The ZL1 Chronicles: They’re Back Again With Another Offer

Just when I thought I was over…they find a way to pull me back in.

So here I am, back at my day job when all of a sudden I receive a phone call. This call comes from Bob Steele Chevrolet. Yes, the same dealership that wanted to fuck me when it came to buying the 2012 Camaro ZL1. It’s been almost three months since the disaster of eBay Chevrolet that took place in the dealership. Now they’re back with a new offer. Part of me wanted to tell them to go fuck themselves, but after listening to what they had to say I then became slightly intrigued.

Employee Pricing!

Is this just another useless ploy, a last ditch desperate attempt to get me to buy, or were they sorry for the crap they caused a while back and really wanted me to have the car? I questioned the motives of the dealership, but my interest was there. Just maybe a sale is a possibility. More of a long shot of course especially considering the work that I’ve already put into the car. Why am I considering the offer? Because it’s a ZL1 of course! The car was in stock and ready to move. Then I saw the car on their website something hit me. Is this the exact same car from the last time I was there? Did they not sell it yet? Maybe I need to investigate this a little further.

While the below sticker offer is quite enticing I still have a couple of other areas where the numbers are a bit off. Trade in value. Last time the trade in allowance given to my 2011 Camaro SS was $24,400. I wasn’t going for the lowball treatment. I want more and I know they’re more flexible on that. The other issue is my upgrades. I added a supercharger, wheels, and exhaust all factory installed and warrantied by the dealership. I have a lot of money invested there and I’d like to see something back on that. These two areas are make it or break it for me.

Just think if they didn’t pull their greedy bullshit price gouging three months ago I would have already had the car at the price I wanted, and all the upgrades would’ve never been necessary. Now I have a lot to think about before Friday’s meeting. To buy or not to buy? This is the dilemma. Currently my answer stands at “No!” However, all it takes is just a little nudge and everything can change.

Now Playing: Frogger Hyper Arcade Edition

Why did the frog cross the road?

Thirty years later, we’re still answering that question on why a frog is crazy enough to hop through rush hour traffic and a river filled with logs and alligators all for the prize of a casual lily pad. Maybe even a female frog to share it with. Love sure makes a frog go wild now doesn’t it. Then again the same goes for humens and the classic arcade game. Just ask George Costanza from Seinfeld.

Frogger Hyper Arcade Edition, from Konami and Zombie Studios, takes the classic game I loved since the arcade and Atari 2600 days and gives it a Pac-Man Championship Edition style upgrade. I went into this game with rather low expectations thinking that the game might suck, but after a couple of hours trying out all the different game modes I started to get hooked. This game is a lot better than I thought.

Sticking to the classic formula, Frogger will have you crossing the street and raging river to the lily pad. Sure the classic gameplay is fun, but this Hyper Edition has so much more to offer. New to the game is Challenge Mode, Tile Capture, Battle Royale, Lady Frog Rescue, Paint, Twin Frogger and Frogger Freak Out. Other than the single player game the Hyper Arcade Edition features plenty of local or CPU controlled bots in mulltiplayer action. My favorites included Tile Capture with tons of frantic action and Battle Royale with some Frogger style deathmatch action. Paint is also good in single player which brings a bit of a puzzle element to the game.

Another great feature to this game is the addition of some Konami themed backgrounds including Castlevania, Contra, and Dance Dance Revolution just to name a few. Hopefully you remember the Konami Code to unlock Contra. If you don’t then you might want to click the link for the code. These themed levels really triggered the nostaglic side of me and were all fun to play. Maybe Zombie Studios can create a few more themes including Metal Gear Solid, Gyruss, or even Skate or Die.

Even after thirty years, Frogger’s simplistic gameplay still finds new ways to keep me coming back. It’s not a game that blows me away graphically, but that was never the point to begin with. Frogger Hyper Arcade Edition clearly is a game that I would recommend for fans of the classic game.

Developer: Konami, Zombie Studios
Platform: Xbox Live Arcade
Players: 1-4 (Local Multiplayer)
Price: 800 Microsoft Points ($10.00)

The ZL1 Chronicles: They Called Me Back!

