We Have Entered The World, of Warcraft
With the opening of the World of Warcraft Cataclysm Beta, we have opened the VGToday World of Warcraft Pandora's Box, beta. All joking aside, Max of VGToday has finally got his hands on vanilla World of Warcraft. And as comes with all new console purchases on VGToday, we start our reporting frenzy! We have also added a new section to the staff info images, a World of Warcraft Main section. All staffers will have their Main's name, realm, and faction available to your friend requests! Look forward to some reaction posts to WoW (Yes, we are 6 years late to the party), news, and our struggling with leveling!
Enjoy!
The VGToday Crew
PS: I'm a Night Elf Resto Druid.
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Rumor Confirmed: Gears of War 3
Earlier this week, we reported a rumor that Gears of War 3 would be announced on CliffyB's late night appearance. Well, Clffy's been rescheduled to this upcoming Monday...but I guess someone forgot to tell the Inside Xbox crew. The Xbox team prematurely put the release date of Gears 3 on the Xbox Dashboard of Xbox Live members, because CliffyB was supposed to announce it the night before. This "leak" has now been removed from your Xbox, and Microsoft is refusing to comment. But we'd say it looks like our rumor was true. The "leak" does not mention specific dates, besides April 2011; but it is safe to assume, since our sources have been right so far, that April 11th, 2011 is the EPIC date.
Source: http://www.joystiq.com/2010/04/09/gears-of-war-3-announced-by-your-xbox/
Enjoy!
The VGToday Crew
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Deal of the Week
One of our favorite XBLA games is this week's Deal of the Week for Xbox Live Gold Members. You can grab this awesome game for only 400 Microsoft Points! Just click the download link below to get playing!
http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/games/offers/00000001-0000-4000-8000-0000584108ff?cid=SLink
Update: We've heard reports Geometry Wars 2 is still priced at 800 MSP on Xbox.com, but via the Xbox 360 is is now 400 MSP. We are contacting Microsoft support now! Update soon!
Enjoy!
The VGToday Crew
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Rumor: Gears of War 3
Wondering when your favorite chainsaw wielding friends will be returning? Well, we might have a clue. According to "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon", EPIC Games' game developer Cliff Bleszinski will be appearing this Thursday night to announce "his next game". Could this be Gears of War 3, or is this bogus? Hit the jump to find out!
First, let's start out with a quote from the Kotaku article on this appearance on "Late Night":The host of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon writes that the design director for popular Xbox 360 exclusive Gears of War will be on his show next week to debut his next game.
Game developer Cliff Bleszinski, who worked on both Gears of War and Gears of War 2, has not yet talked about when the final game in the trilogy will hit the Xbox 360. And it may not be Gears of War 3 that Bleszinski will be talking about.
Reached for comment this evening, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon producer Gavin Purcell told Kotaku that Bleszinski's appearance will include a chat with the show's host. He declined to say what game they would be talking about, but said it is very exciting.
In addition, we spotted this on Jimmy's twitter:Game designer Cliff Bleszinski (@therealcliffyb) debuts his new game on Late Night next Thur. Set your TiVos! And your Xboxes.
This could spark some interest? Notice how Fallon specified "Xboxes", and how Gears of War has been an Xbox Exclusive game thus far. Now, we'd like to mention that it seems only natural that Bleszinski's next game is Gears of War 3, because of the current Microsoft release schedule. Normally, Microsoft likes to spread out it's exclusive games, and have one major one a year. Here's how it's went so far:
So, you see how it makes sense to release Gears 3 this year, maybe on November 7th like the other two. One problem, Halo: Reach. Does it seem likely that Microsoft would release a Halo title, and a Gears of War title in the same year, or even in Q4 together? Very unlikely.
On to evidence #2. Edge Online reported in March that EPIC would release a trailer for Gears 3 on April 8th. April 8th? Yes, that is correct. That is the night CliffyB is expected to be on Jimmy Fallon. Interesting?
