$60 a Month: Episode IX
I spent the whole month anticipating the release of Grand Theft Auto IV. But that still left 28 days in between for me to fill up with… what? I had some extra funds from last month’s lean times, but was it enough to carry me through almost a whole month and still have the cash for my anticipated full-priced retail purchase?
Budget
Last month’s slim purchase activity left me with $50.58 coming into April. Adding April’s $60 allowance I started off at $110.58 plus I made a recycling run (not necessarily related to the budget but mostly to clear some of the bags I had collected to make our relocation easier) which netted me another $8.25 before the automated recycling machine broke. $118.83 became the budget to work with.
The Game List
- Folklore
Platform: PlayStation 3
Method: Goozex
Cost: Trade
This is a fun, darkly original monster-collection action RPG… thing. I’m glad I gave it a shot because I’ve enjoyed the time I’ve spent with it very much, although regretfully I picked it up alongside a number of other excellent and epic length games. - Shadow of the Colossus
Platform: PlayStation 2
Method: Goozex
Cost: Trade
Despite hearing the virtues of this game extolled high and wide for years I never managed to get around to it until I had a slew of points on Goozex and nothing much to spend them on. I finally got the game toward the end of the month and it is pretty much everything people said it was. I’m a little ashamed I didn’t get on this bandwagon earlier. - Call of Juarez
Platform: Xbox 360
Method: Goozex
Cost: Trade
A capable if mostly unremarkable wild west FPS. Other than my initial few hours I haven’t put much into the game although I do intend to return to it at some point once all the other long games in my recent acquisitions are no longer interesting. I could have taken or left this game this month but I’m not sorry I picked it up necessarily. - Eternal Sonata
Platform: Xbox 360
Method: Goozex
Cost: Trade
I liken this game to Folklore not because the two are really similar but because they share a common thread of dreamy creativity that I really admire. Wherever Folklore is dark and morose Eternal Sonata is vibrant and hopeful although they both deal with fairly heavy themes of death and loss. Still, the two different approaches to similar idea using drastically different tones makes for a pleasant juxtaposition switching back and forth between the two. - CSI: Hard Evidence
Platform: Xbox 360
Method: Goozex
Cost: Trade
A fairly miserable game, it lacks even the core experience I had originally hoped for (cheesy, breezy license fanservice) favoring, instead, a hackneyed and hand-held groaner of a license exploitation. This month’s Shameful Get. - Blacksite: Area 51
Platform: Xbox 360
Method: Goozex
Cost: Trade
The shrug-inducing playable mediocrity of Call of Juarez is reflected here with all the cowboys replaced by modern soldiers and all the roughneck hillbilly foes replaced by aliens. It’s safe game design 101 with most of the elements lifted from other, more capable games. I may return to this (as CoJ) later once the well of good games in my library runs dry or if I really need a throaway FPS but it’s hardly worth recommending and was just barely worth picking up. - Grand Theft Auto IV
Platform: Xbox 360
Method: Online Retail Purchase
Cost: $63.74
The one thing the deafening roar of details, impressions and previews sort of never addressed was the curious tweak to the overall vibe of GTA IV versus earlier franchise titles. While before much of the initial fun in the game came from causing random havoc this game seems to entice a more courteous brand of villain where you avoid the oblivious confrontations to sidestep the hassle of a high speed pursuit in favor of advancing the story or engaging in the oddly compelling social management sub-game. It’s still as fun as it ever was and the improved graphics are welcome as is the manageable map size and even deeper level of detail. I said once that GTA IV was going to have to bring the noise when it came to going beyond the incremental iterations of the GTA III era and I’m not sure it’s exactly that but it is enough to make the same basic formula work all over again. - Lost Cities
Platform: Xbox Live Arcade
Method: MS Points Purchase
Cost: $10.00
This month’s surprise pick is a quiet little board game translation akin to Catan and Carcassone. It’s basically a hybrid of Rack-o and Solitaire (it is competitive) and while it doesn’t always offer a ton of variety the Achievements are clever enough to inspire additional play. A nice side benefit is that games are quick, around ten minutes on average so like several twin-stick shooters I’m fond of, it makes a nice pickup game or palate cleanser between meatier titles.
List Breakdown
Most of this month’s acquisitions (and there were quite a few) were solid pick-ups. Aside from CSI: Hard Evidence which I doubt I’ll even be able to stomach enough to tolerate for the Achievement points and a couple of tolerable but unremarkable shooters I liked all the games I picked up. GTA was the big cost factor but with the inflated starting budget it wasn’t a problem and most of the games were Goozex trades so I’ll still have enough carryover to have a decent budget next month as well.
I honestly can’t say I was surprised with the quality of most of the games: Licensed games are usually bad bets, franchise titles typically offer what you expected, marginally reviewed shooters are usually just so-so. I was a little impressed with how much I liked Folklore considering how tepid the reaction was when it was released and Lost Cities really impressed me with how satisfying it is considering its lack of depth. So I can at least say most of the surprises this month were pleasant ones.
Sacrifices
This month I shipped out Planescape: Torment, Fallout/Fallout 2, Mega Man Powered Up, Silent Hill Origins, EA Replay, Forza Motorsport 2 and Tomb Raider Legend to Goozex members.
Results
Any month where you start off with almost double your usual budget is not a bad one. While I’m not sure I exactly made the best of it, I did pick up a decent number of new games to play and most of them were either decent or quite good. Since a lot of the games this month came from Goozex I think it’s safe to say that Goozex has been a fantastic means of keeping new games in my library without forcing me to blow my entire budget month after month. As I approach the one-year anniversary of $60 a Month I can say that the value of using a trading service is undeniable for gamers on a budget.
The final total I spent in April was $73.74. Working from the original $118.83 I obviously came in well under my available funds and will carry over $45.09 into May. Another month where I start over the $100 mark! It’s bound to catch up with me eventually, right? Guess you’ll have to check back next month and see if May was the killer.