What's New?
Basically the last week of dross prior to March madness - with a couple of noteworthy exceptions
Across March, there are something like 20 games which are probably worth buying. If you take the value of a game to be somewhere between 25 and 40 quid, that's between £500 and £800's worth of games to buy. Nobody can buy that many, right?
And with such a huge variety of titles to pick out next month, publishers with, shall we say, 'lesser products' are clamouring to get them out the door before the market is once again flooded. It's as if they all had a big meeting and decided that one November period wasn't enough to not sell all their plain old excellent games. They needed a second one.
None of this bodes particularly well for the likes of Ben Hur, Pac-Man World 2, Fireblade, Virtual Skipper 2, Daredevil, Frogger's Adventures 2 and so on. However, we wouldn't expect you to buy any of them. What's a shame is that games like Battle Engine Aquila and Racing Evoluzione may well suffer for the success of "safe" games released next month. And games like ATV Quad Power Racing 2, which at any barren time of the year might represent decent value, are rendered almost worthless.
Fortunately there are some bargains to be had this week - Silent Hill 2: Director's Cut arrives for both PC and PS2, the latter on the console's Platinum label. Both should cost £19.99, we think. And House of the Dead fans now have something to shout about, with Mad Catz Xbox "Light Blaster" arriving in shops today - we'll be having a closer look soon along with a rival blaster.
Perhaps the best value for money this week though is Sports Interactive's Championship Manager Magazine Issue 2, which includes a half-season playable demo of the highly anticipated CM4. Fans will no doubt already have the mag on their doorsteps, or will be ditching our Friday frolics to play it, but if you weren't aware and fancy a good weekend's worth of entertainment at £5.49, you could do a lot worse. Nobody in the world got to play it before today - you're special!
One final word of advice this week. If you get caught with a handful of notes and the impulse to buy something, just remember: there are even GameCube games worth buying next week. You would have thought next Friday was the leap bloody year, wouldn't you?