How much did it really cost you to finish a game?

[PaulBot]

WOOHOO! I FINALLY finished Half Life 2 today. I've had it since the day it released, but since I've got a job, family, house, etc etc etc, it's been slow going. Sometimes I'll go three weeks without playing it.

My wife has been saying she'd like a break from being a mom, so I gave her two nights lodging on the Oregon coast for a Valentines Day present. She left this past Wednesday and came back today (Friday). The weather couldn't have been better: Oregon has been having an unusually dry and warm winter and she loved it.

Anyways, while she's gone, my gaming time increases. Wednesday and Thursday I played HL2 from 8:30pm (both kids in bed) until 1 or 1:30 am. Today I played an hour while our youngest napped, and I finally finished the game!

So, the real cost of getting through HL2 goes something like this:

$50 the game
$320 two nights lodging for my wife
$75 food and other stuff while she was gone
who knows what I'm forgetting
Approx total: $445

I gotta break this gaming habit - it's too expensive.  :lol:

[Harpua3]

After days or weeks of seeing this post and seeing noone reply, I`ll chime in. :wink:
 I just realised a few years ago everytime I bought a game(well, not everytime but...) my wife would go buy something from the gap or something else in the mall. Then we would go out to dinner etc. By the time we got home and I installed the game I realised we had spent...

 $50.00 game of some sort
 $20-50.00ish on something else at the mall
 $25-50.00 dinner
 
 Heh,  went out for a $50 game and spent 100 bucks...WTF?!? Heh. Needless to say she doesn`t go with me to pick up games anymore :roll: . We can`t be spending money to feed and cloth her :wink: .

 But honestly, we have noticed that we are better off just avoiding the mall. The plaza stores are better, park closer, in and out faster, and you don`t spend money on "other" things as easy. For instance I`m going to the mall in a few minutes to pick up a game(alone :wink: )and I`ve already decided to get a hot pretzel.  Like I said I try to not frequently go to the mall, but the plaza store doesn`t have what I want! :evil:

[whiteboyskim]

I haven't spent a lot of money on gaming recently, but emotional time has been costly. Got Half-Life 2, that was followed by Halo 2, which was followed by GTA: SA which was immediately followed by Mercenaries. Basically, that was some hard-core gaming since November and with the wife in law school, I figured why not?

Oh, that was the wrong assumption. She was none too pleased about all of that, but we did get a good honeymoon inserted into the tail end of that, and some dinners here and there. So I can think it all balanced out, but I enjoy living in fantasy land.

[Harpua3]

So I can think it all balanced out, but I enjoy living in fantasy land.

 I want to move there. Fantasy land, that is. :wink:

 I`m going to have less free time from now on, so I`ll slow down. I figure over the next few months I play my backlog and only pickup a few titles here an there. Or so I say... :twisted: Seriously though, I`m going to slow down like I said and save up for next-gen console/s.

[whiteboyskim]

No joke. Backlog games are the only things I'm playing for a good while (re: until FEAR comes out). I've got so many that several have been on my desk unfinished for two years (I'm looking at you, Mafia). On the plus side, it keeps the bank account happy.

[Harpua3]

Mafia=pure gaming goodness! Enjoy!

[gameoverman]

With limited gaming time, I don't know that I'd recommend Mafia to anyone. All your gaming time will sucked up by having to replay the same levels over and over and over and over again...due to the supremely stupid save game system that title uses.

[Harpua3]

I didn`t really have a hard time with it at all, and I`mnot great at games or anything. The save system is silly, and I don`t really like it BUT...it didn`t ruin the game at all for me. To each his/her own.

[Calvin]

With limited gaming time, I don't know that I'd recommend Mafia to anyone. All your gaming time will sucked up by having to replay the same levels over and over and over and over again...due to the supremely stupid save game system that title uses.

Saves were liberally sprinkled through most levels, and other than...3 or 4 very frustrating levels it was a non issue methinks. Mafia was also one of the best games of the last several years. A brilliant exercise in storytelling and fun gameplay to boot.