Krunk4Ever!

Wow! It’s been quite awhile since my last post. Things have been quite busy at work and with the darn construction going around here, I’ve been waking up at 9am. I haven’t gotten a chance to blog about Joe’s Birthday BBQ or my recent camping trip. Hopefully my workload won’t be as bad in the coming weeks.

Anyway, the following deals are time sensitive, so I thought I’d blog about them now before they evaporate. Amazon.com has a few Xbox 360/Rock Band deals going on this weekend:

Xbox 360 Live 4000 Points for $40 or Xbox 360 Live 1600 Points for $16. These are normally $50 and $20 respectively. You’re basically getting a 20% discount making it 100pts/$1 instead of 80pts/$1. Pretty good deal considering Live Points don’t usually go on sale and if you order $25+, you get free shipping and since these are considered “gift cards”, they’re not taxable (even in WA).

If you’re seeing a different seller on the main page, please look on the right side, and you should see Amazon.com as seller and the lower price. Given that this deal started earlier this weekend, it’s currently back-ordered, but you’re still allowed to purchase it at the discounted price.

If you’re wondering if it’s better to get the 1600 points or the 4000 points, the better deal is the 1600 points because at 4000 points, you save about 5 cents, but the savings are pretty negligible. I would recommend buying 2×1600pts to qualify for free shipping.

Buy Rock Band 2 for the Xbox 360 and get a 1600 Live Points Card

Here’s your chance to add the new Rock Band game to your collection and set yourself up with 1600 Live points. That means the 84 tracks from the game plus about 10 downloads with your points. This deal will keep you rocking for a while! Offer limited to products shipped and sold by Amazon.com. Promotion ends on October 4, 2008 at 11:59PST. Offer good while supplies last. Limit one per household. See Details.

*Details

Order the standalone version of Rock Band 2 for the Xbox 360 and the Xbox 360 Live 1600 Points card by October 4, 2008 in our Video Games Store and receive the Xbox 360 Live 1600 Points card free. To redeem this offer place both participating products in your cart and proceed through the check out process. At the end of your order the cost of the Xbox 360 Live 1600 Points card will be deducted from your total order. This offer applies only to the purchase of the standalone version of Rock Band 2 for the Xbox 360 and the Xbox 360 Live 1600 Points card offered by Amazon.com and does not apply to products sold on our site by third-party merchants or through third-party areas such as Amazon.com Marketplace or Auctions. Limit one per household.

How to Qualify for the Rock Band 2 Points Card Promotion:

-This offer applies to qualifying purchases made before 11:59 p.m. PT on October 4, 2008 while supplies last on the “the standalone version of Rock Band 2 for the Xbox 360″ and “the Xbox 360 Live 1600 Points card.”
-Offer does not apply to out-of-stock items.
-The cost of the Xbox 360 Live 1600 Points card will be deducted from your total order at the end of the check out process.
-Offer can only be applied to orders placed after 12:00 AM PT on September 21, 2008, and before 11:59pm PT on October 4, 2008.

Since I was planning to pick up Rock Band 2 already (just didn’t want to pay retail), getting a free $20 worth of Xbox 360 Live Points made a pretty sweet deal. Too bad I had to pay WA sales tax, but even considering that and the fact that the 1600 is really worth $16 this weekend, I’m still saving over $10.

Finally, this probably isn’t time sensitive, but Xyon informed me there was a new free Rock Band song: Stephen Colbert DLC hits Rock Band. The song is called Charlene, a pretty short and hilarious song by Stephen and the Colberts. Those flawless expert achievements are finally within reach!

Got this via the Xbox.com Marketplace RSS feed: Celebrate Bungie Day!

Grab this new multiplayer map free.

Cold Storage Map

Once, the Cold Storage facility was a vibrant, active research center on Installation 05. An accidental contamination resulted in an unforeseen outbreak, which compromised the Forerunner center. Now, emptied and silent, watched only by a local caretaker, the abandoned structure serves as a reminder of how something as powerful as science is ultimately beholden to nature. This new map is available free starting on 7/7.

Downloaded it a few days ago. Haven’t got a chance to try it out yet.

Time to jam.

Just got alerted that there was a new free track for Guitar Hero III: Guitar Hero III July Song Track Releases:

Top Gun Anthem Single Track (available July 3)
Price: Free
Songs: “Top Gun Anthem” written by Harold Faltermeyer as featured in the famous movie starring Tom Cruise.

I guess it’s a freebie to celebrate the 4th of July. You can listen to the music on YouTube: TOP GUN ANTHEM

Since I was on Xbox Live downloading this free track, I decided to see what other DLC (Downloadable Content) was available for games that I own. Apparently they released new costumes for Ninja Gaiden 2 for 200pts each. I really have no need to pay $2.50 to get a new costume for Ryu Hayabusa.

