Real Saturn Chronicles Episode 2 - Let me play at home! - Part 2

I must start by telling that these posts should be in a different blog, and not this one. A while back when I mentioned I've lost my job, I also said I would be creating a new blog just to write these things. In the end, I decided to write my messages here. It would be a little pointless to create a new blog nobody would visit.

Okay, so in the previous message I told about my Timex, a computer I still wish to find someday for collection purposes.

This time I'll be telling you about my Sega Master System II

For the next years, there were no videogames for me. I wanted a Game Boy and Dark Wing Duck game, or a NES with the Turtles game - I was such a huge Turtles fan... But my parents just wouldn't buy one. The only way I could play videogames was when we went to the shopping center and they had those kyosks with Gameboy, Game Gear, even SNES. I managed to play many games like that: Super Mario, Tetris, Final Fight (not sure which one), Power Rangers, Sonic 1 to 3 and Knuckles, Street Fighter II and several other titles I hardly remember.

One day, my parents and I were invited to dinner at a friendly neighbour's house who had a daughter my age. I was 7 or 8 I believe. I knew the girl since I was a baby as we were born in the same year and my parents were close friends to her parents - we lived in the same building until I was 2, before my parents moved back to my grandma's home not too far.

As I was there, I realized she had a Sega Master System which was offered to her very recently, and she also had one of the most fantastic games I've ever played: Land of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse. I remember I went back to her home a couple of days straight just to play because, to me, it was so amazing she actually had a videogaming system. I wanted to have one as well but no matter how much I asked my parents, they wouldn't get it. It wasn't because they didn't have the money... It was mostly because my mother didn't want to see me playing video games. See, the trauma... Had she given me the console back then, would I be this crazy for videogames?

I kept playing in shopping malls because those were the only places where I could actually play. I even knew the bullies and gipsies who would go there just to play. They were kids like me. After a few times I got used to them and we would switch turns in the consoles every time one of us lost. Obviously, I couldn't spend the entire day playing, I only had maybe a couple hours at best before my parents decided to go away. My parents always visited shopping malls and I learned how to be alone in those from a very young age. I am not exaggerating when I say that I used to go to the toys section alone by the age of 3 while my parents would be shopping other things. I was too young and I had to search for them when I wanted to go back of if they didn't return after I got bored. If I couldn't find them after a few minutes searching I would probably start crying.

One day, my life partially changed. I was about to turn 8 or 9. I'm not really sure any more. My birthday was close, and just a couple of days before it, I received my first gift. It was a rather large box. Yup, my Grandma's gift was... a Sega Master System II, the Alex Kidd Box set with a bonus Sonic I game. By that tim,e Mega Drive was already well established in the market and most kids were getting one. Master System received a significant price drop. When I received that Master System, I could hardly believe. Having my own console was amazing.

I've had my bunch of games for it. The first game I bought was Flintstones. Oh boy, how bad was that game? It was fairly bad, honestly, but I still played it 'till the very end (it was only 4 levels, and that bowling game was tough). Some time later I borrowed two awesome games from my friend: Streets of Rage 2 and Psycho Fox. I was amazed by those two games. Later on I also bought Aliens 3 because I loved the movie, and for some reason I also asked my parents to get me of the games I enjoyed to play the most: Daffy Duck in Hollywood. I loved that game! It was far different from the Mega Drive or Game Gear versions. I just loved it! I don't know why I chose that game in particular, but I'm glad I did. Then I also had The Lion King and managed to play a bit of Jungle Book and Desert Speedtrap. Later on, I managed to get Land of Illusion as well, when the price dropped to less than half.

This was the list of games I had: Alex Kidd in Miracle World (console memory), Sonic I,  Flintstones, Aliens 3, Land of Illusion, The Lion King and Daffy Duck in Hollywood. And I'm not sure if I am missing another one but I have this impression there were 7 games total. I don't know which one's the last game I'm missing from the list...

Unfortunately, I no longer have that Master System. It was complete with everything it came with. Even the games were in perfect condition with instructions and all, but my parents decided to give it to another kid not too long after I got my Saturn. Another thing I agreed on and I'm regretting, especially because later on I found out the other kid didn't deserve it at all.

