Been awhile since anybody has posted. Guess I might as well put something up here. Well, in case you haven’t noticed the holidays are right around the corner. And of course, since it’s that time of year again, that can only mean one thing: Absurdly good deals on the day after Thanksgiving. Now personally, I’m a pretty big Black Friday shopping guy. I tend to get up early, and see what I can get without camping out (I actually had to just recently do that for the Xbox deal I mentioned a few weeks ago…). Generally, I’m able to score a decent amount of cheap games and DVD’s, as well as picking up a few things for friends/ family members for the Christmas season.

So anyway, since I’ve been wasting countless hours scouring the Internet for shabbily taken phone camera pics of Black Friday ads, I figured I’d save you the pain and anguish, and post some of the better deals right on here.

So sit back, relax, and make a note or two of the deals that interest you.

Note: An “*” means this is a hot deal, and will sell out FAST. Also, the more asterisks you see, the hotter the deal is.

Video Game Deals

Dragon Age (Xbox 360/ PS3): 34.99 at Best Buy *

Left for Dead 2 (Xbox360/ PS3): 34.99 at Best Buy *

Brutal Legend (Xbox 360/ PS3): 34.99 at Best Buy

Fifa 10 (360/ PS3): 34.99 at Best Buy

Madden 10 (360/ PS3): 34.99 at Best Buy *

Resident Evil 5 (360/ PS3): 34.99 at Best Buy

NHL 10 (360/ PS3): 34.99 at Best Buy

Batman Arkham Asylum (360/ PS3): 37.00 at Target

Ultimate Alliance 2 (360/ Ps3/ Wii): 37.00 at Target

Wii Sports Resort, comes with 10 dollar gift card (Wii): 49.99 at Target

Modern Warfare 2 (360/ PS3), comes with 10 dollar gift card: 59.99 at Target

NBA 2K10 (360/ Ps3): 24.99 at Walmart *

Grand Theft Auto IV (360/ Ps3?): 10.00 at Walmart *

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 (Wii): 24.99 at Walmart *

Rock Band Special Edition, comes with game, guitar, drums, and mic (360/ Ps3): 49.99 ***

Video Game Console Deals

Slim Playstation 3 with 120 gb Hard drive, with games Infamous, Batman: Arkham Asylum, and The Dark Knight on Blu-Ray: 299.99 at Walmart   **** (Camp out if you even want a chance at getting this)

Xbox 360 Call of Duty Super Elite edition, comes with 50 dollar gift card: 399. at Target ***

DS Lite: 98.00 at Walmart ****

Purchase (Any) Xbox 360 system or bundle, get Grand Theft Auto IV and Halo 3 FREE: at Meijer ***

Nintendo Wii console, with 50 dollar gift card: 199.99 at Meijer ****

Nintendo DSi Mario Bundle (Metallic Blue) w/$20 Gift Card: $169.99 at Best Buy **

Misc. Video Game Deals

Free Lego Rockband with 20 dollar purchase:  at Old Navy **

50% off any game priced 19.99: at Meijer

20 dollar gift card with any DSi system purchase: at Best Buy

Over 50 different games on sale for 7.00: at Walmart *

Over 40 different games on sale for 10.00: at Walmart *

Over 30 different games on sale for 25.00: at Walmart ***

Okay, that’s all for now. In a few days I’ll post more deals on some other stuff. In closing, here’s a quick tip that you should all know:

READ THIS: Wal-Mart, Target, and if I’m not mistaken, Best Buy all price match other ads on Black Friday. So basically, if you don’t feel like camping out for something, there’s a chance you may be able to get the same item for the same price, at a different store. Just be sure you have the actual ad for the item you are wanting to price match. I’m not for sure on this, but a lot of times stores won’t match ads from online, and they NEVER price match Internet prices. So just to be sure, pick up a Sunday paper on the 22nd to be prepared.

