A few months ago, the 2009 fall/holiday lineup looked something like this: Splinter Cell: Conviction, BioShock 2, Guitar Hero 5, Halo 3: ODST, Forza 3, Modern Warfare 2, Uncharted 2, Ghost Recon 4, Heavy Rain, Brutal Legend, Red Steel 2, Dragon Age: Origins, Bayonetta, Dark Void, etc. etc. etc. On top of all that, optimistic gamers were hopeful that Starcraft 2’s first installment would hit before Christmas as well. Alas, it was not meant to be. In what can only be described as an epidemic, title after title has been delayed until 2010 and beyond.

Whether it’s the economy, publishers wanting to avoid the glut of games at the holidays, or both, for some reason everyone has been pushing back their release dates. Frankly, that’s just fine with me. Last year’s holiday was a complete overload and overkill, there were so many amazing games out that I had to push some games like Mirror’s Edge back four months. Other games, like Dead Space, I never ended up getting around to finish. I was worried that I’d have to pick and choose a lot again this fall, but luckily a lot of those decisions have been made for me. Now I can concentrate on 2 or 3 games (or just Modern Warfare 2) without feeling like I’m missing out.

So, for the record:

Games I’m definitely getting: Halo 3: ODST, Modern Warfare 2, Beatles Rock Band (no more plastic tho), Tales of Monkey Island (when the complete season is done), Uncharted 2 (woops, I don’t have a PS3 but I’d get it if I did)

Games I want but aren’t must have: Left 4 Dead 2, Guitar Hero 5, Brutal Legend

Games I’m interested in: Borderlands, New Super Mario Bros. Wii, Mario and Luigi DS

Games I’m sad to see get pushed back: Starcraft 2, Splinter Cell: Conviction, Heavy Rain (again, PS3 only), Bioshock 2

Hopefully, all the games that got pushed back will be better off for it. Ultimately, I think these delays are probably good for games, more spread out releases means less gems getting lost in the shuffle. I’ll just have to learn some patience in the mean time.

P.S. – If you’re interested, 1up has compiled a list of the notable delays. Also if I’ve forgotten anything please point it out!

We really are in the gaming doldrums right now. But hopefully with E3 coming up, we’ll start having some games to look forward to! Anyway, I’ve been playing a lot of this and that - I’m probably TOO diversified in my gaming right now. But hey, I’m having a blast! Apologies in advance for the crazy tone…I’m just in one of those moods.

360 Games: The Main Event

Mirror’s Edge
1000 out of 1000. YAH! I spent the better part of the week shaving seconds off of my time trials and doing the 10 full level speed runs. Although the time trial stuff and speed runs are the best part of the game in my opinion, the speed runs in particular highlighted one of my problems with the game: load times. When you are doing a speed run, sometimes it takes 45 seconds to get between one load time and another, and when you are repeating 6 minute sections of the game over and over, it gets tedious and frustrating. I got super NERD RAGE-y after I had to wait in the same elevator for the 10th time. Mirror’s Edge’s time trials are my proudest achievements since the challenges in Portal though, so I’m not going to complain too much. Of course, “achievement” is such an ironic term, since I have achieved nothing in actuality…

Dead Space
Finishing Mirror’s Edge means I can get back into Dead Space. I’m getting used to the game’s “tricks” when it comes to trying to scare you, which is cool. The sound effects in the game are pretty awesome, especially in the “outside the spaceship sections”. I can see why the game got a lot of positive press and am glad I’m finally getting into it.

Halo Wars/Left 4 Dead
Played a bunch of multiplayer games on separate nights with a few friends in both games, and they are still pretty enjoyable. In Left 4 Dead we had a major Survival FAIL but enjoyed yelling at each other in the process. We fared better in Halo Wars, the balance patch seems to be somewhat helpful, and we had some gratifying wins where we fought off some pretty heavy rushes and countered with awesome. I’m glad these games still have some legs, as playing with friends is one of the big reasons I have a 360 in the first place.

DS Games: Passing the Time

GTA: Chinatown Wars
I played a pretty lengthy session of the game, and it’s definitely more enjoyable the more you get into it. I drove all around the city trading all types of drugs to try to make money…I could probably do that for hours. Some cops tried to bust me with my dope but I got away with some slick driving. The worst part about this game is that the protagonist is a total JERK STORE, so I can’t really empathize with him at all. Nico Bellic (GTA IV) was a homicidal psychopath, but this guy… More on that later.

Broken Sword
Have you ever played Full Throttle? Monkey Island? Or even the old Sierra Robin Hood game? Because Broken Sword is just like those games, a totally awesome point and click adventure! If you played PC games in the 90s, you probably played some of the point and click adventures which were all the rage. Broken Sword is one I somehow missed back then, but it’s been re-released on DS and it’s challenging with a pretty interesting Angels and Demons type storyline and all in all a lot of fun. Ubisoft didn’t bother marketing it at all, which is a shame because if this game did well, maybe they would bring Full Throttle to the DS which I would buy in a heartbeat. If you aren’t sure what a point and click adventure is, basically you just interact with the environment and try to solve puzzles with your brain, and once you do you feel totally awesome. I have a Full Throttle CD but it doesn’t work…heartbreak city. Broken Sword is almost as good though.

PopCap: Who knew?

Peggle
Peggle is kind of like a detox for me, when I feel like throwing my controller at my television screen because Mirror’s Edge makes me feel violent, I just drop to dash, fire up Peggle and watch the ball hit pegs randomly until I am calmed down. Completely clearing a board is very satisfying, and the Achievements give a hefty challenge. It seems at first that the physics and gravity in the game are totally random, but in actuality there are “Peggle Physics” at play, which makes the game even more fun because you can actually strategize.

