Black Friday: What Did You Get?
Written by Timothy Adema   

Editor's note: Timothy gives a first-person account of his Black Friday haul -- did you camp out and get a great deal? Tell us about it in the comments! -Demian


Oh, Black Friday. Why do you hurt so good? As I was getting off work last night an old friend texted me, asking if I wanted to get up at four in the morning to run over to a nearby game store and pick up some games.

At first I thought of sleep. Oh, wonderful sleep. We are the closest of friends and you know how much I love you. But, you had to wait.

It is midnight. The clock is ticking. I finally fall asleep, only to wake up a few short hours later. I leave my house at 4:15 and drive over to Game Crazy. It's 4:25. The roads are surprisingly empty. Wal-Mart is so packed that the parking overflows to the Game Crazy parking lot.

We sit in the car for a few minutes. Oh, precious heat. How I will come to miss you over the next few minutes.

No one is in line, no one else is here. My friend and I make the bold decision to stand outside the store. As our bodies transition to icicles, he stupidly wearing shorts, me wearing a very thin jacket, the time counted down.

Finally, 5 a.m. rolls around and my jerk of an ex-boss lets us into the store. Sadly, the deals this year were not as great as last year's.

2008: Rainbow Six Vegas 2, Blue Dragon, The Darkness, Dark Sector, Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway -- $40.

2009: Infinite Undiscovery, Animal Crossing: City Folk (no WiiSpeak), and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Smash-Up -- $50.

Overall, they are still some decent games and I paid some good prices for them, but I was hoping for much better.

My head hits the pillow as soon as I make it into my room, knowing the games will have to wait, as I must once again wake up in a few short hours in order to be on the other side of the sales counter.

I'm hoping my fellow Bitmobbers will also share their Black Friday stories and what they managed to nab.

Comments (40)

My girlfriend and I learned last-minute about a $35 Left 4 Dead 2 at Best Buy, so we headed out there at 4 am and waited about an hour in cold drizzle for the store to open.

About 300 people were in line in front of us, but everything moved really smoothly and efficiently. Got our games...plus $13 Gladiator and Braveheart on Blu-Ray.
Dan Hsu , November 27, 2009
nice. I saw a whole bunch of Blu-Rays on sale at Best Buy.

I drove past the local Best Buy yesterday on my way to work. 4 pm Thursday and a line had already begun. Was on my way home from work and the line had reached the end of the building.

Glad to see you got L4D2, Shoe. I saw your post about it.
Timothy Adema , November 27, 2009
Black Friday -- bah, humbug! I hate Black Friday. I don't plan to leave the house today! I'm still in my PJs (granted, it's 9:20 a.m. on the West Coast).
Jason Wilson , November 27, 2009
Too bad Canada will never have deals have as good as that, ever.

I hate to say it, but Americans know how to do business.
David Matos , November 27, 2009
This whole Black Friday thing sounds awesome.
There's nothing like that in Europe unfortunately.
Marc Drewe , November 27, 2009
@Marc It's not awesome. It sucks. Reap the online sales instead.
Jason Wilson , November 27, 2009
snagged Dragon Age for 35$ at Best Buy after Jasmine told me. Feels good to save money.
Suriel Vazquez , November 27, 2009
I got the $35 Dragon Age as well. It was tough standing out in the cold, it actually started snowing at one point (it wouldn't be Ohio without Thanksgiving snow!) but it was totally worth itsmilies/cheesy.gif
Rachel Jagielski , November 27, 2009
All I got was Borderlands DLC for Ten dollars on PSN. Also Got Ghost Rider & Spiderman 3 for ten dollars
Toby Davis , November 27, 2009
Picked up Halo ODST on Amazon for 30 bucks. Purchased mainly for the Halo 3 multiplayer maps and to take part in the Reach beta next year. Fair price, I never would of bought this at 60 bucks.
Joshua Garcia , November 27, 2009
The lines really aren't that bad if you know where to shop -- and you're not after this year's Big Thing. I picked up an 8 gig memory stick at Micro Center for $20 (useful for future PSP digital purchases), an 8 gig flash drive for $7 (good for moving music and movies to my game systems), and a 4000 MS point card for $40. Picked up a couple of Wii games for the folks, too: Boom Blox Bash Party for $15 at Best Buy and Wii Sports Resort with a $10 gift card.

