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Japan gets to rent rare Professor Layton freebie
Having recently wrapped up Professor Layton and the Curious Village, we've been left with nothing to do but curl up and gently rock ourselves in the corners of our bedrooms, pausing only to twitch or shake, and refusing to eat. We just can't hide it: we miss Professor Layton and its puzzley delights. In our less sane moments, we'd even tolerate more of Luke's inane simpering for just one more hit of puzzles about matchsticks, moving blocks, or sliding tiles.So imagine how envious we felt when we learned that Japan is getting MOAR PROFESSOR LAYTON! No, not the sequels -- we already know about those, silly. Instead, Japanese gamers will soon be able to rent a compilation known as Level 5 Premium Gold from music rental specialists Tsutaya. This desirable collection contains demos of two Level 5 games -- football soccer RPG Inazuma Eleven and Professor Layton and the Devil's Box -- and, most thrillingly of all, a totally original Layton side story. Professor Layton and the Holiday in London features the good Professor in his London office, reflecting on his worldwide adventures with Luke, and solving a dozen new puzzles in the process. More frustratingly still, this compendium was given away for free back at last September's Tokyo Game Show, under the name of Level 5 Premium Silver. This can only lead to one outcome: Professor Layton and the Ridiculously Pricey Ebay Auctions.
Behold: the GDC swag bag
Ah the swag bag, a trade show tradition from time immemorial. We picked up our GDC bag this year, and frankly it was a bit underwhelming. The most remarkable of the bag's contents was the energy shot you see above. Eager as we were to feel the rush, we downed ours straight away. Suffice it to say we immediately regretted the decision. Check out the gallery below to see the rest. Gallery: GDC08 Swag Bag
GDC08: Touring the GDC Store
Although the show floors haven't opened yet, the GDC Store was packed with potential consumers. Highlights include: a teddy bear ($10) slouched over and surrounded by empty shot glasses ($5) and flasks ($10), a line of clothing for toddlers ($16 to $25) and the Outlaw Volleyball soundtrack. Check out the gallery below.%Gallery-16355%
Professor Layton and the Amazing Review Swag
Once the preserve of circus masters, Lord Snooty from The Beano, and Mandrake the Magician, the trusty top hat has now been adopted by another group: Nintendo DS game reviewers. This glitzy top hat, modeled after Professor Layton's own, was a freebie that came with Kombo's review copy of Professor Layton and the Curious Village.Needless to say, we are burning with envy. Our lives would be significantly improved with a plain top hat, never mind one emblazoned with the good Professor's name. Go past the break for a shot of this fine item being shown off by smug Kombo editor Phillip Levin.See also: 2008's Biggest Blips -- Professor Layton and the Curious Village%Gallery-12504%
Ambrosia Macworld swag giveaway
We're kicking off a few weeks of giveaways with a little bit of Macworld swag from Ambrosia Software. If you didn't attend Macworld, now's your chance to pretend you stopped by the Ambrosia booth anyway (for the full experience be sure to watch our interview with founder Andrew Welch too).What's in the box? A WireTap Studio t-shirt (XL), a WireTap Studio pin, and a DVD with trial versions of all Ambrosia apps. Basically what you see in the image to the right. Not bad, considering all you have to do is leave a comment on this post (be sure to check your email and validate the comment so it appears). We'll leave comments and the giveaway open from now until Friday just before midnight (11:59 Eastern). Oh, this one is still just in the US, you gotta be 18, etc. Full rules after the jump.Recap: Ambrosia Macworld swag giveaway, prizes are a t-shirt, pin and DVD. To enter, leave a comment on this post. If you're really cool you'll tell us your favorite Ambrosia app. Comment must be left before January 25, 11:59PM Eastern time. Three winners will be chosen, and their prizes shipped directly from Ambrosia. Complete Official Rules click here.
