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.

K-Mart’s Fallout: New Vegas Deal
What really put both K-Mart & Fallout: New Vegas on my radar was the promotion I discovered K-Mart was running. This past Friday after work, I dropped by my local K-Mart, and found Fallout: New Vegas coasters for sale. This looked to be the last set, and K-Mart sells it for $5. Even though the DVD box containing the coasters clearly states “Pre-Order Your Copy Today!”, you’re really just buying the coasters only. There’s no pre-order system in place like at Gamestop where you put $5 down on the game and when the game comes out, you get a phone call and the $5 goes towards the purchase of the game.

The main reason I was willing to spend $5 on the coasters was because I read that you would get a coupon for $15 off Fallout: New Vegas at the register. Imagine my surprise when the coupon that printed out stated: $15 off Gaming Purchase – Vald 10/19/2010 – 10/30/2010. This meant that while the coupon could not be used until 10/19/2010 (the date Fallout: New Vegas launches), it could be used on any game purchase. Anyone that simply wants to save $10 off any game between 10/19/2010 and 10/30/2010 might as well pick up the Fallout coasters! In any case, I am going to put the $15 towards Fallout: New Vegas, since this week, K-Mart is also offering a $20 gaming coupon with purchases of Fallout: New Vegas, essentially netting the game to $30 for the game on launch day and the coasters. Pretty good deal!

The Good
K-Mart has generally offered great gaming deals during the first week a game hits store shelves – basically any major title that has already been released or is going to be released this Fall/Winter has been offered with a $20-$25 gaming coupon.

Some Past Deals
Halo Reach (360) all editions – $25 coupon
Medal of Honor (360/PS3) – $25 coupon
NBA Jam (Wii) – $15 coupon
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow (360/PS3)- $20 coupon
NBA 2K11 (360/PS3) – $20 coupon
Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light (DS) – $15 coupon
Enslaved: Odyssey to the West – $25 coupon
Final Fantasy XIV Online (PC) – $20 coupon
FIFA 11 (360/PS3) – $20 coupon

Upcoming Deals
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II (360/PS3) – $20 coupon
Rockband 3 (360/PS3) – $20 coupon
The Sims 3 (360/PS3) – $20 coupon
Fable III (360) – $20 coupon
Call of Duty: Black Ops (360/PS3/PC) – should be $20 coupon
Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood (360/PS3) – should be $20 coupon

Major Deals This Week
Kirby Epic Yarn (Wii) – $20 coupon AND
- buy along with New Super Mario Bros, Metroid: Other M, or Sin and Punishment 2 to save another $20

Vanquish (360/PS3) – $20 coupon AND
-buy along with Uncharted 2 GOTY, Borderlands GOTY, Enslaved: Odyssey to the West, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, Halo Reach, Dead Rising 2, Mafia 2, Red Dead Redemption, F1: 2010, Front Mission Evolved, Quantum Theory, Spiderman: Shattered Dimensions, R.U.S.E., H.A.W.X. 2, God of War 3, or Heavy Rain to save another $30.

Several of these deals K-Mart is offering even surpass Amazon’s deals. Amazon doesn’t have the major combo deals for Kirby Epic Yarn or Vanquish, and is only giving $10 credit for games like Medal of Honor, Fallout: New Vegas, and Rock Band 3. Plus, they took away their $20 credit for Call of Duty: Black Ops, so that means K-Mart is probably going to end up getting my business for the new Call of Duty. I tried the demo of Vanquish, and I came away very disappointed with the game. I would have actually considered picking up Vanquish and Dead Rising 2 for $70, but from the demo, Vanquish seemed like $10 game to me.

The Bad
As great as the deals are at K-Mart, there’s a reason why a lot of us gamers don’t shop their in the first place – myself included. I was surprised the first time I went into K-Mart recently and discovered recent major titles all available for sale. But the person usually working the gaming area is never around, and they have no idea what the games are. This is very different from the experience you would get with a Gamestop clerk, who often plays video games too. (See, Gamestop is good for something!) But yeah the total lack of knowledge or even care by the attendant in that area is jarring.

The lack of knowledge wouldn’t be as bad as it could be but combined with the lack of organization of the gaming section of the store makes it quite a zoo. Big retail stores like Target also have store attendants that don’t necessarily know about the games, but everything is organized nice and neat – each game is in its own area, with the case right behind it containing the stock of that game. At my local K-Mart – all of the games are just stacked in no order whatsoever within the locked glass cabinets. There’s hundreds of games there and I even saw several PS2, and Xbox games. Asking for a particular game is basically impossible. One of my dreams is to actually get access to the case and look through all of the games stacked in the back rows behind the games in front, just to see if I can discover any hidden gems. But alas – even asking for the Fallout: New Vegas coasters was an exercise in frustration for me. The attendant had no idea what I was talking about, and he was really rude too saying something like “Well, do you see it in the case? I’m not going to look for it.” Fortunately for me, I did – but I guess no one is going to see what is stacked in the back rows for all the shelves.

