Ahh, the Holiday Season. And the buying frenzy that accompanies it. Two secular elements of the season that will be coming soon. Yep- aside from attending gatherings at your extended relatives house in which you feign interest with a passion, or basking in the copious amounts of free food with equal said passion, there’s always the gifts. And really now- in our largely meditative and spiritual culture, what better way to reinforce those ideals than by showing our affection to one another via material exchange?
When you’re a gamer, such a time-honored practice can get pricy extremely quick. I mean, unless you’re self-disciplined enough to wait for that life-changing and wallet-friendly price drop a whole year down the line, chances are that you’ve got to have the game NOW. It’s that mentality that starts to add up rather quickly, and the Console Cartel knows it: there’s no riper a time to toss out triple-A titles than in the Winter season. Whether it be on the 6th day alongside a menorah, or under an oddly-named spruce that you’ll keep indoors until halfway through February, you’ll want to see at least some gaming product in your hands when the time comes. And I’m not talking about the N-Gage.
Hopefully we agree on that last point. But do think about it: when the time comes to hit the shopping centers and strip malls, thousands upon thousands of US shoppers will hit their local stores like the LAPD to a traffic offender- with everything they’ve got until their arms have no strength to carry anything- be it gift bags or batons. And while this frenzy won’t formally commence until what retailers call “Green Friday” (that ominous Friday following that endorphin saturation known as Thanksgiving), those of us who didn’t suffer the inception from the shallow end of the gene pool will have already done our shopping. In this case, the meek shall inherit the long lines and wait. And just because you’re going to be grabbing Mario Kart: Double Dash or Gradius V doesn’t give you any quicker of a wait than the idiot in front of you with Mariah Carey’s The Remixes album. Burn, baby burn!
But with the advent of the internet, folk like you and I have been given a reprieve from all the chaos that is associated with pre-programmed automatons flocking to local Targets and, the evil of all evils, Walmart. Rather than bask in a direct physical inception of madness and time-infused frustration, we can simply sit back in the comfort of whatever we decide to call a chair at the moment and click away to our heart’s content, as well as our wallet’s detriment. For game purchases, there couldn’t have been a bigger boon- I mean, we spend most of our leisure time manipulating graphics on radiation producing screens with nary a regard, right?
Right. So in this Liquidcross-length edition of the Conscience, I’d like to take a moment of your time to introduce some and remind others of some sights that I like to keep tabs on for the best gaming deals. With the exception of one of these sites, their deal-finding power is not restricted to video games, which means that you might be able to find your uncle Ed’s metal detector for 50 percent off, as well as that MP3 player you use to keep your sanity afloat during a boring History class. So without further adieu, I give you three sites to visit in order to maximize your gaming dollar:
CheapAssGamer.com. The name says it all, folks. Run by a man that goes by the appropriate handle CheapyD, CheapAssGamer consolidates all of the best deals on the net, and beyond, into an easy-on-the-eyes vertical column. A stable of devotees keep the site afloat through a busy message board, where users congregate to submit and discuss deals that they’ve found. To my knowledge, this was the place that first broke a deal this past summer which involved Brand New copies of Rygar that EBGames was selling for a measly 5 dollars. Also, brick-and-mortar stores are covered too, as well as condensed reports on the only sections in Sunday circulars that you, John Q Gamer, give a damn about. Great stuff indeed.
Passwird.com. Via clever vowel switching and thus avoiding some random page that I can’t make any immediate sense of, Passwird.com is a good place to find deals on just about anything. From $50.00 120GB hard drives to $8.00 Messenger Bags. When not listing the above, Passwird plays host to some hot deals on gaming stuff, such as the PC version of Halo for 35 bones. Not only that, but Irwin (Passwird’s viceroy of value) also keeps tabs on promotions that can get you money to spend on games, like test-driving a VW Jetta for a 50 dollar Amazon.com gift card- something that’ll pocket me Legacy of Kain: Defiance when it hits the shelves.
FatWallet.com. For it’s sheer size and breadth, this site scares me. It really does. If you don’t feel the same way, then do this: hit up the link, click on “Forums,” and then “Hot Deals” on the right hand column. What you’ll find is perhaps the largest collection of up to the minute deal threads on the net. I’d wager that the truly crafty among us could probably pull off much of their non-perishable shopping from right off of this site. More often than not, you’ll find a great gaming thread, like the return of the buy 2 games get one free deal at Amazon.com. If you’ve got the time to sift through the near-insurmountable volume of it all, I’m confident you’ll find something.
With these three sites, I’m certain that you’ll be able to shave at least a couple of bucks off of your future gaming bills. These guys provide the community with an invaluable service, and the word on these services should be spread accordingly. And when you’re a cash-strapped college student like myself, every little bit does indeed count.
Keeping what’s in your wallet in your wallet. That’s the Gamer’s Conscience.
That brings this abbreviated edition of the Conscience to a close. If you know of a site that I haven’t covered here, let me know! Anyways, do stick around for the rest of the week, as the 411Games crew brings you more of that lovin’ feeling that you’ve come to expect. Feedback? Yes, please. Always appreciated.
So until the next time!