Black Friday deals round-up

Section: Features, Gift GuideWe are swiftly approaching Black Friday. Or, as I like to call it, the best work day of the year. The highways are empty, clients don’t call, and the boss is usually gone so I can play Call of Duty 4 multiplayer with my coworkers all day long. A lot of you, however, will be out shopping. Over the past couple of weeks, the Dabbledoo sites have been reporting on numerous developer deals and “leaked” retail ads, so we’ve collected the best of them here for you in one neat article, organized by retailer and product type. As Friday approaches, we’ll continue to update this list, so be sure to check back often. Retailers Amazon - Amazon has followed suit with nearly every major retailer, whether it be online or brick-and-mortar and have announced what they in store for us come Thanksgiving Day, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday. Most of what Amazon has in store for us is computer related and will come with free shipping… Apple - Black Friday is right around the corner, and Barclays Capital experts believe that Apple won’t be fooling around this year. According to their analysts, they are predicting that Apple will launch a very aggressive one-day sale the Friday after Thanksgiving of this year on a lot of their Mac models… AT&T - The Boy Genius Report is showing the AT&T flyer for this years Black Friday with some interesting cost savings on specific models.  AT&T, formerly Cingular, is hoping not to be eclipsed by T-Mobiles free flight promotion we announced earlier. What is interesting is these are not slacker phones that are… BJ’s - BJ’s, the land of bulk buys, is looking good for Black Friday this year according to a flyer I just got handed. The deals range from in-store deals to online deals at bjs.com (how there were able to secure that domain name I’ll never know).  Here is a look at… Best Buy - Haven’t had a chance to make it over to your local Best Buy since the big PS3/Wii weekend? Well we have (yes, I know it’s an addition—at least we admit it). What did we see you ask? How about piles and mounds and pallets of “door buster” products. The newsworthy… Circuit City - These Black Friday deals keep looking better and better, Circuit City has released some information as to what they have planned for Black Friday. There is going to be 5 laptops and their prices will be marked down a helluva lot. The first laptop and probably the one that was… EB Games - EBGames/GameStop as posted it’s Black Friday 2007 shopping and bargains list. It says you can print the coupons from the site and bring them into the store beginning Friday, November 23, 2007, but I didn’t see any actual coupons. Even so, you might want to have the eight pages of… GameStop - Well, the most anticipated video game related Black Friday ad may have just emerged today. Both Kotaku and BlackFriday.info are reporting that GameStop’s ad circular for Black Friday 2008 has been leaked onto the internet. Aside from the rather obvious “Buy 2 Get 1 Free” used game deal that GameStops… KB Toys - In what could be a very smart move, KB Toys has announced that over half of its stores open at midnight for Black Friday 2008. There are 460 KB Toys stores nationwide, and 270 of them will be open early for customers. KB Toys has also announced that its doorbuster… Radio Shack - RadioShack’s Black Friday ad is now out and here’s what they are offering to those brave folks willing to wait in line for the 6am opening: Canon PIXMA MX300 Office All-in-One Printer (Requires Purchase of EX-Z9 Camera) - Free after $50.00 MIR. Memorex MCC228 HD Digital Camcorder- $79.99 (regularly $119.99)… Sharper Image - Sharper Image shared their “door busters” with me that will be flying off the shelves from 6 am to 12 noon on Black Friday.  From MP3 to GPS, there are some good deals to be had.  Note the quantities are “very limited”. MP3 player (shown at right): $29.95 was $49.95… Staples - As we get closer and closer to Black Friday, we find more and more deals being leaked by stores.  In addition to Dell ads, which were leaked earlier today, we have a few Staples ads that show what they have planned for us.  There are only about 6 items listed… T-Mobile - T-Mobile is offering a unique Black Friday deal; a chance for a free flight in 2008. This offer will be available to new and existing customers and will run from November 23rd through the 25th. Customers will have to sign up for a new two-year contract on a myFaves plan… Target - If you like to do your shopping early (pre-Black Friday), Target has a printed toys coupon book available in stores with a few tech toys and one game coupon. The only real game coupon is $5 off Mario Kart for Wii. It includes the Wheel peripheral. The others, more techie… Toys ‘r’ Us - If you never wanted to grow up, perhaps you should consider consoling yourself by checking out what could be the leaked Toys R Us Black Friday 2008 ad listing that is appearing on BlackFriday.info, Black Friday Ads and CAG. However, ad scans have not shown up so we don’t know… Wal Mart - You may remember about a week ago when Gadgetell posted the doorbuster/main sales from Wal-Mart.  