Anyway, it turns out that Rock Band is also release a new free track. According to *** DLC Week of July 1st - Crüefest Pack plus free song!:

Hey everybody, next week for DLC we have the Crüefest Pack for $.99 per track (80 Microsoft Points) and a track from the movie “The Rocker” by Vesuvius absolutely free! Also check back on Monday and I may have some other news-type-stuff for you.

[...]

“Promised Land” - Vesuvius
(All tracks utilize the original master recordings)

[...]

“Promised Land” – Free!

You can go listen to Promised Land and watch someone play on YouTube: Promised Land- Vesuvius Rock Band Guitar Expert. Sounds like another song celebrating July 4th, Independence Day.

So I finally logged into Xbox Live today to accept Xyon’s friend invitation (apparently he’s now addicted to Rock Band and went out to purchase an Xbox 360 and the Rock Band Special Edition).

Anyway, while I was browsing through the Inside Xbox videos and noticed that there was a new free track for Guitar Hero III: I Am Murloc

From OXM’s World of Warcraft meets Guitar Hero:

Thursday 26-Jun-2008 9:52 AM “I Am Murloc” available to download for GH3, which is great if you actually know what it is.

Fans of Guitar Hero III and free stuff can download “I Am Murloc” today, a World of Warcraft song by Blizzard’s in-house band, Level 70 Elite Tauren Chieftain.

This promotional exercise is supposed to build hype for a big announcement ahead of the Activision and Blizzard merger finally taking place. It could be an announcement that World of Warcraft is heading to consoles (which makes sense given the console DLC and merging) but it’s more likely to be something in the vein of Diablo 3 being announced.

As for the song itself, here it is. Erm… what?

Looking up on YouTube, I found the song and music video: I AM MURLOC - L70ETC.

Enjoy!

So I finally picked up a Motorola Surfboard SB5101 Cable Modem. Amazon.com finally had a deal for $43.99 - $20 rebate, making it only $23.99 shipped. Well, I had to pay sales tax too, but that’s because I’m in Washington.

There has been discussion on threads if the rebate is valid for Amazon.com given that the rebate form is hosted on Frys.com and that Amazon.com doesn’t actually list the rebate. However on the rebate form, it does state that Amazon.com is a valid retailer to purchase from. Then there was doubt about the UPC matching given that apparently there are 3 UPCs for this particular modem and something about the color of the box.

I got the modem today and the UPC do indeed match (6-12572-14827-3) and mine came in a blue/black box if that matters.

Previously, I had posted my results from Speedtest.net using my D-Link DCM-202 flashed with a special Comcast firmware yielding these results:

A couple days later, TekMan showed me his results:

I was shocked how much of a jump there is just based on the cable modem alone! At this point I was determined to find a deal and get my own Motorola cable modem.

A week or 2 ago, there was a Circuit City deal for $20 after rebate, but required price matching to Office Depot and the fact that I had to actually visit a store discouraged me from attempting. When I saw this Amazon.com deal on SlickDeals, I knew I had to get it.

I ordered it last week for $44.99 + tax shipped and then it dropped a dollar further to $43.99. I did get my dollar back through Amazon.com’s 30 day price guarantee. Anyway, the modem arrived today and I called Comcast to update the MAC address so I can associate the new cable modem to my account. After giving him the information, he tells me the registration server was down and told me to try back at 3am. I had called around 11pm and the thought of me going internet-less for 4 hours was a scary thought.

So I sat around filing my rebate and did a couple other things while the clock ticked away. When the clock hit 1am, I knew I had to check to see if I can register my modem yet. I called and indeed the server was back up. Registration only took a few minutes and my internet was up and running in no time. Whoopee!

Of course, the first thing I do is another speed test:

This purchase was definitely worth it. I did 3 tests with my D-Link DCM-202 and they average to around 18000Kbps down and 1500Kbps up. I did 2 tests with my Motorola SB5101 and they average to 23000Kbps down and 3100Kbps up. Quite a performance increase for just $25! Of course, this could just be the initial burst speed, but I’m still excited about the speed increase.

Now I have a spare cable modem or if I sell it, it’ll probably pay for my Motorola cable modem completely!

Along the same lines as the previous post, thanks to Mike C for pointing out the fact there the McDonald’s/Rock Band promotion that went on last month that dropped several songs to 80pts ($1) was still in effect.

According to Shacknews:

Marking the third promotional campaign to feature Rock Band downloadable content this week, developer Harmonix and fast-food eatery McDonald’s have teamed up to offer cheaper downloads of select songs across the next month.

