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God of War just got delivered to me. And I'm proud to say that the game is and was free. It is free as in free speech because of a juicy tidbit I found in the ruling on the law I discussed in my previous post:

During the game, there are several scenes depicting women whose breasts are visible. In one scene, the main character is shown near a bed where two bare-chested women are lying. It appears that the main character may have had sexual relations with the women. Because of this one scene, a game such as God of War, which essentially parallels a classic book like The Odyssey, likely would be prohibited for minors under the SEVGL [Sexually Explicit Video Games Law], because the statute allows a game to be regulated based on one scene without regard to the value of the game as a whole. Such a sweeping regulation on speech - even sexually explicit speech - is unconstitutional even if aimed at protecting minors.

What's even better is that the game was free as in free beer because I didn't pay a cent for it. (Don't jump to any conclusions - I did this entirely legally.) So how'd I do it? Well, remember that Monopoly game that happens at McDonald's every once in a while? One of the prizes on the pull off stickers is a coupon to Best Buy. They come in either the $1 or $3 variety. I had a friend who thought that collecting them, scanning them in, and sending me the picture would be a good idea for a birthday present. It was - he didn't spend any money and I still got a game for free. BestBuy.com lets you enter in up to 40 of these coupons. I had 33, which totaled $1 more than I needed to pay for the game and shipping. As proof of this wondrous feat, here's a snapshot of the pricetag on the game I received:

God of War for $0.00

It may be a little fuzzy, but note those elegant zeros and the way they scream, "Although this game is a $50 title, you got it for nothing!" Oh, life is good. That's $50 I can spend on Thai food...or another video game ::strokes chin::.