Gaming on a budget

Now the point of this site is to provide advice to those who’re, well, gaming on a budget. I have always tried to keep the games I review at under £20, and I don’t review more current games because well, I can’t afford them. I’d be no good at it, but I’ve been playing games since I was a child and I’ve never had much money. If there’s one thing I’ve learnt from all that, it’s that gaming can be both cheap and rewarding.

Play Free Games
Too obvious? It goes without saying that nothing is cheaper than something with no cost, and James of Extra Credits once set himself the task of playing games with zero cost for a whole week. There are casual games like Farmtown, little Flash ones, social ones like Echo Bazaar and a wealth of demos on services like Steam and XBOX Live.

Just last night, I tried half a dozen demos from Steam, and its only by loving the demos for Tiny Bang Story and Bastion that I bought the full games.

Even more than that, there’s an increasing number of free-to-play MMO’s that you can choose to spend money on if you want, that will give you some nice extras features if you decide you want to splash out.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_free_massively_multiplayer_online_games

Team Fortress 2, one of if not the most popular online shooters, is now free-to-play and the excellent point-n-click classic Beneath A Steel Sky is available for free at gog.com And you strategy fans, try out Battle for Wesnoth, a free turn based strategy game with an open source code and strong modding community.

For that matter, are you aware of mods? People work to create custom campaigns, challenge maps or characters/factions for many PC games to increase the challenge or simply include a bunch of fun stuff. You’ll need to be a little tech-minded or willing to read a fair amount of FAQs to install one, but a good mod or two can really increase a game’s lifespan.

Own decent consoles
Not every console has a great range of games, and is it really worth buying one that’s only got half a dozen titles in its entire catalogue you care about? If you’re stuck between buying two consoles like say a PS3 and an XBOX 360, look at the exclusive titles and think about what you’re interested in and what genres you want to play.

Personally, I think the cream of the currently available crop is a decent laptop that’ll let you play stuff from Steam, a 360 (I prefer it over a PS3 because it, DVDS rather than Blu-Ray and the games are cheaper, and I prefer the 360 exclusives over the PS3 ones), a Nintendo DS and a PS2.

Between them they can cover pretty much any genre you care to mention, sometimes with the best stuff available in that genre. And hey, if you’ve got a smartphone that has access to gaming apps, there’s a cheap way to turn your phone into a console.

Buy good games
Again, this seems too obvious to be worth mentioning, but there is just so much junk out there. Whether its derivative, bland, repetitive, a multiplayer focused title disguised as a single player epic, a lazy cash grab or simply overpriced is something you can discover before you buy it.

Read reviews, ask your gamer friends, talk to the guys in the game store. And when you do these things, don’t just here what’s being said and take it at face value. If someone says they hated the timed platforming sections, don’t assume the game is bad, ask yourself whether you mind that.

Gamers might seem elitist because you’re not playing ‘classics’ or the hottest new thing, but don’t let that put you off. Some gamers will be like that, and if you’re having fun with Super Smash Bros Brawl, don’t let some insufferable jerk with no life tell you how it sucks because its more ‘casual friendly’.

Don’t get caught up in fads
The reason everybody and their dog and their dog’s grandma bought either a Wii or a DS is because it was a fad. Halo was a fad. Even my beloved Professor Layton was a fad. No matter how big these are, that doesn’t always mean they’re good or that they’re right for you. It doesn’t mean its something you should get into after the fact because its the only thing you know about.

The Wii does have some really fun games, but it suffered from poor third party support (translation: good games not made by Nintendo). And yes, fad titles like Halo or Professor Layton didn’t wholly undeserve their hype, but instead of Halo, why not try Bioshock or Fallout 3? And instead of Professor Layton, there’s always Monkey Island, Ace Attorney, Broken Sword and Ghost Trick that’re equally fun and readily available.

Look, if you want a game in a certain genre, you can buy it without breaking the bank. Don’t be afraid to take risks on strange or obscure titles if the price isn’t too high. Don’t jump to get Final Fantasy XIII, ask a few fans what they think. Consider Kingdom Hearts or Crono Trigger instead. Not because Final Fantasy XIII is a bad game, but because you should know your choices and put some thought into your purchases.

You’d be pretty pissed if you paid £15 for a terrible film or book, so don’t spend £15 on Grizzled Macho Brown Shooter 5: The Bloodening of Space Death.

Follow up Review – Echo Bazaar

A while back I reviewed Fail Better Game’s award-winning browser game Echo Bazaar. As I noted in the original review, there’s months worth of content to play through, and the game is constantly being updated with new content. As I’ve had time to play through some of this content, now seemed a good time to talk a bit more about it.

First off, my character is now in such a different position from where I started that it feels like I’m playing a different game. I’ve risen from pickpocketing through burglary to spycraft, dealing with revolutionaries, the police, the Topsy King and his Raggedy Men, the demons of Hell and recently sought work from cats and bats and become embroiled in a secret war between fortune tellers and magicians. And that’s just for one of the four stats.

With Shadowy, I’ve become embroiled in the seedy underbelly of Fallen London. With Watchful I’ve become a detective of some merit, an archaeologist of the Forgotten Quarter and acquired a place at the University where I study an ancient and dangerous language known as the Correspondence. With Dangerous, I’ve gone from being a street brawler and bodyguard into becoming a grizzled mercenary and hunter. And with Persuasive, I’ve written, painted, charmed, bedazzled, drank and slept my way through the Bohemian circuit to become the darling of high society.

