Blogging around the Christmas tree
Hello and Happy Christmas!
I hope you’re all having a wonderful day. I definitely am, but I had the strangest dream last night. I was visited by three strange apparitions during the night, each warning me to change my ways or suffer terrible consequences.
First to visit was the Ghost of Christmas Past, although he looked strangely familiar.
“Ann” he said. “A-annn.” “What?” “Hey hey! I’m here to tell you that you’ve been really ignorant of games in the past and you shouldn’t be ignorant of games anymore. Ok?” “Mmm, ok.” ” And also, Cheggers Party Quiz is still great fun for all the family!” “Good.”
And then he disappeared. Very odd, but not the first time Cheggers has visited me in the night.
THEN the Ghost of Christmas Present rocks up. Although this time I’m pretty sure it’s just Keisha from the Sugababes to tell me I’ve made it into the band.
“Ann, hi. Can’t be long. I only do this ghosting once a year and I thought I’d sort out some girlband business while I’m at it.” “Ok, are you here to tell me…” “Yeah. First up, you need to wise up about games. Does that make sense?” “Umm, yeah.” “Good, that’s all I’ve got on the ghost list to tell you and I don’t really get it. The other thing is that you’re not in the Sugababes.” “Oh, right.” “Yeah, sorry. But that guy you were with, he was great. I’m over girls. I think he’s the way to go.” “Really?” “Totally. And if you see Heidi, don’t tell her I said that. The revolving door is about to revolve on her and she doesn’t know yet.” “Ok, bye then.”
And she was gone before I had a chance to tell her I carried Ste in our audition, but I guess that’s something she’ll have to find out on her own.
Then in comes The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, mascara running down her face and looking furious (fury not pictured below).
“Are you Ann?” “I might be.” “Two things. First, you’re never going to be the new Sugababe. They’ll never replace me. D’you get that? I am the Sugababes.” “Ok. I’m not the new Sugababe. Can you stop pulling my hair now?” “So who is? I swear, I’ll kill ‘em!” “I heard something about a boy, but what do I know?” “A boy? That’s stupid. But if it is, I’ll still kill ‘em.” “…” “What else did I have to tell you? Something about games and playing games. You either should or you shouldn’t.” “What happens if I don’t?” “Ste and Simon will be really mad.” “Shit.”
And that’s how Heidi from the Sugababes killed Ste and I decided I should probably try to play games a bit.
All in all, a good night.
See you in the New Year!
One Life Left — x05 — Christmas Special ‘08 — Christmas Mixtape
Hello! As you probably already know, OLL’s Christmas gift to you isn’t a show, but a mixtape of sorts, badly-put-together by Ste. The tracklist is below. It’s probably best not to read it if you haven’t listened yet, because it’s best to be surprised. But when you have, check back here and visit the page of the artist you love and buy something from them. It’s about time, right?
Happy Christmas, and see you on January 5th!
OLL Theme // Iain Cook
Killing In The Name // Uoki-Toki
Breaking Wave // Random
Chip 2 Bit // Trash80
Salut! France // Errors
99 Problems // Jay-Z vs Combat Dave
Girl Gamers (Live) // Craig ‘The Rage’ McClellan (+ Derek Williams on Synths)
I Love Love You // Guitar Vader
It Dies // Mr. Miyagi
Sexy Back // Justin vs Combat Dave
Space Music // Sexy Synthesizer
Technologic // Daft Punk
Playerd // Copy
Door (Covox Remix) // Ram Rider
Kicks // She
CRIMEWave (LAZRtag HARDer Remix) // Crystal Castles vs Health
Free Market Economy (Live) // Derek Williams
Sponsored By Destiny // Slagsmalsklubben
Put That Pussy On Me // Spank Rock vs CFCF
The Crystal Cat // Dan Deacon
Heartbleeps // Hiroshi
You Take My Breath Away // The Knife
Umbrella // Rihanna vs electronicMESS
Star Child // gwEm and Counter Reset
Download the file here.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Christmas Chart Market Economy 24th December 2008
I’m sure you’ve all been there one way or another. Be it the night of christmas, boxing day, new years day.. in hospital having your stomach pumped. Obviously. Ste’s evil victorian mill owner sweatshop director mentality driving a poor sickly man to desperate measures to hold onto the tiny bit of fame that he’s built up over the last few years. How many is it now? Three? April 2005 was when I first received the call to arms with the brief of ‘talk about selling games over some noodling electronic music’. Thus was created the first Free Market Economy in a couple of hours in a morning following a very sleepless night of fevered ideas and panic over creating something terrible. It was a bit like the anticipation we’re all feeling now waiting for Santa to come down the chimney (if you catch my drift) (or something). So it’s with one eye open and eye shut, peeking over the bed covers that I bring you the final Chart of the year.
