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RPG Deals 8/16 – 8/22

By Russ | August 16, 2009 at 6:08 pm

This week’s shenanigans are brought to you by the Xbox 360. The 360 – it has 1 vs. 100.

Target has Mass Effect for $14.  Most Target stores will have the regular copies, but there’s a few Platinum 2-Disc Editions with the ‘Bring Down the Sky’ bonus content.  If Mass Effect 2‘s trailer got you going then picking up the first one is a good way to both refresh and used the saved data for your next playthrough.

Of course, you can buy it from Microsoft’s new direct download service, but you lose out on the free DLC chapter and have to spend $6 extra.  Not having a disc to get inevitably scratched up is a pretty good deal on its own, though.

As has been said in the past here, I will always support digital distribution.  I think Microsoft took a great step with Xbox Live Arcade, and a fantastic step with the ability to download current-gen games onto the system; something only Sony has offered thus far.  It does remain to be seen to be seen if they will offer new releases through the service. I would prefer downloading games on the 360 as opposed to physically buying them.  My copy of Resident Evil 5 was installed to the hard drive the moment it went into the 360; yet despite the supposedly minimal amount of spinning the disc does, it still has tons of small scratches and scuffs on it.  I do not leave games sitting out, and there is no way for the system to move while it is on.  The hardware just does it.

Moving on from my gripes with technology, all Gold Live members can play Microsoft’s online trivia game 1 vs 100.  It is pretty fun, and the more you play the better the chance you have to be either in the mob or play as the main event.  The goal of the game is ‘the one’ answers trivia questions true to game show form.  As ‘the one’ gets questions right, their earnings (in the form of spendable Microsoft Points) increase.  There are 100 mob players also answering questions.  A mob player that gets an incorrect answer gets kicked out of the mob and ‘the one’ gets a score bonus.  If ‘the one’ screws up, all the reamining mob members divvy up ‘the one’s’ current points.  If ‘the one’ wins, he earns Microft Points.

While this is going on, the crowd also plays.  The top three scorers in the crowd for each round get a free Live Arcade game.  The free stuff only happens during specially marked 1 vs 100 games.  It’s fun, and you might earn some free games.  Plus it has been going on for a bit, so the process seems a bit more refined.  Give it a shot and see if you like it.  If you get to be ‘the one’ or the mob, perhaps the Mass Effect DLC will be technically free for you.

Importers can snag a copy of Sigma Harmonics, which doesn’t currently seem bound for North America, for $14.90 from Play-Asia.

Next week will be one full year of RPG Deals columns.  I will be honest – I missed one posted column last September or October, but 51 out of 52 is not bad either.  In addition to any deals that might come up, I’ll pick over the past columns and let you know the best deals I took advantage of utilizing.

Happy Hunting!

Disclaimer: Deals may not be available in all stores. Prices in each store may differ. You can try different stores to mitigate this, and always ask if a store has it before writing them off. You might be able to get a raincheck. A lot of these deals are in-store only, except where specified.

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