Child of Sticker Shock

"I'm sure we'll always argue when it's the wrong or right time to criticize a game's length, but Child of Eden's got to be the wrongest."- Ray Barnholt, probably thinking the opposite of what I'm about to say

Hey guys, what's going on? It's a beautiful day here in Florida, and I'm inside on my computer, blogging. Priorities, people.

So, a video game came out on Tuesday. No, I'm not talking about Duke Nukem Forever, although I did receive my Xbox 360 Balls of Steel Edition version today and will talk about it in the future. I'm talking about Child of Eden, that Kinect-enhanced rail shooter from Ubisoft and Q Entertainment. If you've played Rez, then you'll recognize the themes coming from the same cloth.

I've been reading the reviews, and a lot of the same words keep coming up. "Beautiful". "Awe-inspiring". "Memorable." "Oh, and each level takes about twenty minutes to complete."

wat

::checks Amazon and Gamestop for price::

$50 for a game that I can beat in an afternoon? Wow, Ubisoft made a dick move that Bobby Kotick thinks is dickish.

I have no problem with the game itself, mind you, don't get me wrong. I have a problem with the price.

The thing I have about the price is the relative value in comparison with some other shoot-em-ups I can buy. I look at XBLA, and see plenty of good ones for $10, like CoE's spiritual predecessor, Rez, Ikaruga, and the like. Hell, I still think that the $15 that's going to be charged for Radiant Silvergun is reasonable. Why? I guess it could be the value proposition. It'll take a couple of hours to beat those games, too, but it's easier to rationalize spending $10-15 on something that long compared to $50. $30-40 might be pushing it a little bit, but for a retail title as opposed to an XBLA title, I'd consider it. $50 is right out until I can find a deal where I can go ahead and bite.

"But wait", you say, "what about the replay value of shoot-em-ups?" That's a good question, but Child of Eden, much like Rez, relies heavily on the audiovisual experience. The first time you see it, it's probably going to be awesome, the second time, you're like "the awesomeness may wear off a bit", and so on. That's just the way video games are built, that's all. Once you memorize all the patterns and unlock all the unlockables and achievements, you're probably just only going to bring it out once in a while to impress friends and show off your AV setup.

Will I buy Child of Eden? Eventually, but only once the value proposition comes into play. I actually heard that K-Mart is handing out $15 gift cards if you buy this game, I'm going to go see if I can still do that.

I hope this makes a little sense, I leave the floor open for comments.