I reckon so, yes. I've bought a few games and some of the forumers have as well. Reputable online game shops such as pla-asia.com is pretty good and efficient. But i'm not so sure if the price is any better than getting it locally at your shops. There are also risks involved such as a delay in delivery and lost packages. Make sure that the company you are buying from is reputable and provides insurance coverage on your game. This will make sure that if somehow your package is lost in the post, it can be replaced with a new one. Although this process usually takes up to 3-4 weeks at best.

So why buy online if it is slower, not cheaper, and risky? I actually have no idea.

Let's face it, PS3 gaming IS expensive in Malaysia. Each games costs the player an average RM160 - RM200 brand new depending on where you live. Gamers outside of KL and Selangor often complains of limited stock and higher than average prices from local retailers. This is to be expected as the demand for games in cities like Penang and JB might be robust, but not enough to inspire a saturated market.

It doesn't mean that KLites and Selangorians have it easy. We also have to constantly be on the lookeout for bargain buys and building rapport with traders have helped a tremendous deal. My particular favourite shop is TECHQ in cineleisure. They might not be the flashiest, but the guys are friendlier and more down to earth than their neighboring store - you know who you are! It sells games at a very reasonable price and you always get the satisfaction of haggling for the almost mandatory 10% discount. I suppose a shop gets its vote based on the level of convenience, service and most importantly the price of games.

Unfortunately, the PS3 gaming library is fast growing and no less than 2 or 3 major titles are released each month. This can become quite a strain on the old wallet. It would mean that a player might need to put aside as much as RM500-RM600 per month solely for games. Now, most PS3 gamers I have met are young professionals ranging from the age of 20 - 30 and even though this amount is relatively affordable, it doesn't really inspire economic sense. So at most, our wives will allow us to buy 1 or 2 games a month, depending on how we ask them. This brings me to my next point: trading.

Trading has been around for a while and most people in Malaysia have traded and CODied in one form or another and at some point or another in their lives. In my opinion, it is the best way to experience PS3 gaming. For us professionals, we do not have the luxury of spending countless hours in front of the TV like we used to. Not only are we less energetic, we also suffer from a dwindling attention span. I used to be able to replay MGS many times in different Snake outfits. Nowadays though, I would have to labour through the first play through and get as many things done before I finish the game. I suppose deep in my heart I knew I won't have time to play it again.

A quick search will bring you to two popular sites http://forum.gamerzunited.net and http://forum.lowyat.net . It doesn't really matter which one you choose as most forumers post identical ads on both sites anyway. Both sites have a user friendly user control panel and Personal Messaging system. Great tools and very internet friendly.

PART I: BUYING

How do you go about it? The most important thing to think about is supply and demand. Go through the forum to find out how many of a particular game you are looking for is on sale. A new game with a very good review from popular internet sites such as IGN and Gamespot will usually have a higher demand.

Big Titles


Big titles and PS exclusives are also in high demand. This means they usually fetch a higher price. Right now its April 2010 and God of War 3 has just been released for a few weeks. Retail price of a new game stood at around RM195 and second hands are going for as high as RM170! The sellers believe that there are a lot of people looking for this game and even a tiny reduction of 10% would interest buyers. If you can't wait and really want to play the game, get it straight away. Even if you only save 10-20% of a brand new game, it is still worth it. PS3 users are very careful with their games and the condition is usually almost brand new bar the plastic packaging. Getting a second hand game early mean that you can actually resell it at almost the same price when you bought it. Try to negotiate as much as you can. Usually sellers will give a small discount (but I've rarely gotten anything above RM10) for these popular games. Look at the date of the post and how long it has been on the forum. If it is still fresh, it would be harder for you to negotiate. A post that has been around for more than a week might mean that the seller is a little bit more desperate to sell as the market starts to become saturated. More and more people will want to sell and the price will slowly drop. I estimate that the price drops about 10-15% a month and plateus at the RM120-140 mark for a few months. Then after, when it has become a 'classic' it will remain around the RM100 mark.

Series

This means that the title is part of a series e.g. Assassin Creed, FIFA, BioShock etc. There's a general guideline that most sports game become obsolete as soon as a new one hits the shelf, so most gamers will start selling their old football games 1-3 months before the new one comes out. If you are not particularly sussed about playing a previous version of a sports game, then it shouldn't really be a problem for you. Most FIFA and PES series can be bought at around RM80-90 a few months before the new one is released. Sometimes, even less. The other types of serial games however, adopts a weird formula. They usually follow the normal depreciation rule, but a few months before the next instalment arrives, they suddenly rise slightly in value. This is probably due to new gamers who had not played the previous serie and wishes to do so before the new one comes out; therefore increasing demand in the market. In this case, you might want to hold off buying this type of games as you might be paying more than you ought to.

Under-rated Games

There are a lot of games out there which are very good and received favourable reviews but never sold well. Games such as Infamous, Far cry, Brutal Legend were all great to play, but they are very genre specific and therefore doesn't appeal to many people. Snap these up on the trade market as soon as their value drop. You can really score a whole lot of bargain here. Just make sure that you haggle for the lowest price. These games won't trade well, so seller might be more accomodating to your needs.

