The Daisy Posted March 7, 2004 Report Share Posted March 7, 2004 Hello all! Now we're starting to get to it. It seems like we're finally making our way out of the new release lull. Let's get to it. Glen's LCVG Game of the Week Metal Gear Solid: Twin Snakes - $39.99 I loved the original Metal Gear Solid, so I'll be heading out this week to pick the redo as well. Bargains of the Week Best Buy Gameboy Advance Metroid: Zero Mission - $24.99 Xbox - Save $20 with the purchase of an Xbox Live renewal card or V3 kit and any of the following three games. (MTX Motocross, Tenchu: Return from Darkness, Crimson Skies) Crimson Skies - $39.99 Gamecube - Get a free Interact Memory card with the purchase of any of the following games (Metal Gear Solid, Sonic Heroes, Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles, 007: Everything or Nothing, NFL Street) Sonic Heroes - $39.99 Bundles - Get a free vertical stand with the purchase of a PS2 console - For $199, you get an Xbox console, a Cobra TT Racing Wheel, and Corvette (the game, not a car) PC Games Medal of Honor: War Chest - $34.99 Flight Simulator 2004 - $24.99 after $20 Mail in Rebate Halo - $39.99 Circuit City Playstation 2 Xenosaga - $16.99 WWE Smackdown: Shut your mouth - $16.99 Tony Hawk 4 - $16.99 The Sims - $16.99 GTA Double Pack - $29.99 Final Fantasy X2 - $39.99 Splinter Cell - $19.99 Rogue Ops - $9.99 Gameboy Advance Metroid Zero Mission - $26.99 Mario and Luigi - $26.99 Sonic Battle - $26.99 Donkey Kong Country - $26.99 PC Games Need for Speed: Underground - $19.99 Battlefield 1942: Secret Weapons of WWII - $19.99 Medal of Honor: Allied Assault Breakthrough - $19.99 Flight Simulator 2004 - $24.99 after $20 mail in rebate Target Playstation 2 Tony Hawk's Underground - $37.88 Champions of Norrath - $37.88 Final Fantasy X2 - $37.88 Soul Calibur II - $26.88 GTA Vice City - $26.88 Max Payne 2 - $26.88 Xenosaga - $16.88 Tony Hawk 4 - $16.88 Gamecube Tony Hawk's Underground - $37.88 Soul Calibur II - $26.88 Super Smash Brothers Melee - $26.88 Luigi's Mansion - $16.88 Xbox Tony Hawk's Underground - $37.88 Max Payne 2 - $26.88 Project Gotham Racing - $16.88 Tony Hawk 4 - $16.88 Bundles - Save $30 on the purchase of Ninja Gaiden when you buy an Xbox console That's it for this week all. Have a great week! Glen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danger9777 Posted March 7, 2004 Report Share Posted March 7, 2004 I believe the $39.99 price on the Best Buy ad also includes Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes. Also, wasn't this game supposed to come out on tuesday? How come Best Buy is advertising it coming out on thursday? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark E Posted March 7, 2004 Report Share Posted March 7, 2004 Games get released on Tuesday, but some stores won't have stock until Thursday or so. At least that's how it works out in the nether regions of CanuckLand. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Daisy Posted March 8, 2004 Author Report Share Posted March 8, 2004 I didn't price Metal Gear Solid in the ad wrapup because of the fact that that is the MSRP for it. Sorry for the confusion. Glen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carlucci Posted March 8, 2004 Report Share Posted March 8, 2004 This is an undadvertised markdown, but BB is selling that Halo2 pack, with the controller and the Halo 2 E3 footage, trailer, and documentary, for only $9.99. (was previously $30) That's not bad for an extra controller, which is not great, but its passable. All the coupons in the pack are expired, but it's still worth it to me to be able to see that 12 minute Halo 2 demo in 5.1 Dolby Digital. (I'm such a Halo whore!) Oh, and BTW, we became a 2 Xbox family this weekend. I got tired of my kids bugging me to let them play my downstairs Xbox, so the easiest solution was to get them one of their own for upstairs. I'm going to run a system link cable from my xbox to their upstairs gameroom, so we will be able to do system link games! I know what you are thinking.... ...Coolest. Dad. Ever! 8) Carlos. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeyN Posted March 8, 2004 Report Share Posted March 8, 2004 nah if you had 3 you would be :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan B. Posted March 10, 2004 Report Share Posted March 10, 2004 EBGames.com has Metal Arms: G.I.T.S. for Gamecube for $19.99, plus the previously posted $10 off coupon for various Vivendi games is still valid. EDIT: WRONG coupon was linked before...don't know if the other one is still around Xbox & PS2 versions are still $29.99 at EB Games BTW. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adamsappel Posted March 10, 2004 Report Share Posted March 10, 2004 KOTOR (Xbox) has dropped to $29.99 (at least at Gamestop and EB Games). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Daisy Posted March 10, 2004 Author Report Share Posted March 10, 2004 Noticed this at CAG. Buffy Chaos Bleeds (Xbox) - $9.99 at EBgames.com Mace Griffin (Xbox) - $9.99 at EBgames.com Glen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adamsappel Posted March 11, 2004 Report Share Posted March 11, 2004 Steel Battalion (Xbox) controller at Gamestop for $179.99. Apply coupon code SPRNGBRK to get the 10% savings. Coupon works with any in-stock purchase and expires 3/26. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Bryan Posted March 11, 2004 Report Share Posted March 11, 2004 Can anyone give me a recommendation about Chaos Bleeds? **before the vultures circle, I mean can anyone who has played the game tell me a little about it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adam Tyner Posted March 11, 2004 Report Share Posted March 11, 2004 I posted this to another forum right after the game came out: Some quick impressions: The character models are very inconsistent. Xander and Willow look great in the cut-scenes, but others like Spike are lacking in detail. The cut-scenes are also kind of crudely animated and look kind of awkward at times. In game, the models vary as well. Willow's face has an undetailed, plastic-ish appearance, for instance. Also, some of the stances and movement look a bit off as well, such as Spike's very non-threatening appearance when he lurches around with the sword, to name one. There are definitely some camera concerns. In the first level, when I was playing with Spike, there was a creature off-screen (in 'front' of the TV, kind of like where I was sitting) that was hitting me, but I couldn't see him. This is the type of game where before I walk into a room, I have to swivel the camera around to see where the enemies are. They don't make their presence known, at least not as consistently, in quite the same as the first game. I also had a problem intermittently where I'd have several vamps around me, and I'd start mashing buttons really quickly...but if I found myself facing the wrong direction, my character couldn't be reoriented easily in the middle of all the mashing. I took some hits that I probably shouldn't have. And there are other oddities, like being able to stake vampires in the kneecaps (don't remember if this was an issue in the first game), a vibrating screen if a character butted up against a solid object in certain situations, or...to name one random instance, I was punching a vampire, knocked him up on top of a chair, but I couldn't stake him until he got back up, even though I was more or less on level with him. The puzzles were what I found most annoying, almost to the point of frustration. The weird thing is that the puzzles aren't all that hard or complex, and they're often even kind of obvious, but they still gave me quite a headache. Level two in particular seems to have a dozen different puzzles. It took me almost an hour and a half to get through it, mostly due to aimless running around trying to solve extremely easy puzzles. To rattle off a few examples -- in the first level, Willow finds a key and is told that it opens a cabinet (or something). So I ran up to things that looked like cabinets, kept pressing 'Y', but no luck. I kept scouring. Again, no dice. Then, I decided to rub Willow against the perimeter of the room, pressing 'Y' quickly and waiting for something to eventually open. Still nothing. I think I was on my third or fourth try doing that when I eventually opened the item I had been looking for. When I did it, it looked obvious enough, and I'm surprised I didn't activate it earlier, intentionally or inadvertently. Still, kind of a pain. The items you search for glow slightly, but the places where you put them aren't. There were more moments like that in level two. I forgot where the busted sundial was, so I kept running around and around. It was right in front of me several times, but it didn't stand out enough for it to catch my eye in earlier attempts. Then, I spent a while trying to track down the third piece of the sundial, which was hidden behind a tombstone. It's not always like a lot of games where you get keys by killing certain enemies. At least one of the necessary items was hidden inside a crate, which veterans of the original will be busting open anyway, but that's mildly annoying. One of those items was a valve thingie, which I found before having any idea why I had it or where I needed to put it. The destination didn't take much time or effort to find, but it's not one of those cases where there's a sign that says "Main Valve" and a very noticeable hole where the valve should be. When looking for a missing fuse and the 'key' to opening a triggered lock, I could've sworn I'd pressed 'Y' at least in one or two different attempts in the places where I eventually picked up the items I needed, but for whatever reason, they didn't 'take' before. Maybe I have to be facing a particular angle, maybe I'm just an