I should hope Brucie and the Boys are ashamed of this ‘theme’

The fraction of a second for which I lost my judgement when I saw the words “Iron Maiden – Powerslave Theme” was enough for XboxLIVE to swallow up my 150 points, or my £1.28p.

“Shit” I thought for a moment as the realisation of what I had just done hit me like a ton of bricks hitting a combine soldier in one of the early Half-Life 2 trailers. I have always held the opinion that themes other than those that come free, are a complete waste of money for anyone dumb enough to purchase them. And you know what? I was right.

As the initial shock of “OMG Maiden!!” wore off, and I actually applied the theme, I was shockingly reminded of how much I am going to miss that £1.28p. 3 pics of Ed, and the Powerslave album cover art for the backing pics, layed out with no thought to functionality at all, making the text somewhat hard to read (although not quite as bad as what i’ve seen from various Capcom themes people have showed me) and in the case of 2 of the pictures, the scaling is not right and so they appear too big, or small for the screen.

But the biggest shock was the complete lack of thought that went into the dashboard trim and guide background. The guide trim is completely default, grey, and doesn’t invoke anything even remotely Maiden in imagary. I would’ve expected a basic black and blue at least. And for the guide background they simply plastered a generic “Iron Maiden” band logo sticker over the default background. But they tiled it!!! How tacky is that?!? It covers all the text on the guide, making it completely non functional. Even replacing that with a custom one leaves only a moderately acceptable theme that couldn’t have taken more than 5 minutes to scramble together.

I am ashamed of myself for having wasted the money.

So let me reiterate, now firm in the beleif that I am right, having experienced it first hand. Themes are a complete waste of your money.

Many gamers these days, especially students, are on very tight budgets and as a result need to make the best use of their cash. Here are a few quick tips to get you thinking about making better gaming purchases. As we all know, gaming can be a VERY expensive hobby, but it doesnt always have to be that way.

#10 Shop Around Town

This one might seem like a no brainer, but you’d be surprised the number of times i’ve seen people stick with one store because it’s ‘usually’ the cheapest. Get your prices from at least 3 different places before you make a big purchase, especially if you’re not in any great hurry and you’re not dealing with a pre-order. Sure, you may not save a huge amount in a single purchase, but it all adds up, if you save £2 on that game, that’s another drink at the bar, or some change towards another game in the future.

#9 Look For Value For Money

While value for money may not be directly linked to actually saving money, it will help. If you can only buy a game once a month, or even more sparsely than that, then squeezing as many hours as you can out of a single title is paramount. Don’t buy a game that has a reputation for being short, it might be a great game, but unless you want to sit and play the multiplayer for a month, you will play the campaign in an evening and then end up itching for something else instead.

 
#8 Microtransactions are the Devil
 

They will draw you in whether you like it or not, everybody gets suckerpunched by nostalgia, or some other shortlived emphatuation leaving you 400msp, or £3.75 lighter in the wallet. While some PSN and XBLA etc games are geniunely good purchases, a vast majority such as horse armor, or extra costumes and weapons are not, and after just three or four songs, or extra costumes, you will be left wishing you had simply spent the cash at the second hand store and picked up an entire game for that money instead.

#7 Don’t be afraid of Second Hand Games.

 
If shopping around still doesn’t satisfy your wallet, then you may be better off tracking down a second hand copy of your game of choice. However, this method is not always best used for new releases, not only can second hand copies be hard to find soon after a release, they can often be as expensive as the new game. Sometimes more, in the case of highly anticipated releases. This method also lends itself to being patient, if you wait a year, all of last years good releases will have likely halved in price, or more.

#6 Trade ‘n’ Save

 
If you’re not a fan of hoarding your games, and can bear to part with them after finishing the game, then go to your local store and trade it in. Many stores offer a higher part exchange value than they do for simply cashing in. But again, shop around, some stores will give better trade values than others. Prices can often depend on the popularity or rarity of a game. For example, shortly after the release of a highly anticipated sell-out release, some stores may even offer as much as the retail value of the game.

#5 eBay

If shopping around wasn’t good enough, and the second hand store was a big waste of time, turn to eBay. Quite often you can get games factory sealed for much less than the retail price. A lot of eBay dealers are reliable and easy to deal with despite the scare stories you see scattered around the internet. But to get the best experience, always use paypal, and always check the sellers feedback.

#4 Be Patient…

Patience is a virtue, as they say. Sometimes you don’t have to wait very long for a new game to drop in price, most games will drop somewhere between £5 and £10 in the first month or so. If you want to wait even longer than that you can fish things out of clearance bins, or get them in 2 for 1offers, or other special offers. This is especially prevelent with PC games, as sometimes even as soon as a month after release games will end up in in the 2 for £15 deal at your local store.

#3 Wait even longer than that

A large amount of retro games can be obtained very cheaply. While some of the rarer and more popular ones may fetch a large price, more obscure or common classics can come in dirt cheap, for the same price as a new Xbox 360 game at RRP, you can pick up a box of anywhere between 50 and 100 Atari 2600 games. Or box lots of NES, SNES, Mega Drive and other games. You can get them a lot cheaper if your willing to hunt around car boots or garage sales, or browse specialist collector sites. eBay will often have you pay through the nose for this sort of thing, claiming anything and everything as ‘rare’ or ‘collectable’.

#2 Haggle

Beleive it or not, you really can haggle in a lot of shops these days. While branches of larger companies will often be very very resistant to haggling, usually because the minimum wager behind the counter doesnt remember the procedure for discounts, or isn’t authorised to give them. But in smaller independtant stores haggling is quite often a good way to get a better price. If you’ve shopped around and found a better price for a product, bring a written quotation, or an internet printout and see if you can get the store to match or beat the price. Haggling usually works better when purchasing bundles of retro and second hand games however, as shopkeepers usually just want rid of them, but try it anyway, you never know just how easy you might get a few quid off.

#1 Dive into the Pool

Housemates and friends can be a great asset. Unless you want to play system link coop, you don’t need 2 copies of a game in the same household. If you live with housemates, or have a number of friends who are gamers, you can borrow, lend and even trade games with them. Quite often this can save you a huge amount of money, especially if you are the kind of person who plays a game to completion, and never looks at it again. However, be careful and make sure you know and trust these people, lending and borrowing can just as easily cost you money if a friend breaks, loses or lends your game to someone else.

Bonus Tip: Pre-Ordering

 
A lot of stores often offer an incentive for pre-ordering. Those that offer some kind of points/rewards scheme usually pay out best, but unfortunately, usually don’t charge less than full retail price. However, shopping around always pays, and when these stores do offer something you want at a good price, pre-ordering it will often net you extra reward points which can get you money off of other products in the future. But don’t go pre-ordering like crazy, only do it when it benefits you. You don’t want packs of stickers, or a duffel bag, or Halo 3 Mountain Dew, you want those reward points. Also try to avoid stores who want a cash deposit for your pre-order, those stores are usually more interested in the downpayment than actually serving the customer. Online is usually the best place to pre-order, as the large majority of sites defer payment until the item has been dispatched, leaving you free to cancel the order at any point without fear of losing your deposit. 

These are just some general purpose tips that might already seem common sense to most people, but you’d be surprised how many people just don’t think of some things, and end up wasting money left and right.