Leveling Down

Valid today only (Wed, 11/19). Buy any 2 games from this list and receive $25 off a future video game purchase. Buy any 3 games from this list and receive $50 off a future video game purchase. Each title must be unique, so you can’t buy a copy for yourself and a friend, for example.

Xbox 360
Grand Theft Auto IV [$37.99]
Fallout 3 [$59.99]
Fable II [$59.99]
Far Cry 2 [$59.99]
Gears of War 2 [$59.99]

Playstation 3
Grand Theft Auto IV [$53.99]
Little Big Planet [$59.99]
Fallout 3 [$59.99]
Far Cry 2 [$59.99]
Resistance 2 [$59.99]

Nintendo Wii
Super Smash Bros. Brawl [$39.99]
Animal Crossing: City Folk [$49.99]
Wario Land: Shake It! [$49.99]
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed [$49.99]
Wii Music [$49.99]

PC
Fallout 3 [$49.99]
Spore [$439.99]
Call of Duty: World at War [$49.99]
Far Cry 2 [$49.99]
Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning [$46.99]

Why did they not have Call of Duty: World at War for 360 on this list?! Dang it I would have gotten that, Gears of War 2, and Fallout 3 with this deal. I guess I’ll probably skip out then and wait until a better deal comes along.

Amazon.com’s Video Games Countdown to Black Friday [Amazon.com]

While Silent Hill: Homecoming can be pretty scary,  the gameplay itself is too safe.

I finished up Silent Hill: Homecoming late last week and can now give a review on it. It was a tough game to review for me, as I’m sort of a Silent Hill fan, but not enough to judge whether this game is considered an amazing “Silent Hill” game or not. I owned Silent Hill 1 for the Playstation 1 back in the day and Silent Hill 2 for the PS2. Both of those games I played to completion and enjoyed. When Silent Hill 3 switched over to a young girl as a protagonist and Silent Hill 4 was about a room, I sort of abandoned the series. But Silent Hill: Homecoming seems to be a return back to the form of the earlier Silent Hill games, which piqued my interest enough to give it a try. The only issue I was worried about was that it was developed by a new team and not the original Silent Hill team that created the first four games.

The Good:
- Captures the spirit of the first two Silent Hill games very well
- One of the more scarier games on the 360
- Interesting storyline

The Bad:
- Too linear and enclosed
- Not enough innovation
- A bit too simplistic

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The new Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe game is out. I think I’ve outgrown fighting games (Mortal Kombat ones especially) but if you’re interested in the game consider buying it at either Circuit City or Amazon. This week, Circuit City has it on sale for $49.99 on both the 360 and PS3. Seems that Amazon is only matching the price with the PS3 version, while giving a small discount on the 360 version ($56.99).

Xbox 360
Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe [$49.99 Circuit City] [$56.99 Amazon]

PS3
Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe [$49.99 Circuit City] [$49.99 Amazon]

Xbox 360
Left 4 Dead [$59.99 with $10 gift card Circuit City]
Saints Row 2 [$59.99 with $15 gift card Best Buy]
Sid Meier’s Civilization Revolution [$59.99 with $15 gift card Best Buy]
PURE [$59.99 with $15 gift card Best Buy]
NBA Live ’09 [$49.99 with $15 gift card Best Buy]
Fracture [$59.99 with $15 gift card Best Buy]
Rock Revolution [$29.99 with $15 gift card Best Buy]
Ninja Gaiden II [$39.99 with $15 gift card Best Buy]
Operation Darkness [$19.99 Best Buy]
The Orange Box [$19.99 Best Buy] [$19.99 Amazon]
Too Human [$39.99 Best Buy]
Halo 3 [$39.99 Amazon]
Grand Theft Auto IV [$37.99 Amazon]
Assassin’s Creed [$23.99 Amazon]
Gears of War [$29.99 Best Buy] [$29.99 Amazon]
Spectral Force 3 [$19.96 Amazon]
Infinite Undiscovery [$29.97 Amazon]

Playstation 3
Sid Meier’s Civilization Revolution [$59.99 with $15 gift card Best Buy]
PURE [$59.99 with $15 gift card Best Buy]
NBA Live ’09 [$49.99 with $15 gift card Best Buy]
Fracture [$59.99 with $15 gift card Best Buy]
Rock Revolution [$29.99 with $15 gift card Best Buy]
The Orange Box [$19.99 Best Buy] [$22.99 Amazon]
Conan [$9.99 Best Buy]
Dual Shock Controller [$40.96 Amazon]
Gran Turismo 5 Prologue [$29.99 Amazon]
Playstation 3 40 GB Metal Gear Solid 4 Limited Bundle [$399.96 Amazon]
Ratchet & Clank: Future TOols of Destruction [$41.99 Amazon]
Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune [$41.99 Amazon]
Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice [$39.99 Amazon]