Ok car sales people, we all know how the game works. When a customer strolls in looking to make a purchase of a new or used car your goal is to make sure you keep them there as long as humanly possible. We all know those long waits they make us go through just so they can talk to the sales manager to see where they can profit most from. The other rule is to never let you leave. Leaving customers lead to possible lost sales…or do they?

In my last episode, I stormed out of a dealership after they tried to fuck me over with a $10,000 price bump along with offering $4,000 less on my trade. Add that all up and you have $14,000 in profit which would give this salesman plenty of pizza and beer for a year, or at least a trip to Las Vegas where he can blow his money on the craps tables and hookers. Now don’t get me wrong. I love the new Camaro ZL1, but I don’t love it that much when a dealership wants to publicly rape me in the process.

Now I’ve already decided that the ZL1s “juice” is no longer worth the squeeze. The ether is gone and I’ve moved on to upgrading my 2011 Camaro SS. Actually as we speak the crew at Rosner Chevrolet has already put on the new 21″ black wheels which I showed off on my Twitter and Facebook pages. They’re also installing a brand new Edelbrock E-Force supercharger as well as a Flowmaster exhaust package (spared no expense). Of course this is only “Stage 1” of the process to personalize my Camaro. “Stage 2” only requires minor details and will be performed at a later date.

Well before I go completely off topic let me go back to the salesman bravado of never letting the customer leave. While this particular salesman let me leave the dealership, I guess he had a change of heart in the next 48 hours that followed. That’s right. The son-of-a-bitch called me back and still wanted my business. So here’s what went down over the phone earlier today.

“Hello Brian, I just wanted to say that I’m sorry that we were not able to put you in the new ZL1 a couple of days ago. I was wondering if you were still interested in the car.”

Now I didn’t want to tell the guy that I wasn’t interested, or making the upgrades to my current ride (at least not yet), so I decided to play along. “Well, let’s see. I drove all the way to your dealership to buy a car only to get publicly humiliated and ass raped at the same time while you smile your way to the bank with the profits. Hmm…I really don’t know anymore. Do you think I should still be interested?”

The salesman replies “Well I apologize for any inconveniences that took place. I realized that maybe we got off on the wrong foot in the negotiations.”

“Negotiations? What negotiations? What I distinctly remember is the $14,000 you all tried to rip me off on, and then tell me what this car would go for on eBay.”

“Well Brian, I think that we can come to a better deal today. I saw the website and noticed that you were correct all along. We believe that the customer is always right. I’m willing to sell the car at the original price that was found on the Chevrolet website.”

Wow, what balls this guy has. Now he wants to come clean. So I ranted on. “So let me get this straight. At first you wanted to rip me off, then say that you were wrong, and now you want to offer me the car at the original price that it should have been in the first place. Wow, what happened. Did the truth fairy come by and tell you that you needed to stop the sleazy salesman lies. Is your sales manager low on crack and didn’t get his fix? What gives?”

“Well Brian we knew that you were really interested in the ZL1 and we want to sell this car to you.”

“Now you want to sell the car to me. What happened to Alabama man? Did he have a moment of clarity after slapping his wife around after a night of bowling with the guys and telling her that he can do whatever he wants? Did someone on eBay reject their bid? Did a Craigslist buyer change their mind? C’mon, you guys are eBay Chevrolet. With your overinflated trendy prices you should have no problem selling cars.”

You would think that the salesman would get a little upset and hang up the phone, but he didn’t. He took insult after insult from me. There must be some sort of incentive he gets for selling me the car. A day off, steak dinner, hookers, something other than the commission. He replied “I understand that your upset, and as I stated earlier we want to sell this car to you. My question is what would it take to get you in this car today?”

“Well lets see, hmm…you took off the $10,000 price hike to give me original price. Well that’s no good enough. I want full trade in value for my car and I’ll be willing to buy the car at $56,000 out the door.”

“Brian, I can’t go that low. My sales manager won’t approve that.”

“Of course you can. I don’t care about your sales manager. Remember that you want to put me in the car today, and you’ll do anything to make it happen. Well that’s my deal. Time is money my friend, and this deal won’t get any higher.”

