Leveling Down

Buying Fallout: New Vegas at K-Mart for $30 and getting these free coasters? Sold!

With my extensive gaming backlog (dozens of games, including pretty much the entire PS3 exclusive library), I made a subconscious decision to stop buying single player games at launch – just because I can wait to pick them up on the cheap much later. I honestly thought that the only game I would pick up between now and the rest of the year would be Call of Duty: Black Ops, since Starcraft 2, Halo: Reach, and Call of Duty: Black Ops would probably keep me busy for months. But then I recently discovered a K-Mart promotion for Fallout: New Vegas, and have now started actually considered buying games at my local K-Mart. Read on what I’ve discovered at K-Mart in terms of video game deal hunting – the good and the bad.

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Gamestop.com’s various promotion codes allow it to compete better online with Amazon.com

About 8 months ago, I mentioned how Amazon had successfully stolen me away from Gamestop. With all of the various deals Amazon had running in its favor, I went the way of Amazon for most of my game buying in 2009. But this year, it looks like Gamestop has probably lost a lot of customers to Amazon and is turning up the heat. (Don’t you just love competition?) Let’s explore what they’ve begun implementing to pull gamers back to their store.

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I know the economy is bad and all, but the discounted games this weekend were ridiculous! Everywhere I turned, there was a game calling my name. I ended up picking up Left 4 Dead 2 from Amazon for $35, but other than that I managed to stay strong. There were, however, tons of deals I skipped out on that I almost pulled the trigger on:

Assassin’s Creed $10
Dragon Age: Origins $35
DJ Hero $95 (with $40 Amazon Credit)
FIFA 10 $35
Guitar Hero 5 $30
Guitar Hero: Metallica $25
Marvel Ultimate Alliance: 2 $30
Resident Evil 5 $20

FYI, some of those deals are still out there as I am writing this. Is it me, or were there not these kinds of deals last year? For some reason, all the big retailers are slashing their prices in an attempt to move units – maybe they’re not meeting their sales projections or something. What’s even better is that Amazon is matching all of these deals. Now, if I see a deal at Best Buy or Walmart, I know I don’t need to make a trip because Amazon will match the deal within a day or two. When the big boys are competing, it can only be good for the consumer. What a great time to be a gamer!

Anyway, the reason I managed to resist all these games is because I’ve been playing Assassin’s Creed 2 non-stop all weekend. They’ve added some “challenge” levels that I find completely addicting. Between that and wanting to prestige in Modern Warfare 2, I didn’t really need to get in on those deals. Plus, if they’re going to offer all those deals now, I can be confident that they’ll be there again in the future.

Let the madness continue!

Just when I thought I was done buying music games altogether (especially anything in the Guitar Hero franchise), Amazon and Activision have to both offer concurrent deals that are making me reconsider my stance.

Guitar Hero 5 for $60 is far too expensive considering how many music games I already own. But now Amazon is giving away a $10 gift card with pre-orders of the game, and ECA membership (10% off on all video game purchases at Amazon) make this net out to $44. This is also not to mention Amazon giving a free $5 credit for MP3 downloads off their site as well with this pre-order.

In addition to the Amazon deals, Activision is giving away Guitar Hero Van Halen free with the purchase of Guitar Hero 5. While I don’t really care much for Van Halen, the soundtrack has plenty of contemporary guest bands that I’m digging such as Foo Fighters, Weezer, Blink-182, Jimmy Eat World, The Offspring, Third Eye Blind, and Fountains of Wayne.

So in the end, if you buy this Guitar Hero 5 off Amazon, you’re basically paying under $50 (or $40, in some cases) for Guitar Hero 5 and Guitar Hero Van Halen. Part of me suspects that Activision is running this promotion because they suspect Guitar Hero Van Halen won’t sell well, and I guess that makes sense considering the music game genre is oversaturated by this point. Ugh maybe I have to pre-order this after all. With all these $10 gift cards, Amazon is quickly becoming the main vendor that I’m pre-ordering all my games from this Fall season!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMSS12iY1X0]

Whoa. I don’t usually buy special editions for games, and the Prestige Edition for Modern Warfare 2 is pretty over the top with the inclusion of toy night vision goggles. $150 seems like a very expensive price to pay, but besides it most likely being the most popular game of the year, Amazon is actually running a couple promotions right now that make getting the Prestige Edition a lot less expensive. So much, in fact, that I will most likely be pre-ordering it.

1. Amazon is giving a $10 gift card with pre-orders of all versions of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.
2. Amazon is running a trade-in promotion now where if you trade in at least $50 worth of games (shipping is free), you will get a coupon code for 50% off any game or accessory (even pre-orders).

