[DankPanties]

This could be an interesting topic.  Not meant as one that is some sort of show off thread, but rather a way to see the tastes and luck of other members.  I think it would be interesting to see what kind of stuff we buy 'round these parts.  Or at least, those of us who actually buy games.     I won't post what I paid for anything unless anybody specifically asks... again, trying to keep the money aspect out and the tastes aspect in.

So in the last two weeks, here's where my gaming dollar has been spent:

I bought a mint condition PSP1000, to have as a back up unit to my existing one.  I love the PSP rather fervently and plan to play the system for years to come, given its massive library.  Thus, I want to have spare parts or a spare unit in case my current breaks or is lost.  I will buy at least one more PSP for this reason as well, given I want my gf to have one of her own for ad hoc sessions with me.

Aside from that, I bought a few Game Cube games, Sonic Adventure DX, Sonic Adventure 2 Battle, and Lost Kingdoms (figured I'd get it since I have the sequel already).  None of those games may be exceptional, but I consider the first two to be history pieces in a way, so I'd like to play them some day.  There are scant few Game Cube games left I want but don't own, I plan to finish collecting for that library this year at any rate.

Lastly, I picked up Kingdom Under Fire: Heroes for Xbox.  Real time strategy isn't a big genre favorite for me, but this series seems to have a little extra gusto to it that I haven't seen in Dynasty Warriors for example.  If anything the titles were obviously ambitious, with impressive engines and graphics.  So I think it was worth getting a copy of.

So that was the last two weeks for me.  On average I buy about 2 games a week.  Mostly for Wii this year, as I finally bought a Wii last Christmas.  I generally only buy games which I can get incredible deals on.  Unfortunately you have to bleed once in a while!

So what about you guys, what have you bought recently? 

[Gideon Zhi]

I just put together an ITX-sized media/emulation PC which, when completely twinked out, won't look anything like Windows and will be sitting next to my TV as an alternative gaming platform and media center. It's an Intel i5 2550 on a Z68 motherboard, 4GB of RAM, 2TB hard drive, and a GeForce 430GT graphics board which isn't especially powerful but ought to be sufficient. Good stuff.

But for games? Fez.

[DarknessSavior]

I just bought Armored Core 3 for $6 and Hunter: The Reckoning Wayward for $1.

~DS

[KaioShin]

I very recently cancelled my Risen 2 pre-order after most early reviews have been severely in the "meh" territory. In a fluke of random madness I pre-ordered Guild Wars 2 instead. I've been a lot more favourable to MMOs since Star Trek Online and saw that they had a first beta weekend this week which I'd still get access to by pre-ordering. Only afterwards did I read that the actual release might still be half a year or more off, geez I hope not.

[vivify93]

Last month, I finally managed to get a copy of the GBA version of Tales of Phantasia. It's not perfect, but I like playing things on the original system more than emulating.

[UglyJoe]

Last non-mobile game that I bought was Kid Icarus: Uprising (3DS).  I pre-ordered it from Amazon, which yielded a download code for 3D Classics: Kid Icarus.  I can honestly say I've been enjoying latter more than the former.

[MisterJones]

Aside from latest indie bundles, I purchased blur and bulletstorm last month, both of which I havent tried yet because I am still busy with a few WRPGs

[SargeSmash]

Picked up a few indie bundles, but those aren't my big purchases.

Let's see...  last two weeks...  through chicanery at Dirt Cheap, I got enough store credit at GameStop, coupled with their 50% bonus towards pre-owned purchases, to pick up Dark Souls, Final Fantasy XIII-2, and Uncharted 3, the last of which I've already polished off (it's blessedly free of bloat and lasts about ten hours).  Also picked up another copy of Okamiden, and gave it to my cousin.  I think, the week before that, my brother and I did some combining of resources and picked up Crysis 2, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers, and L.A. Noire: The Complete Edition.  Actually, that may have been a little more than two weeks ago.

Before someone comments that I'm made of money, almost all of these were obtained through judicious resale / trading of various titles from Dirt Cheap.  I missed out on another batch of stuff, somebody came in and got all the good stuff when it hit 80%.  Doh!  Anyway, the effective cost of the most recent set was a bit less than $24. 

[DankPanties]

Provided the games you're getting are complete with cases, liner covers, manuals, and not-scratched-to-hell discs; then yes Sarge you are doing it right.

Where I live I do have a GameStop nearby, but I think of that store as the den of Satan, and I shan't enter it evermore.  Aside from that, there's a Walmart and a Big Lots... neither of which have prices I agree with.  So it's primarily online shopping for me.  The bad side of that is it's not always as cheap as I'd like, the good side is I can always find any game I want for purchase.  I like to target and strike... but that means I never have happy bargain bin surprises.

[SargeSmash]

Yeah, I usually only target complete copies of games in GS.  And ours is quite good, actually.  You still have copies of games that aren't in great shape that come through, but that's to be expected.

[Nightcrawler]

Here in NJ the used game bin in my local Gamestops comprise mainly of all sports games. Oh yeah, there's also the Nintendo bins with Mario games still selling for $5 less than they did brand new 10 years ago! I haven't found anything worthwhile in them in years. There's no actual pawn shops around here either (unless I went to say Patterson or something and risk mugs and murders).

I can never believe how so many of you got most of your games used over the years (other than online). Employees were hogging the Dragon Quests, Final Fantasys, and Chrono Triggers even way back when they were Babbages and Electronic Boutique.

