Gaming on the cheap

The Xbox 360 is going down in price on Sept 7th, with one version going down to $199.

Gamers are lazy? I'm sorry did you just insult the people for whom you were writing this articl?. The product usually put on the bottom of the shelves and in the bottom of the bins typically the older games. They are there not because gamers are too lazy to riffle through the bins but because like old sediment on river banks newer games are piled on top.

In addition, you mentioned that when buying used you were offered a replacement plan for the game. I don't know of any place that does this... Perhaps a pawn shop? But who shops at pawn shops for games?

Gamestop, the number one retailer for used games and systems, for instance has a guarantee on all used games... and personally I have had games go bad on me. Espically those retro cartridge games on the bottom shelf that I was too lazy to pick up.

"Gamers are lazy and often don’t look there."

I can make general statements about groups of people too.

Journalists are condescending jerks and don't often consider the consequences of openly mocking the audience of their article.

My friends just bought a used 80gig PS3 from craigslist for half the price. I like getting the warranty and buying stuff at the store but if you don't have the much to spend used could be sweet.

console chumps... why no mention of PC gaming?

Never found anything as funny as my roommate paying money to download onto his xbox 360 the same classic arcade games that have been available for free on PC emulator programs for years.

Classic PC games are classic as in 10yr life span. Civilization... Civ II is still a great game and can be had cheap. Civ IV ...also available cheaply. Seen it as low as $20.

Sim City, Sims... Older Myst games...FPS ...old school shooters can normally be had dirt cheap or in combo packs.

Classic RPG games... mods make them fairly replayable

Blizzard games... Diablo, Starcraft... with battlenet being free. can play forever.

Online MMORPGs... most come with monthly fees. but for unlimited play. Some...like guild wars have no monthly fee. And some like Eve ...have no "purchase price" and are downloadable.

Online browser based games... from serious, to goofy (kingdom of loathing) provide hours of cheap entertainment. All the classic puzzle games are avail somewhere online.

Chess. Poker, ... and don't forget solitare.

Want to play games... on the cheap or just for pure entertainment. PC gaming really beats out consoles for variety and options.

I gave up console gaming a long time ago. For me it's online mmorpgs that I play. It is a $15 a month expensive per game usually. Pretty inexpensive when you consider that you might have to spend $50-$100 a month for the same amount of hours worth of entertainment that you can get from an ever evolving online mmorpg. World of Warcraft is one of the more notable and popular MMOs of our time. Also games like EQ2, City of Heros/City of Villians, upcoming Warhammer. You can go even cheaper with a one time purchase of game software and a free to play online game like Guild Wars.

Download MAME, a rom emulator for free. Then download any of the various ROM's that have been cracked out on the web and play arcade video games.

Much fun to play Mike Tyson's Knock Out or Zoo Keeper on your home PC w/o having to insert quarters!

For the record, it was not the journalist who asserted that gamers are lazy. It was Scott Jones from Crispygamer.com who made the comment.

I, too, used to be a console gamer starting back in the days of Atari, Commodore, and Intellivision. I moved from system to system over the years, finally selling my SNES in favor of PC Gaming. In 1996 I started playing games online and have never looked back.

I currently play Vanguard: Saga of Heroes ($45 for 3 month subscription ). Prior to that it was EverQuest and before that Ultima Online. The cost of my subscriptions to the online games over the years has still not equalled the amount of money I dumped into consoles and games for them.

Definitely cheaper to go PC than console and certainly much more fun in an environment with thousands of other people at one time instead of a handful of other people.

Why go for cheap when you can go for free?

"Casual" games, usually flash games in your web browser, are huge. Kongregate and other have hundreds of good ones.

Alternatively, for those who like MMORPGs, there are plenty of free ones available (usually with the option, but not requirement, of paying for enhancements). My personal favourite, "Kingdom of Loathing", is even completely browser based so you can play it wherever you have access to a web browser!

"Also: Keep an eye out for multiple versions of the same game in the used section; I’ve seen the same game at three or four different price points in the same store."

