Post Thanksgiving notes
Spent way too much this weekend after games and new clothes (my wife took me out for a few things while at the relatives.)
Finished up today by picking up the Godfather Blu-Ray set at Best Buy for $31 after the coupon in todays paper. Don't know what issues Dan is having with in-store pickup...but my whole transaction was flawless. Also picked up All-pro Football for the 360 if people want to try and get a game of that in.
Also, Borders seems to be closing out their HD-DVD's... which isn't a big deal except for the fact that I ordered the first season of Battlestar Galactica, and both halves of season 6 of the Sopranos for $28.52 shipped. We'll see if it gets cancelled though...
Seriously though... done spending for the weekend.. maybe...
- The Packers game today was very disappointing, as they lost 35-31 giving up a late touchdown. The thing about the game today was the fact that the kicking unit could not cover a kickoff to save their life... so when the Packers got a field goal late to put them up 31-28, I had no faith that they would be able to hold the Panthers to just 3 points.
They're a 5-7 football team and I think it's time that people around here stopped talking about playoffs. 2 games out with 4 to go... just not going to happen.
Back To Work Sunday
1. Nice to see the Patriots putting an ! on the long weekend with the worst performance since Drew Bledsoe. Blech.
2. Speaking of gross, check out Hilary Duff destroying a Depeche Mode song. I just can't believe that Dave Gahan gave the okay on this. How do you take an amazing song about religion and or the non-belief into a song about sex. Hey, I'm pro-sex, but I am completely disgusted that they would sample Depeche Mode. Well, I'm more pissed about the sell out than disgusted. You know what would be worse if someone took a Smiths song and turned it into "Hippychick" ..oh wait they did that. Oh yeah, there's also a Like A Prayer reference in there too...way to pick 'em all up Hilary!
3. I went to Best Buy and try to use their instore pickup yet again, and it was another disaster. It took four hours to receive my 'confirmation' email and then once I made it to the counter, it took 10 minutes to get my item. Then I asked for the $10 gift card for them not getting it to me in time (they have a 1 minute rule). That took another 15 minutes. Way to go, asshats.
4. I'm so exhausted, I think I'm actually ready for work tomorrow.
Red Octane finally sends Guitar
I am excited to say that yesterday (Friday) I received my new Red Octane Guitar Hero World Tour guitar and even better, it actually works. While I still think a month was a long time to wait, I am now satisfied with the end result. Life is good, or something.
Amazon goes Video Game Crazy
You never know these days what you'll find on sale at Amazon; today's Video game deal of the day is Sonic Unleashed for $25 on 360/PS3/Wii, which is an incredible deal considering the game was released, like 4 days ago (!).
They keep changing the prices on most of their games, and it seems you'll never know what the pricing will be -- Power Pros 2008 for Wii was $15 earlier today, Top Spin 3 for the DS was $5....it's worth keeping in touch with Amazon to check out their deals.
Black Friday notes
- Dan has been talking so much about APF, that I'm going to pick it up for the 360 when I get back home. We'll have to get a few blog games in.
- I woke myself up at 2 to get in on a few of the Amazon deals last night... There was a glitch last night that had the Arcade 360 and DDR for $130, so I placed an order for that. We'll see what happens there. Along with that I picked up Okami for the WIi, Animal Crossing for the Wii, God of War for the PSP, and a few others... I probably over did it... but what else is new.
I'd recommend that people pick up Tecmo Bowl for $15... well worth that if you're a fan of the originals.
- I also picked up Rez HD off of the 360 Marketplace... but just can't bring myself to buy the 360 golf game... it just didn't seem all that good when I played the demo... even at 500 points, it's hard to bite on that.
- Off to a party... hope everyone has a good rest of the holiday weekend.
Black Friday Fun
Regarding my APF post, I'm not sure if that really is a recent title update. I forgot I had been playing the PS3 version for some time.
One big thing though is if you install APF to your Hard Drive, the thing loads WICKED fast.
Amazon suprised me with their video game deals. I wish I waited to buy Tecmo...$15..that's about right.
And Xbox related, the 360 has some Black Friday sales and reduced points -- the golf game that I like on Arcade is now 500 points..worth playing if you ask me...
Rick Roll : Macy’s Edition
There was a holy crap moment at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade....a live Rickroll! It's now up on YouTube and you can check it out here.
APF 2K8 Title Update (360)
There's a recent (I don't know how recent but within the past few months) title update for All Pro Football 2K8. No idea what it does, but it's there...
