Amazon PCDD - Important Update New Community Manager Incoming!

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Hey CAGS,

I’ve got some news I’m both excited and sad to share with you at the same time. I’ll be leaving the Digital Video Games team in Mid-March to join the marketing team for Amazon.com’s Loyalty and Rewards program, Amazon Coins. My boss and I have talked extensively about how to maintain and continue our presence here and across the other communities we’ve created in the past couple of years. To that end I’d like to introduce you to Josh, who take over monitoring, updating, and responding to this thread. Josh will be ramping up over the next couple of weeks, he  will be posting shortly to introduce himself.

Now that the “what’s going on” part of the message is out of the way I want to tell you all how much I love CAG and the posters here. This was the first community I joined when I started this job (anyone still remember that first thread?) and all of you have had a huge hand in shaping how we think about and execute Community Development and Management here at Amazon, which has in turn shaped my career these last two and a half years.

I started to write out a section calling out the regular posters and realized the list would be both overly long and incomplete at the same time. Instead I’d like to thank you all again, you all have my deep and sincere gratitude. I’ll still be around and my gaming accounts aren’t going anywhere so feel free to hit me up anytime you want to chat. I’ll probably still hang out in the thread too :).

Thanks again everyone, let me or Josh know if you have any questions!

The Indie Store has launched!
Amazon.com is launching a storefront dedicated to supporting and promoting PC/Mac/Web-based Indie Games. Our Digital Video Games team is a small group of passionate gamers and we’re all really excited to help Indie developers reach more customers quickly by providing a quick and simple process for bringing their games to market. Additionally we’ll be supporting the Indie Store with a ton of promotions, both at and after launch. Many of these promotions are designed to give the developer the opportunity to maximize their revenue. For example, Amazon is forfeiting all royalties from bundle sales and passing them along directly to the developer, we’ve also created an “Indie Spotlight” program to help customers learn more about the games and developers they love. We view the Indie developers as some of the most creative in the industry and we want to help them continue to create new and innovative experience for customers.

Why we are doing this:

  • Allow customers to discover an entirely new category of games on Amazon.com
  • Help developers reach new customers quickly. Our onboarding process is straightforward and we want to sell every Indie game available
  • We want to leverage our strengths to support and help the developers who are driving forward innovation and creativity in the games industry
General Information

Hi CAGs,
I'll be posting deals we're running on Digital Games (PC/Mac, Free to Play, Sony/Microsoft Points/Subs).

I'm also here to answer questions you might have, get you closer to the developers by hosting Q&As, setting up podcasts, live streaming gameplay etc. If I don't respond to a question you have in thread please send me a PM. These ping my email address and make it more likely that I will see your question and respond more quickly.

Cheers,
Tony


FYI. EA Games sold by Amazon will not activate on Steam.
F.A.Q.S.:

1. Does the game I'm buying from Amazon Activate on Steam/Origin/Uplay? What DRM does the game use?

There are two places to identify DRM on a digital video game detail page:

At the top of the page, below the title:

16hm7a8.png


In the "Product Description" section:

r06ykl.jpg


2. Note on Electronic Arts Games - For the most part, EA games sold on Amazon do not activate on Steam. Most activate on Origin.

3. Note on DRM with limited activations:

Our Policy



4. Sometimes I'll do giveaways.

5. I work with developers and publishers to get fun (or at least what I think is fun) content to share with you all. Here are some examples:

a. Check out the Pax Gameplay videos here: Xcom: Enemy Unknown I played Xcom with Jake, the Creative Director for the game, a few months before the game came out Also, on this page, check out the Q&A, also a community driven event.

b. Check out the interview on this page: Borderlands 2 we did this interview at E3 with Randy Pitchford this year.

c. We've partnered with the ++GoodGames Podcast to feature many of the games we carry. They talk to the developers about the game development process, how the games are conceptualized and managed, all kinds of fun stuff. I'm working on putting together full link list and will update when I have it.

What else do we sell?

Xbox Live Points and Subscriptions:

1600 Microsoft Live Points
4000 Microsoft Live Points
12 Month XBOX Live Subscription
3 Month XBOX Live Subscription]
12 Month + 1 XBOX Live Subscription

PSN+ Subscriptions and PSN Points:

$20 PSN Points
$50 PSN Points
12 Month PSN+ Subscription
3 Month PSN+ Subscription

We also have a Free-2-Play store supported by our GameConnect technology. Gameconnect allows you to link your Amazon.com account with free-2-play and MMO accounts so that you can buy things like in game currency, premium game time/subscriptions, in game items, etc. on Amazon.com using your Amazon.com payment options and have this content delivered directly into your game.

