Well, once again there isn't much to write about. The past several weeks have been really busy between work, family visiting and the holidays. As a result, I haven't really been looking around for games as much. I have still been looking to see what stores have to offer, but just haven't found anything that catches my interest. Worse than that, I have not played any games for several weeks now. Not only do I really want to play some games, but I really need to make some progress in my backlog. I'm hoping to find some time in the next several weeks since I have most of my shopping done, but who knows.

While I haven't been shopping as much for games, I did manage to pick one game up. This is yet another game that I have been looking forward to since E3 and that was:

Donkey Kong Country Returns $49.99


After Amazon sent my $20 credit for Super...

Pickups


Kirby's Epic Yarn $49.99 - 15% Promo Code $42.49 with Free Shipping

Finally, a pickup!!!! As you may have read in my previous blogs, I have been on the fence with this game. I knew I wanted it, but just wasn't sure when to actually buy it. I thought about it too long and missed Kmarts $20 giftcard offer because I was trying to decide if I should just get it from Gamestop with a giftcard I won. So, when I saw this deal posted the other night I decided I should go ahead and purchase Kirby. I have had the giftcard for a while, couldn't decide what to get with it and so far only bought one game. So, with this promo I was able to use up the giftcard and didn't owe anything (in store it would have been $7 or so that I still owed) Since I was able to use up the giftcard and didn't ...

Pickups


No pickups again this week. I'm still contemplating if I want to get Kirby's Epic Yarn from Gamestop. I have my giftcard, but I'm just thinking I should try to find several inexpensive games to make it go a little further. But then I know I'm more likely to get several games I don't like as well. Kirby is a game I was thinking of putting on my Christmas list, but since I already have plenty of things on there, I think I may just pick it up and make some room for other goodies I really wish I could just go back to my pre-backlog conquering days when I just bought games and didn't think about it so much, everything was so much easier

Game Progress


Drill Dozer

I have a feeling this game will end up being my Henry Hatsworth for the GBA. The very first level, I really enjoyed. It wasn't anything spectacular ...

Pickups


Nothing! The release of Kirby's Epic Yarn had me tempted to run out and buy it, but I resisted. I still think I may end up getting it in the coming weeks. I have a giftcard for Gamestop anyway and I have tried for a few months to find something to buy with it, but nothing has me that interested. I know I want to get Kirby anyway, so I figure I may just use the giftcard for it.

Game Progress


Wow, this was quite a week for game progress for me. This was by far the most games I have ever finished in one week and definitely helps my backlog. I was not only able to meet my goal for this week, but I was able to beat it as well. It was definitely a long week of games, in fact, I didn't even remember what I played at the beginning of the week So, this week I worked on:

Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy

...

Pickups

I keep thinking I picked something up last week and I'm forgetting about it, but I don't think I ended up buying anything. I almost bought a PC game from Target for $2.50, but since my laptop broke I just decided to leave it. I haven't played any PC games since it broke and probably won't until I get another laptop I plan to use for gaming, so until then the only point of having it would be to put it on the shelf So another week with no pickups!

Game Progress


Excitebots Trick Racing

On Monday I decided to pop the game back in and try to get past the two races I was stuck on. Surprisingly, it went a lot quicker than I thought it would (I decided to just keep playing until I got past them... I had already tried several times to do this to win the races, but had not been able to do it) I spent around 40 minutes with ...

Pickups



Finally, a pickup I thought I was going to go crazy if I didn't buy another game soon. So, I decided to set out Friday to find something. I decided to pick up:

DJ Hero $19.99 - $15.00 Reward Zone Certificate

I had received the e-mail Thursday night that Toy's R Us was going to have DJ Hero for $20. It was on Wii, which may be bad to some, but for me it works well because I have all my music games on the Wii. Anyway, I pretty much knew I wouldn't be able to get to Toy's R Us (since they moved) during the time frame the sale was going for. So, I decided to see if Best Buy would price match it. I was going to be in the area of one anyway, plus I had my $15 reward certificate from buying the iPad (just another good thing from the iPad )

So, I went to Best Buy (armed with some tips from some great CAGs on how to ...

Pickups



Another week without any pickups Went back to the area that used to be my favorite for finding good deals but has recently been really slow. I wanted to double check if Gamestop was still gone, if they had moved, etc. and they haven't opened any stores, so it doesn't look like they are coming back. FYE still has the same sale and the games that are left are either no good or overpriced. Sears really doesn't have any good deals anymore. After checking these stores I headed to go to Best Buy and Toy's R Us. I still have my $15 reward zone credit for Best Buy, but wasn't able to find anything worthwhile there. Finally, I decided to check Toy's R Us because I hadn't been for a little while. Pulled up to the store and they had signs everywhere that they had moved They moved out to another mall, which really doesn't make any sense to me why they closed this store. They were always pretty busy and the other mall is a good half hour away, if not ...

