Star Treatment

Earlier this week, I rented 'Call of Duty 3' for the Wii at Hollywood Video. It was seven bucks for 5 days. Pricey. On the second day of playing it, I got to Chapter 6: Fuel Plant. You have to blow up silos to stop the supply of the Nazis. When I planted the charge at the second silo, a German soldier snuck up behind me and tried to shoot. Luckily, his gun was also programmed to not work right. I took this opportune moment to grab his gun. A struggle ensued. Now this is when the in-game theatrics stopped, and I got to play. At the bottom of the screen, the game told me to hold my Nunchuck and Wiimote and make a punching motion forward, again and again.

For some reason, the game didn't pick this up. So I died; the German soldier threw me off the side. I did this about twenty times at various speeds and angles, and I kept dying. I even tried a different Wiimote. Nothing worked.

Yesterday, I returned the game to Hollywood Video. I expected no refund and no remorse. When I got to the store, I told an employee exactly what happened. She took the game, got the manager, and right away, the manager asked if I wanted a new game. Quite surprised, I replied with "Sure!"

None really caught my eye, and I was okay with going home empty-handed. When I told the employee this, she kindly remarked how I'm getting a free game. "Even if you don't play it, your family could", she said.

Then she took all the games out, which are in a big box, and brought me over to the side to look at them. I ended up picking out 'Trauma Center: Second Opinion'. I've played the game on a friend's Nintendo DS and liked it. (A day later, everyone in my house has played it.)

When I went to the side to get the game, she said it's due back Friday. That's five days, not the two I had left. I left a very happy customer. Thank you, Hollywood Video.