5. Price Matching notes: Generally we do not match international retailers (GMG, Gamersgate, etc) or physical retailers (Best Buy, Newegg.com, etc.)
To check out the Free-2-Play games we offer you can visit our storefront here: Free-2-Play Store

 
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Drabelincoln said:
FWIW I had no issues with my STEAM copy of Far Cry 3 with the deluxe addition content. No silly download from uplay then download from another place, then wait for a lunar eclipse just for extra animal skins.

Thank you STEAM for allowing me to play Far Cry 3 with no issues what so ever.
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Well, for now...

Just wait until the day both Valve and UbiSoft shut-down - especially if their respective DRM never gets removed/patched-out.

 
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MysterD said:
Well, for now...

Just wait until the day both Valve and UbiSoft shut-down - especially if their respective DRM never gets removed/patched-out.
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I'm sure some other portal will be re-releasing it then in 4k resolution 'HD' with some improvements and perhaps adapted for a new OS, and dirt cheap on sale.

DRM-free does not equal future proof, unless you want to stack up legacy devices in a spare room. Personally I don't. I'm sure I'll rebuy my games in a new form again at some point in the future, just like we're doing now by adding them to our digital library.

 
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MysterD said:
Well, for now...

Just wait until the day both Valve and UbiSoft shut-down - especially if their respective DRM never gets removed/patched-out.
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I'll wait...and when that day comes I probably won't care about playing Far Cry 3....and if I do. I'll crack/pirate that shit.

 
Pheace said:
I'm sure some other portal will be re-releasing it then in 4k resolution 'HD' with some improvements and perhaps adapted for a new OS, and dirt cheap on sale.

DRM-free does not equal future proof, unless you want to stack up legacy devices in a spare room. Personally I don't. I'm sure I'll rebuy my games in a new form again at some point in the future, just like we're doing now by adding them to our digital library.
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Point taken - but DRM is often one of many causes on old games not working. Especially DRM that's OS-specific like older disc-based StarForce DRM (was a major problem when Win Vista and OS's based off that launched). Or especially when Tages DRM got pulled from Risen 1 PC (Non-Steam and Steam-versions) b/c new purchasers couldn't activate the game on their servers, which weren't always up and/or working properly.

Often, there's ways to get around getting old-games to run (which has nothing to do w/ DRM) - using Compability Mode (for targeting an older OS a game was built on) and disabling Aero crap often works to get more modern games on Win 7 [see Sacred series, for starters]. And for even older games - there's DOSBox and other VM programs like it, if need be.

 
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Alright, since no one responded in topic about it. I am gonna just deduce that Max Payne 1 is still broken. If your deaf its 100% playable, but i would look for a transcript of the dialogue to make sense of the story.

 
Call of Duty Ghosts is garbage for Xbox One, and that is coming from someone who buys every yearly Call of Duty game.

I don't play online multiplayer but me and my friends almost always find something to hook us for months...zombies, special ops, multiplayer with bots, etc but I've never EVER felt so underwhelmed by a Call of Duty game.
 
It will work if you go now. At least with the M & L 3dsxl the $40 GC promo isn't showing up automatically so they give you a $40 GC on a separate transaction leaving a clean, no promo receipt for price adjustment next week to Target which will net you a $50 GC.
 
FWIW I had no issues with my STEAM copy of Far Cry 3 with the deluxe addition content. No silly download from uplay then download from another place, then wait for a lunar eclipse just for extra animal skins.

Thank you STEAM for allowing me to play Far Cry 3 with no issues what so ever.


Same experience with me. Sometimes you have to enter the codes you got from steam into the in-game code redemption to get bonus shit with ubisoft but that's not a big deal. I never had to download content independent of the game.
 
UcanSUKtheFAC said:
Any poopy diapers need to be changed here?
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I'll send you a PM w/my address. I got sick of walking my dog, so hers needs to be changed.

Also, I got sick of walking to the bathroom. Pretty soon mine will need to be changed, as well.

BTW: I'm lazy so I never cook. ALL I eat is pizza, and I'm borderline lactose intolerant, so this shit (literally) gets pretty sloppy.

Please come over soon, I don't like sitting in my own filth.

 
I'll send you a PM w/my address. I got sick of walking my dog, so hers needs to be changed.