Uncharted swag giveaway over at Absolute Blog
It's a slow news day and we know you guys love any opportunity to get your hands on some swag. Tom Eccles, a writer for ThreeSpeech, has some decent stuff up for grabs on his personal blog. There are a couple of caveats; you must be a UK citizen (yes, this one is open to the UK. How often does that happen?) and you must be able to answer a simple question related to the game.The winner will receive an Uncharted T-shirt, a poster and a press kit for the game. Three runners up will receive a T-shirt and a poster each. The press kit is an interesting little collectible. It looks like a book, but opens to reveal various miscellaneous items linked to the game. It's also pretty rare (only press have one), so you can brag to all your friends about it. What have you got to lose? Give it a shot.[Thanks Tom]
Space Invaders Extreme preorder gift shows impeccable logic
If there's one adjective we would apply to Space Invaders Extreme, that adjective would be ... intense. Just watching footage of Taito's stylishly remade shmup is enough to make us draw breath at the game's frenetic pace. When we do get to try it out for ourselves, there's a good chance that the sheer intensity of the experience will cause us to perspire wildly, as we carve our way through wave after wave of psychedelically colored extra-terrestrial intruders.In which case, this Space Invaders Extreme towel would be just the ticket for wiping our fevered, moist brows. Not only is it extremely stylish (it's the kind of desirable item that would encourage us to visit the beach again, forchrissakes), but it's available for free. If you preorder Space Invaders Extreme. In Japan. Damn.[Via Go Nintendo]
Macworld Swag-Grab: Skitch Tee
Everyone loves a bit of trade-show swag, and whilst we can't get our hands on anything as large (or perhaps more apt: costly) as a MacBook Air we have got our mitts on a selection of swag which the vendors have offered to give away. We kick off with everyone's favourite: a tee-shirt from Plasq, the makers of Skitch! We've got just one of these to give away, so how do you go about winning?Simple: after reading this post, comment below (making sure to read the terms and conditions) and then activate your comment! You've got until 11:59 PM EST on Thursday 17th January to comment, after which a real, live TUAW blogger will run over to the Plasq booth, and grab the tee in the correct size (which we'll confirm via email).You can only win once and the winner will be drawn, at random, after the giveaway closes at 11:59pm on Thursday 17th January.
Less than an hour left to win the ultimate CES swag bag!
What are you waiting for? Go enter!
CES 2008 ultimate swag bag giveaway: like a Xmas stocking in January
As you're probably well aware, CES is ground zero for free stuff -- most of which is crappy swag. But there's some good stuff to be had as well, and this year we're proud to present you with the ultimate CES swag bag. Literally bursting at the seams, this bag contains every single free item we've collected throughout the entire show. All in all over 100 items stuffed inside a courtesy HD DVD press backpack (which itself may be a collector's item some day soon), including a Jawbone Bluetooth headset, CoPilot Navigator 9, Spider-Man 3 Blu-ray disc, Tooth Tunes toothbrush, and an iriver Mplayer.All you have to do to throw your hat into the ring is to leave a comment in this post listing your favorite new product introduced in the past few days. Since we want to ship this thing out before we take off tomorrow, entires for this contest will be closed at exactly 12:00PM PT (noon, Pacific) on Friday, January 11th. Make sure you read all the points below before entering, 'cause we'd hate to disqualify anyone from winning this one-of-a-kind CES 2008 souvenir. Leave a comment below. Tell us your favorite new CES gadget. You may only enter this specific giveaway once. If you enter this giveaway more than once you'll be automatically disqualified, etc. (Yes, we have robots that thoroughly check to ensure fairness.) If you enter more than once, only activate one comment. This is pretty self explanatory. Just be careful and you'll be fine. Contest is open to anyone in the 50 States, 18 or older! Sorry, we don't make this rule (we hate excluding anyone), so be mad at our lawyers and contest laws if you have to be mad. Winner will be chosen randomly. That winner will get a bag full of stuff whose value is impossible to determine, but which we doubt is more than $300. Entries can be submitted until Friday, January 11th, 12:00PM PT. Good luck! Full rules can be found here.
For the fans, some Okami swag
As we all sit up straight and proper in anticipation for Capcom's port of Okami for the Wii, the folks at the official Capcom blog have decided to snap up some pictures of random things about their offices. Too bad they don't travel around the entire office, because then we wouldn't get so few pictures of so few things. Hit up past the break to see the other side of the fan, as well as a piece of swag from another Capcom game.