Beginning today, the cost of two individual Rock Band tracks will be temporarily lowered to 80 Microsoft Points ($1), down from the average asking price of 160 Microsoft Points ($2). The promotion will run for a total of four weeks, with the discounted songs changing every week.

Meant to promote the McDonald’s Dollar Menu, the cheaper downloads are available for both the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 editions of the multi-instrument music title.

The discount schedule and specific per-week songs are:

5/6/08 - 5/12/08 :

• Paramore - “Crushcrushcrush”
• Boston - “Rock ‘n Roll Band”

5/13/08 - 5/19/08 :

• Black Tide - “Shockwave”
• Grateful Dead - “Sugar Magnolia”

5/20/08 - 5/26/08:

• Faith No More - “We Care A Lot”
• Blink 182 - “All the Small Things”

5/27/08 - 6/2/08:

• Lynyrd Skynyrd - “Gimme Three Steps”
• All-American Rejects - “Dirty Little Secret”

The promotion was supposed to end on 6/2 and only 2 songs were supposed to be discounted each week, but it appears even though the promotion is over, all 8 songs are being discounted. Not sure if this is a permanent discount, or if it’s a glitch, but if any of those songs interest you above, you should get them soon. The only 2 songs I really know from that list are: Blink 182 - “All the Small Things” and All-American Rejects - “Dirty Little Secret”.

Got this deal from FromHyd on SD. According to the thread, you can get 2 free tracks by Disturbed (which is released on June 3rd, 2008).

1. Go to Disturbed / Xbox / Rock Band
2. Enter the following code: 1lfa89
3. Click Submit
4. Enter download code you receive on your Xbox Live Account

To redeem your token code, go to the Xbox 360® Dashboard and enter Xbox LIVE® Marketplace. Select the Redeem Code option to enter your code to begin downloading your content.

When I tried redeeming the code in Firefox, I got the error:　You have already redeemed your code!, but it worked fine in IE7.

According to Xbox 360 Fanboy, the following 3 tracks by Disturbed are scheduled to be released on 6/3:

• Indestructible
• Inside the Fire
• Perfect Insanity

So it’s probably going to be 2 out of those 3.

You’re probably wondering what exactly is this deal? And what does it mean by Best Buy pre order code? I actually have no idea and the thread doesn’t really go into specifics. Someone did mention:

Code works. Disturbed Pre-Order Pack downloaded. OP repped!

So maybe pre order refers to the name of the download: Disturbed Pre-Order Pack which Best Buy was distributing. Or it could be you had to pre-order something at Best Buy to qualify for this code. Either way, I’m not sure what it means, but if you’re questioning the ethicality (is that even a word?) of this deal, I would suggest you probably skip it until more details are revealed.

Update: Apparently today is June 3rd.

Update #2: According to Mike C, Indestructable and Inside The Fire are the 2 free tracks in this pack.

Update #3: Looks like all the download codes have been redeemed.

Thanks to kattails2 for this deal. Since people have being coming to my site looking for Six Flags Discount, I decided to have a 2008 post.

Six Flags
One-Day Adult Admission at Childs Price.
use promo code- located in the upper right corner
COLDSTONE

Instructions:

1. Go to Six Flags Tickets
2. Select your park of choice in the combo box.
3. A new window should open and on the upper right hand corner, it says ENTER PROMO HERE
4. Enter the following promotion code: COLDSTONE or PJKID

According to the description provided, the deal expires on 9/28/2008.

One-Day Ticket - Everybody Pays Kids Price

One-Day admission to Six Flags _____ valid regular operating days during the 2008 season through December 31. The discounted ticket cannot be combined with any other offer. Visit sixflags.com for specific operating schedule. Children 2 and under FREE!

Everyone Pays the Kid’s Price!
Ticket valid through 9/28/2008.

Apparently if you’re planning to go either today or tomorrow, Six Flags Magic Mountain has a Memorial Day discount for $26.99/person.

Enjoy!

Update: Promo code PJKID also works (expires 7/31/2008)

Thanks to StanMan for forwarding me this link: Still Alive for Rock Band Free Tommorrow

ROCK BAND Media Alert

ROCK BAND™ TO FEATURE FREE DOWNLOAD OF “STILL ALIVE” FROM VALVE’S PORTAL™

This is a triumph … Harmonix Music Systems and MTV Games have teamed up with Valve to bring the song “Still Alive”, released as part of The Orange Box collection of games on PC, 360 and Playstation 3, into the Rock Band library. And, as icing on the cake, the track will be available as a FREE download on April 1 for the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, and April 17 for the PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system.

Written by Jonathan Coulton and originally performed over the end credits of Portal, the experimental single-player game in The Orange Box, “Still Alive” found its way into the heads and hearts of gamers and quickly became a cult classic.

