Here's a pic of my roomate and I's game bounty for the month.


One is a game that will be under printed, under appreciated, and will likely double or triple in value on ebay three years from now. The other will be the best selling game of 2008 and is said to be capable of destroying Hollywood.

The best thing is, I like 'em both! Still, this is about as polar opposite as you can get in the gaming spectrum (barring those icky "casual games").

To elaborate, both games surprise me. I am still shocked that P3 FES is out in the States. An expansion pack/director's cut from Japan for an Atlus game that could only sell moderately well? Perhaps the support of the Atlus faithful succeeded. I am also amazed to see that while Best Buy put the game on shelves a week late, they seem to have it in healthy quantities. The PS2 rack in any store is getting shabbier by the month, and yet BB has been amazingly on the ball with rare games on all platforms.

As for GTA, I haven't played it yet, but I am watching my roomie go through some of it. I am impressed with how reserved Rockstar is with the game, at least "reserved in a certain sense". The back of the box, the interface, the mission titles are all presented in simple, clena fonts with no fanfare. I like this approach with lots of things, and it seems appropriate for this reboot of the series.

Also, while the game comes with the usual fold out map of the city, the actual manual is amazingly thin. While I understand that the big publishers want to keep costs low (and thus cut manuals to the minimum), it is a sad state of affairs when we are surprised to see GTA's instructions in color. Contrast this with the game right next to it. True, the FES manual seems to be slightly cheaper paper and somewhat blurrier than P3's, but it is still in color and contains all the major information, despite its budget price. Not to mention that P3 itself came with a chunky manual, a soundtrack CD, a hardcover art book and a large cardboard sleeve to put it all in, all for $50. Take Two, your cheapness is unnecessary. GTA deserves better.