Spending on The Elder Scrolls IV:Oblivion is a “Profitable Transaction”

By : S. E. Hartle 

The Elder Scrolls IV : Oblivion, may be the largest scale game ever produced on any game console, and nearly every aspect of the XBOX 360 version seemed honed to perfection while its limited competition pushed one inadequate title after another. Although you cannot find a new copy for much less than $49.99, it is a bargain at double that price.

 

With two expansions released via Microsoft’s online Marketplace, Bethesda Softwork’s astounding world of Cyrodil, where the majority of your heroic exploits will mature, is literally a lifetime for your created character, and for you if you have the time.

I personally logged more than 400 hours now, and there are still side quests, storylines and areas left unexplored. Try and log that in any game, on any console without suffering mind-numbing repetition.   

From the moment the game begins and you choose your gender, race and class, you begin a whirlwind of events that unfold upon the assassination of the land’s emperor, leaving you with a seemingly impossible quest of saving the world and finding a new heir to the throne. Fate has chosen you regardless of your past or your plans.

       

You choose your own path; tamper with magic, pound your enemies with hammers and muscle, master the art of sword and shield or disappear into the night and attack without admonition. You can steal, eat, fight, hide, sleep, work, run, swim and even die. Your character is alive in a fantasy land and your dreams become reality as you choose your path to be a hero and save your fellow man, or stray your course and fend off law from city to city while bidding evil in your wake.

Cyrodil is built from dozens of small towns and large cities, each with their own distinct differences, spread out over a massive map entwined with caves, castles, ruins and monsters all at your disposal. Conquer and command respect, or ignore and just exist like the hundreds of non-player characters roaming the land. Every character is an individual with their own personality and business in life. Some will like you, some will not, and even some will just plain ignore you.

                                                       

You can follow the main plotline, which leads you into the epic immortal battle of good versus evil, or drift the land gaining experience, strength and items that will make your eventual destiny a little easier to subgugate.

Oblivion’s few drawbacks are derived mainly in the long-loading screens, due to the absorbent amount of information being processed and the lack of online action. Although Bethesda and Microsoft offer several bonuses to the online enthusiast including two bonus plotlines and multiple new areas to explore, but they aren’t free. Each online option carries its own price in Microsoft points, but as goes the game, they are all worth their weight in cost.

Days go by as decisions are made and areas explored, just as time passes in life, so it does in Cyrodil and it is your choice to do as you please, as long as you are willing to suffer, or maybe savor, the consequence.

Behind the sheer magnitude of the land around you, the unmatched beauty and detail of the landscape is nothing short of breathtaking. Bethesda’s Cyrodil fabricates multi-colored sunsets, murky darkness lit up with brilliant stars reflecting over a shimmering lake, sense-jarring thunderstorms and a host of brilliantly designed landscapes, not to mention the uniquely designed towns, architectural devices and the countless idiosyncratic  creatures that live among them.

As hackneyed, well-worn and clichéd as it goes, Webster’s Dictionary defines the word, bargain, as “a profitable transaction.” Although the utter enormity of this game may scare off several gaming demographics, the cult of RPG cohorts will plummet instantly in love.

I spent $64.99 on the game, $19.99 on the nearly 400-page official Xbox 360 game guide, about $35.00 on downloadable supplementary gist, and another $19.99 on a 175-page additional content game guide.

That’s more than $140.00 for a single game. What a bargain.

Bargain Bin Game Rating :

Any Price — 10 out of 10

Xbox 360 — The Godfather Makes Us a Promise We Cannot Refuse

By : S. E. Hartle

In a virtual world controlled by mobsters everyone who’s anyone is getting a cut of the action. Shouldn’t you, the buyer, get something as well?

Although getting a real bargain on this game is rare, (there are used copies of this game for between 10 and 20 dollars) the average price of 29.99 is still well worth the amount of hours you can spend roaming the streets of
New York following scenes from the award-winning movie, The Godfather.

Real voice-overs, lifelike motion video and actual-face graphing make your created character feel like he is one of the infamous Corleone family. From the attempted murder of Don Vito, to the rise of Don Michael, your character whacks, smacks and explodes his way through dozens of missions and side tasks all the while gaining power and control of the city.

