Gaming thoughts... Holiday Games - Part 2

So, I posed the question a bit ago asking if any game-related content was acquired (or received) for the holidays. We used to have really, really small Christmas Days several years ago. I was going to school, making minimum wage with some kids - not a recipe for lots of presents. Since then? We try to spoil a bit more around the holidays - especially since our younger 2 have birthdays right around the holiday. We did really well for the munchkins on that front I think (yay for my promotion earlier this year and a nice Christmas bonus from work, plus my wife doing well with her online business), so here it is:

My oldest is not much of a gamer, but she loves the Kingdom Hearts series, so I picked up the Game Boy Advance game for her DS Lite, since she has never gotten to play that particular game. She has also gotten interested in the storylines of Bioshock and Zelda titles due to her girlfriend who is a big gamer and loves both series of games. As such, I picked up Bioshock 1 for the PS3 and Zelda: Twilight Princess for her. She's also quite fond of the Sims games, so I snagged her Sims 3 for her DS.

My youngest still loves Pokemon above all, so I have some cards coming to her on that front. She is also a huge fan of Little Big Planet. I got her part 2 - though as a birthday present (her birthday is 2 days after Christmas). I also nabbed her Lego Batman (she loves the Lego games). On top of that? Well, with the fact her birthday is right next to Christmas, she is getting spoiled a bit, with a green DSi, a Pokemon Mystery Dungeon game, Pokemon Black and Epic Mickey.

My son's the biggest gamer of the group - by far. For his birthday, which is in a couple of weeks, I'm going to set him up with a Steam account, and probably get him a couple of games for it. Knowing him, they'll be FPS like Left for Dead 2 or killing floor. He knows this is coming. I picked him up a title on Black Friday he wanted too, but since he is the only member of my house to actually ever read my blog? Can't post that just yet here (even though he very rarely reads it, I don't want to chance it). I'll reveal that one in a couple of weeks. Odd are by then, he'll have picked up one or two more games with his birthday and Christmas cash (my guess? he'll pick up Modern Warfare 3 on the PS3).

For Christmas itself though, he got Battlefield 3, Batman Arkham City, Chrono Trigger for the DS, Golden Sun for the DS and Bioshock 2 for the PS3.

Any fun games or toys to report from readers? :)

Read More

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.

Read More