black friday haulz

I'm curious if anyone had jumped on the buy 2 get 1 free deal that gamestop was running. It was only for used games which was a little bit of a bummer because there are a handful of games that i would love to play on the ps2 that i seem to only find new.

Here is what i picked up- plus 2 games i got from best buy.


The turok and simpsons games came from best buy. 15 and 10. The rest were buy 2 get 1. They are pretty much all games that were hovering around 20ish dollars that i kinda wanted, but had been waiting for it to drop a little lower. I went today (Saturday) so maybe if i went earlier i could have gotten a few others that I either couldn't find or the instructions weren't in the box. Oh well. Maybe I'll hit up the 3rd gamestop in my area tomorrow and see if I can get some yakuza and persona 3 fes. Maybe another xbox controller.

I cracked simpsons, turok, and ghost squad already but none of the others. As a pretty big simpsons fan, i'm kinda in love with that game and glad i bought it new. Hopefully EA will make a sequel. It is a really beautiful game. Turok was ok. I played the demo and knew what i was getting into. The game's shooter mechanics are dripping with mediocrity, but hey... you get to shoot at dinosaurs. Thats fun. Ghost squad is pretty fantastic. I love light gun games and this one doesn't disappoint. Again- i hope that the wii comes out with more light gun games. It is the perfect platform for it.

The first tomb raider game was probably the first game I ever remember owning on the pc. I was pretty young and got it for christmas. I didn't play it a whole lot. The fact there was nothing to consistantly shoot at frusterated me, and i didn't understand that the game was more about exploration then turning miss croft into the worst peta member ever. I'm hopeing that the remake on an hd set will look fantastic and get me back into a franchise of games that has at least a few titles that people love. Heres hopeing that round 2 between me and tomb raider goes well.

I played both jedi knight games on the PC back when i had one and wasn't so apple centric. No more pc- no more pc games. I really loved them when they first came out and was glad i could get them for my collection at a decent price. Looking forward to another play through on the xbox sometime next year when the new games coming out slow down and we get over this manic holiday season. Which... on to new games...



so far left 4 dead has taken up most of the gaming time i've had. You move from point A to point B in the game and try to survive. Very little story at all. The campaines are short so you can play through them fairly quickly. I love that because i can play for 45 minutes in between a set of pages for work and still feel like i achived something in game rather than like i just got started. There is something to be said for marathon gaming, and i do enjoy doing that... but i rarely get the time to, and when i do I only occasionally choose to do that over hanging out with people. This formula makes it kinda difficult for me to get through games like bioshock, but perfect for portal.
The real beauty of left 4 dead is the fact that because you have to work together as a team no game is ever the same. The layout of the level is, but weapons spawn in different areas and so do zombies. I played a great game with sean brennan where one of the AI survivors couldn't really make it to the safe area through a mob of zombies. Sean went out to save him, but couldn't. I was shooting at him so he would go down faster and I could save myself. And yes, i would do that in a real invasion too.



at a nice second place is mirrors edge. A parkor running game where it is encouraged not to fight or even hold a weapon. The game is ment for spead runs, and i might actually do that once i get bored of everything else i have to play. It is a great feeling to hit a series of jumps/rools/slides perfectly and just move through this urban landscape like water. A really really fantastic game, i just wish there was more of it. I polished off a good 3/4s of the game in a sitting. I haven't really touched it since only because i want to savor the end rather than rush. I know i know- it is a little ironic seeing as you are supposed to rush.



A distant third is call of duty world at war. Not a bad game by any respect, but definatly not a unique game. I played through most of it with dan goat which didn't unlock or achieve anything. Now that i've actually played most of it, and then played the online beta to death... i'm kinda... done. I've been chipping away at the campain on easy just to unlock stuff. After i do, i'm probably not going to play through most of it over again. The cut scenes are beautiful and i'm a total sucker for that kind of graphic design. They also incorperate footage of actual combat, which actually makes you stop and think for a second that everything is real. That this isn't a game- its a simulation. People went through this. I like that. Not that we had to go through it, but that it actually makes you stop and think. Like the speed runs in mirrors edge- i'll probalby pick it up again once i've had some distance from the day that goat and i blazed through it, and once left 4 dead gets a little old you'll probably see me online too.

Since i've started to get my fill of these games... and the 3 for 2 deal at gamestop is still going on sunday I am kind of tempted to pick up fallout 3, deadspace, and fable II. Thats a serious chunk of change though. Tempted, but i probably won't.

SO- what about you? Pick up anything cool? Tis the season to do so!