The game replicates the play style made famous by Rockstar’s, Grand Theft Auto series. Although some have called games of this nature “copycats,” it is more that GTA revolutionized the gaming industry. GTA taught us to stop expecting one angle, when there is so much more to be had.

You can move on foot, with dozens of weapons and upgrades at your disposal, and you can take any car in the city, but be weary of the law. You can also hire a body guard to follow you around and watch your back. In a cityscape of this size, it’s nice to have someone on your side for a change. Everyone in the game is a virtual target, but if you are a killing machine and like to take down anything that moves, you won’t have any side missions later on to help you progress. Choose your bullet direction wisely.

So, you can steal cars, kill innocent bystanders, take over rival turf and even try to war with the police. But in 1950s New York City, everything you do has its consequences, and the only way out of trouble is to either bribe or shoot your way out.

 

The graphics and game-play are solid, although it can be frustrating starting out as a thug trying to take over an entire city full of people who want to see you dead. The city boasts five central areas, all with hours of exploration and nifty things to find and accomplish. You can log a lot of hours into this game and still end up being just another lackey in a long list of wannabe gangsters.

Play nice with the cops and the feds, stay true to the family and remain diligent in the demise of your enemies, and one day you will be the Don of N.Y.C.

I don’t want to spoil the storyline too much, but it follows the plot of the first movie almost religiously, with spots from Marlon Brando, James Caan and Robert Duvall. One hundred bonus movie clips can be found all over the city allowing the gamer to watch real footage from the Academy Award winning film.

If you are dead set on being a modern-day gang banger, or a hell-bent cop destroying drug lords in futuristic settings, then this is a probable pass for you. But if you are a fan of The Godfather, its characters, or just the mafia mystique in general, this game will have your trigger itching for a sequel, if only to find out if Don Michael whacks his brother Fredo, or if you have to do the dirty work.

Bargain Bin Game Rating :

Full Price of $29.99 – 7 out of 10

Discounted $19.99 – 9 out of 10

XBox 360 Fight Night Round 3 is a Knockout Bargain — 19.99 to 29.99

By : S. E. Hartle

Although Fight Night Round 3 does not boast, “I am the greatest,” as does its focal heavyweight icon Muhammad Ali, but it does KO the competition when it comes to getting bang for your buck.

 

Sports games decrease in value so quickly because they reproduce their image every year, but FNR3 has everything you need from this series for years to come. The next Fight Night installment will certainly add more boxers and additional venues, but the real-to-life in ring boxing and the stunning graphics of FNR3 should quench your ring thirst until at least they come out with a Round 5.

The best part about FNR3 are the near limitless combination of fights that can be created from all weight classes, and all generations. Outside of Mike Tyson, and George Foreman, and Rocky Marciano, nearly every major contender and known name in boxing since the turn of the century has a spot on FNR3’s roster. And just to suit those fans who might want to bite off their opponent’s ear, there is a create menu where you can mold your boxer’s bio, physical form, and fighting style.

Using the new duel-stick technology offered by the XBox 360, what used to be mere video boxing has evolved into a kind of virtual fighting that puts the gamer in complete command of  both body movement and punch control. The in-ring fighting is as realistic as any fighting game ever made, period. From the sweat that beads as rounds murmur on, to the gradual swelling and eventual bleeding, the realism is literally a punch in the face to all other fighter titles on the market. The graphic display culminates with slow-motion knockouts that throw away mouth pieces, wobble knees, close eyes and send splatters of blood across your television screen, and all offered in high definition. That is satisfying at any price.

The game offers multiple modes including classic ESPN-sponsored brawls, which offers fights such as Ali vs. Frazier and Sugar Ray Leonard vs. Roberto Duran, as well as several more classics from the 20th and 21st century. The career mode is lengthy and can span all weight classes offering as many fights as you can handle, but be weary, your fighter ages with each fight and without proper training and knowing when to call it quits, you may have to retire as a washed-up has-been. Make good decisions, train hard and step down when it’s time and you may become one of the “greatest” of all time. But you’ll have to beat the “Greatest” to prove it.

Overall for your money I would risk buying FNR3 and avoid its eventual counterpart, because I don’t see much improvement coming from the next model. Few games offer such lengthy entertainment at such a shallow price, and even fewer sports games appeal in any real long-term fashion, but FNR3 does both with lethal combination. If you can find a new or used version for 19.99 or less, that is the knockout uppercut you were yearning to dish out.