And then I spent two hours trying to get my parents blu-ray player to connect to their wifi network. Ah, technology!
Brett Bates , November 27, 2009
I didn't go all out this year like I normally do. I picked up Prototype for $30 and that was it. I meant to get Batman: Arkham Asylum for $40 at Gamestop but by the time I made it there, the deal was already over.
J. Cosmo Cohen , November 27, 2009
Some pre-existing familial obligations prevented me from partaking in any Black Friday hijinks this year. All for the best, I suppose, as I would have probably bounced from one gaming deal to the next with no end in sight.

In any case, I'm still saving up for some crucial end-of-the-year purchases -- Assassin's Creed 2 and Left 4 Dead 2, to name a couple.
Omri Petitte , November 27, 2009
A little update:

I later stopped by Gamestop and snagged WoW (Christmas gift) for $5 and Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII for $10.

Later, at my work, I got Midnight Club: LA (gift), Bioshock (gift), Gears of War 2 (gift), Pure (gift), left 4 dead 1 (gift), Chronicles of Riddick (for myself), and Far Cry 2 (for myself) all of those $5 a piece.

Not a bad haul in the end but I know I'm not going out on Black Friday 2010.

Nice haul Brett. I feel bad for not knowing about Boom Blox Bash Party for $15 or Dragon Age for $35 (cheapest I found elsewhere was $45).
Timothy Adema , November 27, 2009
I just camped out overnight on my PC waiting for Amazon and the Apple Store to update. My haul thus far:

Dragon Age (Steam, $37)
Osmos (Steam, $2)
Rosewill Wireless-N USB 2.0 Networking Adapter (Newegg, $10)
iPod Touch 32gb (Apple Store, $286 post-taxes)
PS3 Bundle w/ Infamous, Killzone 2, $10 Amazon Credit (now sold out, apparently, $300)

Also got Fringe: Season One and Casino Royale Blu-Rays at $28 and $10 respectively from Amazon, to test out the blu-ray capabilities of the PS3. All in all, a good haul, though certainly expensive.
Jon Cole , November 27, 2009
Need for Speed Shift and Forza 3 for $35 a piece. Thank you Amazon!
Frank Anderson , November 27, 2009
I love, love, love bad TV so the only things I bought today were a few seasons of Smallville at 10 bucks each.
Matt Jett , November 27, 2009
Black Friday? No way, I have three words:

Amazon. Dot. Com.
Eric Arntson , November 27, 2009
Nothing because I don't need last years junk.
Rigoberto R. Escobar , November 27, 2009
I got herpes... it wasn't free, either.
Jeffrey Michael Grubb , November 27, 2009
I went wine tasting in Napa, watched Leatherheads (and halfway through season 1 of IT Crowd), ate pizza, drank Guiness and we're now putting together a puzzle before going to the theater to watch New Moon or Fantastic Mr. Fox.

I had my fill of Black Friday in 2004. No more for me. Today was much more enjoyable. :-)
Tom Heistuman , November 27, 2009
I only got out to my FLGS (Friendly Local Game Store) for Black Friday shenanigans. There, I was able to get a copy of the Pathfinder Core Rulebook for $25. That's for all you pen-and-paper nerds out there.

I stayed in for the rest and got Far Cry 2, Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood, and Dawn of Discovery (Anno 1404) for $50 combined.
Devon N. Campbell , November 27, 2009
I made sure to get the best thing available during those Black Friday sales, sleep.
Derek Lavigne , November 27, 2009
an 8 gig flash drive for $7 and a 4000 MS point card for $40


I'm jealous, that's pretty much the extent of what I was hoping to be able to nab, but we don't have much in the way of retail around here (was not interested in a half hour drive in the early morning to brave black friday crowds). Stayed home and shopped online and only gaming related item I snagged was Pure for 360, got a few DVDs and some music for cheap though. There were some decent deals online, but nothing to drive me to something I wasn't interested in purchasing yet.
Jordan Sommers , November 27, 2009
I had an amazing black friday haul. Got off work at about 4:30 PM, drove straight to walmart and saw that nothing good was on sale, especially no games. Bought food for dinner and went home.

