Why Investing in the Past Will Only Help Your Wallet in the Future

(Note, sorry if this is a bit long winded... early morning writing was never my strong suit)

Those of you who I speak regularly to on Twitter or Steam will know I don't shy away from buying games on day one in stupid crazy collectors editions such as my super shiny Uncharted 3: Drakes Deception Explorers Edition.

I made a promise after that particular collectors edition to stop doing it. stop buying crazy £100+ collectors because of some crazy piece of plastic that comes with it and since then I've only bought standard editions of titles... for the most part.

You see, after looking down my pre-order list and cancelling 35 or so titles off the list leaving just above 10 games, I decided to work on my backlog of titles (something I know a lot of us put off) and I discovered some things that I should have put together a while back

1. there are some titles I've paid a fair chunk of money for which I just don't enjoy playing
2. I should have been doing this a long time ago.
3. Old games on PS1 are still fantastic if they were fantastic then.

So, some of you might be sitting there saying 'well those are 3 obviously things you nob'. True enough for the most part and trust me when I say I'll be a lot more picky when it comes to JRPG's in future but now lets get on to the subject of this post.

Old games cost less and play just as good as £40/50 new releases.

Now, this isn't new vs pre-owned, this is just a way to say stop paying so much for your hobby. Videogames are one of the more expensive types of new media and this is only because companies can get away with it. Recently Currys/PC World had a clearance sale where titles like Rage, Dead Space 2, Assassins Creed Brotherhood, Fear 3 and Mortal Kombat were the overdraft killing price of 97p. I paid between £30 to £40 for each of those titles close to release and while I had enjoyed them all if I had spent time on my backlog rather than go and grab them and ignore the pile of games on my desk then I would have saved around £145 quid.

I know this is a special case, it's not like game is going to have a closing down sale soon (I hope) and not everyone has insane pre-order lists or a huge stack of unplayed/unfinished games but if you spent a little more time on the titles you already own then you'll only save cash on the ones you want in the future.

Killzone 3 Multiplayer - The Team Fortress 2 of PS3

Last week Sony announced that the console exclusive shoot Killzone 3 will make its multiplayer available to any member of the PlayStation Network.

This (to my knowledge) is the first time a retail titles multiplayer component has been released separately as a downloadable title on console (I know Crysis did it on PC a few years ago) and I think it can only do good for PSN, Killzone and PlayStation in general and that's because of another game I hold very dear to my heart.

Team Fortress 2.

TF2 is, in my mind, the best shooter I've played in years for a few simple reasons.

1. It's free
2. It requires a fairly low-end PC to play but looks fantastic on high-end gaming rigs
3. Valve keeps it hack free (for the most part)
4. It is updated on a regular basis with patches and content

These 4 reasons are the the essence of why I love my time with TF2 and I've said for a long time that Killzone 3 is my favourite console FPS title due to its class based similarities to TF2 so I think it's a great move for Sony and Guerrilla Games to put the Multiplayer and all the DLC maps out for free.

That being said, Killzone 3 doesn't give it all away up front like your average hussy, allowing free players to only advance to the rank of Sergeant 1 ( I believe that is a fairly low rank) and locking out custom match making, V.S. A.I. modes and the ability to make clans, nothing too drastic but still enough of an incentive for some to drop the $15 (EU and UK prices are TBA at time of writing) upgrade price to unlock the content.

This reminds me very similarly to TF2's pay to play system. While the base level of TF2 is absolutely free, you need to spend the minimum amount in the store (at time of writing its under £1) to unlock a 'Premium account' and so far it's worked out great for them with more and more people signing up to play and buying items.

Here's hoping Killzone 3 will be met with the same amount of excitement as TF2.