10. Loco Roco 2 – PSP £19.99
Golly gosh, I know it’s the season of goodwill and all that but when you’re faced with utter cretins like this customer it’s hard to keep it up. Firstly they weren’t entirely sure of the difference between a game and a console and certainly not much clue as to which they already owned. So I had some form an identity parade to see if they could spot the likely suspects. Seemingly they had a few ds machines and a wii. They decided they quite fancied a PSP though. Clearly they were not just cretins but the typical overindulgent ones who would rather spend money on frivolities than well anything else really. But I digress. Frequently. Not only did they want a PSP but they wanted a game for it appropriate for their daughter of age eleven. A quick rummage through the waste bin in the stall later I found Loco Roco 2 among the miriad football and driving simulators. “Looks a bit too kiddy-like.” Good grief. It’s bloody marvelous game and what’s more it’s going to appeal to an eleven year old girl especially! It’s cute! It’s got platforms! It’s got singing things! It’s looks lovely and it plays great. Buy it you cretins! So I beat them over the head with it so they took it to make me stop. Thankfully though they won’t regret it. What the hell would be more appropriate for their daughter? Oh sorry I forgot, this is Doncaster so obvious GTA is more the sort of thing. Sigh..
9. Far Cry 2 – Xbox 360 £25
I’ve got plenty of these in on the PS3. But like most PS3 games they serve more as decoration than actually saleable items. However I can’t seem to keep it in stock on the 360. There’s clearly problems for the PS3 market if I can’t even shift the games at christmas. It’s funny though they do seem to come in a lot. I’m often buying PS3 games in. I just don’t sell them. Sure I have a fairly low selection but I’ve plenty of ‘top’ titles. Quantum of Solace, Far Cry 2, GTA IV. They just won’t move. Sorry that’s not true. I’m running out of space a bit so I tend to overlap them on the shelf then when I happen to knock the shelf they all come tumbling down like things which come tumbling down because they’ve been unsteadily overlapped on a shelf.
8. DS Lite Consoles £80
Yes they are selling but not for so much money as was expected. Those who invested heavily in them at the start of the year will undoubtedly be a bit sad they don’t have the fortune they anticipated. I’ve still got a few in stock but they seem pretty plentiful everywhere. Same with the Wii. Maybe it’s the ‘credit crunch christmas’ that means people haven’t got much money to spend. Maybe it’s just greater availablility and greater market saturation now. I don’t know. But what I do know is I’m fully in control, on a roll, fat as rolypoly and on the whole you think that I’m a threat cause I never make a teacher’s pet.. sorry came over all Betty Boo for a moment there. Must be all that rapping I’ve done lately.
7. Need for Speed Underground 2 - PS2 £4.99
One of the most successful of the NFS series. Most wanted would probably take that crown though. This one has sat at around £5-8 for a long long time. I’ve had lots of them in stock but I’m down to my last one. I quite liked the first of the series in a way but this sequel never attracted my attention. I think it’s something to do with the combination of colours on the cover being less pretty. I think there was some more free roaming elements to this one which is what customers say they like about it. I think Midnight Club got there first but the first couple of installments of that game seem particularly shocking. That is to say they’re rubbish. They improved it a bit with the third one apart from the whole setting it at night so you can’t actually see where you’re driving and can never tell where the corners are. Which is never a good thing. In real life too.
