1/15/2015: I started this blog, to get back into writing, and I did for awhile, but I have abandoned my book project yet again. But, also to share my Video Gaming finds, share my opinions about some music I enjoy and bitch about whatever was bothering me on a particular day, and I have been having fun with the blog, so here ya go.
1 Year of Blogging, and how am I going to celebrate? By giving you, my readers a gift. Although it more fits with my Gamer readers, anyway I am going to tell you how I get Free Gamestop Power Up Rewards Points, without Shopping at Gamestop.
With the power up rewards program, you get points for every dollar you spend at Gamestop, whether in store or online. I, however no longer shop at Gamestop due to the extremely poor customer service I received when Battlefield 4 came out, and again the very next week when I had 2, yes 2 bad experiences in the same trip, while picking up my Call of Duty Ghosts Hardened Edition pre-order.
Anyway, I am a member of the website www.e-rewards.com Where you fill out surveys and earn Money to put towards certain rewards. The surveys are anywhere from a couple minutes to fifteen/twenty minutes or so, and for the most part I just fill them out here and there while I am watching Youtube, or TV, or whatever. I also once got a check for $75.00 cash, just for filling out a week long log of my cats eating habits.
There are 3 Rewards Tiers for Gamestop: $25 gets you 5,000 Rewards Points, $50.00 gets you 12,500 Rewards Points and $100.00 gets you 30,000 Rewards Points. I always get the 30,000. I then use those points in Gamestops Power Rewards Catalog, and get 8 $3.00 Xbox Live Currency codes, so basically $24.00. I just did this last week, and looking back in my email I had just done it 3 Months ago as well. So about every 3 months, I get $24.00 in Xbox Live Currency, for free, just for taking a few minutes and filling out surveys. Xbox Live is what, $60.00 a Year? This pays for that right here.
I now have 3 of the 6 games that, to me, are an absolute must have for the Sega Genesis. Road Rash 1-3. These are 3 of my most favorite games of all time, Hands Down.
I finally broke down and ordered a loose Cartridge and Manual for Road Rash 3 for the Sega Genesis. As I had posted in a previous blog, I had picked up the artwork in a deal I did for a lot of Sega games, and I was hoping to find one locally, but I had a few bucks in my PayPal account, and decided to blow $20.00 shipped on a great condition Cartridge and Manual.
The Triumvirate
And they they are, Three of the Six, Funnest, Must Have Games on the Sega Genesis.
Black Friday Pickups for the Xbox One: Evolve and The Evil Within
And it had been awhile since I swung by my favorite pawn shop, and picked up a few things.
The Sims Bustin' Out, Complete for the Original Xbox. The Original Sims on Xbox was my first time playing the Sims, so Picked up another.
Hexen for the Nintendo 64, I originally got and played this on the Original Playstation way back in the mid 90's, it was fun, so why not pick it up for the N64 as well?
After a few minutes cleaning
And a Sega Genesis Game I had not seen before, it looks brand new, and is complete and in great shape. Triple Score 3 Games in 1. Includes Super Hang On, World Championship Soccer and Columns.
That's it for now, no more game hunting until after Christmas.
At Goodwill, picked up a few items for the Sony PSP. Grand Theft Auto Liberty City Stories, Midway Arcade Treasures and a UMD Video, Clerks. I love Kevin Smiths stuff.
I also stopped by Half Price Books, I was looking for a certain Star Wars Novel (X-wing #5) Which I found, and I swung through the game section, and found this.
Complete in Box and in great shape, 1080 Snowboarding for the Nintendo 64
And this morning, my girlfriend brought me home this, I never even mentioned to her I wanted it.
I was playing Destiny the other day on my Xbox One, when I realized, Online multiplayer just isn't as fun or the same as it used to be.
I first got on Xbox Live back in February of 2007, when I bought an Xbox 360 which was bundled with Need for Speed Most Wanted. I also bought Tomb Raider Legend, Burnout Revenge, F.E.A.R. and Condemned Criminal Origins as well. The first game I played online was Burnout Revenge (Very Fun Game). I remember being in multiplayer lobbies, and having actual conversations. Talking about the game, or other games, or life in general. There were for the most part, normal, reasonable, educated individuals. We would also see when each other would be online, and have gaming nights as a group, I miss those people.
