I turned 30 on Tuesday, and I celebrated this event on Saturday with a BBQ at my house. I had a great time with family and friends, and got to the right amount of drunkenness (via a provided beer hat) where I could run around in a Sumo suit and try to sing along to Rock Band and have a blast, without feeling entirely sleazy this morning. Because I'm hard to buy for and I think most people know not to buy a games enthusiast random games (though my sister got me Boom Blox which I've played before and already know is great), I got a few gift vouchers which was pretty awesome, especially seeing as I'm broke at the moment. So off shopping today I went!

First up was Big W. I don't know if they are just paring back their games section, but it seemed to be bare of some essential titles. Not being a games specialist, I didn't expect them to have a huge range of cheap back catalogue stuff, but their new releases seemed to be lacking as well. Maybe because it's the after Christmas period? But there was no Gears 2, Far Cry 2, Mirror's Edge, Resistance 2, Fable 2, Fallout 3, or COD 5 among other notables. I eventually picked up Banjo & Kazooie : Nuts & Bolts and Bully on 360. I can only assume that by now Bully has been patched sufficiently to make it playable the way it was supposed to be.

Then I was off to EB Games. I was trying not to spend much additional money seeing as I'm broke, so I spent a while trying to match games that I wanted to play with the amount of my vouchers. Eventually I decided on pre-owned copies of Fallout 3 and King Kong on Xbox 360. King Kong seems to be an unassuming sort of title, but I've heard that it is still decent. Lego Indiana Jones was on the cards, but I get the feeling that after Lego Star Wars, which I did love, that the other Lego games are going to be a bit of a let down. I asked to check the discs and the clerk noticed Fallout 3 had a scratch so he found me an immaculate copy, sold me an Edge card so I could get 10% off what I was about the purchase (which was more than the cost of the card), and I still have a whopping $6 left on my Gift Card. I did want to spread the love to the PS3 and Wii as well, but I couldn't find games that I wanted to play that I was happy with the price being charged.

The whole experience has me pretty confused about prices, especially of older games. As some of you may know, I used to own a video store, and we were able to order games from a distributor. I bought myself a copy of Crackdown in September which would have retailed for $30 Australian. I saw a brand new copy in Big W for $78, and a pre-owned copy at EB Games for $80; maybe those figures were slightly different but I remember being shocked. I also saw Gears of War pre-owned for $80, and a pre-owned collectors edition for $60? What's worse is that it has been on the classic list for a while, and a new copy should be $50. $30 is the bargain price for current-gen games in Australia, and there were several that I have either seen at that price when I owned the video store or in retalier catalogues, yet were still $100 in the shop today. Blacksite was one of them. I'm pretty sure Zack & Wiki dropped to $50, but it was still over $90 in the shops today (I'm going to buy it eventually Foolz3h, I swear, but not if I'm getting stooged $40). Maybe it is because they bought it in when the price was higher, but you would think they would drop it down to try and sell more units and not lose out to competitors, and I'd be surprised if the suppliers did not provide price protection to these major outlets.

I also got a voucher for JB Hi-Fi online, but it can only be used on the online store, not retail outlets. The prices are atrocious. You would expect an online store to have a pretty decent listing of games, but there were scant few that should have been at the $30 price point (which is the value of my voucher) and those that were are not games I want play. I guess I can always get a CD or two instead.

So I guess from now on I will be doing some research when I want to buy older games, to make sure I am getting the best price. I asked the clerk at EB Games about what proof you need for price matching. After giving me the info, he told me that some people print out ebay prices and expect them to match it. People, eh?