Recently, they have unveiled their full Black Friday sales, and I must say, they are looking pretty good.  Camcorders They only have 2 camcorders listed for sale and one is the Pure Digital F230 camcorder… Walgreens - We all know, love, hate and possibly do our best to ignore Black Friday.  For deals on gadgets and tech, you’d expect the main electronic stores to participate: Best Buy, Circuit City, maybe even Wal-Mart and Target.  You can add one more to that list that you probably wouldn’t expect… iPod/iPhone Speck - Not all of us have the iPhone 3G or any of the new iPod designs. And, not all of us can expect to be getting them this holiday season. I mean, come on, there are Blu-ray players to buy. Flash Gordon figures. Games for the Wii (well, not really…the Wii’s… Electronics GPS - One of the hottest gifts this holiday season is going to be GPSs.  Everyone, at some point in their life, has gotten lost multiple times while on the road and owning a GPS these days seems almost as necessary as having a cell phone.  In case you want a general… GPS at BJs - NaviGadget got their hands on three more nice Black Friday deals, and don’t forget about the other GPS deals we posted about last week.The first is the Nuvi 680 which is selling at BJ’s. Basically, the original price was $700, now with a $100 discount it becomes $600. Although, on… GPS at Best Buy - Best Buy has released what they have in store for us in terms of their GPS deals come Black Friday. Already, there are many stores that will be having nice deals on GPS’, so it will probably be hard deciding where to go. Check out some of these articles and… GPS at Circuit City - Circuit City has also released a bunch of information as to what they have planned for us come Black Friday regarding GPS units. We have already seen a lot of stores release their Black Friday information, so take a good look at the other stores and prepare to plan out… HDTV - As Black Friday is coming closer and closer, more and more sales are made available for the public.  The guys over at BFads have put together a nice piece about how to buy a HDTV and more importantly, what sales will be taking place.  Keep in mind that these sales… Vizio - It should not be any secret that Vizio makes some great TV’s with great pricing year round, now they have upped the value just a little bit with some Black Friday savings. A few of these will be Friday only sales and some are for Saturday only, either way there… Video Games/Systems PlayStation 3 at Best Buy - For buyers who have been on the fence about buying a Playstation 3, perhaps what is offered here should aid in tipping your funds towards Sony’s cause. A new Best Buy holiday bundle, based on information from here, shows an 80 GB Playstation 3 that includes both Ratchet & Clank:… Gamertell Video Game Round Up - For those of you looking for all the great Black Friday (aka the day after Thanksgiving, aka November 28, 2008) video game deals all in one place, you can check out all of our Black Friday posts. For those of you who like things in nice, nifty, easy-to-browse lists, here… Games at Circuit City - Hot on the heels of what may be the Best Buy Black Friday 2008 ad comes Circuit City’s ad. Its filled with sales on quite a few games, though Sony’s PSP, PS2 and PS3 seem a bit under-represented when compared to the DS, Wii and Xbox 360. Even so, it… Games at Game Crazy - For all those early risers braving the traffic and long lines at checkout counters, here’s a quick look at Game Crazy’s Black Friday advert. Most GameCrazy stores are located next to a Hollywood Video store (since they are owned by the same company) and will open early, though times will… Games at K-Mart - And the sales have begun. In this week’s Kmart print ad, the chain is promoting “Black Friday Price Available Now!“ with at least one item. At the top of the game page (page 2) is Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock for PS2 for $44.99 (regular price is $89.99, limited… Games at Kohls - Kohl’s is probably the last store you think of when go shopping for video games. You still might want to give their ad a once over for Black Friday 2008. A potential ad scan for Kohl’s has just leaked onto the internet, and it does have quite a few video… Games at Sears - SEARS has a few great deals on gaming systems and games on Friday to include triple pack value games for gamers on a budget to include a 20% discount on select value games regularly priced from $9.99 to $19.99. There are even more discounts and items being offered on their… Games at Target - As Thanksgiving draws closer, even more of the major retailers’ Black Friday ads leak out. One of the latest scans is for Target, and it features a nice selection of video game deals. While there are a few shovelware-ish titles tossed in, there are some nice deals to be had.… Games at Wal Mart - One of this season’s most anticipated Black Friday ads for 2008, the Walmart ad, has just been leaked. BlackFriday.info, Black Friday Ads and CAG are all reporting on the various deals in the ad, with both BlackFriday.info and Black Friday Ads offering complete scans of the leaked circular. While it… Full Story » | Written by Kirk Hiner for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

