Now of course, prices of games shift from time to time, an offer or deal might be available from time to time that puts some prices lower than others, and so for the purposes of this comparison it will be a collection of new and old titles, without deals and the current price listed on the websites only. I am aware that some highstreet retailers have lower prices online, however realistically, these only differ by a very small amount. If shops say its a big difference, they are simply liars.

Click to read more…

OK lets start with the RRP of all new release games in the UK, the RRP is often £49.99, but any person stupid enough to pay 50 quid for a game deserves what they get, I don’t know anyone who wanted even Halo 3 or Call of Duty 4 THAT bad. So for this the RRP in terms of real sensible life is £39.99 (henceforth RSL price).

Argos
Halo 3: £19.99
Soul Calibur 4: £14.99
Prince of Persia: £38.99
Fallout 3: £38.99
Halo Wars: £38.99
50 Cent Blood on the Sand: £38.99
Resident Evil 5: £32.99

This is a random selection, taken from the site. As we can see there is OK offers (and just OK) on Halo 3 and Soul Calibur 4, although the latter was a limited half price offer. The Prince of Persia price tag is insane, stupid and insulting. Its an older game, the same as Fallout 3 to some extent. It strikes me as confusing as why that the new Resident Evil game is cheaper than 50 Cent, which came out a month or so back.

Its best to avoid Argos at all costs, if you go here, you will be ripped off, and kick yourself when you walk past another store with the games up to half their prices AS STANDARD as other retailers. Look elsewhere, and you won’t get burned.

Comet
Halo Wars: £39.99
Prince of Persia: £29.99
Street Fighter 4: £39.99
Gears of War 2: £34.99
Call of Duty: WaW: £39.99

SPECIAL RIP-OFF MENTION:
Sega Megadrive Ultimate Collection: £39.99

Comet confuses me. I don’t understand it. At first they seem quite average in game prices. And then they fuck it up. They fucked up big time. Call of Duty at this point in proper retailers around £25-30. Street Fighter 4 is around the same, and Prince of Persia (if people buy it at all) is at most £25.  For the most stupid price of the set, Sega Megadrive Ultimate Collection sells (even at Tesco!) for £24.99. The most I have seen it for is around this price, its not even sold for around £30! This is pure price gorging of customers in the recession, and is plain insulting. Avoid Comet at all costs.

Littlewoods
Halo 3: £23.00
Prince of Persia: £23.00
Fallout 3: £54.00 (not joking)
Resident Evil 5: £49.00 (still not joking)
Call of Duty 4: £35.00
Sega Megadrive Ultimate Collection: £30.00

The message is clear from Littlewoods, and this is just friendly advice. Never buy games, consoles or any electronics from them. Ever. They are selling a £209.99 elite xbox 360 (in GAME) for £369 (with extra black controller and RE5). In normal game selling stores, this together would only be £275 – £290. Littewoods are stealing up to £94 from customers in every sale.
Littlewoods needs to not only get in touch with reality, but needs to seriously consider firing whoever set that price. That is of course, they knew it was gorging and wanted to see if people were stupid enough to buy their products.

These are the rip offs currently that given me the most anger in research. I will be adding more in tommorows list, with suprising results from the 3 main retailers of games, HMV, GAME and Gamestation.

The Bishman

If this is true, it could mean a bad ending for this game. Smaller MMO games trying this have had major issues in staying afloat in the presence of games like WoW.

EA and Bioware, please for the love of god don’t do this! I actually want you to succeed! Can you please make a Star Wars MMO that doesn’t suck!

The Bishman

Handheld gaming devices for me, tend to be an expensive option in gaming technology. They provide the customer with lesser graphics at near the same cost of a console or PC title, they give limited hours of play, and nearly always lack multiplayer usability.

If this seems a harsh, and a little unfair on the poor little PSP or DS, allow me to explain a little…

I’ve never been able to understand why a handheld games cost so much. They cost nearly the same as the average console or PC title, have lesser graphics and usually do not play as long. This is no fault of the handheld itself, being limited by battery life, but I do not want to pay the same amount for an inferior product. I would not pay £50 for half a pair of jeans after all. There is simply not enough space to put everything on a UMD or a DS card.

For those that say this is being unfair, in my opinion handheld gaming is slowly being fased out into general use multimedia devices. Take the PSP and the new DS, both now have built in web browsers, and the abilty to play music. I think the user is beggining to feel cheated at the prospect of paying full price for these games, and then being shafted on useability. The R4 is the embodyment of this, people would rather pay £70 for EVERY game, than £30 for each.

The idea of multiplayer on handhelds has always amused me. The WiFi just means no cables, it still limits players to a: what handheld they have, and b: do they have the same games. If little Timmy has a PSP, but little Johnny has a DS, then they are both royally screwed. I remember in school when people had their PSP’s, and were trying to play against each other, the typical conversation went:

A: I’m gonna kick your ass at GTA!
B: I don’t have that, what about Star Wars: Battlefront?
A: I only have this one game, as I stole the money of my parents, then robbed a cash point to buy this one game!
B: Me to! Oh crap is that the police?
A: Shit! 4 stars!

