A few words from a professional procrastinator

Last year was a host of AAA games for the Xbox 360. Halo 3, Call of Duty 4, Bioshock, Mass Effect, Rock Band and all of them I trekked down my local game store and bought them the day it was released. Thus emptying my wallet of at least $60 per month.

But with all the bills and life that I have to go through sometimes buying these games at full price is not an option. Unless of course, I’m a huge fan. Exceptions that I have made are titles with the word “Final” and “Fantasy” in the title as well as “Gran”, “Turismo” and any combination of the word “Metal Gear Solid”. Grand Theft Auto 4 is to be released in the next few weeks, where even my brother has pre-ordered the game. Is spending all this money worth it on these games?

I only got into gaming in Christmas of 1999 where I bought the PS One with my cold hard earned cash. Pretty late compared to a lot of gamers. I do however own an Atari 2600 and various classic handhelds currently in my basement. But I never owned an NES, Super NES or a Sega Genesis. I did get a Sega Game Gear in 1993 but I mostly used it as a TV instead of a gaming device.

I had been burned a few times in the past like with “Okami”, “Shadow of the Colossus”, “God of War 1” and a few other titles that I paid full price only to see it drop to $19.99 in 3 months. That really pissed me off. I benefited from Nintendo’s slash of prices on the Gamecube in 2003 where they dropped the console to the sweet spot of $99 and all the games that I wanted were in the $19.99 range which was perfect for me.

But in today’s next gen gaming, where everyone is trying to recoup losses in making the console, deals are hard to find. Even the slashed down price of $29.99 is still pretty high. So where does this lead? Cheap ass gaming.

I scour the forums for deals. Swap my old games with a little cash to get newer ones and save my money for that “must have” game. The last deal I got, a once played Devil May Cry for the 360. I haven’t played it yet, but at least it wasn’t full price.