one entry into the big sweepstakes at the beginning of 2012 – where the grand prize is every game on Steam.

So, yeah. I don’t even know what to do with all of this information. Valve seriously just threw a wrench in all my Christmas gaming plans. I’ve always wanted to play games like Just Cause 2, and taking a stab at them for just $5 isn’t a bad entry point.

Are any of you guys buying stuff on Steam? Who else thinks this is madness? Go!

Source – Steam

The Greatest Video Game Music on the Cheap

video game musicThis is happening right now, and you should take advantage of it: Amazon is offering “The Greatest Video Game Music” on sale for only $2.99. This is a compilation of popular video game songs recorded by the London Philharmonic Orchestra, and I will say that it is kind of rad.

If you’re hesitant to part with your money, here’s a list of tracks:

1. Advent Rising: Muse
2. Legend of Zelda: Suite
3. Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2: Theme
4. Angry Birds: Main Theme
5. Final Fantasy VIII: Liberi Fatali
6. Super Mario Bros: Theme
7. Uncharted – Drake’s Fortune: Nate’s Theme
8. Grand Theft Auto IV: Soviet Connection
9. World of Warcraft: Seasons of War
10. Metal Gear Solid: Sons of Liberty Theme
11. Tetris Theme (Korobeiniki)
12. Battlefield 2: Theme
13. Elder Scrolls: Oblivion
14. Call of Duty 4 – Modern Warfare: Main Menu Theme
15. Mass Effect: Suicide Mission
16. Splinter Cell: Conviction
17. Final Fantasy: Main Theme
18. Bioshock: The Ocean on his Shoulders
19. Halo 3: One Final Effort
20. Fallout 3: Theme
21. Super Mario Galaxy: Gusty Garden Galaxy
22. Bonus Track: Dead Space: Welcome Aboard The U.S.G. Ishimura

So yeah. I’ve already jumped on top of this offer. Anybody else joining?

Source – Amazon

Toys R Us Christmas Video Game Deal: Buy 1, Get 50% Off

Toys R Us Sale

I know. Your legs are still recovering from Black Friday and your butt is sore from sitting in front of your PC (or Mac) on Cyber Monday. But if you have any resolve left in you and any spare cash, Toys R Us is cranking out a pretty good deal that doesn’t expire until Christmas Eve on December 24th. I thought I was done shopping myself, but this deal is kind of hard to pass up.

Buy any video game related item (excluding consoles) and get the second item half off. That’s it. No fine print, no “SALE ONLY GOOD FOR 5 MINUTES” hoopla, just a simple deal from a large retail chain with a decent inventory. And this counts for games, guides, shirts and accessories. I myself recently purchased the new silver Xbox 360 Controller with the Play and Charge kit and the rotating D-Pad. Verdict: I love it. So hit the link below and get to shopping, either for your friends, family, or (let’s be honest) yourself.

Source: Toys R Us

GameStop’s November Trade-In Deals: Assassins Creed: Brotherhood and Call of Duty: Black Ops

Assassin's Creed Brotherhood Multiplayer

Whenever we’re feeling magnanimous or simply not lazy, we like to try and keep you guys posted about gaming deals that can help you save a buck or two. Especially during the fall downpour, it’s nice to be able to get as many games for as little money as possible.

Right now, GameStop has a few special trade-in offers towards upcoming titles Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood (November 16) and Call of Duty: Black Ops (November 9). They also have some ongoing deals that extend to Kinect as well as Donkey Kong Country Returns. Check them out, unless your name is Scrooge McDuck and have money spraying from your ears and have no need of these kinds of things. In which case, I hate you. Not really.

Here are the GameStop trade-in offers for November 2010. Continue reading GameStop’s November Trade-In Deals: Assassins Creed: Brotherhood and Call of Duty: Black Ops

Fable 2 is Free [Updated]

In what seems to be a glitch by Microsoft you can go right now to xbox.com, and download Fable 2 for free. I know we only gave it a C, but as Jeff said to me, “free is free.”

I would suggest grabbing it quick before Microsoft fixes the bug. (I’m currently downloading it)

UPDATE: Per @XboxSupport, this is a legit download, but is only Episode 1 of the game.

EVE Online Gives New Players a Leg Up With the Commissioned Officer Box Edition

EVE Online Commissioned Officer EditionWe’ve talked about EVE Online here at GamerSushi a couple of times, and both occasions have been about how some unfortunate soul was ruined by the actions of other players. This sort of stuff is the norm for EVE, just on a smaller scale than $1,200 USD in damages or an entire guild being brought down overnight. Understandably, these kinds of stories creates a barrier for people interested in trying EVE for fear that their tender avatar will be ravaged horribly as soon as they click the “create” button.