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I’ve just been informed from multiple sources that this weekend (starting Saturday), Walmart will be selling an Xbox 360 Arcade edition for the normal price of 200 dollars. However, they will include a 100 dollar gift card along with the purchase. That’s almost like getting a brand new Xbox 360 for a 100 dollars. Now of course, the Arcade edition of the Xbox 360 doesn’t come with a hard drive, but if you really wanted to, you could take that 100 dollar gift card and purchase a 60 gb hard drive for 89.99 plus tax. Or if you wanted to be really thrifty, you could look online for a refurbished hard drive, as those will only run you about 30-50 bucks. Either way you are virtually getting an Xbox 360 Pro for around 150-160 (compared to the normal 300 dollar price tag). This is an awesome deal for Christmas, and if you have been thinking about picking up an Xbox 360, now is definitely the time to do so.
TL;DR (too lazy; didn’t read) version: Walmart is selling an Xbox 360 Arcade for 200 dollars, and will also include a 100 dollar gift card upon purchase starting this Saturday until some time next week.

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”Shoe vs. Bush ” : No one  seems to be better at dodging shoes than George Bush, and no one would make a more unique costume than such as this one. The idea here is pretty simple: Ex President George Bush seems to have the uncanny ability to be able to dodge shoes, and because of this, has gotten millions of views of him exhibiting quick reflexes on the Internets. Say what you want about our Ex prez. In my book, anybody with spider sense can’t be all bad.

How to do it: Get yourself a Bush mask of some sort (they sell these pretty cheap at places), a suit, and then a shoe of some sort. You’re going to want to either glue the shoe on to the mask somehow, or figure out some other way for it to remain on your head. Either way, just try and look confused all the time and you shouldn’t have too much trouble staying in character.

“This costume is a hoax.”: A couple weeks ago, the entire country was mesmerized for an hour or so by a floating, metallic looking balloon that was carrying a six year old boy nearly 5,000 feet above the ground. Sometime later, the balloon touched down, but the boy was not inside. Later that day, it was revealed that the little boy was hiding in a box inside his attic. Turns out there was no balloon boy at all, and the whole thing was just a big hoax.

And now here comes the part that involves the greatest (or fakest rather) costume ever conceived. Based on the sheer hype that this story received, almost everybody will recognize you if you dress up as Balloon Boy.

How to do it: The costume itself is pretty simple. You actually have two choices here. One, would require you to purchase an ungodly amount of aluminum foil, then wrap yourself in it, until it looks like a circle/ balloon. Then you just kind of float/ dance around the Halloween party/ event that you are attending. The second way to do it is even easier. Just find a large box of some sort, and find a make shift way to strap it around your body (try rope, or duct tape). Then when people ask what you are supposed to be (even though they should already know), just reply like so: “Daddy told me to dress like this for our show.” Hopefully they will get it then, and not think that you are some kind of crazed hobo.

“Dead Celebs”: This Halloween year, the streets are sure to be filled with thousands of people dressing up as Michael Jackson, most of them pretending to impersonate him, when the truth is most of these people didn’t even like Michael Jackson before he died. So in order to combat this mainstream wave of costume ideas, why not take a different spin on this design? 2009 has been a terrible year to be a celebrity. Everyone from Michael Jackson, to Farrah Fawcett, to Patrick Swayze have all kicked the bucket this year. So what better way to show your respect for these people than to dress up as them. And better yet, why not add a bit more to this, by going as the “undead” version of said celebs. Who wouldn’t want to see a Zombie Swayze busting a move out on the dance floor?

How to do it: Just Google a picture of your favorite dead celebrity, pick out their wardrobe (it’s pretty easy to find this stuff at Goodwill), and then apply some grayish makeup to make you look 6 feet under. Also consider adding a grayish wig, some blood/ gash marks along the skin, and even a severed limb or two for dramatic effect.

“BILLY MAYS HERE WITH MY ALL NEW AWESOME COSTUME 2000!”: Now I know most of you are thinking this should belong with the dead celebs category, but I think this costume is so special and unique it deserves its own entry. Just a few months ago one of America’s greatest salesmen of all time passed away. I am of course talking about the late Billy Mays. So what better way to honor the great pitch man, than to dress up as him?