6. Call of Duty 3 - Xbox 360 £12.99
These days if your game says Call of Duty anywhere on the box, it’s going to sell lots. It’s COD4 which did it. They were always consistent sellers on the PS2 though. But now they seem to have become the ‘industry standard’ even more than Medal of Honour. Speaking of which, MOH has been absent for quite a while now. COD is managing yearly updates but MOH seems to have vanished since Airborne. Airborne never saw the success of the earlier games. I’ve sold countless copies of Frontline and Rising Sun. Mainly to old men who were either in the war or like to pretend they were. I can just imagine them playing them with their grandchildren “Ahh it’s just like I remember it. We were dug in just outside Lyon fighting off those Nazi scum. Hard times..” “But Grandad weren’t you just 8 years old at the time?”
5. Fifa 08 - PS2 £7.99
Still selling. Just. Actually it’s selling better than I thought it was. I’m down to my last copy in stock. And turned one away the other day thinking I’d got loads of them in stock. Silly. One great thing about the old product is that you can get it in really cheap so your profit margin can be even more obscene than a Jonathan Ross phone call! Ah Ah ah! Satire! (Well it might have been a couple of months ago – Everyone)
4. Fifa 02 - PS2 £2.99
It’s funny in a way but when they start to get really old they suddenly become collector’s items. At this point they were little more than glorified PS1 games and hadn’t started to utilise more PS2 specific er things. Whatever they might be. People do like to collect the older versions though. It’s amazing how dated the cover looks now. It’s 7 years since release and it looks positively ancient. But then as I recall things changed for 2003 which was widely reported as one of the first good FIFAs. For the first time it gave the player a bit of a challenge. But then 04 returned to bog standard FIFA. The cover style remained pretty much the same from 03 to 05 but 06 looked quite different so that’s probably going to look dated in time. 07 probably has some of the ugliest cover art a FIFA has ever seen. I hate that one.
3. Battle of Europe Add-On for IL2 Sturmovik - PC CD £29.99
I sold a PC game! Even better I sold a PC Game Expansion Pack! FOR MORE THAN THE FULL GAME! Incredible. On Amazon of course. But who would have thought a PC expansion pack could achieve so much money. I’ve always heard good reports about IL2. Isn’t it coming to 360 soon or something? The last combat flight game I played at length was the spiffy Secret Weapons Over Normandy on the Xbox. Sure it wasn’t realistic but it was a heck of a lot of fun. Neeeeroooowwnnng dakka dakkka dakka boom! Shame the lead character was called Jack Chase. Might as well call him Brett Hero or something.
2. Need for Speed Undercover – Xbox 360 £27.50
Despite being available for £20 online it sells well from the stall. I’ve actually sold two and averaged the price there. First one I sold for £25. But it went too fast so I put the price up for the next one I got in. Though the customer did actually ask me for Los Angeles Undercover. Managing to cunningly combine the suffixes of both major street racing game franchise releases into one delightfully incorrect whole. There’s going to be tears this christmas when these games are played. By all accounts Undercover is a horrible horrible mess of a game. The TV advert shows graphics that are ‘representative of game footage’. Well yes. Of the cut scenes maybe. There’s no way you can possibly control your car appropriately from the angles displayed. Nor will the action ever be that exciting. Nor will it move so smoothly. It’ll serve them right of course for wanting something so terrible in the first place. Just because it’s christmas doesn’t mean it’s not a time to learn harsh lessons.
1. Dynasty Band (Preview release)
In which you take down the evil yellow turban rebellion then restore the Han Dynasty by forming a ancient Chinese band. Features Flute, zither and shamisen controllers. Also features Xbox Vision/Playstation Eye functionality to rate your dancing to Diao Chan’s instructions.
