It’s Friday: And so it begins

So. It has started.

The most important release of 2011 invaded North America on Tuesday. The hotly anticipated* sequel to Earth Defense Force 2017 was released to much fanfare**.

Ladies and gentlemen, Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon is out and in celebration of this we are offering up a code for its precursor. If you are interested in a free download copy of the game, then get busy in our comment threads for the next couple of EDF-themed weeks. Show us that you care, and if we are entertained then the game is yours (given that only about a dozen people post here regularly and pretty much all of them own EDF:2017 already, chances are good that the game can be yours!  – Ed).

This post isn’t just about giving away Earth Defense Force 2017, however. It’s also an introduction to the EDF week that begins next Monday and will actually be carrying on for a fortnight (thanks to both AJ and Shaun independently deciding it would be totally awesome to do an EDF week).

From Wednesday onwards and building up to the European release on July 22nd, we at AR will be looking at some of the other curious games that have come from D3, the publishers of EDF. AJ will be focusing on their non-EDF titles and Shaun is dusting off his PS2 to revisit various EDFs of yesteryear.

AJ, being the overly excitable chap that he is when it comes to anything EDF-related, ran out in the middle of office hours to pick up a copy from his crappy local mainstream electronics store.

 “We got there and there were none on the shelves so it looked like they didn’t have any.”

Given that this was one of the most eagerly awaited titles*** of the year this came as no surprise. However, AJ pushed further:

 “I thought I would just ask in case they had an extra delivery of stock due to high demand. It was a bit weird as the clerk just gave me an odd look and asked me to repeat the title, like he had never heard of it.”

Having almost lost hope AJ and his associate, one master Kenty, urged the man to search their stock for extra copies ‘just in case’:

 “Again, it was like he simply didn’t get it, like we were idiots or something. He kept trying to type in ‘Earth Defends Force’. I mean,  what kind of stupid shit is that?”

This is where the story took a weirder twist, which AJ recounted to us later over chilled lager and warm crisps:

 “Turns out they did have stock, three copies in fact. Worse, they were in a pile next to the till, waiting to be boxed – he hadn’t even put them on the shelf yet! When we said we would take all three copies he looked at us in utter surprise but didn’t stop us despite some stores not allowing that many copies per person.”

Well everything turned out fine and the Montreal division of AR safely got their hands on copies. Expect to see a review in a couple of days, before the European release on the 22nd.

Have a great weekend, no doubt playing the hottest sequel to the greatest X360 game ever made.

* Hotly anticipated by AJ.

** Much fanfare by AJ.

*** Eagerly- you get the idea.