Don't know what is it like these days but back in my Uni days back in 2001-2002, most of the shops have special offers and bundle deals, I was in Melbourne, VIC.

I bought all 3 of my consoles in Melbourne, PS2 (GT3 pack), XBOX (Halo pack) and the Gamecube from Toys R Us. They had a special bundle where it came with the console, the memory card, extra controller, 2 games (you get your pick of the launch games and I picked Luigi's Mansion and Rogue Leader) plus they throw in some vouchers for your next purchase. If you wait, you might get special bundles as well, like the DOA4 bundle that we have etc.



When I was there, the games cost me AUS $99 per game, slightly higher if they were by Konami. However, most Konami games at that time were 2 discs, normally the 2nd disc were bonus materials like the making of the game, interviews etc.

Example, my Silent Hill 2 came with 4 discs I think and it was AUS $109.95. I bought Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons Of Liberty online from Sony Australia and it was about that price as well. But I got an MGS t-shirt from the promotion buying online. The Zone of The Enders also cost me AUS $109.95 but that came with a demo disc of MGS2: SOL and I bought that game just for the playable demo (YES, I'm a big MGS fan! )

Games are pretty easy to get there in Australia, or at least for PS2, XBOX and the Cube. You could go to places like Electronics Boutique (got a free The Rock Action figure when I pre-ordered my WWF Smackdown: Just Bring It! game from them). You can also go to places like Target, Myer, Harvey Norman.



If you would like to buy online, I suggest you try out the site Burn Direct. I heard they're pretty good although personally, I never bought anything from them before. With all the shops listed above plus some other shops which weren't chain stores, I was spoilt for choice. I just went round seeing which place gave the best deal.

Sometimes they give freebies, sometimes you get discounts during the shop's sales. I got Tekken Tag Tournament for AUS $49.95 when they released the Platinum Hits version of it. I hated the packaging as it had a silver/platinum border around the front cover but I managed to get the original version at the Platinum Hits price!

You need to be careful with Aussie games though. There was a time when the GTA: Vice City (PAL) was censored and edited. (Think it was the big news about GTA before the recent Hot Coffee mod).

I bought my PAL version online via a site from New Zealand which was not censored.

My advice, if you get it from Australia, is to have a look around. In fact, support there was so good at that time that when Microsoft Australia actually sent me a free game (Fusion Frenzy). All I had to do was to send them the receipt that I bought my XBOX and they sent me a game FOC.

Also, do join the official Playstation/XBOX/Nintendo sites and look out for promotions for free demos. I remember Sony had a lot of demos given away for free everytime a new game was about to be launched. I got a whole bunch of demos in the mail. Sometimes, you had to be the first 100 or something like that, but so far, I've been pretty lucky.

Good luck hunting and happy gaming!

This post has been edited by Bigfoot-X: Feb 21 2007, 12:41 AM

What 2 free games did you get? I honestly can't remember what the free game was for but I do remember the condition that you had to buy the XBOX before a certain date and the receipt/proof of purchase was required. Maybe like you said, it was for those who bought the console before the price drop?

There was once I was in a store in the city specializing in games and dvds and there were people from Microsoft Australia checking up on stuff. Think they were doing inventory/stock take at that store.

Never played XBOX Live - planning to get a 360 now though.....