Plants vs. Zombies
I downloaded the demo and enjoyed it. I’ve never played a tower defense game before so it’s new territory for me. Debating whether I should spring $20 for the Mac version (my old PC laptop is gathering dust and I don’t know if saving 10 dollars is worth it). Gonna wait for espion4ge’s impressions later this week first. SHAMELESS PLUG! What you should ask yourself while you are playing this game though is this: “Sure I don’t want zombies in my house, but do I really want these carnivorous, violent plants either? [Rock] You [Hard Place]“

Mirror’s Edge – Almost finished with this game, although the things I have left to do are the most challenging. I failed a speed run (an entire level under a certain amount of time) by being slow by 2.1 seconds. I then ran it back, and managed to pass by shaving 3.3 seconds off my time. 10:58.8 seconds was enough FTW! Anyway, if you are masochistic and enjoy punishing yourself by trying to shave milliseconds off of your times, you should really play Mirror’s Edge!

Peggle – To take a break from the intensity of Mirror’s Edge I downloaded Peggle on XBLA. I’ve heard a lot about this game but didn’t know too much about it, but figured at $10 I could afford to take the plunge. It’s tough to explain how the game works, but it’s easy to explain that it’s a lot of fun. It’s particularly rewarding every time you clear a stage. I kind of wish I got this for DS, because it’d probably be nicer to play on the go, but it’s a good game to relax with between intense sessions of bigger games.

Chinatown Wars (DS) – I’ve been playing about one mission per night. It’s not as engaging as I thought it would be, but it’s not a bad game by any stretch of the imagination. I’ll probably save the majority of this game for my upcoming trip on Memorial Day.

Mirror’s Edge
I finished the story mode and am halfway through beating it again on hard difficulty. I’ve also been working my way through the speed runs and time trials. There are some sections in the game that can be pretty frustrating, but for the most part I thought it was a great experience. The single player campaign is a little short, but with all the other stuff you can do, I think Mirror’s Edge is a pretty comprehensive package, as long as you are up for a hefty challenge.

Halo Wars
Still playing multiplayer. I don’t know if I’ll ever make lieutenant if I keep randoming, at the same time, I think I would get bored of the multiplayer quickly if I played the same commander every time. It’s all about having fun!

Left 4 Dead: Survival Mode
Speaking of fun, survival mode is awesome. Some people complain that it takes more time to set up than it does to actually defend. I take care of that by spending absolutely no time setting up and just letting the dice roll. We’ve got a couple of bronze medals and were about a minute away from getting silver. Hopefully anyone who doesn’t have Left 4 Dead picked it up during the Steam sale this weekend.

Street Fighter IV
I just want to put this on here to point out that the championship update is stupid. Where is the lobby support!?

Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars (DS)
The game is pretty good, it’s basically GTA light on the DS. I question some of the design choices, such as no mid mission checkpoints. I understand the game doesn’t want you to “cheat”, but this is a portable game and there should be a quicksave option a la Final Fantasy on Nintendo handhelds. I also don’t like games that use the stylus just because they can, you need to use the stylus to hotwire cars and it can get pretty awkward. My full impressions will be coming soon.

Mirror’s Edge
I have put a lot of hours into the game, slowly working through the story but I’ve also started working through the time trial mode. I came within 0.90 seconds of a three star time on “Cranes Two” on my fourth or fifth try, which was pretty exhilarating. Unfortunately, I spent the next hour and a half trying to shave that 0.90 seconds off. My thumb started hurting and I had to give up. I managed not to destroy my controller though, so it wasn’t a total loss.

Halo Wars
A week off of playing and I’ve gotten pretty rusty. I guess that means I’m old. I still need to finish the game in legendary and find all the black boxes, so hopefully I’ll be able to get to that soon. I still need to get back to Dead Space though but jet lag has put that on the backburner.

Left 4 Dead: Survival Mode
I played this with a few friends, and I enjoyed it a lot. I really enjoyed it but I’m not sure how into it my friends were. Basically it’s like fighting a bunch of finales and standoffs, which I actually really enjoy. I also think it’s fun to have goals you are trying to beat, surviving for a certain amount of time in this instance. Hopefully people will be willing to put a few more hours into this with me!

Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure (DS)
I’ve finished about 40% of the game so far, and the difficulty level is really starting to ramp up. I get the feeling the platform is going to start becoming Ninja Gaidenesque, i.e. I’m going to need to start memorizing where enemies are going to spawn and stuff. I think I’ll need to better understand how the puzzling elements power me up in the platformer pretty soon.

Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars (DS)
A friend lent this to me and I started playing it as a change of pace to Henry Hatsworth. It’s pretty cool, Liberty City looks pretty much the same except it’s a top down view. I think I even drove by Roman’s taxi hub. The dialogue is horrible – I don’t know if they are making fun of bad Chinese Engrish or what but it leaves a lot to be desired. I hear the story is pretty much a throwaway though, so we’ll see if the gameplay holds up.

Two of EA’s new IPs at once – very different, but both very enjoyable

Dead Space & Mirror’s Edge
I’m putting these titles together because I’m in a bit of a “try out EA’s new IPs” phase and I’m playing both games at once. I basically play Dead Space during the day and Mirror’s Edge at night. Right now, I’m really digging both games. Dead Space feels a lot like Bioshock in that there is obviously a huge backstory and you learn a lot of it through audio logs. I still think Rapture trumps the Ishimura in terms of an actual setting, but both games do a good job of setting up a creepy setting. Just like Bioshock though, I’m getting used to the scares in Dead Space so soon I’ll be able to play it whenever, ha.

I’m having a lot of fun with Mirror’s Edge as well. After I finished the first few chapters, I went back to 3-star one of the time trials. I definitely envision myself trying to get the 50-star rating for time trials, I enjoy punishing myself by replaying the same thing over and over again until I master it. The story seems like it’s going to be generic and short, but really I’m most excited about the time trials. As an added bonus, the music and art style are a real treat.