There are also several technical issues I have with the store as well. First off – no pre-orders. Amazon, Gamestop, and even stores like Best Buy and Target allow for video game pre-orders. While I’m not a big fan of pre-ordering at retail stores nor do I think this is a big deal, I just thought it was sad that I was buying a Fallout: New Vegas coaster box from K-Mart that stated “Pre-order Your Copy Today!” and I can’t pre-order. My bigger issues are the following 2 points:

1. Price Drops Have to Be Adjusted Manually By The Store Itself
The Internet has changed the way many of us do business these days – including my ability to shop for game deals. Gamestop is always current with its price drops, and the moment I see a game I want get a price drop on the Gamestop.com website, I can just do a store inventory search, go to the store, and buy it. With K-Mart, I’ll read information online that talks about price drops on games that are decided by corporate, but the problem is, if the store itself doesn’t manually reduce the price on the games, they will still ring up at the regular price at the store. There’s nothing you can do about it. If the store is too lazy/clueless or is unwilling to drop the price of the game, tough luck! Unfortunately, this happens more often than not.

2. The coupons have some pretty tight restrictions
Amazon’s gaming coupons are great because they easily stack into your “gaming credit” pool, and are the first to be used whenever you want to buy a game online. With K-Mart, you cannot stack two coupons of the same barcode type on a single purchase. This means, if you were to buy Halo: Reach twice and get $25 coupons for each of them, you could not use them both together to get $50 off your next game. Also, the coupons are not valid until the following Sunday – so you cannot buy a game, receive the coupon, and then use it immediately on another game right away. Finally, the period of time you are able to use the coupon is very limited – it’s only about a month out before it expires. This isn’t a big deal in the Fall and Winter seasons when so many games are coming out, but even Amazon gives you like a 6-month time slot to use your gaming coupon.

My Conclusion
K-Mart has carved out a little competitive niche for itself in the gaming deals market. Previously, Gamestop and Amazon were the two stores vying for my hard-earned money: Amazon with its coupons, no tax, and release-date delivery, and Gamestop with its accessibility of brick-and-mortar stores, knowledgeable store reps, B2G1 sales, and beneficial “glitches” on its website from time to time. But K-Mart has brought something to the table that neither store can match: the best prices. Unfortunately, as you can see from my section on all that is bad with the store, it may not necessarily be worth it to go there if you have to deal with the hassles of the way the store is poorly run and the tight limitations of the coupons themselves. I’ll probably just pick up Fallout: New Vegas, use New Vegas’s $20 coupon on Call of Duty: Black Ops, and dump the $20 coupon from Black Ops on something to end my gaming credit at K-Mart. That should conclude my gaming purchases for the rest of the year…hopefully. Now, whether K-Mart will even have Fallout: New Vegas tomorrow is a legitimate question to ask. Guess I’ll find out!

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.

Gamestop.com Only
First of all, I want to mention that all of these major deals Gamestop is running is only on their website, Gamestop.com. You won’t find any of these deals in their brick & mortar stores – and for good reason: it’s a different customer there. Most customers that walk into Gamestop are the less “price conscious” consumers, as they are either pre-ordering games for full price or just walking in and buying whatever they see off the shelf. With brick & mortar game stores closing all over the place like Game Crazy, Gamestop basically has a monopoly for selling games at retail. No discounts are necessary.

In comparison, online shopping is a different world. Gamestop’s online shoppers know of other major retailers to go to, such as Amazon.com if they want to compare prices. These customers are smarter, more deal-savvy, and more calculated in their buying tendencies. Amazon probably stole a lot of people away, as Amazon has not only offered gift cards with practically every major game pre-order, but matched competing online stores’ offers as well. Thus, it’s time that Gamestop.com had to step up its game. Let’s start with the tale of the tape.

Amazon, the heavy-weight champion of the online game buying world
Amazon is known for several major aspects when buying games through them. The first is that almost every major game being released comes with a $10 promotion code off your next game purchase. Second, is the lack of sales tax charged for almost every state in the country. Third is release-date shipping on major titles for those with Amazon Prime. And finally, quick price/promotion matching basically any other online retailer with their game deals. In the past, Amazon also gave 10% discounts on all gaming purchases with ECA membership, and also offered various extra trade-in promotion deals. Those have since disappeared, but the combination of no tax, release date delivery, gift cards, and price matching competitors makes Amazon a tough online retailer to beat.