Insane collection of Nintendo memorabilia can be yours
Spring cleaning must be a real hoot at Brett Martin's house. The Nintendo fan describes the picture above as "just a portion" of what is the most comprehensive collection of Nintendo merchandise we've ever clapped eyes on. Perhaps even more impressively, this vast pile of swag has been meticulously documented over at Martin's site, where you can cherry-pick the items you'd like to buy. Yep, that's right: you can actually drown your own house in Kirby plushes, should you so desire.The occasional South Park, Mega Man and Square Enix item aside, it's pretty much a Nintendo enthusiast's nirvana, so we advise you check out this gallery if you want to see the best of it.[Via Geekstir]
Show and Tell: My entire house, let me show you it
Well, it may not be the entire house, but reader Chris B. has enough quirky gaming gear to fill a house, that's for sure. When readers send in pictures of their enormous collections, we just can't resist showing them off, and this one is definitely worth an ogle. We've loaded up a gallery with a selection of his gear, but he also has a Flickr account showcasing much, much more. Head on over, but take a rag and mind the drool. Got something that makes you particularly proud? We like thingamabobs and doohickeys and swag of all sorts, as well as food and furniture and anything fun ... so long as it's related to Nintendo! Just take some pictures, tell us what's up, and send it all to showmeit [at] dsfanboy [dot] com. We'll take care of the rest.%Gallery-11762%
Free 360 swag with my Pop-Tart? Yes please
For the second year in a row, Kellogg's and Xbox 360 have teamed up to offer all kinds of 360 themed offers, goodies and deals in specially marked Kellogg's brand items. This means that when you're shopping at your local supermarket, take a look at a box of Pop-Tarts, Rice Krispie Treats, Fruit Loops or Gushers and odds are there will be some kind of mail-in offer. What kind of offers you ask? Well, we recently saw an Xbox 360 messenger bag for three UPCs and a few dollars shipping. Semi-free swag FTW! Though, just like last year, the items usually come with some sort of Kellogg's branding on them too ... so be warned.Speaking of offers, we don't have a BJ Superstores nearby, but Xbox.com says that they have a special offer on their Rice Krispie Treats where you can mail-in a form to get a copy of Viva Piñata for free. Anyone knowledgeable about this offer or how many UPCs you need? We want the deets and are willing to down up to eight boxes of smores flavored Pop-Tarts to secure ourselves a free game.
Sony hosts swag contest
Fancy some Sony swag? Of course you do! Well the PlayStation.Blog has a load of stuff piled up which they weren't able to give out at the various game shows over the last few months. If you want to win some then you'll need to jump through Sony's multiple hoops. The contest is only open to US residents over 13 years old. You have to send in your answers to 10 questions before the end of the month (that's October, for those of you who are temporally challenged).If you answer all of the questions correctly you will be placed into a prize draw to win a pile of swag. There are only ten piles available. Some of the questions are pretty tough, but we'll give you a hint: Wikipedia. Here's a sample of the ten questions: What was the date of the launch of the first PlayStation in the U.S.? How many power cells and precursor orbs were there to collect in Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy? What is the weight difference between the original PSP and the recently announced PSP-2000?
Today's most random swag: Ratatouille thyme
Being writers in the game industry, we'll sometimes find ourselves on the business end of a number of interesting, many times unexpected freebies from PR companies. To take a page from Douglas Adams, most times these can be considered 'mostly harmless,' from gerbil food sent to promote Hamtaro to Psi-Ops' jelly brain in a dish. That said, we've somehow managed to get ourselves onto what must be the most random PR list of all with publisher THQ, as the company just rushed delivered via UPS a large brown box containing not a game nor some widget promoting an upcoming release, but rather a bottle of thyme branded with the logo for Disney's Ratatouille, a game that was not only panned by critics, but also came out nearly four months ago, which for a licensed product makes it the retail equivalent of penny loafers or Rainbow Brite. Still, thyme does smell an awful lot like those pizza scratch n'sniff stickers we used to collect in grade school, so maybe THQ was going for a retro theme that was simply lost on us until just now.
Fanswag Weekly: Halo 3 and Game Fuel prize pack [update]
[Update: The contest is now closed and our winners have been notified. Everyone check your inboxes (make sure you check spam, too!). You might be a winner.]We're sure that you all feared that the giveaways would cease after the unbridled chaos of the Ultimate Halo 3 Setup Giveaway. Well, those fears were completely unfounded because the giveaway train keeps rolling! In fact, we're going to be giving something away every week from now until we run out of swag. Welcome to Fanswag Weekly, fanboys. This week, we're giving away our precious review copy of Halo 3 -- that means it's not shrink wrapped by the way -- along with a Game Fuel prize pack. The prize pack includes some Game Fuel in a nifty aluminum bottle, three 3D Slurpee cups, a Halo 3 / Game Fuel T-shirt, two coupons for a free Slurpee, and an Xbox 360 notepad (so you can write us a thank you note, natch). As an added bonus, we're even throwing in another Game Fuel prize pack for a second place winner. If you'd like a shot at this haul, follow these simple steps: Leave a comment on this post describing how you'll get cranked and jack it up with your Game Fuel. Oh, and Halo 3 is rated M, so you must be 18 to enter. Be sure you only leave one comment, posters of multiple comments will be disqualified. We'll accept entries until Friday, October 5th, 12:00 Noon, Eastern Time On Friday, we'll pick two winners via a random drawing One grand prize winner will receive a copy of Halo 3 and a Game Fuel prize pack, worth approximately $90 total. One runner up will receive a Game Fuel prize pack worth about $30 Not bad for two minutes of work, right? Get to entering and good luck. Oh, and you may want to peruse the Official Rules by clicking here. Be sure to check back next Wednesday for our next batch of swag.