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Real Saturn Chronicles Episode 1 - Let me play at home!

As I've said before, I decided to tell my story and my best moments as a video gamer and collector. Today I am kinda annoyed. Since I've lost my job I've had a few things to take care and I really don't feel like searching for another job. I'd rather try to do something by myself, making a video game, I don't know. I need to think for a while, maybe find a part time and develop my skills so I am able to work by myself and eventually open my own business/company... who knows... but the economy over here is crap and it makes me want to get out of here. Unfortunately I can't do that for several reasons and I don't really want to leave the country, unless of course is to spend some nice holidays somewhere else for a short period of time :).

Anyway, this is the first episode, where everything started.

So let's start!

The first time I was able to play video games at home was by the time I was 5 or 6. My mother used to work as an office worker to a store/company that sold truck parts. My father used to shift work in a large gas factory. Every now and then we would pick my mother from her job by the time she came out. I used to love the ride.

One of those days, she came out of the store with a bag. That bag was something one of her mates brought to her. I was still young back then, but I knew about video games - don't ask me how. The thing that was in the bag was nothing less than a Sinclair Timex 2048, an official licensed "Spectrum" made in Portugal, also sold in the US. The spectrum had an internal memory problem it seemed, that's why it was given to my mother. It was still playable but most games wouldn't even start. It came with plenty of pirate games.Here in Portugal most stores would copy the games and sell pirate copies instead of the original version. It was such a common practice that nowadays it's actually hard to find original copies for sale.

My father managed to make the thing work. It was a little complicated and it required a tape player, something I fortunately had. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to play that many games. I remember Indiana Jones would start running but froze right before the game start. What a shame... I know I managed to play Pac Man and a few other games, but the one that I played the most and remember well was a shooter. It took me years to find out which game it was. Actually, I only figured it a few months ago and it wasn't that hard to figure out to be hones. The game was Xenon. As soon as I saw gameplay videos and the cover, I immediately remembered that was the game. I already ordered a factory sealed copy off eBay, which now lies in my collection. It's the only Spectrum game I have besides Turtles.

I remember I made it to the first boss, a large round ship. I only managed to beat it once but died right after the start of the second level, where the difficulty was greatly increased.

For some particular reason, I stopped playing that Timex. Maybe because it wasn't working properly and couldn't run the games very well... It ended up stored in the attic until my mother decided to clean the attic and threw it away, several years ago... I told her it was okay to do that. How stupid was that!!!

And that was my first video gaming experience. The second experience only came about 4 years later. My mother was against children playing video games for many hours and she didn't want to buy me a console.

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That epic moment when you find something that you've been looking for years!

Yup, after a very long time I finally managed to grab this rare Transport Tycoon + Mouse & Mat set for the Playstation 1. I can imagine why this is so hard to get: it was probably very expensive and not that many people wanted to buy the game. The condition isn't perfect, but it's better than T could expect and the seller was really friendly! I couldn't be happier :)

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Take me to the better side of the dark side!

Here we go again... another country exclusive, this time unexpectedly from France. Yup, they received a better version of Darksiders 2 Premium Edition. The mask is hand-painted and made from a far better material. The difference in weight between that one and the regular European CE is astonishing. The package is also bigger and WAY better. The regular European package is quite fragile, very small, and has a window from which you can partially see the mask. The French CE has no window and the mask has a much better protection. The French CE is also individually numbered, which is a good thing. There are, however, too many of them: over 13000 I believe. It's not that limited. The only thing the regular European CE has compared to the French CE is the artbook: the French CE doesn't come with a hardcover book. Still, the French CE is definitely the best one, no doubt about that!

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How many of these are there?

I've mentioned before about the Dreamcast controller packs released in Portugal. So far I have 4 in my collection and a couple of weeks ago I found another one. This time is the Sega Rally one. Now I'm missing at least another of these packs and who knows if there are more?

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And you though Assassin's Creed had too many CEs....