I hate where I live...
Ian Lucier , November 27, 2009
Only thing I got was an impulse buy from Newegg.com. Grabbed some headphones to replace the ones I broke a while back, only because it was a pretty good deal. No way in hell I'm going out to fight crowds at a retail store, especially in Ohio weather smilies/sad.gif
Eric Majkut , November 27, 2009
@Rachel and crew - $35 Dragon Age is a steal!
Demian Linn , November 28, 2009
Meh I Just stayed in and played Uncharted 2 all day.

@Jon
That PS3 bundle is a steal man. Enjoy!
Evan Campbell , November 28, 2009
Oh man, I would have also liked to buy Dragon Age for cheap... I guess I should have taken a break from Uncharted to go pick it up.
Evan Campbell , November 28, 2009
I grabbed Left 4 Dead 2 .... these Steams sales are utterly outrageous!
Omar Yusuf , November 28, 2009
Grabbed Fire Emblem Shadow Dragon for $10 at WalMart and The World Ends with You for $10 of amazon. I was really happy to find some RPGs on the cheap for my DS.
Art Siriwatt , November 28, 2009
I just wanted any Bitmobbers who missed some of the great black friday sales to know that Amazon is still having a sale on some awesome games.

Halo 3:ODST, L4D2, Forza 3, Dragon Age (Ps3 and 360 versions) for $40

Tekken 6 for $32.99

Go here- http://www.amazon.com/Outlet/b...r_bw_brwse

and also don't forget to check out Cheap Ass Gamer for the latest game deals and price drops- http://www.cheapassgamer.com/

PS- I do not work for either of these sites. I am just trying to help my fellow Bitmobbers out.

PPS- Buy Dragon Age. Buy it now!
Frank Anderson , November 28, 2009
Just snagged KOTOR for 2.49 on Steam, a deal that carried over to today (Saturday). What a steal!
Trevor Hinkle , November 28, 2009
I stood inside wal-mart for the ps3 with infamous, arkham asylum, and the dark knight on blu ray for $299. also picked up Speed Racer, Taken, and Gran Torino on dvd for a combined $17.
Tom Mead , November 28, 2009
My g/f and I decided to split a Christmas gift this year, and she loves mini games, so Wii Sports Resort was on my radar. I wasn't too worried about it, so I walked into a NJ Gamestop at 11 AM because I knew that Gamestop was giving a free extra Wii Motion Plus if you bought Wii Sports Resort. I didn't expect them to have anything left, but they did and I was very satisfied. Yay for Christmas shopping for your loved one to include games AND an early gift.
Mike Gingras , November 28, 2009
I finally got a PS3. Even though I wanted the Wal-Mart bundle, I had to settle for the Best Buy one. Not that I'm complaining though.
Carlos García , November 28, 2009
I just bought Knights of the Old Republic for 2.59$

Yes!
Omar Yusuf , November 28, 2009
Also did the early-morning Best Buy thing. Dragon Age and L4D2 and a DS game. We arrived around 4:55 and got out of Best Buy at 5:13.

There was a gigantic line, but we only wanted three things.
Jasmine Maleficent Rea , November 28, 2009
I had to deliver papers in the morning, but after I got home, I decided to head out to Meijer (5 state only Walmart basically. Much less evil). I casually strolled in with no lines to wait in at all, and began digging through their $20 or less games as they were all 50% off. Picked up Star Ocean First Departure, Patapon 2 (the voucher thing still counted), MadWorld, and House of the Dead Overkill, all for $10.

Plus, my brother-in-law was stupid enough to go wait in ridiculous lines at Target and Best Buy, so I gave him money and he scored Rock Band Unplugged for $7 and Boom Blox Bash for $15 for me. So I made out pretty good with absolutely no lines or tramplings.
Alex R. Cronk-Young , November 28, 2009
Amazon has Left 4 Dead 2 for 35 bucks right now so I picked it up to give as a gift.
Joshua Garcia , November 28, 2009

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