Well, Edge also continues to say that "Gears Of War 3 Releasing April 2011", and:We understand that the game could be completed as early as this year, but that Microsoft is keen to release it during a different window to Halo: Reach – rumoured to be launching in September 2010 – and Natal, which is set to arrive this holiday.
“Microsoft’s keen to avoid a clash with Halo: Reach and wants Natal to own Christmas. That’s why we won’t be seeing Gears Of War 3 until next year, but expect a major marketing push ahead of its release,” said our source.
So now this is starting to make sense, to avoid the Halo and Gears collision in Q4 2010 (Like we described above). This evidence is also supported by what EPIC's Vice-President, Mark Rein, had to say to G4TV:
"We don't have any games coming out in 2010," said Rein, "so from a games standpoint, it's more about our customers' games, right? Already this year we've seen some pretty great games this year...so that'll be kinda cool."
So, to us, it seems like Gears 3 will have to wait until 2011 to make it's bloody debut. Although, these are just rumors. Don't take all of this like it's confirmed. We are just giving you the information out there, you make your own conclusions! But just in case, set your calenders for April 11th 2011!
Enjoy!
The VGToday Crew
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Modern Warfare 2 Map Pack
The long awaited Modern Warfare 2 map pack has finally hit Xbox Live shelves. The map pack, which costs a staggering 15$ (1200 Microsoft Points), includes three new maps, along with two old favorites (Overgrown and Crash) from Call of Duty 4. Personally, we will be waiting until the price drops (or it is a deal of the week) to be joining in on the preadolescence fun. Hit the jump to see what we mean.
Enjoy!
The VGToday Crew
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Deal of the Week: Bionic Commando Rearmed (400 MSP)
This week's "Deal of the Week" for Xbox 360 Owners is Bionic Commando Rearmed for only 400 Microsoft Points.
Enjoy!
The VGToday Crew
Download Link: http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/games/offers/00000001-0000-4000-8000-0000584108f1?cid=SLink
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Status of VGToday
I have decided to bring back the regular blogging as well as the weekly GamerscoreWeekly podcast. Alot of the staff have retired, so comment here if you are interested in joining the team.
Enjoy!
The VGToday Crew
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GamerscoreWeekly Ep. 2: Gears of War 2
Golden Lancer Now Free For Everyone!
A sad day for those who spent an actual 10$ just to get the golden lancer that was supposed to be exclusive to the Limited Edition. EPIC and Microsoft have released the gold plated lancer for free to all Gold and Silver Xbox Live members to use. No word on if the Midnight Mayhem Exclusive Golden Hammerburst will be coming for free soon.
Download: http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/games/media/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d8024d53082d/?p=1&of=6&sb=1&did=0ccf0001-0000-4000-8000-00004d53082d
EDIT: Microsoft goes "oops!"! They said adding the lancer to the marketplace was a mistake, and will be removed shortly. More information on this soon, once it happens!
Enjoy!
The VGToday Crew
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NPD Numbers Showing New #1
The guy on the left is Halo, the right CoD:WaWHalo 3 once again loses it's number rank on the Xbox Live NPD numbers this week with Call of Duty: World at War taking the number one spot. Halo 3 has pretty much consistantly held the top spot since releasse, except for a week or two when big releases come out (Like GoW2 and GTA:IV). So, go forth, and rally your 12 year old friends and get back on Halo quickly, before it is too late.
Enjoy!
The VGToday Crew
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Gamescore Whore: Gears of War 2 DLC
First off, welcome to VGtoday's new little "column" that will be published weekly, or biweekly, that will give you tips and/or guides on how to get those precious achievements. This week we discuss how to rack up a good 175 gamerscore easy, with the new Gears of War 2 DLC Achievements!
More Mystery, Less History (15g): For this you need to win a multiplayer match on each Flashback map pack and it cannot be Wingman. Just go into a private match and put 1 bot on casual on execution, and make the round limit "1". Do this for each map, and you will have the achievement in about 5 minutes.
Bound by a Shared Past (15g): This is the same thing as "More Mystery, Less History" except you must win on each map on Wingman. Just put the settings on 9 bots on casual and round limit on "10" and you should have the achievements in no time.