At least with a console or PC, I’m matched to a player who has the same game, wants to play at the same time, and (probably) hasn’t had to murder anyone to get to play it.

In the end, its devices like the iphone that will come out on top. New mobile phones with the ability to do EVERYTHING that will appeal. If there is one thing the iphone and ipod touch did show, is that cheap games you can play on the bus, before turning it to music and later a web browser, appeal a lot more than normal handheld games.

Bishman.

For those of you who were around to read it or if you obsessively collect student newspapers you may remember my review of Bioshock and how I neglected family and friends and cut marks into my arm counting down the days till I finally collected my Big Daddy. Though this is no word of an exaggeration I must say that my fevor for the release of Fallout 3 has been mocked, condemned and chronicled by my flatmates and girlfriend.

Why? Imagine if you will that Elder scrolls : Oblivion and Bioshock decided that IVF really was the best option and selected the best egg and best sperm they could and the resulting child was then raised by Bob Dylan and Bob Geldof (the coolest people in the world). Fallout 3 is an excellent game and though my over zealous approach to it seems justified in my eyes I suppose that I could use some empirical evidence to support my slaving adoration of what most people would unwisely call an “Oblivion Clone with guns”.

For those that know or have noticed from the title, Fallout 3 is part of a trilogy and while the first two games are to be fully recommended, and are available for around $5.99 form GOG.com, Fallout 3 is a slight change of pace and its shallowness may upset some hardcore fans. However this shallowness should not be misread by people who have not played the original. I have come to describing the Capital wasteland (The Cyrodill equivalent) as similar in size to the ego required to write for the games page. The size of the map is also hidden from us some what as vast amounts of it includes the ruined Metro System which is infested with all manner of post apocalyptic horrors.

Personally I’m playing the game on a PS3 and have found it to be graphically satisfying, very similar to oblivion but with the smaller details added and a much greater emphasis on barren landscape and wide open angles occasionally with supposedly abandoned building penetrating the sky dotted across the landscape. The added graphics are mostly found in the aspects of exploding limbs and the detail of damage shown on your opponents, be they super mutants or giant radscorpions.

The sound in the game is once again very oblivion esq, with that rather annoying background music which tells you that you are under attack before you even see the enemy. However sound gets a massive boost because of the use of radio stations pumping out sarcastic optimistic music, the mad DJ called Three Dog that describes and places judgement on your actions in the wasteland.

You can get a hand held thermonuclear warhead launcher….guess that means good game play.

As learning curve and value go, I always have difficulty as if the games good then these things are seemingly interdependent. The learning curve is easily manipulated by simply lowering the difficulty setting and the value will depend on were you shop…just try and avoid a place’s like with HLU for all you 2001 fans.

Graphics 8/10

Sound 8/10

Gameplay 10/10

learning curve 9/10

value 9/10

over all 8.8/10

Spore is a game which allows you to manipulate your very own species of creature. The Game consists of you starting as a single celled organism and through the magic of gene splicing and appendage harvesting you eventually have a monster which will ultimately start a tribe. Once you are in a tribe you collect food and either burn down all the other little mud huts or you can impress them with your creature’s maracas and massive horns. The next stage is hardly worth mentioning as if you fail to get the “complete in under an hour” achievement then you either let your mum play or you are the epithet of all that is failing epically.

The final stage is the space or the “sandbox” stage, having designed and launched your space ship you are placed on the galactic theater. However as you leave your planet for the first time you realize that all that time you spent in the other stages was a waste as you are now back to basically being a singled celled organism in an infinite pond inhabited by creatures which most of the time will destroy you by breathing to heavily. After dominating your home world you are surrounded by other empires which have either taken over all the decent planets but also see you as some kind of intergalactic ground force. In order to befriend these other races you must travel to distant planets and engage in landscape gardening by introducing ecosystems to uninhabitable planets. By the 10^th time you have done this you realize that using your tractor beam to pull down meteors and comets could have much more exiting uses rather than ensuring that the planet you are working on is finished by the time the inhabitants get back from holiday. So you decide to go to war with another empire and realize that this is an ever worse option as every empire around you has more ships more guns and does not have to return to their home world to wipe out a specific species of poorly mutant cows.

Spore is very much a game for people who like to do arty things, you can custom build every aspect of your creatures lives’ from the cars they drive to the national anthem that your citizens will sing as they wipe out another indigenous people because they had the audacity to not be born with nine sets of eyes and an extra arm with a mallet on the end of it. Spore may not necessarily be a fun game but it certainly is addictive, once you have reached the space stage with one creature you want to start again just to you can experience the joy of thumping about as an evil sharkbirdlion which happily eats its way through every other kind of creature and leads to the extinction of at least forty other peaceful looking monkey creatures.