“While the cake may be a lie, the free download of “Still Alive” is confirmed truth,” said Greg LoPiccolo, VP of product development at Harmonix. “‘Still Alive’ is an awesome song that brings together great gaming and great music. We’ve teamed up with Valve to deliver a free download of “Still Alive” as a “thank you” to our fans for their incredible support.”

“Rock Band has lit the industry on fire by opening a new market for cooperative musical gaming,” said Doug Lombardi, VP of marketing at Valve. “We’re delighted Harmonix has selected the track for inclusion in the growing library of tracks available for this phenomenal title.”

With the addition of “Still Alive” to the Rock Band library, there are now more than 70 tracks available for download in addition to the 58 tracks in the original game. To date, gamers have purchased more than 6 million downloadable songs for Rock Band since its launch on November 20, 2007.

Downloadable content for the Xbox 360 will be available via Xbox LIVE® Marketplace using Microsoft Points and is downloaded directly to the Xbox 360 hard drive. Downloadable content for the PLAYSTATION 3 system’s version of Rock Band will be available on the PLAYSTATION®Store through the free PLAYSTATION®Network and is downloaded directly to PLAYSTATION 3 system’s built in hard drive.

Rock Band is rated “T” for Teen (lyrics, mild suggestive themes) by the ESRB.

I found this on Rock Band’s forums: DLC April 1st! Huge success!

Hey everybody!

This week we have a special present for you in celebration of April Fool’s Day. For $0 (0 Microsoft Points) you can download-

“Still Alive” by GlaD0s and Jonathan Coulton (master)

Due to work Sony is doing on their store they won’t be adding new material for a couple weeks so this won’t release on PlayStation Store this week. When they go back up with new material in a few weeks, though, it will be there lovingly waiting for you. For free. I’ll post something up here when it is available on that platform.

It will be available on Xbox360 on April 1st.

Also special thanks to Valve and to Jonathan Coulton for helping to make this happen. You rule.

If you don’t know what Still Alive is, you’ve been missing out. It’s the ending song for Portal (part of The Orange Box).

Unfortunately when I went to go download it right now, I was unable to connect to Xbox Live. That’s when I found this article: Reminder: Xbox Live Maintenance on Tuesday April 1:

On Tuesday April 1st from 0200-0500 PT Xbox Live will be offline for maintenance. As a result, the ‘My Xbox’ section of Xbox.com will be unavailable, and the Xbox forums will be in read only mode (you won’t be able to post.) The remainder of Xbox.com will be available.

Find out what time the maintenance will begin in your time zone

This is for maintenance, there are no new features on your that will appear on your Xbox 360 console or Xbox.com when the service comes back online. This is server maintenance only.

Those bastards! *shakes fist* Guess I’ll just have to wait till tomorrow. The freebie appears to be available for the whole week, unless you own a PS3, which then you’ll have to wait till Sony fixes their marketplace.

Update:

Here’s Xbox.com’s official story on it: Rock Band April Song Track Releases

Harmonix and MTV Games have announced the release schedule of individual song tracks and song packs for the game Rock Band™ for the month of April 2008. Fans will be able to purchase songs for 160 Microsoft Points per track (unless otherwise stated) and entire packs of songs are available at a discount.

Tracks marked with an asterisk (*) are cover songs as made famous by the listed artist. Tracks without an asterisk are original master recordings.

Week of April 1, 2008

• Individual tracks released (this is a FREE download starting April 1):
  • “Still Alive” by GLaDOS and Jonathan Coulton (from the game Portal)

Rock Band downloadable content is playable and integrated into setlists in all game modes including Solo Tour, Band World Tour, head-to-head competition either locally or online, and from any Quickplay mode. Start flexing your fingers and mark your calendar for these exciting song tracks, available through Xbox LIVE® Marketplace.

Got this via RSS feed earlier this week:

Guitar Hero III®: Legends of Rock will be kicking off the St. Patrick’s Day celebrations with a special free track pack from the popular Celtic punk band Dropkick Murphys.

Straight from the band’s sixth album, The Meanest of Times, the Dropkick Murphys pack will include master recordings of “Famous for Nothing,” “(F)lannigan’s Ball” and “Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ya.” The track pack will be available for free to download on Xbox LIVE® Marketplace.

Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock downloadable content is instantly playable and available in the Downloaded Songs set list in ALL game modes (Career, Co-Op Career, Quickplay, Multiplayer, Practice and all Online modes). Check out the Marketplace regularly for the latest tracks.

It mentioned that it was free to starting from St. Patrick’s Day, but doesn’t mention any expiration date, so I’m going to assume this isn’t just some limited time promotion. Enjoy!