The Final Junk


My finances have fared rather well this month. Resident Evil Revelations, bundled with the frankenstick, has been my only game related purchase. I heroically resisted the urge to import a Sega Saturn iPhone case, which saved me a cool £25, and I even made the fiscally responsible decision of not pre-ordering the PS Vita, but will wait a couple of months for a price decrease instead. However, with a month left on the clock, there is still a chance that I will succumb to launch over-exuberance and put down the £265 needed for the WiFi model, Uncharted and standard memory stick.

Despite my continued Skyrim infatuation- I’ve convinced myself that last night was my final session until DLC arrives - and having a gaming backlog as extensive as Nintendo's financial losses for 2011, I have found myself tempted by a handful of PSN bargains that have appeared over the last few days. Us lucky Brits have been given a week to make the most of a rather generous Final Fantasy sale, which includes FFV-IX as well as the outstanding FF Tactics: War of the Lions for only £3.99 ($6.26) each. Part I, II, IV: The Complete Story and the Dissidia games are also heavily discounted.

I've been a fan of the series for well over a decade (see The Allure of Final Fantasy: Part 1 & Part 2) and am struggling to resist the draw of having instant access to digital copies of VI, VIII and IX (I already have a DL VII), despite still owning my original PS1 copies for them all, as well as VI’s GBA update. FFVIII in particular, still my personal favourite, is tugging at my heart and purse strings even though I know that there is virtually no chance of me playing it all the way through again, for what would be the fifth or maybe even sixth time. Still, it would be nice to have it on my PSP, wouldn’t it?


The other series that has me mulling further purchases is PixelJunk. I never got into Q-Game’s series of (formerly) PSN exclusives, but word of mouth and a catchy soundtrack convinced me to give the latest PJ, SideScroller, a whirl. With the demo finally on the US store, I took the opportunity to see for myself what all the fuss is about and I came away very impressed, despite the fact that I am god awful at it. When a demo suggests that you lower the difficulty level, you know you are having problems.

Freshly sold on PixelJunk, I logged into the Japanese PSN store to find that the vast majority of the series is discounted to ¥100 a piece (£0.83/$1.30) in celebration of Dylan Cuthbert’s Q-Games’ tenth anniversary. I would have jumped straight in if not for the fact that I have no credit on my Japanese account and the minimum charge is ¥1000 which, no matter how badly I wish it was, is no longer £5. Still, at that price and with our JPN credit card dusted off and ready for action, I don’t think I can afford not to take the plunge. Knowing my luck, I’ll go ahead and buy them only to find the discounts transferred to the UK store next week. Fuck you Sony, fuck you.

Sorry for the purchasing update – never the most interesting of topics I know – but a lack of time and my Skyrim review being far from complete (why on earth did I agree to review Skyrim?) left me with few options. It was either this or a series of photos showing the 3DS Circle Pad Pro sat next to other large items for comparison sake, such as a Game Gear, an oak and a fat badger. I’ll save that for next week instead.

Anything in the sales, PSN or elsewhere, that has caught your eye?

Comments

  1. i had the resident evil bundle pre-ordered but canceled it yesterday. with the final fantasy 13-2 collectors edition, hardcover strategy guide, vita, 4GB card, and uncharted all pre-ordered and costing over $475 i had to draw the line.

    i wish the u.s. store would get a final fantasy sale. even though i have all the ps1 copies i still buy them when they come out. the only one i don't have is origins. yes, it is nice to have them on your psp. that's why i love my pspgo.

    that's cool that you have a japanese credit card. if i had one i would be all over that pixel junk sale. i'm interested in them but not willing to pay full price.

    as for sales, i picked up crysis 2, gran turismo 5, and dragon age origins ultimate edition for $35 total at k-mart.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thats quite a haul for February. I'd definitely recommend RE when the price comes down - really enjoying it so far and can't imagine playing it without the second stick.

    I wouldnt be surprised if you got the FF sales in the next couple of weeks. I still havent pulled the trigger, but i think I'll end up getting at least VIII.

    Dragon Age Origins is a an excellent game. Enjoy.

    Perhaps see you on PSN tomorrow for that Uncharted 2 trophy.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Daydream Drooler29 January 2012 at 02:44

    that Skyrim patch should be out very soon, they said before the end of the month so it should be coming this week. I'm also pretty excited to hear about the first DLC, I'm going nuts thinking about what it will be, more dragon stuff or something way different.
    I bought secret of manna sometime back off PSN cause I love that game and dont own my copy anymore. sadly I got about 2 to 3 hours in before moving on to other games and never playing it again. when I saw the FF sale you guys got all I could think was "ohhh I'm so buying the bulk of that" than I realized I'd never play half of them, lol. thats why I'm always hesitant in buying DLG, so far i feel i've gotten lucky and bought the good ones but even than i've only finished half of them.
    I'm excited to see your Skyrim review, I didnt know you were doing one so I'm looking forward to that. I havent done a review in ages or even a blog... I still have my GOTY blog ready to be put up but right now we're working on the site to do some major changes so hopefully it will be up soon.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I hope the DLC opens up a new part of the map, with new terrain, towns etc.

    I'm doing a review for another website - criticalgamer.co.uk - which I'll also post here. Skyrim is such a difficult game to review, as it has so many problems that you would usually penalize a game for, yet is still such an outstanding experience.

    Look forward to reading your GOTY when the site is back up.

    ReplyDelete

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