12/06/2010

Bayonetta again



This time I found out an unusual slipcase for this game and I couldn't resist so I ended up buying.
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Coffrets, Sondereditions and Boxsets...


One thing about Europe is that it has so many different countries with different languages that some countries sometimes receive special box sets and limited editions unavailable in the other countries. Like the example bellow... a french edition of Sonic Dark Chronicles. here are several other packs like this one for other consoles as well. There's even at least another French DS Sonic Rush Adventure pack that I hope to get some time soon.
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Super Mario Galaxy Wiiiii :)


I though the previous game was amazing. I simply could not expect that they could do an even better one. Super Mario Galaxy 2 is just amazing, impressive, awesome, I'm having a lot of fun playing this game. If you have a Wii and don't have the game yet, go buy it! It's a must!
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Red Steel 2


The first game was no big deal. But this one came out better. Play.com released a special preorder pack with a couple of extra stuff. It's nothing more than an extra box with some codes, postcards and a bullet replica. I bought it with this pack that comes with the Wii MotionPlus.
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I felt cheated this time.


Demon's Souls, a really good game that was not coming to Europe. After a while I thought I'd have to import it, even though I'm not a fan of importing games because my priority is always PAL. Then I checked the only place I could find the Deluxe Edition. And when I saw the prices, I nearly passed out.

But I managed to find a factory sealed version of this beauty somehow. And I still payed a bit, but not the abusive prices I saw on ebay. The next couple of days a certain Black Phantom Edition was announced to Europe... Oh well, it was too late as I already bought the Deluxe Edition and decided to keep it anyway, specially knowing how much a sealed edition may be worth in the future.
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Alan what? Awakens? Sorry what's that?


Well, I have not played this game yet, I don't know exactly what it is about and I have only seen pictures of it and heard it had a limited edition. When I realized it was good and people were buying this edition so fast, I decided to get it as well otherwise I'd be stuck with a used copy in the future. It's not usual for me to buy a game without knowing about it. It's a much bigger crime when that game is a good one. But even I have my sins as a collector. And I bought this game with closed eyes this time. Call me whatever you want.
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Back to the days when Disney Games were amazing...


If you collect older Sega games chances are you must have heard about this before. It's no big deal, but now the most Mega Drive and Master System dedicated collectors usually search for this particular box set. I never searched for this too much but I eventually came across for a good price and decided to pick it up.

This is the Disney collection double pack that comes with two games inside a plastic case. It was supposed to come with two Disney games for Mega Drive, Master System or possibly Game Gear (not sure about this last one because the boxes don't fit so well). The pack I found still had the original paper insert but only came with one disney game. I took the picture rom the back of the box because, well, it looks better.
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Go to Hell!!

Well, this was another game released around the time Darksiders came out but unlike that game this one actually caught my attention. The game's nothing special though, I was expecting a hit but after all the game's josu average/good for some. But anyway that's not the point of this post...

I knew there was a Divine Edition released in the US. Over here (in Europe) we received an edition of the same caliber called Death Edition. But then I came across something that's probably quite rare... There was actually an european release for both PS3 and Xbox 360 of a Divine Edition in a much larger boxset that included and extra action figure. I was quite surprised and still managed to snatch a sealed one. I already know that some companies like to offer certain gimmicks exclusie to one particular country, but EA seems to be giving particular attention to this one country that gets exclusive stuff like this...

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The Darkside also Shines. I totally underestimated this game.



This was one game that did not convince me the least when I first saw it in action. Darksiders, your usual DMC/GoW ripoff with little innovation hits the shelves, gets the good review scores, sells well enough. I wasn't very convinced. To tell the truth I only expected to buy this game much later (and much cheaper...) but then I came across what seemed to be a promotional case for the game that I had not seen before. So I picked it and when I got it I was quite surprised to find out it was actually a press kit.

Now, to admit my mistake as an experienced and advanced videogame collector and player (/Bullshit) when it comes to evaluate games from looking at screenshots, trailers and reviews before actually playing them, I have to admit that I was quite wrong this time and this game is actually good. Unlike many other failed attepts to copy elements from successfull videogames, this one actually does the job quite well in mixing all the elements together. Being an action/adventure game (the hack and slash sort), you will find way too many similarities with games like GoW, DMC, Soul Reaver and even bits of Zelda or Shadow of Collossus, all adapted in a good way.

And to apologize for understimating this game, I really felt like writing my personal review about this game.

-The gameplay is good, a little repetitive but still fun to play once you get used. The combat system is very simple, no tough strategies required, just fun to play. It may make the game easy, but honestly I found it fun this way.
- As the game develops, the scenarios keep getting more and more interesting and involving, with a great diversity of environments. There are forests, sewers, destroyed cities, deserts, underground areas, devilish dungeons, chathedrals and several different scenarios you can visit and explore, and they all connect close to each other quite well. The "snake holes" used to travel to certain points you visited already actually works well and allows you to go back to a previous location without needing to walk all the way back. You even get the horse later, which helps travelling faster in certain open areas.
- The map system can be quite confusing though, as it seems to work with layers that have different intensity (the highlighted rooms is the level where you are, whereas the faded rooms are either above or bellow and have their own highlighted map if you press up or down in the analog stick). To make it clear how confusing it can be, sometimes you look at the map, you can see where you are and the room you want to go to and there's no easy way to tell exactly how to go from one room to another in the same area because the map makes it look easy to acess the rooms but then you find out they are in different floors.
- The weapons, skills and abilities you gain throughout the game as you clear the tasks will make you to go back to previously visited areas and allow you to explore further to get to secret chests and items. This is nothing new, even games like Land of Illusion on SMS were great at allowing to revisit areas to find more stuff. Some of the abilities and weapons are not that original, such as the grappling hook) that allow you to swing using the shiny thingys in the air, but then there's the teleport ability that allows you to travel between portals that must be activated manually in pairs (haven't really seen anything similar before), or the one that allows you to see paths and chests that can't normally be seen. Although this doesn't add much replay value to the game, at least it makes tempting to go back and find stuff you couldn't access before. And there are plenty of secret areas and chests to explore.

So there you go. The game at first seems just another one, the "seen before, done that" type. But in the end it is a game that has its own way to develop and becomes quite interesting to play and to explore. The gameplay factor also helps a lot too. The fact that you can play little bits of other games, all in one, became a good thing. And unlike many other games that last half a dozen hours or litle more before the end, this one actually took me over 18 hours to beat. Not many recent action adventure games can take that long to beat, really. And that's something I consider very positive about this game.
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05/06/2010

It's 2000 now!

Yep. Nearly 15 years ago I only had like 30 games. And for me, I thought that was a lot. I hardly believe I came this far. When I started collecting I never expected to reach such an amount of games. I wasn't sure how long I'd have the patience to keep going forward. It takes a lot of patience and time (not to mention... money), far more than I actually expected. I'm constantly dealing with decisions of what I should buy now or later, as I never know when certain things will not show up for years like it happened before. But I'm quite glad with my current collection and will keep going. A massive update will follow in the next few days :)
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