My experiences with Leaptrade - Gaming Thoughts

Turns out, I play a lot of games. I buy them, I sell them, I trade them. A lot of my classic stuff has been kept over the years (I'm looking at you NES, Sega Genesis and SNES), where as most of my modern games eventually get played, beaten and traded in (except absolute favorites like Mass Effect and Dragon Age). It can be frustrating at times however, because the place that makes it the easiest to do this is probably Gamestop. They take your games in almost any condition. No box? No problem. The issue arises from when you want a bit more than pennies on the dollar, and alternate options such as Ebay, Amazon or other venues that are sometimes less convenient but more profitable have to be considered. Leaptrade attempts to bridge the gap a bit, and for the most part it succeeds, though there are some hiccups along the way.

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Some quick Wii U thoughts

Like everyone and their mom yesterday and today, I have been pondering the various Wii U announcements and trying to figure out just what my thoughts on them and the system are.  I have come away decidedly mixed at this point, but then I have been since the beginning I guess.  I plan to get one more post up for the weekend by the end of the day (a review of a new game release), but I figured I'd hop on the Wii U conversational bandwagon real quick this morning.

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Gaming Thoughts - PlayStation 4 "Orbis" - no used games?

A non-Mass Effect article!  Well, there were bound to be a couple as I keep trying to update things here fairly quickly when an article or information catches my eye, and according to Kotaku and IGN - the new PlayStation 4 is being called "Orbis", will not be backwards compatible and will not play used games.  The rumor at this point is the disc will be tied to a PSN account.  Which makes me wonder how that will be handled for others on the same machine.

Considering the backlash that came out in regard to the no used games for Xbox 720, I am frankly pretty shocked by this.  This makes me believe that game publishers are really putting some pressure on the console makers at this point, because this would be the perfect opportunity for Sony to appeal to a larger segment of gamers by doing the opposite of Microsoft on this front.  I suspect both of these may be reality at this point.  Microsoft took a ton of bad press over this, so if they were not going to follow-through on it, it stands to reason they would have come out and said so by now.

When the PlayStation 3 had rumors about this kind of technology, Sony came out fairly quickly to quash them.  IGN contacted Sony, but the official response was "we don't comment on rumors or speculation."  Thing is, they did for the PS3 when it was potentially damaging to their brand's reputation.  As you can imagine, the majority of gamers are not responding well to this in forums and blogs I've seen talking about this so far.

It's an oft-discussed topic, and one I fall into the middle on to some degree.  In the end, I don't think that companies should limit used content.  I can see both sides of the debate, ranging from publishers needing to make back their money to gamers who feel like their rights are being infringed on to some degree.  There are some other major players like Gamestop and Amazon that likely wouldn't be pleased by this either.

As an aside, I am really, really disappointed if there is no backwards compatibility to boot, but I'm sure that is going to be less of an issue for most people than this other rumor.

Any thoughts on these rumors?  With Nintendo as the only one not being rumored to have this kind of protection in place - are they in a better spot to win customer favor as the Wii-U comes closer to reality?  Should Microsoft or Sony step up and say one way or the other, or not in your opinions?  Or is it all just too soon to tell and nothing more than pointless speculation?

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Gaming thoughts - Lots of game deals this week

Seems like there are a lot of game deals this week as I was scouring the net, and just figured I would do a quick dump of what I found here.

The theme for Xbox Gold deal of the week is Fable III.

 GameStop has a buy 2, get 1 free Vita deal going right now.

Gamersgate has Painkiller Complete Pack and Ship Simulator for 70% off as their midweek sale.

Speaking of midweek sales, Steam has Cities XL 2012 for 75% off right now.

I personally like to pick up slightly older golf and hockey games because you can get them for so much cheaper.  If you're equally inclined, Amazon has Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11 for the 360 for $15 right now, and two lightning deals coming up later (one is a Wii fitness game and the other appears to be a Sims title).

Good Old Games has a pair of promotions going right now - not sure if they stack or not, but one is a February promo of buy at least 2 titles, get 10% off, and a buy one, get one free on all D&D games promotion as well.

