Unboxing Vids!

For the first time ever on this blog, here we have some of the unboxing vids of press kits I own. Let's start with a few PS3 Press kits unboxing vids:
- God of War 3 Media Kit
- Uncharted 1 Press Kit
- Uncharted 2 Fortune Hunter Edition
- PS3 MOVE Press Kit
- Killzone 2 Press kit
- Little Big Planet Press Kit
- Prince of Persia PS3 Press Kit

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Do NOT buy from this seler, I repeat... do NOT buy from...

We all know that ebay is no longer what it used to be. Not only the number of collectors grew drastically in the recent years (and many are ridiculously incrising the price of certain games and rare editions), but so did the number of speculators getting stuff for the sole purpose of selling them for much, MUCH more cash... people who don't give a s*it about games and only care about how much they're worth. To me, they are the Videogaming Mafia. But in this particular and completelly offtopic post I am making, which is not related with my collection but shows my concern about the terrible attitude some sellers have, I'm going to talk about the one most annoying sellers I've ever met in years of ebay trading... known as...

spence.77

I start by saying it's not the only nickname he uses. This guy is probably a great example of the amazing speculation that goes on these days. And let me explain why... I've cross roads with him several times but never really paid much attention. I thought he was just another collector. But when I finally found out who the guy with the red (now green) star trully was...

It all started when I lost a copy of Snatcher, a game I was looking for for some time. I was outbid by this guy whith the red star. Suddenly another copy of Snatcher shows up. This one even had the spine card. The red star guy wins again. Hum, ok... I eventually won one of the copies on ebay, which came from australia, thanks to a friendly seller who did not mind posting to me.Some time later I decided to try and get a Knuckles Chaotix for 32X on ebay. Suddenly, I was outbid again by a guy with a red star. I searched for other copies of the game... just to find out that the best ones were all being bought by the same guy. And not just that. The guy was also buying all copies of Panzer Dragoon Saga he could get. And finally, when a mint copy of Kolibri decides to appear on ebay, I am outbid by the guy with the red star. Again.

It was only some time later as I was trying to find a Sega Multi Mega that I came across some auctions from a seller named spence.77 who had them for sale. And not just that. As I was searching ebay, I noticed the guy was also selling several copies of Knuckles Chaotix and Snatcher. Including the one I lost with the spine card. But instead of costing a little over £100, the guy was asking more that £400 for it. And the same goes with all the other rare/expensive stuff he won, all being sold for stupidly high prices.
Thanks to this guy, who wants to make a monopoly out of ebay, some sellers and bidders were led to believe that some games are worth that much and now prices are rising more than ever.

I've seen other SEGA collectors complaining not just about his prices but seems that he also tries to cheat on some aucions for "sealed" sega games. He does sell the regular stuff for normal prices but nobody should buy anything from him for what he does.

I won't buy from and I won't sell for this guy. This guy's a Videogaming Mafia. Just to let you know, here's some discussions about him and other sellers in message boards:

http://www.racketboy.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=44&t=26553&start=20 http://shinobiman.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=ebay&action=display&thread=7923

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The next update...

Lately I've been updating the page much less than I used to in the past. Now that I look at it, it's been over 4 years since I started it. My collection was so small back then that it's almost... I don't know... amazing how far it came to be. I've said it before several times, but I never ever expected to see my collection reaching this point and still growing a lot.

Some pictures need to be taken in order to complete some of the posts I already wrote and I have not listed any regular games for a long time now. However, that doesn't mean anything besides the fact that I've been quite busy and with too much work to do. I still have some pretty good updates coming some, one of them will be something "big", quite "big", too "big" to be owned by a random guy like myself. And no I did not stop buying games even though I will have to slow down early next year. I have to save more money for other things in life, one of them being my dream trip to a certain place in this world.

I don't know when I'll have more spare time to keep this blog up to date, but sooner or later it will be refreshed with new stuff to show to the very few people who visit it regularly. I prefer it that way though.

I've also added some unboxing videos to youtube of some of the editions I own. It just came to my mind that U could add those videos here so you could watch. I should have done that before, but there's still plenty of time to do so.

Thanks for those few who visit this blog frequently, I hope you enjoy it.

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Castlevania meets Vanquish in a senseless post I made.

