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| What's Hot This Week: November 24 |
| November 24, 2008 at 4:36pm |
Reserve your copy of Afro Samurai now
to get your GameStop-Exclusive Afro Samurai figurine.
Load up on your Joey Logano
merchandise here.
Nothing personal. It's just resin:
Afro Samurai, based on the popular anime series, will release for
Xbox 360 and
PS3 January
27. To make sure
you get the GameStop-Exclusive Afro Samurai resin figurine before
supplies run out, you should reserve your copy today. So when the
game ships, you'll have some mini-inspiration to help Afro Samurai,
voiced by Samuel L. Jackson, in his quest for revenge against
Justice, voiced by Ron Perlman, the man who killed his father. Just
to be clear, Ron Perlman, of Hellboy fame, did not kill Afro
Samurai's father. He merely supplies the voiceover work for the
character that killed Afro Samurai's father. And Samuel L. Jackson
may or may not be looking for revenge. We don't know him that well.
Logano-ize your surroundings: You probably know by now that
GameStop is the official sponsor of the No. 20 Toyota Camry, driven by Joey Logano of the
Joe Gibbs Racing team. Now you can show your support for Joey with official
Joey Logano NASCAR merchandise.
Unfurl a Joey Logano
flag from your car window.
The increased drag may slightly reduce your gas mileage, but it's
worth it to show your NASCAR affiliation. Remind yourself that it's always Logano-time
with a Joey Logano
Wall Clock
or Digital Wall Clock.
You can even
put up a "Reserved Parking: Logano Fans Only"
sign in your
driveway. Then you can put away your reflective vest and
orange-coned flashlight, and relax from your constant vigil of
keeping non-Logano fans out of your driveway. Round out your Joey
Logano accessory collection with a key ring, coffee mug,
license-plate frame or decal
here.
Hot releases this week: If you just can't get enough of
biathlon, (and, quite frankly, who can?) you have two options this
week for
your Wii with Ski & Shoot and
Winter Sports 2: The Next Challenge.
Both support use of the Wii Balance Board. Ski & Shoot
lets you compete
against biathlon's top stars on 20 tracks in 15 international
locations. We can't name any of biathlon's top stars, let alone 15
different countries, but it sounds like fun, anyway. Winter Sports 2
not only features the obvious combination of skiing and shooting,
but it also has Alpine skiing, skating, luge, bobsled and more for a
total of 15 different disciplines in nine winter sports. And take a
trip down memory lane, then into the future, then back again with
the retooling of an old-school time-travel favorite
Chrono Trigger,
shipping tomorrow for DS. You can find more recent and coming releases on our
Now
Shipping and
Coming Soon
pages. Visit our blog next week for more. |
| What's Hot This Week: November 18 |
| November 18, 2008 at 2:56pm |
Avoid having to fake your gratitude by
dropping a subtle suggestion with our Hint Generator.
Megaman and Roll defend their living
room.
It's time to start dropping hints: The holidays are upon us,
and although we'd be thrilled to get a Chia Pet or a talking tire
gauge, you may have other gift ideas in mind. If your friends or
relatives need a little nudge in the right direction, try our
Holiday Hint Generator. Just choose a "hintee" from the list, select
your favorite game from the collection of our most popular titles,
enter the gift-giver's e-mail address, and let the Hint Generator do the
work for you. When we were kids, we got a jagged rock coated with
lead-based paint, and we were happy to get it. But things are
different today, and you deserve something a little more
entertaining than that.
Mega-awesome costume: We asked you to send your Halloween pictures
to editor@gamestop.com
a couple of weeks ago, and here's one of the most interesting ones.
GameStop customer Dave sent us the picture on the right of his
Megaman costume. His wife was kind enough to dress as Roll, although
Dave told us she had no idea who that was. We think she's a keeper,
Dave.
Hot releases this week: Use your Wii Remote as a whip to
help you battle vampires in
Castlevania: Judgment,
shipping today. You can also find out why your toaster's been
laughing at you in
Robocalypse for
DS, also shipping today.
When military routines are accidentally installed in the computer
chips of everyday appliances, the battle for humanity ensues.