Fear not, timid noobies, as EVE developer CCP has plans to make things a little easier for newcomers. The Commissioned Officer Edition of EVE Online gives players the Cerebral Accelerator, an in-game item that allows users to gain a significant advantage in skill gain for the first 30 days of playtime. The package also comes with a month of play time and a nifty poster covered with helpful hints (I wonder where “trust no one” falls on it). The box will only be available in brick and mortar stores, and I assume that there will be some sort of fail safe built into the Accelerator to prevent any unscrupulous activity.

There you have it, a nice little package designed to give you a running start in the dog-eat-dog universe of EVE Online. Apparently this is a good a time as any to get into the game as CCP has a couple new expansions coming out in the next half a year.

Anyone going to finally take the plunge with EVE Online now that it’s extending a helping hand?

Source: Massivley

GameStop: Bonus Trade-In Value for Fallout: New Vegas, Call of Duty: Black Ops and Kinect in October

Fallout: New Vegas

Well, today is just the Saturday of deals, isn’t it? In addition to the XBox Live thank you gift Anthony posted about earlier, here’s another one for all of you dudes wondering how many couch cushions you’re going to have to turn over to get the rest of the games on your Fall list: GameStop’s trade in values for October 2010.

The house-that-used-game-sales-built is currently offering an extra 25% trade-in value towards the purchase of Fallout: New Vegas, Call of Duty: Black Ops, Dead Rising 2 and Kirby’s Epic Yarn. I know those are at the top of several people’s “do want” sheets, so you might want to act on the special before October 17th, when it expires. In addition, GameStop is giving an extra 20% for every 3 games handed in. And to top it all of, they’re also rewarding an extra 25% trade-in value for the pre-order of Microsoft’s new motion gaming hardware, XBox Kinect.

So, with all of that potential trade-in credit abounding, do any of you think you’ll be taking advantage of this? Go!

Source: GameStop Trade-Ins

Take A Leap With This XBLA Marketplace Deal: Spend 2400 Points in October, Get 800 Free

Fresh off a successful Summer of Arcade, which included the critically and commercially acclaimed Lara Croft: Guardian of Light and Limbo, Microsoft is offering an October thank you gift for those of us who might have missed out on these or any other games on XBLA. It’s quite simple:

During the month of October, spend 2400 Microsoft Points on Arcade games and/or game add-ons and you’ll get 800 Microsoft Points added to your membership as a thank-you gift.

Now for those of you without an abacus, 2400 Microsoft Points is $30 and 800 Points is $10. So spend $30, get $10 back. Not too shabby a deal and I am already off to the races by buying Breath of Death VII. Okay, it’s not exactly a rousing start since it only cost $1, but I have the whole month to do it. It’s a marathon, not a sprint.

However, if you, like me, are baffled as to what to purchase, check out this handy list of The 23 Best XBLA Games from the nice folks at GamePro. There were quite a few gems on there that I wasn’t aware of, so it might come in handy in helping you decide what to buy.

Is anyone else going to partake in this offer? Any games you love that you recommend I pick up?

Source: Xbox.com

Source: GamePro

Demons’s Souls, MAG And More Are Now PS3 Greatest Hits

Mag: Greatest HitsSony’s popular line of Greatest Hits titles just leveled up with some big names being added to the library of lower priced games. The program, started back during the PS1 era, is a really great way to get some slightly older games at half price. Each game is listed at $29.99 and the new games added include:

Not too shabby a list and it’s nice to see Demon’s Souls get a fresh run as some were afraid that copies were becoming scarce. For those of you who need a little more information about these games, click on our reviews section at the top or click on the hyperlinked games in the list above for reviews of Demon’s Souls, Ratchet and the two Call of Duty games. Do any of these games seem worthwhile to you now that the price has been slashed? Did anyone just buy one of these and is now unable to type due to a facepalm being administered? Go!

Source: Playstation Blog

GameStop Offers Extra Trade-In Value Towards Halo: Reach and Metroid: Other M

Halo vs MetroidI don’t know how it happened, but the Fall is already here. Basically, all of us have entered a collective form of group time travel, and we’ve managed to skip the summer and get straight to September. Metroid: Other M released on Tuesday, and a whole other round of games is marching inexorably forward. Soon, they will pile atop us, a colossus of entertainment waiting to be felled by our magical swords of light. You know what I mean.

While I know there is a debate that goes around amongst us about trading in video games and buying used games, I do know there is a portion of us that maintain our gaming addiction through this very practice (I count myself as one of those junkies). I’m not a big fan of the practice, but with big titles like Halo: Reach looming around the bend, some of us are trying to scrap together money however we can. For other manic trade-in users like myself, I thought I would post a handy link to GameStop’s trade in offers for September 2010.

The used games retail giant actually has a few good trade-in deals going on at the moment, including offering $40 towards Metroid or Halo: Reach for bringing in any 2 games in a slew of titles. That offer lasts until Sunday, September 5th, so get a move on if you’re interested. On top of that GameStop is offering an additional 25% for all trade-ins that go towards Dead Rising 2, Metroid or Halo: Reach.

