Gamestop's buy 2 get 1 free sale is a periodic event that has proven to be an achiles heel of mine. I just can't say no. Today, my day off, was the last day of their latest such sale. I rode my bike to the closest Gamestop to me, looked around, bought nothing, came home. Thought about what I saw, looked some games up via game rankings, and went back to a different gamestop (because for some stupid reason, the gamestop near me is the ONLY gamestop of the 6 in Vancouver that closes at 8, the rest close at 9, and it was literally 8:01 when I stopped by. I was at this next Gamestop for quite a while, until 9:00 when it closed actually. Here's what I came out with:
Battlefield: Bad Company - 1 of the 2 primary games I went into Gamestop to get. The 2nd game has received a ton of good word of mouth, but the first game got very solid review scores as well. Given the good time I've had with the Call of Duties, this reasonably-priced prequal seemed like a must-buy. This is also one of only 2 games that I played tonight after I got home. Liked what I saw so far. Good humor, good graphics and gameplay. Solid title.
Fallout 3 - I can't believe I didn't own this already. It even came out in the relatively mediocre gaming year that was 2008. But I was in a relationship, and that caused me to miss out on the 2 biggest games of that year (this and Metal Gear Solid 4, among other games) I have wanted to get to this for literally years now, but the scope of it, the size of this RPG is intimidating. I just don't know where I'll find the time to play it. But I need to try. It has a sequal coming out this year, and while I have no plans to buy the sequal this year, it does add urgency to my need to finally get to this game. I got somewhat lucky with this as well, the copy I tried to purchase had no boxart or manual. But when they pulled it out of the drawer they keep used games in, they had tons of copies of this game, complete with box art. It's the little things.
Bionic Commando: Here is a game that didn't review well at all. I was initially looking forward to it last year, but the reviews were so bad I didn't even consider purchasing it when it eventually came out. But it was $8.99. That's hard to pass up. I looked up it's review score, and it's not as bad as I thought. About a 73 on game rankings. Which isn't awful. So I bought it. This is the other of the 2 games I played tonight, and I played this the longest. I am 26% of the way through the game, and to be honest, I really like it. Maybe I haven't gotten to the really frustrating parts yet, I see what some of the reviews are saying about the play control, but it hasn't been that big of an issue for me at this point. This game has been a really nice surprise.
Tony Hawk's Project 8 - This is the other of the 2 games that I went into Gamestop to buy. I've been jonesing for a new Tony Hawk game since forever, but they stopped being worthwhile a while ago. This is the highest rated game in the series on the 360, getting about an 82 on gamerankings, and doing even better on the big sites like 1up (gave it a 9) This was the 2nd Tony Hawk game to appear on 360, but the first built for it (the first 360 game was an Xbox/PS2 port. Not impressive from the reviews that I've read.
Halo 3 - I actually used to own this, and already beat it. But I knew I'd have to buy it again some day, as this is a prime candidate for a game my friends and I can pick up and play through the campaign together with. What finally pushed me over the top and got me to buy it this time was: It was $15. I've never seen this game this cheap, and I just decided to get it.
Fallout 3 - I can't believe I didn't own this already. It even came out in the relatively mediocre gaming year that was 2008. But I was in a relationship, and that caused me to miss out on the 2 biggest games of that year (this and Metal Gear Solid 4, among other games) I have wanted to get to this for literally years now, but the scope of it, the size of this RPG is intimidating. I just don't know where I'll find the time to play it. But I need to try. It has a sequal coming out this year, and while I have no plans to buy the sequal this year, it does add urgency to my need to finally get to this game. I got somewhat lucky with this as well, the copy I tried to purchase had no boxart or manual. But when they pulled it out of the drawer they keep used games in, they had tons of copies of this game, complete with box art. It's the little things.
Bionic Commando: Here is a game that didn't review well at all. I was initially looking forward to it last year, but the reviews were so bad I didn't even consider purchasing it when it eventually came out. But it was $8.99. That's hard to pass up. I looked up it's review score, and it's not as bad as I thought. About a 73 on game rankings. Which isn't awful. So I bought it. This is the other of the 2 games I played tonight, and I played this the longest. I am 26% of the way through the game, and to be honest, I really like it. Maybe I haven't gotten to the really frustrating parts yet, I see what some of the reviews are saying about the play control, but it hasn't been that big of an issue for me at this point. This game has been a really nice surprise.
Tony Hawk's Project 8 - This is the other of the 2 games that I went into Gamestop to buy. I've been jonesing for a new Tony Hawk game since forever, but they stopped being worthwhile a while ago. This is the highest rated game in the series on the 360, getting about an 82 on gamerankings, and doing even better on the big sites like 1up (gave it a 9) This was the 2nd Tony Hawk game to appear on 360, but the first built for it (the first 360 game was an Xbox/PS2 port. Not impressive from the reviews that I've read.