So there we have it. That’s it for this year. And what a year it has been. It’s been er.. well. Pretty much like every other year actually. Nothing particularly remarkable. It’s been all right. Most of my gaming fun was on the DS personally. Though Rock Band was particularly good. GTAIV failed to really ignite things though it’s been hard to get this christmas and shot up from £15 second hand to £25. The biggest seller of the year has still been COD4. That game has legs. As they say. So the saying goes. But I’ve seen more broken hearts Than you can count the bullets in gears of war, o h what do I know,
there’s gotta be so much I don’t know. I wanna do great things, I don’t wanna compromise…
MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!
Blanked by The Bike Show
At the Resonance Christmas Party. In the foreground, Scanters. She’s upset. VISIBLY upset.
Why? Because that’s Jack from The Bike Show in the background, and he has just blanked her*. This was One Life Left’s attempt at being the bigger show — in lieu of being the better one, obviously — and all we got was a cross-room scowl and a copresenter locked in the girls’ bathroom in floods of tears.
Thanks a bunch, Jack. We’ll see you on the schedules in January, no doubt for some more of your so-called critically-acclaimed widely-respected broadcasting, which we’ll combat in the only way we know how: with awkward incompetence and childish enthusiasm.
Chausseures!
*Didn’t see her wave, possibly a bit like this.
Chart Market Economy 20th December 2008
From: ste@onelifeleft
To: derek@onelifeleft
Subject: where’s the chart?
it’s saturday and there’s still no chart up on the site. what’s going off?
s.
—
From: derek@onelifeleft
To: ste@onelieft
Subject: Re: where’s the chart?
Yeah sorr y sste. Im rrelly not v well rright now. In bed last ffew days withfflu and still shhaking quite alot due to temp.Nnot been at wwork eithr soicn’t say whats beennse lling.
-Derr ek
—
From: ste@onelifeleft
To: derek@oneliefleft
Subject: Re: Re: where’s the chart?
oh wouldn’t it be nice if we all could just quit working as soon as we got the sniffles. how about you get that chart up on the site now. remember we’ve got new features coming next year.
s.
—
From: derek@onelifeleft
To: ste@oneliefleft
Subject: Re: Re: Re: where’s the chart?
Ouhch. I thoughtt you wweer meantt to be bbbe the nnice one Ste. Givve mme aaabb break while I’mm iilll ll yyyes? Iit’s chcristms aftter all.
—
From: ste@onelifeleft
To: derek@onelifeleft
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: where’s the chart?
just in case I didn’t make myself clear, find a way to write this week’s chart or the NEW FEATURES next year will mean there is not enough time for old features, specifically yours.
s.
—
From: derek@onelifeleft
To: ste@onelifeleft
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: where’s the chart?
IT’S OKAY STE. I FOUND THE MEDICINE CABINET I TOOK A COUPLE OF PILLS THEY MADE ME FEEL A BIT BETTER SO I TOOK THEM ALL AND NOW I FEEL A LOT BETTER IN FACT I THINK IM FLOATING AND AND IM REALLY LIKE HAPPY AND COOL AND STUFF AND ITS GREAT AND THAT SO HERES THAT CHARGGT THEN
10 SORE THROAT – STARTS EARLY AND LINGERS BUT DOESNT DO THAT MUCH DAMAGE SO IS REALLY ANNOYING
9. VOMITING – ITS SUCH A PHYSICAL STRAIN AND SO MESSY
8. DRY WRETCHING – ITS LIKE VOMITING BUT NOT AS MESSY SO BETTER
7. SLEEPLESS NIGHTS – SO TIRED NEXT DAY BUT AT LEAST BED IS COMFY
6. DIZZY SPELLS – FALLING OVER IS RUBBISH BUT SPINNING ROOMS SOMETIMES FUNNY
5. FEVER – HORRIBLE STATES OF MINDS ARE BADS BUT HALUCINATIONS HAVE INTERESTING GRAFIXXX
4. RUNNING NOSE – GIVES NOSE NICE CHEERY RED GLOW LIEK RUDOLPH LOL
3. DOTING NURSES – HELLLOOOO NURSE
2. MEDICINE CABINETS – MANY PILLS = HAPPY+++
1. GOING TOWARDS THE LIGHT – HELLO GRANDMA AND GRANDAD I HAVENT SeEEN YOou INaageES
So this made me laugh
I know it probably shouldn’t have done, but I’m bordering on being actually clinically depressed at the moment, so forgive my weaknesses.