The Roof! The Roof! The Roof... (15g): Read "More Mystery, Less History" and just do that on the combustible maps.
Forged in the Fire (15g): Read "Bound by a Shared Past" and just do that on the combustible maps.
Skeletons in your Closet (20g) & Trial by, and on, Fire (20g): These are some of the more time consuming achievements on this DLC pack. If you put the Horde mode on casual you should reach wave 10 in about 15-25 minutes depnding on how fast you go. You must do it on each map so 15-25 minutes on 8 maps should take you roughly 2 Hours - 3 Hours 20 Minutes for 40 gamerscore.
Annex: Now With Execution Rules (75G) : Note, this is the ONLY achievement in this bunch that MUST be played in a public match, which means you CANNOT boost this in private matches. Just load up the Flashback or Combustable map pack and try and get annex. It should not be too difficult because EPIC increased the chances of annex showing up in those playlists.
Good Luck!
The VGToday Crew
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LOTR: conquest Demo Impressions
The Demo for LOTR: Conquest has been up on the Xbox Live Marketplace for awhile and we have a little demo impression/review in store for you. The game is designed by Pandemic, the makers of the Star Wars: Battlefront series, and published by EA. The game released January 13th 2009 in North America, and on January 19th 2009 internationally.
LOTR: Conquest, in general terms is Battlefront with LOTR skins, but much much more. The gameplay in LOTR:C goes back to the style seen in the first Battlefront game, abandoning the annoying "Must have 'x' points to get 'x' unit", excluding heroes. Heroes can be desirable in certain situations, but right now with the demo's selection of heroes the heroes can be more of a burden and arrow magnet rather than being helpful. For example, the Balrog is slower than any other unit in the game, so if your opponent is an archer and is backtracking shooting at you...you can never catch him to kill him. Plus annoying button setup on some heroes can cost you your life. For example, when using the Balrog for the first time, you might try pressing "A" to jump or move fast...instead he stops and taunts the opponent for a few good minutes.
The game has multiple modes on the retail, but on the demo you can only play capture points. In this gametype you capture flags to gain points every interval, the more captures per interval, the more points you get. These capture points also allow you to spawn on them, making wait times in between fights less prevalent. One holdup on the game is the small choice between classes and how deep each of these classes are. Sure, there are different combos and ways to play each class, but after you learn those the game gets repetitive.
My personal opinion on the demo is that the game could be a hit or miss. Due to the relatively low hype about this title in Q1, I do not see this the big sleeper hit of 2009. It is fun, but lacks the huge longevity of multiplayer giants like Call of Duty and Gears of War. Stick around for our full game review coming soon!
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Gears of War 2 Flashback Map Pack Available!
That is right, for people who did not get the code in their copy of Gears 2 or if you bought the game used, you're in luck! The Map Pack is now available on the XBLM for a cheap price of 5$ (400 Microsoft Points). Sure, it should be free...but for those that got the game used (Priced at 54.00$ Used), you saved 1$ overall! Here at VGToday wish that Epic would just migrate the Flashback maps into the normal playlists and not have a seperate playlist just for Flashback...same for combustable, but thats never going to happen.
Enjoy!
The VGToday Crew
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Gears of War 2 Patch Incoming...(Oh, and Achievements too!)
You heard it right, Epic is acknowledging the bugs in the currently multiplayer game and promises to fix them. Included are fixes for melee through walls, shotgun and boomshot blasts going straight down when fired from the hip, and much more! Mark Rein from Epic made the announcement on the Epic Forums, here is what he had to say:
As I mentioned before the break we’ve been working on a major title update for Gears of War 2. This update will address bugs and exploits as well as add some new achievements related to downloadable content. We don’t have an exact date for it but all indicators are it will go live within January. If that changes we’ll let you know.
We’re fixing a whole bunch of online exploits. For example we’ve fixed the ability to wield an invisible shield, melee through some walls, gain infinite Lancer ammo and equip a shield and a two-handed weapon simultaneously plus many more.