Halo Wars
This game is still taking up a lot of time for me. I STILL haven’t finished the single player achievements because I’ve been playing too much multiplayer. Now that my team’s skill levels are higher, we are batting about .500, win one lose one win one lose one. I’m interested if they really do a balance update, since I still feel that in general Covenant is at a bit of a disadvantage in the late game (although I plan on trying the Scarab + 5 engineers business!). Definitely gotten my money’s worth out of this title.

Rhythm Heaven (DS)
I blew through this game on the plane and am pretty much done with it although there is still a little fun to be had. Being out of town means I’m DS only right now, and between this game and Hatsworth I have my hands full (pun intended!). Once my hand got tired I wrote up a short review for Rhythm Heaven, so look for that later this week.

Flower (PS3)
I’m staying with a friend who owns a PS3 and I told him to go and download Flower back when it came out. He ended up hating it, so when I got here I finished the last 4 levels for him. The game is pretty fun, outside of one level it’s pretty relaxing and it looks beautiful in 1080p. I can see how this game isn’t for everyone, but for me it seems like a nice change of pace. If I owned a PS3 I probably would put a lot of time into this game unlocking all the trophies, some of them are pretty hard. Anyway, now that I’ve played it, I still recommend it!

Other Random Playstation 3 Miscellany
We’ve actually been playing a lot of games, so I also tried out the Rock Band 2 drums, which really are quite an upgrade, watched some NBA 2k9 (which scrolls realtime sports scores on the bottom, awesome), and played some Street Fighter. I must say the PS3 thumbstick was much easier to use for Street Fighter, it made me play a bit above my usual level. The PS3 really is a great system, but some of the menu things/friends list are a real turnoff for me just because I’m so used to the Xbox. I asked my friend how to drop back to the dash and he looked at me like I was taking crazy pills. But if it ever drops in price (significantly) maybe I’ll pick one up. I really want to play Fat Princess! (It seems like the type of game that would have worked better with the 360 community, but whatever).

Mirror’s Edge recently got a price drop to $29.99 on all consoles, but Amazon has gone even further and put the 360 and PC versions on sale for $19.98 today only. Sadly, the PS3 version isn’t on sale which doesn’t make much sense.

If you haven’t played it yet, I highly recommend the game at this price. I enjoyed it a lot and will buy the sequel if it comes out. Check out my review here.

Video Games Deal of the Day [Amazon.com]

When I was about 10 years old, I wandered into a little store called Funco Land. I distinctly remember it being next to a Bradlees and asking my mother to take me in because I saw all these TVs inside through the windows. They had something I had never seen before, a “used games” section, with prices that were lower than new games! I had been an introduced to a whole new side of retail in the gaming industry.

Of course, Funco Land turned into GameStop, and GameStop eventually merged with EB Games, and now we seemingly have a GameStop or EB on every street corner selling used games. Is the used game market good for the industry as a whole, or is it the seedy underbelly of the video games industry? espion4ge and I decided to tackle this huge topic for a discussion that got so big we needed to split it up into three parts. We also know that people have a lot of opinions when it comes to GameStop and used games in general, so we’d love to hear what you think in the comments.

In Part 1, espion4ge and I talk about our own used game habits and whether we think used games are beneficial or harmful to consumers.

Part 1: What is your personal policy on buying/selling used games? How do you think the used game industry benefits and/or harms consumers?

In the interests of full disclosure, I think it’s good if we start by talking about our own buying habits. Personally, I’ve been cutting down the number of used games I buy these days. Generally, I sell games at GameStop when I am getting something out of it. The last two times I sold games at GameStop were when I got a 20% bonus towards my Halo Wars pre-order and when I got a 40% bonus for trading in 6 games (I combined with a friend). I usually use that credit to buy new games. I don’t think it’s worth saving 5 dollars to get the used copy, plus I enjoy the tactile sensation of tearing the plastic off a new video game. The only time I buy a used game these days is if I can’t find a copy of the new game or sometimes if it’s really cheap (like $10) I’ll just pick a used game up. But as we discussed in our previous discussion on game price points, I generally just wait for sales to pick games up.

One of the reasons I don’t buy used games anymore is because I am worried that used games will hurt the developer and ultimately end up hurting me. Take Mirror’s Edge for example. Right now I can pick it up for $35 used at GameStop. Instead, I am waiting until I can find a new copy for $30 or $35 dollars, so that the developer is the one pocketing my cash, not GameStop. “Wait,” someone might say, “by waiting for the price to drop the developer ends up making less money anyway.” That’s true, but the developer still makes more money than 0, which is what they would get from a used game sale. Also, if I buy a new game, that will eventually come out in NPDs and then I can be one of the million or so people whom the developer counts as buying their game. In the case of Mirror’s Edge, I want the publisher, EA, to know I appreciate the fact that they took a risk with a new IP in Mirror’s Edge (Deadspace, too, but that game is probably too scary for a chicken like me), so I want the new copy I buy to show up in their bottom line. If too many people buy Mirror’s Edge used, EA might decide not to make a sequel, and then they will never get a chance to improve on all the things they still need to work on from the original. Even worse, they will just pour their money back into their money makers, the sports franchises, and I will have less choice as a gamer. That is something I am trying to avoid as a consumer, and the only way I can show my support for developers is by opening up my wallet for new games.

Obviously, the used game market benefits us by offering us cheaper games. Also, there are other options out there besides GameStop that I probably would consider using if I wasn’t so lazy. Personally, I just see more harm to the industry as a whole if I buy used games, so I try not to. espion4ge, since you’re always on top of the B2G1 used deals, hit me with your opinions on this question!

Should I have taken the leap into Mirror’s Edge earlier?

