$60 a Month: Episode VI
January had a massive budget. Between the recent holidays, my birthday, a big carryover from December and an upgrade on the home theater system, I may have been single-handedly keeping the flagging US economy afloat. But despite all the crazy budget gymnastics, I still had a set dollar amount to work within. Did I pull it off?
Also, early in the month I signed up for a Gamerscore Challenge to try and win a $100 Best Buy gift card by earning the most achievement points through January 31st. Could I keep the flow of points coming and still spend less than my budgeted amount? Read on to find out.
Budget
December was a light month because of Christmas, so I carried over $47.39 making my starting total in January a whopping $107.39. I also got a $20 GameSpot gift card and a $40 GS card as birthday gifts, which I applied to the total (since it could only be spent on games) giving me $167.39 going in.
The Game List
- WipEout Pure
Platform: PSP
Method: Goozex
Cost: Trade
I didn’t know what to expect from this game, really. I played the original WipEout way back on the PlayStation (One) when it first came out. I thought the game was okay then, but hardly a must-play. I picked up Pure because I thought that in the ten years since I last played a WipEout game, they must have been getting nuts with it. Turns out, Pure is almost exactly what I remember from long ago. Which is to say it’s okay and I can see the merit, but I don’t have a lot of interest in playing it to the exclusion of other titles. I shipped it back to another Goozexer later in the month. - Madden NFL 06
Platform: Xbox 360
Method: Retail Purchase with Gift Card
Cost: $4.32
A game purchased and played strictly for the Gamerscore Challenge. It’s not a great Madden title although it’s not horrible. I spent most of the time playing it in simulation mode angling for the extra 400 points from getting through a whole 30-year franchise. The low cost was right for the contest, but ultimately not a great gaming experience. - Gun
Platform: Xbox 360
Method: Retail Purchase with Gift Card
Cost: $15.14
Another game I picked up for the GS Challenge, it turns out this isn’t a bad little wild west GTA clone. It’s not a good game exactly, but it’s certainly playable and I enjoyed it. I’ll probably even play it some more at some point and you can’t go wrong with a $15 game. - Avatar: The Last Airbender: The Burning Earth
Platform: Xbox 360
Method: Rental
Cost: $7.57
I rented this game to get the ridiculously easy 1,000 gamerscore as part of my quest for the $100 Best Buy gift card from the Challenge. I played it for roughly four minutes (just long enough to earn all the achievements) which means I essentially traded seven and a half dollars for one thousand points and the chance at a $100 gift card. - Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror
Platform: PSP
Method: Goozex
Cost: Trade
I played through several tutorial missions but because I got several games with the PSP, it didn’t grab me right away. I think the clunky should-be-two-analog-sticks control scheme kind of turned me off. I’m still interested in playing the game but Silent Hill Origins won the struggle between the two in January. Maybe once I finish SH I’ll go back and give this one a shot. - Golden Axe
Platform: Xbox Live Arcade
Method: MS Points Purchase
Cost: $5.00
Another GS Challenge-inspired purchase, I was surprised at how short this game is when you aren’t paying $0.25 each time you die. It’s not a terrible retro title but it wasn’t as good as I remembered and for the measly 200 possible points (which I didn’t unlock all of anyway) it probably wasn’t worth the five bucks. - Silent Hill Origins
Platform: PSP
Method: Retail Purchase
Cost: $32.46
A retail title that got play all through the month, it’s probably the game I wish Silent Hill 2 had been: It harkens the original SH but has a new and interesting story and—this is the pivotal thing that has made SH2 so hard for me to finish—it has a strong starting point that throws you into the action and intrigue early. - Tomb Raider: Anniversary
Platform: Xbox 360
Method: Retail Purchase
Cost: $43.29
I picked up Tomb Raider Legend for the 360 despite having already completed it on the original Xbox because I heard it was going to be required to get the early-release TR: Anniversary DLC version. Well, that version has yet to materialize and after waiting a couple of months I just gave up on the DLC version and picked up the retail copy. A good game that I think I might have preferred to find for a slightly reduced price than full retail. - Burnout Paradise
Platform: Xbox 360
Method: Retail Purchase
Cost: $64.94
My “big AAA purchase” for January, I’ve enjoyed the game quite a bit but I fully expect to have it listed on Goozex before March. Why? Because while I see the appeal the franchise has and I like the open-world stuff they did (I don’t have previous series entries under my belt to compare to) it’s getting a bit stale after only a couple of weeks. Perhaps if some friends picked it up and I could enjoy some online multiplayer more I might change my tune but as it is I’m the only one in my circle playing and it’s not great enough offline to keep for too long. - Undertow
Platform: Xbox Live Arcade
Method: Download
Cost: $0.00
This game was given away free as a sort of compensation for the troubles Xbox Live had since the holidays. I probably never would have acquired the game otherwise, but I can’t pass up free. I played a small slice of it and wasn’t much impressed. - Heavenly Sword
Platform: PS3
Method: Rental
Cost: $4.33
This is the game I picked to test out the new PS3. It looks great, has some passable God of War style gameplay and I really enjoyed some parts like the Aftertouch-heavy Kai levels (once I got the hang of the fairly unforgiving control scheme that is). Also, this game has the best lip-syncing I’ve seen in a video game and it in fact rivals some of the work done in the CG Final Fantasy feature films. However, it’s the quintessential rental since I finished it in a week without much effort.
