All PC games hit $4.99 eventually....

I suppose this is true, but how many people are playing MW2 6yrs later when it hits $5? It depends how long you want to wait, especially for the popular online multiplayer games.

MW1 is stubbornly retaining its price. I haven't seen it cheaper than $20 in the stores. The lowest I've seen it on Steam is $15. You caught it at a good time when it was $10. Regardless, it is probably the only game to do this. As time goes on, many other games go on sale well below the $10 price point.

The deals are so good that my backlog is slowly growing. And, if I find out the game I bought isn't any good then I'm not so bothered because the price was so low. I won't buy just anything, but I will give games a chance, that seem reasonably rated, that I never game much thought to before.

For some games I am ok with waiting but for something like Skyrim, it's worth the cost of admission on opening night.

Yeah, I like staying at least a few years behind in gaming. My limit for PC games is around $10. With Steam and GoG, I can always find something cheap that's on my list of games to play.


I'll even wait for Skyrim. Maybe when it hits $15 I'll get it. I must admit, however, that I was tempted to get it when Steam had it for 33% off the other day. Luckily, my backlog is quite massive. Heck, I still have lots of things to see in Oblivion.

Waiting for very low prices is always a consideration. But, some games truly deserve to be bought at their initial retail price, and it's good that people do pay these prices as PC gaming would in fact be dead (for AAA titles, anyway) if just about everyone waited for deals on every game to virtually be given away.

Yep be an easy decision for PC only developers to start making games for consoles instead. I try to stay budget conscience when buying games, but I wont rob a deserving pc developer a sale. They need to make money to live and a $5 dollar purchase after Steam gets their cut then other costs doesnt leave much.

ha ha nice man. I am in the same boat with the buying over the years. I dont want to know how much Ive spent on games...all started when my parents bought me an NES for Christmas... such a glourious day..made me rebuy the system to relive that feeling. lol

We've all bought *that* game that should've never been released. You know, the public beta. We've all done the "wait for the patch" dance, sometimes for years.

Plus there's the fact that many games are re-released with all their DLC/expansions.

And perhaps the best part about buying older games - you can still run them on older systems .

So yeah when I see a game I'm interested in hit $10 on Steam, I'll likely grab it. Too bad my backlog is HUGE! lol



Nostalgia edit: I have a NES, SNES, N64, Gamecube, PSX, and a PS2 all in good working condition. Even have the Super Scope 6 for SNES! Those were definitely the good old days.

I'm so excited for Starcraft 1 to drop a few more dollars. I couldn't find it for any cheaper than 6 bucks, so hopefully it drops to $4.99 soon cuz I hear its a great game.

While I can understand where you're coming from as that's pretty much my gaming purchase history in a nutshell I also understand that you have to pay retail to keep the market going. Of course you can use the excuse that there's enough people buying at full price that I can buy at discount but that's part of the problem with the PC game industry. Steam sales have been both a blessing and a curse.

Call me a jerk but there's no way I'm paying more for something just to help keep the market going. That's like saying one should always buy new cars, instead of used ones, to keep the auto makers in business. They're doing just fine. My wallet is more important than that. I always shop for the best price for anything and games are no exception. If waiting a few years means I'll save a boatload on games (and PC hardware required to run them), then that's certainly the right choice IMO.

Plus, the great majority of games that are released are not worth $60, especially ones that you'll only get maybe 25 hours of enjoyment out of.

I can't agree with you more on this. For me, it's about value. NO GAME is worth $60 in my mind. I have limited funds and I want the most value for my dollar. I don't pirate, but if it means waiting months for the price to drop then so be it. It makes no difference to me whether it's retail or used. If retail has it for the price I want then that's where I'll get it. With these Steam sales, I found myself buying games that I never would have given a second thought. If the game turns out to be a dud, it's not that big a deal.

Many of these cheaper games turn out to be a better experience for me than the blockbuster hits. I will not get MW3 no matter how cheap it gets. With the reviews and the nonsense that IW is pulling with that title, there is no way I'll give them my money, no matter how cheap it gets. But, I've found some < $10 games that I'm looking forward to playing. Am I hurting the MW juggernaut by not buying the game? Probably not, but I'm sure many of the other publishers appreciate my patronage.

I am with you guys......been playing games since the Coleco Telstar pong system showed up in my house in 1976 or 77. Today, games that hit at $60.....they just aren't worth the investment. Sixty bucks is like 1/4 the cost of the hardware in some cases. What am I getting for Sixty dollars......a 6 hour single player campaign? The 'same old run and gun' online multiplayer? Screw that.

You know what would get me to pay $60 bucks for a game? Epic Co-Op. Yep, a game like Rainbow Six Vegas that let you play nearly the entire campaign with 2 or 3 other people at the same time. If they can make the game last, have a campaign that spans 10 hours of average playtime, I'd pay the money if my friends were in as well.

When the 360 was out we were getting every new game, going right to co op, etc. Pretty soon you get burned out on that, i was wasting a ton of cash on games I didn't really enjoy...so i stopped. Yes, sometimes I get some brand new games...but by and large I try demos, or I read video reviews......some games are worth the money, but sadly these days most are not.

My impulse buy point starts around $20, and increases dramatically around $10.

