218: A Penny Saved Is a Dollar Spent

[kjrubberducky]

Steam is evil for exactly this reason. It is especially frustrating because some of the older games that they feature don't work well, or at all, on newer PCs without some futzing around with an .ini or .config file, and look REALLY bad when blown up fullscreen on a 1680x1050 flatscreen monitor. Widescreen support is the worst offender, IMO.

Anyways, I've had to curtail my budget for games recently, and the 40 dollars per month I set aside disappears that much more quickly when budget games come into the picture.

 

[Biscotti187]

You hit something I think every gamer has gone through at some point. With no school and a more hours on a summer job I found I had some extra cash (not much but enough for gaming away) and went on my a binge of my own. Now schools back and I can't work as often so I have decided rather than wait for deals to come to me, to go hunt for them. It has worked for me so far because now I don't feel compelled to buy every cheap game I see and now the games I do get I have properly researched so I feel that I get more bang for my buck than before. Also I agree that the whole hype about a new game is at root a social competition (and being the first to say "DUDE! THOSE GRAPHICS WERE AMAZING!") and while you maybe a little out of the circle around the water cooler you can always sit there and smile to yourself about what those other people have no idea what they have missed that you got super-cheap.

 

[Fearzone]

"Apparently this game is so crazy that multiplayer matches take like nine or ten hours. It consumes your weekend."

LoL... oops... I'm sure you realized that mistake as the words left your lips. Sins of a Solar Empire is a great game but two hours for a medium difficulty comp stomp and I feared-too-much-to-find-out-for-myself however many hours for a harder match made it a passing fancy rather than a lasting enjoyment. Still, gotta try Sins if it's 20 bucks. Download it from the Stardock Website because they earned it.

 

[BehattedWanderer]

Cheapskates unite, brother. There's a few I'll still pay full price for, but the number dwindles. Used bins, amazon, eBay, Gamestop, E.B, GameCrazy, Hollywood Video...that lattermost, by the way, is a fantastic place to sell games. They usually buy used games at a much better price than anywhere else I've seen.

 

[Sixties Spidey]

We really don't have a lot of Bargain Bins in Dubai. But right now, there is one that I always go to grab some old games.

Among them: Condemned 1-2, Stranglehold, Shaun White, Lost Planet and the Club.

 

[Beatrix]

Bought the following games from a bargain bin (or equivalent) for 15 Euros or less:

- Bullet Witch
- Ninety Nine Nights
- The Darkness
- Golden Axe - Beast Rider

That's four flawed games for the price of a single new one, sure they're not top of the line stuff, but I found plenty of enjoyment in them.
The only problem with switching to "bargain bin" titles is that you have to be careful to stay picky.

 

[Anton P. Nym]

Good Old Games' "2 For 1" sale recently dug into my pockets rather deeply... for 8 titles, totalling about $25CAD. Even if I don't play some, I've still gotten my money's worth out of the Earthworm Jim and Fallout soundtracks (now ripped to my Zune, with their blessing no less) and somehow I doubt that Freespace and Fallout Tactics will go unplayed for long.

I'd have to agree that bargain titles do drift into "impulse buy" territory and make folks like me more likely to buy on whim. However, that's not going to eat into my "first run" game purchasing... simply because I buy so few, and those are planned well in advance and even budgeted for. Discount titles come out of my "incidentals" money... and it's hard to argue that it's better to spend $5-10 on beer or take-out instead of a game.

-- Steve

 

[Kermi]

I picked up half a dozen PS2 games two years ago for about $10-$15 apiece. I never got around to playing them because I had moved onto my 360 by that point, and when I did hook up my PS2 (while the 360 was away due to the RROD) I discovered the memory card slot 1 was broken, rendering it mostly useless.
Maybe that's not really the point here.

A friend of mine handed me a budget title for the PS2 once: Yakuza Fury. I learned years ago that if the game case has the plot synopsis on the back in multiple languages, the game was a waste of time. Poorly made shovelware.
I was not wrong. 45 minutes later I had hacked, kicked and gunned my way to the end. There was an interesting aspect where using guns caused you to lose "honor" and when the game ended abruptly on a sour note, I assumed I had to play honorably to continue.
30 minutes later I had slashed my way to the end once more, only to be served up another steaming bowl of disappointment.

 

[CymTyr]

Good read, thanks for the article.

 

[Valiance]

I have countless games I picked up for less than 5 dollars and only tried for a day.

And a few I never opened.