As much as I hate to admit it, I’m cornered and have to confess: even though I’m a hardcore gamer, I probably buy as many used games as retail games. It’s not something I’m completely proud of, but to me, saving my own money takes more precedent than contributing to the development studio. Of course that sounds selfish, but I’m not talking about a $5 difference between used and new. If I was given the option of buying a used game for only a few dollars cheaper than a new copy, I’d scoff at that and always go for the new game. But when the used game is practically half the price of a new game, my “deal hunting” instinct overrides that. I often amass games, then only trade them into GameStop when they run a promotion (like their current trade in 6+ and get 40% bonus trade-in credit.) I almost always use this credit at their store only when they run a B2G1 used free. As a result of the paucity of good titles left for me to buy and the number of times a year GameStop runs the promotion, I carry hundreds of dollars in credit at the store.

While I realize that buying used doesn’t help developers at all, the world is used to the second-hand industry. Take cars for example – do Toyota and Honda deserve a cut of the profits if a used Toyota or Honda is sold? Sometimes people need a car and can’t afford to buy it new so they instead buy one used. So as long as games are physical (as opposed to digital), the used industry will exist and it is how it is.

One other thing to note is how buying new helps a developer. It’s not so cut and dry that buying a new copy of a game at any time will help a developer. With someone I know working in the videogame industry, publishers that put out the games that developers work on only care about the first month or two of sales. That’s because statistically, that’s the lion’s share of sales. If you buy a game right at launch, that will help the developer. But if you wait several months afterwards following price drops and all that (Mirror’s Edge) for example, I don’t know if the developer will really see much. Often times when price drops come around it’s because the games aren’t selling. But keep in mind, publishers care most about how many copies of the game have been sold to the stores, not to the end customers like us.

As far as the publisher/developer is concerned, each copy shipped to a store is counted as the sale. So if people buy all the copies from a store at release and a store needs to order more copies, the sales count goes up. But if those copies don’t sell, they will sit on the retailer’s shelf until they decide to put it on sale or price drops come around. The stores are then just trying to clear out inventory, because they’re stuck with the games. If you’re buying Mirror’s Edge now at $40 instead of months ago for $60, it doesn’t matter much anymore. Plus, EA already decided to go into cost savings mode and switch back to focus on sports titles, just because the game did not sell well enough in its first couple of months. I would argue that buying Mirror’s Edge today at its reduced price is perhaps not much better than buying it used. So does the used market hurt the gaming industry? I think it has the potential to, just like the used market of any industry, but I don’t think it’s taking much from the first month or two of a game’s sales and that’s what would really affect the developer.

That’s a great point about the first two months of sales, I totally forgot about that. My apologies, Mirror’s Edge, I have failed you! I guess that continues the comparisons that have been made recently between the video game and movie industries. Blockbusters in both industries need to recoup most of their costs in that initial blitz of sales/viewings. Unfortunately, the difference is movies can keep making money through DVD sales long after that initial blitz if it didn’t go well. I don’t think developers should get a cut of used games sales either, so I guess I’ll need to try harder to support good IPs up front.

You brought up your hundreds of dollars of credit at GameStop, which leads us nicely into the next section. Since GameStop is such a strong force in the used game market, in Part 2 we’ll evaluate GameStop and discuss whether there is a way used games could be done “better.” Tune in tomorrow to hear our thoughts.

Until then, tell us in the comments what your personal habits are when it comes to buying or selling used games!

Recently, news hit the gaming industry that Valve’s Left 4 Dead half price sale ($24.99) on the PC was met with remarkable success. Gabe Newell, one of the co-founders at Valve, remarked that it was an experiment that surprised them: when Left 4 Dead went on sale for half price, it actually made more money for Valve than the initial launch window of the game when it sold for its full price. This is pretty unprecedented, because when you think about it, who ended up buying it for $24.99? Didn’t we all already buy it back in November? I’ve never taken an economics class, but I’ve heard people state that according to economics theory, if a game is selling ridiculously higher with a reduced price then perhaps the original price is too high.

Today’s discussion topic between cmfl3x and me revolve around the pricing of games and what we feel they are worth.

I’d like to start this discussion off with a question: How do you decide what games are worth buying at full retail price? When I finally got my 360, it was a bit of a shock to me to find out that new games cost 60 dollars instead of 50. In fact every time new games prices have been raised I’ve been shocked, though I probably shouldn’t be.

Personally, I buy games at full retail price for two reasons: 1) I am so excited about a game that I can’t wait or 2) I think I will get enough value out of it to justify paying full price. I don’t calculate value precisely or anything, but I kind of just estimate how many hours I will play the game. Usually if I can get 20 hours out of a game I don’t mind paying full price if it’s a game I’m really interested in. Of course, the trick is figuring out whether I will actually play the game that much (especially since I’m not the completionist you are).

The weird thing is, I didn’t want to buy Left 4 Dead until it was 40 dollars. In fact, I still don’t recommend that people buy it unless it’s 40 or less. In reality, I think I’ve put in 100 hours or so into L4D, so even at full retail price I would have more than gotten my money’s worth. Yet for some reason because there is no single player game I don’t feel comfortable buying it for 60. I’m sure I won’t put that many hours into Halo Wars, but I already have that game on preorder. I think I’m willing to pay retail for it because I’m excited about it and I am loyal to the franchise (even though this game isn’t Bungie). I’m pretty sure everyone has strange buying rules like this. What are yours?

I’ll share with you (and the readers of this blog) a little secret: I rarely, if ever, buy a game at full retail price these days. Street Fighter IV was an exception, because I felt that I needed to have a copy of it to take to the party I went to over the weekend, and I couldn’t wait for it to go on sale. But it wasn’t actually until maybe the last year or so that I stopped buying games on launch day for $60. After seeing several games sitting in my backlog pile unopened that I paid $60 for (Eternal Sonata and Ace Combat 6 come to mind), I realized that it was just silly for me to continue buying games at launch when I had a backlog queue already.