Lots of stuff on the stuff mentioned on the PlayStation Blog including these:

• 5-in-1 Arcade Hits (Mini)
• Blimp: The Flying Adventures (Mini)
• Crazy Taxi (PSN)
• Crazy Taxi: Fare Wars (PSP)
• Crush (PSP)
• Darksiders (Retail)
• De Blob 2 (Retail)
• Hamilton's Great Adventure (PSN)
• Homefront (DLC)
• Homefront (Retail)
• Marvel Super Hero Squad (PSP)
• MX vs. ATC: Reflex (PSP)
• MX vs. ATV: Untamed (PSP)
• NBA 2k12 (DLC)
• Sonic Rivals (PSP)
• Spongebob Squarepants: Yellow Avenger (PSP)
• UFC: Undisputed 2010 (PSP)
• Warhammer 40,000: Kill Team (PSN)
• Worms: Battle Islands (PSP)
• WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2010 (PSP)

Though I personally liked the PlayStation Plus freebies this week:

• Altered Beast (PSN, Free)
• Comix Zone (PSN, Free)
• Crazy Taxi (PSN, Discount)
• Golden Axe (PSN, Free)
• Hamilton's Great Adventure (PSN, Discount)
• Search and Rescue (Mini, Discount)
• SEGA Rally Arcade (PSN, Discount)
• Sonic the Hedgehog (PSN, Free)
• Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (PSN, Free)
• Streets of Rage II (PSN, Free)

  And lastly, just in general, there's a used game site called Gamestaq that a couple of friends have used and like, but I haven't tried.  Still, they have some decent prices at times and may be worth a look for those inclined.

Not sure if you guys find a big update like this useful mid-week or not, or even just interesting.  If so, let me know.  Thanks!

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Big gaming sales

So, there's a theme right now I'm noticing - Steam, Amazon, Gamersgate, Good Old Games and Gamestop all have various sales going on for digitally downloaded games. I don't usually post sales like this, but I found a ton of great stuff out there and thought others might be interested too. Anything here catch your eye?

Some examples? Good Old Games has Interplay games for 50% off (think early Fallout, Fallout 2, Fallout Tactics and more)

Gamestop has Fear 3 and Duke Nukem for $20 off. God of War 3 for the PS is listed as normally $30, and they have it for $15. There's a lot of others too.

Gamersgate has had some 2K sales this week. Today's big one? Civilization 5 for $17. That's $33 off. I may be picking this one up later tonight as I've been eying it for awhile...

Amazon has downloadable titles for up to 75% off. Two titles that caught my eye were Dragon Age: Origins Ultimate Edition and Spore. Big discounts on those 2 titles, and plenty more. One thing to look out for is several of the shown titles don't work on Vista/Windows 7 so make sure to check the specs on those, but there are plenty of good prices there.

I know there's a few of you out there who haven't actually gotten into Steam and have talked about it for awhile (I'm looking at you Coffee with Games - who has a great gaming blog of his own) - and the Steam Summer Camp Sale is off to a quick start. They have some contests going right now, but plenty of games too through July 10th - and they started yesterday. This means that what's posted now may not be there for much longer. Ones I bought (hiding this from his wife: Borderlands Game of the Year Edition, Oblivion Game of the Year Edition Deluxe, Recettear, Bit Trip Beat Runner and an expansion for Spectromancer. In total I spent $26. The normal going rate on those would have run me $95.

If you're curious about the breakdown:

Oblivion: Normally $25, on sale for $8.50
Borderlands: Normally $30, on sale for $7.50
Bit.Trip Runner: Normally $10, on sale for $2.50
Spectromancer: Truth and Beauty: Normally $10, on sale for $2.50
Recettear: Normally $20, on sale for $5

There are all games I've eyed in the past, so it seemed like a pretty good time to pick them up :P That said, one thing to watch out for on Steam sales like this is that lots of other content is on sale. For example, I think everything from Epic is like 25 or 33% off. Several times individual titles will show up with steeper discounts on Steams daily sales, so those are usually what I focus on (they had something similar over Christmas. When I picked up King's Bounty, I had seen it listed for 25% off at one point and considered it, but then held off. Glad I did, because it was later offered for like 75% off as a one day sale).

Not all of the deals out there right now are specific to computer, however.

