I'm going to start this piece by stating the obvious: way too many good games come out every month for a hardcore gamer to both "have a life" and play every good game.
I mean, what's coming out in May? X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Jagged Alliance DS , Patapon 2, Fallout 3: Broken Steel, Terminator Salvation , Call of Juarez: Bound In Blood, Bionic Commando, Infamous, Damnation, Fuel, and Backbreaker to name a few. If I purchased and played through all of those I'd be girlfriendless, dead broke, living in an alley, and trying to sustain myself by gnawing on the socks of random passerby. No one decent has enough money or time in their day to experience all the great games that come out year after year.
This leads into a cycle wherein games that don't get played the first time around simply get passed up and never considered for purchase again. For instance, last September I found myself becoming extremely interested in the (then upcoming) ATV racer Pure. The game had gotten extremely positive reviews from a number of publications, and I've always loved fun, physics-driven racing games, but somehow Pure just slipped off my radar.
I started getting caught up in anticipation for Left 4 Dead, Prince of Persia, and the new Banjo, and I totally forgot about Pure. So when I heard about the recent "$10-per-game" deal at Best Buy and saw that the long-forgotten ATV game had made the list I remembered my previous interest in the game. "Oh yeah!" I thought to myself. "That game seemed cool!"
Too many games get lost in the shuffle, and gamers are often missing a good opportunity to fill out their back catalogs for little or no money. Just take a look at Amazon (opens in new tab). Viva Pinata is there (opens in new tab) for $8.79. The Orange Box (opens in new tab) is selling for $19.99 with free shipping! The original Resistance is only $15! (opens in new tab)
I'm not trying to be one big prostitute for Amazon or anything, as their prices simply reflect the sort of deals you can get in plenty of other places, but the fact is that a lot of "older" games that you may have missed out on the first time are out there for SUPER cheap. With the current state of the economy, now might be the best time to take your $60 and instead of buying one new okay game, get several great ones that you missed the first time around. Just a thought.