I decided to switch over to an “only buy games when they’re on sale” mentality, and have now adhered to realistically only buying games when they’re in the $20-$40 range, rather than the $60 sticker price. Even following that mentality, I’ve had a tough time preventing my backlog from continuing to bloom because believe it or not, it’s not difficult to find games for that price.

While I have the disposable income to pay $60 per game if I want to, I’m now in a situation where I feel it is more practical that I don’t, considering how many games I have yet to touch. Games are a depreciating asset, so if you don’t need to buy one right away, your best bet is to wait for the sales, price drops, etc. Each game will start at $60, go on sale for $40-$50, then drop in price to $40, then more sales at the $20-$30 range, before dropping to $30 and finally $20. Depending on how popular the game is, it can take weeks or months. Maybe I’ll attribute it to the wisdom that comes with age, but if you’re patient enough, you’ll save more in the long run.

Of course, the big argument against waiting for games to become $20 titles is that nowadays, gaming is a very social thing. If your buddies are playing a multiplayer game but you’re waiting until it drops in price before joining them, you may miss the boat completely since they may have already moved onto something else when you’ve just bought the game. Or even if the game in question is just a single player game, it’s nice to be able to talk to friends about it and what both of you are experiencing in the game – sort of like a book club. Even today, look at this: we’re writing for a blog based on games. I’m sure the readers would prefer to read about our thoughts on Street Fighter IV and Halo Wars rather than Perfect Dark Zero, a game that was released years ago. Older games are perhaps just less relevant – so while you save money waiting for them to drop in price, you also lose out on the social element of the gaming industry flock. There are exceptions to this, however: people will continue to play Call of Duty 4 even after its sequel comes out. It’s because the game is just that good and for that reason its price has dropped very, very slowly. With game as high quality as that, you have to sometimes just bite the bullet and pay the price.

So as you can see, I have sort of a balanced view of waiting until the game is dirt cheap and getting a game right away to stay caught up with the “society of gaming”.

Here’s the order I use to determine whether to buy a game at retail price or not:

1. Will it drop in price or go on sale a lot soon?
If I feel that game is not a mass market AAA game, I’ll most likely skip out on it because I know that one week can mean the difference between $60 and $40. Ubisoft games are especially notorious for dropping to $40 very quickly after the release date, so I almost never buy a Ubisoft game at release nowadays.

2. Interesting and appealing multiplayer
With games being as social as they are, I look for some sort of multiplayer hook to keep the game still going long after I’ve completed the single player. However, I would still rather have no multiplayer at all than to have a game with throwaway multiplayer. I’ll gladly pay full price at launch for a game if my friends and I agree that this is the next multiplayer game we want to devote many hours to. After all, you can’t really put a price on having fun with friends!

3. Single player length
If the game doesn’t have multiplayer or has bad multiplayer, does the single player length make up for it? I don’t want to pay $60 for a game that I’ll be done with in 5 hours.

4. Polish
Does the game impress me? Do I feel like I’ll really enjoy the game or will I feel like it was some sort of rushed project that was simply thrown out the door to steal my money?

5. Do I like the publisher/developer?
Sometimes, when evaluating the first four parts, I still have a tough time deciding if I want to buy the game. That’s when I turn to the publisher/developer of the game. If it’s one that I like, it may be all that I need to push me into buying the game. I tell myself, if people like me aren’t buying this game at launch, the publisher or developer may not have enough funding to create another game that I will love. So sometimes I will just pay full price on a game when I want to support the companies behind it.

Here are some specific examples to adhere to my “decisioning criteria”: Gears of War 2, Street Fighter IV, the future release of Resident Evil 5, and Left 4 Dead.

I held off on buying Gears of War 2 at launch because I wasn’t the biggest fan of the first game and felt that multiplayer in Gears of War 1 (and 2) were not enjoyable. $60 was not enough for me to just play through the single player campaign, so I waited to get it on the cheap.

I wasn’t planning on buying Street Fighter IV at launch, but ended up buying it at $60 because I was going to a party to play it with friends. Had I not gone to the party, I probably wouldn’t have bought it last week since I figured I could wait for it to go on sale. But yeah, being able to play with friends for me is often the easiest way I will pay retail price on a game, since I tend not to skimp on cash when it comes to friends.

I thought Resident Evil 4 was the best game of last generation. But after playing the Resident Evil 5 demo, I’m not too excited about it. I even read somewhere that it’s only an 8 hour game. Is it really worth the $60 then when it has no multiplayer? Of course, I do like Capcom though, but don’t want to support them for releasing lower quality products. So Resident Evil 5 is tough for me. I still don’t know if I will buy it at launch or not, so I’ll just wait and see.

Now here’s an interesting thing – I bought Left 4 Dead on the 360 when it was on sale last year, and I still ended up buying the PC version of the game for $25 earlier this month. I had already sold my 360 version of the game (having gotten all the Achievements on it) but why would I buy the game again? Part of me suspects that it’s the branding that the game has earned – I really enjoyed it on the 360, and with it being on sale for so cheap, it was an impulse buy to pick it up again. Have I even really played it since buying it? Nope. But just the sale price alone got me to think it was worth paying for. Why?! That is the psychological question I am trying to figure out even now.

I think we always buy games that we have strong ties to. Like, I think I’ve purchased Full Throttle and Monkey Island 2 3 times each, which if you think about it is kind of ridiculous. If I ever lost my Starcraft CD and saw it on sale I’d probably buy that again too. To follow up on your games as books analogy (I’m sure people love that!), there are certain books that I have multiple copies of for various reasons. Sometimes there are newer, nicer editions, sometimes I just want to continue supporting that author, and sometimes I lend out a copy and then want to get one for myself to read. It’s all a bit ridiculous but it happens. For games, I think it’s the same thing, like I own Final Fantasy IV in multiple iterations, I’ll eventually pick up Chrono Trigger again, and on Virtual Console on Wii I’ve rebought like a million games (Punch Out!). So for Left 4 Dead, I think your nostalgia just kicked in a little early maybe.

