Video Game Deals at Amazon [April 19, 2010 Edition]: Prey Collector’s Edition, Red Alert 3, GRAW

Found some good deals over the past few days and stored them to make this. There are three worthwhile games to get your hands on. There’s Prey Collector’s Edition for the 360 for $43.21, Tom Clancy’s GRAW for less than 50% of the price for the PS2, and Red Alert 3 for nearly half off as well, for the PS3.

As usual the best deals are listed just below, and the rest below that.

Best deals:

Prey Limited Collector's Edition - $43.21 - Save $26.78 [360]

Victoria: An Empire Under the Sun - $13.48 - Save $26.51 [PC]

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter - $23.62 - Save $26.37 [PS2]

Command & Conquer Red Alert 3 - $27.60 - Save $22.39 [PS3]

SingStar 80's Bundle (Includes 2 Microphones) - $26.48 - Save $20.01 [PS2]

Guitar Hero (Game Only) - $14.62 - Save $17.50 [PS2]

Littlest Pet Shop Friends: City - $12.99 – Save $15.00 [DS]

Charm Girls Club: My Fashion Mall - $17.98 - Save $11.51 [DS]

[PC]

NeverEnd - $20.17 - Save $9.82
Everquest II: Sentinel's Fate Collector's Edition - $49.99 - Save $8.07
Mahjongg Escape Collection - $20.32 - Save $7.69
Everquest II: Sentinel's Fate - $29.99 - Save $7.00
Victoria: An Empire Under the Sun - $13.48 - Save $26.51
Legend Hand of God - $7.59 - Save $11.40

[PS2]

Guitar Hero (Game Only) - $14.62 - Save $17.50
SingStar 80's Bundle (Includes 2 Microphones) - $26.48 - Save $20.01
Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter - $23.62 - Save $26.37
Crimson Sea 2 - $25.43 - Save $8.38

[PS3]

Command & Conquer Red Alert 3 - $27.60 - Save $22.39
Test Drive Unlimited 2 - $49.99 - Save $10.00

[Xbox 360]

Halo 3: ODST - $29.99 - Save $7.00
Prey Limited Collector's Edition - $43.21 - Save $26.78
Test Drive Unlimited 2 - $49.99 - Save $10.00

[PSP]

Dragonball Evolution - $9.56 - Save $10.00

[Nintendo DS]

Littlest Pet Shop Friends: City - $12.99 – Save $15.00
Deca Sports 3 - $29.99 - Save $10.00
Galaxy Racers - $29.99 - Save $10.00
NARUTO Shippuden: Ninja Council 4 - $19.99 - Save $10.00
Charm Girls Club: My Fashion Mall - $17.98 - Save $11.51
Charm Girls Club: My Fashion Show - $17.98 - Save $10.01
Legend of Kay - $19.99 - Save $10.00

[Nintendo Wii]

Rubik's World - $20.17 - Save $7.91

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Sources: Amazon - Nowinstock

Video Game Deals at Amazon [April 19, 2010 Edition]: Prey Collector’s Edition, Red Alert 3, GRAW

Command& Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight Doesn’t Have any Famous Stars, No Dedicated Servers or LAN Support Either

The all-star cast of 2008’s Red Alert 3. From Left: Gemma Atkinson, Randy Couture, Peter Stormare, George Takei, Jenny McCarthy, Tim Curry, J. K. Simmons, Jonathan Pryce, Gina Carano

FMVs have been a staple of every Command& Conquer and Red Alert game. And in almost all of them there’s been someone famous or semi-famous, or famous for no reason – like Tim Curry and Jenny McCarthy in Red Alert 3 or Pro Wrestling Legend Ric Flair in Red Alert 3: Uprising, among others.

But I found it interesting and maybe even a bit perplexing that Tiberian Twilight, the next and reportedly the last title in the Tiberian saga, will not have these famous faces, although they are professional actors [1].

Sam Bass - lead designer:

"Our cinematics always get written off as sort of campy. It works really well for Red Alert where it’s kind of tongue-in-cheek. Whereas C&C 4, the story itself is pretty dark. It’s a dark grim, tale. So we wanted to have it be more believable."

"The goal was to hire actors who weren’t known, outside of Joe Kucan [Kane] of course cause I think there would be rioting if we replaced Joe. And he’d personally kill me."

"We wanted to get actors who weren’t known faces but were good actors so you could just believe them as the character as opposed to going “OH IT’S THE GUY FROM STARSKY AND HUTCH!” So we wanted to take a different approach. It’s a little risky cause you get a little less bit of mind share with unknown people but I think it actually really helps the story."

Well, as long Red Alert keeps the campiness and celebrities, that’s fine. I always thought it was more campy, and humorous, whereas Command& Conquer is more serious.

Other bad news for Tiberian Twilight is that it won’t have support for LAN or dedicated servers [2].

"If you go to another machine -- friend's house, Internet café -- whatever, you can login with your profile and all the stuff you've unlocked is accessible to you there. It all lives on a server so you can't really do dedicated servers with that."

This is yet another game other than Modern Warfare 2, that started this madness, that is doing without dedicated servers, and it’s yet another RTS title that won’t have LAN support – the other being StarCraft II. Can you believe it? Some are of the opinion that the good old LAN game is dead, or dying at least.