We’re also making several small changes to improve the overall online gameplay experience. A few of the ones that might interest you are; increased penalties for quitting matches early, adding additional spawn protection against planted grenades and chainsaw attacks, and adding the ability to see the Submission flag carrier destination by using Tac/Com.
We know you folks love achievements so on the achievement side we’re adding achievement progress numbers to the War Journal, increasing the frequency of in-game Achievement progression notifications and adding some new Achievements for DLC.
This is just a very small list of some of the things that will be in the next title update but one more item which has been talked about a lot in our forums deserves a special call out...
About that shotgun...
We fixed the client side hit detection on the shotgun so that in a high-latency (i.e. “laggy”) match, the shotgun will be more reliable. We’ve also fixed another bug whereby shotgun and boomshot rounds could strike the ground when firing from the hip.
So there’s a brief status report on the next title update. At some point I expect we’ll post a more detailed list but I assure you we’re working hard to get this out the door and once it’s done we’ll start working on the next update. We’ll try to do a better job keeping you informed of our progress on future updates and we’ll try to be a little more active in the forums once this update is released.
Enjoy!
The VGToday Crew
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Soulja Boy Makes Gears 2 Montage...Wait, What!?
You heard it right, Soulja Boy has created a Gears of War 2 montage that was posted on his official youtube channel. Whether or not this is really "Soulja Boy" playing, is yet to be confirmed. If you are interested in seeing your "favorite" hip-hop artist playing Gears 2, be sure to watch the above video.
Enjoy!
The VGToday Crew
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My Games of the Year
The year of 2008 is finally coming to a close, after a great year of gaming. Many great franchises have gotten their anticipated sequels, and some good, new IP has arisen. As most other gaming websites do, I'd like to present you with my personal Game of the Year picks. Note, these are my opinions, not VGToday as a whole. Kitsune will be posting his shortly. Now, without further adieu...
Age of Booty
Runner Up: Braid
Did he really...? Yes, I did. Braid did not win my top spot, as popular opinion has expected in most game of the year lists. The reason Age of Booty won was because it was actually fun, and complex enough to keep my attention past an hour or so (The problem with most XBLA titles). Braid was nice, "artsy", innovative, etc. But was it really fun? Did it pull you back to play time and time again? If you said no, then you're right. If you said yes, then just stop reading. In all seriousness, Braid is highly overrated due to its reliance of pulling users in by its art and innovation, rather than actual longevitable fun.
Best Studio
Valve Software
Runner Up: Bethesda Softworks
Valve gets the award for its game Left 4 Dead. Left 4 Dead, in my opinion, is one of the first games to actually make co-op, cooperative. Many games add co-op, but players normally do not stick together and just do their own thing. In Left 4 Dead, especially in the higher levels, players must stick together or the innovative AI Director will pick off the survivors, one by one. The AI Director is another reason for Valve's winning here. The Director makes the game fresh each play through, and challenges you. If it sees you surviving too easy, you will soon hear the noise signaling the dreaded Tank, or other special infected.
Biggest Letdown
Fable II
Runner Up: Fallout's Ending
What can I say except that this game has the typical Peter Molyneux problem. Too many promises, too little follow throughs. Molyneux once again promised that Fable II would be the hit game of the year, improving upon everything in Fable I. It fixed alot, but did not really "improve". The game still, to this date, has many game breaking bugs. Some include falling out of the map when jumping over certain objects. One major problem is the lack of main storyline, and the story it does have is "been there, done that". As for Fallout 3, when, and if, you reach the very end...you will understand why this made the list.
Best RPG
Fallout 3
Runner Up: Fable II
Fallout makes Best RPG of 2008 for obvious reasons. Some people call it "Oblivion with guns", I call it "Oblivion with guns, zombies, nukes, mutants, drinking out of toilets, etc." Fallout 3 is truly a landmark in RPGs, reaching to the ranks of such RPG giants as Final Fantasy. Fallout 3 does nearly everything right...except it's ending. Fable II was also fun to play, but did not make number one due to its lacking story and some gameplay elements that make it unenjoyable.
