Why Gaming is the Most Cost-Effective Entertainment

Posted on by Justin Turpen

Here at Underpaid Gamers Podcast we like to tout the virtues of gaming. We support E-Sports and revel in our gaming addiction. One of the least emphasized benefits of gaming is its potential for being a cost effective form of entertainment. The following are two major reasons why I believe gaming is one of the most cost-effective forms of entertainment today.

Gaming can give you an amazing bang for your buck. 

I recently purchased the Uncharted Collection for $35 used from Gamestop. For those of you who don’t know what that entails, I essentially bought three separate games from one of my favorite developers – Naughty Dog. Now if we divide this out I spent about $11.66 for each of those games. So far I’ve beaten the first and second games putting anywhere from 15 to 20 hours into each. So my cost per hour for each game (we’ll low ball it and use the 15 hours) is about $.77.

We can compare this to going to the movies or attending a sporting event. What we find is that the cost per hour is significantly lower to play video games. A movie ticket costs at least $10 and professional sporting events can cost anywhere from $10 to $60, assuming your not trying to sit court-side or close. We can see that the cost per hour of these two examples can range from about $4 an hour to $20 (assuming a movie is 2.5 hours long and a professional sporting event is 3 hours). It is clear, when we compare cost per hour, that video games are king.

The prevalence and ease of buying used games.

There are many ways to purchase video games. With the combination of the internet and used game stores there really is no excuse for buying a video game at full price. Now I know some of you will say, “Justin, I gotta have that game right now!”, well honestly you don’t. Many games don’t lose their play value over time. For instance, The Witcher 3 will still have the same experience for players a year from now. If you wait a year you could save 2o or 30 bucks! Not to mention if a game of the year edition comes out with all the dlc included! Overtime making a habit of buying used games can save you hundreds!

To be honest I am definitely a hypocrite when it comes to buying used games. I have payed full price for a new copy before. Especially for the games that focus on multiplayer. With many multiplayer games the most competitive atmosphere is only within the first few months.

That being said, if your goal is to save money, video gaming can be a great hobby! Do you have anything you’d like to add? If so, leave a comment!

 

Justin

The Platinum Quest: Completed Fallout 4

Posted on by Justin Turpen

Though it took quite a bit of time Fallout 4 did not have the hardest path the platinum. The majority of trophies came from storyline missions. The hardest trophy by far the benevolent leader mentioned in my last blogpost. I have enjoyed Fallout 4 quite a bit. I enjoyed the mechanics and the gameplay, though I do miss a few of the features in past games. To some extent I actually miss weapon durability. It forced me to make decisions based on a weapons availability as well as its ammo. I also greatly missed the karma system from the old games. I loved being rewarded for my decisions to help or hurt people. It incentivized the decisions I made past the immediate context. I always enjoyed how karma shifts the way people would talk to you.

My favorite quest had to be the robot pirate ship also known as the “Last Voyage of the U.S.S. Constitution.” I remember as it blasted off wondering what would happen. Part of me expected to watch the ship blast off into the night sky. The pessimistic side thought the ship might explode kill me for all my effort. I was pleased with the result. The ship essentially flies into a building across the map. As you watch it park itself onto the top of one of the sky-scrappers, you hear the captain boast about its progress and calculate that, at the current rate, they will reach the ocean within a century.

Overall I appreciate this addition to the Fallout Franchise. The emphasis on settlement building and power armor was an exciting change that made Fallout 4 feel unique from Fallout 3 and New Vegas. Fallout 4 did not dethrone Fallout 3 from my list of favorite games but did provide a legitimate Fallout experience for the new generation of consoles.

More to come from Underpaid Gamers over Fallout 4 as DlC drops.

The Platinum Quest: Fallout 4 – Benevolent Leader

Posted on by Justin Turpen

When I purchase a new game one of the first things I do is look at the trophy list and determine if this game is worth getting all of the  trophies/achievements. Fallout 4s trophies at first glance all looked achievable. Therefore I set my sights on that platinum trophy and went to warp speed.

Fallout 4 is undisputedly a huge game. Early critiques complained that the map was smaller than Fallout 3. From my experience so far its not about the size, but rather, the quality and quantity of things to do. Downtown Boston is packed with locations to explore. At this point I have probably put 60 or more hours into the game and am still experience fresh new side quests. Many of which are witty and fun. Most of the Trophies involved the main storyline and are split between the different factions you can choose. On my first play-through I decided to side with the Minutemen and the Brotherhood of Steel. I will say that finishing the game as the Brotherhood was way more fun than as the Minutemen. The other trophies can be easily accomplished in your first run through. A few will require extra effort. One trophy, above all else, gave me the hardest time.

The Benevolent Leader trophy. 

At face value this trophy seems manageable. Get a settlement to 100 happiness. I want my people to be happy! Quickly I realized how daunting this challenge actually is. All of my frustrations can be summed up in one word. Glitch. For some reason occasionally as I explored the wasteland my settlements would lose 10-15% happiness. When I would go to my data screen on the pip-boy it would show that I had no beds or food in a settlement! How is that possible! The first time I saw this I quickly fast-traveled to the settlement to see if this was due to a raider or supermutant attack. As soon as I arrived the beds and food reappeared. I realized that it was a glitch. And promptly mourned the loss of all the time I had spent trying to raise happiness.

I eventually earned the trophy.

How I dealt with the glitch was by checking my pip-boy every few minutes to see if the glitch had started. If you can catch the glitch early enough then you can quickly fast travel back to your settlement to fix the issue. All you have to do to fix it is to walk back into your settlement and then check your pip-boy’s data on the workshop. I would usually re-enter build mode then exit and fast travel back to whatever I was doing.

I haven’t earned the platinum trophy yet. However, all I have left for trophies is the storyline quests for the other factions I didn’t choose on my first run through. I also saved my game at a point right before you become hostile to the other factions. This allows me to skip all the boring intro stuff and get right at the faction’s story.

Never forget that old adage:  War… War never changes…