Yeah, I have a bit of a misconception about Libraries. As a Bronx native, I remember the homeless people holding doors. The less disgruntled ones smuggling food into a quiet table, their body odor emanating. In Yonkers, it reeked of rubber because they replaced the padding and even after a good eight years, the smell never went away so the awning area was a bad greeting.

Long story short, after a suggestion from Mark, I went with him to the Library and watched him register for a card. I looked around a bit and found that next to the CDs were Video Games. I decided to register a few days later.

How can you beat free? My public library allows you to rent out a game for a week, no renewals. The redbox costs $2.77 a day. There are two big give and take issues. The biggest problem is that all the games were rated T or under. Luckily for me, I love childish games. I have no shame having Trophies for Harry Potter. My taste in games is really eclectic anyway. The second problem is that since the games are limited, they tend to be old. I have no real problem with that, but RedBox only has games that are new.

As a kid on a budget, I’ll take slightly outdated games. I mean, I had to wait for Fallout: New Vegas to drop down to about $15 before I jumped. Same for Final Fantasy 13. I found out later that FF13 was an available game, but I can’t finish that game in the week I was given. Either way, at least I have about 15-20 games I can play for trophies. For Free.

So it’s left me with having to deal with other devices on trying to keep up with video games. One way was to see what free crap I could get. I found that Slurpee had several points they were giving away for some random Playstation 3 based rewards. Most of the non-PS3 rewards were crap (like a Redbox DVD rental or Facebook points), but there were a handful for Playstation Home. I haven’t really decorated my “Studio Apartment” and now I have four actual items (outside of the free tables, chairs, and couches they give you): Two Slurpee Machines and 2 cups. Of all the items they were/are giving out on the Slurpee site, that was probably the most cost effective because the four items were 2 points. I also got the Sackboy bookbag for “me” to wander around with, a Killzone 3 (what is up with all the threes?) outfit that I doubt I’d ever wear, and a new Theme for my opening PS3 screen.

[Anyone who wants these points, I found them at Slickdeals]

Now my big issue lands in the fact that I know no one will ever visit my “house” but it did give me about five minutes of something to do that would probably be worth about $1.99/each if I bought it at the Playstation store. I’m still confused as to the fact that people buy digital furniture. You can’t sit on digital furniture. I mean I’ll download new music for Rock Band (or Just Dance) but that’s like buying an interactive MP3. I’ll never sit on a new couch that I could purchase for two dollars.

Oh right, as for other free crap: I Download demos of video games. Then I delete them when I’m done. It’s about 15 minutes of a new and different video game. Then I usually shrug and go “eh, I wouldn’t have bought it anyway.”

• It’s kinda boring
• It’s an RPG
• It was related to the Shining Force set of games.

Little did I know how drastically different the game was to it’s future sequels.

Graphically the game has gotten me lost. I spent about half an hour walking around in a square motion until I realized that I was just doing boxes. Soon afterwards, Eric turned to me after peeling his eyes off of Top Gear and said, “You realize that the floor doesn’t rotate when you turn?”

Neither did the ceiling.

Well Then…

I’m still going to continue to attempt the game, with a little help from a map on GameFaqs. I’m kinda on the first actual test, trying to get through “strength.” I laughed most of the way because I’ve had to fight the same characters over and over again. One character is called a “Punkinhead” and not a “pumpkin-head.” Weird engrish abounds in this game. There are also some programming glitches as well.

What am I expecting from a Genesis game? Not much actually. I’m going to continue playing the game for a while, but I’m probably going to download Final Fantasy 7 from the PSN as my next DLC purchase and probably cry my way through it again.

Gaming on a Dime – Arcades can save a gamer money

I wrote this as my first article into the foray into Associated Content. I’ve had this idea about budget gaming and although I contemplated starting up a website (like budget gamer or something) I realized that there is one website out there that is so much better, so I refrained.