Hurry! Enter Joystiq's Legendary Halo 3 Giveaway
Okay, take a gander at the image above. Now, in your head, try and imagine where the hell you would put it all. If you can come up with a satisfactory answer to this question (hint: you can), then you should seriously consider entering Joystiq's Legendary Halo 3 Giveaway. It's easy as sin to enter, so head over to the official giveaway post and do it already! Just look at all this stuff: Halo 3 Xbox 360 Console (with controller and headset) Halo 3 Legendary Edition Halo 3 Zune Spartan Controller Covenant Controller Halo 3 Headset Halo 1 (Xbox game) Halo 2 (Xbox game) Halo books 1-3 (The Flood; First Strike; The Fall of Reach) Ghosts of Onyx book The Halo Graphic Novel Halo soundtrack Halo 2 soundtrack Vol. 1 Halo 2 soundtrack Vol. 2 Multiplayer Beta T-shirt Cortana T-shirt Game Fuel Master Chief T-shirt Mountain Dew Game Fuel The best part is, you can enter once a day until the contest is over. So, yeah, get to it. Oh yeah, it's also an amazing coincidence that all of this would go great with the prizes from our own Ultimate Halo 3 setup giveaway.
Joyswag: Joystiq's Legendary Halo 3 Giveaway
[Update: Our winner is Santo, whose second contest entry humbly admitted he'd least like to fight "any of them. I am but a lowly present day Earthling, and I'm pretty sure anyone from the Halo universe could kick my ass up one side and down the other (whatever that means)." So, if you're Santo, congratulations! If you're not, maybe he'll let you come over and enjoy his haul.]We don't know if you heard, but Halo 3 came out today. Yep, the one with the, um, "master chef" dude. But seriously, if you're like us, you've been counting down to this date -- for years. You've been humming the theme like mad -- for days . And you've been daydreaming -- a lot. You know, the one where you're in a shiny green suit wrastlin' with the fate of the stars in your hands. So here's what we want to know from all you would-be tough guys and gals: Which Halo universe character would you least like to face in a fight? If you tell us, there's a chance you're going to get hooked up -- a lot. Here's the deal: The contest starts n-o-w and ends a week from today, at 8:00 PM EDT (Oct 2). You enter by leaving a comment on this post telling us who (or what) in the Halo universe you'd least like to face mano-a-mano -- no 'nades, no blades, no nothin'. Just your fists. One winner will be selected at random and will receive -- you know what? This prize is so big we're gonna have to break it down bullet-point style: Halo 3 Xbox 360 Console (with controller and headset) Halo 3 Legendary Edition Halo 3 Zune Spartan Controller Covenant Controller Halo 3 Headset Halo 1 (Xbox game) Halo 2 (Xbox game) Halo books 1-3 (The Flood; First Strike; The Fall of Reach) Ghosts of Onyx book The Halo Graphic Novel Halo soundtrack Halo 2 soundtrack Vol. 1 Halo 2 soundtrack Vol. 2 Multiplayer Beta T-shirt Cortana T-shirt Game Fuel Master Chief T-shirt Mountain Dew Game Fuel You may enter once per day, but be careful not to exceed this limit. If you create multiple comments during any one day, be sure to only activate one comment. Violators will be disqualified from the giveaway. One last thing: You must be 18 or older and be a U.S. resident. So what are you waiting for? ... Oh, the official rules? Sure thing, click here.%Gallery-7750%
Japan gets some sweet Halo apparel
Our sadistic overlords at Joystiq managed to snag the super spiffy T-shirt you see above at the Tokyo Game Show yesterday. The shirt was being given to attendees of Microsoft's International Press Party. Supposedly, the Japanese text reads "Save Cortana." Of course, sex sells. We all know that, but we're not sure if it's enough to sell Halo 3 to Japan (even if Famitsu loves it). Still, it's a pretty nice shirt, and one we wouldn't mind adding to our collection. If you agree, then keep an eye on Joystiq, as they'll be giving it away one of these days. The rest of us can head over to the Bungie store, repeatedly mash F5, and hope.
