The Nintendo Issue

In response to “No Later Than Monday” from The Escapist forums:
agreed as far as AAA gaming is concerned, but think about what $7 buys you now. Go onto XBLA or Steam and look at the indie titles available. These didn’t exist anywhere but in the fevered imaginings of children in a schoolyard when BlockBuster was still big.

Instead of going out to rent brown n’ bloom 17, buy Limbo. Buy Braid. Buy Minecraft. Buy some game you’ve never heard of by a developer that didn’t exist last year. I think you’ll find that the exploration is still there, it just moved and more people are doing it now.

– Speakercone

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In response to “The Mysteries of the Bin” from The Escapist forums:
I keep up with the industry well enough that I’m usually buying a brand new game for $60 every other week. April is my only safe haven thus far, with the exception of Portal 2 coming out.

Nonetheless, I’ve discovered the future of bargain bins. Amazon.com (and for PC gamers, I KNOW Steam sales are pretty much the equivalent). A few weeks ago I nabbed DeBlob 2 and what turned out to be the Epic Edition of Bulletstorm for cheap via Lightning Deals, and last week I got hold of Yakuza 4 for just $30. It is the bargain bin that is always there and present.

I miss finding bargains, though. On occasion I’d give a cheap $15 game a chance, and sometimes I’d find myself amazed. I still remember how surprised I was at Viking: Battle for Asgard.

I think the real detriment to gaming is that they only ship so many copies, and then no more. Unless you’re willing to purchase used (I typically am not), then the only games you get to see are the shovelware that never sold. Otherwise everything is either owned or cursed to the Used wall.

Even though I have over a dozen games I need to play and beat, I might stop by the bargain bin this weekend nonetheless, just to see what’s around.

– ccesarano

Bin there, done that!

– HankMan

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In response to “Playing for Pennies” from The Escapist forums:
That’s why I bought a cecha01 model PS3. So now I have a PS3 and a PS2 and a PS1, all for $300 (same price as a new regular ps3).

The PS2 really was the epitome of an excellent console. It’s game library is as yet unparalleled.

Having never had my own PS1 or PS2 in their heyday, it has been a great joy for me to now finally play all those games I missed.

I now have a ton of old PS1 and PS2 games I’ve bought that I can’t wait to play, and they were all dirt cheap! Graphics aside, many of these games were much better than the stuff coming out today in a lot of ways.

– beema

I don’t know. Two of the characters pictured, Gordon Freeman and Kate Archer, are available on PC. Their old games are dirt cheap with tons of free mods. Speaking of backlogs the pc’s is the extreme in terms of size and diversity and I’m sure most of us over 20 could compile a huge list for you of games from 1990 to 2000 that range from “good” to “don’t miss” to “classic”. The PC isn’t a bad option for broke gaming, provided you don’t expect to go top of the line.

– Ghengis John

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In response to “Strapped for Cash” from The Escapist forums:
I feel like Steam (along with its bargain-providing competitors) are the greatest boon to “cheap” gaming in decades. Problem is, they also induce “volume” gaming, which leads to situations like mine – hundreds of games, dozens unplayed, bought for a couple of dollars apiece, for approximately the same monetary outlay as otherwise. It’s rather troubling to look at a list of deals and realize that, horror of horrors, I have them all already.

This despite being unemployed and “strapped for cash.”

– omicron1

A console that costs half of the average salary, with games that cost a quarter of it? Ha! Here in Brazil we would kill to have that! A console costs around three times as much as the average salary! And a game costs half – if you’re lucky! And you have to keep it in a cardboard box inside a lake! And you have to work four eight-hour shifts in a single day! Uphill both ways!

– The Random One