I bought LA Noir for PC for $12 bucks on steam...I might not play it anytime this year, but at least I know its there. I've also bought games that I have DVD's in my drawer of, simply so I can get rid of the dvd, and not ahve to worry about the code, case, etc. I bought Company of Hero's for Five bucks even tho i already own it on disc, but didn't have the expansions. I bought the Warhammer 40k 2 set for like eight or nine bucks simply because I wanted a new RTS......

I wonder sometimes if devs just dropped the opening price to $20 if they would sell a ton more copies and eliminate piracy alltogether. $40 for a new game, $20 guaranteed within six months of release......I know I'd shop.

My biggest problem with getting Skyrim is that I know DLC/expansions will be released. Why get it now for $60 when I'll be able to get it for $60 (or less) later with patches and additional content?

This is true for just about every major release now. Why not get a fixed GOTY edition for $60 or even the vanilla edition for $20 - $30 and buy the dlc afterwords. Paying $60 for a new game and then spending another $30 for dlc (or better yet these new "passes") just isn't for me.

Money does play a factor also, but once the mortage and other bills are paid the little left is fun money. Its just finding the time to play as having a career which involves 9+ hrs infront of a computer screen doesnt make me run home to sit infront of it more. Just nice to have the variety of games in my library eventhough most would consider it backlog.

WHAT!? Speak louder into my cone...


Good observation. All the people going wild about multiplayer in COD, I shake my head...I had more fun with jetpacks and tripwire bombs in Duke Nukem 3D multiplayer, or the custom maps made for Shadow Warrior than I ever had with a modern game which are, in essence, the exact same thing only much poorer implemented. Battlefield 2 was the exception to the modern rule, playing that game on huge maps with vehicles was something fun, but even those maps lack verticality...other than a few buildings you could climb up on, there weren't enough buildings to shoot out of windows of, etc).

Seriously, why don't more games have jetpacks I think then they'd have to design more vertically-inclined maps, maybe the engines aren't up to that or something. That is one thing that does suck today, all the maps are so linear...maps in Duke and stuff always had nooks you could fly up to, and the open-world maps in a game like SKYNET were great too, you could climb up into destroyed buildings, snipe, etc. You really dont see that much anymore.


I think also people realize how shallow most of these games are, particularly multiplayer. I don't believe we'll see a crash like we did in the early 80's because it takes too long to develop 'bad' console games, but it might happen with Apps

Personally I still enjoy a good single player experience, I'd even enjoy a nice co-op campaign...but I really have no love anymore for multiplayer deathmatch/CTF type games unless its with friends and its a game we all know....like the Lithium II mods on Quake 2 or something to that effect. offhand grapple, what fun that was.....

There are no out of the box gameplay experiences like those, IMHO.

Duke3D for its jetpack

Shadow Warrior for its unique set of awesome weapons (still the only grenade launcher that ever worked in a game and best weapon selection in a FPS ever, bar none). ((I remember playing quake the first time and laughing out loud when I saw the grenade launcher fired a grenade about 10 feet in front of you. WOW THANKS!))

Lithium 2 mod for Quake 2: Offhand grapple, and tweak the firing rates and damage of the quake weapons....shotguns could have a super tight spread, the machine guns could be set up to shoot a super tight burst and fire at 4x speed, or my favorite: Set the BFG to a speed of 1 and leave glowing death ball traps for people to fly into when they offhanded grapple into a room. That was fun...we each had our own model so you knew who was who, etc.



Ah.... The good ole days....[/quote]

Jailbreak mod for Quake 2 was another one that was fun. Custom models were so sweet back in the day. Multiplayer wasnt on how much time you spent to unlock all the guns.. it was who can get the best gun once it spawns in the map. Remember Quake 1 DM everyone racin to get the rocket launcher..pure chaos. Only thing that was crappy was dealing with dialup modems..never will i miss that. lol

Wow. Blast from the past. I miss those days.

Shadow Warrior really should be on Steam. What gives?

The publisher musta have no respect for Lo Wang.

I would immediately buy a Steam or GOG release of this game. Just giving us the original code with CD music run on DOSBox would be fine with me. I have a kickass MIDI solution, but CD audio is preferable with this game.

Opinions are going to vary, validly, as much as there is income inequality and other differences. I used to buy used games off of Ebay until i realized i wasn't supporting my main hobby. When i think of the artists and programers who sometimes work 3 or more years on a project, im happy to give some cash, heck, its my main ****in hobby, but i'm getting older and the maturity of games isn't increasing as fast as i'd like them too, and thus i have a huge backlog of games i'd like to play. But does giving more to artists and programmers who already earn more than the average wage just benefit producers and investors? Is that a bad thing? I should have taken more economics, perhaps i'd have a more enlightened opinion. I just paid $40 for Skyrim, although i won't be playing it for probably 4 -6 months or more due to my back log, but i didn't want to pay any less. From what i see and hear, it looks like they did an amazing job.

Are modern games worth playing if the only way to play them was forking out $60? Not all, but some? Hell yes. Metro 2033, i played 3 times, Mass Effect 1 and 2, amazing story. Logged hundred of hours in Operation Flashpoint 1. Chronicles of Riddick, etc, etc. Now that i've switched to 3D, the value of games has gone up even more...

Hopefully this made sense, i'm drunk. Lets hope i don't punch this 46" screen out like i did my 30" Dell.

What you said makes plenty of sense.

Just don't punch your new display, or I will have to call the Division of Monitor and Television Protective Services. Besides, a lot of full-priced games can be bought with the cost to replace it.

If you punch it, you can upgrade.
What is your homeowners deductible?