How to do it: First, you will need to get yourself a blue buttoned up dress shirt, along with some khaki pants. Then you are going to want to find some kind of fake beard. You can either make one yourself (it shouldn’t be too hard), or you can just buy one from a costume store. Next, you are going to want to buy some of Billy’s products to carry around as props. A container of Oxi Clean, and a spray bottle of KABOOM will work just fine. If you’re really brave, you could always try lugging around an AWESOME AUGER, but I don’t suggest doing this. To play the part of Billy Mays, just simply walk around your party/ event and talk in a really loud/ obnoxious voice. Asking random people if they have ever tried any of your products before could also be a real hoot. Finally (and let me just add this is the most important aspect to pulling off a successful Billy Mays), if anything is spilled, dumped, etc. be sure to instantly begin cleaning up the stain with one of your chosen cleaning products while simultaneously making statements such as, “LOOK AT THE AMAZING CLEANING POWER OF OXI CLEAN. AND JUST LIKE THAT, KAABOOM TAKES THE STAIN RIGHT OUT. KAAAABOOOM!!!” Just remember to be as loud and obnoxious as possible when doing this, and you should be fine.

“This is the best costume of all time. OF ALL TIME.”: It seems as if everyone has something to say about Kanye West’s latest ignoramus stunt, including President Obama. This costume idea is perfect for those who like to crash their friend’s parties, and just kind of show up for stuff. It’s also great if you happen to be one of those people who love to hear themselves talk.

How to do it: First off, you need to figure out a way to paint your face black (if you’re white that is, if you’re already black then just skip this step), either brown face paint (which doesn’t work great, I’ve tried it), or a dark colored mascara should do the trick. After that you are going to want to buy some black sunglasses/ shutter shades (you can buy these cheap online), a black shirt, and light blue jeans. To top it off, you may also want to buy a hand microphone to complete the outfit. Now all you need to do is to walk around the Halloween party/ event that you are attending, and randomly interrupt people who are talking. Example: “I’m real happy for you and your party, and I’mma let you finish havin’ it, but Mike had one of the best Halloween parties of all time! OF ALL TIME!” Eventually after doing this enough, people will really start to get sick of you, and may possibly even yell/ threaten you. At this point you should just shrug your shoulders, thus fully completing the Kanye West costume.

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If anyone reads this, my counterpart Admin1 has alerted me that at Best Buy this Sunday through Halloween there is a freaking buy 2 ($60 or less), get a 3rd game free. Thats right, if anyone reading this has the courage to splunker down $120 (plus tax) they can receive another game of $60 worth for FREE…this seems like a pretty decent deal and one that should come around more often given we’re in a recession and all, though spending this type of dough on games won’t necessarily bring us back, it will save you 60 bucks. Ok, now you know if you didn’t know, logging on to Cynical Critics has some redeeming value after all! If I hear anything else this incredible or something about this changes I will update for sure!

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Hello loyal readers. Boy, have we got a treat for you today. For the first time, both critics are combining forces to bring you both a Review and a Preview in one blog! The sheer awesomeness can hardly be contained in one post. But without any further delay, let’s get on with it. I present before you, a review of Halo 3: ODST, and a preview of Modern Warfare 2. Enjoy!

Halo 3 ODST is a newly released expansion to the Halo series. ODST differs from its predecessors in the sense that players no longer control the Master Chief, but instead takes on the role of an ODST (Orbital Drop Shock Trooper). The game itself, although primarily featured for its single player campaign, also contains an additional multiplayer mode entitled Firefight. And lastly, every copy of ODST comes with an additional disk which includes every Halo 3 multiplayer map ever created. So let’s dig a bit deeper and see how ODST stacks up against its older and bigger brothers.

ODST’s single player campaign is for the most part, a nice gaming experience. The cinematic cut scenes are well thought out, and really aid in stressing the game’s main theme of humanity. The cut scenes themselves are very noir like, and are reminiscent of old detective style movies. In campaign mode players switch between the game’s main protagonist (aptly name The Rookie), and that of The Rookie’s other ODST team members. The game unfolds in a Tarantino like fashion, and uses flashbacks to tell the game’s story. As The Rookie, players will scour the city of New Mombasa in search of your lost squad members. As The Rookie, players are primarily outnumbered, and because of this, the game tries to encourage players to use stealth tactics as opposed to going Rambo. I use the word try very loosely here… but more on that later when I get to gameplay.

