It's kind of frightening knowing how easy it is for one to get scammed online. Sure, you can take safely precautions and whatnot, but when selling on sites like eBay and Amazon it seems to be shockingly easy for a customer to take advantage of the system in order to steal products, switch out products, or damage perfectly good products that you send them and then become forced to refund the item that the customer destroyed.

I recently sold a factory sealed copy of Super Mario All Stars (Wii). It was well packaged in a box with bubble-wrap. Four days after delivery confirmation says that the buyer received the item the buyer contacted me and said that the item was completely damaged.

"hello i received my order however is broken, looks like they drop something heavy on the package and smashed the item inside. please contact to resolve this issue. thnx"
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Damn, who would have thought that there would be so much conflict on this forum over spoiler tags? Gargus was told to keep spoilers on the first photo on his Gamestop Infestation thread (where the picture of roaches inside of a game case is) because a few people found issue with it, but he wasn't going to let that happen. He took off the spoilers four times on his thread while getting silenced and temporarily banned in the process.

Being a badass forum rebel didn't get Gargus very far, and soon ChuPlayer's infamous doll pictures were then brought up in the very same thread. For some reason people on here that have issues with Chuplayer playing with plastic dolls keep visiting his blog posts anyway and constantly badger him about his unorthodox hobby. A very vocal few people who have an issue with pictures of Chuplayer's dolls made their voices heard and now he has to put spoiler tags on his blog pictures, too. He wrote a lengthy blog post about how devastated he is over...

I enjoyed the first Lost Planet on the Xbox 360 a few years back in the console's early lifespan so I recently purchased Lost Planet 2. Yeah, yeah, I know it got piss-poor reviews and such, but for $10 at GameFly it seemed like it'd be a fun game for the money.

For a few hours I enjoyed blasting away, despite the abysmal A.I. of your teammates (there were instances where there was a large enemy attacking and one of the A.I. partners would just be blindly staring at a wall. Great play testing, Capcom!)

However, at one point the game gets to an action packed, difficult sequence that involves a train and lots of cheap enemies. After playing through this part numerous times I got to the end boss. I almost destroyed it when I died. And once that happened, I got sent back to the beginning of the ing level! Yep, no reasonable checkpoints - if you get to the end of a long, hard level and die, it's back to the beginning for you. Such horrendous game design.
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The Amazon Marketplace can be a good place to purchase games if you buy from a reliable seller. However, many large sellers (such as NorAm, TheBookGrove, and I'm sure others) are known for their less than ethical business practices. They have been proven to re-seal or sell used games as new many times in the past. However, at least one of the sellers that repackage used goods are being honest about it...

Many of the so-called "new" games being sold by SD Tritons are described as the following:

"Brand New & Factory Re-Sealed"

Wow... And here I thought the purpose of mentioning the "factory" part was due to someone wanting it to be sealed from, you know, the actual original factory the game comes from.

Currently this inane seller is the only one that has a so-called "new" copy of Marvel vs Capcom 2 for the PS2 up for sale. Here is a screen capture of the description:

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Sonic Adventure, originally released for the Dreamcast in the U.S. in 1999 and later ported to the Gamecube in 2003, has finally made its way to the digital market on Xbox Live Arcade (the PSN version will be coming later this month).

Sonic Adventure was originally met with extremely positive reviews. A visually stunning showpiece for the then state of the art Dreamcast hardware, it would go on to sell over two million copies worldwide. Although is was certainly impressive in the graphical department and the action-packed stages were loads of fun at the time, the “adventure” aspects of it and the burdensome overworld prevented it from becoming a lasting classic. However, at the time most people looked past these irritating features and most sources proclaimed it to be excellent (Sonic Adventure on the Dreamcast even garnered an 88% average from GameRankings.)

However,...

Love it or hate it, there always seems to be some sort of reason to step into Gamestop. This time I was looking to purchase a game with some of the credit I've amassed from trade-ins.

As I was waiting at the register (not to poke fun of anyone's weight or anything) this obese guy was holding a game in his hand. As he was holding it he had a Burger King bag in the other. He was munching on fries while holding the game, and then licking his fingers. I took a look at the box of the game he was holding and there was grease and saliva on the box from his hands. Worse thing is that he ended up changing his mind at the end and simply put the box back. I don't want to even know who ends up getting that copy!

So next time you think that getting a display copy at Gamestop isn't that bad, just think of what the hell someone might have been doing with that copy beforehand!

Also, people were wondering about whether Tales of the Abyss was recently reprinted...

I took a trip down to the mall today and while I was there I decided to stop off at Gamestop. I found a decent looking game for the PS2 and bought it. While I was at the counter I asked if it was in good condition, and the employee working there assured me that it was (they checked it) and I purchased it.

