From now until January 4th, you can get Bookworm, Peggle and Chuzzle for $1.99 each. Bejeweled 2, sadly, is excluded from this deal so you still have to pay $2.99 for it. Check PopCap's Facebook page for updates on the deal.

What would be completely awesome is if Plants vs. Zombies hits the App Store as part of the sale before the fourth. That's unlikely, though, considering that release dates are largely controlled by Apple's submissions process and PopCap is leaning toward a late January release.

Ah well. Still a good time to own an iPhone anyway what with The Simpsons Arcade out.

The Behemoth's Castle Crashers is still one of the best things going on Xbox Live Arcade, and an excellent introduction to the service for folks who found a shiny new Xbox 360 under their Xmas tree this year. It's a bargain at 1200 Microsoft points, but at 560, or $7, it's simply too good to pass up. If you've yet to partake in the frantic 2D fighting action, now would be a good time. You have until the clock strikes midnight.

Purchase Castle Crashers On The Internets [Xbox.com via Major Nelson's Twitter]

So, if you've been holding out on even one of the add-ons because 800 Points is too high a price, today you officially don't have any excuses. Tomorrow, you might, though. Reports say this sale is a Today Only deal. However, said report was filed yesterday morning and the sale price still remains on Xbox Live as of today.

UPDATE: Looks like the sale is over, now. Prices are back up to 800.

To date, I think the only add-on I've actually shelled out for (at full price no less) is Knothole Island in Fable II. Because — you guessed it — I chose money over my dog at the end of the game so I could buy Castle Fairfax. Vanity, thy name is sex change side quest!

Check out the sale here.

Holiday Deal Fallout 3 [Burn360]

Why did we rush out on to retailers on Black Friday again? This holiday season the retailers are dishing the deals all December long, and Target is no exception. Starting Sunday the 13th, the more sophisticated version of Walmart has bargains too ridiculous to pass up, unless of course you already got your holiday shopping done *grumbles*.

Purchasing a Nintendo Wii or DSi from Target next week will earn you a $30 or $10 Target gift card, good towards the purchase of anything Target carries. Buy a slightly older Wii game, or just stock up on Choxie-brand chocolate goodness. Yes, I am plugging Choxie. I would fill my bathtub with Choxie products if I had the means, and then I'd get all upset because I forgot to clean it out first. Mmmm, chocolate raspberry soap-scum truffles.

The Nintendo love extends to select Nintendo DS games as well, with The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks, Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, Mario and Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story and more discounted to $25 a pop. No more putting off picking up the Jonas Brothers game for you, my friends.

Finally,Target is cutting prices drastically on games bundled with plastic controllers. Rock Band 2, Guitar Hero World Tour, DJ Hero and Tony Hawk Ride are all dropping to $88, which is a substantial savings, yet still far too much to pay for Tony Hawk Ride.

Oh, and they have Archer Farms stuff too. I could kill for a bag of apple pie trail mix right about now. What were we talking about again?

The deals listed, which hit the day after Thanksgiving, include DSi bundles for $170 that come with five free games and a $25 Nintendo gaming coupon, Left 4 Dead 2 for $40, an Xbox 360 Elite bundle featuring Pure, Lego Batman and Halo ODST for $299, and tons more.

Check them out in the gallery.

The retailer will also be selling a Sony BluRay player for $148, according to our source, who included an image from the retailer's computer system showing the deals.

Sounds like a great deal or two, though as with all rumors, make sure to take this with a grain of salt until we can get verification or the official news hits on Wednesday.

On October 13th, developer 2D Boy launched a birthday sale for World of Goo for the PC, Linux, and Mac, allowing customers to pay whatever amount they felt the game was worth, from $.01 on up. On the 20th they extended the sale through October 25th after delivering a set of sales statistics that delivered an important message: they were watching.

Once customers knew 2D Boy was keeping track of sales numbers, the average price-per-purchase jumped a small yet significant amount. 2D Boy attributes this leap to the fact that they let folks know that they received no money from purchases under $.30. I'd like to attribute it to the fact that people were suddenly more aware of how cheap they were being, adjusting their purchases accordingly.

The chart at the top of this post shows the average price paid for World of Goo per platform over the course of the sale, and as you can plainly see, PC gamers took full advantage of the developer's generosity. One could argue that there are a lot more of them, but that could also mean PC gamers had more of a chance to shine. The results don't surprise me though, as Mac users are so hip that people just hand them cash on the street, and Linux users passed along the money they saved on buying an operating system.

2D Boy's website also features a chart showing the average donation by country, which they calculated into the per-capita gross domestic product of each country to determine each country's generosity. While Switzerland paid the highest on average, their generosity was only a 3.23 compared to Brazil's 5.62.

And what of the United States, the country with the second highest GDP behind Norway? Our generosity is a 1.0, paying a measly $1.83 a copy. Way to represent, America!

Pay-What-You-Want Birthday Sale Wrap-up [2D Boy]

The good news? The World of Goo birthday sale was such a huge success that 2D Boy has extended it through October 25th. The not-so-good news? There are an awful lot of cheap bastards out there. The developers made my wish come true, tracking the prices that purchasers chose to pay, along with some of the reasons behind the amount chosen. As you can see from the graph, the vast majority of purchasers opted to pay between $.01 and $2 for the game, which normally sells for $19.99. It is certainly heartening to see that 400 or so folks opted to pay more than the game was worth, but things are definitely weighed more towards the cheapskates.