SpongeBob Squarepants director and writer Jay Lender teams up
Micah Wright for the storyline on this one. See if you can figure
out how Lara Croft keeps her girlish figure after all these years
with
Tomb Raider: Underworld,
which begins shipping today for
Xbox
360,
PS3,
Wii,
DS and
PC.
The PS2 version will arrive in early 2009. You can find more release information on our
Now
Shipping and
Coming Soon
pages. Visit our blog next Tuesday for more What's Hot news. |
| Red Wednesday #13:
Tips for World Domination |
| November 12, 2008 at 11:03am |
Click the picture above to see
the video of tips from Red Alert 3 Producer Greg Kasavin.
Now that Command & Conquer Red Alert 3
has been released for both PC and Xbox 360, our weekly Red Wednesday
feature is drawing to a close. But we can't just leave you to fend
for yourselves. We've rounded up a few tips to help you succeed.
First, check out the
video on GameStop Cinema, featuring tips from
Command & Conquer Red Alert 3 Producer Greg Kasavin. Then
read about some dev-tested strategies from our guest columnist Matt Ott,
Red Alert 3 Assistant Producer.
Know your strengths!
The Allies offer one of the strongest and fastest air forces in the game; so a smart Allied player will get an airfield in play quickly. Unlike the other factions, Allied players can place an airfield just 10 seconds into a match and immediately build powerful bombers (the Vindicator) and air superiority fighters (the Apollo). Every player starts with one Security Point to spend; so an Allied player pursuing an air strategy should spend his on Advanced Aeronautics. This will outfit your aircraft with more ammo and hit points, faster reloads, and a greater sight distance.
Once you’ve got control of the skies, don’t neglect Javelin soldiers. These powerful infantry are great against tanks, aircraft, and structures. Their secondary fire mode (laser lock) allows them to fire at an incredible rate once they get a lock. Load them into a
Riptide or IFV to safely transport them to your enemy’s base, evacuate, and enjoy the fireworks!
The Soviet army has a vastly different outlook. This faction is designed to deal heavy damage, but if you aren’t careful, there can be some tremendous collateral costs. The heavy hitters on the Soviet side are the
Dreadnaught (at sea), the V4 (on land), and the Kirov (in the air). Each of these units dishes out powerful splash damage to multiple enemy units and structures, but if your army is in the mix, forget about it!
The Soviets also build their structures in real time, meaning a war factory can be attacked before it is operable. And they’re the only faction that can’t repair units without the aid of a Crane. If you make it to the endgame as the Soviets, you’ll need to put your splash damage units into control groups and keep them far away from your main army. Overall, Soviet units are cheaper and build more quickly (but with less hit points), so rely on strength in numbers when playing this faction.
Protect your economy.
Ore collectors are an early target in any Red Alert 3 match, and if yours go down it’ll cost you nearly 1500 credits to get your economy back online. Protecting these guys is priority one, but if an ore collector does go down your refinery can create a new one with its special ability (for a fee, of course).
As the Allies, you’ll want to build your war factory, air field, or sea port near your refinery. Firstly, if you build it flush against the refinery, it will bar access for enemy units. But more importantly, these Allied structures have repair drones to heal nearby damaged vehicles. Place them near your refinery and the drones will heal the collectors as soon as they begin to take damage.
Soviet players aren’t as lucky… they only have one structure that can repair: the Crusher Crane. Luckily, it repairs in a larger radius that can even heal up two refineries on certain maps. The
Crusher Crane will also help your economy by scuttling damaged vehicles for a portion of their initial cost. If you’re short on cash and need to rebuild, this can be a lifesaver.
Having to rebuild ore collectors early on will give your opponent a huge advantage, so protect your economy at all costs!
Fight on your own terms.
Many new players try to buckle down for the long haul, researching powerful units and hoarding their credits. You can’t win a war without an army! Fight on your own terms by building a strike force quickly and hitting your enemy right out of the blocks.
If you’re an Allied player gunning for air superiority, build a wing of Vindicators and target enemy ore collectors. If you see anti-air defenses, retreat! You’ll need to take them out with your javelins or tanks first. Continue attack runs with your
Vindicators, and take note of the units your opponent is building at his base. Preparing a sea army? Build riptides and dolphins to counter it. If he’s gunning for air, send in the Apollos!
