xbox 360

Where the Grass is Green and the Girls Are Pretty

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Burnout Paradise was a game I’ve had on my radar for quite some time. The series first caught my eye when I played the Burnout Revenge demo that came with my XBOX 360, which came with a really cool take down mode. However, the demo for Burnout Paradise left me skeptical. The sensation of going fast was intact, as well as the joy of wrecking other cars (as well as your own), but the demo didn’t really give me a sense of how the open-world structure of the game would work.

I may be two years too late, and the developers have added a ton of free and paid additional content to the game since I last tried it, but I recently got a copy of Burnout Paradise at the bargain basement price of $5 at a Blockbuster Video sale. Was this ticket to paradise well worth it?

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Blockbuster Finale

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With the Blockbuster clearance sale winding down (buy a $9.99 game and get a $4.99 game free), I took one more trek across a number of Blockbuster stores in my area in hopes of snagging a few more cheap games to beef up my collection. It was plain to see that I was scraping the bottom of the barrel at this point, as 99% of the games remaining are probably better used as coasters. Still, I was able to pick up three more good games that I think are well worth the total I spent on them.

Find out what two games I got, a roundup of everything I’ve grabbed from Blockbuster of late and how much it all cost. The final tally is pretty impressive.

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The Fresh Prince

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The Prince of Persia series, up until this point, has been a series I have stayed well clear of. Prior to my recent purchase, the only Prince of Persia game I had ever played was the NES port of the original. I only got to play While I thought it looked great and the animations were surprisingly fluid and the concept behind the game was cool, I absolutely hated the controls. I couldn’t get a feel for the momentum behind the character, which lead to continuous drops into spikes.

Since then, the series was rebooted with Prince of Persia: Sands of Time on Playstation 2, XBOX and Gamecube. That series eventually faded and Ubisoft tried to spice things up with the simply-titled Prince of Persia. To separate itself from its predecessors, this reboot made some drastic changes to its approach on graphics and gameplay. While the game was well received critically, it did not meet the sales expectations many companies were hoping for. Things apparently went so bad that the latest Prince of Persia games are going back to the Sands of Time style, which in effect reboots the reboot.

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Some Things I Don’t Like About Mass Effect

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Having just finished playing through Mass Effect, I think this is one of the greatest video games I’ve ever played. When I played through that game, it is startling how big this game is, yet how awesome the experience is. When it comes to storytelling, scale, characterization and role-playing, I don’t think I’ve played anything better than Mass Effect.

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Making It Another Blockbuster Night

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Yesterday, while on my way to my girlfriend’s house, I passed by another Blockbuster. Having pillaged every Blockbuster in my city, I decided to check out the Blockbuster close to her house to see if I can find some gems in their clearance bin. While their selection had no shortage of old sports games, generic shooters and crappy movie-based games, I did pick up some stuff and there were other games worth noting.

Hit the break to see what I found.

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Make It A Blockbuster Night

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Blockbuster has had it rough over the last few years. With multiple threats coming from piracy, DVD mailing services like Netflix and direct download options from sources such as iTunes, Things have been so bad, that I’ve seen a number of Blockbuster stores go out of business in and around my area.

I’m not one to rent stuff, but I have been raiding as many Blockbuster stores as I can of late, because they’ve been a great place to buy cheap games. A combination of closing sales as well as clearance deals have helped me flesh out my catalogue. I jumped in on most of these sales fairly late, so I wasn’t able to score games like Modern Warfare 1 for $10 (which I heard a bunch of people did get), but I did get some good stuff (and some not-so-great freebies).

Hit the break to find out what I’ve gotten so far.

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What’s My Motivation?

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Having just finished Episodes From Liberty City, it inspired me to write something about the role of motivation in games, and how my motivation towards these two Grand Theft Auto IV add-ons made me feel very differently in spite of being different takes on the same core thing.

In Space, No One Can Hear You Scream

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I’m about half way through Dead Space, and the game has put me me in a really awkward predicament. I think that the game is solid and very well done for what it is, but I don’t know if I want to play it any more. It has nothing to do with its technical merits, but everything to do with the fact that Dead Space scares the hell out of me.

Mapathy is an Expensive Condition to Cure

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For those of you playing Modern Warfare 2 and are looking for some new maps to play on, Infinity Ward supposedly has the cure for you. The Modern Warfare 2 “Stimulus Package” contains 5 maps, two remakes from Modern Warfare 1 and three brand new ones.

I was hyped to get new maps for this game, and until I heard the price, this seemed like a no-brainer to me. But dude, 1200 Microsoft Points for 5 maps? Two of which aren’t even new?

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Last Night, a DJ Saved My Life

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The other day, I received my DJ Hero setup in the mail. Not having bought refurbished products before, and being a bit concerned over the condition of the stuff they sent me, I was very quick and thorough with my inspection. The game was opened, yet the disc and manual looked to be in mint condition. As for the turntable and mixer, it looked just fine as well. Considering the fact that I can’t even get DJ Hero used for anywhere close to what I paid for this refurbished version, it was a steal.