Cheap is Good

And so to cheap video games. Bought "Pirates : The Legend of Black Kat" for ten quid (english pounds) on Saturday. Think it was some kind of fall out from the very good movie of almost the same name (but not related in any way - except that you do get to fight skeletons). I wasn't expecting much. It is a first generation XBOX title which had indifferent reviews when it came out. However, it is actually quite fun in a throw away kind of way. The sea battles are quite nice (especially when you've upgraded your ship and got a few extra canons on board) and the land based hacking and slashing is not too bad. The game is not in the Tomb Raider category (unless you compare it with the later releases - ho ho) but it passed a few hours in a quite pleasant manner. It suffers from "glass wall syndrome" in that sometimes you can't go that way because the darned thing just picks you up and places you back somewhere else, and it is starting to get a bit samey: Find a map to an island. Go there and blow up the enemy town. Go ashore and fight something. Get another map to another island. Repeat.

However, and this is my point folks, for ten quid I could have gone to see two movies, bought a couple of packets of fags (which would be really stupid since I don't smoke) or four or so pints of beer. In terms of the entertainment offered compared to that lot a cheap video game like this is quite good value. I can probably unload it for a fiver to someone else, and so it could end up costing me even less. So, if you want a means to while away a bank holiday a cheap game is not such a bad idea.