The Giant Bomb Community Game Giveaway - Afghanistan Edition

Hey, you guys know EpicSteve, right? Prominent community member, former Whiskey Media intern? Well, he is currently on his way back to Afghanistan right now (not before causing a little mayhem on the Twisted Metal TNT, of course), and, as you may imagine, the internet ranges from either "downright terrible" to "this shit doesn't work AT ALL" over there. This makes it nigh impossible to purchase games, not to mention that places like Amazon don't ship games to APO/FPO boxes. The cool thing about these APO/FPO addresses is that shipping to them costs the same as it would mailing something in the United States.

Steve is over there until July, and to help the time pass a little more quickly over there for him and his fellow soldiers (about 30 dudes), the Giant Bomb community can send them some video games to play in their off-time. All games will be put into their own gaming library, where anyone can check out a game and play it. Here's how this will work:

NTSC copies of Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 games only.

1. PM me with the games you want to ship them and I'll give you the mailing address.

2. Pack the games (be sure to use bubble wrap! These games will be falling out of planes, after all.), check "Gift" on the small customs form at the post office (it's easy and quick to fill out, don't worry), and ship them. It also helps if you include the address in the box itself, just in case!

DO NOT WRITE GIANT BOMB ON THE BOX.

3. Once the games have actually been shipped, let me know and I'll add your name to the list below.

4. You can send the games to me and I can send them instead, though, as I said before, it will cost the same and is kind of pointless. I can only go to the post office once a week, so you shipping them yourself means the games will get there faster.

Thanks, everyone!

Amazing idea!
This community is the best!

DO NOT WRITE GIANT BOMB ON THE BOX.

Amazing idea!
This community is the best!

DO NOT WRITE GIANT BOMB ON THE BOX.

I must admit I laughed at that though.

i'm thinking about it.

Or, at the very least, if you plan on writing "GIANT BOMB" on the box, make sure the subhead is "NOT A GIANT BOMB".

Appreciate the support guys! This is my last stop in my travels that I'll be able to check on GiantBomb. If you can spare some DVDs or something, that also very useful. My ultimate goal is to create a media library for my guys over here. Life is incredibly boring when we aren't on mission. Even old games are great, not too many guys with me are worried about being up to date with games or movies like some of us here. So if you got an old copy of some 360 game from 2006, there's plenty of soldiers here that'll love it!

If there is ever a general Steam account that could be accessed by your guys, EpicSteve, please hit us up.

EDIT: Wow. That was a pretty dumb question on my part. Hah!

@Sparky_Buzzsaw said:

If there is ever a general Steam account that could be accessed by your guys, EpicSteve, please hit us up.

There is no way for us to access Internet beyond simply checking social networking sites and email, which is also incredibly slow and unreliable. With this said, please don't send anything that requires an online connection or any Xbox Live points. Even Giant Bomb isn't accessible to me where I normally operate from. So if you or anyone else have any questions, please hit me up on Twitter or Facebook (StevenBeynon) or contact the OP. Like he said, these packages will be airborne dropped from about 1,000 ft. We haven't had any issues with broken stuff, yet. The airforce pack our mail pretty well. Just don't throw any loose disks in an envelope. Once again, thank you all for the support. I look forward to giving my guys something to do with their free time.

@EpicSteve:

Is your twitter name EpicSteve?

Also any restrictions on what the game can be about?

This is a great idea!

@EpicSteve: Have you or the other duders played Deus Ex: HR?

@weegieanawrench said:

This is a great idea!

@EpicSteve: Have you or the other duders played Deus Ex: HR?

There are about 30 other guys there that will be playing these games, so I'm sure someone hasn't. PM me if you want to send it. Thanks! 

@Skullo said:

@EpicSteve:

Is your twitter name EpicSteve?

Also any restrictions on what the game can be about?

Here is his Twitter.

And no worries on the game. If it's a 360 or PS3 game it will be fine.

Added three games to the list. Keep 'em coming!

@CharlesAlanRatliff said:

...not to mention that places like Amazon don't ship games to APO/FPO boxes. The cool thing about these APO/FPO addresses is that shipping to them costs the same as it would mailing something in the United States.

...I get games from Amazon in my APO box all the time. Don't let that stop you from supporting the troops though, it'll be appreciated regardless. Good idea Charles.

DO NOT WRITE GIANT BOMB ON THE BOX.

Well... Now I have to.

I've got a fair number of older console games I never play, I'll get on getting them together and figuring a way to pack em up (anyone know where I can get empty 360 game cases?). I'm happy to support our troops, and think this is awesome. As someone with loved once who are over seas/have been over seas and someone planning on enlisting, I just wanna say thank you for this. It's good to know people care about keeping our boys happy over there :)

@MordeaniisChaos: Nice! Just send me a PM when you're ready to ship them.

I've added two more games to the list. Let's get some more!

Yaaaay

This is amazing. Great work from a great community.

This is great. What a great community we have.

I managed to get on GiantBomb here for a little bit. Wanted to say thanks a lot for all the support. So far, I've received 15 games.You're all doing a great job helping these guys get through the down time, so they don't have to sit around and miss family and such. Keeping your mind off of the environment is key. Videogames are a great way to keep a soldier busy without tearing down combat effectiveness. A bored soldier is no good. I've received a few games with no names, I get bummed out when I don't know who at the home front is hooking us up!

I have even been able to show games to the Afghan interpreters and soldiers. They love watching us play.

@EpicSteve: Awesome! If you ever get the time, let me know what games you've received and I'll add them to the list as "Anonymous".

Dude I've got plenty of games to give, I'll PM you soon.

@EpicSteve: Hopefully you and the other duders enjoy Deus Ex. The boss fights suck but other than that, it's a great game with a really cool feel.

@SmasheControllers said:

Dude I've got plenty of games to give, I'll PM you soon.

Sounds good!

I've added five more games to the list.

Video games woooooooooooo

@TaliciaDragonsong: ya i'll be honest...,me too

anyone know if its possible to do this but for the Canadian soldiers in afghanistan?

Hm, I could send this unopened copy of Deadly Premonition but... it's a collector's item! Maybe.

Edit: It's a copy of Deadly Premonition: Earth Edition. Sorry, dude.

@rjayb89:

You could send it to me. Wait, wrong thread. Fuck that.

Can I still get involved with this? Some shit came up and life got somewhat side tracked for me but I should be able to donate some games fairly soon.

@MordeaniisChaos: Of course! Just PM me with the games you want to send and I'll give you the address.

@CharlesAlanRatliff: Awesome, I'll do that when I round them all up :)

Sweet!

Just bumping this to see if anyone else still wants to donate!

I applaud the effort here but..giveaway sort of implies giving away games to the community wouldn't "donation drive" or something be more appropriate terminology? Either way great work guys our soldiers deserve nothing but respect.