One of the things that I absolutely enjoyed about playing against actual people online was, the competition. I had played through a bunch of the races in Burnout, where the AI was only so competitive, and after half to three quarters of the course, you were out in front for the rest of the race. I remember there was a 5 race series online, where another gamer and I swapped placing first and second all the way through the series, it was awesome, and lots of fun.
Then, I decided to play online with F.E.A.R., which is an awesome First Person Shooter (and one of my absolute favorite games made), and in my opinion, is a million and a half times better than any Call of Duty. I immediately fell in love with this game, and it's online community, and to this day the year and a half I spent playing that game online remains my absolute favorite online gaming experience. It is also where I met one of my best friends online, he lives in PA, and I in MN, but we became fast friends, and a great duo online. We got to the point where we were number 1 and 2 on the Xbox Live leader boards for F.E.A.R., and would take on just us two vs six others in Capture the Flag, and win!
Fast forward to October 2015: I currently have my Xbox Live settings to all communications blocked except people on my friends list, which has less than 10 people. It's sad, just sad.
Why is this? Well, the online community in general has gone so far down the toilet, it is just pathetic. So many unattended 8 year olds screaming obscenities into the mic, for no other reason than they can because some worthless parent is using the Xbox as their babysitter. Don't get me wrong, I am not against blurting out a good hard FUCK here or there, I mean it is a great adjective to use to express frustration, but seriously, it is really bad online. Or all the people calling each other homos, fag, etc.. I just don't need to hear that shit constantly.
Then there are the music people. I love music (if you are a follower of my blog, you are fully aware) and enjoy listening to some music when I am playing online, but I don't feel the need to share it with the whole lobby, or sing to my fellow teammates. Seriously people, have a little common courtesy and respect. You also have the people who are playing online in a room with their friends, family or whatever, and feel the need to carry on a conversation, which we have to hear one side, turn off your mic asshat!
Speaking of mics. Turtle Beach makes very nice headsets for online gaming. I love my Turtle Beaches I have for the 360 (too bad they wont work with my Xbox One, Oh Well will buy another set), when playing online multiplayer it really helps to hear where people are. I can tell if they are in front of or behind me, to the left or right, hear a grenade rolling, they are awesome! But, the mic is also overly sensitive, so when using them, Courteous players turn the volume down or off on their television, otherwise the Turtle Beach mic picks it up, and broadcast it back through the mic.
Overall online gaming can be, and is generally fun, but I find myself playing more and more Single Player campaigns these days, Forza Motorsport 6 is great, and I am having lots of fun. Wolfenstein the New Order and The Old Blood are both great games in this regard as well. I do miss the old days though, when people where actually decent online, worked together, and just more pleasant to interact with. However, these days the normal, reasonable, pleasant, educated individuals seem to the minority, and that makes me sad. But, it is just a symptom of the degradation of today's society. That underground bunker is looking better and better everyday.
Was near my favorite Salvation Army for a job interview, and couldn't resist swinging in and perusing their wares. It was a Playstation day. Picked up games for the PS1, PS2 & PS3!
Original Playstation games, .99 each
Midnight Club 2 and a Brand New memory card, 1.99 each
Rainbow Six Vegas 2 for PS3, Missing the Artwork, .99
Then later in the day I had to drive my daughter home to Isanti, so we swung by the pawn shop that usually has good prices, but because of their short daytime hours, I don't get to go much.
Found a few things
Playstation Games .50 each
PSP Puzzle game .99 and 24 for PS2 1.99
Thief for Xbox One, 6.99
Not a bad days haul, all for Less than $24.00 after tax.
I had some Power Up Rewards points (which I get for free, without ever going to a Gamestop), so I used them to print off a $15.00 Certificate. Gamestop had Titanfall for Xbox One for $15.97 Brand New. I love playing Titanfall on the 360, and figured since I had a Xbox One now, I would play it on there too.
I also had $1.60 left on a gift card I had gotten for my Birthday, Between the Rewards Certificate and the Gift Card, I paid nothing, and still have money left on the gift card, Awesome!