World of Warcraft Preview: Up close with the Lich King

Blizzard has released its second full World of Warcraft expansion, Wrath of the Lich King. Chris Holt talks to Blizzard’s Alex Afrasiabi about the state of the World of Warcraft.

Note to journalists who don’t play games: The iPhone will not kill the DS or PSP

Section: Software + Apps, Games, iPod + iTunes, iPod touch, iPhone + Communications, iPhone, iPhone SDK & Apps, Originals I’m not an industry analyst, I’m a gamer. I have been since my brother and I used some inheritance money to buy an Intellivision back in the early ‘80s. And although I have my favorite systems (I’ve become a Nintendo fellow as of late, owning both the DS and Wii), I can appreciate the strengths of each system currently on the market. I don’t have access to the Microsoft and Sony platforms, but I find plenty of other ways to fulfill my video gaming needs. And because I review games for both Appletell and Gamertell, I probably spend more time playing games than a working man and father of two should. Productive? Perhaps not, but my broad exposure to the gaming lifestyle does make me question the logic behind articles about how the iPhone will take over the Nintendo DS and Sony PSP for handheld gaming. You can’t mash buttons if you don’t have buttons. The latest such article comes from Nick Winfield and Christopher Lawton of wsj.com (see Apple’s iPhone Faces Off With the Game Champs). To their credit, Nick and Christopher don’t state that the iPhone is a DS/PSP killer, rather that it’s simply “targeting” them; that big name developers and publishing houses are increasingly seeing the iPhone and iPod touch as valid gaming systems. But are these iDevices really in direct competition with the DS and PSP? Because if they are, they’re simply no match. This isn’t to say that iPhone games aren’t good. I’ve played quite a few that I enjoy, but it’s a completely different gaming experience. Games were an afterthought to the development of the iPhone and iPod touch, as evidenced mainly by the control system. Although the accelerometer is cool for some genres (racing, mostly, or the always popular moving balls), the combination of that and the touch screen make even the most basic of video games extremely awkward to control. Tilt. You’ve got no other choice. Take, for instance, Bomberman touch. Bomberman has appeared in some form on pretty much every computer/gaming system since the dawn of Atari. Its success has stemmed mainly from its simple, addictive gameplay, but the iPhone version is not simple because the touch screen controls are awkward and frustrating. And believe me, nothing kills “addictive” faster than “frustrating.” So, in order to make a game that actually plays well on the iPhone, the game has to be built around the controls. Yes, gameplay in some instances is conducive to the touchscreen, the accelerometer or a combination thereof, but quick, intricate movement cannot be obtained in this method. And considering that most games require skilled movement and control, the iPhone is hampered by its own design. What we’ll end up seeing, therefore, is some fantastic games built around the iPhone’s capabilities, along with a whole slew of games dumped onto the iPhone in an effort to cash in on its popularity, but that are almost unplayable and will therefore quickly be buried and forgotten under the thousands of other apps released that month. Wii owners know what I’m talking about. Games built specifically for the Wii Remote control system can be an incredible experience. Games dumped on the Wii to take advantage of its popularity without any thought for how to implement the remote technology are generally pretty horrid and unplayable. Rumored controls for rumored iPhone/iPod touch version of Quake 30 hours of gameplay! (Split nicely into iPhone-friendly 10 minute increments.) There’s also the issue of depth. Many DS and PSP games are designed for extended periods of play. They can be epic in scale, with everything from RPGs to RTSs to first-person shooters. Many games offer dozens of hours of gameplay. This is what hard core gamers want, and it’s how they choose their system. I suppose someone may eventually release games like that on the iPhone, but I haven’t seen them yet. In fact, the games coming close to offering such hard core experiences have generally been plagued