I’m not usually one to worry about great software deals. I mean, seriously, they’re a dime a dozen.

But this one deserves a little shout out.

Right now at NewEgg.com, you can get God of War: Chains of Olympus for the PSP for $36.99 with free three-day shipping.

True, that’s only a couple bucks off what you’d pay at any other store, so it’s not really a screaming-cheap deal, but with the free shipping, it saves you the hassle of turning off your console, driving, parking, and walking.

All things a true GameHound will avoid if given the choice.

This is one story that I just had to post before the next podcast.

It’s a lesson in doing your homework. Or how sometimes how even the better sites can let their own tears get in the way of checking out a story.

Or maybe in how you can’t trust the interwebs.

You may have already seen it, but circulating around the net via YouTube is a Christmas video of a young boy named Jonathan whose face lights up in that magical Christmas way when he rips open his gift to find an XBox 360.

It all goes horribly wrong when he opens the carton to find… winter clothes.

The camera zooms in as the disbelief and disappointment set in.

While the adults in the room cackle wildly at the cruel and vicious hoax played on young Jonathan, he sits silent — completely and utterly humiliated.


No decent person could look at this video and not cry a little bit with him, even if only on the inside. No decent person wouldn’t be furious at parents who would play such a spiteful, hateful trick on a little boy at Christmas.

When this item showed up on tech site Engadget, so upset were readers that they flooded its editors with offers to donate an XBox to Jonathan, if only so that he could distract himself from the fact that his parents are complete and utter turds. Sister site Joystiq reposted the video and got even more readers in on the outrage and offers of charity.

At their behest, the editors of Engadget endeavored to locate Jonathan and his parents and give him an XBox. In fact, according an update, they think they had found the family and were working on how to send the lime-green fixer all bad things and report that the family is overjoyed because Johnathan really wanted the XBox.

However, if you go to the original YouTube posting, you’ll find a description, reportedly written by Jonathan’s brother, which explains the backstory — a backstory that apparently Engadget and Joystiq failed to notice:

Jonathan had been caught the day before snooping into the Christmas presents, despite his mother’s warnings. To teach young Johnny a lesson, mom removed the console from its carton and filled the box with clothes. That is what she filmed, no doubt to play next year as a reminder that cheaters never prosper — and that when momma speaks, she means it.

Later that night, Jonathan received his coveted XBox.

And this kind of makes sense, otherwise, how did mom get the box to fill with clothes? Let’s face it, everybody knows that, given the 360′s stellar reliability record, it’s not a bad idea to keep the box.

Call me the ultimate, cold-hearted cynic but, either Engadget has been scammed out of an XBox or the parents really are complete twats — who are being rewarded for perpetrating unbelievable cruelty and public humiliation on their son with a new console.

And it makes you ask: If Engadget/Joystiq are really that concerned about poor children who’ve suffered at the hands of their parents, why aren’t they donating that XBox to a children’s shelter? Or an after-school program?

It seems all very George Clooney-"let’s make ourselves feel better," doesn’t it? Or is it just me?

Free XBox anyone?