Nope. That makes no difference. Whatever the price is in the store's computer, that's what you pay. You could possibly argue the price down if it's gone UP since the stickering, but good luck. Nice advice. Next time, do some research before you post.

First off I think that the writer was talking about LEGAL, cheap games. Not downloading cracked games and using an emulator. Check out Namco, Nintendo, Sega. Neo Geo, or any other old school game and they all have legal web sites that talk about how downloading ROMS is illegal. Now with that said, sure playing solitare is cheaper than lets say Gears of War but does it leave your hands sweaty and shaking from the action? If it does then consult a doctor as you are having a heart attack. And sure console games are a bit more expensive and Xbox Live costs money to get on, but considering that a $3,000 PC is needed for Crysis or any other high end PC game I fail to see the difference. For $3,000 I can by a 360, several games and years worth of Live and have tons for many games for years to come. But then again console games cost $60 and so do PC games, the only difference is that in two months the PC version of UT 3 costs $20 and the 360 version is still $60.

The insurance on discs isn't a bad idea for everyone. I work at a major video game retailer and there are people that put their games through a lot of abuse or that have kids or pets. Why would you suggest to check the disc if no one did anything to their discs to ruin them? Where I work it's never more than 3 bucks and you aren't 50 or 60 dollars in the hole if little Billy or Rover finds your new copy of The Force Unleashed.

Well you could also just dl a crack of a game. Isn't that why all the business went over to the consoles?

Instead of wasting time on games, why not join the movement to have a Presidential Debate of issues related to science and technology. There is already a movement out there supported by sciences associations, university presidents and nobel laureates.

If we can have a debate/interviews from the point of view of religion, why not one that is based in a discipline more immediately relevant to life on earth and the future of our country - science and technology.

Join the movement for such a debate by going to:

http://www.sciencedebate2008.com/www/index.php?id=2

Prof of Cell Biology, University of California

Ummm... this article must not be written for true gamers.

Go retro? Already played and beat the above games
Go used? Common sense

Truly going cheap these days involves picking up either a PSP or DS because those games are still set at a price point below $40.

These $60 Xbox/PS3 games are a total rip-off (I commend Nintendo for keeping with the long-time industry standard of $50 for new games) and the only thing being spit out right now are First Person Shooters and sequels (look at GameStop's homepage right now... it's absolutely ridiculous: Fallout 3, C&C Red Alert 3, Fable 2, WHERE'S THE ORIGINALITY THESE DAYS!!!???)

Oh well... I'm getting too old to game like I used to anyways.

"Gamers are lazy" is that like "reporters generalize about things they know nothing about"? Idiot.

You could try an alternate-reality game (ARG) which offers fictional challenges in a real world narrative–or in the case of the one I belong to ("Expose the GRID"), real world challenges in a real world narrative. Instead of killing people online, you might find satisfaction by working together and leveraging collective intelligence on quests to uncover secret conspiracies and actually make a difference in the world.

Gamers are not always lazy. We are actually a smart community and these so called tips have been known to us for years.

I have purchased a last generation console and am sure that i enjoy as much as a gamer with next gen. console does. Its more about fun rather than geting shiny consoles.Buy what you can afford is the policy to be followed.

http://www.home-entertainment-news.co.uk

"Gamers are lazy and often don’t look there."

I can't believe you get paid to do what you do.

"“God of War “and its terrific sequel; “Shadow of the Colossus,”"

Most of your points are well said, but you lose credibility when you say something like the above.

Josh, it doesn't cost $3,000 for a PC to run Crysis. Try again. Try half that. I'm doing it and so are many, many others.

Also, this entire article sounds like it was put together in 10 minutes. It gives incredibly vague and over-generalized information that just about anyone who is into games already knows.

Did the writer do ANY research? Did he have anything remotely interesting to say? Did CNN.com really need an accomplice from a minor website to create this? Yeesh.

Shadow of the Colossus isn't the sequel to God of War, it's sort of the conceptual sequel to Iko.

Wow. These posts are relatively ridiculous.

Gamers are lazy, simply put. You have to be joking when you rebuttle that comment with anything more than "Yea you're right". A determined gamer will look through all the stock including the bottom/top shelves. But intelligent marketing says put things you want to sell within reach – that is where your eyes are trained to go, and where your hands can easily pick up items. That's just simple marketing.

And the person who said that "You're openly mocking the audience," there is no mockery here, it's called common sense and logic. When you walk through the grocery store and you see an entire wall of Cheerios, are you going to lean down and pick up the ones at the bottom? Uh...no, you'll grab one of the middle boxes...

I work at a national game store. I can't keep track of how many times we don't lower the price on all of the game cases out on the floor. Also, the price doesn't ring up from a base in the computer, it reads the bar code and pulls it up from the bar code. So if it is a 19.99 bar code, it will ring up for 19.99.
Maybe you should do some research before you post.

"Gamers are lazy and often don’t look there."

Surely you don't mean to actually say that all gamers are lazy do you? I'm a gamer and don't consider myself lazy. Perhaps I'm mistaken.

Or, perhaps, you meant to say "gamers are often lazy and don't look there." There is a world of difference between these two statements. Let's not reinforce the stereotype that all gamers are lazy.

I own an Xbox 360 and have been online with live for a little over a year. When I went to purchase Call of Duty 4 in November of last year, I was mesmerized and didnt so much as rent a movie until June. Considering a trip to the local pub can cost 50-60 bucks, a one time charge or the game seems pretty cheap. I recently splurged on a new game "Battlefield: Bad Company" . If you haven't seen the destructible environment, flash games and MMO's might still be fun. When a tank creeps around the corner and takes out thew wall I was hiding on, I turn and rocket the SOB, Its well worth the $0.50 a day I paid for it. Gone are the days of point and click, PC games can be fun but too many are modded and cheaters are more prevalent than ever. Consoles put us all on the same page with the same hardware.

I encourage anyone who hasnt seen the Frostbite game engine in the works to look it up on Youtube. Battlefield certainly isnt the greatest game of all time but it sure has taken enough of my time to be well worth the cost. I think the focus of these articles is to bring attention to the gaming world. My belief is that this shift has already happened and the box office totals, nielson's ratings and lack of compelling TV programs is beginning to show.

How much did GTA make this year? Wasnt it more than any movie ever? How about the release of Halo? wasnt that a larger blockbuster than Titanic?

I think we should take a hard look at these games and the true cost of everything associated.

Xbox = $299.99

Three games = $180

Live service = $55

Total = $534.99

Now lets say I take my wife to a movie every weekend

Movie ticket price = $18

I own an Xbox 360 and have been online with live for a little over a year. When I went to purchase Call of Duty 4 in November of last year, I was mesmerized and didnt so much as rent a movie until June. Considering a trip to the local pub can cost 50-60 bucks, a one time charge or the game seems pretty cheap. I recently splurged on a new game "Battlefield: Bad Company" . If you haven't seen the destructible environment, flash games and MMO's might still be fun. When a tank creeps around the corner and takes out thew wall I was hiding on, I turn and rocket the SOB, Its well worth the $0.50 a day I paid for it. Gone are the days of point and click, PC games can be fun but too many are modded and cheaters are more prevalent than ever. Consoles put us all on the same page with the same hardware.

I encourage anyone who hasn't seen the Frostbite game engine in the works to look it up on Youtube. Battlefield certainly isnt the greatest game of all time but it sure has taken enough of my time to be well worth the cost. I think the focus of these articles is to bring attention to the gaming world. My belief is that this shift has already happened and the box office totals, nielson's ratings and lack of compelling TV programs is beginning to show.

How much did GTA make this year? Wasn't it more than any movie ever? How about the release of Halo? wasn't that a larger blockbuster than Titanic?

I think we should take a hard look at these games and the true cost of everything associated.

Xbox = $299.99

Three games = $180

Live service = $55

Total = $534.99

Now lets say I take my wife to a movie every weekend

Movie ticket price = $18

Popcorn = $8

Soda = $8

Weekly Total = $34.00

Yearly total = $1768

Holy crap, How is this not "cheap?"

I could buy 30 brand new games a year for that money. They keep making these games more addicting and longer lasting with online play and I couldn't figure out how to play that many games.

Sorry for the duplicate post, If the monitor is reading, I would like to see the previous post deleted, It kinda didnt tell the point.

(by the way, my wife is diabetic and we shared the soda, Thats why there is not two popcorn) (:

dude gamers are not lazy they just dont want buy those crappy ass games and they probably want to buy the newer games.

"Gamers are lazy." Uh oh, the reporter touched a nerve here. Last I checked sitting around playing WoW all day like it is going out of style, is a pretty good definition of it. Am I denying that I haven't been guilty of this, certainly not, Mario RPG came out on Virtual Console yesterday and I'll be writing off a considerable amount of time to that. Is lazy a pretty bad generalization, yea, but as a whole, gamers seem to need a better balance in their lives and I'm no exception.

im sorry but buying used games will break trust me my saints row game was distroyed after 1 month of light gaming epic fail...

Wow, a lot of hate for a simple article. Some people are true gamers but are poor. Some people are in college and can't afford to buy new games. Some people want to get their kids something for Christmas and can't afford next gen items. And if the stereotype wasn't true your epeens wouldn't be hurting so much.

The hardest game of all is defeating game protection. Game boxes exist for protection purposes. Souped up video and cell accelerator card would be best. But no cash flow for the game writer.

If you want free casual gaming, the PC is the way to go. There are plenty of free games out there, legally free too. And with sites like Kongregate, Armor Games, Newgrounds, etc. there is plenty to do.

And just because a game is free don't mean that it's horrible. There are some very good freeware games out there.

This really cracked me up. Obviously this journalist knows nothing about gaming. The xbox 360 is dropping price on September 7th, the cheapest version being the Xbox 360 arcade is cheaper than a Wii, and the model with a hardrive is 300.00. To me, this is a fantastic deal. Playstation 2 is still alive yes, but the system is going to be 10 years old!! Sony is only keeping the Playstation 2 alive because the playstation 3 is selling poorly, and it has a small library of games. I think Playstation 3 has what two good exclusive games? 360 has all the good exclusives. on top of that sony lost exclusive rights to Final Fantasy 13 and Kingdom Hearts 3.

As soon as sony sees some sort of profit margin on the PS3 kiss the PS2 goodbye. Xbox did it with the first xbox, when the 360 wasnt selling well at first they kept the xbox 1 alive till the 360 starting showing profit than they cut the xbox 1. Nintendo has never seen profit on a home console untill the Wii, most of their profit has been in the portable industry which they still dominate even with the PSP in the game.

To tell a gamer to go buy a Playstation 2 is great, untill you want to play a next gen game other than the Force Unleashed, you know..... like Gears of War 2, Fallout 3, Unreal Tournament 3, Call of Duty 4... you know the games the PS2 cannot handle....? Yes i do agree that the PS2 has a nice library of games, over 1000 at this point, BUT out of those 1000 i would say only 25% of those games are worth playing, the rest for the most part are horrible. That is why you will find them in the used bin at Gamestop for 1.50 or lower.

PC gaming isnt cheap yes, BUT it has much more use than a console. You can download music on itunes, use microsoft Office for documents or spreadsheets, and much much more. I do not know where you come up with 3000.00, maybe if you want to buy an Alienware thats true, but in most cases you can build a great gaming rig for under 1500.00, my most expensive gaming investment was my Gateway FX laptop, which was 1950.00 after tax. It handles all my gaming needs just fine. My original Gaming desktop which i built cost me 700.00 when all was said and done. Its got the most latest tech in it, quad core processor, a geforce 8800 GT, and 4 gigs of ram.

your choice really, in my opinion the money you would waist on the PS2, controllers, Memory cards, and games id ruch rather sink into a 360 or a gaming PC. You will never see me with a Playstation 3. I am done dealing with Sony, a company who literally hates their customers.

Good advice for your occasional gamer. The advice doesn't really apply to hardcore gamers or gamers who take it (to as i like to say) to a hobby level.

for the hardcore gamers out there this is what i do to keep the wife aggro (or parent aggro for you younger gamers) off me.

RENT RENT RENT

go get a blockbuster card because you guys know as much as me you buy the game and beat it in like a day or two, and what does it do after that? It gets traded in and you get half of what you paid for it or its sits there in your giant collection and collects dust.

in conclution stick to paying for the games with high replayablity and good online play . I have saved many a dollar renting games finding out they are to easy or just plain out sucked.

AB

Ditto that you can find lots of Free Games thourhg the internet: I've played alternate-reality games (ARGs), Kingdom of Loathing, Lazarus Project (a MMORPG, offered through SKOTOS.NET, after your "free" month of play expires you can still continue to play LP for free) as it currently in alpha release and is still developing, and will be free to play for a long while yet. I also play the single player games available for free at places like MSN.COM. I also check CNET.com for games that have free licenses or demos that are free to try. Since I have a computer anyway, this means I don't have to buy a game console – saving me a couple hundred, or games which save me even more... I have bought a few PC games but they were usually in the bargain bins, or ones I downloaded from a company after trying the demo versions and was certain I liked the game (Oberon Media, Last Day of Work , companies that put out titles like Tradewinds and Virtual Villagers).

I really can't understand why someone would go spend several hundred dollars on a game system that will be supplanted by a new version in a couple years. I don't spend that much money on my Television when I need a new one, and it needs to last me a decade.

After reading these so called "tips" for gaming on the cheap, it's quite clear that Mr. Scott Jones from Crispygamer.com doesn't use his PC, if he actually has one, for gaming.

No matter what anyone out there will tell me, I am fully convinced and with over 15+ years of working with computers, that NO console system in the market today, (who knows in the future) can beat true hardcore gaming as playing on a PC.

There is no console out there that has the modular characteristics that a PC has. If the game doesn't look great or has poor refresh rates, you simply replace the video card. You can't do this with a console. The same goes for sound, speed, (CPU) as well as memory, and hard drive (for added space).

The P3 and XboX 360 have tried to replicate a PC, based on the fact that they have internal hard drives, but they still do not compare with the PC.

Another great fact, on the PC, you can make an almost unending configuration of different settings to the games, including all aspects of the video (resolution, Anti-aliasing, Anisotropic filtering, Mipmap detail levels, etc), sound (quality, surround, etc). This allows you to manipulate the game to your likings. On the consoles, you're pretty much stuck with what you see. The PS3 has a few options on some games, but not to the extent that the PC games have.

Here's another great fact. Pick any console game.... NEW release ... any and you'll be spending $ 50 to $ 60 easily. On a PC, if the price of the game is $ 50 (or in the unlikely, $ 60), just wait 2-3 months and you can get that same NEW game for about half that price, and if you're willing to wait a little longer, you may even find it for 1/3 of the original price. I have yet to see this happen on any game for any console system. I have a huge collection of PC Games and the most I've ever spent on any one game was $ 20. Most games I've picked up at Computer Shows, or from the bargain bins at gaming stores, or even at Ebay, where I even got HL2 for $ 5 NEW, and included free shipping!!! It doesn't matter if I don't have the very latest game as the Joneses next door. I'm being actually smarter by waiting because when I get the game, I'll have the same exact game for 80-90% less than what the Joneses paid! and to me it's still a NEW game.

Another great fact. Sure a good PC is going to run you $ 1,200 – $ 1,500 dollars, but keep in mind that the PC is not just for gaming. You can do just about everything else with the PC. On the consoles, they're just now being able to go out to the internet, and the PS3 has the Blue Ray DVD player, but that's about it. Can anyone out there create a 10 page report using charts and slides and then email to someone on the other side of the world and then connect remotely to make any changes if need be, with a console ? I don't think so! I haven't even mentioned what you can do with digital photographs and video editing !!!

It's obviously clear .. for me nothing will replace my PC !!!!! There's even an added bonus. I have actually built my PC from parts that I picked out myself, and my PC has actually outperformed name brand PCs !!! Can anyone do this with a console? .... I didn't think so...

Case is closed! The PC wins it for me !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy Gaming !!!

JP

the reason I buy consoles and like gaming on them more then my comp. is because the games are specificaly made for that system. when i go to pop in my GTA4 or halo 3 im not goin "gee do i have enough ram? or is my graphics card gonne be able to handle this?". I know when I put in that disc its going to work and i am not going to troubleshoot windows because the game will not work because i have a battlefield 2 addon thats conflicting with it. (that one took me like a month to fig. out .lol)

I'm sure you can understand why people spend that much money on consoles when people with computers spend 300 to 400 dollars on there graphics cards. now you could say just buy them a year later and spend 100$ but that would fall into that "go retro" route the writer talked about earlier and thats just not for all gamers.

AB, I agree with you 100%, and I can definitely see your point of view with regards to putting a disc in a console where you know the game is going to run right off the bat, versus in a computer, the video drivers might not be up to date, or as you stated, you may not have enough ram.

For me, even that's ok, because if that happens, I then have a challenge to get the game to work on my PC, if it doesn't when I first try it. I get a huge kick out of tweaking computers and its components to get a game to run. I also learn more about computers in the process. But, that's me.

Then, again, everyone has their own particular opinion, and that's ok too. 🙂

JP

Or, pick up some roleplaying books, gather with your friends around a table, and play Dungeons and Dragons, Rifts (If you're over 18 and like violence and the supernatural), or Champions, based on the Hero System. If you want a preview of what's coming in Champions Online next year, the last one is also an awesome choice, even if it's just reference material.

2 words: "American Army."........... free game.
The quality and feeling are great. You don't pay monthly for playing the game on line.

Whoever said Nintendo has never seen a profit on a console until the Wii needs a fact check....Nintendo has seen a profit on every console they have ever made, including GameCube, by simply sticking to a simple business model involving marking up the finished product, instead of making a product and selling it for less than it cost like MS and Sony have tried, and then betting that the very slim profit margin on games will make up for it.

And besides, how can you honestly make a statement like that given the way NES and SNES dominated the gaming market for a decade?

I think it's funny how there is actually a debate whether or not gamers are lazy.

I will just comment to say that this is an extremely poorly researched article for all the reasons mentioned above. (the false god of war comment is what really topped it off for me 🙂 )

I think there were some assumptions in the article that were over generalizations. Gamers can have lazy looking tendencies, like sitting in front of a tv or monitor for hours, but they are ingenious, inventive, and dogged hunters for elusive things (like in-game clues or that bargain game they haven't gotten to yet). I'll defend the writer of the article about God of War, because I thought he said Shadow of the Colossus was the sequel also, but he didn't say that. It's a list folks, he just said God of war and its terrific sequel as one item. His comment about EA is also true, in my opinion. Madden has been basically the same game since 1999 when I bought my first one. Graphic upgrades, AI changes, new features, different commentators, a little more each year, but sadly, never everything they already made. I always enjoy the game and it is a quality product, but I can't make myself buy it when it comes out because my old version is just always fine, but usually missing the rookies for the current year.

I've played consoles since Atari and Computer games since the Commodore 64, and I still play them. Buying a good gameworthy PC is less expensive than most next generation consoles, and an MMO subscriptions has been cheaper than my 2-3 game a month habit had been BY FAR. I cruise the bargain bins for PC games I might get too when I get tired of City of Heroes/Villains (5 years and counting) and will grab PS2 "Greatest Hits" games if the mood strikes.

Still, I enjoy both, and whatever your legal way to play is, there is a cheaper way to to do it if you are willing to wait even just 3 months after a game is released, or if you can find a great sale on the first day or two of a game's release.

Houston is in diar need of more national coverage. The mayor is begging for supplies! I live 300 miles away and have witnessed people eating and sleeping in our local Walmart parking lot. People are being kicked out of hotels in Irving. Please get more aftermath of Ike coverage on the air so maybe they can get more help.

I just spoke with a relative in Kingwood, Tx, north of Houston. They are without electricity and have been told not to expect any soon. My niece who is on dialysis every other day lives there and had to be driven to southern Houston for dialysis on Monday. Wednesday it is due again. There is no gasoline available so they are concerned about being able to transport her. This is a life or death situation – is there any help out there for her and others in her predicament?

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