Bioshock 2 available 02.09.10

The long awaited Bioshock 2 will be out Febuary 9th, and there are plenty of gamers already planning to snatch it up at the first opportunity. But don’t just run into the first game retailer you see and buy it! I’ve sorted through the pre-order deals so you can get your game at the earliest possible moment AND get something extra too.

Here are the retailers who are clamoring for your Bioshock business:

Steam: The pre-order price is 44.99, plus they’re throwing in the original Bioshock for free. And as always, if you buy from Steam, you can get your game right at release without having to wait in line with all those other losers. Or, if you like other losers, and have three friends who also want Bioshock 2, you can get the four pack- four copies of Bioshock 2, plus four copies of Bioshock. If you consider the Bioshocks to be freebies, that’s 33.74 per Bioshock 2. Of course, the problem I see with this bonus is that most people who want to pre-order Bioshock 2 probably already have Bioshock- especially after Steam put it on the holiday sale for $4.99.

Gamestop and EB Games: Both retailers are offering two bonus multiplayer characters with pre order- Blanche the actress and Zigo the fisherman. If you buy in store, you will get a card with the code to unlock the duo, much as you would expect. The price is also about what you’d expect: $59.99. If you’re really hardcore, you also get this bonus with pre-order of the $99 Limited Edition.

Amazon.com: Amazon is offering a pre-order price of $54.99 or $55.99 for X360 or Playstation, plus you’ll also get a $10 credit towards future game purchases. That brings the price down to around $45 in a way, but they are twisting your arm to buy more games later. (Which of course you totally weren’t already going to do.) That’s not so inhumane, but they also reserve the right to charge you an indefinite amount for release date delivery- you’ll find out the amount at checkout.

(CNN) – When Dan Brown’s blockbuster novel “The Lost Symbol” hit stores in September, it may have offered a peek at the future of bookselling.

On Amazon.com, the book sold more digital copies for the Kindle e-reader in its first few days than hardback editions. This was seen as something of a paradigm shift in the publishing industry, but it also may have come at a cost.

Less than 24 hours after its release, pirated digital copies of the novel were found on file-sharing sites such as Rapidshare and BitTorrent. Within days, it had been downloaded for free more than 100,000 times.

Digital piracy, long confined to music and movies, is spreading to books. And as electronic reading devices such as Amazon’s Kindle, the Sony Reader, Barnes & Noble’s Nook, smartphones and Apple’s much-anticipated “tablet” boost demand for e-books, experts say the problem may only get worse.

“It’s fair to say that piracy of e-books is exploding,” said Albert Greco, an industry expert and professor of marketing at Fordham University.

Sales for digital books in the second quarter of 2009 totaled almost $37 million. That’s more than three times the total for the same three months in 2008, according to the Association of American Publishers (AAP).

Statistics are hard to come by, and many publishers are reluctant to discuss the subject for fear of encouraging more illegal downloads. But digital theft may pose a big headache in 2010 for the slumping publishing industry, which relies increasingly on electronic reading devices and e-books to stimulate sales.

“Piracy is a serious issue for publishers,” said Hachette Book Group in a statement. The company that publishes Stephenie Meyer’s wildly popular “Twilight” teen-vampire series says it “considers copyright protection to be of paramount importance.”

[Full story at CNN.com]

Amazon sells Laptop Steering Wheel Desk

No sir, I didn't see you, I was typing in my blog

Uh, yeah in my brain I silently scream WTF. YES, the Laptop Steering Wheel Desk does exist, click it and see. And of course, we currently have issues with people texting and driving, talking on the phone and driving, and now lets add ‘typing in your blog, on your Steering Wheel Desk while driving’ to our list.

I am going to concur with PasteMagazine.com saying that this has to be one of the most idiotic inventions created, yet probably still sells ok for $18 on Amazon.com. I honestly think that this will kill more people than any hentai games that Amazon has offered in the past available for order online.

Some comments on the product people are leaving are as follows:

“Wow is this thing great!??? says user T. Meadows. “I use it as a ‘mini-bar’ when the friends and I go out to the bars. I can quickly fix multiple shots of tequila for myself and the friends as we drive from one bar to the next.???