To respond to your not buying on launch day, I wish I had that kind of discipline. I’m just such a sucker, I see trailers, I start reading reviews as soon as they come out and then get so amped for certain games that I can’t stop myself from buying them on launch day. Case in point, Street Fighter IV I promised myself I’d stay away from, but I only managed to wait one day after launch to buy it (though I don’t regret it).

I’m actually afraid game prices are going to go up though. XBLA games seem to be 10 dollars on average now, whereas a year ago it felt like there were a lot more 5 dollar games. Publishers are squeezing dollars out with like 80 dollar collector’s editions, and like we said in our previous DLC for something, our hobby is becoming more and more expensive. So I think it’s wise to come up with gameplans in terms of purchasing games.

I try not to keep a backlog because I know I’ll never get to it, so that’s one way I keep from spending too much money. Another thing I’ve started doing is trading single player games with friends, even though it costs like 3 bucks to ship we save a lot of money that way. That’s potentially 57 bucks in our pocket.

Don’t feel guilty about succumbing to buying on launch day. Publishers like EA base estimates for their sales based on that first week or month of sales alone, as that’s where the lion’s share of sales are for a game. The industry thrives because the marketing and all that has most of us buying games on launch day. I’m more of an outlier in that sense where I’ve stopped buying games at launch, but the norm is definitely buying as soon as it comes out.

With today’s economy in sort of a state of turmoil and all, I think publishers will be hard pressed to actually raise the price of games. It’s been established already from the getgo that 360/PS3 titles will go for $60 and Wii titles will go for $50. For any of that to be changed (i.e. 360/PS3 jump to $70 and Wii jump to $60) there would be a lot of pissed off people. It’s just not realistic to bump the price on retail games up like that. With XBLA, it’s another story though. I’m not happy that Braid and Castle Crashers were actually charged more than the typical price of $10 (at least I thought that was typical). But I don’t really buy XBLA titles anyway, so I’m not going to comment too much on that.

I do feel like we see more and more limited Collector’s Editions for games these days – more bloated, more expensive, and on titles that I would argue should not “garner” Collector’s Editions. Take for example Saints Row 2 or Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway. Do both of those games honestly warrant Collector’s Editions? Do they have a large enough fanbase? Of course, it doesn’t matter these days because the little trinkets or “making of DVDs” cost the publishers almost nothing to make so earn a decent chunk of change off of these more expensive versions.

Even for games that I could see being justified as having collector’s editions, like Fallout 3 and Street Fighter 4 – it’s no longer a $70 collector’s edition, but an $80 one. The Resident Evil 5 collector’s edition is a freaking $90. What the heck? More and more expensive special editions. At least the regular edition still exists. I rarely every buy special editions these days, as I’m really just interested in playing the game, but to each his own. It’s completely out of wack that the figurine you’re putting your desk is costing you half the price of the game itself. But, hey you can’t really put a price tag on collecting items can you? I just hope they don’t push special editions to $100…

I think going with your backlog-less approach and paying full retail for every game still works. Sometimes I wonder if that’s possibly even a cheaper option than what I do, which is buy any game that I find a good price on that I’m mildly interested in. Then I get stuck with all sorts of mediocre titles that I didn’t pull full retail on, but aren’t necessarily the most enjoyable games to play either. I guess the best game buying experience to be had is to buy a AAA game as soon as possible for the cheapest price possible. Frequently all three don’t line up – you may not be able to get a AAA game on launch day on sale, but maybe you can find a B- title at launch on sale. Or you may be able to get a AAA title a couple weeks later at a discount, but you gave up some time in order to get it at a discount.

Here’s an interesting psychological test I started applying to my own game buying habits when things got out of line and I was buying many more games than I could actually play. Simply ask yourself, if every single game out now and all games coming out were all free, what would you play first? The games that you would want to play first most likely have higher value, so it could simply be more justifiable for you to pay that extra cost to play them sooner.

If Resident Evil 5 and Final Fantasy XIII both came out and were free, which one would I want to play first? Probably Final Fantasy XIII – hence it has more value to me so I can sort of mentally value Resident Evil 5 as being less than a $60 title. You could kind of do this with all games, scaling their price from $1-$60 based on what you want to play most as being a $60 title, versus what you want to play least as being $1 – or even free.

Luckily for us, spring will be a relatively slow season so we can catch up on some of the games in our backlog. I do wish companies would experiment more with their pricepoints like Valve did with Left 4 Dead – I really do believe they could make money if they had games at the right prices. The problem with the gaming industry is that it costs so much to develop now it’s tough for companies to take that risk.

In this economy, I think we’ll get deals earlier, so hopefully I can learn to practice some patience and wait a couple weeks after the AAA titles hit to save some money. Though I’m still waiting to find a deal on Mirror’s Edge, I think I waited too long for that one…

Mirror’s Edge was pretty enjoyable. EA drops the prices on their games very often – so if you wait a bit longer Mirror’s Edge will go down to $40, then $30 like Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 did.

You know, I wonder if we even successfully talked about whether or not games were really worth their $60 price tag. Seems like I sort of went off on a tangent there talking about why I don’t buy games at launch for full price and my decisioning criteria. But perhaps that is valid information to think about when trying to value an upcoming game. Value is in the eye of the buyer – because while I mentioned above that I would rather play Final Fantasy XIII than Resident Evil 5 if both were placed in front of me, someone else might not feel the same way. Thus Resident Evil 5 would be worth more to them.