“Well I guess we can work out something, but let me ask you that if I can’t get him to agree right away, up to what price would you be willing to pay?”

I knew this was coming, “Ah the old “up to” game. I love this one. Well what part of $56,000 out the door and full trade did you not get? Now the price is $55,000. Do you want to sell this car or not?”

“Brian, we can’t go that low. I guess you really don’t want the car. I don’t think we can do business anymore.”

The cat was finally out of the bag. It was time to end this conversation. “I knew we couldn’t do business when you tried to sell me a “bare bones” ZL1 at an overinflated price. Besides, I really don’t want the car anymore since I’m upgrading my own ride. I have to go now.  I wish you the best of luck in selling that car, and tell the gold folks at eBay Chevrolet that I said hello. Good day sir!”

That was all. No more battling sales people for a car I don’t want. As I’m writing this I just received a call from Bill Schultz Chevrolet in Fort Pierce, FL and they have a black 2012 ZL1 in stock that they want to sell me. How should I reply to them?

And the hits just keep on coming.

Gun Bros Review: A Fun Game With Guns…Lots Of Guns!

Pros:
A Great Twin Stick Shooter
Highly Addictive Gameplay

Cons:
The Game Could Get Expensive If You Want The Bigger Guns

Review Based On Version 2.1

The game may have been out for awhile, but this is the first time I found out about Gun Bros. After spending a few hours with the game the first thing that came into mind was the scene in The Matrix with Keanu Reeves and Carrie Ann Moss when Neo said “I need guns. Lots of guns.” Well that’s what this game features best. It’s also a great twin stick shooter as well.

Gun Bros, a free app from Glu Mobile, is a game that features two basic concepts. Shooting and upgrading. Now guess which one you’ll be spending the most time in. Obviously, that would be in the shop checking out all the cool upgrades. There are some awesome guns to use, but they all come at a pretty steep price. Of course to get all the upgrades you need to play the game, or you can cheat by spending some of your hard earned cash to gain lots of coins as well as the type of virtual money that folds.

Besides the upgrade shop, let’s get into the gameplay itself. Gun Bros plays out like your typical twin stick shooter that you’ve been playing for years. Seriously, I’ve been playing this genre since Robotron in the arcades. Do I ever get tired of it. Hell no! When you start playing Gun Bros for this first time your equipped with a pair of handguns. The enemies will start out as rather simple to take down, but as you progress you’ll realize that upgrades are greatly needed because the enemies get much bigger and more menacing as they laugh at your puny peashooter. The good news is that you’ll grow a little stronger in between the endless amounts of time you’ll be playing the game by gaining XP and leveling up.

So the big question your all asking is how do you get all those awesome guns? Well you must earn what is called “explodium.” What starts out as a basic raw material ends up becoming the currency in Gun Bros. As you complete levels you’ll gain explodium, but to grind it into gold you’ll need to make a choice. You can choose to make the quick choice and grind gold instantly to go shopping or you can choose to wait from 10 minutes for a little extra gold up to 72 hours for maximum results. It all comes down to how much you want to put into the game. Gold is not the only item that you can acquire. You’ll also find some of the folding type with war bucks which come in handy when you want some of the bigger, higher damage items for when you really want to kick some ass.

Let me tell you that if your looking for a highly addictive game on your iPhone and iPad, then look not further then Gun Bros. This game will literally suck your life away as you shoot and upgrade all day or even all night which is great for the short term gamers on-the-go to the complete insomniacs. The best part of Gun Bros is that there are constant updates so keeping up can be tough, but when you buy a kick ass gun and shred through enemies like butter then it’s safe to assume that your endless grinding was well worth it. I’ve been playing Gun Bros for weeks and I’m here to tell you that I’m completely hooked. It’s even got to the point of having other people telling me to get off my iPhone. Maybe a good tip would be to plan some time around playing Gun Bros.

For a free game you can’t go wrong with Gun Bros. There’s plenty of content in the virtual upgrade store to keep you busy, but it all comes down to how much you want to put into the game. Let’s also not forget that this is also a fun twin stick shooter with superb touchscreen controls and extremely addictive gameplay. Download this game today!