Pickups

Another week with nothing I still have nearly $50 credit to spend at Gamestop, $15 for Best Buy and almost $30 for Buy.com but I just haven't bought anything with it. I keep thinking I should save it for something I know I'm going to want, i.e Gamestop for Kirby's Epic Yarn and I may use the $30 towards an iPad case. I looked at Best Buy over the weekend to see if there was anything I wanted and the only thing I was somewhat interested in was Wireway. I'm not too interested in the game, so I just decided to hang on to that as well. As for clearance games, I really didn't find much of anything either. So, overall nothing exciting when it came to looking for games last week.

While I was at Best Buy trying not to buy anything big... now I not only want the DSi XL but the more I'm learning about Move the more I want it as well, with the $25 giftcards and stuff being offered I feel like it may be a good time to get it but haven't made my mind up ...

Pickups

~Nada~

Despite my original goal for this year of not buying games, whenever I go a week and don't buy games, I get a little depressed now. It's not like I need them or anything and I should be happy that I'm actually sticking to my goal... somewhat, but I always hate to see it when I end up not getting anything by the end of the week. But, on the bright side, I haven't beaten any games in the past few weeks, so this is really a good thing.

I almost had a few pickups this week, but in the end, was able to resist everything. I went to Target and they still have the same games that are either too high or not of interest. A lady that was in front of my got a DS game for $5, I couldn't find any others and she kept it, so I was a little upset I missed out on that. I did find Fairytale Fights for $5, but I don't think that is anything I would be interested in. I was excited when I was walking around because three employees came out of the back...

Here we are again with another weekly review blog. Nothing too exciting this week, but overall a pretty good week

Pickups$

I decided to stop by the mall and while I was there I decided to stop in FYE to see if they had any good deals. They didn't have anything I was too interested in but I did pick up (note, no pictures this week, I'm using my iPad and just decided to make it easier and leave the pictures out... Since it isn't anything exciting, I don't think they will be missed!)

Red Card 2003 $1.00
NHL 2004 $1.00
Madden 2005 $1.00

To be honest, I'm not really sure why I picked these up. I don't believe I have ever played a hockey, football or soccer video game and I really don't have any interest now. But, for a dollar, I had a hard time passing them up, so I grabbed them. If anything, I can give the games away and keep the cases, because that was what I really wanted anyway.

It...

Last week actually ended up better than I expected. I was thinking it would be a boring week all around, but I was surprised it actually turned out to be pretty good. So, let's get started.

Week In Review


I was starting to write this blog and realized something that I hadn't thought about until I started to type... I actually didn't have any pickups last week. I was definitely looking to find some games, but in the end didn't make any purchases.

One thing I did want to pick up this week that I didn't was the DJ Hero bundle from Toy's R Us for $20. I wasn't able to get there during the two day sale (plus I figured if I did go they wouldn't have it) and I was going to try and pricematch and Best Buy, but didn't make it there either. I really want to get DJ Hero and $20 would be a very nice price, so hopefully with the release of DJ Hero 2 prices will start to drop some.

My brother and I did do several things again this ...

The week ended up being pretty good, overall. My brother came to visit, I knew he was coming sometime soon, just didn't know when he would make it. So, I was able to get a little extra shopping in So let's get on with the pickups:

Pickups -

Toy Story Color LED Game - $7.98

I picked this up at Target on clearance. They dropped the price and had quite a few left, but I decided to grab one, but hoping it would drop a little lower. I went back a few days later and they were already gone, I'm pretty surprised how quick they disappeared. As with the other games like this, they aren't the best, but it is still fun to play once and a while. It does put up a little bit of a challenge, but once you get used to it is pretty easy to complete the game... Maybe I should count this toward my backlog and consider it as another game ...

Another week, another pickup/week in review blog... so, let's get started:

Pickup -


Only one pickup for the week, but one I'm very happy to add to my collection and that was:

A Boy and His Blob $15.00

I had been reading on the site that a lot of people were finding A Boy and his Blob marked down to $15 at Walmart. I hadn't been to Walmart in a while and I wanted to go to see if they happened to have it, but the Walmarts around here usually don't have the same deals as others are finding, so I wasn't in a real hurry. But, on Saturday I didn't have much to do and decided I could use some food anyway. So, I headed out there and, as usual, went to the electronics first. I walked by the Wii games and they happened to have one copy left in the case, which was not marked as clearance or anything. I didn't even think ...