List Breakdown
I liked most of the games this month, with a few exceptions. WipEout Pure ended up being not really what I was looking for and got traded away in short order, Undertow was uninspiring but free so complaints are hollow there. I also played too many (and spent too much on) junk games for the Gamerscore Challenge, but I made up for it with good decisions on Heavenly Sword, Burnout Paradise and Silent Hill Origins.
Sacrifices
I sent a slew of games to Goozex in the last couple of months thanks to their “free game”promotion which starts new members off with 100 points and 1 trade credit. I cleared out StarCraft: Brood War and Age of Empires II for the PC this month. I also traded out a game I got earlier in the month, WipEout Pure.
Special Cases
I received Rock Band and Guitar Hero III for my birthday so as usual they don’t appear above. I recognize that the gift card addition to the budget is a bit questionable considering I don’t usually count gifts toward the monthly acquisitions and gift cards are functionally identical to gifted games. The reason for the inclusion of the cards and not the gifted games is that even though the cards were not part of my regular budget, I think it is realistic to include those types of “decision gifts” into the equation since this is about stretching a dollar. As it was, I purchased two games (Madden 06 and Gun) with a single $20 card, which was some pretty serious bargain shopping I think, and used the larger card for Tomb Raider: Anniversary, a game I’ve been looking forward to for months.
You’ll also note that I acquired a PSP this month which introduces even more variety into the equation but also increases the odds of a given month posing a problem as more “must haves” are released. Upcoming on the PSP front: God of War: Chains of Olympus, possibly in the same month as GTA IV. Less pressing on the upcoming releases front is the new PS3 I acquired as well, but it does have several back catalog games that I’m interested in, which I’m likely to rent or Goozex in the coming months.
Curiously, I didn’t actually purchase the PSP but rather borrowed one on indefinite loan from my brother-in-law. As part of the package he included a second copy of Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror, ATV Off-Road Fury and NHL 07. I’m not including them above since their acquisitions had nothing to do with my budgeting and everything to do with his generosity.
Results
Considering the huge number of games I acquired this month, it had to be that I was operating on a large budget. And the addition of my birthday didn’t hurt my library either. But all things considered I did pretty well. When you add up the totals you get $174.05 spent, which is $9.66 over my initial budget including the $60 for January, gift cards and carry-over from last month. However, I also made a recycling run for the first time in three months which earned me $11.65 which means I came out on top by $1.99.
I certainly could have done better if I hadn’t tried so hard at the beginning of the month to win the $100 Gamerscore Challenge I entered, but I couldn’t have known how far ahead another participant would shoot at the very beginning (8,000+ gamerscore in one week) so by the time I realized, some budgetary damage had already been done.
Still, you’ll note that while 10 games is pretty good, three of them were brand-new retail purchases and only one really needed to be that pricey. Silent Hill and TR: Anniversay are both several months old and could have been found used if I’d had a bit more freedom for shopping around, but the gift cards hindered my true bargain-hunting. I was pretty proud of the Gun find, which turned out to be a pretty decent game after all, if a bit short and shallow.