There are some other deals, too, but those are some of the highlights. Who plans on buying any of these games? Has anyone played Metroid yet? Report!

Source – GameStop Trade-Ins and image by Ripten

GamerSushi Asks: Reviewing Free Games?

Alien SwarmAs you’re all probably aware, most of the GamerSushi staff are in the throes of Alien Swarm addiction. The game is really engaging, and it manages to wedge itself nicely into the niche left in my gaming life by Diablo 2. Valve was even kind enough to give it to us for free, and judging by how their servers got the crap beat out of them on its release day, they’re probably kicking themselves for not charging at least five dollars for the thing.

Even though we all love Alien Swarm, it’s not a perfect game. There are a few issues I’ve had with it, but my mind keeps glossing them over because of the price tag (or lack thereof). So I pose this question to you guys: can you even review free games? Price is definitely something that has affected the perception of past titles (ODST comes to mind), so will something that only costs us hard drive space be given an automatic pass in the grading department?

Something else I’d like you to consider is DLC. I’ve played all of the Mass Effect 2 content packs, and, when stacked against ME2 proper, they come up very poorly. Even Overlord, the most recent and best of the DLC, is kind of lack-luster compared to the main game and its selling price. Can DLC be rated on its own merits, or does it have to take the larger picture into account?

GameStop Actually Offering Good Trade-In Value

GameStopYes, you read that right. The video game superstore giant is currently offering a ridiculous trade-in special, and everyone that’s even remotely thinking of parting with some games should go take advantage of it. As Anthony pointed out the other day, this Spring is actually ripe with games for us to pick, and everyone should experience them together.

What’s the trade-in deal, you ask? Well, GameStop is actually offering 50% more than normal for trade-ins. If you are an Edge card member, you get an additional 10%. The best part of all this is that the deal is going to last for the next 3 weeks. You can do what Nick did today: trade in 2 games to purchase Heavy Rain, which he plans on beating this week, and then trading back to get Final Fantasy XIII. With the additional trade-in value, such schemes are more than possible.

So, who else is going to take advantage of this? My plan is to trade in Modern Warfare 2 to purchase Battlefield: Bad Company 2.

Source- GameStop

Gears of War 2: Game of the Year Edition Curbstomps Retailers September 1st

GoW2GOTY
Bundled releases seem to be a growing trend this fall with Gears of War 2 joining the Metroid Prime Trilogy and Fallout 3 as an all-in-one package that includes the downloadable content (DLC) released for the “stop-and-pop” shooter since it first went on sale last year. This includes all the map packs as well as the cut level for the single-player game.

While I’ve heard mixed reviews about the cut level and the multiplayer continues to be spotty, I really can’t complain about the price tag, which is a nice reasonable $39.99. Considering that the game originally launched as a full priced title, and you’re getting all the DLC included (which ran at about ten bucks a piece), this is quite the sweet deal. If you’ve been on the fence about Gears 2, or you just haven’t gotten around to picking it up, September first is when this bad boy drops into stores.

I can’t quite seem to recall Gears 2 actually winning any Game of the Year awards, but I’m certain that it’s sold enough copies to warrant a bundled version. Who’s going to treat themselves to some Gears of War, and what do you guys think of re-releases that package DLC?

Source: Destructoid

PS3 Slim Due First Week of September, Price Dropped to $299.99

ps3_prints_moneyWell, after months of speculation, it’s happened. Sony dropped the PS3’s price to $299.99 and announced a 120 GB PS3 Slim. Does this change anything for any of you guys? Do you think this will allow Sony to surge past the 360? Or are they destined for 3rd place for this cycle?

Top 10 Downloadable Games

When I finally hooked my PS3 up to the InterGoogle, the first thing I did was jump on the PSN Store. I had heard about some great games and I was really looking forward to seeing what they had to offer. Downloadable games are a cheap way to get quality games, not to mention old classics and new, experimental games that would never see a retail release. So here are the Top 10 games you can get on the PSN Store, XBox Live Arcade and the Virtual Console. I have included classics, exclusives and multi-console releases.
Continue reading Top 10 Downloadable Games

Call of Duty World at War DLC Details

cod-3I’m a big fan of what Treyarch did with Call of Duty: World at War. While many of us doubted that the game would be any good at all, they put out a respectable sequel to one of the greatest shooters of all time, which was no easy task.

Right now, the game’s online multiplayer is still crushing the competition, some would say, but it’s about time for some new stuff to freshen everything up. That’s why a new DLC pack is coming March 19th, complete with not only a few new multiplayer maps, but also a new map for the oh-so-loved Nazi Zombie Mode. Sounds awesome.

Details after the jump!
Continue reading Call of Duty World at War DLC Details