WARNING: CONTAINS SWEARS
ANOTHER WARNING: This probably won’t be funny to German viewers*.
* Because they’ll just hear the normal words, obviously. What did you think I mean, racist?
One Life Left — s04e15 — #87 — Snow Business
It’s 6.15pm, in the studio and we’re all set up, missing one guest. Ste makes the call. Hey Ellie Gibson of Eurogamer Dot Net! Where are you? “Hey Ste! I’m in Soho!” Are you still on for the show tonight? “Yes, totally. It’s an 8pm start isn’t it?” Uh oh. No, Ellie, you’ve got 45 minutes. Pause. “It’s OK, I’ll be there!”
So begins Ellie’s sprint across town which, just like Ste’s in episode #81, is perfectly timed and finishes with ten seconds remaining of the show’s 30-second theme tune. That’s why we’re a bit giggly at the start of the very festive #87 and that’s why her mic doesn’t work. We deal! We absolutely deal. We would not have been able to deal with that last week.
Oh, last week.
On to this week, and the last episode of this year. It’s the most feature-packed episode of One Life Left this season with very special Christmas editions of Free Market Economy, Best Worst Games, and a new, exclusive doyouinverts Christmas single. There’s also the return of a classic One Life Left feature that hasn’t appeared for at least a season and some brilliant Christmas music, including:
SNOBLIND – Receptors
Unironic Christmas Medley – Savestates
Last Christmas (hot digi remix) – Goto80 (a brilliant but essentially emergency choice that I think we played last year)
Looking for a direct link to the MP3? Here you go.
We’ll see you next year. Do email us in the meantime and keep watching the site for Christmas blogs and things. Happy Christmas, Happy New Year, Happy everything.
Ste, Simon and Ann
xxx
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Chart Market Economy 12th December 2008
“It will be lonely this christmas… without a handheld..” Mud would sing if they were creating that song now. And interested in video games. And fancied singing about them. Which they probably wouldn’t to be honest to that completely ruins any point I was trying to make there. Damn. Best get on with it then.
10. EA Rugby - Ps2 £1
Gets a special mention just because I never thought I’d ever sell one ever again. Even at £1. I pity anyone who has to pretend they were happy to receive this. Even if they were the most ardent rugby fan in the world. I assume the lady who bought it thought it would be a nice stocking filler for her boyfriend or something.(Insert some smutty joke about filling stockings here)
9. Tony Hawk’s Underground – Xbox £2.99
Or ‘Thu’ as I like to called it. Not thug, as some people say. That would be wrong. There’s only three words. Tony Hawk’s Under Ground might be a more interesting title. Tony Hawk has been murdered and it’s up to you to find out where his body is and who it was who murdered him and why. If they had murdered him it would probably be for putting his name to a game with driving sectiosn as bad as in this one.
8. Mark Ecko’s Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure Xbox £6.99
I recall an EDGE interview with Mr Ecko where he was saying how much he understood what the modern Yoof gamer would want. His game was to ‘reprazent’ for them or something. Well sadly for him it proved that he wasn’t quite as down wiv da kidz as he thought as his game was a terrible flop. Of course that hasn’t stopped it retaining a reasonable amount of value because it’s still a little bit gangsta but thankfully its failure has made him shut up and go away again. Hopefully to never return.
7. Fifa Street 2 – Xbox £7.99
It’s been a great seller this one. It’s been consistent for a long long time. I just wish people wouldn’t refer to it like it’s a place name such as Coronation Street. It’s all in the intonation. Not allowing a pause after FIFA. It bugs me and I wish people would stop it. Again I think it goes to show how the producers of these games aren’t really quite as in touch as they think. The people playing it aren’t necessarily that aware that it’s meant to represent street football. Still Urban Freestyle Soccer was a lot more fun.