Also, I got sick of walking to the bathroom. Pretty soon mine will need to be changed, as well.
BTW: I'm lazy so I never cook. ALL I eat is pizza, and I'm borderline lactose intolerant, so this shit (literally) gets pretty sloppy.

Please come over soon, I don't like sitting in my own filth.


Appetite -100xp
 
Drabelincoln said:
FWIW I had no issues with my STEAM copy of Far Cry 3 with the deluxe addition content. No silly download from uplay then download from another place, then wait for a lunar eclipse just for extra animal skins.

Thank you STEAM for allowing me to play Far Cry 3 with no issues what so ever.
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But that's exactly the point. You *are* downloading it from another place. In this case: Steam.

Downloading it from UPlay is exactly the wrong thing to do*. Instead you download the game from your third party: amazon, steam - whoever.

*if you want the soundtrack. The in game content just works.

 
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MysterD said:
Well, for now...
Just wait until the day both Valve and UbiSoft shut-down - especially if their respective DRM never gets removed/patched-out.
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As I've mentioned once or twice before... if steam servers get shut down, I do not fear since steam drm is easily patched according to some underground Russian steam community.

MysterD said:
Often, there's ways to get around getting old-games to run (which has nothing to do w/ DRM) - using Compability Mode (for targeting an older OS a game was built on) and disabling Aero crap often works to get more modern games on Win 7 [see Sacred series, for starters]. And for even older games - there's DOSBox and other VM programs like it, if need be.
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You're forgetting about the more annoying forms of DRM, [customspoiler="decoder wheels"]
wheel-mi2-resized.jpg
[/customspoiler], look up the 7th word on the 5th line of the 3rd paragraph of page 72 of the manual, or even the DRM of Infocom feelies.

I remember patching a few branch-if-equal to branch-always (or no-op) in my legit copy of Dune 2 on my laptop so I wouldn't have to carry around the manual.
 
asheskitty said:
As I've mentioned once or twice before... if steam servers get shut down, I do not fear since steam drm is easily patched according to some underground Russian steam community.

You're forgetting about the more annoying forms of DRM, [customspoiler="decoder wheels"]
wheel-mi2-resized.jpg
[/customspoiler], look up the 7th word on the 5th line of the 3rd paragraph of page 72 of the manual, or even the DRM of Infocom feelies.

I remember patching a few branch-if-equal to branch-always (or no-op) in my legit copy of Dune 2 on my laptop so I wouldn't have to carry around the manual.
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I began onto my journey of PC gaming bliss in 1995 - I wasn't around PC gaming yet when the decoder wheels, feelies and other obscure real-world "pure" adventure-gaming game-protection/DRM-puzzles existed. ;)

 
MysterD said:
I began onto my journey of PC gaming bliss in 1995 - I wasn't around PC gaming yet when the decoder wheels, feelies and other obscure real-world "pure" adventure-gaming game-protection/DRM-puzzles existed. ;)
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Too bad you weren't around before DRM, you woulda loved it.

 
MysterD said:
I began onto my journey of PC gaming bliss in 1995 - I wasn't around PC gaming yet when the decoder wheels, feelies and other obscure real-world "pure" adventure-gaming game-protection/DRM-puzzles existed. ;)
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Aww you missed the days of having to realign your (floppy) disk drive head because widely-used deliberate-bad-sectors DRM would eventually throw your read heads out of alignment. (Or you drilled out screwdriver ports in the top of your Apple DIsk ][ drives/left the case off to fiddle with the head alignment in real-time to make the software *see* the bad sector it wanted to see.)

 
Sinclair ZX Spectrum 48K - loading games from cassette tapes. I could go on and on but I don't want to sound like my grandfather...

 
hmm i cant remebeer much of much pc gaming in 90s yo too much stress lloss memory i remeber my first few games that i  like were rct backyard football then more backyard football and baseball and then rct2 good timees that remind me maybe time to go old school hehe 

 
tebowdragon15 said:
hmm i cant remebeer much of much pc gaming in 90s yo too much stress lloss memory i remeber my first few games that i like were rct backyard football then more backyard football and baseball and then rct2 good timees that remind me maybe time to go old school hehe
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I was given an old Commodore 64 not too long before I got my first actual Windows PC (Win 95; Intel 133 Mhz; etc). I really didn't do much serious stuff w/ the C64 - but it was still cool to try to get my nerd on a little bit before Windows lured me in.

 
indef said:
$(KGrHqFHJEgFGpP4!2McBRtj7vos2w~~60_35.JPG


My first video game. Load times were atrocious.
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haha, we had that one too, only it said Maxwell or TDK on the face of it. Back when it didnt matter how crappy, boring, repetitive a game was because if you spent an hour loading it up, you damn well played it!