Once a player reaches a certain area, the game switches to that of one of the other ODST members, giving valuable back story on that specific character’s events following his or her’s drop. The gameplay generally takes a switch here from stealthy, tactful gameplay, to a more run and gun style of play. Most of the combat takes place with other AI controlled teammates, and the levels for the most part (especially later on in the game), are quite enjoyable. Actually, I think it’s safe to say that the levels when you aren’t playing as The Rookie are some of the best in the game. With that being said, the game does a very nice job switching between the more emotional charged scenes as The Rookie, to more tense and action packed scenes as the other ODST members. As mentioned earlier, the cut scenes really seem to fuel the emotion felt when controlling The Rookie. Although The Rookie never actually speaks, players can still see and experience the despair and hopelessness that the character feels. But he isn’t the only character here worth caring about, the rest of the ODST team are all fairly lively and interesting themselves.

Quite possibly one of the other things that makes ODST’s campaign mode successful is the music score. The Halo series has always been known for its music, but ODST quite possibly takes the cake. The music has been perfectly balanced, thus allowing for a slow boil during tense action scenes, to jazzy interludes that reinforce the noir feeling. The music is without a doubt one of the strongest points of ODST, and without it, I don’t think the campaign would be as strong as it is.

Moving on, I’d like to discuss the gameplay of campaign mode for a bit. In ODST, to reinforce the fact that humans aren’t “immortal” creatures like Master Chief, Bungie has brought back health packs. ODSTs do have a small shield, but once their shield is depleted, they become hurt and players must then find a health pack or face being killed. As far as I am concerned, I am quite pleased that Bungie brought back health packs. It really seems to fit when playing as an ODST. Another addition to gameplay is the inclusion of two new weapons, a silenced SMG, as well as a silenced pistol. Both of these weapons have scopes on them, and both are quite powerful. However, to balance these guns out, Bungie put slight kick back on both guns when you zoom in, which makes them even in terms of usage. I’d love to see these weapons incorporated into Halo 3’s multiplayer, but I doubt that will ever happen.

One serious gripe I had about ODST’s gameplay was the supposed “stealth” element that was put into the game. Honestly, the stealth element is weak at best. Most enemies can still spot you when you are crouched in the dark, and even while hiding behind something. And as far as players supposedly not being able to go Rambo through the game, the truth is quite the opposite. Playing on Heroic mode, I had little trouble in dealing with enemies in the game. Rushing them almost always ended up in me walking away from the fight. That reminds me, another problem I had with ODST’s campaign is the enemies. The Halo universe doesn’t exactly have a wide cast of enemies, and ODST is even worse than previous games. If my memory serves me right, there are really only a total of about 4 or 5 different enemies that get quite boring to fight after about an hour in. Pathetic.

As far as campaign length is concerned, I personally got about 5 ½ – 6 hours of game time playing through on Heroic. Now to some people maybe that’s enough, but to me personally, another hour or two would have been a lot better.

Next I will briefly examine the multiplayer modes. First let me just say that co-op in this game sucks for the most part. It destroys whatever tension or emotion that’s built up by playing through the campaign alone, and on top of that, it really just feels tagged on. Firefight on the other hand, is much more enjoyable. I won’t discuss the mechanics of how Firefight works, but overall the mode has a nice feel to it, and seems to fit fairly well in the Halo universe. I did have some gripes with it however. The first of those gripes being the difficulty curve. The first level is almost absurdly easy, but by time you get to second level (not the second wave mind you) or so, it seems you are fighting with everything you have just to stay alive. I understand that the game has a varying difficulty, and that it can be changed manually, but I just happened to like the way Gears of War 2’s Hoarde mode is set up. Firefight seems almost impossible without a full party, even on normal mode. And the fact that Bungie disabled match making for Firefight may make it very difficult for some to constantly have a full party. On top of that, they also failed to include four player split screen. All in all, Firefight is a cool new addition, I just personally feel it needs some work.