Best Shooter
Left 4 Dead
Runner Up: Gears of War 2
Left 4 Dead gets the rank of best shooter because of what I said above (See "Best Studio"). Gears of War 2 is held back from the number one for reasons I have already posted about. You can read the article here: Click Here. Since my picks have been mostly explained, that is all I am going to say for this section.
Best Strategy
Civilization Revolution
Runner Up: Age of Booty
It seems so long ago, when the big games coming out were Civilization Revolution and Battlefield: Bad Company. Not to be forgotten is Sid Meier's Civilization Revolution, the (by far) best strategy game of the year. Many people doubted whether a Turn Based Strategy could work on a console. CivRev proved everyone wrong, it worked magnificently. The game has numerous civilizations to play as, and keeps you coming back for more and more. In fact, I am planning on putting this disc in later in the week.
Game of the Year
Left 4 Dead
Runner Up: Fallout 3
Left 4 Dead received this title for obvious reasons that I have previously stated in this post. It is fun, innovative, has great longevity, great cooperative play, and much more. I was going to make my GotY Fallout 3, and the runner up be Gears of War 2, but I finally put my Left 4 Dead disc in, and was "wowed". This is quite possibly the game of the past few years. If you have an Xbox 360, or a decent PC, and do not have this game you should not consider yourself a gamer until you play it. This is a must play title. Fallout 3 really missed the mark for me after I saw the ending, it was horrible, compared the Left 4 Dead's near flawlessness.
Notice that I missed Best Fighting Games, Action/Adventure, etc? Well, the titles in those category I have most likely not played, so it was not fair for me to judge a whole category if I only played one or two of the titles within it. Hopefully you will see the categories you missed in Kistune's GotY picks. Hope you enjoyed by insight, AND GO BUY LEFT 4 DEAD!!
Enjoy!
The VGToday Crew
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5 Reasons Why NOT to get Gears 2
- Leavers/Long Matchmaking Times: The multiplayer in Gears 2 is broken, as most people are aware. It takes a long while to find a game without a full party of five people, even then, on some playlists it takes a long time with the party. If you can get past the wait, then you get to the real problem with this matchmaking system. In contrast to popular opinion, I like the Halo-esque matchmaking for Gears, and the voting makes good variation in gametypes and maps. In Gears 1 you only ever saw Warzone on Gridlock, now it is randomly voted on. The real problem though is if someone leaves the game. Epic tried to stop people from leaving games by making no "Quit" button in the start menu. This is easily overcome by going to the dashboard, or just turning off your xbox. Unlike games like Call of Duty, when you lose a player on your team...a new player that is matchmaking CANNOT jump into the game in progress. This effectively makes games broken if someone leaves, and increases Matchmaking times. Epic seems to think that the matchmaking is a bug in the coding or networking, it is not. I have come to the conclusion that the wait times happen because people cannot jump into games in progress. Most of the time, when playing a CoD Series game, you will get in a game in progress rather than a brand new one. This makes the load extremely short. Maybe Epic should learn from CoD.
- Laziness From Epic: As seen in Gears 1, Epic never cares about fixing major game breaking bugs as long as they rake in some "hard earned" cash. Epic is all about profit, as seen from the map packs...but I'll talk about that later down this post. An example is that in Gears 1, "crab-walking" was never fixed. This was a glitch where a user could run and shoot at the same time, effectively breaking the multiplayer experience. In Gears 2, it has similar issues. I will not go into great detail in this section, so I'll give one example. The shield glitch is my example for today. The shield glitch is where a user can pick up the shield and hold his shot gun at the same time. Normally, you can only have a pistol out with your shield, making the shield fair. With a shotgun, you can see how the game become broken. Do not get me wrong, I know all games have bugs and glitches when released, but it is inexcusable when the game has GAME BREAKING glitches/bugs. And if there is a game breaking bug, it should be fixed promptly by the developer. Many people say to give Epic time, but we did that with the crab walking, but it is still there.