... Well, this game nearly beats the crap of any wallet if you are going to get every edition released. When I thought I was only missing a couple of the most important editions, I suddenly come across what it seemed to be yet another country exclusive, only available in Switzerland and Austria this time: the real Dead Island Game of the Year Collector's Edition (for the Xbox 360). I admit I wasn't expecting to find something like this. I assumed everything that existed was just those two headset bundles, but I guess I was wrong. As soon as I learned about its existence, I wanted to get it. It wasn't that easy to find though. At least not as easy as I expected! It comes with a very cool box with a sticker that indicates which platform the game belongs to, and a really big book. It's no big deal, but at the same time is costs only about 50 euros, which is an acceptable price. And I bet this one's going to be tough to find in the future!

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Plastic loot

The long awaited sequel to a post apocalýptic action game called Bordewrlands finally came out and with it two very special editions were announced. As you can probably tell, I had to get the Ultimate Loot Chest Limited Edition.

Exactly how special is this loot edition?
The box is quite big. Its design is very nice. The outer box is actually just a sleeve holding two bulky boxes. Bad idea... The sleeve alone isn't good enough to keep the two boxes in its place. The two boxes were glued together with a small round sticker, which isn't enough to hold them on place because they are too heavy for the sticker. One of the boxes, the bigger one, actual is placed on top of the smaller one... It contains the empty loot chest, made of plastic, and comes with the bubble head inside. The thinner box at the bottom holds everything else: Artbook, guide, cloth map, steelbook, game with a really cool slipcase, authentication paper numbered individually etc. There's something funny about this edition though. Some of these were sold with several problems: the map wasn't made of cloth but paper instead. Others were missing some items. Finally, some editions had print errors on the outer cover. I heard some pictures or text were printed upside down. I'm not sure though because I never saw that personally. Mine doesn't have any of those problems though. The authentication paper for the European version is numbered individually but has an empty space and doesn't mention how many really exist (mine is over 4000 imagine that...) and I think this is the only common issue for every european edition. Overall, the edition is still quite nice. Not perfect, but far from bad. I don't know why this sold out so quickly if so many were made...

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Troll?

This is yet another game I had to wait until it received a major price drop to be able to buy: The Lord of the Rings War in the North. I'm not quite sure how this fits the actual TLotR series but yet again I haven't played the game. The statue looks cool. It's ugly, but Trolls are supposed to be ugly (assuming that really is a troll? Or is it another creature from the movies?).

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Once upon a time there was this great action game!

Yup, Ninja Gaiden was once an amazing game. I played the first game on PS3 and oh boy that was tough! I realized that game was one of its kind. There are many action games out there, but very few match the quality of this one.

This is the sort of game that won't let you get through regular enemies or bosses unless you know exactly what you are doing. It is amazing. Every time I would reach a new boss, I would think: "No way! It's impossible to beat this thing!". But after you know exactly what to do, not only it becomes possible to beat it, but also becomes fairly easy after you get used to. I have not seen a game like this before. Usually, even when you are not doing very well against a particular boss, you can still manage to beat it after a while. But this game has very precise tactics and incredible action like I haven't seen before. But that is the first game. The second game... I haven't actually played it. But I have a funny story about it and I will tell it later! This one? I only hear bad stuff about it, honestly. I didn't have much money when the Collector's Edition came out, so I had to wait for a price drop and eventually got it for about half the original price. Unlike the crappy Mortal Kombat figures from the Kollector's Edition, this one has a prettier statue.

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Yarrrr Yarrr I'm a Pirate!

And this is one of the best editions I've seen in recent times. Rise2 Pirate Tavern Edition originally known as the Keg Edition was only released in Poland. It's actually called Mroczne Wody Edycja Piracka Oberża.

Originally the this particular edition was only available for PC but later it was also released for PS3 and Xbox 360. It is amazing, to say the least and quite hard for me to get...

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Some changes in my life... (part 2)

I will have a lot of spare time from now on, but I will be short on money. Unfortunately I will have to miss some deals and editions but I will still do the best I can not to miss the most important items I may come across.