Like Deus Ex: Invisible War (got it, let a friend borrow it, saw it at his house, took it back, and never bothered trying it for myself.)
And Sudden Strike (1-3 and expansions) is still shrink wrapped.
And Trickstyle, there's one you won't think of. It looked like SSX Tricky on hoverboards, and I never opened it even though it's been several years.

Those are just a few off the top of my head. This doesn't count games I have but never played because we 'store' things in our basement for people, including older computer games that I should really get around to (Planescape Torment, Dungeon Siege one, Freespace one, etc.)

Some of the greatest deals I've gotten -and played- include the Unreal Anthology: 4 unreal games (UT99, UT2K4, Unreal, and Unreal 2) for 5 dollars. Both '99 and 2004 come with the game of the year edition/director's cut extra bullshit including some better maps and mods, etc...

Another one was a box of sequels:
-Dark Reign 2
-Heavy Gear 2
-Battlezone 2
-Quake 2

^ All of these combined for 10 dollars, and this was at least 5 years ago when they were almost new.

Another one was Unreal Tournament (when it was newish), and Total Annihilation in a group for 10 dollars...

Fallout 1 and 2 in a little case together for 5 dollars...

Descent 3 and expansion for 5 dollars (same little case thing)

Etc, etc. These are just package deals, I could go on forever. I got max payne and max payne 2 for 2 dollars together...

._.;

I'm 19 by the way, these purchases were from when I was 12-17.

 

[Cubilone]

I used to do that. Browsing sites like amazon.co.uk, ebay, play-asia and Steam more recently can be disastrous.

Now I only do it for games I really anticipate and want. I don't generally buy games when they have this low a price, unless I wanted them at some point in time. One would argue that this last sentence is the most destructive because we gamers that read about games and developments of the game world sometimes know more about games than we actually play them. Therefore, we've heard about and/or are acquainted with a great many more games than usual.

 

[Kojiro ftt]

Yeah I dig the bargain games. As you said, the lower cost means lower expectations. Some of my favorite games of recent years have been bargain games.

 

[Skratt]

I know, Universe at War was atrocious, huh?

Never played that one, but RTS isn't really my favorite genre. They had that one for $5 at the same time Defense Grid came out so I got that instead. Since I've never played tower defense, to me it was a great game - at $5. Though if it had a DEMO (hint hint), I probably would have payed the $20. I'd have been upset at the $5 price when it came out, but hey, their loss is my gain right?

 

[Tequila Shot]

An interesting point that was brought up in this article was how the cost of a game can affect the rating you give it or time you spend with it. I bought Final Fantasy IX, Final Fantasy VIII, and Chrono Cross for a bundle of 30$ about a year before I bought Call of Duty:World at War for $59.99 but the scary thing is I finished CoD and Chrono Cross around the same time. I'm a full time student and I take care of my grandmother so I have about 10 hours a week to invest in games counting I disregard hanging out with my friends, exercising.

It took me the stretch of nine months months to beat Chrono Cross investing 44 hours to beat. Why you ask? Because I was also juggling playing time with FF IX and FF VIII! I beat Cod:WW in about two weeks and still enjoy the multiplayer and I just sold both Final Fantasy games because I couldn't invest time like I did Cross. While Cross it was an amazing, gaming experience, I ended up losing a couple friendships and gaining about fifteen pounds! It's just unrealistic to invest in a bunch of bargain games instead of committing to one buy and taking your time plaing and experiencing singularly. You could get one bargain game, but, like the writer perfectly described, it's so hard passing up a great bundle...

This might be a topic to itself about juggling a bunch games to play and in the end not enjoying any of them but I think there's a connection to it and bargain hunting.

 

[Nutcase]

I have never understood the point of rushing to have a new game when there are so many good old games you haven't played yet. Nor do I understand the point of playing crap because it is cheap. The very least I understand playing crap because it is new.

The only times where there's a real point in buying games early is when it's the kind of game that completely eclipses earlier ones. Suppose you are back in 2003 and want to play a fighting game; you'd be silly in buying Virtua Fighter 4 for cheap when you could buy Virtua Fighter 4 Evolution at full price. OTOH you'd pretty much always want to play rail shooters #1, #2 and #3 rather than just #3 over and over again, so you might as well buy #1 and #2 from the discount bin now, and #3 from it later, and pay only as much as if you bought #3 immediately.

 

[addeB]

The best moments of being a gamer is when i big game realises. But lately i have just pre ordered the games i really want and waited some mounts with other games...