- Lack of Playtesting: This expands on the laziness of Epic, and/or shows that Microsoft makes developers rush products out...as we all know they do. Over the past week numerous problems have arisen that SHOULD have been seen and fixed during playtesting. One of these things has to do with walls having no density. On most walls in multiplayer matches, if they are relatively thin, you can melee right through them at an enemy on the other side of the wall. (Here is the link to the video) I am not going to go on, and on, about this topic since the video clearly conveys my point.
- Lag Switching: This is probably the single, largest problem with the multiplayer aspect of the game. In case none of you know what this is, it is when someone turns their modem on Standby and everyone in the game lags, except the person on standby. Effectively making them win the game 9 times out of 10. This has happened numerous time to me when playing RANKED matches, where my stats count. This gets me irritated, how can Epic ignore such a HUGE problem? This should also have been known about in playtesting, or fixed immediatly after release. It is breaking the online experience, and makes me want to sell my game back for something that I know is quality. Let's just hope Microsoft jumps on the banhammer for these cheaters, and be sure to file a complaint for "System Tempering" if a lag switching occurs to you.
- All the Little Things:
- Host Advantage: Epic said it was fixed from Gears 1, they lied. Host advantage is not as profound in Gears 2 due to the new matchmaking system...but it still exists. The problem mainly occurs when you shoot someone at the same time, or a little bit before or after.
- Chainsaw: Before someone comes and complains that get killed by the chainsaw alot, and I'm just complaining...well, I am. The chainsaw is utterly ridiculous in this game. In Gears 1 I had NO problem getting killed by the "noob" one hit kill weapons, because I had a chance to stop it! In Gears 2, I have unloaded nearly 4 shotgun blasts into the target and he still walks right up to me and chainsaws.
- Chainsaw Lunges: When did the chainsaw become the Energy Sword Epic? Now, when in multiplayer matches, if you are within a foot or two of a chainsaw, the player revving his chainsaw will literally "lunge" at you and kill you. For a better example, think of the Halo 3 Energy Sword. A player can lunge at an enemy with the sword to kill him from a fair distance away, this should NOT happen with the chainsaw. This makes it so you cannot dive or run away from the chainsaw.
- Alot of other stuff: Frankly, I'm tired of talking about Gears 2 right now. I know there is alot more stuff to talk about, but I am done. Do not get me wrong, Gears 2 is a fun game and I have logged in over 30 hours playtime in the game. Sometimes the game just makes me want to sell it back, because some of these faults are inexcusable...and should NOT have been released with the game. Shame on Epic.
Enjoy!
The VGToday Crew
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Cliffy B Must Be Crying About Now...
Epic Game's latest blockbuster release Gears of War 2 only held it's grip on the number one seat of the xbox live charts for a short while. It has now fallen down to the number four seat. Halo 3 is back to the number one, followed by CoD:WaW and CoD4...then Gears 2. This also means even slower matchmaking for the Gears folks. Hopefully those Christmas Sales will boost Cliffy B's confidence again, and ours!
Enjoy!
The VGToday Crew
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Gears of War 2 "Combustion Map Pack"
Enjoy!
The VGToday Crew
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Search Club Live Prizes Back!
Microsoft's Search Club Live has now returned it's high priced prizes to the collection with only a small number of them having the "Limited Time!" tag below them. Previously this year, as we reported, LSC removed all prized above the 5001+ ticket mark, and some below it as well. Some of the removed prizes included the Xbox 360 controllers, the Xbox 360 console, Windows Vista Home, Microsoft Office Premium, and many Xbox 360 titles. Most, and some new ones, have returned to club live's prize mall. For how long? Microsoft has not reported how long these prizes will remain up, or why they were even removed in the first place. The best bets for why they were removed was known fraudulent activity by a larger population of users, and/or they ran out of stock due to the Holiday's.
So hurry and get those tickets, we do not know how long the prizes will last!
Enjoy!
The VGToday Crew
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