Come to think of I don't think I've seen more than a few good offering in those used game bins in my ENTIRE life. They never had what I was looking for. I do have that one good memory of getting my crown jewel Wild Arms 1 for a few bucks.

I guess it's all in the area you live.

[DankPanties]

Oh yeah, there's also the Nintendo bins with Mario games still selling for $5 less than they did brand new 10 years ago!

This is something I still don't understand.  Why the !$&@^ don't Nintendo first party games depreciate the way Sony and Microsoft ones do?  I mean, is it an intentional limited supply?  Do people not resell their old Nintendo games to resaturate the used game market?  I just don't get it.

Come to think of I don't think I've seen more than a few good offering in those used game bins in my ENTIRE life.

Yeah even way back when, when I once frequented Electronics Boutique and Babbages, I never found amazing deals.  I remember I was happy to find System Shock 2 for $10 used, but when I got it home the CD was a scratched up mess.  Nope, no luck for me in brick'n'mortars.  In three different towns I've combed in years past, I almost always got shafted... either the used games were too damned expensive, or the discs were in terrible shape.  Even when I bought cartridges I had to bleed for them.  I remember paying $30 for a used copy of Phantasy Star IV in 1999, and that was CARTRIDGE ONLY.  That was the ONLY copy of the game I could find within 100 miles of my house.  I guess my one good story would be buying Kirby 3 for SNES at a Video Warehouse used but complete in mint shape for $15 (in 1999).  It was an impulse buy and I was amazed how good the game was.  Still, thank god the internet came and made IMO all those rip off brick'n'mortar stores obsolete.  Ever since 2001 I've bought 95% of my games online.

Of course now Microsoft and Steam and such want to make used games obsolete  , but that's a different tale of woe.

[KaioShin]

This is something I still don't understand.  Why the !$&@^ don't Nintendo first party games depreciate the way Sony and Microsoft ones do?  I mean, is it an intentional limited supply?  Do people not resell their old Nintendo games to resaturate the used game market?  I just don't get it.

It's Nintendo's policy, they never lower the list price, so retailers don't have much wriggle room. Just look at the ridiculous prices on the Virtual Console for truly ancient games. And do you see a lot of good deals there akin to Steam? Nintendo just goes take it or leave it. And the fanboys are unfortunately taking it.

But Nintendo just announced a net loss (of 300 million €) for the first time in their company history. I rejoiced at that news, they won't get their shit together and stop sucking until someone grabs them by the balls and squeezes hard.

Edit: Clarified currency so the number gets a meaning

[DankPanties]

until someone grabs them by the balls and squeezes hard

I love the smell of reality in the morning.

[Ryusui]

But Nintendo just announced a net loss (of 300 million €) for the first time in their company history. I rejoiced at that news, they won't get their shit together and stop sucking until someone grabs them by the balls and squeezes hard.

Amen to that. The only thing that Nintendo can learn from is failure. Success just makes them dumber.

[SargeSmash]

Pure luck on my part, I suppose.  I didn't get many opportunities to frequent Electronics Boutique or other stores of its ilk due to living in the middle of nowhere.  Most of my finds, at least when younger, came through salvage stores, garage sales, video stores, and pawn shops.  I bugged the heck out of Blockbuster for a while there, and got some good games when their used pricing was actually reasonable.  The pawn shop didn't have a lot of hoarders, because they just wanted to move product.  And the local video store, for some reason, seemed to carry a few of the really good RPGs.  And they didn't rent well, as they hadn't quite caught on, especially in a tiny town in rural Mississippi, where the audience for those types of games probably consisted of me and my brother.  (Well, that may not be entirely true, but it was probably close.)

I still want Kirby's Dream Land 3, by the way...  I passed up on it in Toys 'R' Us for $30, and it never really dropped (or I missed it).  I did snag Super Mario RPG there for $15, though.

And really, that may be the other part of it.  I was so far behind the curve that as everyone was unloading all their stuff to "upgrade" to Playstation / Saturn, I still cared about the SNES.  A lot.  Especially since it took me forever to actually get one (1995-ish).

[DankPanties]

Dream Land 3 is such an astounding game, I really must replay that one co-op this year, as I did it single player back when.  If you haven't played it in a while, go contrast that SNES classic with Epic Yawn, and you may realize why I was so down on that Wii game.  Yes Epic has wonderful graphics, but the gameplay is a travesty.  Probably because it was a whole different game before being smeared with a Kirby skin.  Oh boy am I getting off topic here...

[SargeSmash]

Meh, we're really good at that.  It's more like a conversation that way, taking twists and turns as needed to keep things going. 

At any rate, Kirby 3 is such a weird game for me.  The control has always seemed a little off, and I've never pushed through it, despite being a raging Kirby fanboy.  Maybe I should give it another go.  I think it's the only mainline entry I haven't finished.  And as you know, I'm not down on Epic Yarn, but to each their own.  It's not quite traditional Kirby, but it was a fun game for me.

[Garoth Moulinoski]

Amen to that. The only thing that Nintendo can learn from is failure. Success just makes them dumber.

We saw that happen once, though... Didn't we...? I think...

ANYHOW.

My most recent gaming purchase...? Pre-ordering The Last Story, I suppose...

[BRPXQZME]

Ordering Xenoblade.

(Not pre-ordering, though that was the intent. Because someone withheld a certain gift card that was coming in the mail... [/basement dweller].)

And since I don’t pay for full-priced games very often, it goes without saying that I won’t be making another purchase very soon. Well, actually, I gotta find a way to use that gift card, so... probably that’s how I’m going to buy ME3 soonish.