Ninety-Nine Nights - This was the one placeholder title. I needed another $10 game to satisfy the 2nd buy 2 get one free deal. I considered Tomb Raider Underground ($8.99, but I have a couple TR games I haven't played already, I'll never get to it), Motor Storm on PS3 (Good racing game, but no achievements) and others, but I went with this on the strength of a demo I remember enjoying years ago. This had by far the worst reviews of any game I bought, and when I looked up the achievement points, I found it unlikely that I will get any of them, which basically made the decision to return this game an easy one. Gamestop is having a half off sale on many older titles starting tomorrow (right after the Buy 2 get one free sale ended) but since I have a receipt, I will be able to exchange this game tomorrow, and I can get one of the discounted games that wasn't available today at that price. The leading candidates so far are: Lost Odysee: $12, Soul Calibur 4: $10 and Heavenly Sword: $15. I will likely update this list to reflect what I chose.
The grand total for these 6 games? $52. Less than the cost of one new game. Tough to beat that.
EDIT: I returned Ninety-Nine Nights the next day. These are the two titles I acquired instead:
Soul Calibur 4 - A game that's been on my list to get for a long time, yet when I looked at it yesterday it was a full $19.99 used which seems high for an older title. So I waited on it, and then saw it in the Gamestop sale for half off, finally it fell to the price point that I was willing to pay. I loved SC2, didn't really play 3, so hopefully I'll be able to get into and enjoy the 4th game. If Jon ever gets it, we can play online!
Lost Odyssey - Microsoft had a string of Square and Sakaguchi titles that didn't live up the hype. Blue Dragon, Infinite Undiscovery, etc etc, just didn't turn out well. But Lost Odyssey did. This Sakaguchi title reviewed very well, and consequently hasn't seen it's price drop as quickly as I'd have liked. It was still $24.99 yesterday, but half off today, so I made it an impulse buy.
I hate to sound like a snob, but I find it a little offputting how big of a role GameRankings plays in what games you purchase and play.
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ReplyDeleteHey, I bucked the trend! Bionic Commando! See? I see what you mean, I do, but the fact is, there are a LOT of games on my plate. If a game I'm looking forward to, like for instance, White Knight Chronicles gets killed in the reviews, is it really in my best interest to drop $60 on it, AND neglect one of the many, MANY games in my queue that I know are very good that I just haven't had time to play? I should ignore Assasin's Creed 2, God of Ware 1-3, Metal Gear Solid 4, Red Dead Redemption, FInal Fantasy 13, Fallout, etc and play WKC? I can't justify the money or the time. I can only wait for a gamestop-type sale and pick them up down the road. And I usually do get them. Ninety Nine Nights got returned because of the achievements, not gamerankings ;) I already knew it wasn't well-regarded when I bought it but the demo was enjoyable.
ReplyDeleteI realize you and I have very different game buying habits, and I also realize I've been plenty guilty of overlooking the underdog in favor of the safe choice many times. That said, I still have a few problems with your line of reasoning on this...
ReplyDelete1) You are operating under the assumption that a game's Gameranking score is indicative of how much you are going to enjoy it. You and I both know that this is not always the case.
2) You are implying that it is more "important" to buy and/or play the critically-acclaimed games first, and the underdogs later. I can't speak about WKC specifically, but no, in general I don't see anything wrong with playing some game that seems interesting to you but maybe didn't get 9's and 10's first even if it means some universally-hailed must-play game sits idle on your shelf and/or your queue for a few more months.
3) Think about how many games you consider personal favorites of yours that got lukewarm critical scores. What if you had been using Gamerankings to make your purchases when those games were released? Sure, you may have still bought them 2 years later when they were 10 bucks, but would they still have had the same effect on you or would you have played them for an hour to get your 10 bucks worth and tossed them aside?
Most of my favorite games did get good scores though, I don't have a lot of Lairs or Enter the Matrixes or Brute Forces, Blinx, Grabbed by the Ghoulies on my list. Do you have some giant list of games that scored in the 60's or lower that you consider among your favorites of all time? It's playing the odds man, I don't have infinite money and I have even less time, I have to pick and choose. You start with the stuff that catches your eye, and then use impressions and reviews to help solidify your decisions. And the thing with bad games, they tend to get very cheap very fast, so if you do want to get it, just wait. Bionic Commando came out just over a year ago, but you can buy it brand new at Best Buy for $9.99. Call of Duty 4 on the other hand came out 3 years ago and was still $50 until last week when it went to platinum hits status on the PS3 (the same day that it's sequal: World at War went PH also. The only game I can think of that got bad reviews that I am planning to buy some day is Dragon Qwest Swords.
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