by crashes, freezes and other problems. It seems the iPhone OS isn’t built to handle such resource heavy games, at least not in its current state, and the iPhone itself isn’t built for prolonged gaming sessions, at least not comfortably. Super Steveoid Brothers Prime: Liberty City...only on the iPhone? In addition, the iPhone has no platform specific titles. It has no Mario or Metroid or Zelda, and I don’t believe it ever will. Many gamers chose their system because of specific titles they know they’ll want. I, for instance, picked up the Nintendo DS specifically to play “The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass.” Before that, I bought a GBA specifically to play “The Legend of Zelda: The Minnish Cap.” I’m certainly not alone here, as evidenced by the amount of time and resources game system developers put into creating, marketing and maintaining their franchise titles. Will Apple set up its own internal game development division? Will it just buy one out like Microsoft did? I don’t see that happening. Mario. More fun than Joe the Plumber, and apparently a better plumber, too. The “funnest iPod ever,” yes, but not “funner” than the DS or PSP. Don’t get me wrong, though. The ease of developing games with the iPhone SDK and the cheap App Store distribution model means the iPhone will be tremendously successful as a gaming platform. A Mac/iPhone game developer I spoke with recently confided that in a couple months they sold more copies of the iPhone version of one of their games than the Mac version sold in almost ten years. That’s absolutely crazy, and there’s no denying that there’s a huge potential for profit on the iPhone. Even better, the iPhone makes it easy for new companies to break into an industry that’s otherwise choked by the big developers with the large production/marketing budgets and dominance of the retail channels. That makes the iPhone an exciting platform with the potential for real innovation and originality (not unlike the WiiWare titles on the Wii), but it also means a glut of shovelware and “me too” game clones. Seriously, just how much better can your version of Bejeweled really be? Even with this potential, when I’m looking to play a game—and I mean when I’m thinking, “Okay, game time,” not “How can I kill 15 minutes while I’m waiting for my kid to get out of the dentist’s office"—I’m not reaching for my iPhone. Rather, I’m picking up the DS, because that’s where games are designed for gamers, not for cell phone owners. What’s likely to end up happening, then, is that the iPhone will be successful as a gaming platform, but completely independently of devices dedicated specifically to gaming. They have different core audiences, and always will. And although the iPhone could pull some buyers away from the DS and PSP, I anticipate it may actually drive people towards those devices. People may play Bomberman Touch on the iPhone, get a feel for what handheld gaming could be, and graduate to the better gaming experiences offered by Nintendo and Sony. And, if not—if the iPhone and iPod touch are enough to suit your gaming needs—then you weren’t likely to drop $130 to $170 on a gaming system to begin with. So, don’t panic, DS and PSP owners. You’re not likely to see Grand Theft Auto or Castlevania on the iPhone anytime soon. You’re also not likely to see these devices disappear from store shelves...at least not until new models are released. These systems will coexist peacefully with the iPhone/iPod touch, and we’ll all be one big, happy, gaming world. A much less productive world, granted, but a happy one. Full Story » | Written by Kirk Hiner for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

The Game Room goes to Iceland

Peter Cohen went to his second EVE Online fanfest in Reykjavík recently. And he can’t stop talking about the splendors of Iceland.

The buzz at a Wrath of the Lich King launch party

Equipped with a detached air of superiority and the bitterness that can only come with covering Mac gaming, Chris Holt entered the fray at a GameStop party to celebrate the release of the new World of Warcraft expansion pack, The Wrath of the Lich King.

EVE Online coming to retail stores in March

EVE Online, which has been available through online distribution only since late 2003, will soon be available at retail stores thanks to a distribution deal with Atari.