In closing, Halo 3 ODST has a very well done campaign mode that makes for one heck of a gaming experience that almost all gamers should try to not miss out on. However, the short length of the single player campaign, repetitive enemies, the terrible co-op mode, and impaired (albeit decent) Firefight mode make for a game that may not justify the 60 dollar price tag. My suggestion is to wait until it gets a price drop. ‘Till then, ODST is at least worth a rental so one can experience the single player campaign.

7/10

———————————————————————————————————————————————————– 11.10.09, this is the date when the most anticipated game of the year will be released, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. Not only is this game going to be huge, it IS going to break records in terms of overall entertainment sales. GameStop has already speculated that based on the amount of preorders for the game, it “has a chance to be the largest title of all time”. Ok enough of the build up as this is just a preview anyhow, we want to know what’s going to be the difference between Infinity Wards Modern Warfare 2 from its predecessor Modern Warfare. From what has been seen so far the answer seems to be that much hasn’t been changed. The controls and gameplay remain technically the same, and while nothing has been completely overhauled there are still some new aspects that will make the game a little different. Many of the old perks remain but there are new ones, for instance the painkiller perk gives extra health (think super juggernaut) immediately after they respawn from being killed that lasts for 10 seconds. If someone kills you four times in a row, the copycat perk allows you to steal their class, yes steal it. The commando perk allows you to melee further, while the scavenger perk allows you to refill ammo and pick up grenades when crossing over dead bodies. Of course there are more new perks than this but an interesting perk idea is that one can attain pro-perks, which are basically perks with more power (not all perks have this, thankfully). The weapons remain nearly the same with a few new ones but the big difference to be seen is there is now sticky grenades, throwing knives, and homing red shells…ok, I made that one up. Another interesting tidbit which I thought was weird is that one can now apply silencers on their shotguns, just seems a bit odd, kind of like real war eh? Now onto the kill streak system which has been revamped as you now can choose for the most part which kill streaks you want to use, before actual gameplay (barracks) of course. Also, there is a bevy of new kill streaks including the predator missile where you open up a laptop in the game and basically guide a missile onto your target. Another is the AC-130 where you are basically tearing down havoc, machine gun style while looking down on the entire level, if anyone has this on the other team, hide. The campaign looks ridiculous so far (watch the trailer), and the game looks slightly graphically enhanced and if what I’ve seen is right, there is a video displaying the White House, which is being attacked and it looks like it is definitely a playable level…awesome. Another good thing is that co-op campaign exists, unlike its predecessor. There still is not a ton of information on the campaign mode but Call of Duty 4’s single player had some really special moments and expect this to be the same case here. Wrapping things up, Infinity Wards decision to not drastically change the gameplay, insert minor new ideas, guns, and perks with a brand new campaign and multiplayer levels could give them the edge on the shooter generation not just in 2009 but for years to come.

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Hello loyal readers and nOObs alike. Today, I plan to review Monroe’s super Wal-Mart. And as you may have guessed, this is going to be an amazing and riveting review. In fact, this may be a better review than when I reviewed McDonald’s iced tea. So let us begin.

First off, one of things most people will notice right off the bat is that Walmart’s parking lot sucks. It seems quite evident that a kindergartner was in charge for laying out the groundwork for the parking lot. All the aisles are TINY. And when I say tiny, I mean minuscule. Imagine a Jonas Brother concert that also had Miley Cyrus headlining, and the 1.5 million screaming, Jr High school age children attending said concert. Now imagine trying to park your car somewhere in between the pre-pubescent children. That’s kind of what it’s like to park at Super Walmart.

So now that you know what that’s like, let’s take a closer look at the actual inside of Super Ultra Walmart. In case you haven’t been inside the store yet, almost every time I have been there the place has been packed. Now I know that’s not the fault of Walmart or that of its employees, but just getting around the store reminds me of taking a guided tour to the seventh circle of hell. The actual selection of food is actually pretty good. I would say it’s on par with Meijer, but probably has a bit less food that a straight up super market (i.e. Kroger, or Kroger’s ghetto cousin Food Town). However, the lay out of these food aisles is for the most part, down right idiotic. There is literally no theme whatsoever to the organization. It seems a lot of the categories of food were kind of just randomly thrown together. Maybe to some it’s not a big deal, but to me it did seem a bit disorienting at times. Also, the store had their special items that were on sale displayed at the ends of aisles; however, instead of placing these items near where their other same type of food brethren belong, these sales items were located in completely different spots. Dumb.