Gamestop, the heavy-weight champion of the brick & mortar game buying world
Unlike Amazon, Gamestop’s primary income is through the selling of used games. Many people complain about the tiny amount of credit they offer for your games but then they turn around and sell them for $55. These people that complain simply aren’t smart enough to take advantage of Gamestop’s various promotions. If you’re trading in a game at Gamestop without a promotion or buying a used game without a promotion, you’re doing it wrong. When Gamestop is willing to buy your copy of Mass Effect 2 for $48 and sell it to you for $35, you do it. In a way, I’m sort of glad that not everyone is as on the ball with Gamestop’s deals, since if we were all partaking in it they’d probably go out of business. In any case, let’s see what Gamestop has on its side take on Amazon.

1. The Edge Card
For $15, you can purchase the Edge card at Gamestop, which gets you a 10% discount on all used games and a 10% bonus on all trade-ins of used games. This 10% stacks on top of every other promotion, and the card is good for a year. On top of that, the $15 fee gets you an annual subscription to Game Informer, which I have to admit is probably one of the best gaming magazines out there right now. I’m currently reading that and the Official Xbox Magazine right now, and Game Informer blows it out of the water. I definitely recommend picking up the Edge Card as it will pay for itself very quickly.

2. Cheaper Used Game Prices Online
One interesting thing that Gamestop.com has been doing is charging a different price for their online used games versus in the actual brick & mortar stores. Every new release in stores sells for $54.99, yet online, there’s no new release used game that sells for more than $49.99. $49.99 retail price games sell for $44.99 in store, but $39.99 online. This makes it a big deal when Gamestop runs promotions such as 25% off all used games online. A lot of gamers think that Gamestop’s Buy 2 Get 1 Used Game Free Promotion in the physical stores is the best deal ever. But with the cheaper cost of the online used games, the difference is not by much. Check it out: if you were to do the B2G1 Used promotion in store for 3 recently released used games, it would cost you $55 + $55 + $0 (free) = $110 before tax. But if you were to buy those games online and took advantage of the 25% off all used games deal instead, it would cost you ($50+$50+$50)*.75 = $112.50. Considering how seldom the B2G1 used sales occur, is it really worth waiting until then if it will only cost you $2.50 more for those 3 games? Of course, taking advantage of a B2G1 used sale online is the best of both worlds, as it would end up being $50 + $50 + $0 = $100.

3. Daily Deals
Gamestop.com now has daily deals that are actually pretty decent. For example, a recent one I’ve seen is “Purchase 2 in-stock games” and get 20% off each title.”. Combine the daily deal with the cheaper online used game prices and your Edge card, and you’ll end up paying maybe only $30-$40 for recently released used games. Amazon has a daily game deal of the day, but Gamestop.com has promotions that actually allow you to pick your games that you want discounts on so Gamestop.com’s daily promotions are a bit better.

4. Coupon Codes with Pre-Orders
Gamestop has started matching Amazon’s coupon codes with pre-orders. Games like Halo Reach and Super Mario Galaxy 2, which Amazon was offering $20 promotion codes with, are now also the same exact way at Gamestop.com. Now you can buy Super Mario Galaxy 2 at Amazon.com or Gamestop.com and get $20 off your next title shopping at respective website. This takes away one of Amazon’s primary competitive advantages.

5. “Entire Cart” Codes
Whether April was a fluke or not, Gamestop has started offering codes that allow you to take discounts off everything in your cart. In April we saw a flat 25% discount on everything in your cart if you spent $100 or more, and now in May we’re seeing a flat 25% off any pre-owned game you buy if you use coupon code 25PRE.

The Matchup
When it comes to buying used games, Gamestop.com provides significant savings and Amazon doesn’t even sell used games so if you’re willing to purchase games used instead of new, Gamestop.com is your best bet. But when it comes to buying new games or pre-ordering them, this is where Gamestop has caught up significantly with Amazon.com. Now both websites are offering the same promotional gift cards with pre-orders of certain games, but Amazon.com is also offering release-date delivery for Prime holders and no tax for most people. Gamestop instead has Daily Deals and Entire Cart codes, making the battle a bit tough to really call.

Take for example, Starcraft 2. Which website did I end up buying it from? Gamestop.com. While I would have gotten release-date delivery and no tax on my purchase at Amazon, it would have come to me at $60. I was able to take advantage of various deals at Gamestop and order it for $42.39. Of course, I’ll probably have to wait several days before I receive it, but the point of this article is that Amazon isn’t necessarily the clear winner anymore. It’s time to consider Gamestop.com for actual gaming deals again!

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!

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.

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…

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]

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]