Nintendo Wii
Guitar Hero: Aerosmith Bundle [$59.99 Amazon]
de Blob [$39.99 Best Buy]
My Sims: Kingdom [$39.99 Best Buy] [$39.99 Amazon]
[$20 off any 2 Wii games $49.99 or higher Circuit City]
Super Mario Galaxy [$36.99 Amazon]
Super Smash Bros. Brawl [$39.99 Amazon]
Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games [$36.99 Amazon]
Trauma Center: New Blood [$19.96 Amazon]
Cooking Mama: Cook Off [$17.99 Amazon]
Super Paper Mario [$36.99 Amazon]
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption [$36.99 Amazon]

Nintendo DS
Sid Meier’s Civilization Revolution [$29.99 with $15 gift card Best Buy]
Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood [$34.99 with $15 gift card Best Buy]

PC
Left 4 Dead [$39.99 Circuit City]
Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 [$39.99 Amazon]

No good deals on the bigger Fall titles like Fable 2, Fallout 3, Call of Duty: WaW, or Gears of War 2, but there are still plenty of deals to be had this week courtesy of Best Buy and Amazon. Best Buy rarely puts stuff on sale, so for the store to give $15 gift cards on $30-$40 games is pretty remarkable. I recommend Ninja Gaiden II if you haven’t picked it up by now. Amazon also has plenty of “console exclusive hits” on sale for all of the home consoles, like Halo 3, Gears of War, Uncharted, Ratchet & Clank, and some Mario games.

US Software in October 2008
Rank | Platform | Title | Units Sold | Last Month | Lifetime to Date
01 360 Fable II 790,000 n/a 790,000
02 WII Wii Fit 487,000 518,000 2,82,900
03 360 Fallout 3 375,000 n/a 375,000
04 WII Mario Kart 290,000 353,000 3,376,000
05 WII Wii Play 282,000 243,000 7,131,396
06 360 Saints Row 2 270,000 n/a 270,000
07 PS3 Socom: U.S. Navy Seals Confrontation 231,000 n/a 231,000
08 PS3 Little Big Planet 215,000
09 360 NBA 2K9 202,000 n/a 193,000
10 360 Dead Space 193,000 n/a 193,000

US Hardware in October 2008
Rank | Platform | Units Sold | Last Month | Lifetime to Date
01 Nintendo Wii 803,000 687,000 13,462,700
02 Nintendo DS 491,000 536,800 22,930,100
03 Xbox 360 371,000 347,200 11,580,400
04 Playstation Portable 193,000 238,100 12,898,600
05 Playstation 3 190,000 232,400 5,686,900
06 Playstation 2 136,000 173,500 42,922,300

Fable II looks to be the big winner for the month of October in terms of game sales, but Fallout 3′s numbers are a bit off with it releasing so close to the end of the month. Little Big Planet also got delayed due to the religious controversy, but I would have expected it to sell a lot more than 215,000 considering it was marketed to be Sony’s big exclusive title this holiday season. We’ll probably see some spillover in terms of sales for both Fallout 3 and Little Big Planet to make their way into November, but it looks like PS3 sales did not increase with Little Big Planet’s release – in fact, they decreased last month.

Also interesting is that Guitar Hero: World Tour did not make it on the list for any system it was released for – maybe the music peripheral gaming market has finally become over-saturated? I know I skipped out on it myself since I’m happy with Rock Band 2.

The usual Wii “must-have” titles continue to sell month over month, as many of them probably went along with the 800,000 Wii units sold last month. All in all, a good month as usual for Nintendo, decent for Microsoft and the software sales, but Sony must be having a hard time since Little Big Planet is not the system seller they might have expected it to be.

Official October 2008 NPD Results [NeoGAF]

The Left 4 Dead demo was released on Live Tuesday night, so I decided to give it a try. I was definitely curious about this game, as it’s a zombie game and it’s by Valve (Half-Life, Counter-Strike, Portal, etc.). I tried out the second hardest difficulty setting in the game, Advanced, just to see how it would all play out.

The game has a certain Counter-Strike feel to it, as it runs on a modified Counter-Strike Source engine and you pick up weapons similar to what you’d find in Counter-Strike like pistols, SMGs, shotguns, and assault rifles. I didn’t bother to try playing it online as I figured playing with AI would save me the hassle of dealing with uncooperative kids.

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