the summer is over the shops are now stocking up the greatest of the years titles, every week im having to walk past knowing that i cant afford them all so the time to make choices and sacrifices is upon me.
this weeks choice Batman or ODST... i choose batman it wasnt easy and for the first time in my life i choose between 2 games on the boxart alone i was torn , right up until i got home i considered and reconsidered going back to swap games..
but i was happy enough batman is an awesome game , check out my review to see my opinions on it.
The Credit crunch is over! according to the papers we are finally seeing a rise in spending and things are back to normal.
not so for me, things are worse than ever my rent is up, food bill is higher than ever yet my wage is lower due to less hours and a reduced bonus, even worse the price of gaming has gone up as preowned games are now more expensive than ever.
for me gaming used to be my biggest vice i would literally spend 1/3 of my total wage on video games. up too 3 a week but during this credit crunch i found that this big spending would be my salvation. for the past year i have been gradually trading in all my games 1 or 2 at a time to get a new game at a reduced cost ,never spending more than a fiver. this now means that i generaly only have 2-3 games to play at a time but i'm now enjoying my games to the full rather than playing them once and discarding. games like oblivion and two worlds have becomemy salvation long hours to put in and a myriad of fun to be had.
so my biggest tip to all gamers facing the credit crunch .. trade up, trim the fat from your collection and continue your collection with whatever you want while leaving your wallet intact and shop around before trading in Game, gamestop and xtravision all offer different prices for each game, so big is the difference that you can get the difference of £15 between these shops.
after reading gamakarmicas recent blog (found here) about the world of achievements , i started to think about how achievements have affected my choice in games and the way i play these games.
In particular my recent purchase of fight night round 3 ,sure its a great game but i've never been an avid boxing fan and i never really liked fighting games but after seeing a friend play it i found my self wanting this game. so i eventually got it ,played it and it is now back in its packet tucked away amongst my collection of games.
only now in reflection do i realise that the main appeal of this game may have been its easy achievements,this along with many early EA games for the 360 have very few achievements many of which can be gained in one play through.is it possible that subconsciously I'm picked this game for a little gamerscore boost?.my friend did get 3 or 4 while i was there ,each over 100g
well yes achievements appeal to me in the way that a dog needs a treat for doing something good , when a game fails to deliver on achievements as promised here's looking at you mercenaries 2 i feel cheated,when achievements are too easy i don't feel like i achieved anything. i like my achievements to be well thought out so i do get a majority of them in my first playthrough but i can then extend the life of my game by going back to get the more difficult of them. At the same time looking at your gamerscore and comparing it too your friends gives you that sense of 1upmanship that you felt in an old ****arcade when your name was up there on the bad dudes vs dragon ninja leaderboard.
this leads me too conclude is that i am indeed buying games for this little boost to my score just to get that smug little smile when i realise i'm now 400 points above my mate again .
thanks to this weeks new purchase mercenaries 2 my gamerscore is finally up over 10000 even though it hasnt give me all the gamerpoints i should have thanks to awful bugs in the game i still managed the 200 points i needed :D
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