Afterwards I went outside of the store to check the disc and I was shocked to see how horrible the condition was. I mean, I would expect an old game to be kind of beat up and all, but the disc had cracks on it and it was scratched to hell (and even had what looked like dried liquid all over the disc). There was no way it could be playable.

So I went back in to return it, and I asked if they had another copy. They did, but that one was also in deplorable condition. Now, I am not over exaggerating here. I expect these used games to be beat up and all, but not to the point where it looks like it was scrapped across the ground.

So they ask me if I want...

Ever since EBGames disappeared after the 2005 merger with gaming giant Gamestop, there hasn't been much in the way of competition in terms of game specialty stores. In many areas of the country it was either Gamestop or nothing. If you were unhappy with Gamestop's prices, trade in values or general business practices then it was too bad - either suck it up and purchase from them or order from one of the many online websites that sell video games. However, Play-N-Trade, a relatively new franchise-based game store, has been opening up retail locations all around the United States over the past two years. Does it topple the 800-pound giant that is Gamestop, or is it akin to the mediocre indie stores you randomly run into from time to time? Well, both stores definitely have their pros and cons, which are addressed below:

Gamestop
+ Great return policy on used merchandise...

I've always found it mind-blowing that gamers would be quick to criticize companies such as EA (who would release gluts of annual games such as Madden and Need for Speed ad naseum) for milking game series for all they're worth yet they'd be the same people first in line to purchase the newest incarnation of the DS from Nintendo or an updated version of a Metal Gear Solid release (such as the Essentials collection or the Substance upgrades) from Konami.

I'd say that the recently released New Play Control series re-confirms that Nintendo rehashes their releases more than any other company. For those who are unfamiliar with the Wii re-releases of Pikmin and Mario Power Tennis, these are the same exact titles that appeared on the Gamecube years ago except with new inferior cover art, higher prices, slightly upgraded visuals for Mario Power Tennis and motion controls. That's it....

It's been nearly a decade since the Pokemon craze was at its peak in the U.S., but despite the cards and endless amount of toys essentially fading out in popularity, the games still continue to sell like hot cakes. And hey, why not? Most of them are quality releases that provide a good amount of entertainment. Game pirates and hackers have noticed this over the years, too, and decided that they wanted a piece of Nintendo's pie. So what do they do? They create (rather shoddy) software of their own and throw in Pikachu and friends or they take forgotten releases of the past and replace the characters with ones from the Pokemon series.

Perhaps the most well-known bootleg is Pokemon: Chaos Black Version, which has been clogging up eBay listings for a couple of years...

Platform: Xbox 360
Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios
Developer: Lionhead Studios
Release: October 2008
Genre: Action RPG

You’ll definitely get your money’s worth out of a rental, but due to the glitchy game play and disappointing story (and climax), Fable II falls short of being a truly outstanding sequel.

Fable on the original Xbox was by far one of the greatest games that Microsoft’s last console had to offer. With this in mind, Fable II became one of my most anticipated sequels of this generation. Although it’s an improvement in many respects, buggy game play and some poor design choices bring the overall experience down.


Once again you begin this title as a young’n, and as the story unfolds in several chapters your character grows older and goes through phases. Throughout Fable II, just as in the original, the choices...

Yesterday Activision-Blizzard announced that Starcraft II will be released in three separate, possibly full priced segments. The last game contained all of the separate story lines in one box, but this time Activision-Blizzard will split them up because they feel that each version is a full game in its own.

Of course, they're just different paths of the same title. This has drove gaming forums across the 'net into a frenzy, with angry gamers claiming that Activision-Blizzard is selling out its loyal fan base and milking the fans for all they're worth.

However, I have to commend Activision-Blizzard for making such a smart business decision. Blizzard obviously knows that the people yelling the loudest will purchase the product anyway - they'll bitch and moan now but will be there on each individual Starcraft II launch to purchase all three separate versions. After all, years ago Xbox 360 gamers whined...

When it comes to game genres, underwater exploration games are near the bottom of the popularity chain… in fact, it wasn’t until Nintendo’s Endless Ocean has the genre had any sort of mainstream appreciation at all. Here’s some history to the obscure genre, and a little bit about the three main games of this type released in the Western market.

Aquanaut's Holiday (PSX)

Chances are, you’ve never heard of this game. Like Tail of the Sun, also published by Sony, this is one of those titles that basically appealed to no one. However, years later it is interesting to look back on Aquanaut’s Holiday just because of how unique it is. Released in 1996 during the original Playstation’s early life, this game starred a marine explorer who explored an underwater...