Some of the new stuff I expect to do with the spare time I will have from now on on this blog will be the following:

1. Some people who come here only really care about pictures of the stuff I have. I know some people like to see the new stuff I got or that special edition I managed to find that's not easy to get etc. But not that many actually read through all the big texts I sometimes write. Soon I will add a new feature to this blog, something very commonly used in message boards, sites and blogs: the show/hide button. Basically, whenever I write too much about something in a port, I will hide the text and if you wish to read it all you have to do is click the button. This will also improve the presentation of the site, making the mfirst page shorter and hopefully more picture-based and less text-based.

2. I will create a secondary blog just to tell my stories as a videogame collector. Well, if this blog is nothing but to show off and not that many people visit it, then nobody will visit or bother to read my stories in the newer blog I will create. But that's okay because I will be creating that blog for my own enjoyment. I love my collection so much that sometimes I feel like sharing the stories behind it with other people. I am not sure which language I will chose to write that blog. It will be directly liked to this blog as well.

3. The banner will change. I've created that banner a few years ago using my low photoshop skills and the result was actually better than I was expecting at first. But right now I am no longer happy with it. There's just too much stuff going on in there. The blog title will remain the same though. This is and it will allways be My Own World.

4. Another update will be coming shortly. This one will include some of my latest purchases. Unfortunately this blog will not be what it used to be, with rare and unusual press kits. Everybody knows about press kits nowadays and everyone searches for them. I cannot compete with most people willing to pay hundreds for a single press kit. I am not willing to pay that much for many press kits because no matter how rare they are and how much people want them, they simply are not worth it. I had to lose 80% of the press kits I own at least once. The other 20% I found and bought the first time I saw them were pure luck. I do have some things that were quite expensive, but those things took months to pay...

5. Since I will be short on money, I am thinking of adding some publicity to the blog. This is something I don't agree with and I am still against it, but I will give it a thought and see if it's really worth it. I know I will not earn much if I do that, but it doesn't hurt to try. I will not add pop-ups or stuff that damages the visual style of the blog or anything remotely close to that, and it will be related with games.

I am taking a break from work right now. I hope to stay a couple of months or maybe the rest of the year at home, learning some things that will be useful in the future and spending some time doing things I wanted to do before but I couldn't. After a while I know I will need to get a job, but I really need a break. At my current age I am already feeling very tired and this is not normal at all. I've worked hard when I was in the university, and I am regretting that now. Then I got a job and things got slightly easier at times. At least I could sleep every night, unlike in university, but lately I've been feeling very tired and I don't have many expectations in life with the course I graduated in.

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Some changes in my life... (part 1)

It's been over six years since I first created this blog. Back then my collection was quite small compared to what it is today. I created this blog because I needed a way to list my most important items, by  simply taking pictures and writing about them. I did this just for my own enjoyment. I'm not the sort of guy to brag and share what I have with everyone, so I tried to keep a low profile and not reveal this blog everywhere. I eventually shared this blog in a couple of videogame web forums but up to this point it still remains a bit unknown.

I never expected to actually have the patience to update the blog for almost six years straight, with a few breaks but never giving up on it. And I still want to keep it this way. I still enjoy updating this blog but daily life sometimes steal away the spare time I have and patience runs low. That's the main reason I don't usually update my blog as regularly as when it was first created.

This blog was created when I was still a student. As a newbie collector, losing ebay auctions was something I was already used to. Being a student in a country like this is reason enough to prevent you from buying games. At that time ebay was not as popular as it is today but it was thanks to it that I managed to get some amazing items for rather cheap prices. Ebay completely changed my special editions collection and second hand stores were the place where I could find the regular games (from common to rare and expensive) for cheap prices.

I eventually graduated after a lot of hard work and I was lucky enough to find a nice job pretty quickly. My salary wasn't high, but it was nice and I kinda liked the work place, my work mates and the conditions I had in there - for the most part at least because not everything was perfect and there were bad moments as well.  For the last 4 or 5 years I've been living this dream of collecting videogames and raised my collection to nearly 3000 games, editions, press kits and so many things...

