|
|
The Bargain Bin Binge! |
About this column: On occasion, bargain shelves at your local video/electronics store contain a semi-old title worth more than just a look. This page reviews such titles..
Recent Bargain Bin Binge pages: 3) Simpsons' Virtual Springfield!
----------------- Feel free to contribute. As always, review submissions are accepted! ------------------
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
A Dozen Bargain Games That DO NOT STINK!*(*-especially when they are bargains!) Let me be honest; the bargain bin binge section has become harder and harder to keep afloat. Not that it doesn't have its usefulness; every time an awesome game like System Shock 2 becomes discounted to laughably cheap proportions, I feel the need to recommend it to anyone who hasn't played it, before it's gone forever! On such occasions, I'm glad this "department" of Techtite.com is still available. However, bargains are usually bargains because they are being closed out...cleared off the shelf...given the big boot! Some bargains I recommended just a year ago are still available (Curse of Monkey Island), some are not (Quest For Glory V). I felt I could nominate a bargain each month, though they're going too fast to keep up! I was going to nominate Blade Runner, the Adventure Game, for a November 2001 update, and by the time I had the page ready for upload four weeks later, the game was no longer for sale! Just like that! So, allow me to list simultaneously the top dozen bargains I found this holiday season, all at once. The list even includes 3 Mac-only titles, in the interest of fairness (quite fair, when the other 7 are PC-only!). Let's start off with the PC bargains first, in no particular order : -------------------------- Sanitarium
Current Price: $14.99 Why
Buy It At All? By 1998, the adventure game genre was in
need of a serious booster shot. Tex Murphy's last installment (Overseer)
and King's Quest's last installment (Mask
of Eternity) were both big disappointments. Sanitarium
was the exception, which actually involved the simple yet foreboding task
of escaping an asylum. If you need further incentive to buy it, let's just say it's an
adventure game from 1998, still for sale in late 2001. That's pretty impressive. So,
Why's It In the Bargain Bin...? While the game received
rave reviews, it made a bad first impression for some buyers in 1998, when initial copies had a serious
bug. A patch is of course available by now, though it wasn't back then.
Given the ease of downloading the patch (presuming it isn't pre-installed
already, in newer versions of the game), there's little reason an
adventure fan shouldn't give it a chance. Techtite Rating:
Gabriel Knight 3 Current Price: $9.99 Why Buy It At All? This was one of the last Sierra games ever designed at a time when the company was still "Sierra Online": i.e., The Makers of Adventure Games Galore. Sure, it isn't as good as Gabriel Knight 1 or 2, and yet it's still a story by Jane Jensen, it involves vampires, and it's 3D accelerated. So, Why's It In the Bargain Bin...? This is a pretty old game; no doubt you either played it by now, or have your convictions not to. In addition, some of the diehard adventure game fans gave it the big thumbs-down, based on how different it was from the flawless prior Gabriel Knights. However, at $10, what's the harm in trying it out? Techtite Rating: Pending; I've yet to play it myself, and my $9.99 copy is in the mail!
The Monkey Island Series (1-3)
Current Price: $14.99 Why
Buy It At All? Many think this is the best adventure game
trilogy of all time. Sold as a trilogy, it even pans out very well, with a
cliffhanger in #2, and a totally enjoyable finale in episode 3. Sure, the
series continues, though these are the games that started the saga. So, Why's
It In the Bargain Bin...? These are old, 2D adventures,
which may seem out of place in a world obsessed with 3D accelerated FX
frenzies. If you like interactive cartoons, however, these are fun games. Techtite
Rating:
Outlaws Current
Price: $9.99 Why
Buy It At All? If you're ever possessed to replay an old
"Doom clone,"
this is the game to pick up. Likewise, if you've
ever wondered why there aren't any salutes to the classic western in
shooter games, this game will leave you wondering why there aren't even
more. After all, who wouldn't want to be John Wayne for a whole
night of gameplay...? So, Why's
It In the Bargain Bin...? The only way to 3D accelerate
this game is through 3Dfx cards...and newer 3Dfx cards may have a problem
using the patch at all. In addition, this is old-school 3D gaming, with no
Quake/Unreal-savvy FX present. It's still a lot of fun, though... Techtite
Rating:
Full Throttle
Current Price: $9.99...though
this is an old game, and may go at any second. Why
Buy It At All? The music ROCKS. So much so, this game was
originally sold with the option to buy the audio CD. How good is this music? You'll sit gladly through the whole credit
roll just to hear it all. It is a short game, easily completed in a night...though you'll want to replay it
from the beginning just the
same. So, Why's
It In the Bargain Bin...? At its original price, this
over-in-a-night adventure didn't sell well. This was the adventure game
that dared to be released the same year as LucasArts' far more renowned Dark
Forces, ID's premiere Doom spin-off Heretic,
and my personal favorite, Relentless.
Techtite
Rating:
Star Wars: Dark Forces
Current Price: $9.99...though
again, this is an old game, and may go at any second. Why
Buy It At All? Doom was okay, Dark Forces was way better.
The only reason that I included Doom on my list of top
50 game classics, is because there would be no Dark Forces if Doom
didn't pave the way for 3D gaming. Even so, this was far better than Doom,
with the Star Wars world in all its wonderful glory. You even got to see
Coruscant (and still do), and invade the Emperor's most precious secret
labs. So, Why's
It In the Bargain Bin...? Dark Forces 2 Jedi Knight
rocked even more. Oddly, it's order link doesn't work. No matter; 2002
will allegedly bring us Dark Forces 3! Techtite
Rating:
last, though not least:
...so, there's 10 bargains to keep you busy. I know, I know: I mentioned Everquest above, and didn't include it in the top ten. There's a method to my madness there; I intend to keep that as my next bargain bin title. After all, there's no chance of Everquest going off the shelf entirely. Right? Right...?
|
Burnout
Near
Miss
Small
Crater
Large
Crater
Deep
Impact
Baldur's Gate (Mac)