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Sources: [1][2] Destructoid

Command& Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight Doesn’t Have any Famous Stars, No Dedicated Servers or LAN Support Either

Command& Conquer: Tiberian Sun and Firestorm now Freeware

A few years ago, the first Command& Conquer as well as the first Red Alert were released for free. Now the good news is that EA recently announced that Command& Conquer: Tiberian Sun, otherwise known as Command& Conquer 2, has gone the same way, and is now available for free to download. And in addition to this, the expansion, Firestorm, is free as well. This was done to promote the upcoming C&C 4.

I was glad to see that as usual, the news has all ready spread to forums, including NAG, so it’s likely we’ll see both games on the “queue” soon, and eventually on the DVD and on our harddrives. I haven’t played Tiberian Sun for years, but all of a sudden I really want to, for some reason. It would almost certainly have to go on the NAG or PC Format DVD seeing as the file sizes are pretty large.

Now all we need is for Red Alert 2 to be free of charge on day as well. That game is nearly ten years old, and that seems to be a trend among developers. After ten years or so, they become freeware, unless they’re really big sellers that keep funding the studio.

So that means that C&C 3 and Red Alert 3 are way off from being gratis.

On a related note, Command& Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight should be out next month.

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Source: commandandconquer.com/

Command& Conquer: Tiberian Sun and Firestorm now Freeware

Command& Conquer 4 now Official, but Still Sort of "Secret"

Yesterday I spoke of how rumours spread about a possible Syphon Filter 5. Well, after the survey that took place a while back, it has now "accidentally" slipped out on, yes you guessed it, Twitter, that Command& Conquer 4 is in development.

I'm sure we all knew this anyway. Why else would they have had that survey last month?

EA is certainly churning out the C&C stuff lately. Think of the eight year gap between RA 2 and RA 3, and the significantly shorter gap between C&C 3 and the announcement of C&C 4.

Sources:

EA accidentally announces Command& Conquer 4
Command & Conquer 4 Officially Announced

Command& Conquer 4 now Official, but Still Sort of "Secret"

Frank Klepacki’s Birthday

Africa Day (holiday)

On this day, in 1974, Frank Klepacki was born. He turns 35 today. Frank Klepacki is a renowned Polish-American musician, video game music composer and sound director, best known for his work on the Command & Conquer and Red Alert games, as well as other Westwood and EA series.

Discography

Video game music

DragonStrike (Westwood Studios, 1991)
Eye of the Beholder II (Westwood Studios, 1991)
Dune II (Westwood Studios, 1992)
Dungeons & Dragons: Warriors of the Eternal Sun (Westwood Studios, 1992)
Order of the Griffon (Westwood Studios, 1992)
The Legend of Kyrandia (Westwood Studios, 1992)
Lands of Lore (Westwood Studios, 1993)
The Legend of Kyrandia II (Westwood Studios, 1993)
Disney's The Lion King (Westwood Studios, 1994)
The Legend of Kyrandia III (Westwood Studios, 1994)
Young Merlin (Westwood Studios, 1994)
Command & Conquer (Westwood Studios, 1995)
Parker Brother's Monopoly (Westwood Studios, 1995)
Command & Conquer: The Covert Operations (Westwood Studios, 1996)
Command & Conquer: Red Alert (Westwood Studios, 1996)
Command & Conquer: Red Alert: Counterstrike (Westwood Studios, 1997)
Command & Conquer: Red Alert: Aftermath (Westwood Studios, 1997)
Lands of Lore 2 (Westwood Studios, 1997)
Blade Runner (Westwood Studios, 1997)
Command & Conquer: Red Alert: Retaliation (Westwood Studios, 1998)
Command & Conquer: Sole Survivor (Westwood Studios, 1998)
Dune 2000 (Westwood Studios, 1998)
Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun (Westwood Studios, 1999)
Lands of Lore 3 (Westwood Studios, 1999)
Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun: Firestorm (Westwood Studios, 2000)
Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 (Westwood Studios, 2000)
Nox (Westwood Studios, 2000)
Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2: Yuri's Revenge (Westwood Studios, 2001)
Emperor: Battle for Dune (Westwood Studios, 2001)
Pirates: The Legend of Black Kat (Electronic Arts, 2001)
Command & Conquer: Renegade (Westwood Studios, 2002)
Earth & Beyond (Westwood Studios, 2002)
Star Wars: Empire at War (Petroglyph Games, 2006)
Star Wars: Empire at War: Forces of Corruption (Petroglyph Games, 2006)
Universe at War: Earth Assault (Petroglyph Games, 2007)
Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 (EA Los Angeles, 2008)

Band, film, and solo music

There's a Home (I AM, 1995)
Mmm, Mmm, Mmm, (Home Cookin', 1997)
Unreel Invasion (short film, 1999)
Pink in the Middle (Home Cookin', 2000)
Essence of the Force (short film, 2002)
Morphscape (2002)
Rocktronic (2004)
Virtual Control (2005)
The Bitters (The Bitters, 2006)
Awakening of Aggression (2006)

Commercial music

MTV (1997)
Cupid (abc, 2000)
Miller Genuine Draft (2001)
Ultimate Fighting Championship Pay-per view (Fox Sports, 2003–2006)
The Ultimate Fighter (Spike TV, 2005–2006)
Ultimate Fight Night (Spike TV, 2005–2006)
Amp'd Mobile (Spike TV, 2005–2006)
Inside the MMA (HDNet, 2007)
HDNet Fights (HDNet, 2007)

Resources:http://www.frankklepacki.com/

Frank Klepacki’s Birthday