A great Soviet strike team is as simple as three stingrays. Naval combat is an essential aspect of
Red Alert 3, but many new players will neglect a strong navy. Flank the enemy’s shoreline with a few stingrays and send them after ore collectors and power plants. Stingrays can kill infantry in one shot, but their long reload time makes them weak against masses of units. If you succeed in sending your opponent to low power, his units and structures will build much more slowly.
So there you have it! Play to your faction’s strengths, protect your income, and strike your enemy first.
|
| Friday
Night Smackdown: Our Exclusive Interview with MVP |
| November 7, 2008 at 11:05am |
WWE Superstar MVP was kind enough to
pause and share a few words of wisdom with us.
The GameStop-exclusive Ric Flair unlockable code
will be packaged inside of WWE SmackDown vs Raw 2009 for Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, PS2 and PSP.
We were able to catch up with
MVP to ask him a few questions about what it's like to be a WWE
Superstar and his role in
WWE Smackdown vs. RAW 2009.
Here's a bit of what he shared with us.
GameStop: Have you seen yourself in the new version of the game yet?
MVP: No, I have not seen myself in WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2009 yet.
However, I was a little disappointed in my entrance in 2008… the mo-cap guy had no rhythm.
GameStop: What did you have to do in order to be digitized for the game? Was there mo-cap or a green screen?
MVP: I did not have to be mo-capped or green-screened, but if it would have helped get my entrance correct for 2009, I would have volunteered. I did do voiceover work for the game, and the fans are going to love this game with all the modes, match types and stars (especially MVP).
GameStop: What do you think the WWE will look like in the future?
MVP: I am not a fortune teller, but I think it will look a
whole lot like me because there will be a whole lot of me all over
it.
GameStop: Are there any wrestling pioneers that have inspired you?
MVP: Yes, definitely. Naturally, people like Ric Flair, Roddy Piper and the tag team of Doom (Ron Simmons and Butch Reed).
GameStop: How do you get mentally prepared for a match?
MVP: I don’t have a set routine for any match, because you can’t process perfection.
GameStop: What would you say to someone not familiar with the WWE to encourage them to check it out?
MVP: Quite simply, if you like action, if you like adventure, if you like drama, if you like horror, hell, if you like romance, every one of those categories is covered in one way or the other in WWE programming. We have something for everyone, and we offer 52 weeks of original programming with no reruns – that’s hard to beat. To top that off, you have me, MVP, perfection personified. What else do you need?
As if MVP weren't enough on his own, we also have the last of our talent roster revelations to
share. For all platforms,
Xbox 360,
PS3,
Wii,
PS2,
PSP and
DS,
you can round out your list with Shawn Michaels and Randy Orton from RAW, ECW star Elijah Burke and Smackdown Superstars
Jimmy Wang Yang, Edge, Mr. Kennedy and Matt and Jeff Hardy.
So that brings us to a grand total of more than 60 different
Superstars spanning six platforms, and that's not even counting the
Superstars you can create yourself. You couldn't possibly want any
more, right? Well, okay, because you're cool like that, we'll throw in
one more — a GameStop-Exclusive code to unlock the legendary
"Nature Boy" Ric Flair, packaged inside of
WWE Smackdown vs. RAW 2009 for
Xbox 360,
PS3,
Wii,
PS2 and
PSP.
Supplies are limited; so reserve yours now. |
| Red Wednesday #12:
Why Should PCs Have all the Fun? |
| November 5, 2008 at 11:03am |
The controls for the Xbox 360 version
of Red Alert 3 are designed to keep the action moving
along. Click the picture to see it in action.
If it looks this good 4-inches wide,
imagine how the carnage will look on your home theater system. Click the picture to see the video.
We've spent the last few weeks talking about Command & Conquer Red Alert 3
for PC, and all the while, quietly slipping up on us like a stealthy
Russian bear, is the Xbox 360 version, which arrives in stores next
week.
