I'm surprised you class EB as a smaller store. They (under the name Game in UK) are probably the UK's biggest retailer of video games.

fretz: The average price for a new game in a small and a large store is roughly the same. However, smaller stores (such as Gamestop, EBX and Electronic Boutique) do not lower the price of their games as they get older, whereas BestBuy and similar stores do. I'd say that a game that originally cost $50 when it came out is being sold for $30 three months later in the larger stores. What I look for, however, are weekly specials. Every week, the large stores discount some of their games. That way, I can buy a $50 game that's less than a month old for $30 or an older game for $5. Basically the only advantage of specialized stores is that due to their inflexible pricing policy, they sometimes have real gems there. For example, last year I got Ultima IX/Ultima Online combo for $5 and Wizards & Warriors Limited Edition for $3 there.

Sorry, I can't give you any general information. I looked for Sim City 4, though:
43.99? at Amazon
49.99? at SMM (typical mail order retailer for computer games)
47.75? at Karstadt (that's one of those big 'offline' stores which you'll find in every city and where you can buy basically everything from cooking equipment and clothes to computers)

Edited by Mr Creosote at 10:25 on June, 21st 2003

NetDanzr/Tuss - while you prefer the larger stores i'm interested in which are the cheapest on your side of the pond....and what kind of differance in price there is between the most expensive and the cheapest. Are the main stores (or indeed any high street retailer) able to compete with the like of Amazon in your country.

Also Mr C. - although you dont go for many modern games what is the lye of the land in Germany - how do Amazon compere to other webbased companies and the German high street/online?

Edited by fretz at 01:35 on June, 21st 2003

As for getting new games, I still prefer tha larger stores, such as CompUSA and BestBuy. I simply wait till they have a particular game on sale before buying it, though.

This excludes games by Dreamcatcher/The Adventure Company, though. I'm getting those mailed directly for me to review

Mostly ebay or through personal contact with other collectors. Not necessarily all of them for 1?, but most of them

It might sound stupid, but the best purchases I made for PC games were in rebate bins in Jean-Coutu (A drugstore) and BlockBuster (a movie renting store). Why? No idea. Perhaps it's because all those good games get picked very fast in the specialised shops or that they don't order them at all and that you need to make a special order for them, thus raising the price...

Where do you all get your old games from?

Most of mine have come from car boot sales/ cheapo auctions and freinds, more recently though these sources have dried up so its been onto ebay, although only about 60 ish have come from ebay.

Yes, I own both Imperialisms. Really nice games However, even when the first part was released, it was already labelled 'old-fashioned' and it received very bad reviews here (no magazine gave it more than half a page as opposed to the 20-page 'special' about the latest shooter).

Edited by Mr Creosote at 23:42 on June, 19th 2003

Someone called "Time" told me once


While I have to agree, I bought a game not too long ago (I might consider posting about it in the Players Game Reviews) called Imperialism II. It's a very good game and it's indeed a "true" strategy game. I been quite impressed by a game that I bought 20$, instead of feeling depressed by another one I bought around 90$! The game label reads 1999. Not too long ago even if it's not that fresh either.

Ii long for the 8 bit days when Full Price cost you £10 and Budget titles were £3.

Jeez we wont see the likes of those days again
:(

And let's not forget 'full price' was something like 60 DM (30 ?) back then....

Usually I buy computer games second hand at Ebay for 1 ?. Or I go into a regular shop and buy older "budget" games that are mostly cheaper than 10 ?.

As for new games, I can't really remember when I bought a game when it was just released. Maybe the last one was Chaos Engine.

fretz: I guess you have a point about the prices then On the other subject: I didn't say new games are crap because they're 3D. They're crap, because the gameplay sucks. Them being in ugly 3D (and I mean 'rendered 3D' with that, not 'classic 3D' ) only adds to the problem. What I have problems with is any game being 3D which doesn't need it, i.e. everything but racing games, flight sims or 3D shooters. I've never understood why a strategy or Adventure game has to be 3D - it's simply stupid, it only makes the game uglier (subjectively) and more confusing (objectively). As I said, that's not the biggest problem, though.
My main problem with new games is that they only cover very few different genres and concepts. 90% of all games are shooters (worst genre ever). The remaining 10% are either RPGs (you know what I think about those), neverending sports series (uninteresting) or action games which are called 'strategy' these days (primitive). If you go through TGOD, you can see what games I like: Adventures (I don't count Aqua and alike to this genre) and (real) strategy. Both genres have been dead for years.

Goat: Answering your last question first: see the subject of this topic. It's clear I'm only talking about commercial games. Freeware and amateur games suffer from the same development these days, and thus less and less good games are released in this 'scene', but there are of course still worthy corners, like for example in IF.
On the subject of reviews about games versus trying the games yourself, I have to disagree. These games all get extraordinarily positive reviews, yet I can say for sure I'd be bored with them after a minute. How? Because they're all just clones of always the same concepts again. Concepts which I've played many examples of. See my above answer to fretz (point about all games belonging to the same few genres). As for gaming consoles, they're totally out of question for me. Again, see my above answer (genre preferences) - these games have never existed on any gaming console and never will.

Really? Who says?

Anyway, on the "new-games-are-crap" subject, also remember I didn't say "commercial" games. Do you ever play freeware, shareware, or other types of independent games, Mr. C.?

Those are INSANE prices. I feel sorry for you.

For newer games: I never buy them within 6 months of coming out. Ever.

The last few games I bought from wizard works were fantastic, Dirt Track Racing, and DTR Sprint Cars, both hit the shelves at 20USD. I really look for publishers of "budget" games that surpass playability of expensive games.

Sorry, but I don't know anywhere that wouldn't have big shipping costs for you.

Starcraft is far from being "recent". You can't have something "recent" that been made in a time lapse greater than 12 months.

There's a difference between "detailed" and "right", ya know? If I told you that my tongue is green, giving you the exact coordinates to where it's the greenest and where it's the least, as well as how much saliva it excretes per minute, you'd have very *detailed* knowledge but not *correct* knowledge. Why? Because you haven't seen it yourself. Likewise, reading a magazine's reviews means jack.

Oh, and by the way: where'd you get the idea that I'm just talking about PC games (you said "I'm still subscribed to a PC games magazine")? Recently (meaning ~after Starcraft: BW/Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II), console games have been A LOT better as far as games go.

It was simcity 4, £34.99 at EB, £25.99 at amazon.






I suppose this is just a matter of opinion, but to not even consider games on the basis they use polygons instead of playfields is a bit extreme isnt it?

Do you discount all 3d games that were released before 1992 as well because they are 3d? like Stunt car Racer, Elite, Mercenary, Bards Tale, Ultima Underworld, Space Shuttle;), all the Freescape titles!:o Castle Master, Driller or Tau Ceti shit? I cant accept that.

Do you also dismiss the isometric games as well like planet of the robot monsters, marble madness, syndicate!, gangsters ?

I can understand disliking a particular genre, shoot-em -ups dont really do it for me, whether they are 3D, 2D or 42DD, but to dilike a game simply for being 3d regardless of genre, theme etc i cant understand.

I have no idea what game you used as an example. The first link just brought me to a page saying "upgrade your browser" recommending Opera, which is funny, because I was there with Opera. After that ridiculous experience, I decided it's not worth the hassle. That should answer your initial question. To specify this:
I can.
Not 'lots of', but everything.
Funny that this hasn't been the case for at least the last five years then.
Also funny, because I'm still subscribed to a PC games magazine. Every month, I go through the pages, see always the same ugly screenshots and read identical game descriptions again. Although certainly not first hand, I'd say my knowledge about new games is pretty detailed.