New Reviews of Old Games


Yeah, I'm almost positive that no one's gonna care one bit about these ancient 360 and Wii launch titles. But, just because I feel like writing about them, here's some mini-reviews of old games that you can buy dirt cheap now.

Kameo Elements of Power (Xbox 360)

As soon as you jump into Kameo you are right in the climax of the title. Unfortunately, it sets you up with a bit of a let down, as the rest of the experience is slower paced and not nearly as interesting as the beginning of the title. Once you get beyond the gorgeous next-gen visual “wow” factor you will discover a title crammed with puzzles a three-year old could solve and some rather laughable character design. Sure, the beautiful environments are a sight to behold and some of the bosses are rather enjoyable to take...

It’s no secret that – despite the overall low quality of many of the shovelware “casual” releases clogging up the Wii’s current library – these games sell well regardless. When half-hearted affairs like Carnival Games and Deca Sports outsell original, critically acclaimed software such as Zack and Wicki and Fire Emblem, you know there’s a problem.

Microsoft, sadly enough, seems to want a bite out of this casual market as well. During the summer they announced that Xbox Live will be given a visual downgrade in order to make it more user friendly. Also, they blatantly ripped off Nintendo’s Mii idea with “Avatars”, which, um, are basically the same as Mii’s (cute little people that you use as your online persona).

Not only that, the big M recently announced that they’re going to be closing up Ensemble Studios after their upcoming RTS, Halo Wars, is released. It’s...

Back in 2002 I rented Contra: Shattered Soldier for the PS2. Besides the swanky new visuals, the game play was a pure blast from the past: an excruciatingly hard difficultly level and nothing but pure action. I never made it through the entire game (I’m not overstating anything when I say it’s difficult).

So I was thrilled when I found a copy of Neo Contra for the PS2 in the bargain bin at a local electronics store. Although I’m aware that they changed the game play up a bit for this version, I was still rather excited to play it.

So I get in the mood to play, set up my Playstation 2, and then proceed to tear the shrink wrap off of the game case.

“Hmm, it feels a little lighter than most cases”, I though to myself.

And then I stare in horror at what I find inside. A bloody tampon!

Oh, wait....

Saints Row 2 and Mercenaries 2 are both slated for release this year, and although they're by two entirely different publishers, the covers do share a rather striking resemblance to each other:



Ok, I'm sure it's more of a coincidence than anything, but it is still rather... intriguing. And how about this one - Breakdown, the Xbox game, and St. Anger, Metallica's worst album?





Breakdown was released at least a year later than St. Anger. That is to say, Namco used some shameful source material (if they were inspired by Metallica's...

Regardless of how dull or worthless the actual product displayed may be, a controversial, eye-catching ad will always win your attention. Many game publishers have used this age-old technique over the years, often for lackluster titles that, without an “edgy” ad with shock-value (often depicting violence and sex), you would have just flipped right past. Here are three ads that you’ll definitely garner more attention to than the typical, generic gaming advertisements commonly found in magazines.
Daikatana (PC, Nintendo 64)




This was a highly over hyped and severely disappointing shooter. Produced by John Romero (lead producer of such legendary first-person shooters like Doom, Wolfenstein 3D, and Quake), Daikatana had a troubled development life and was universally panned by critics.

Fear Effect 2: Retro Helix (PSX)

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We live in an age where anyone - regardless of I.Q. or mental status - can voice their opinion online. This is especially true for online feedback on popular auction sites such as Amazon and eBay, where sometimes you'll run across some rather... shall I say, peculiar feedback from time to time? Here is a compilation of some of the more oddball feedback I've read while spending time on Amazon:



"nasty and dirty the head set is covered in ear wax and dirt and the package even smells like ass."



"I did receive my package prior to 5.28.08. The problem is that never in my life have I seen such a disgusting package in my life. The box looks like it was found in the basement after a flood. I used gloves to open the package because it was just that horrible. The contents...

Time truly does fly when you're having fun. We're already three years into this generation, and many of the big-name franchises from last generation have received updates. How many of these sequels truly lived up to the hype though? I'm going to take a look at the series upgrades that did it right, as well as the ones that did it wrong.

The sequels that got it wrong:

Grand Theft Auto IV (pictured above):

Hands down the most hyped up release of this generation, Grand Theft Auto IV was a disappointment compared to past series iliterations in nearly every aspect. Liberty City was supposed to feel like a living, breathing metropolis this time around - so why are the NPCs still as dumb as bricks? Also, the single player storyline was clichéd and unoriginal - the whole "immigrant comes to America with great expectations but ends up let down"...