2D Boy also conducted a survey towards the latter end of the sale's first week, asking customers how much they spent and the reasoning behind their decision. Why a small percentage felt they were simply paying what the game was worth, the majority indicated that they paid what they could afford, leading us to draw the conclusion that the only people more destitute than struggling indie game developers are indie game fans. Poor guys.

You can read the full results of the sale so far over at 2D Boy's blog.

The sale will last the entire week. It doesn't sound like it coves pre-orders, but I could be wrong. It also looks like it covers accessories, priced up to $100, and so points cards are covered by that too. But that probably means you have to buy two accessories and get a third free, not mix-and-match games and accessories. Definitely ask your local Toys R Us when planning your strategy.

f you're hanging on what third title to pick, some good advice is to just get a second copy of a brand-new game for free and use it as tradebait for store credit later or flip it on half.com. Either way, they're giving away games. Don't waste the pick.

Toys R Us Buy 2 Get 1 Free Game Sale (10/11 to 10/17) [Cheap Ass Gamer, registration required]

The franchise just dropped its third map pack - for the PS3 and Xbox 360 - but the first is still lurking out there for the PC version - and you get it for free, with your $25 purchase.

Call of Duty: World at War on Steam [Steam, thanks Ryan R.]

CheapCollegeGamers.com points out that Amazon is running an Xbox Live Arcade sale right now, dropping the price on eight 80's classics from $5 to $2.96 a pop.

Included in the sale are:

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Gauntlet
MS Pacman
Golden Axe
Galaga
Dig Dug
Joust
Paper Boy

Amazon Video Games [Via, Cheap College Gamers]

Today only, PC gamers can download Valve's Left 4 Dead via Steam and play it completely free of charge for a 24-hour period, after which you have to purchase the game to continue playing. Valve is making that prospect 40% more attractive this weekend, lowering the price of their co-op zombie survival game from $39.99 to $23.99, making this an excellent weekend for both trying and buying.

The game really does offer a sublime multiplayer experience that you owe yourself to try out. I think the main draw for me is that if your teammates are jerks you can simply let them die. Good times.

Buy Left 4 Dead [Steamworks]

The four Ubisoft titles - Beyond Good and Evil, Far Cry, Dark Messiah of Might & Magic, and IL-2 Sturmovik: 1946 - generally sell for $9.99 a piece, but for this weekend and this weekend only, Steam is cutting us a deal. Any one of these titles is worth the full price, so getting all four for a 10-spot is a damn good deal. Perhaps this is my weekend to finally finish playing through the original Far Cry and stop lying about it to impress the ladies.

Ubisoft Classic Pack [Steam - Thanks Mason!]

Today and today only, Assassin's Creed for the PC is available on Steam for 50% off the regular price of $19.99, meaning you can snag the Director's Cut Edition of Altair's adventures in creative killing for just under $10.

The price is only good until midnight, however, when another Ubisoft title comes up for sale at what is sure to be a ridiculously low price. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for H.A.W.X., as my Xbox 360 version is unplayable due to circumstances beyond my control.

Assassin's Creed Ridiculously Cheap [Steam]

Free Radical went into administrator late last year, following several canceled projects and the dismal performance of their PlayStation 3 exclusive, Haze, earlier in 2008. After laying off a large percentage of the developer's staff, administration firm ReSolve Partners began offering the company for sale, indicating strong interest from multiple parties. Now ReSolve readies an official announcement for Wednesday, February 4th, when we'll find out what has come of said strong interest.

With the fate of at least one extremely compelling property on the line, we'll be waiting with bated breath for Wednesday's announcement. Stay tuned!

Fate of Free Radical Design to be decided this week [GamesIndustry.biz]

The winner of the 2007 Independent Game Festival's Seumas McNally Grand Prize, Aquaria tells the story of Naija, a lone aquatic dweller searching for her family in an underwater world filled with mystery, magic, music, and danger. It truly is a beautiful game, with some of the best music I've heard in an independent title, innovative music-based gameplay mechanics, gorgeous hand-drawn graphics, and an incredibly enchanting voice over performance.

While the game normally runs $19.99, it is now available on Steam for $15.99 through December 31st. If you've yet to play Aquaria and you have a PC capable of doing so, I highly recommend picking it up.

Aquaria On Steam [Steam - Thanks Jonas]

Each bundle contains an 80 PS3, packaged with The Force Unleashed and a Firefly box set, LittleBigPlanet and the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy, or Far Cry 2 and a James Bond Blu-ray 6-pack, the last one a bit more expensive than the other two. Chances may be slim, but chances are chances!

Amazon Customers Vote - Round 1: Go Blu [Amazon.com - Thanks Pedro]

This week on Arcade: New Arcade hits [Xbox Live's Major Nelson]

Toys, movies, music! Aaaah! This may read like an advertisement, but I promise this is genuine excitement. There's plenty to look at but make sure you make your decision by March 31. Just don't grab my copy of Senko no Ronde and Sega Ages 2500: Galaxy Force II before I get my credit card out. Thanks.

Easter Egg Sale [Play-Asia]