 
SOLGarion said:
It will work if you go now. At least with the M & L 3dsxl the $40 GC promo isn't showing up automatically so they give you a $40 GC on a separate transaction leaving a clean, no promo receipt for price adjustment next week to Target which will net you a $50 GC.
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The ad doesnt show the M&L bundle l, only the black model. Knowing my local WM, they will probably deny me the PM saying that they are different things and therefore cannot price adjust.
 
travathian said:
haha, we had that one too, only it said Maxwell or TDK on the face of it. Back when it didnt matter how crappy, boring, repetitive a game was because if you spent an hour loading it up, you damn well played it!
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That is our generation's "I had to walk up hill in the snow both ways."

Seriously though, Tunnels of Doom was freaking awesome. Always have a warm spot for dungeon crawlers ever since. Think i'll go reinstall Grimrock. Thanks, Nostalgia!

 
Neuro5i5 said:
Too bad you weren't around before DRM, you woulda loved it.
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Are you forgetting old-style DRM? I still have one of those Forgotten Realms D&D packs that come with the decoder wheel that makes you look up a code for validation every time you want to play. And I remember some games that would tell you "Open the manual up and enter the fifth word from the seventh sentence of the third paragraph." Looking back those were pretty funny, but if you lost your materials you were completely screwed.

 
Thermopyle said:
Are you forgetting old-style DRM? I still have one of those Forgotten Realms D&D packs that come with the decoder wheel that makes you look up a code for validation every time you want to play. And I remember some games that would tell you "Open the manual up and enter the fifth word from the seventh sentence of the third paragraph." Looking back those were pretty funny, but if you lost your materials you were completely screwed.
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I remember this. The original prince of persia had it, after a level there were a bunch of potions in a room with letters over them and it would say "drink the potion with the 4th letter of the 2 paragraph on page 21" or whatever, and I was playing it before I could read when I was like four or five. I ended up just replaying the first level like 8 times before I finally guessed the right place to go for the second level. Then my mom helped haha. People complain about DRM now but shit like that is pretty ridiculous. Can you imagine the uproar if you were playing Mass Effect and when you went to leave the Citadel it was like "Okay, type in the fourth letter in the 8th word blah blah blah?"

 
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Thermopyle said:
Are you forgetting old-style DRM? I still have one of those Forgotten Realms D&D packs that come with the decoder wheel that makes you look up a code for validation every time you want to play. And I remember some games that would tell you "Open the manual up and enter the fifth word from the seventh sentence of the third paragraph." Looking back those were pretty funny, but if you lost your materials you were completely screwed.
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Not only that but you needed the manual the entire time you were playing since the game would continually say "Read Journal Entry 41" which would be your lead on where to go next.

 
pasports31 said:
I remember this. The original prince of persia had it, after a level there were a bunch of potions in a room with letters over them and it would say "drink the potion with the 4th letter of the 2 paragraph on page 21"
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=D I'd forgotten about that one. While many of the manual-based DRM were obtuse (e.g. Dune 2's being questions of technical specs of military vehicles -- not relevant to gameplay), Civilization's manual based DRM was about the tech trees, so any experienced Civ player could easily pass it without needing the manual on hand.

 
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Whats funny is I remember piracy being rampant around offices. Every so often my dad would come home with a new copy of a game, along with a photocopy of the manual :)

 
dfg said:
Called it "copy-protection" back in them thar days.
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Gotta put it in terms that they'll understand. :p Using modern terminology is important when writing for general audience.

I'll never forget my 7th grade Warner's Grammar Book, "When it's wet out you must remember to wear your rubbers." :rofl:

ezelkow1 said:
Whats funny is I remember piracy being rampant around offices. Every so often my dad would come home with a new copy of a game, along with a photocopy of the manual :)
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That's just because he kept the original printed manual safe at work, in case you lost the copy. ;)

 
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asheskitty said:
Aww you missed the days of having to realign your (floppy) disk drive head because widely-used deliberate-bad-sectors DRM would eventually throw your read heads out of alignment. (Or you drilled out screwdriver ports in the top of your Apple DIsk ][ drives/left the case off to fiddle with the head alignment in real-time to make the software *see* the bad sector it wanted to see.)
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This is about the only time consoles had a leg up on PC's. When the cartridge didn't work for the NES, you just pulled it out and blew into it and popped it back in and it worked. Funny thing is, there was never any dust in either the console or cartridge. Maybe it just wanted some attention.

