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Getting Some Play: Buyer beware

Welcome to Getting Some Play – the spiritual successor to Sarah Warn‘s excellent Good Game column – where we’ll take a look at the latest releases, news and developments in the world of video games.

Consumers are doing it for themselves

It’s been a long time coming, but the war between used game retailers (especially behemoth Gamestop) and publishers (who don’t see cash from used game sales) is finally coming to a head. Giant Bomb recently reported on a lawsuit one consumer brought against Gamestop, wherein he basically got screwed out of free DLC for buying a used copy of Dragon Age: Origins (the packaging gave no indication that the game must be a brand-new copy in order to get that content for free).

The result of that suit:

Unless an unexpected hiccup occurs, for the next two years, GameStop locations in California will have to better inform customers about downloadable content tied to new games when they purchase used, and, over the next several months, must pay $15 to anyone who bought a used game believing everything on the box was on the disc.

Buyer beware, much? In any event, this is a cautious step forward for consumer rights in a very new (and uncertain) field.

Incoming!

While it technically came out last week, Armanita Design’s beautiful adventure-ish title Botanicula is currently starring in its own very attractive humble bundle, and worth a mention in the new releases section. You can purchase the game for a convenient “name your own price,” and if you pay the average (currently below the $9 mark), you’ll get a host of awesome goodies, including the studio’s excellent 2009 point and click adventure Machinarium.

The biggest AAA release this week is Prototype 2, the sequel to 2010’s ambitious open world action adventure. It’s out on today on the 360 and PS3, and later in the summer for PC.

BloodForge is out on XBLA on the April 25, serving up brutal combat. The buzz isn’t great on this one, so if you still need an XBLA fix, you could do worse than to check out third person shooter Deep Black, also launching on Arcade on the April 25.

Walking Dead fans, a game based on your zombie series of choice is hitting quite a few platforms (PC, Mac, PS3, 360) on April 30.

PC RPG fans can look forward to Tera on May 1, and everyone can look forward to MineCraft on the 360 on May 8. Crafting on consoles? Hell yes.

Until next time, happy gaming!

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