WIP Short Guide for Gamers on A Budget. Could use some suggestions.

Games on a Budget, a somewhat short guide written by Joseph Nash (A.K.A Black Markel)

Ahhhh the recession. Government billion dollar bailouts, the recent (recent when this guide was written anyhow) swine flu pandemic, overpopulation, bliss. Nothing like having to watch your every penny just in case you get booted from your 7^th job this month. What's a gamer to do? So many $60-70 dollar titles out, so little money. Between rent/house payments, bills, groceries how are we supposed to get our daily virtual fix? Playing FEAR for the 5^th time and constantly getting harassed by 10 year olds not cutting it? Here are a few things I have learned (sometimes the hard way) to help my fellow money troubled gamers out.

General Tips/Rules:

1. Prioritize: Just because some new DLC or a cool expansion pack has come out for your favorite game doesn't mean you sacrifice the absolute essentials. Yes gaming is fun. So is having a roof over your head and having a warm bed to sleep in. You can hold off that new Halo map pack for a month if it means the difference between paying your rent on time and getting an eviction notice. Heater bills are more important than heat rays and health care is more important than health packs.

2. Save every penny (literally): No I don't mean carry a Glade Force Flex bag full of pennies everywhere you go in case of an emergency, but be realistic. If you have a few dimes and quarters, put them in a jar somewhere (I usually keep the quarters, loonies and toonies in my wallet while the other 1 cent, 5 cent and ten cent coins go into a jar somewhere). Once you have loaded up enough coins in a jar or two, head over to your local grocery store. Chances are they will have a nifty little machine labeled “Coinstar Center”. These babies sort out all the coins you dump into them, calculate how much money they are worth (They take about 8% of what you put in though, everyone has to get profit somewhere) and then they give you a voucher that you take up to the cashier in exchange for money.

3. Share, borrow and rent: Here's how it goes. Your friend asks you if he/she can borrow you shiny new copy of... Killzone 2. Your first impulse is “No way, bitch. I'm going to the top of the leaderboards!” but think for a minute. If your friend gets himself/herself the last available copy of Prototype at your local game store and has played a fair bit of the game, where's the wrong in pulling the old “Well I did let you borrow ____ for ____ weeks” line? Usually they'll break down and lend you the copy for a week or two. If you don't actually have physical flesh and blood friends like most gamers, $5 buckaroos for a week of playtime on a half decent game isn't exactly devastating. Would you rather follow the hype of a game and pre-order it for $70 to only find out it's a steaming pile of bantha fodder? Or would you rather wait a week or two for a rental copy to free up and try before you buy?

4. Worse comes to worse, pawn stuff: Please don't sell your liver for COD4. If you are in desperate need of you gaming fix and have tried the above, why not pawn some stuff. Books, figurines, bongs, old engagement rings and a whole lot of other stuff can be sold to your local pawn shop. Got some old VHS tapes (I still have the original Star wars collection, I wonder how much that's worth?) or maybe some vinyl records? Pawn the crap. What would you rather have? David Bowie or a torque bow?

5. Use t3h almighty interwebz: There are a bundle of websites that can help you with your gaming money troubles. Cheap ass gamer is a website that keeps track of price drops/raises and deals from a number of retailers in the US an UK. Game trading zone is another website (which is free to use) where gamers can trade games between each other for any system. Just think, Resident Evil 5 for that dusty copy of Contra you have in closet.

Game Deals: Here's a few cheap games I have found while shopping or browsing the internet.

$10-$15 dollar games:

“The Darkness” for PS3/360: This has got to be (in my opinion) one of the best hidden 360/PS3 gems ever. The storyline is superb, the voice acting is amazing and the gameplay is that of a standard FPS only with a few twists. You are Jacky Esticado, a mob hitman with a dark and terrifying family secret that you don't even know about. On your 21^st birthday, a hidden power (more like creature) awakes within you and your life basically goes down the shit-hole from there. The “Darkness” takes the shape of twin snake-like tendrils that come out of either side of your back. When you are using the Darkness, an array of abilities are accessible to you. First of is an odd night vision that outlines objects in the dark with a strange, pulsating gold color (not COD4 style green night vision that has been used to death). Over the course of the game you get more and more “powers”. Artificial black holes, stabbing tendrils and twin Darkness guns are a few. I can't really say much else (I'll spoil the story which as I mentioned it damn good) but this game is worth much more than $10 dollars.