The “Home Goods” sections of the store are probably better organized as a whole than the food section. Ultimate Walmart’s electronic section is without a doubt the best part about the whole store. As soon as any male from the age of 16-45 walks into the electronics department, he will most likely start to get an erection from the wide selection of assorted electronic goods that Omni Walmart carries. And as soon as said male gets a look at the prices, he will also forget any prejudices he once had against Walmart for their evil doings in underpaying workers, putting people out of business and outsourcing jobs.

The toys department is a bit small compared to most modern day standards. It also irked me that they had a quite limited stash of action figures. The sporting goods left much to be desired as well. I will note though that the auto department looked pretty good (NOTE: THE AUTHOR KNOWS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING ABOUT CARS, SO THEREFORE IT MAKES THE PREVIOUS STATEMENT WORTHLESS).

The service at Super Saijin Walmart seems okay. Most of the workers were semi friendly, and asked me/ the people I was with if we needed help with looking for stuff. Overall I would say that Extreme Walmart is a pretty decent place to buy stuff, that is if you are poor (like me) or enjoy saving money and don’t care too much about the people who are working for a dollar in China and Vietnam.

Ratings:

Parking: Crappy/ 10

Food section: 6.5/ 10

Electronics: 8/ 10

Other Home sections: 7/ 10

Overall: 7/ 10 (or if you are poor): 9/10

- C.C.

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This just in: Through my sifting of the Internets, just last night I came across a deal I just had to post on my blog. Right now on Buy.com, they are having this promotional deal with Google Checkout where if you make an account with them you instantly save ten bucks off your order. Now generally a savings like this isn’t that big of a deal. Most of the time it’s only ten dollars off when you spend like fifty or more dollars. But this isn’t the case. You save ten dollars off anything that is ten dollars or more. So technically, if something was ten dollars, and you used the deal, you would only pay for shipping. As if that wasn’t a good enough deal, a lot of things on Buy.com have free shipping, so it’s like getting an item for free. Let me say that one more time for clarity. If you buy SOMETHING for TEN DOLLARS, and it has free shipping, you pay NOTHING for the item.

I know this really sounds like a scam/ rip-off of some sort, but me being the paranoid person that I am, I sat and read all the fine print that went along with this deal. It’s for real. The only thing you might want to be sure to do, is to uncheck a box that comes up when you buy your order. It’s just simply a thing that asks you if google can share your email address with other sites. By unchecking it, it simply stops them from doing that. No harm done.

Signing up is easy to do. Whenever you are finished shopping, just go to the checkout part of the site. It will ask you if you are a google checkout member, just click no, then fill out the info they put in front of you. Afterwards it will deduct the ten dollars from your total price, and you will then be able to finish the processing.

So, just to add to your savings, I have compiled a quick list of some great deals. They are as follows:

Sandisk Sansa 2gb MP3 Player: This is a great little player, and has sweet reviews on Cnet. After the deal it’s only 16 bucks. Sandisk Sansa 2 GB Mp3

Kingston 2 GB Micro SD: A nice Micro SD card, for those of you that need it. I posted it here because you could buy this along with the MP3 player, and for less that 25 bucks, you have a nice 4 GB player. After the deal the card is only 5 bucks. Kingston Micro SD 2 GB

Maximo IMetal Isolation Earphones: These are pretty sweet earbuds, and after the deal they are only 10 bucks. If you need a new pair of earbuds, or you wanna replace the crappy stock ones that come with your player, I suggest checking these out. Maximo Earphones

I’m far too lazy to be posting anymore deals, so you can look for more yourself. Also, just today I tried using the deal twice by just using a different email address, and it worked. Be sure to check out the DVD’s too. I actually bought Godfather Part II last night for like three dollars (and I might buy Mystery Men later today for 2 dollars). Finally, just in case you some how missed it here’s the link to the site I have been talking about this whole time: Buy.com

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