The two editions above are from two very recent games. I loved Vanquish, seriously. It's probably the most overrated game in the market right now, but I loved it seriously. It's too short, but good. Really good. I am not a big fan of shooters but this one... oh boy! However... this special editions s not that great, unless you like an action figure. This is not even a special edition, but rather a figure and the game with the lenticular cover sticked together with shrinkwrap around both. Some crappy editions have been released in recent days but if you want to call something a special edition of a game at the very least you must make sure that there's a place where the game must fit...

The other one is Castlevania Lord of Shadow. I did not enjoy the demo that much, it's too much God of War-ish in my opinion, but without the same feeling. That was my first impression of the game when pictures opped up. Some people wanted to believe the game had it's own magic, the magic that only exists in Castlevania games. But still, even after playing the demo I did not feel that magic. I'm still open minded and expect to change my opinion about the game as soon as I get the chance to play it. This Limited Collector's Edition kicks ass though, it's pretty good, not the best but good.

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Streets of Ra... er Tekken

The pic above is from a press kit I managed to snag some time ago. It's from one of my favourite 3d fighting games released since the early 32 bits 3d consoles. The game remains loyal to the series but unfortunately the usual "Tekken force" mode, this time called story mode... in my honest opinion it's pretty bad. The game itself is great but I don't think this beats tekken 5, my favourite one so far. I don't like to play online, there's usually too much lag involved not to menting the time it takes to find someone to fight with at least with me. The arcade mode is pretty damn good but you can't score higher ranks if you don't play online and that totally ruind the fun for me. There are some very interesting scenarios in the game and the gameplay remains great but the story mode just sucks, it's like a new verison of Streets of Rage game or something like that with a pretty bad gameplay. I still prefer VS mode above the online.

Anyway, it's still one of the best 3d fighting games around.

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New Portuguese variants

About 10 years ago no one gave a damn about the Portuguese market, except for Sony. Ever since the 1st party games came out for the PS1, many already had the Portuguese text on the back of the box. Right now we even have plenty of editions with Portuguese boxes. I decided to collect these editions because they are rare variants that even in Portugal are pretty hard to find after the release date. And the new ones I got are:

- Medal of Honor Edição Tier 1 (Tier 1 Edition)

- Falout New Vegas Collector's Edition (PS3)

- Fable III Edição de Coleccionador (Collector's Edition)

Lately I have been very busy and without patience to update the blog with photos. I do have many photos to take and to upload but for the last few months I did not have that much spare time unfortunately. Sooner or later I will certainly add pictures, but right now I'll keep posting the messages.

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What's an unemployed zombie? It's a dead body... >_>

Bought two shooters for the Wii. Both include their own gun. I'm talking about The House of the Dead 2 & 3 Zombie Pack plus Resident Evil The Darkside Chronicles, both with their plastic guns. Nice packs!

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Whats the real meaning of Halo?

In first place I must say that I played the first Halo game and haven't touched a single Halo game since then. They may be good, but not exactly my sort of game. Halo Reach came out not too long ago and with it two editions were released: the regular limited edition, and another legendary edition. After the previous legendary edition that came with the useless helmet, this time we get a statue. Overall, the edition is quite impressive. The statue has plenty of details and just looks great. The box this time is more impressive. It actually looks pretty good and suits this edition very well. The collector's edition included in the pack has some nice bonuses as well. And yes, I decided to get this one. Pic bellow any time soon.

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Only in certain places on earth...

Some time ago I created a post about the portuguese limited editions. Well, it's been a while and I got a few other editions with portuguese boxes as well. And they are:

- Little Big Planet (PSP) Special Edition
- Might and Magic Clash of Heroes (DS) Special Edition Boxset
- Combat of Giantes: Dragons (DS)
- Rayman Raving Rabbids (Wii) Limited Edition
- Rayman Raving Rabbids 2 (Wii) Limited Edition
- Rayman Raving Rabbids Party TV (Wii) Limited Edition
- Metroid Prime Trilogy Collector's Edition
- Alan Wake Collector's Edition
- God of War Trilogy
- Heavy Rain (PS3, already posted some time ago).

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Modnation Racers

At first glance, this press kit didn't seem anything special at all. It had a funny shape, but overall it did not seem much more than a box in the shape of a car. But it's actually quite interesting. Inside this box there's the game, a press disc, a PSP code to download the game, colour markers and stickers. The car is all black and white with the logo of the game. The driver is plain white. Just like the game, the press kit was made in a way that you can customize your car and your driver by using the markers and the stickers included. I find that quite original.

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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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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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