New PS3 users

New PS3 users are a lucky bunch. You guys get to buy a lot of really great games for less than half their original prices. Scour around for great classics such as Metal Gear Solid 4, Grand Theft Auto 4, Warhawk, etc which at the moment should be selling at low prices and they are fantastic games with a very long shelf life to boot.

I'll continue this article later and talk about dealing with sellers. Have a good week~

FIFA 10


Before the time of Playstation 3, the FIFA franchise had never really interested me. Pro Evolution Soccer was taking over Playstation 2 and everything was well. We were treated with strange updated versions of the WE/PES series every 6 months or so and whether each version was an improvement of the latter had not really been an issue. WE would win over FIFA in a fight on any given weekend. Unfortunately, and apologies to die-hard WE fans, Konami did not ‘bring it’ when it came to the next-gen console installments. WE 2007 and WE 2008 were both quite disappointing in a lot of areas, specifically in terms of branding and licensing. You see, it didn’t really matter to PS2 users that Konami never got any of the licenses for their games because the fact of the matter was that the gameplay triumphed over any other football simulations out there. With PS3 users however, HD gaming demanded more attention to detail and gamers were less forgiving. That was when EA released FIFA 08 / 09 which in my view was the nail in the coffin for the WE/PES franchise. Slick player movements combined with intuitive dribbling made the game so enjoyable to play and with EA’s longstanding licensing agreements with major leagues around the world and FIFA, which meant that you get to play Roberto Carlos instead of Roberto Larcos.

It was a foregone conclusion that a lot of WE fans were shamelessly crossing over to FIFA in 2009, albeit quietly. Deep down in their hearts, they were gunning for the little guy to come up with a miracle of a football game come 2010. A lot of us were muttering around street corners “serves them right” and “they’ll think twice before coming up with that shite again”. Nevertheless, by the time FIFA 10’s demo came out, everyone was already sold.

I am not going to a review because there are a lot of reviews out there already. I would just like to write down the reasons why I think the FIFA franchise is on the up and up.

First of all, unlike other genres, sport games are all about simulation gameplay. Prime examples can be chosen from the likes of Grand Turismo, the Madden and NHL franchises and various Tiger Woods reincarnations. One thing FIFA has done well over the years is to ensure that all their products carry the unique authentic quality of a live sport telecast. Everything from camera angles, motion captures, down to the commercial aspects of the sport had been given the full attention it deserved. Most football fans all over the world do not have the luxury of watching their favorite teams week in week out in England. We have had to make do with live telecast from ASTRO or gratuity from a nearby mamak franchise. And to be honest, sponsorships and the commerce is a big part of the game today. Tell me that you weren’t secretly rooting for Norwich when they had Proton as their sponsors.

Secondly, presentation. Believe me when I say that I bought WE 2008 when it was released, and as soon I got to the menu, I immediately thought “I must be dreaming, its 2005 and I am playing on my PS2”. A lot of people would agree with me when I say that the menu was a lot left to be desired. EA, however, has had years of experience when it comes to this. Even before the new millennium, their menus were slick and tidy, reminiscent of Apple commercials with their white backgrounds and silver trims. FIFA 09 and FIFA 10 both benefited from a well designed menu, and as I have mentioned earlier, HD gamers demand a lot more value from their games today. We buy originals nowadays and they are not cheap.

Third, gameplay. In ancient past, this was the single bastion of why you would always choose PES over FIFA any day. The speed of a PES game combined with its intricate movements and realistic team play crushed FIFA’s sluggish and awkward gameplay. I was talking to my fellow gamers about what they remembered most about the old FIFA games and one thing made us laugh: the invincible goal keepers. You couldn’t score if the game didn’t want you to score. There were cheap goals abound too. Solo runs from the center circle, ridiculous long shots etc. The new game changed that completely. FIFA 08 and 09 intuitive dribbling system was superbly done. FIFA 10’s 360 player control however, pawns. Finally it felt like you are playing on Playstation 3, and not the old Playstation 2. The Virtual Pro addition is remarkably and insanely good. After Fight Night 4’s image upload became an instant hit, the same concept was brought over to FIFA 10. To be honest with you, it is a really underrated technology. As I was reviewing a lot of reviews on the internet, not a lot of them really scrutinize this new element in gaming. I am predicting that in the near future, most games will incorporate this into their gameplay. I see a lot of massive potential in RPGs and the GTA series.


The game is however, not without fault. The EA server, is in my opinion unforgiving to Malaysian Streamyx users. In my experience, frequent disconnections from the EA server is common and lag issues remained unattended from the previous version. FIFA 10 actually felt worse online compared to FIFA 09. The copy that I got suffered from jittered replays which didn’t flow as smoothly as the FIFA 09 version. Free kicks are too easy to convert. Stoke City will convert their free kicks 100% of the time. I kid you not. But you guys know that already.

Alarmingly, however, EA is customarily releasing a World Cup version of its game. This is truly worrying and potentially disastrous. It is hoped that this move is not merely economical, but substantial too. April 27th is the day to get this game, and foolishly, I will get a copy and gleefully I will do it too.