If you can find $50 worth of games you’re no longer playing in your house, you can trade them in and basically pay off all of the $150 on Modern Warfare 2 Prestige: $50-$60 games + $75 coupon, + $10 gift card.

What’s also interesting is that the 50% off coupon code also works for other “big” bundles as well, such as the $250 Rock Band Beatles bundle, the $150 SF4 Tournament stick, or the $150 Tekken 6 wireless stick bundle.

If you’re interested, might want to move soon since the Amazon trade-in promotion expires Sat July 18.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTrf5anN4k8]
Every time I watch this video, I want to play Mirror’s Edge again…

Some GameStop exclusive price drops on some big name games in the past few days that I had to share:

360|Wii Guitar Hero World Tour – Band Kit $89.99 (from $189.99)
360|PS3 Bionic Commando $19.99 (from $59.99)
360|PS3 Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X. $19.99 (from $39.99)
360|PS3 Wheelman $19.99 (from $39.99)

Other prominent titles that received a universal price drop include:
360|PS3 Dead Space $29.99 (from $39.99)
360|PS3 Mirror’s Edge $19.99 (from $29.99)
360|PS3 Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena $39.99 (from $59.99)
360|PS3 Prince of Persia $19.99 (from $29.99)
360 Gears of War 2 $39.99 (from $59.99)
PS3 Oblivion: Game of the Year Edition $19.99 (from $29.99)
PS3 Metal Gear Solid 4 $29.99 (from $49.99)
PS3 Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction $29.99 (from $49.99)
PS3 Valkyria Chronicles $39.99 (from $59.99)
Wii MadWorld $29.99 (from $49.99)
Wii House of the Dead: OVERKILL $29.99 (from $49.99)
Wii de Blob $19.99 (from $29.99)
Wii Resident Evil Umbrella Chronicles $19.99 (from $29.99)
PC Spore $19.99 (from $39.99)
PC World in Conflict: Complete Edition $19.99 (from $29.99)
DS Chrono Trigger $19.99 (from $29.99)
DS Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure $19.99 (from $29.99)

Unfortunately for me, I’ve played almost everything that I’ve wanted to off this list. I’m  tempted by the $19.99 price for Bionic Commando and H.A.W.X. but with them both closer to a 70 on Metacritic, I’ve decided to skip over them entirely. No more backlog building on mediocre games, even if they’re free!! Also, Bionic Commando must have set a new record in price drop history to go from $60 to $20 in less than 2 months.

I do recommend practically all of the games that got universal price drops though, such as Mirror’s Edge & Henry Hatsworth. Looks like EA went on a price cutting spree…

 [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6-hqzneyuU]

Bionic Commando Rearmed is on sale for 400 MS Points ($5) this week for Gold members. I don’t usually buy Live Arcade games but at that price I had to get it. Shame the developer didn’t do as good a job with the actual retail game that was released this month, but at least the Live Arcade remake was awesome.

Also of note is that Target (instore only) has the following games for $37 each this week:
Street Fighter IV [360/PS3]
Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X.[360/PS3]
Guitar Hero: Metallica [360/PS3/Wii]

The new updates for the Sniper and the Spy have released recently, which include new weapons, gameplay changes, and Achievements for the two classes (the sniper gets a bow?!). Valve has not only made the game free to play for the public this Memorial Day weekend, but also put it on sale for $9.99. Just hop on Steam and give it a download if you’re curious.

Sadly, even though I own it, I still haven’t had a chance to get around to playing it yet, but if any of you do end up getting it, it’ll give me more of a reason to dive into it sooner since I’ll have someone else to play with.

Team Fortress 2 50% off this weekend only! [Steam]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gMwrf61M7g]

When this game was originally released it sort of flew under the radar for me since I don’t pay too much attention to racing games. But Pure looks to be a very good title as it successfully combines offroad racing with an entertaining trick system, and seems forgiving enough that even Mario Kart fans may be able to enjoy it. I’m still on the fence about this purchase myself, as I haven’t even opened Burnout Paradise yet but this is a highly rated game.

Deal of the Day: Pure 360 $19.98 [Amazon]

Down from a usual price of $19.99, it’s a great deal at the $5 price and I ended up picking it up after checking out the demo. It’s a tower defense game, but it’s also a really well done one with good graphics, Steam Achievements, and leaderboards. I’m not *that* competitive when it comes to playing tower defense, but I’ll admit that this is a great little game to be playing when I’m on the phone with my wife. It’s perfect since it doesn’t have you too occupied so your significant other gets mad at you because she knows you’re playing games, but it’s also better than just sitting there doing nothing while talking.

I was also tempted to pick up Plants vs Zombies after trying that out too, but one tower defense game at a time! Maybe I’ll write up impressions to both of them at some point…

Defense Grid: The Awakening $5 until May 13 [Steam]