The arrival of the next-gen era has witnessed a regular feature in the ‘deluxe’, pre-order version big game titles. Certainly pre-orders have occurred before with consoles (the PS2 being one of the first big ones), and game titles have also graced us in this manner, but the impending arrival of Halo 3’s Legendary Edition and the GTA IV Special Edition go beyond your standard ‘limited edition’ release. As if these two franchises aren’t going to sell a swag of pre-order and release date units, which they certainly will, the supposed attraction is to own a special, individual, ‘collectors’ version… along with the other 100,000 special, individual gamers out there.
Thankfully most of us won’t feel the need to own fandangled versions, and will happily fork over our cash for the ‘standard’ release because ultimately, when it comes to game play, there is no difference between them all.
However, are there benefits in holding off purchasing a game at launch? Before you cast stones at me for such a blasphemous suggestion against all things gaming, hear me out. For I have found a few good reasons why it may be in your interest.
Most obvious in getting into an established title is the financial saving. Even waiting as little as three months after launch can save you between 30-50% on the full RRP. Certainly by six to nine months you are almost assured of a minimum saving of 50%, and sometimes even 75% off the launch price!
What’s more, in an attempt to keep those sales ticking over (thus making monthly targets), distributors will often include expanded in-game material. This will usually take form in the way of map packs, new characters, additional weapons and other bonuses which are far more useful than a behind-the-scenes doco on the making of the game. For example, I purchased the PC combat simulator Operation Flashpoint (2001) a year after launch – it was half the launch price and included not only a dozen new vehicles, weapons and multiplayer maps, but also the full, single player expansion campaign, Red Hammer. Had I waited another six months, I could have nabbed the “Game of the Year” edition, which included yet another single player campaign and even more in-game goodies!
Even if the distributors don’t include bonus material, the savings you make can go towards purchasing bonus content. And this leads me to my second example. Coming across Xbox 360’s Test Drive Unlimited nine months after launch, I purchased my copy at 30% of the launch price and enjoyed what I feel is the best driving game to be released in nearly a decade. Even when I purchased Microsoft points to download five car packs and the Hardcore mode (essentially 25-30 new cars), I still had only spent a total of 50% of the launch RRP!
Test Drive Unlimited also serves as another useful example, in that a number of patches had been released between the September 2006 launch and when I got into the game in June 2007. These patches addressed some minor problems to do with the graphics, vehicle physics at high speeds and also the implementation of racing wheel peripherals. Whilst updates can never resolve game flaws such as poor narrative, mediocre dialogue, repetitive and boring game play, or un-original level design (can anyone say King Kong or Transformers), they can bump a game up from the ‘good’ label to the ‘great’ label – something I feel Test Drive Unlimited underwent! Essentially, the hundreds of thousands of other gamers who came before me, did a super-beta test for me, thus I am playing a much better version of the game than the one which launched.
Understandably it is difficult to hold off on purchasing launch titles which are as huge as GTAIV or Halo 3, and when a console launches it would be pointless to own a next-gen console but not any games for it. However, now that all three next-gen consoles have launched, along with both next-gen handhelds, there are plenty of existing titles out there which may be worth getting into now that they have dropped in price.
You may have to incur the title of ‘n00b’ or be told you are not a ‘serious’ gamer, but you ain’t the dipstick who is paying full RRP! What’s more, like a fine wine or cold pizza, you will slowly enjoy your collection at your own pace – content in the knowledge that you don’t have to rush through your latest game because the next big title is about the launch and now comes with its own miniature tea set!
Wednesday 15th August 2007
Dylan Y (Fuchal) NextGEN Gamers
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