Tag Archives: futureshop

Maybe I Should Have Picked Up Another E4200

Posted on by
2

e4200

For my parents’ wireless access point solution, I picked up a refurbished Linksys E4200 from FutureShop for $60 + taxes. I was skeptical because it was a Linksys router and it was refurbished. But I went ahead and picked it up because it supported Tomato custom firmware which I wholeheartedly support.

Now that I’ve got it up and running for over a week, I’m regretting not picking one up for myself. This thing is wonderfully stable and fast. It also boasts some impressive looks.

I didn’t even have this kind of stability with my ASUS RT-N16 when I first installed Toastman’s Tomato on it. I haven’t actually tested its 450 Mbps speed but I did test out the impressive coverage. It covers the top and ground floors of their house and then some.

I was thinking about getting an expensive ASUS RT-N66U or the absurdly expensive ASUS RT-AC66U but after trying out this silent performer, I’m keeping my eyes out for other refurbished gems like it.

Checkpoint: Post E3 2011 Edition

Posted on by
Reply

checkpoint-post-e3-2011-edition

E3 2011 is over.

For me it was a nice E3 filled with pleasant titles and a steady year or so of gaming. Nintendo’s Wii U won’t be out until sometime in 2012 and with what they’ve shown, it’s a bit tough to get excited for it at the moment. Meanwhile,  the PlayStation Vita seems to be in its own little world. Much of it was exciting from the mindset of a $250 handheld, but I didn’t see anything that would compel me to pre-order one as of yet.

This E3 was about games and there were plenty of promising titles — many of which I pre-ordered via FutureShop’s awesome promotion:

  1. Deus Ex: Human Revolution (PC) – Aug. 23, 2011
  2. RAGE (PC) – Oct. 4, 2011
  3. Forza Motorsport 4 (360) – Oct. 11, 2011
  4. Battlefield 3 (PS3 & PC just in case) – Oct. 21, 2011
  5. Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception – Nov. 1, 2011
  6. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (PS3) – Nov. 8, 2011
  7. Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (PC) – Nov. 11, 2011
  8. Mass Effect 3 (360) – March 6, 2012
  9. Ninja Gaiden 3 (PS3) – Q1 2012
  10. BioShock: Infinite (PC) – Q2 2012
  11. Halo 4 (360) – Q3/Q4 2012
  12. Far Cry 3 (360) – TBA 2012
  13. SoulCalibur V (PS3) – TBA 2012
  14. Diablo III (PC) – TBA – *
  15. Max Payne 3 (PC) – TBA – *

* – Not shown at E3, but part of the promotion

Continue reading →

Pre-ordering Adventures

Posted on by
2

bestbuy-logoThe last game I pre-ordered was Metal Gear Solid 4 which came with a whole slew of bonuses that I eventually didn’t care about. Since then, I haven’t pre-ordered a single game unless there was some sort of deal.

Even though I’ll probably grow tired of Modern Warfare 3′s multiplayer and scoff at the campaign, I went ahead and pre-ordered it for $49.99 at FutureShop. The thing about Call of Duty games is that you’ll most likely get your money’s worth in return via trade in promotions like those found at GameStop. Most of the time, it’s a one for one trade towards a game. The trade in value is that high.

My next tale is one of regret. I assumed the Xbox 360 version of L.A Noire would be the one to get, but it turns out it isn’t. When GiantBomb goes out of their way to mention platform differences, it’s enough for me to switch platforms. Unfortunately for me, changing platforms wasn’t so easy.

I ordered my copy from BestBuy.ca for $50.99 before taxes. A decent discount considering it’s a new release. (I also got 800 Reward Zone points ($10), but that doesn’t really count.) So I noticed that my order status was still “In progress” so I rang BestBuy customer support and asked if I could simply change versions. I was disappointed to hear that wasn’t possible; not without voiding the discount.

Refusing to pay full price, I thought back to last Friday and Dell.ca’s L.A Noire promotion. It was a mere $5 off, but Dell.ca allowed me to use my $20 MasterCard that I received from a mail in rebate offer in conjunction with my regular BestBuy VISA. In the end I paid $62.14 for the PlayStation 3 version of L.A Noire which shipped out today.