Rant over and now for the facts. Graphically it is pretty and is made more so by the fact that all the pieces seem to fit together in the creature creator but it is very hard to give it a high score because the bar is being set higher and there is no other game to compare it too. Sounds are very good as your creature’s voice will change depending on the particular mouth you give it. The learning curve is difficult to define because you have to click on whatever you want to die or make friends with there is no real skill required. As I said whether the game play is good is difficult to say, it takes up time, it keeps you interested and you feel like you have accomplished something (the WOW effect). Whether the game is fun really depends on if you own it, if you borrow it from a friend (three times the charm) then you will no doubt want to buy it because you will be hooked. As value for money goes it’s difficult to really put a price tag on a narcotic, no doubt when the first expansion arrives it will go down in price but the best I found it for was £30 on the day of release from Morrison’s.

Graphics: 6/10
Sound: 8/10
learning curve: N/A
Game play: 8/10
value: 7/10
Overall: 7/10

The DRM (digital rights management software) in Spore is technically nothing new or exciting. It has existed for years in many forms, albiet only reserved for only a handful of titles.

So what is the big deal the anti-DRM movement is making? Well the facts of the matter are quite simple, limiting customers ability to do something is considered bad. The 3 install limit of the game is really nothing bad if it is looked at. How many people have 3 computers? I have a laptop and a desktop, thats 2 installs, so the 3rd is not going anywhere.

The problem with this specific DRM, is that it lacks the ability to ‘de-authorise’ your installs, and so if you for some reason reformat your computer, or buy a new one, then you are stuck. Personally, I reformat my desktop every few months, and so limiting the installs would hinder my ability to play the game.

In truth, customers are more pissed off about what this stands for in the gaming industry. All the customer is doing is permanently renting the game, paying full retail price for something that has severe limitations on its use. In effect, its like buying a car which stops you driving after a certain distance, or a mobile phone that will only call the first 3 people in your contacts list.
Its the principle, not the actual ramifications of the DRM system that is being criticized.

EA is correcrt about one thing, the 3 install limit will only effect a very very small percentage of customers. If by the time that another is needed, the promised update to Spore’s DRM which will people to deauthorise, will be out and so it will be no problem.

The lesson after all this to EA is an important one. Do not impose restrictions on legitimate customers who in the end are funding your business. If piracy happens, it will happen, regardless of any anti-piracy software you use, but punnishing the paying customer will just lose you business, which in the end is more damaging than any piracy will be to your net profit.

- The Bishman

Personally I know its childish to do. Its really immature, and to be honest can get staff into a lot of trouble.

However, I know for a fact, that as soon as I go into the apple store, currys or pc world, every computer I touch will become a conduit for smut in about 5 seconds. I dont care what site, in fact I have become very creative in the site names I have typed in. I mean, you get the really boring ones like xxx.com, and indiagoeswild.com etc etc. But I have started using my warped imagination to bring up filth from the likes of bigbadhorseslikegermans.com and backyardbarnfun.com. I honestly think I have gone to the deep dark pits of the internet to bring up some of this shit I have found by accident in these stores.

I like to stick around and wait for the results, so far as yet I haven’t got some internet police team breaking in through the ceiling of my local computer store, but I’m hopeful.

ANYWAY!

I keep hearing these rumors from various sites, people and prophets that there will be a motion senstive controller device for the xbox360 by christmas this year. The rumor is that they release at the same time some small casual play games to go with it to use the controller.

I dont know what to think of this, xbox360 has never been really known for its kiddie gaming scene (ok ok, the average age of people on xbox live (mainly CoD4 and Halo) is about 5), but with most games being aimed at the hardcore gaming market, it seems weird to re-market the console as a family device when the Wii does it cheaper and better. With the up coming fall update re-making the entire xbox dashboard, and the incoming avatars with it, it does seem Microsoft is targeting younger and younger players (and families) just in time for xmas.

Bishman.

After repeatedly telling myself that I would never stoop so low to buy a machine that couldn’t play any kind of worthy game (save WoW), I actually bought the fucker.

I have to say Im impressed with it so far. I can put windows onto it (running xp faster than most desktops) and the UI is great. Im enjoying it, using it doesnt feel like playing a game of russian roulette with a automatic pistol (windows vista) and its a good system. Not to mention powerful.

System stats:

2.4ghz core 2 duo
2gig RAM
250gb hard drive
-1 soul of purchaser

*sigh* I just hope I dont start wetting myself at new iphone and ipod devices, like some warped fanboy.

Bishman.

Its the start of a new year soon for The Rabbit newspaper, and for the academic year.

I want to thank the previous games review editor, Shaun Munro, for all his hardwork and dedication he gave the page last term. He’s set a high standard for the page, one that will be hard to meet for the new editor.

A welcome to the site is the forums! We have added new forums to the page, that will enable readers to register, post comments and start topics. We will also place there reviews and discussions that we could not publish in the Rabbit due to size limitations. Go and register now!

Bishman out.