So I shop at Gamestop. I admit it. I only have a small amount of money in my budget to be able to spend on video games so often times I will trade in games I have beaten or gotten sick of and get new ones. Well, new to me at least. Now I know that I am not directly paying the studios who developed those games when I buy a used one, but I am very cognizant of who developed what and if I like one of their games, chances are I will eventually set aside enough money to purchase their newest game full price.

Some examples that come to mind are the Grand Theft Auto games and Saints Row games soon thereafter. One day while browsing Gamestop with some trade in cred, I saw a copy of Vice City for the PS2 and decided to check it out. Boom, hooked. Since then I have bought them when they came out at Best Buy or Walmart and even played GTA4, traded it in, and then when it came out for games on demand, I bought it again! I loved the GTA games so much that when I heard abut Saints Row I had to check it out so I got a used copy of the first one and I loved it.

So anyway, I originally started this so I could write about Forza2. That's right. I have never really been into the whole racing simulator kind of games, preferring Burnout arcade style for fun. It was on one of my Gamestop trips that I had a few extra dollars left over on my card and decided to take a look at the "bargain" bin. Amidst the Perfect Dark Zeros and Kameo games I saw a special two game promotion of Forza2 and Marvel Ultimate Alliance. I figured I would at least like the Marvel game and two games for 8 bucks is a heck of a deal right?! So now I am playing Forza2 just to give it a try, and I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT! I haven't even touched the Marvel game yet! On that trip I also picked up Brutal Legend, the Batman Arkham City goty edition, and Dragon Age Origins. All for less than $40!

Again, I know it is better had I bought them outright instead of through Gamestop's evil (as everyone seems to suggest) trade program, but had I not been able to get these older games for cheap, I might never have gotten into those different genres and instead probably would have just stuck to the FPS's as a safe bet. Just a thought.