“I loved my Laptop Steering Wheel Desk so much I got one for my 90yr old mother,??? adds S. Kelly. “She is an avid crossword puzzle fan and now she can work on them while she is driving back and forth from bingo at the senior center.???

One picture comment left by a happy driver/writer

But my favorite comment has to be this, from one disgruntled customer:

“Cannot hold a toddler’s weight! Disappointed.???

Maybe the BusyGamer Wrecking Crew could use one of these on trips, cons, and excursions to increase the danger that we already have going on. I can’t say for sure, but considering the way we currently act, I always pack a few extra pairs of underwear, and I don’t know if i have room for any more.

[Source]

-Crutchboy out

Submitted by our undercover brother from another mother, Schlitzboy.

E-Readers get Gamette Lauren all 'kindled' up!

Many people may not like electronic devices and certainly not electronic reading devices. After all, who doesn’t love the smell of a book and the sound of the crisp pages as they turn or the heft of the weight of it in your hand? But if you didn’t you wouldn’t be on this particular site reading about game reviews and such! I bought my Kindle back in November 2008 and received it early December 2008. I bought one of the last refurbished units and had expedited shipping, of course. For a techie, expedited shipping is a must!

I had been lurking on amazon.com for a year, partially in lust with the Kindle. When the Kindle clock, as I like to call it, finally started ticking in early November and I just had to, I mean ABSOLUTELY HAD TO HAVE ONE. So I saved up a few paychecks and went to buy a new one, and alas, they were backed up in orders until February. I thought to myself, “How can I wait this long”? Out of nowhere, like magic, some refurbished Kindles popped up on kindle.com so I ordered it without any hesitation. The days before it got here all I could do was think and breathe Kindle. I also lurked the Kindle boards online. Reading others’ happy stories of their lives with their Kindles and all the neat stuff they had for them.

Finally, Wednesday December 3rd, 2008 at five something PM that night while I was in the labs at school writing a paper, my Kindle arrived. I squealed in glee when I saw the text from my Mother saying it had arrived. I went home after working and, surprisingly, concentrating on the paper. I came home to a bigger box then I imagined and carefully opened it. Low and behind the Kindle box! I was thinking, “I can now carry my library with me…”. The possibilities for this Tech Geek were endless when it came to reading. No more lugging and shuffling books around on my shelves to make room for that one more special book I would buy and read within a few hours. I charged it immediately upon opening. Also stopping beforehand to take camera phone photos with it and send it to various friends and co-workers. In the process of taking the photos, my Dad gave me some strange looks. It’s okay, he didn’t understand the Kindle goodness of it all just yet.

Two hours passed and I read that I could use it while it was charging and saw the charging light go off. Bingo, now I could have at it! I messed with it on the sofa for a bit and then retired to my room. I carried it everywhere with me for the first few weeks. People stopped and asked me if it was really the Kindle and I showed off the newest member of my family (my Kindle is family, I don’t care what you say!). I even spent more time online than usual, finding books for it because who is loco enough to pay those Amazon prices all the time for every book you want?!?!? I went to such sites as feedbooks.com and the like where classics and other great books are free.

The Kindle is a wonderful device you should not be without. The wireless delivery of newspapers to your Kindle every morning is awesome. You cannot have graphic novels bought off Amazon just yet but you can find them elsewhere and shrink the images down in an image program and then stick them on your Kindle with a little bit of know how. Though, on that level, I prefer the graphic novel to be paper and not Kindle. The screen doesn’t do justice for the novels or manga if you chose to put some on there. You can read pdfs on there but you will need a converter of some sort. I already have read a few books on it and plan to read more. I also found, with much glee, Minesweeper on the Kindle. It doesn’t say anything about Minesweeper in the manual it comes with it. It’s more something you find accidentally or while searching for hidden Kindle goodies via Google under Kindle hacks. In short, check out an Ebook reader and see for yourself the great advantages and features they hold.