Each path is different and evolving. Recurring characters like the Implacable Detective and the Repentant Forger really help to personalise the action.

The game pretty much rations out tantalising hints of its backstory and mythology as you progress. I’d been hearing rumours about the Correspondence and always wondered what it was. Likewise, I’ve learnt about a secret orphanage that all the urchins fear.

Alright, so enough rambling about the stuff I love. Let’s talk about some of the problems I’ve encountered. When you raise a stat high enough to unlock storylets at its next location, you’re not told this. You may not have unlocked the new place, or even think to do so.

There’s also an uncomfortable period where the challenges at the old place are too easy, so you spend lots of your limited actions trying to get your stats to raise by agonisingly slow amounts, but the new area is too challenging and you end up failing a lot and getting lots of nasty things like Wounds or Nightmares.

A lot of this game is just so much clicking the same thing, so it’s best to set yourself some sort of internal goal. Something like “I’ll raise this stat to that level” or “I’ll complete this storyline”. However, once a plot thread that you can easily continue comes your way they can be really gripping.

Most of the equipment you can buy is very expensive, likewise the properties. They’re worth having, but without being told which items can be sold safely and which ones have applications anywhere you may be hesitant to do so.

Two more things that I’ve on my list to talk about are Fate and becoming an Exceptional Friend. Now Fate, as I mentioned last time, can be bought with real money but they’ve also introduced a scheme where you can take part in or watch promotions to earn it. This works just like it does for other social games like Mafia Wars, but watching the videos is a good pain-free (though sporadic) source of Fate. With it you can occasionally skip tough storylets, get better rewards or unlock new content. The full length bonus stories cost a lot to unlock and I haven’t played them yet, but having some Fate kicking about is always handy.

I did pay to become an Exceptional Friend though. By paying 35 Fate, you can be an Exceptional Friend for one month. Buying 40 Fate costs roughly £6, or $10. What you get is double the number of actions you can take a day, plus the ability to have twice as many actions loaded at one time. Being able to play more of the game each day is great, and really speeds up your progress.

You also get access to the House of Chimes, where Mr Wines invites the most exceptional and noteworthy people to relax. It’s the location of some bonus storylines and other such fluff, mostly being low-risk high-reward stuff. As interesting as the house is, it’s definitely the cherry on the cake that is extra actions.

If you don’t play this game, why not? Seriously, go make an account. You can leave it running in the background and just check in on it every once in a while. Come, Delicious Friends, join us in the Neath. Don’t mind the Devils or the Rubbery Men, they’re quite pleasant really. Just watch out for Jack-of-Smiles.

Should I Buy? – Echo Bazaar

Technically, you can’t. Cause it’s free. Mostly. Y’see, Echo Bazaar is an award winning browser-based game by an independent studio called FailBetterGames. Apparently this game (still in beta, and new content being added constantly) is an experiment to develop new game mechanics and story telling techniques in online games.

The premise of Echo Bazaar is simple. In the late 1800’s London has been stolen by a mysterious race of beings called ‘the Masters’ and plonked just down-river of Hell. London’s adapted to life here quite well, in this strange land where devils and dead people roam the streets to bargain, seduce and relax with the living.

You start the game having just woken up in the Neath, specifically as a prisoner in New Newgate Prison. Your task is to escape, and can be done by using one of four stats, your Dangerous, Persuasive, Shadowy and Watchful. Choosing options and playing opportunity cards works a little like Mafia Wars and similar games, though this is infinitely superior.

When you escape, it’s up to you to find fame and fortune in the Neath. In terms of plot and backstory, the game’s got plenty of that, but you have to piece it together yourself. Some missions offer clues as to what different characters and factions are up to like the Topsy King or the Affectionate Devil, or the past of another person etc. This is a fantastically realised world, and personally I liked their method of storytelling, as they never expected me to read half a damn history book to understand what was going on.

So you spend your time on this game clicking options and cards, earning money and items and raising your stats so you can do more impressive things. Being Shadowy starts off with running messenger errands and eventually makes you an agent of the ‘Great Game’ of spies and counterspies in London. This is all very fun but slow moving. They intend you to be playing this game for months. I’ve been playing it since last year and I’m not even half way through the game’s content.

To encourage this, you only get 40 actions a day. You can buy an additional 40 with cold, hard cash if you really want by becoming an Exceptional Friend, which also gives you access to a secret club-house owned by Mr Chimes. Also available for purchase is Fate, which you can expend to open up unique options and stories.

The different story threads are a nice touch. They’re unique and only playable once, and the hope of another one being just around the corner often kept me playing when just having to raise my stats was boring as Hell. Some of them just seem to disappear halfway through though, and others seem damn near impossible to start.

There’s so much content in this game that I could easily spend hours writing some epic, multi-page ZOMGUMUSTPLAYTEHGAMEZ type thing. Instead I’ll just give this a hearty recommendation. It’s just the sort of thing you can run in the background while you browse the web. Or do ‘work’. You know the kind of work, the kind where you start playing Farmtown with a blank Word document silently running untouched on the taskbar.