idiot...I dunno. Buffy does toss out a couple of quips about puzzles and finding keys, which were actually pretty funny. Audio gripe: Ack! Dialogue, both in-game and in the cut-scenes, appears in four speakers at once. Stop it! Or at least it is on my system. Maybe my receiver dislikes me. I made the same complaint about the previous Buffy game, but someone on one of the eight billion forums I read told me I was mistaken. If anyone can verify, it'd be appreciated. Short summary -- I'm not as immediately smitten by "Chaos Bleeds" as I was with Buffy's previous outing on the XBox. The complaints I have now seem bearable at the moment, and I think I'll enjoy it a lot more the second time through when I have a clearer idea of exactly what I need to accomplish...I can actually play the game rather than just run around aimlessly like I have been tonight. I'll have to play it more to really have an opinion firmly cemented. Based on what I've played so far, I'd describe it as almost a blurry FAX of the first game. It's very similar in so many ways -- graphics, controls, gameplay, etc. -- yet each of those aspects has degraded from the original. I seem to like it enough for the moment, though, and I'm looking forward to giving the game another spin later today. Willow looks like a Raggedy Ann doll and has some of the most grating voice acting I've heard in a long, long time. If you're curious about the HT end of things, the XBox version does have a widescreen mode and offers 480p. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Bryan Posted March 11, 2004 Report Share Posted March 11, 2004 Adam, Could you elaborate on these points a little? Thanks for your detailed impressions. Looks like I might wait for it to go a little lower than $9 before I pick it up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adam Tyner Posted March 11, 2004 Report Share Posted March 11, 2004 Playing as different characters was fun, but I would've liked it more if I could've picked and chosen myself. I'd absolutely give it a shot playing the entire game as Slappy. BTW, the $10 rebate for Chaos Bleeds is still floating around, I believe, which would bring the price afterwards down to just tax. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Bryan Posted March 11, 2004 Report Share Posted March 11, 2004 Originally posted by Adam Tyner@Mar 11 2004, 03:39 PM BTW, the $10 rebate for Chaos Bleeds is still floating around, I believe, which would bring the price afterwards down to just tax. I think I'll wait for it to go down a little bit more. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Daisy Posted March 11, 2004 Author Report Share Posted March 11, 2004 I'm weak... I picked it up just because it was a Buffy game. Glen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adam Tyner Posted March 11, 2004 Report Share Posted March 11, 2004 Same here, Glen...back when it was $50! Yikes. At least I got a free Buffy comic when I bought it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adamsappel Posted March 11, 2004 Report Share Posted March 11, 2004 Then, I decided to rub Willow against the perimeter of the room, pressing 'Y' quickly and waiting for something to eventually open. Whooter does this all the time, and it never works. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whooter Posted March 11, 2004 Report Share Posted March 11, 2004 Originally posted by adamsappel@Mar 11 2004, 03:37 PM Then, I decided to rub Willow against the perimeter of the room, pressing 'Y' quickly and waiting for something to eventually open. Whooter does this all the time, and it never works. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parrish Posted March 12, 2004 Report Share Posted March 12, 2004 Three things that drove me crazy about Chaos Bleeds were: * Terrible camera. * Long, long periods between saves. * Willow's voice - like fingers on a chalkboard. $10 lowers the expectations considerably though... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matt Posted March 12, 2004 Report Share Posted March 12, 2004 Fry's has Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes for $29.99 through Tuesday. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bickle Posted March 13, 2004 Report Share Posted March 13, 2004 I decided to rub WillowCan't go wrong there. For $10 it's decent, but I'd rather pay $50 for the original that $10 for the sequel. The fantastic fighting engine from the first game was replaced by a pale imitation that just wasn't up to snuff. Basically you can get through almost the entire game with one jump kick to knock a baddy down, then a stake to the heart. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan B. Posted March 13, 2004 Report Share Posted March 13, 2004 K.O.T.O.R. for Xbox is down to $24.99 at Outpost.com now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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