Have you ever wondered where you can get a cheap, used copy of a game you’re to embarrassed to admit you even like? Have you ever wondered where you can get the biggest bang for your buck when trading games in? Well, now you can because there’s an app for that!
The app we’re talking about today is called GameBook Mobile by Game Trading Technologies Inc. I was a little bit hesitant about downloading this app, although free, simply because other apps I have tried in the past only allow you to store 5 games, then they want you to buy the “full” app for anywhere between $4.99 and $9.99. I was not disappointed by GameBook Mobile. Let’s take a look at its features:
- Library: Enter the names of your games and store them in your library
- Trade-in prices: The app scours the region to find up to the minute trade-in value of the games you have loaded into the application.
- Store Locator: Locate stores in your region that accept trade-ins for any of the games in your library
- E-mail capabilities: You can e-mail your collection to others both to share and discuss trade-in value
If you have an iPhone 3GS or iPhone 4, you can use the camera to scan the barcode on the back of the game case to load it into your library. If you have an iPhone 3G, you will need to either search by the barcode or the name of the game.
I tested this application out on my iPhone 3G. It was fairly simple to use, but there are some positive and negative points, so let’s break this application down.
PROs
- You didn’t need to enter the full name of the game. So, when searching for Assassin’s Creed, I only typed “Creed” and it was still top of the list.
- Once you have searched for the game, it allows you to select whether it is a game you own or a game you want. Works perfectly for me because I rent and borrow a lot games, then can never remember what they were called.
- The app also lets you select whether or not you would trade that game in. Ranges from “Definitely” to “Maybe” to “Definitely Not”. Not very useful for me, because I don’t trade in games, so I just hit OK and used the default setting of “maybe”.
- I really liked that the application uses the trade-in value and adds up how much your collection is worth.
CONs
- When entering a name, such as Assassin’s Creed (above), you need to enter the name EXACTLY as listed. As I mentioned, I entered “Creed” but that was because when I entered “Assassins Creed” it didn’t bring any results. I realise that it because I forgot the possessive apostrophe. The same happened when I entered FEAR 2 – should be entered as F.E.A.R. 2.
- The search function takes much more time than I had expected. Not vey long, but still over 30 seconds.
- I also did not like that I could not sort My Collection. It defaults to alphabetical order, which is fine, but I would have preferred to sort by console. I didn’t realise this until after I had loaded my Xbox 360, Xbox, PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 3 games.
Overall, it was a nice application. It has definitely been added to my iPhone and will continue to be used. The best part – the application is FREE!