It seems I've been a little behind in my blogs again lately. I still need to post my favorite pickup from July as well as some more question blogs, so I'm going to try and get those posted this week. As for today's pickup/week in review blog, things are going to be a little different. Last week my laptop kind of crashed on me, contacted the repair person I have my warranty with and they believe that the LCD went out on it. So, I have to send that in and hopefully it will be repaired pretty quickly so my blogs can get back to normal. Until then, I'm going to be using my other, non-preferred, computers. Until I have my computer back, I'm just going to be using regular pictures of the products I purchase, instead of actual pictures I took.

So, let's get on with the pickups:


DS Game Card Case Club Nintendo Super Mario Bros. Theme...

Only one pickup this week! There probably would have been a lot more but thanks to the iPad I haven't been look for as many deals. What I did pickup was:



The Hardy Boys The Perfect Crime $4.98

I was walking around in Target and checking to see what clearance games they had. Really not much of anything yet, except for a few that are still too high. I've been watching this game and since it finally dropped to $5 I decided to pick it up. I was walking around to see if they had any clearance games still in the case (my store has been marking down a bunch of games and leaving them locked up... Now, I can see when I miss out on games because it takes them a while to take the tags down, so I know I missed out on several racing games for 360 for $5) Anyway, while I was walking around someone came up asked me if I would be willing to take a survey, I wasn't going to until he mentioned I would get a $10 giftcard for doing it It was pretty lengthy,...

Well, I managed to make it through a week without buying a game there were some pretty good deals in the ads this week, but nothing that tempted me as much as last week. I didn't make it to many stores, but the ones I did go didn't have any good clearance that was of interest.

Although it didn't buy any games I did buy something I have wanted to buy for a little while and had been trying to find for several weeks and that was:



IPad 32gb 3G

I was only planning to get the 16gb since I don't really need the extra space, but no stores in my area have had any since it was first launched. I happened to check Best Buy's website Friday and noticed they had it In stock at one of the stores, so I hurried out and was able to pick one up. It turned out the one I bought had several dead pixels, so I went back on Sunday to return it. Most of them were hardly visible but the one was very noticeable and in the middle of the screen (...

Wow, talk about some amazing deals this weekend. I basically avoided Toy's R Us to avoid making a ton of purchases and was very cautious in Target and Best Buy to not buy everything I wanted. I could have bought a lot more over the weekend, but all I managed to buy was:



Legend of Zelda Spirit Tracks $14.99 - $10 Reward Zone Certificate

When I saw the $20 coupon pop up for Spirit Tracks, I knew that was going to be too hard to pass up. Since I had a $10 reward certificate, and the game I originally planned to buy was no longer there, I thought this would be the perfect chance to pick up the game. Despite it not getting the best reviews and me not knowing if I will really like it, at $5 I couldn't pass it up. At the very least, I can trade it in and get my money back. I haven't opened the game yet, but I did try it at Best Buy a little while back. All I got to do was drive the train, but it was pretty fun.

From Best Buy...

Hello everyone,

I realized a few days ago that I have not posted my regular blogs for a little while. I've been really busy and I've completely forgot to do them. So, I apologize to those of you that enjoy reading my blogs (if there is anyone ) and I'm going to post some updates today. I'm pretty much going to put everything into one blog, except for my usual question and answer style blog, which I will post in another blog, sometime this week. As I was doing, I will post a headline for what the blog is and the actual blog in a spoiler so you can read what, if anything, interests you.


Pickups


One of the reasons I haven't been posting any blogs lately is because I didn't have any pickups since mid-June or so. I normally remember to post my blogs when I have pickups to post, since I didn't have any, I kept forgetting. I had been doing okay with not buying any games, since I found Bioshock a few weeks ago, but that all changed ...

Okay, I'm going to try and keep this short and swee today Nothing too exciting, but I did have a pickup this week and finished one game. So let's get started:

Pickup:

Bioshock $4.98

Purchased from Target. I really liked the demo of the game when I got my PS3 and I've always wanted to get the game, but not knowing if I would really like it, I don't really want to spend that much on it. I figured, for $5, it would be crazy to pass up.



Game Progress

I was able to finish de Blob on Saturday. It was a great little game and I'm working on my review for it, now. You should expect to see it later this week!


So, that is it for this week. Nothing too exciting, but it wasn't a bad week either, I'm pleased overall!

Thanks for reading

Looking back at the games I purchased in May 2010, the winner for my favorite pickup was quite obvious. I knew what it would be right away and I'm sure a lot of you have already guessed what it will be as well. So, I've decided to highlight two games that I picked up in May as my recommendations of the month.

Runner-Up May 2010


Game: Picross 3D
Price Paid: $14.99
Purchased: Best Buy

Every once and a while, Nintendo will announce a game that I'm not all that excited about. Picross 3D was one of those games. It looked okay, but I just didn't feel like playing another puzzle game and I ignored it, for a while. As it got a little closer to release, ...