 
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walkonshadows said:
This is about the only time consoles had a leg up on PC's. When the cartridge didn't work for the NES, you just pulled it out and blew into it and popped it back in and it worked. Funny thing is, there was never any dust in either the console or cartridge. :whistle2:o Maybe it just wanted some attention.
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Yeah, the issue was actually either oxidation of the connectors or the connectors spreading over time. Blowing in either the cart or the NES tended to make the connections deteriorate faster. It was kind of a mass moment (a long moment) of stupidity that everybody started doing that with the console. :)

 
SOLGarion said:
It will work if you go now. At least with the M & L 3dsxl the $40 GC promo isn't showing up automatically so they give you a $40 GC on a separate transaction leaving a clean, no promo receipt for price adjustment next week to Target which will net you a $50 GC.
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^ This is what happened to me. The $40 gift card promo wasn't showing up in their system so I just ended up paying the $200 for the M & L 3dsxl, and then they gave me a $40 gift card on a different transaction. Afterwards, I was able to go to the Customer Service counter to price match to the Bestbuy Ad for $179.99, and was refunded $20. I actually asked them if I would be able to price match again if the Target $149.99 3DS XL deal is also for the M&L LE edition, and they said that there's no reason I wouldn't be able to do that. I'm really hoping the Target ad is also for the M&L bundle because that would mean: $200 initial cost - $40 walmart giftcard - $20 Bestbuy price match - $30 target price match = $110 net cost (without taxes). Now that is pretty sweet.

On another note: The people at walmart were having trouble with $40 giftcard promo with my M&L 3DS XL this morning and so they printed out a complete promo sheet that listed everything in the store that qualifies for the $40 giftcard promo. On that list, it stated that the Zelda Bundle and Animal Crossing Bundle also qualify for the $40 giftcard promo. I could be wrong, but that is what I saw listed on the promo sheet they printed out. They even pointed it out to me. However, it could be like the M&L edition and the $40 giftcard won't show up in the system. In that case, you'll have to find a way to prove it.

 
walkonshadows said:
This is about the only time consoles had a leg up on PC's. When the cartridge didn't work for the NES, you just pulled it out and blew into it and popped it back in and it worked. Funny thing is, there was never any dust in either the console or cartridge. Maybe it just wanted some attention.
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Well, not exactly... those NES cartridge issues were a result the re-designed connector/VCR/toaster design of the American NES as well as the addition of the 10NES lockout chip. My FamiCom didn't suffer from the cartridge issues my NES did. There was a SNES-era redesign of the NES that that removed the 10NES and returned to the top-loader design (and added SNES-like controllers, no crappy pointed NES controller corners -- Famicom controllers had nice rounded corners.) which reportedly increased reliability (though I never owned that version, so I can't speak from experience). More info here.

Thermopyle said:
Yeah, the issue was actually either oxidation of the connectors or the connectors spreading over time. Blowing in either the cart or the NES tended to make the connections deteriorate faster. It was kind of a mass moment (a long moment) of stupidity that everybody started doing that with the console. :)
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Oxidation+ZIF* connector. Alchohol+q-tip is usually sufficient. I've never any actual damage from blowing.

*Zero Insertion Force connector... generally okay for well designed things that don't have to connect/reconnect too often... your CPU uses a ZIF socket. Normal connectors & switches are *designed* to scrape against each other in order to scrape through oxidation.

 
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Thanks for putting Max Payne and Borderlands on sale for once! It's never on sale! Thanks so much for making an effort to push new games!
 
dfg said:
GTA4 has achievements on GFWL, right? So is my logic faulty in thinking that once that shuts down next year, they might implement them on Steam, a la Bioshock 2? It would piss me off to do something like collectible-collecting on GFWL and then feel compelled to redo it on Steam.
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Depends, some games unlock steam achieves from your save file, others have to be unlocked by playing the game in steam.

Neuro5i5 said:
[Click on username->Ignore Settings->Add a new user to my list.]
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ftfy ^_~

UcanSUKtheFAC said:
Thanks for putting Max Payne and Borderlands on sale for once! It's never on sale! Thanks so much for making an effort to push new games!
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They Bleed Pixels - $10 $2.50 I recommend it.

 
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