Digitally Downloaded (another really good blog) posted these titles earlier at half off on Xbox live:TMNT: Turtles in Time Reshelled -- was 800mspts, now 400

• Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light -- was 1200mspts, now 600
• X-Men Arcade -- was 800mspts, now 400
• Comic Jumper -- was 800mspts, now 400
• Hard Corps Uprising -- was 800mspts. now 400

Last but not least, there's some discounted games on PSN right now too:

• Dead Space Ignition (PSN, Discount)
• Deathspank (PSN, Discount)
• Deathspank: Thongs of Virtue (PSN, Discount)
• Funky Lab Rat (PSN, Discount)
• Magic Orbz (PSN, Discount)
• Mahjong Tales: Ancient Wisdom (PSN, Discount)
• MicroBot (PSN, Discount)
• Shank (PSN, Discount)
• Spare Parts (PSN, Discount)
• Tetris (PSN, Discount)
• The Fancy Pants Adventures (PSN, Discount)

I've been keeping a pretty good pace on reviews lately - about every 3 days. I am hoping to keep that going for awhile and would appreciate any comments about titles of interest - they're all over the place in terms of age, system, genre. And glancing up at the list above... I suspect I'll have plenty more incoming over the next couple of months. :)

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Cheap gaming - older sports games

My dad was recently visiting from Florida and he was considering getting a gaming system and an HD tv for himself and family members who came to visit (like my son). So, after some discussion, he decided that the PS3 was probably the best bet since he had an interest in building up a Bluray collection to boot. Of course, the system and the TV promised to be pretty expensive themselves. So what was he to do for games? Well, he found several that were a pretty good price – mostly sports related titles. So how did we do? Not bad for starting out with no games at all.

First acquisition: Bad Company. IGN score of 8.6. Good graphics, entertaining game. It was $17 used at Gamestop. Definitely not a game for little kids though between the crude humor and the violent settings and gameplay.

Next up was Little Big Planet (Game of the Year Edition) for $25 used. Quality game that’s perfect for kids. On top of that, there is a ton of content out there that combined with the level building system provides a ridiculous amount of extra value to the purchase, though having internet access is really key to take full advantage of these features.

Next up was a bevy of sports games. We’ll start with Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08 which got an 8.5 from IGN and ran us $16 at Gamestop. Good game, but the EA servers do not seem to support it, so you can’t hop online or import the face graphic if you don’t have a webcam hooked up to the PS3.

All-Pro 2k8 was one of the best values at just $5 used at Gamestop. It landed a solid 7.6 from IGN, though I thought the engine did not age particularly well (I’m a big fan of the Madden games) and it lacks the really deep franchise modes you might get from a Madden game as well. However, the game itself is fun and did I mention it was only $5?

Speaking of football and Madden games - we snagged the 7.7 rated version of Madden 08 for $4. Sure, the series has progressed since then, but you can buy some foamy flavored coffee for the same price that'll last you 7 minutes. This game? Much longer than that.

We snagged NBA ’08 which landed an 8.4 on IGN for $12 at Gamestop. This was admittedly probably my least favorite of the sports acquisitions personally. There was no online connectivity available either.

MLB ’08: The Show really surprised me. I’m not really a big fan of baseball itself, but I really enjoyed this game. It landed an 8.7 from IGN and ran us $8 I think? I’ve sunk a lot of time into this one myself. I didn’t try every one of these games online, but this one also lacked online play currently.

The last one we picked up with my dad was College Hoops 2k7. I think we were out like $8 on that one, and it scored an 8.3 at IGN. I liked this one quite a bit as well – better than the NBA game we snagged.

After all of these purchases, I decided to beef up my game collection slightly, getting Tiger Woods 08 and then also picking up EA’s fine NHL 08 game. It was $17 and scored an 8.6 from IGN. It’s been several years since I last played an NHL game – 06 I believe was my last one. This one surprised me – for the heck of it I tried to hop online and found an opponent almost immediately. Deep, entertaining game to boot.

Lastly, I really liked the Fight Night games but had never gotten around to the most recent iteration – Fight Night Round 4. This scored a solid 8.8 from IGN and ran me $17 was all. I’ve been playing this one quite a bit as well – the career mode is quite entertaining.

Obviously peoples’ mileage will vary here, and I have a Gamestop card so I shaved 10% off of all of this. But it was a fairly inexpensive way for my dad to create a collection of games. It seems like the sports series depreciates faster than any other genre – likely because the majority of sports titles have a 1 year lifecycle before the latest and greatest comes out. But if you’re not interested in the absolute latest tweaks, rosters and online play, this is a really good way to build up your game library at a fraction of the cost compared to purchasing this year’s sports titles.

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