Online, Circuit City gives you the best price for this game new, but auction sites like Ebay, and shopping sites like Amazon offer used versions much cheaper. Shopping at Best Buy and Wal-Mart will find you shelling out at least $29.99 plus tax, and at that price you may consider waiting for the next version. Maybe they will offer in-ring ear biting, and that would be worth paying the full 60 dollars.

Bottom line, it’s worth every bit of 20 or 25 dollars, but be diligent as prices for sports titles drop quicker than Ali drops Frazier.

 

Bargain Bin Game Rating :

Full Price of $29.99 – 8 of 10    

Discounted  $19.99  – 9 of 10

Xbox 360 : Are there any true bargains?

By : S. E. Hartle

 The current state of the market for the semi-new Microsoft XBox 360 gives us gamers very little to hope for as far as affordability when it comes to games. If you can get any game, other than your yearly outdated sports releases, for $30 or less, I believe you have found yourself a rarity. Hence, any game $30 or less is a bargain in this insane visual world where consoles and their counterparts cost as much as a used Honda. There is hope, because some of these so-called bargains turn out to be fairly good games, and in some cases, even great games.

 

For the most part, games for this  console start at $60, but bucking the trend set with other systems in the past, they are not guaranteed to go down in price as time looms on. For instance, Oblivion : The Elder Scrolls IV, was released one year ago this month and still goes for between 50 and 60 dollars retail. This could be for one of two reasons; either the game is excellent in every way, or Microsoft knows it has the next generation console market cornered, and they can charge whatever they want. I have personally logged over 300 hours into Oblivion, and can assure you, it is about as vast and exciting as a game can get on any console today, but that is still no excuse for the lack of decline in price as demand goes down.  
I cannot afford to buy a $60 game every month, more or less every few months, so I recently began hunting for games at lower prices. You can always try the used-game route, which doesn’t discount much on newer more popular titles, but it may give you an advantage when looking at some of the lower-priced titles.

I plan on reviewing at least one game per week, as I tend to rent before I buy, so I can give some insight as to which games are worth the discounted prices, and which should be left behind. Currently I have noticed about a dozen decent titles priced between 25 and 30 dollars. Most are newer titles, or titles that didn’t have the same marketing push as the more popular and recognizable franchise games we’ve all come to know and love, such as the aforementioned Oblivion.

For example, football fans may opt to pass on the incredibly popular Madden titles and opt out for its only real competitor this season, and that is Blitz: The League. Blitz does not offer the NFL logo or its franchised teams, but it does offer intense play, coupled with interesting story lines, comparable graphics and several new avenues that the Madden franchise has left out. It also carries a price tag of less than half the cost of Madden. I don’t want to get into a full review of this game yet (but it is the first game I plan on writing a full review for) as I am only making a mere example of the options we have available to us as buyers. It is important not to get presold on titles because of what the gaming industry producers have done in the past. If you buy based solely on past games and their production companies, I believe you will be sorely disappointed and left with a dent in your checkbook to boot.

The most important aspect of buying a game for this console is to do your homework. Don’t be a spoiled, gotta-have-it, gaming zombie that must buy everything with a cool advertisement campaign. Wait until the game is released. Read reviews from fellow gamers, and by all means borrow or rent a game if you have the opportunity.

Finding decent playing titles at bargain cost for this system is no easy task, as the system is still realtively new and the production line has not fully exposed itself to the marketplace. At this point for this system, the only play we get at a bargain is to play the waiting game.

In the meantime I will try to offer you as many options I can find for less than 30 dollars.

Here are upcoming titles priced 30 dollars or less which I plan on reviewing :

Blitz : The League — The Godfather — Cabela’s African Safari — Cabela’s Alaskan Adventure — Fight Night Round 3 –Hitman : Blood Money –Ninety-Nine Nights — The Outfit — Ghost Recon : Advanced Warfighter — Lord of the Rings : The Battle for Middle Earth II.

Please feel free to email me at hahajaxson@hotmail.com to submit games you wish to be reviewed as well, and I will tell you if they are a bargain, or a bust. Good luck, and as always, it’s game or die!