6. Vice City Stories – PSP £9.99
It’s another game where I’ve not really dropped the price in around a year. It just seems to happily go at a fairly steady pace at this price point. It’s pretty rare I sell a PSP game though. They just sit there taking up space on the shelves. I often forget I have them.
5. Grand Theft Auto IV – 360 £19.99
I did drop this to about £16.99 as I had a lot of them not so long ago. I’ve put them up for christmas as I ran out. Still got plenty on the PS3 though. It still feels though that this GTA has been the worst selling of the lot. Perhaps it was just that bit too intellectual for the usual audience. Maybe it’s actually been the best selling and it’s just that EVERYONE has played it.
4. High School Musical 1+2 – DS £34.98
Is it cheating to have them both on the same one? And also to add the prices together? Probably. But I’m sure it’s cheating to release the same game reskinned and add a 2 on the end. I’ve not played the game but I’m sure what I say is true. That’s proper games journalism right? If you want to know the individual prices, No. 2 was £19.99. You can work the other one out. Derek Williams’ Brain Training coming to a blog near you..er now actually.
3. Halo 3 – 360 £14.99
I’m including online sales here for the first time. I think. I’ve only been doing this a few weeks and already I can’t remember back to the start. I must be getting old or something. Where was I? I forgot the point that I was making. Ah yes. I’m including them mainly because it’s significant that Halo 3 is selling for more money on Amazon than it is in HMV. Down to just £12.99 new in HMV and Amazon it sells for £14.99 second hand. I’d built up four of them on the stall and I’ve sold three online today just in this evening. Why the sudden demand for Halo 3? Aren’t there a million copies in your local game shop Amazon people?
2. FIFA 08 – WII £13.99
I know I’ve taken less money from this than Halo 3 but selling two copies of this on Amazon in the same day seems even more Amazing because it’s a Wii game and a numbered product. Usually anything that has a year on it is worth nothing when the next one comes out. FIFA 08 360 is worth about 10p by now but oddly this still has some value and I can’t quite work out why. Thus it fully deserves its number one spot.
1. Samurai Warriors 2 – PS2 £299
Sometimes I think I prefer this to Dynasty Warriors 6.
So there we have it. Only two weeks left until the day after christmas and people are still largely rejecting the current generation of consoles in favour of older ones. The Xbox is selling considerably more than the PS3. That’s not just 360 either. The original Xbox has had quite the resurgence lately. It’s undoubtedly that they’re a cheap machine that’s pretty sturdy and has lots of cheap games available. Makes a greatcheap console in these times where credit is crunchy.
I’m Derek Williams and I’m actually signing off properly this time.
One Life Left — s04e14 — #86 — Math Problem
It’s Simon’s last show before Christmas! So what better way to celebrate than with a return to One Life Left values of old: awkward silences, and dozens of technical errors. Welcome to the world’s greatest videogame radio show.
So what have we learnt? Firstly, that we shouldn’t let Ste drink for three days and arrive at the show a physical and emotional mess, incapable of working even the most basic elements of the desk, let alone delivering any kind of insight into the gaming industry. Secondly that if we absolutely have to do that, we shouldn’t do it in front of Brammers, Eurogamer’s Editor. And thirdly sometimes apologies just don’t cut it.
Seriously, sorry. This is not the best episode and if it’s your first you should probably click back a few although there are, as ever, some highlights. Taliah! Best Worst Games! Sweet music! Off-air libel! An introductory I’m Dave Green joke cut off by Ste’s seratonin-deficient incompetence! Oh God.
Music on #86:
Heartbleeps by Hiroshi
Heathens (8-bit mix) by Bracken
Ryu the Red Nosed Ninja by Doctor Octoroc
Sorry. Sorry!
(And sorry this is late, too. For obvious reasons.)
