Gamezebo has published a review of Ultimate Collector: Garage Sale, the upcoming game from Richard Garriott and Portalarium. Their take: interesting concept that offers lots to do, if you don’t mind some waiting around and middle-of-the-pack graphics.

Richard “Lord British” Garriott is The Man. His games have defined and re-defined RPGs and MMORPGs. He’s been to space. There is a widely-distributed picture of him sitting, stone-faced, with a crown on his head. Plus, he adores collecting weird stuff. Ultimate Collector: Garage Sale is Garriott’s Facebook-based love letter to swap meets, gar(b)age sales, and humankind’s love for pawing through other people’s trash like starving raccoons. It’s a unique experience that collectors will love, and it’s proof that despite Garriott’s accolades, he’s just a slob like one of us. And that’s awesome.

..

The premise behind Ultimate Collector isn’t unlike what’s already been done in Pawn Stars: The Game, but Ultimate Collector is admittedly a much deeper experience. You don’t sit back and wait for the bargains to come in. You need to read the papers, get out there, and see what’s what.

Granted, Ultimate Collector looks pretty ugly, and it comes with the usual social game trappings like a limited energy supply and long waits between offers. Still, if you love hunting for yard sales and running your hands over a sun-warmed G1 Transformer that’s been discolored by another person’s cigarette smoke, there’s no question that you’ll get a kick out of Ultimate Collector.

You know…we (that is: me, the Dragoness, and the Dragonlets) moved to one of Edmonton’s bedroom communities earlier this summer, and it’s very much a “garage sale community” during the summer. The city paper publishes a weekly list of garage sales — hours and addresses — basically every week, and the Dragoness reports that a goodly number of people seem to do the “garage sale circuit”. You have to get to such events early, lest you find that all the good and interesting things have already sold.

If Ultimate Collector has captured that sentiment even in part, I can see it doing very well. Heck, I can even see the Dragoness playing it, if so. Especially if it ever becomes available on her iPhone.