Turkey for Me, Turkey For You
Glen seems to have disappeared, so I'm just going to keep posting. I did my morning workout today and tried this Expresso Fitness bike, and holy crap, it nearly killed me.
On the bright side, doing this now allows me to eat whatever I want today. So there's that.
I took a look at all the "DoorBusters" sales and all I can say is Meh. If you don't have Guitar Hero or a videogame console, you'll do well, other than that, there's really no reason to torture yourself to get up that early. I was very disappointed in the "sales". The only one I'm very intrigued about is the Apple store online sale...but I'm guessing we'll see huge deals like $5 off an iPod or something.
Couple of other Quick Notes:
You have probably read the liberal mainstream media's report on the Wii Speak and how easy it is to get a new code -- if you misplaced your original -- keep in mind that's not the same as "if you sold it to someone else and they don't have a code." However the asshat reporting makes it sound like this is the case. I have the WiiSpeak and uh....why did I buy that, exactly? I have no idea.
If you haven't noticed, I have joined the world of Twitter and you can follow my every text message by clicking the twitter box on the lower right of the screen. Very exciting stuff, btw.
Alrighty, time to hit the showers....
Happy Thanksgiving everyone
After a long two weeks at work and a 5 1/2 hour drive last night, I'm finally able to start taking it a bit easy.
- Played a bit more Tecmo Bowl: Kickoff on my drive last night and have nearly finished my first season. I do enjoy the game, but there are some annoyances in the game that really bother me each time I play it. I should have something posted about this weekend.
- Glad to hear that people still like the podcasts. Dan and I have been trying to make the time for it for a while. We'll get back to it soon. Hopefully my schedule is going to start to settle down to make it a bit easier to get it done.
- I love when retailers do their Black Friday sales online on Thanksgiving day. I got here about 1:00 last night and picked up games from Best Buy, Target, and Circuit City. Now I just have to wait for the Amazon deals and I'll be a happy gamer (not that I'm not already.)
Pod Casts..anyone interested?
We haven't heard huge demand for Podcasts recently. Basically Glen and I have been trying to book guests for the show and we can't seem to get all our schedules on the same page.
Do you want a podcast, even if it doesn't have guests?
Let us know, and throw out some topics you want us to discuss..maybe with 4 days off, we'll actually tackle it. Heh.
Guitar Hero: World Tour — Still Waiting
On Sunday, October 26th, I plunked down $189 for Guitar Hero World Tour. Instead of getting an enjoyable game with working fake plastic instruments, I received a wireless guitar that wouldn't strum up.
On October 28th, I filed for a return claim. Two days (!) later, Red Octane decided to issue me an RMA. I immediately shipped the guitar back to them.
On Wednesday, November 5th, the guitar was received by Red Octane. I have the tracking number!!!
And today, a mere three weeks later, the RMA is still "in process". Every time I email, I get a response saying that it should go out this week.
Hey I got news for you: I doubt it. What sort of horrible customer service is this? You pay $190 for a friggin system, you can't return it back to the store because they don't have any more (since they took a bunch of returns) and now they can't pull a guitar out of their butts in 21 days?
WTF!! No matter which game you like, EA and Rock Band did everything the right way. I never paid a dime for my warranty exchange. As opposed to the $10 extra I had to pay to ship the guitar back to Red Octane.
Nice job, guys. Keep up the great work!
Pre-Turkey Festivities
Happy day before Thanksgiving. I spent it at the mall, trying to get my last minute shopping in before the cluster hits on Friday. LOL.
Meanwhile, I played some NHL 09 and remember when I said it was good? It still is good, but it seems to play rather slow to me...slower than I recall in fact. I was actually kinda bummed.
I am really liking Banjo Kazooie, although it's not sports related. 
A Colbert Christmas
I taped a Colbert Christmas last night and just watched it now...WOW it is hysterically funny. Uh-oh, Mistletoe...this is awkward...
The music is great, and it's now available on iTunes Plus for $7.99...time to use up my gift card leftovers for that. I think Feist could read the dictionary and make it sound good....
Quick Monday night note
- Thank goodness I'm working tonight (not like that's an enjoyable thing,) but at least I'm not watching the Packers game. What a terrible effort. Looks like the playoff picture in the NFC North just cleared up a bit tonight.
Contact Us
Riding the Pines Podcast
Search Amazon.com
What We’re Playing
Dan:
