Games I would have/have not...

...paid full price for.

Some games are good, some bad, most average. If you're sure they're good, you buy them day one (or shortly thereafter). If they're bad, they hit the local gamestop/used-game retailer just as fast. If you're just not sure, then you wait until it drops in price, or a cheap used copy. Regardless of how you play it, you find most are or aren't worth full price.

Things I paid less than full price for, but would have paid full price:

1) Deadspace: Okay, I'm not big on horror media in general, though I've watched enough to know how it all works. Space horror works on me. Of the horror movies that I've seen, Alien and Event Horizon are the only ones that actually scared me beyond the standard-issue "spring-loaded cat" moments, and I like those movies. Most other horror movies, ehhh... not so much. And even though it uses the Doom-style monster closet spawns, it still has the atmosphere those two movies had. Scared the crap out of me first playthrough, while going through with powered up weapons wasn't so bad. Then I played on the hardest difficulty. Yeah... I ended up listening to a podcast most of the way through, the enemies were so much harder that listening to the music and SFX would've freaked me out more. Either way, if I'd been interested in the game when it came out, I definitely would've paid full price for it.

2) Civilization 4: Got it during a sale on Steam, heard about it because the guys on the Rebel FM podcast (www.eat-sleep-game.com) went on about it for several episodes. Great turn-based strategy game, look up some reviews.

3) Assassin's Creed 2: Just came out (at time of writing), so just look it up. Admittedly, it was a used copy for only $5 cheaper, but, you know.

Games I paid full price for and wish I hadn't:

1) Cross Edge: I bitched about this one a couple months ago. Douchebag friend borrowed it, liked it more than I did, but has also failed to finish it. Haven't gotten it back yet, though I would since I plan on trading it in as soon as I do...

2) Prototype: Fun for what it is, but average game.

3) Overlord 2: Would've/should've gotten it used, but didn't. Kinda quirky and different, but still, a meh game (to me anyways).

Games I bought for partial price and glad I didn't:

1) Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard: Okay, this game is a definite rental. Gameplay is kinda average, BUT the plotline is worth playing through once simply because of how sharp the writing is, with its large number of homages to games and nerd culture, all the way to its incredibly genre-savvy hero, Matt Hazard.

2) Star Wars: The Force Unleashed: Just finished this today (of this writing). Not a bad game, graphics are good, so is the story (to my suprise). But there are enough bugs and wonky controls, among other things, that I glad I didn't pay full price.

3) Mirror's Edge: Liked the demo, played the first couple levels. Haven't gotten around to finishing it, and need to.

Full Price, worth every penny:

1) Batman: Arkham Asylum: Well duh!

2) Borderlands: "You know there ain't no rest for the wicked..."

3) Halo ODST: Screw Master Chief, ODST for life!

I'm probably missing some, but I didn't want this to be too long, especially with this long list of tags.

I just did something that I haven't done in a rather long time: start playing a game and literally losing track of time and playing longer than I intended. Now don't get me wrong, I like playing videogames as much as the next guy, but even at the worst, I almost never lose track of how long I end up playing games. So what happened this time, where I ended up going almost 7 hours straight?

Really, I haven't the slightest.

So what does it take? Even for the best of us, we all have something. A switch, a weakness, something that will make us stop and stare like some animals when they look at shiny objects. People can play GTA and get lost not even doing missions, but just driving around. Or in a game like Oblivion or Fallout where you can just pick a direction and walk until you find something. Driving games have the technical feel of real world cars, or just the fun of driving one faster than is actually possible (forgive me, I'm not a racing or sports game player). RPGs can be just as much about watching a story unfold as it can be about proving your dominance over the gameworld by leveling up (usually) pointlessly. MMO's, in general, trade on the basis of dropping players into a large persistant world and then telling them to "figure it out."

Maybe that's what it is. The ability to explore, but being able to do something on the way.

As much as I played them, I could never get into the GTA games. They always talk about all the things you can do when really, outside of missions, there actually ISN'T anything to do except drive around and purposely start shit. Yeah, you can explore, but you're limited to a car and/or a painfully slow running speed. There is very limited purpose to taking the time to explore the world, which is why the creators have to put in so much peripheral content. Without it, the majority of the open world they created is suddenly without purpose.

But then , Oblivion held my attention (until my friend created the 4th or 5th new character to play the first five Dark Brotherhood missions for the 4th or 5th time, on top of killing my first XBox in the process... *grumbles*), as does Fallout3. Like GTA, large open worlds, but the worlds have purposes, the peripheral content doesn't seem like it's there simply to pad out everything. That, and the worlds don't feel generic and lifeless, something I've felt despite how much Rockstar has tried to make the world more lifelike.

And then you get to games like Crackdown and Prototype (the game which caused said 7 hours of playing). Open worlds with very little actual content beyond the main story missions and a small amount of peripheral missions. Yet, they manage to hold the interest of people. Why? One word: locomotion. The world is a playground, and the developers made it fun to play in because they give you so many ways to get around, and so many reasons to explore. Like in many games, your character gets stronger, an in these game it's tied directly to exploring the world outside the confines of the mission structure. Now, simply going around looking for these upgrades is not terribly interesting, but it can get interesting when getting to them involves superspeed, flying leaps, running up buildings, and causing wanton destruction (on enemies at least) with high explosives.

And that, to me at least, is more fun than driving around in a car and running down a street where nothing happens unless you purposely go out of your way to cause shit. Sometimes shit should just happen, and then can you get involved. Or not.