It's April, and I've got a hundred bucks put away for my gaming habit this month. I haven't bought much in the past few months, what with getting the SNES and all, the sole exception being Chrono Trigger.

So I went out shopping on Vancouver's main drag, Robson Street, with a budget in my mind, and some games on my shopping list. To wit, these games are: Professor Layton's Curious Village and Call of Duty 4. After visiting the HMV Superstore (formerly the Virgin Megastore), Future Shop, and London Drugs, I came away empty handed. That's right: none of these stores had either game. Honestly, as far as Professor Layton goes, I'm not that surprised. Most big electronics and games retailers aren't poised to appreciate weird creative games that aren't movie tie-ins and don't have "z" as their pluralizer. But why the hell is Call of Duty 4 sold out?

The mall that houses the local EB Games, of course, closes at 7pm on Mondays and Tuesdays, and I got there at 7:30 PM. I think it was at that point I started mumbling "Vancouver sucks!" under my breath, but then stopped, because that's something that a crazy person would do.

Now they did have some other games around, which I thought about but didn't buy. As much as I'd like to get a new game, I'm not going to pay more than I want for something I'm on the fence about. Let's have a look at what they did have in stock, and why I didn't get it:

Rainbow Six: Vegas 2

Price: $64.99-69.99
Why I Didn't Buy It: I'm not sure how much I would enjoy this game. I also am not sure whether I should go for the PlayStation3 or 360 version, although in this case, I am leaning more towards the 360 as I have a lot more friends with 360s than PS3s. Either way, the big draw for me is the split screen multiplayer and playing it with Rooo, but those sessions only happen about once a week for two or so hours, and I don't even know if he'd have any interest in that. Besides, I always want these games to be like SWAT 4, and when I hear that there are "enemy spawn points" I just sigh internally and cross the game off my list. Unless the price drops soon, or I hear incredibly fantastic stories about playing this, I don't know if I would pick it up. If I do get it, I'm going to have to borrow Rooo's Live Vision Camera so I can put myself in the game.

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates

Price: $39.99 - ??? (Future Shop didn't have any price tags on it.)
Why I Didn't Buy It: This is another one that I want to play multiplayer with Rooo, but he's hesitant about picking it up until he's had a chance to try it himself. The thing is, nine times out of ten when Rooo borrows a game to see if he likes it, he tries it for a few minutes, puts it down, and then says "eh" and won't buy it. So I think odds of him actually picking this one up are slim to none, which means I'd have to play it solo, and I pretty much hate playing DS games solo.

Rainbow Six: Vegas

Price: $29.99-49.99
Why I Didn't Buy It: I must admit to being tempted when I saw this for $30 at Future Shop. I'm not sure if it has the same great co-op gameplay, though, and there's something empty and lifeless about Ubisoft shooters that leaves them collecting dust on my shelf, like GRAW and those Splinter Cell games.

Buzz

Price: $39.99
Why I Didn't Buy It: I wanted something I could play right now, rather than something I would have to wait to get a group of friends around to play. I do like the idea, though, of absolutely destroying Rooo and his roommate at a trivia game, though, and I've heard that this one is much, much better than the Scene It rip off.

Call of Duty 4 (PS3)

Price: $49.99-59.99
Why I Didn't Buy It: Once again, the PlayStation3's shitty online service and the lack of people I know with PS3s rears its ugly head. Plus I'm not sure how much I like the awful R2 and L2 buttons for shooting. It seems like a game I'd be happier playing on the 360.

Skate

Price: $69.99
Why I Didn't Buy It: Seventy bucks. SEVENTY BUCKS? The game is like eight years old. Alright. A year and a half. Seventy bucks? Tell them they're dreaming.

The Club

Price: $49.99
Why I Didn't Buy It: I'm on the fence about this one. I like the idea of the short burts of gameplay, and the idea of playing for score, but I don't know if I could sucker anyone else into competing with me for scores. They only had it for PS3, and honestly, I couldn't remember whether or not there was a 360 version. It could be a surprisingly good game like Mercenaries turned out to be, but the character design looks so bland and uninspired... I do have a lot of respect for Bizarre, so should I give or take ten bucks and consider it in the forty dollar range? I don't know.

The main problem with the big budget 360 games is that they're all shooters (except for Skate), and they're all what I would call Forty Dollar Games. Games that I would pick up for about thirty bucks less, but I wouldn't pay full retail for because, frankly, I don't think I'd end up playing them for more than a week or two. Now I'm not going to go on a rant about how games are too expensive - I think that paying $60-70 for a game that you are going to sink twenty or more hours into and really enjoy the hell out of, that's fine. But for these kind of generic sounding shooters which rely heavily on multiplayer... I only get into multiplayer sometimes, and I rarely feel like devoting more than an hour or two to trying to hack through them online, unless I'm playing with friends.

So, what should I be picking up with my hundred bucks? I'll wait and see with Rooo this weekend and get some of his input. I can always order Professor Layton off of amazon... how have you people been enjoying the above games? Anyone doing the multiplayer grind with Crystal Chronicles? Think I could sucker Rooo into getting it as well? Of course, I could buy two copies and have that be my game budget for the month, but... I don't think I'm that nice.