Entertainment Electronics Blog

Steam has a deal on the Serious Sam series, offering The First Encounter for $3.74, The Second Encounter for $4.99, the Double Pack for $7.49, or the Gold Edition (which includes the older titles) for $9.99. Each of those prices is 75% off what you’d usually pay.
If you’re in the market to get yourself set up with PlayStation Move, GameStop will sell you a Move controller for 50% off with the purchase of another Move controller. Whether you take advantage of that deal or already have Move at home, GameStop is also offering buy one, get one free on select Move titles.

Portal 2 remains cheap on all platforms at Amazon, Direct2Drive has Mass Effect 2 for just $9.99, and Impulse has the complete collection of Civilization IV titles for only $19.99. The latter is now a bit outdated with Civilization V on the market, but it’s still a terrific deal for $20.

Read on for this week’s deals and let us know what we missed in the comments below.
Amazon

•Buy a 160GB PS3, get a free DualShock 3
•Portal 2 (360/PS3) — $39.99 (from $59.99)
•Portal 2 (PC) — $29.99 (from $49.99)
•Xbox Live Gold 12-month card — $39.99 (from $59.99)
•Rift 60-day game card — $20.70 (from $29.99)
•Kinect sensor with Kinect Adventures — $138.99 plus $25 Amazon credit

Direct2Drive

•Crysis 2 — $41.97 (from $59.95)
•Bulletstorm — $29.97 (from $59.95)
•Battlefield: Bad Company 2 — $9.97 (from $19.95)
•Medal of Honor — $14.97 (from $29.95)
•Mass Effect 2 — $9.97 (from $19.95)
•STALKERS: Shadow of Chernobyl — $4.98 (from $19.95)
•Hearts of Iron III — $5.95 (from $19.95)
•Hearts of Iron III: Semper Fi — $5.95 (from $19.95)

EA Store

•Buy two or more games, get 50% off your order

GamersGate

•1C Complete Pack — $49.99 (from $99.99)
•1C RPG Pack — $23.99 (from $79.95)
•1C Space Strategy Pack — $14.99 (from $49.95)
•1C Strategy Pack — $23.99 (from $79.95)
•Revenge of the Titans — $11.21 (from $14.95)

GameStop

•Buy one Move controller, get one for 50% off
•Buy one select Move game, get one free
•Pre-order FEAR 3, get a free copy of FEAR 2

Good Old Games

•30% off Activision RPGs

Impulse

•50% off all Gothic titles
•Supreme Commander Gold — $9.99 (from $19.99)
•Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3 Uprising
•Civilization IV: Complete Edition — $19.99 (from $39.99)
•Rig ‘n’ Roll — $17.49 (from $34.99)
•Blood Bowl: Legendary Edition — $19.99 (from $39.99)

Steam

•SpaceChem — $7.49 (from $14.99)
•Serious Sam HD: Gold Edition — $9.99 (from $39.99)
•Serious Sam HD: Double Pack — $7.49 (from $29.99)
•Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter — $3.74 (from $14.99)
•Serious Sam HD: The Second Encounter — $4.99 (from $19.99)
•You Don’t Know Jack — $9.99 (from $19.99)
•RailWorks 2 + Farming Simulator 2011 — $32.49 (from $64.98)
•Hearts of Iron 2 Complete — $4.49 (from $14.99)
•Hearts of Iron III — $5.99 (from $19.99)
•Hearts of Iron III: Semper Fi — $5.99 (from $19.99)
•Arsenal of Democracy: A Hearts of Iron Game — $4.49 (from $14.99)

Sony has shipped more than one million PlayStation Move peripherals in America since its launch last month, and the platform holder says that demand continues to be high.

“We had to go back and increase production twice, we’re absolutely maxed out right now,” Sony Computer Entertainment America CEO Jack Tretton told Reuters.

Tretton also said that he doesn’t expect Sony to have enough supply on hand until next February.

While Sony’s official release says that it has shipped more than 1 million units, Reuters is reporting that more than a million units have actually been sold. We’re currently checking in with Sony to see whether that report is accurate.

Sony launched the Move on September 19, and the NPDs showed all three bundles making it into the Top 10 Accessory listings.

The Move’s direct competitor — Microsoft’s Kinect — will be out next month.

E3 attendees don’t always have all the fun. Before the booths in LA could even be fully taken down, Sony gave PlayStation Move its public debut this weekend at Japan’s World Hobby Fair, a bi-annual event that features the latest games, manga, and anime. We were on hand to check out public reaction as well as the two featured games, EyePet and Kung Fu Rider.

The World Hobby Fair is free to the public and the games on display usually cater to a younger demographic. Judging by the length of the lines at Sony’s booth, interest in the device isn’t particularly high. ModNation Racers attracted twice the attention of Sony’s motion controller. Meanwhile, Mario Galaxy 2, a game that’s been out in Japan for nearly a month, had the longest lines of the show. Those that did try Move walked away looking impressed, and the reason for the relative apathy towards the device remains unclear.

We stood in line for about an hour (one of the shorter lines at the show) in order to get our chance to play Kung Fu Rider. The game is played with a single Move controller. You control a bespectacled man in suspenders sliding down the road in an office chair. In his way stand everything from milk crates and road signs to yakuza and old ladies. The goal of the game is to avoid the organized criminals and roadblocks and reach the end of the course. You steer your character by moving the controller from side to side. Gently whipping the controller will speed him up. Pressing the T trigger on the back of the Move controller will make the character on screen duck back in the chair like he’s in a limbo competition. Throwing the controller up will make him jump, and pressing the Move button on the front of the device will unleash an attack on an unsuspecting gangster or strolling granny.

Kung Fu Rider is a simple game that doesn’t make use of the fidelity the Move controller is capable of. There was nothing in the demo we played that couldn’t or hasn’t been done on the Wii. The demo that Sony displayed at the World Hobby Fair played and looked more like a $15 PSN game, not a $39.99 retail product ready for release this September.

Scotland-based game developer Cohort Studios has a thing or two to say about the next wave of motion controllers. The studio is currently hard at work on The Shoot, an on-rails shooter designed for the PlayStation Move, and it’s pretty safe to say Cohort’s sold on the tech.

“The PlayStation Move is a great piece of hardware,” Cohort CEO Lol Scragg told Develop in a recent interview. “It has a fantastic feel to it and it’s incredibly accurate. We’ve had no issues with it, and the hardware and the libraries have come on well.”

But how does Sony’s device stack up against the competition? “Having used both controllers a lot, I’d say it was clear that the Move controller is so much more accurate [than the Wii remote],” Scragg said. “And it’s not just across the X and Y-axis either, the Z-axis is really accurate as well.”

The CEO went on to discuss the negative perception of motion control among hardcore gamers. “I understand that, if you read any of the forums, you’ll [see] people state they don’t need motion control, but that’s because they’ve likened motion control to the Wii,” he explained, adding, “Once Sony and Microsoft start releasing their own games for their motion controllers, I think the core will come round to it.”

Granted, Scragg’s opinion may be somewhat skewed by his company’s investment in development for the PlayStation Move. It’s still nice to hear developers getting excited about new technology.