That was quite a bit of fuss to get the “superior” version of a game, next time I’ll take my brother’s advice and buy both versions and cancel/return the one I don’t want.

Duh.

Portal 2 (PS3) Arrived On Time

Posted on by
Reply

bestbuy-logoThe only time I actually pick up games in a retail store is after a GameStop PowerTrade promotion. Otherwise, I’m waiting patiently at home for my game to arrive via mail or download. Downloading from Steam is dependent on Valve’s servers and my ISP which means I can usually get an game within an hour or so.

By mail, I was waiting anywhere between a couple of days to a whole week before my game would get here. But thanks to FutureShop and BestBuy’s earlier shipping practices, I’ve been receiving games on day one. I received Portal 2 today and I also received Killzone 3 on its launch day.

This has been great.

These two electronic giants are doing right by their consumers with this.

Amazon.ca has been pretty consistent, but instead of getting my game on day one, I get a nice shipping notice saying that it was on its way. Today is Tuesday which means I should be expecting a package by Friday at the latest.

Dell.ca seems to be the most inconsistent. If it’s in stock, I get it the day after release. If it’s not in stock, it can be up to a week. And worse of all, they use Purolator which means I need to find an inconvenient Purolator station.

On a whole, games have been arriving in a timely fashion. I wish every retailer was shipping their merchandise out early, but I can’t complain if I’m not paying for shipping. I’d love to have Amazon Prime option here in Canada, but that’s probably not going to happen any time soon. We don’t even have all the different types of merchandise available in Amazon.com.

Baby steps, I guess.

GameDealsCanada’s Deal of the Year 2010

Posted on by
1

doty-2010We’re in a bit of a post-holiday 2010 lull at the moment, so I thought it’d be a good time to reflect. It’s time to look back at 2010 and pick out some “deals of the year”.

If you’re curious about last year’s result, just head over here.

Digital Distribution Deal of the Year

Winner: Fallout: New Vegas Digital Collector’s Edition for $29.71 ($20 off) @ Direct2Drive

steam-logo fallout-new-vegas-pc

A non-Steam sale for “Digital Distribution Deal of the Year”? Blasphemous? Not quite. Allow me to explain.

Just a little over a month after release and this game gets a hefty $20 off on Direct2Drive. It was a timely sale, there was plenty of time take advantage of it (weekend sale) and it was a deal for a game people wanted. We wouldn’t see a similar deal like this for another 30+ days on Steam. Plus, since this title was a Steamworks game,we were activating it on Valve’s service anyway.

Runners up: Super Meat Boy (PC) for $3.75 on Steam, Amnesia: The Dark Descent for $9.99 on Steam, Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit for $19.95 on Direct2Drive

Continue reading →

Black Friday 2010 Gaming Deals

Posted on by
Reply

black-friday-2010

Black Friday 2010 begins November 26, 2010! And Canadian retailers are getting into the thick of it. Here you will find game deals as I stumble into them. I will try to update this page as soon as possible, but if you want faster updates, follow GameDealsCanada on Twitter or Facebook!

Without further delay, here are the deals sorted by platform!

Please post a comment or send a message via Twitter or Facebook if there are any errors or new deals!

Bolded deals are my personal highlights.

Continue reading →

Checkpoint: The Calm Before The March 2010 Storm Edition

Posted on by
Reply

checkpoint-the-calm-before-the-march-2010-storm-edition

It’s the end of February. While in year’s past, this would be gaming business as usual, 2010′s March lineup rivals the best holiday lineups ever.

I placed my order for Battlefield: Bad Company 2, my Final Fantasy XIII order was placed earlier this year and God of War III was in the queue since mid-2009.

Unfortunately, I still have games I wish to spend with including BioShock 2‘s multiplayer which I will do a write up about later this week. I also have Trine to complete; I would have been a bit disappointed with if I had spent the full $19.99 for it. Then there’s Starship Defense, which didn’t particularly wow me, but I did just finish it with all “Perfect” medals. I did want to spend more time with Marvel vs Capcom 2 as well. After all these years, I really wanted to spend time into executing an “Air Combo” consistently.

Continue reading →