Dan, you bastard, I know you’re going to be gloating.
As is still occasionally my wont, but with much less frequency than it used to be (at least fifty percent of my recent shopping centre visits have not included a browse), I stopped in at EB Games on the weekend to have a look at what was out and what was coming out. DoW: Soulstorm is now on the shelves, but considering that I’ve not touched Dark Crusade in freaking months, why bother? Same with the Guild Wars expansion, Eye of the North; I’ve not even finished any of the Prophecies, Factions or Nightfall campaigns, so no need for the expansion.
No, my current temptation is Iron Man. Loved the comics for years, thoroughly enjoyed the movie, so naturally I’m keen on the game. $100 for the console version is still off-putting, though, especially right now. On a hunch, though, I had a look at the PC version – and lo and behold, it’s retailing for $50. Half the price of the console version.
Oddly enough, Activision did exactly the same thing when the Transformers game was recently released. It seems like an odd decision at face value, but I have some thoroughly unsubstantiated theories on the reasoning behind it. Perhaps it’s because the console versions can be guaranteed to be running at their best resolutions/framerates/whichever, while the PC version is naturally dependent on the very individual hardware of the given PC it runs on. Or, perhaps it’s a recognition that someone could easily purchase the game for around $50 at retail in the US and have a friend ship it over here (or from a download service like Steam, as I did with Team Fortress 2 and am tempted to do with Sins of a Solar Empire), which you can’t do with a region-locked console title without some warranty-voiding physical tinkering.
Can anyone confirm or clarify this?
Hm? Sorry, what was that? Oh, will I buy Iron Man? I’m not sure. Most of my gaming time lately has been dedicated to Halo 3 (gotta improve my Battle Rifle accuracy for the league ladder, you see) and I have other fripperies that I’m even more keen on splurging on.
That sounds like my cue! 😛
I’m pretty sure it’s market conditions rather than any real reason. Console games pretty much all cost $99.95 rrp (although usually $20 less online, or at JB Hifi, even less imported if it’s region free (which it is (http://www.videogamesplus.ca/product_info.php?products_id=13143))) while PC games are now cheaper, generally because they sell less units and can be downloaded/imported even easier than console stuff.
Having said that, the Iron Man game has been panned by the critics! 50% on gamerankings! There’s a demo on XBLA, so grab that and try it first; it might be enough Iron Man to sate your desires 🙂
Yeah, everyone’s been not entirely happy with Iron Man the game – Transformers got a similar treatment and I must admit I got sick of that one pretty quickly. The IM demo was pretty nice looking, but it didn’t really endear itself to me (the lamented controls were as much a pain as most reviewers say). Shame; I was hoping…
Hope away rob, but I can count the good film games on the fingers of half a hand 🙂
I just saw the movie, and it was great! It wasn’t even just an RDJ vehicle, there’s a good action movie there too.