Believe it or not, I used to be EVEN MORE into gaming than I am now. There was a time a couple of years or so ago, that money was no object. I had a full-time job which I was doing well in and after the usual expenses were taken away, I was left with a bit of spending money. A large portion of this would go towards my first love – gaming. This meant that I was in a position to spend it on all sorts of junk. “I fancy a 360 wireless headset. I already have 2 wired ones that do the job just as well, but I fancy a wireless one as it costs money.” This would be my usual routine. It didn’t help that my full-time management job took place inside a gaming store. Delivery would arrive and while looking through and processing it, I would get tempted just because I didn’t have it.
The one area that proved my strongest weakness, was collectors editions of games. In a past entry, I moaned about people being taken in by these. I also mentioned that I used to be one of these people. To list the items which I now regret buying would take longer than the 1000 words I give myself each week. Instead, i’ll just mention the biggest mistakes. Watch as I use this blog as some sort of therapy. You can be my psychologist.
First off, Assassins Creed. I bought into the hype that was generated by the gaming press. The idea itself was a solid one and the push that Ubisoft had given it prior to launch suggested that they were expecting big things. The game itself launched at the usual price of about £40…or for about £30 more you could get that same game, and a 12″ statue. Have a guess which one I went for. The thing still haunts me to this day, staring at me as I write this. FUCK OFF YOU…YOU…MISTAKE!! Not sure what I was going to do with the thing. Show it off? No, I would get laughed out of the building. So it just sits there…reminding me every day. I didn’t even finish the game itself. I got bored of it.
Next up is Grand Theft Auto 4. I believe the price points were roughly the same as above. This time, for your extra £30 you got an art book, a music CD, a safety deposit box and a duffel bag. I might have looked through the book once, i’ve never listened to the CD, the box has never been used. Same with the duffel bag (though I might now look into using it, thinking about it). Why did I get it? It was GTA4. It was the biggest game of the year and the hype was off the scale. I bought into it, same as Assassins Creed. Also similar to Assassins Creed, i’ve never finished the main game. Must get back to that at some point. It’s just that some other games came out and I got distracted. I GOT DISTRACTED! THERE’S NO LAW AGAINST GETTING DISTRACTED, IS THERE!? NO!…
The most i’ve paid for a limited edition of a game (not including music games – i’m getting to that) was for Halo 3 Legendary Edition. It came out at about £90 and for your money you basically got the game, the usual making of DVD/art book, and a spartan helmet which stored the game. That was it. You ended up paying £30 for the helmet. It was very nicely done but, like the Assassins Creed figure, it’s just been sitting there the whole time. The game isn’t even in the helmet, it’s in the DVD rack. It makes the helmet USELESS AND A WASTE OF SPACE AND TIME AND MONEY! MY MONEY!! MY FUCKING MONEY!…At least i’ve finished the game…
So, that’s just some of them. There are examples as well of spending £5-10 more to get a DVD or a metal case. There are also examples of buying a game on more than one occasion. Resident Evil 4 then. Came out on GameCube and was brilliant. It still is. Fast forward 6 months and they re-release it on PS2 with added content. Being the massive Resi fan I am, I bought that as well. Fast forward a year or so, and it comes out again on Wii. This time, it promised the graphics of the GC and the content of the PS2 one AND new controls. Bought. So there I was, with 3 copies of the exact same game. I was working as a member of management at a game store so I HAD A BLOODY EXCUSE, YOU FUCKS! JUDGING ME!…ahem.
They were perhaps the ones I regret the most, but none of them can win the award of ‘most money spent on an edition’. That special prize goes to a recent release – The Beatles: Rock Band. The retail price of this is £180 and you get the game (you would fucking hope so for that price), a guitar, a set of drums and a mic and mic stand. The guitar itself is a replica Sir Macca bass, but apart from that it’s general Rock Band stuff. Why did I get it? Out of all the games that have come out in the last few years, I have not put as much time into any of them as I have Rock Band. It’s the perfect 30 min game, in that if you have a spare few minutes you can waste them doing a few songs. A lot of the time, with uni and work, I don’t get much time to sit down and spend 4 hours pushing through a game. Rock Band fills that time perfectly.
Now to mix that with one of the greatest bands of all time, and with new DLC albums out every month…it was a no brainer. If one game deserved an investment, it was this. Having played it a little bit now, including with a group of friends, I can confirm that this is possibly the most fun you can have as a gaming group. Love The Beatles? Get it. You know what, I don’t see myself regretting this one…
ALSO THIS WEEK!
As well as The Beatles, this week also saw the release of Guitar Hero 5. What’s weird about this release is that the series now feels the opposite to how it was back with Guitar Hero 1. Back then, the main thing going for it was the tracklist. Everything else about it was plain and simple. Fast forward to now, and you have a game that offers everything. Want to all play the same instrument? That’s fine. Great presentation and graphics? Done. It just seems to throw everything at you…except a great tracklist. It’s far too varied to work. I can see why they did it. The series now has a massive following of different ages, so you need to appeal some songs to different people. However, it just feels all over the place. The fact you can import a few songs from World Tour and Greatest Hits does help though.
Oh, and Colin McRae Dirt 2 is awesome.
My Experience With Games 