I guess the next time you’re going out there to buy a game, maybe think about what we talked about here today. “Is this a game I have to have now? Or can I wait a month and get it for half the price?” If you take cmfl3x’s approach of buying the big name games on day 1 and play through every game one at a time, it’s certainly viable since you are paying that “early adopter” cost but the resale value will be higher. Or you could go with my approach, and make a list of all the games you’re interested in buying, but setting specific price points before you are willing to buy them. I don’t always get to play the newest games right away, but I certainly have many older ones to choose from. Of course, their resale values suck but then I have less pressure to try to finish a game so I can sell it. I would say both cmfl3x and I are pretty happy with our game buying habits. (Although, my backlog of 30+ games is crying out right now.) See you next time!

Mirror’s Edge was a game that sort of flew under the radar for me but when it got closer to launch I got more excited. Nowadays it seems like I’m simply playing one shooter after another, so I came to realize that I would appreciate something different. Mirror’s Edge was the breath of fresh air that I needed.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t have the epic storyline and length of BioShock nor an addictive multiplayer component like Call of Duty. What it does have though is pretty much what will determine whether you will enjoy this game or not: Time trials.

That’s where I think Mirror’s Edge is at its most fun since you’re actively trying to beat your best times and figuring out new methods to getting past a certain obstacle quickly. If you enjoy playing racing games and practicing courses over and over again trying to shave precious seconds off your lap time, then Mirror’s Edge should have you under a similar thrill but this time in the role of a first person game.

Good
- innovative new “parkour” style gameplay that plays intuitively
- accurate physics engine that takes into account player momentum, how much camera should shake, etc.
- interesting and aesthetically pleasing color design throughout the levels

Bad
- short campaign
- not a very captivating storyline
- combat needs a little bit of work

I. Intro
II. Storyline and Premise
III. Gameplay Mechanics
IV. Achievement System
V. Final Thoughts

Intro
Mirror’s Edge comes to us from Digital Illusions CE, or DICE for short. DICE is a Swedish based development studio, most famous for their Battlefield games: Battlefield 1942, Battlefield 2, Battlefield 2142, and Battlefield: Bad Company. DICE was so successful with the Battlefield franchise that the company reached a company value of over $50 million and was swallowed up by EA. After spending the last six or seven years purely working on Battlefield games, the studio heads at DICE were interested in trying something completely new, and the concept behind Mirror’s Edge was born.

Unfortunately for the game, while it was released to pretty good reviews, it didn’t sell anywhere near as well as EA had expected. Maybe it was due to its lack of multiplayer, a short storyline, or lack of general “violence”, but something certainly didn’t resonate with the gaming community. It could have even been the economy – financially-strapped gamers deciding to stick to the tried and true franchises that have lengthy multiplayer instead of taking a chance on new ones.

As of now, Mirror’s Edge has sold a total of about 1 million copies spread between the 360 and PS3 user base, trailing EA’s other new franchise, Dead Space, by about half a million. EA apparently felt that the company lost out on the bets it made with Dead Space and Mirror’s Edge, and has decided to go back to focusing on becoming profitable again in 2009. What this means for us is basically: “You guys didn’t buy enough copies of Dead Space and Mirror’s Edge, so we now have to get rid of people at our company and focus primarily on our annual sports titles so we can make money again.” It’s unfortunate too because both Dead Space and Mirror’s Edge were great new titles for 2008. Hopefully I can explain why Mirror’s Edge is worth checking out.

Cutscenes between levels are done in a more cartoony way and not with the in-game engine.

Storyline and Premise
In Mirror’s Edge you play the role of Faith Connors, a Runner trained in parkour in a city that is completely locked down by the government. Because the government is so invasive over its citizens, Runners have become prominent due to their ability to quickly deliver physical messages between revolutionary groups. Their parkour training allows them to us rooftops as their primary path of travel, making use of pipes, ledges, walls, etc. to move faster than the average person.

Faith gets caught up in a complicated plot (more complicated by the way it is told in the game rather than the plot itself, sadly) where her sister, a police officer, is framed as the killer of a man running for Mayor who intends to bring change. From there, Faith goes on sort of a wild goose chase to figure out who was the real killer and why her sister was framed. Along the way she is often pursued by helicopters and armed professionals, indicating that whatever she’s mixed up in has a pretty large scope.

While you able to steal guns and rifles from enemies throughout the game, it is not necessary. The developers intended for the game to be focused more on parkour rather than simple run and gun, and have crafted ten levels to put that parkour training to use. In fact, it’s even possible to not fire a single bullet in the game, as an Achievement demonstrates.

The main game can be completed in about four hours. To lengthen the game, there are Speedrun and Time Trial modes for several sections and levels of the game. Your objective in these modes is to race through them as fast as possible, and compete for the best time on the Leaderboards. Mastering them will probably take a good 20 hours. Each of them is similar to Call of Duty 4’s F.N.G. time trial, but in Mirror’s Edge you can actually download Ghost data of the players that are high up on the Leaderboard so you can see how they move through so quickly.

Often times, objects marked red in the environment indicate the primary path through the stage.

Gameplay Mechanics
Parkour
The core gameplay revolves around the elements of parkour, and Mirror’s Edge does a fantastic job of conveying that feel while the amount of frequent checkpoints allows you to never really get too frustrated from misjumps. While there are many games that allow you to simply jump and grab ledges to climb up or even wallrun, Mirror’s Edge also adds a more realistic physics engine to the game that takes into account your momentum. Your momentum determines nearly every parkour trick you pull – if you run towards a fence and are going at a fast enough speed, you’ll easily be able to leap over it while minimizing your momentum. Conversely, if you are starting from a stopped position and try to get over the fence, you could lose several seconds as you slowly grab at it and try to lift yourself over.

That’s what makes the game so skillful – momentum. The best players can figure out optimal paths through a level by controlling their momentum enough so that they can minimize slowdown and use it to their advantage. Even if you were to study another player playing the game, it’s very difficult to figure out how to mimic him exactly because any split second that differs in your turn, jump, or mount will affect your momentum differently.