“Darksector” for PS3/360/PC: This is by far not a great game story wise (you could replace the Russian military with Italian speaking Nazis and the “infected” with demonic bunnies and the story would still still be crap if not for the addition of a bit of comedy) but it is fun none the less. The thing I found the most fun was the “Glaive”. It's a weird, 3 bladed boomerang that instantly comes back to you (it's part of your bloody arm) after you throw it. It really starts to entertain once you start getting upgrades for it. Over the course of the game you can “learn” how to maneuver it in mid throw, charge it for a powerful decapitation move (or limb severing, depending on where you aim), grab items and weapons over long distances and elementally charge to make it explode (fire, ice, electricity). It is currently (until May 11 on steam) $13.33 for PC, about $10 to 20$ in retail (depends on where you get it).

“Max Payne 1 and 2” for PC/Xbox (or 360 arcade original)/PS2: The first game (that I can think of) to master bullet time and turn it into a mainstream concept. Max Payne 1 and 2 are gritty, dark 3^rd person shooter games set in a present day, mob setting. In Max Payne 1 you play (obviously) Max, an average NYPD cop with a good life. A beautiful wife, a newly born baby, decent pay and a house are all in your possession. One day in a horrifying turn of events he “wakes up from the American dream” (as he puts it) to find his family slaughtered in his own home. From that point on Max's life takes a downward spiral while he hunts mobsters in a quest for vengeance. In Max Payne 2, Max has somehow escaped the life of revenge with a new police job, trying to put the past behind him. Things are somewhat decent until he discovers a group of heavily armed mobsters posing as “cleaners”. His first encounter with the Cleaners lead him to meeting an assassin names Mona who just complicates things. Quickly he learns that not everything he though he knew was true. Friends turn into enemies, fellow cops are found out to be corrupt and only you know about it. Once again, I don't want to reveal to many details do to the great story. Each game is available on Steam for $10 bucks and prices range from 410 to $15 for the console version.

$15-$25 dollar games:

“Unreal Tournament 3” for PC/PS3/360: The third installment (not counting the spin offs and such) of the Unreal series, it is a purely multiplayer game (you can face bots similar to counter strike). I am referring to the PC version because it only costs twenty dollars while the console versions cost thirty or more. The game is a straight up CTF, deathmatch type game (more modes include Warfare, Titan, Greed , etc.) with a variety of weapons and “power ups”. It runs on Epic Game's highly flexible and good looking Unreal Engine 3 which powers games such as Bioshock, Rainbow 6: Vegas, Gears of War and many others. Modders can write “mutators” for PS3 and PC that effect game modes, player damage, gravity and virtually every other aspect of the game to create a fully customizable multi player experience. People can also create full fledged mods that totally revamp the game such as (my personal favorite) “The Haunted” and “Snowreal”. It is constantly being updates with user made maps as well so there is virtually never a dull moment.

“Bioshock” for PC/PS3/360: Voted GOTY for 2007, Bioshock was/is one of the best story driven games to be made in the 7^th generation of consoles. Old FPS gameplay with a little bit of a genetic twist, a great story, great voice acting and a WTFBBQ plot twist make this game worth every penny. You play as Jack, an average Joe who is on a flight over the Atlantic when suddenly the plane crashes right on top of an underwater dystopia, Rapture. Founded by Andrew Ryan, Rapture has become a living nightmare filled with Plasmid (genetic abilities gained through “splicing”) hooked former residents, robotic turrets, “Big Daddies” and more. Unfortunately you may have to dish out a little more cash for the console versions (especially PS3 version because it was the most recently released). The cheapest 360 version I found was about $25 used.

Special Mention:

“The Orange Box” for PC/PS3/360: Best. Game. Package. Ever. The Orange Box is a compilation of 5 award winning games made by Valve. The puzzle FPS Portal, the well balanced multiplayer game Team Fortress 2 and Half Life 2 plus both its episodes. For $29.99 it may be a bit much if you are on a really tight budget but if you do get it, you'll be playing these games for a looooong time, especially if you get the PC version (Valves source engine id highly modifiable so there are hundreds of user created mods out for it).