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After buying a second-hand PSP, GoYUK Editor Dave Barlow tells us why it’s fantastic to be a cheapskate.

One of the best things about jumping ship to a console fairly late in the game is that one can cherry-pick from the finest games to have been made during the console’s comparatively long life - most of which are available for a few quid, since they’re supposedly out of date! You won’t catch me buying Ridge Racer at full RRP, no sir.

As an example (and an exercise in my own smugness), here are the games which currently occupy the pile next to my bed:

• Metal Gear Acid - £5
• CRUSH - £6
• Patapon - $20 (about £10.50)
• Tekken: Dark Resurrection - with console
• Sega Genesis Collection - with console

Now, when you consider that I paid about £70 for the PSP (with games!), we’re laughing. For under £100, I’ve bought a console which is still very relevant, as well as what I consider to be some of the top games for that system, with a few pennies spare for Loco Roco when I see it.

Yesterday I went down to Gamestation. Instead of buying Rainbow Six: Vegas 2, which has received reviews which scream that this game will hardly be a timeless classic, I purchased four of the greatest games ever to grace the original Xbox: Halo, Halo 2, Fahrenheit and Fable. All for £20. These games have long been lost from my possession through multiple house-moves and the dreaded ‘lend it to a mate and never see it again’ syndrome, but I’m 100% sure that having spent half the money I would have for R6:V2 - I’ll get infinitely more enjoyment out of them.

The moral of the story is this: Where possible, don’t let yourself fall into the trap of paying full whack for a game that will at least halve in price in a month. Hell, if recent games are anything to go by, it’ll take a couple of months to get patched up to an acceptable level!

As an intelligent adult who can control their “I want it NOW!” urges (let’s pretend for a second, ‘k?) - my advice to you is to keep hold of your money. There will always be kids who demand the latest things from their parents - resulting in stacks of unplayed games, with still-shiny £40 stickers slapped on the front, all over the country - who keep the price of new games up where it is. Take advantage of this unique surge in demand and wait 2 months for all those over-stocked “blockbusters” to come hurtling down in price. Your wallet will thank you, plus you’ll also have the time to play those games which really deserve your attention.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 26th, 2008 at 12:30 pm and is filed under deals, feature, industry. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.