While in the Time Trial modes it’s easy to tell how fast you’re going because there will be a gauge that indicates your exact speed (I think 30 km/h is the max), the regular story mode and Speedrun modes do not have your speed displayed on the HUD. DICE decides to actually have the player’s limbs move on the screen in such a way that it helps to give you a rough estimate of how quickly you are moving. As Faith runs down a street and increases her speed from 0 to 30 km/h, her slow swinging arms start appearing on the screen. By the time she’s capped at 30 km/hr, her arms are swinging vigorously enough and the screen is getting blurry enough that you know she’s moving fast.

Runner Vision
To make things easier for the player, DICE implemented “Runner Vision” to the game, which generally indicate the safest way for the player to proceed. Any object like a pipe or a ramp that a player can use to progress is in red, so eventually the player will come to realize the fact that there is no red really present in the game except on doors and objects that the player can use to progress. Of course, these red objects aren’t necessarily the fastest way through the level, but they can easily help players that are unfamiliar with territory. Playing the game on Hard difficulty removes Runner Vision from the game, so the only red the player sees are on doors that should be passed through to progress. That means that on Hard, the player will have to make it through the game with just their Runner instincts only!

If you’re running fast enough, the momentum from your run may be enough to dropkick enemies.

Combat
While combat sort of takes a back seat in this game, it is still an element that is present and should be discussed. Faith is trained in melee attacks that allow her to kick or punch an enemy to knock him out without killing him. Nearly every enemy that pursues Faith in the game is in possession of a firearm – whether it’s just a handgun or even a sniper rifle. In order to deal with these foes, Faith can disarm them and knock them out with one swift move.

In order to disarm an equipped foe, Faith has to move close enough to the foe to prompt him into meleeing with his firearm. When the firearm is swung at Faith, there is a small window of opportunity where the weapon will turn red, and Faith can make a grab for it to disarm (and then disable) the foe. To help with this, the game gives Faith the ability to slow down time (like bullet time in Max Payne or Stranglehold). Slowing down time dramatically slows down the speed that the enemy swings his weapon, giving Faith a larger chance of grabbing it when it turns red. Of course, the time slow skill has a limited amount that can only be refilled by running.

After disarming a foe, Faith automatically takes his weapon. At this point, Faith can either throw the weapon away or use it to fire upon other enemies. Each weapon has a different weight, which affects Faith’s speed if she were to run with it. A handgun wouldn’t slow her down too much, but a machine gun definitely will. All weapons cannot be reloaded either. Whatever is remaining in the clip when Faith picks up the gun is what she has. When the gun runs out of ammo, she automatically discards it to the ground.

When running across a beam (indicated in red), you actually have to use the analog stick to maintain your balance or you will fall to your death.

Achievement System
The Achievements design in this game are practically what save the game and make us understand the way it was meant to be played. With the story mode only about four hours long on an average playthrough, the Achievements could have all simply been about beating each of the ten levels in the story mode. However, there are several Achievements in the Speedrun and Time Trial modes of the game that significantly lengthen the game. Beating all of them takes a lot of work but what’s interesting is that you really do learn how to play the game more “optimally” as you work on the Speedrun and Time Trials.

The Speedruns generally require you to beat any of the game’s 10 levels in under a certain amount of time – usually about 6-8 minutes. That honestly means that if you were to go by those times, you could beat all ten levels in the game in about an hour and a half. Of course, before you can even beat the game in an hour and a half, you have to be really good at it – practicing for hours over and over until you get segments down just like driving a car on a race track.

The Time Trials are certain smaller sections taken from the ten levels in the game. There are 23 total Time Trials, and each one has three particular times associated with beating it. If you can beat the fastest of the three times assigned, you will get 3 stars on that track. If you can only manage to beat the second fastest, you will get 2 stars, and if you beat the most generous time, you will get just 1 star for the course. Even for me though, the most generous time still required a pretty good amount of practicing. With 23 Time Trial levels, it’s possible to gain 69 stars total in the game. One thing I didn’t like about the Achievements in this game was that there was no Achievement for getting all 69 stars in the game. The closest was 50 stars, and once I hit that I decided to stop. I wasn’t prepared to spend dozens more hours trying to hone my parkour skills enough to get the last 19 but I would have gladly done it if there was a corresponding Achievement which told the world that I was able to.

Ever want to slide down the incline of an esclator? In Mirror’s Edge, you can – but it’s not as fun as you would think.

Final Thoughts
I liked Mirror’s Edge. While it was perhaps a little too short and the storyline needed better pacing, the gameplay was ultimately innovative and enjoyable. I found myself devoting many hours of studying YouTube videos and practicing over and over before I was able to clear different courses with good times to beat the Speedruns and Time Trial modes. Even after seeing how the videos do it, I still often found myself having trouble – because while I understood the path the player took, I didn’t always figure out his momentum. Still, is it really fun attempting the same one minute segment over and over again for hours until you get it right? I guess it depends on how “old-school” you are and whether this type of challenge makes a game enjoyable for you.

I give it a B. If the story mode was twice its length it would have definitely scored higher for me. While there’s a lot of gameplay length to be found playing the Speedruns and Time Trials, being forced to attempt the same areas over and over to try to beat your best time isn’t exactly for everyone. What’s sad to me is that this game will probably end up flying under the radar for most people just like the game, “The Club”. Both share some pretty good similarities in that they shouldn’t really be played primarily for their storylines. The best part of both of these games is being able to compete to see how well your course time compares with the world (or even better, your friends if they are willing to give the game a try). If you’re not competitive enough to care for this important feature of Mirror’s Edge, the game should ultimately be a rental for you at best since you can probably get through the story mode in one evening.