Amazon #PrimeDay, July 15, 2015

Amazon is celebrating their 20th birthday by establishing Prime Day.  Customers have the opportunity to try out a new Amazon Prime membership for thirty days at no cost.

Amazon announced the special event on Monday, June 6, 2015 by stating  "Step aside Black Friday, meet Prime Day."  It is Christmas in July for everybody that uses their Prime membership, whether the membership is already paid for or being used on a trial basis.

I am pleased that my online friends can take advantage of the deals that will be offered.  The celebration starts at midnight on July 15, 2015 and deals are posted as often as every ten minutes throughout the day.

Yes!

Amazon welcomes you to sign up for the 30 day trial

 and cancel your membership!

I tried my membership out before I bought into it so why shouldn't you?!  When you sign up you will get immediate access to the Prime membership benefits.  

Expect to see a lot of tech and game deals, but Amazon assures us that there will be something for everyone which will include items for summer adventures, family road trips, back to school supplies and everyday essentials.  

Just like Black Friday you'll want to 

mark you calendar and set your budget for Prime Day.

Happy shopping!  

XBOX ONE

The XBOX ONE

Base msrp, $500 USD

Quick heads up for parents with kid/s under 17 check the ESRB here before you buy a game!

Here we are again and we are moving on to the XBOX ONE. This has the same Triple A titles offered on Sony's PlayStation4, Assassins Creed 4, Battlefield 4, Call of Duty Ghosts, Fifa 14, and many more. These games are sold separately at a price of $60 USD each and expansions to these Triple A games are available at addition cost.

There are six Day One exclusives for the XBOX ONE they are, Deadrising 3, Fighter Within, Forza Motorsport 5, Ryse: Son of Rome, Zoo Tycoon, and Zumba Fitness: World Party. XBOX Launch Window exclusives are Kinect Sports: Rivals, and Titanfall. There are the games available for Digital Download, the games available Day One are: Crimson Dragon, Loco Cycle, Killer Instinct, and Powerstar Golf. In the Launch window there is, Minecraft XBOX ONE edition, Peggle 2, and Project Spark. The “Launch Window” that Microsoft refers to is an undetermined length of time.

There will be more titles coming out within two to six months after the game developers have time to work with the new platforms more.

The XBOX ONE comes with the Kinect and one controller and to play online requires a XBOX Live Gold membership at $60 USD MSRP for twelve months.

If you would like to get a second controller it is $60 MSRP.

A cool feature that the XBOX ONE and the XBOX 360 have is SmartGlass that allows a Windows Phone, Windows 8, iOS, and Android devices to be used as a second screen.

The XBOX ONE will be able to stream to Twitch only if you have a Gold membership and the Upload Studio app lets you edit and share clips from the past five minutes of game-play footage that is automatically recorded by the console.

To sum this up it is about the same as the PlayStation 4. It has some good features like the SmartGlass and the Kinect which has voice activation.

The base cost of the consoles will come down in price six to twelve months after the launch. Games will be the same price across all of the platforms and the controllers will stay the same for a while. You will probably be able to find sales on them in a few months.

The final price of the XBox One Console, one game, a second controller, and the XBOX Live Gold 12 Month membership is $680 USD.

Something else to consider is that you can not upgrade either console to get more performance out of it. There is also a limit on the hard drive for the XBOX ONE but the PS4 can be changed out for a larger one.
[Of course, this is subject to change!]

In the next blog I will cover the PC and I will let you know the pros and cons of
 choosing to use it for gaming purposes.

Georgianna Hardware Corporation

PlayStation 4

As we approach the holidays in the next few weeks I would like to offer some ideas for people looking to get a game system for a loved one. This will be the first of three posts that will offer information about each unit. Please remember that although I have grown to prefer PC gaming I did start out using consoles and the information here is only provided to you to assist you in making your own decision.

Lets start with the PS4

*msrp is around $399 USD

Quick heads up for parents with kid/s under 17 check 
the ESRB here before you buy a game!

You can get Triple A titles like Assassins Creed 4, Battlefield 4, Call of Duty Ghosts, Fifa 14, and many more, this is the same for the XBOX ONE and PC. These games are sold separately at a price of $60 USD each and expansions to these Triple A games can be at addition cost.

There are two Day One exclusive titles so far on the PS4, Killzone Shadow Fall and KNACK.

There will also be digital launch titles such as WAR THUNDER, Planet side 2, WARFRAM, and Blacklight Retribution. These are digital downloads but not all games are available as a digital download. There are many games available for the Sony PS4, some as a hard copy disc and others as a digital download. As for game distribution, it's easiest to compare the release of games to the release of movies. The game manufacturer chooses what platforms the game will be available for. There is a bit of rivalry among manufactures but in the gaming world what matter is being able to play the game with your friends. If I don't have the same gaming console and game as my friend does, we will not be able to play the game together. The consoles are not compatible.

The PS4 will also let you live stream on Twitch and Ustream this will vary in the ability to do so on different internet speeds.

The PlayStation Camera is a motion sensing input device much like that of the XBOX 360 Kinect, the PlayStation Camera is sold separately the MSRP is $60 USD.

The PlayStation 4 will require PlayStation Plus membership in order to play online it is an additional $60 USD. With the membership you do get free games and discounts on games in the PlayStation Store, and PlayStation Plus works with PS3, PS4, and PS Vita.

The PS4 comes with one controller. Additional controllers can be purchased separately. Sadly, the controller from the PS3 will not work with the PS4.

Base price for the PS4, second controller, a single game, motion sensor, and a Plus yearly subscription comes to $630.00. In my experience I allow plus or minus ten percent to the purchase price.

There are a few more features that I did not discuss but they of course come at a cost.

To wrap it all up it is good for gaming and watching movies it can play blue-rays/dvds and will for many years until the next PlayStation comes out.

My next blog will cover the XBOX ONE.

True American Company - Action Game Exchange of Jasper, Georgia

Today we visited a local store, Action Game Exchange, in Jasper, GA. 

We have watched AGE grow and we can see that there is plenty of reason for their success.  Their prices are very  reasonable, they have knowledge about their products, and they offer excellent service.  What more could a person want? 

Although Action Game Exchange is a local shop, they have customers that drive quite a distance to visit the store.  There's really no reason to wonder why.  As an example, today I purchased a used game without the case for two dollars and later found it online in the same condition for twenty dollars!   The good news is that you too can share in the excellent pricing and service that AGE offers.  Visit the Action Game Exchange web site. 

We offer games through our gaming page too, but AGE deserves a pat on the back.  Not only can they sell you a pre-release of a game, but they can fix your gaming unit when you think there is no hope.  We believe that Action Game Exchange is a true American company.