Pick Up Post: de Blob 2

The original de Blob was my surprise game of 2010. Though I was a few years late to the party, this sleeper hit made quite the impact on me. It was by no means a perfect game, but this joyous game was just a pleasure to play. There are very few games I would wholeheartedly recommend to anyone of any gaming skill or taste, but de Blob is one of those games. If you have a Wii and have not played this game, you’re missing out.

I’m not sure if de Blob 2 will find (or exceed) the success of the first game, but I did my part and picked up a copy.

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Pick Up Post – Dragon Age: Origins

 

Humans are creatures of habit. We stick with what we know and we generally don’t like to deviate from that. However, you’ll never know what awesome things you’re missing out on if you don’t reach outside of your comfort zone. One of my favourite examples of me reaching out of my comfort zone has nothing to do with games. Just over a year ago, my girlfriend Steff introduced me to Thai food. Mmm…

As far as games go, the biggest jump I made out of my comfort zone in recent memory was Mass Effect. Having heard so many great things about this series, I decided to step out of my comfort zone and give this action RPG a shot. Needless to say, it made quite the impression on me.

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Boxing Day is Here!

Canadian shoppers rejoice! Boxing Day is here, which is the Canadian equivalent of Black Friday (even though we have Black Friday up here now too). If you’re not reading this from a Best Buy or Futureshop lineup at the time of this posting, you may already be too late to score a door-crasher deal at either of those stores. However, most retailers won’t have swarms of customers lining up around them and most won’t be busy until noon today, when people have recovered from a day of Christmas partying. On top of that, it’s still prime time to shop online.

If you’re looking for some quick resources to help you coordinate your plan of attack, click through to see the rest of this post!

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Pick-Up Post: Infinity Blade

Infinity Blade (iTunes)

Infinity Blade has created quite the buzz for itself. Up until I read reviews about the game, I had absolutely no idea what it was about. However, I’ve known about it ever since it was debuted a few months ago. Up until now, I’ve known Infinity Blade as the graphically-stunning iOS game.

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Pick-Up Post: Blur

 

Picking up Blur at this point in the game’s life-cycle seems like an odd choice. For one, it’s roughly 7 months old. Two, Gran Turismo 5 is out, which is a much higher-profile racing game. Three, despite its critical acclaim and heavy marketing push, it bombed at retail, which prompted Activision to drop Bizarre Creations.

None of that matters to me. I want to play this game.

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Let’s Talk About Black Friday

 

Black Friday is a bit of a weird subject for me. As a Canadian, I’ve never actually experienced the madness that is Black Friday. However, I can totally relate. In Canada, we celebrate Boxing Day, which is the Canadian Black Friday equivalent that takes place on the day after Christmas. As a huge Boxing Day fan, I can relate to the experience of planning my shopping trip days in advance with the aid of flyers and online resources, as well as the experience of lining up and dealing with mobs to take advantage of great deals. I’ve taken advantage of a few Boxing Day video game deals in the past and I’ll probably do so again this year.

With that said, let’s talk about Black Friday.

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Girlfriend Gaming: Help Me Recommend PS3 Games

My girlfriend is a life-long PlayStation fan. Way before I entered her life, she grew up playing Crash Team Racing on her PlayStation One. She’s since picked up a SNES and a Wii, but she’s had her eye on a PlayStation 3 for a long time now. At the very least, she’s wanted one long before I ever started thinking about it.

She feels like now is the right time to take the plunge and pick up a PS3. She’s asked for my help in recommending games for her to try, but my PS3 knowledge isn’t that great compared to what I know about the other systems. This is why I’m enlisting you for help. What should she buy or try out on the PS3?

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Pick Up Post: I Bought A Playstation 3 That Supposedly Does Everything

what-happened-kevin-butler-sony-playstation

During the final day of Fan Expo, I came across a deal I couldn’t refuse. 20% off PS3 consoles, 30% games and 40% off accessories. I’ve been eying the PS3 for some time now, and initially had plans on waiting for the new SKUs to drop so that I could get the soon-to-be old 120 gig version for cheaper. However, 20% off would actually make it cheaper than what I was expecting the price drop to be, and the discounts on games and accessories only sweetened the deal. Before Fan Expo was over, I walked away with a PS3 Slim, an extra controller, an HDMI cable and Little Big Planet.

I’m not going to use this post to talk about the software lineup. I just wanted to share with you my experiences with the hardware and my first impressions of the Playstation 3 experience.
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Fan Expo Day 3: Victory Lap

Unlike the first two days of the show, there weren’t any must-do events or things we needed to do driving us to the show. Having completed all of that stuff in the last two days, we figured our final day at the expo would be a victory lap of sorts. We’d take on the day as it comes and enjoy what was left at the show.

Because of this, we didn’t rush to get there. We arrived just as the doors were opening. Not the best move. This time, the lineup literally wrapped around the block, and was more than double the length of the line we stood in the day before.

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Fan Expo Day One: Among Nerds

An hour after the the Fan Expo officially opened, I received a call from my brother. I was still at work and he had just entered the line, which he said was insanely long. Almost two hours later, he sent me a text saying he just got in.

I was fearing for the worst when my girlfriend and I finally got to the convention centre. There were two lineups facing each other: one for pre-purchased tickets and one for those who needed to buy tickets. Both lines were roughly two blocks long. We got in line, expecting a long, slow, painful trek into the convention centre. To our surprise, our early experience was nothing like my brother’s unfortunate two-hour wait.

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