See you next week!
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Chart Market Economy 5th December
Being the super megastar celebrity that I have become since the CD launch, I’ve had to take time out from running the stall to keep up with the sheer number of personal appearances, radio talk shows and CD signings. This unfortunately means that I’ve not really had much chance to monitor how things have been going sales wise. Considering I’m supposed to post once a week (nearly wrote ‘blog’ there but remembered I detest the word) about how sales are going, perhaps I should have been paying more attention. I guess I’ll just have to make it up. I can’t be far off the truth, I’m sure. I did sell a few games today after all so that’ll help.
10. Formula 1 2003 PS2 £4.99
They’re interesting sleeper games the formula one er.. ones. Anything after 2001 lingers but retains a reasonable amount of value. I usually get about £7 for the likes of 05. You just get the occasional fan that’s really after one and you finally cash them in. There’s great potential for profit on them as the customers selling them are happy to accept a pittance for them.
9. The Darkness 360 £4.99
I got rid of a couple on Amazon a while ago as I’d got lots in stock. Even at the £4.99 price tag it’s not really something you can easily shift. Is it really that bad a game? A friend tells me it’s largely pretty good and has a great atmosphere until some stupid eee wibble narg comedy demon sidekick comes in who has a machine gun and oversized army helmet. I think. Or was that a different game?
8. Beowulf 360 £6.99
Again a slow game. It’s never really done anything and no one has ever even cared about its existence. Cashing in on a fairly niche movie is probably not the best idea, especially when movie tie-ins generally don’t sell these days. Unless they’re Spide-rman and have just been released.
7. Lost Planet 360 £7.99
An excellently pretty game with an excessively high difficulty level which is probably what has put people off it for so long. If you can manage to get past the first five minutes of the game without dying about a thousand times you’re doing well. It also suffered from a release close to Gears of War. I think.
6. Dark Sector £9.99
I really don’t have much to say about this. I don’t know a lot about it, I’ve not had many copies in. In fact just this one. Which started at £20 but eventually sold for what I bought it for. Don’t really know what it’s about. Is it like aliens or something?
5. Warcraft Battlechest PC £12.99
A classic bit of RTS strategy. The battlechest contains Warcraft 3 and some expansion pack or other. Cunningly the cover depicts each title twice to make it look like there’s more to it. Clever people these artwork designer types.
4. Medal of Hono(“u”)r Airborne £14.99
I was quite astonished that I sold it for so much. The M.O.H. games are always pretty bankable. They’ve always been a hardy perennial on PS1 and 2 (though I’m not entirely sure that’s an appropriate term). The old ones hover around the £5-7 mark. They’re often bought by old men. Presumably to re-live their glory days or something. Old men just love shooting Nazis. And Japeanese. Fact.
3. Juiced 2 360 £7.99
Selling an incredible two copies in one day gives this load of old rubbish a high place this week. Juiced has always been a steady game though. I have to commend the artists for the first game on PSP and PS2, very good eye catching desirable covers. Particularly Juiced Eliminator on PSP. It even has blue sky! Almost Outrun esque. But anyway, yes, the first one on PS2 sold for ages at £7.99. It lasted at higher prices longer than Need For Speed Underground. I reckon it will still sell for around £6.99. It’s looking like Juiced 2 might manage the same.
2. Dynasty Warriors 6 360 £5000
What’s this? It’s been knocked off the number one spot. It must be something a bit special to do that.
1. One Life Left Presents… Music to Play Games By.. All Formats £6.99
Ahh obviously. That really IS that something a bit special. Without a doubt the best CD compilation available this Christmas, no wonder it’s selling so well. I hear that track 8 is definitely something a bit special indeed. But there’s definitely no christmas turkeys on this one! (You’re fired! – Everyone). You know what, I reckon you’d be well advised to go and buy it over at Amazon right now. It’s the perfect gift. For anyone.
Why not have a listen to some samples from the CD over at Chewing Pixels.
(I would have done it here but I can’t quite work out how)