If you're thinking that the console version of Red Alert 3
will be a watered-down version of the PC game, you couldn't be more
wrong, even if you used an electric wrongifying machine on national
Everybody's Wrong Day. Greg Kasavin, producer of Command &
Conquer Red Alert 3, recently told us that they had the console
version in mind from day one, and the intention all along was to
design a game that would work well both on the PC and the console.
So the result is a full-blown Red Alert 3 experience, regardless of
the platform you choose.
Of course there are some design
challenges, Greg explained to us. For example, the way you interact
with the game is different, with the PC version being controlled by
a mouse and keyboard, and the console version being controlled by
your Xbox 360 controller. Greg told us that their primary goal was
to design a control scheme that would let you do all of the things
you can do on a PC just as quickly on a console.
"Other than that, we wanted to make sure the game's performance was up to snuff, and that it was a good,
well-balanced experience all around," he said. "And on the console,
we knew that some aspects of the game, like the cooperative
campaign, would carry over nicely."
As the case is with any console game, there may be a slight learning
curve while you're getting down the controls. Greg informed us that
you'll have the option to take a detailed and entertaining tutorial
before you start, or you can just dive right in and pick it up as
you go. He compared it to playing a fighting game, where you can
quickly learn the basic moves to get by, but as you get more
acquainted with the game, you learn more sophisticated moves,
resulting in a deeper gaming experience.
If the gameplay is essentially the same on both platforms, and you
can accomplish the same goals, whether you use a keyboard or a
controller, how do you decide which way to play? Basically, it comes
down to personal preference, Greg told us. If you're used playing on
a PC, you'll be inclined to stick with it. If you enjoy co-op play
on Xbox Live, you may be more comfortable with the console version.
Of course, if you have an awesome home theater system in your living
room, and a 15-inch grayscale monitor on your PC, then your choice
is clear.
"I think people, no matter what platform they prefer, they like a deep
game, a responsive game and, basically, a big and interesting game,"
he said. "And that's what Red Alert 3 was meant to be."
So take a look at some console gameplay footage on our GameStop Cinema
page, and decide for yourself. We're pretty sure you'll have a good
time whether you choose the
PC version, which is available now, or
the Xbox 360 version, releasing next week. |
| What's Hot This Week: November 4 |
| November 4, 2008 at 10:53am |
The winners who were just a little
more winner-y than the other winners in our Costume Contest.
Here are some more costumed
associates, some of whom didn't even know it was Halloween.
GameStop Halloween Costume Contest:
The GameStop Fortress of Solitude and Store Support Center was
a little spookier than usual last Friday, when associates dressed up
for our annual Halloween Costume Contest. Although we'd like to
think that everyone who participated is a winner, there were a few
who were a bit more winner-y than others. Our Refurb Hardware
Department dominated the competition, with associates from that
department taking the prize in all three costume categories. Eduardo from Refurb won for Best Video-Game-Themed Costume with his
portrayal of Altair from Assassin's Creed. Anthony from Refurb proved
it's best to speak softly and carry a big sword, taking the General
Category with his warrior costume, complete with a sword reminiscent
of a buster sword from Final Fantasy VII. And we were also surprised
by a visit from Tony Romo and Jessica Simpson, aka Eric and Zach
from Refurb, who won the Best Group Costume title.
For those who
wanted to show their creativity in a different way, we also had a
Pumpkin Carving Contest. Preventing a total sweep by the Refurb
Hardware Department, JoAnn from IT earned the top prize for her SpongeBob and Patrick carving. Send us a picture of your Halloween
costume at editor@gamestop.com,
and you might see yourself here next week.
Hot releases this week: You can shake, but not stir, things
up as Agent 007 James Bond with
Quantum of Solace,
available today. Today you can also join your favorite Madagascar
characters, plus a few new ones, in Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa.
(Notice how the "2" is cleverly inserted to denote the sequel.)
World War III will break out at your local GameStop
tomorrow, with Tom Clancy's End War
shipping today. And because it is the beginning of cold and flu
season, you should be on the lookout for Resistance 2,
shipping for
PS3 today. Find more recent and coming releases on our
Now
Shipping and
Coming Soon
pages. Visit our blog next Tuesday for more What's Hot news.
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