A gamers trip to the supermarket

Went to [insert brand name here] today, mainly to get supplies for the 24 hour deathathon on Tuesday, but I also, being a gamer, a took a look at some of the games they had on show. Oh they were classics. It makes me laugh as someone who knows a little bit about games (not that I'm special or anything, most people would be interested) when good games, but old ones, are priced at similar prices, or lower, as those made on a shoestring budget with all the programming prowess of a kitten.

For example, on one particular PC game section, both Rome: Total War, Medieval: Total  War (not the newer one) and STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl were priced at around £5-6, which is pretty good deals if you don't own them, especially the total war games, but below that, 'AIR FORCE [[LOCK ON]]' (yes, was wrote like that) with cover art which would deemed below standard by a  nursery assistant, was priced at £8. This may not seem much, but I remember seeing it a while ago, priced even higher.

A problem that that I and many others seem to suffer from is a deep feeling of sadness when games we know are excellent titles, Final Fantasy XII and Okami and hidden behind 'Hard Rock Casino' and 'Super Kart F1', with a price point which matches them. Why, why, why. But, although we are talking supermarkets here, and I expect to see budget crap around every turn, but this is also becoming the case in mainstream game shops.

Can this be blamed on the Wii's casual influence. Partly I suppose, as games are generally being sold to more and more people, and this includes junk like Wii Party. I was going to buy some and see what they were actually like, but would prefer to wait till, I don't know, a good game comes out perhaps.