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If You Can Afford Me…

Following the release of Rock Band last year and then the release of Guitar Hero: World Tour, I found myself drawn towards said games as they offered a full band experience. Each equipped with guitar, drum kit and microphone, gamers could let out their inner rock star on any instrument including a trusty guitar from any previous Guitar Hero game. But with a full band proposal thrown into the gaming market, the price tag was bound to be a hefty one. Even the general assumption that the games would be over the average £40, it still managed to surprise many when Rock Band hit the scene costing about £180.

I’d managed to rack up around £135 from both Christmas and my birthday and in spite of the price, I decided to put the money into buying the Guitar Hero: World Tour whole-band package. So with my family due for a shopping trip I gathered up my money and set out to find the lowest price, as you do! I finally settled on £127 at my local Asda and purchased the package, hardly able to wait until I got home to get started on the career modes.

Thereafter I endured the painfully boring shopping trip, making me even more excited about World Tour when we eventually returned home. Easily setting up the guitar and drumkit peripherals according to a fairly basic set of instructions, I slipped the disc into my Xbox 360. During this process the amount of money I paid constantly niggled at me: £127 could have bought me three new titles instead of the one. But the fact that I had, in a way, bought a number of games in the one was present in my mind, as each instrument has its own Career mode.

Forcing the negative thoughts to the back of my mind, I decided to make a start on my Guitar Career and donned my controller. After an hour or so bashing the strumming bar about to the tunes, I realised my concern about money was ruining my gaming experience… well either that or I am generally a miserable child. I even considered getting my money back until I realised I actually didn’t have anything else in mind to spend it on. Oh, and the fact that my mother had a shot at singing Blondie’s “One Way Or Another” and informed me that there was no way I was taking it back.

So you could say I’ve slowly gotten over the amount of money the game cost me, especially since it was such a hit on New Year’s Eve! I’ve noticed that I’m always like this with new games, well the ones I buy myself at least. Maybe I’m just too uptight when it comes to money, it’s just the way I naturally am with anything I guess.

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7 responses to “If You Can Afford Me…”

  1. Lordstar avatar
    Lordstar

    try not to think of it as three games and think of it as play hours. When i was in tokyo I was looking for something to do while i was relaxing and i bought an American version of final fantasy tactics advance 2 for about 35GBP. so far ive clocked up about 90 game hours on that so quick math would say 39p an hour. thus making it worth the price tag in my eyes. so if you can complete all the songs with all the instruments on 4 to 5 stars and get most of the achievements and you are on your way to having made a worthwhile perchance. but its also important that you are actually enjoying yourself while your playing too otherwise you might as well get a job. at least that pays you by the hour.

  2. City avatar
    City

    i used to get buyers remorse alot when I was younger, and now getting paid shiney wads of money monthly makes buying games a reward for doing the occassional 48 hour week.
    I still havent got World Tour, I simply cant afford it yet when theres bills to pay… and I am very reserved about spending cold hard cash on it, when I know a family member has got me a loaded game card (yay!) – but its certainly not something I will regret buying, or give another moments thought to once its all set up on my room =)

    I currently have my sights set on a HDTV.. the one I want is equal to a months rent (and I live in London..) that might make me twitch, but then I will see its high def glory and swoon!

  3. Tony avatar
    Tony

    I’ve spent £130 on food and drink for a party I was hosting a couple of times. So paying it for a game that all of your friends can come round and have a great laugh with isn’t all that bad.

    Think of it as a very expensive round!

  4. Ben avatar
    Ben

    In a similar boat to City, for me it is a lot of cash to spend on one item. However at the same time the amount of enjoyment I expect I’ll get out of it should out weigh the negative monetary side of things.

    £130 now really isn’t to much, I think I’ve spent twice that amount over Xmas on travelling places on the UK’s over price rail network *shakes fist*

  5. The Rook avatar
    The Rook

    I have spent money on many of these games, GH II, III and World Tour bought with the guitars, GH Aerosmith just the game and Rock Band Band In A Box complete. Not to mention the downloadable track packs for some of them too.

    Saying this, I have got lots of enjoyment out of them. Just started looking into Live play in GHWT, and then after I’ve had my fill, there’s Rock Band 2 to get.

    GH III is my fav of the guitars thou, kept thinking I was missing notes I shouldn’t have with the GHWT guitar. And I n,Never did get round to trying the drums again in Rock Band, I just kept hearing the beating of the pads more than the song I was trying to play.

    Guitar Hero needs to find a way to make downloadbale track packs compatible with future GH games. It works for Rock Band and I think that would be a big selling point for it.

    Can they keep bringing out new instruments with each game, or will they decide to concentrate more on the game than the additional peripherals?

    Keep Rockin’.

  6. Michael avatar
    Michael

    If you started thinking about the cost of games to the extent that it spoils your enjoyment, you’d probably stop playing games fairly quick! Besides, as pricy as GH:WT is, it’s not Rock Band.

    Blondie, eh? I’ll have to see what the whole tracklist is…

  7. SilverBane avatar
    SilverBane

    I recently played GH:WT round a mates, and was pleasantly surprised, again, by the accuracy of the guitar, but fairly disappointed by the drums (I play both IRL) But the vocals are good fun, and I would deffo recommend this game to anyone that likes to hit stuff and make noise with mates =] But the downside is the price, I was surprised by the R.R.P of the solo guitar pack £80+ (:O) and then saw the price of the band package and thought, what’ all this money paying for? But from the amount of fun I had playing my mates, I guess it makes up for all of it in playing hours, online play and laughs with friends.

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