However, the economy over here is a mess right now. Even people from the other side of the world know how bad the so called "economic crisis" is affecting my country and several others. Governors are becoming more and more inhumane by approving unsustainable tax raises and cutting benefits for the regular workers and small companies, claiming that these are sacrifices that have to be made in order to restore the economy... each time they promise there will be no more tax raises or that the measures will only be temporary, we already know they are lying because a couple of months later new measures are approved. Protesters everywhere, yet no sign of any kind of change. Unemployment is about to pass 17% and small stores and companies are closing their doors. Yesterday I saw a very old lady that could barely walk begging in a big avenue. Every time I go to work I see a nice and well dressed middle aged woman standing on a corner and without saying anything she just shyly stretches her hand, probably asking for some money.  When I go to work in the morning she is there. When I come back from work she is usually there as well.  This is sad, too sad. I am living in a third world country.

Many old companies and stores that have been active for decades and survived other crisis and tough situations along time are now finally closing their doors. Some of these companies had an important role on this country's development at some point in the past, just like the company I worked for...

And finally, this last Monday was the day when I lost my first and only job, after only 4.5 years. Life will be a little hard for me for the next few months. I now have to face all the bureaucracies of the terrible social security and employment agency we have in here - it gives me nightmares just to think about how bad those services actually work. I still hope to continue collecting videogames though.

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Slipcases, slipcases. Slipcases everywhere!

Starting with this Call of Juarez the Cartel Slipcase. I know there are two, this one seems the harder to find. If you remove the bandoleer the slipcase unfolds behind revealing fome info about the game. It's quite original I must say. Then, there's this is a limited edition that caught my attention because it's also one of those that unfolds into a 3D diorama. It's also exclusive to France. I don't have much interest in the game itself but the slipcase actually caught my attention. 

This one from Metro 2033 is just a regular slipcase used to distinguish the limited edition from the regular game, because the game box is just a normal one but this brings a DLC code and some postcards.

I've never seen this one before. World Championship Rugby promotional copy with a slipcase that promotes the game itself for the several platforms it was released for. Promo stuff only, no doubt about it.

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I like to Move it Move it!

Move press kit, the 2nd. This one has plenty of games inside and an augmented reality feature. I prefer the original Move press kit a lot more. The best thing about this one is the number of games it includes.

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The guy is more and more popular.

Not that many heroes have the same treatment as good old Batman is having. The latest movies are top stuff and the games are amazing as well. We've seen some amazing super hero movies in recent years (Avengers is top notch!), but most videogames are usually good/average or bad (Iron Man anyone?). Batman, on the other hand, is doing it right.

And now they decided to make a sequel for the Lego series with this Lego Batman 2 that includes other DC heroes. I guess Batman is more popular than the other characters nowadays? I'm not really sure, I have been watching the super hero movies but I don't really know much about the story or the comics or how popular they are.

I don't have the game itself (and I'm not quite sure if I'll ever get it in the future...) but found this press kit for a rather cheap price and picked it up. It's nothing special, but still worth displaying. As far as my opinion goes, I'm far more excited for that Lego ity game that was presented on E3 this year. I think that Lego games based in popular franchises is just a little... out of place. Forgive my opinion, but that's what I think.

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Now this is rare!

No, it's not the edition that's rare, but the fact that I bought a PC game - that's really rare! 

It's Diablo III, it's the CE, I guess I don't need to say anything else. I'm not a fan of this sort of games but all the hype around the game and the fact that the CE was selling like hot cakes made me search for one by the time it was supposed to be sold out. I found two and bought them both. No, I didn't resell the other one. I just passed if to a friend at cost. It's in good hands, somewhere in the UK now :)

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Far better than I expected.

And here it is yet another game I underestimated: Deus Ex Human Revolution. I usually don't let my opinion be influenced by the media or critics. I wasn't a fan of Deus Ex and I'm not really into shooters or certain 1st person games, and I hate when producers try to input RPG elements onto those.  The game itself seemed quite similar to Mass effect at first - which is a great game but I don't like its gameplay style that much.  Many Wertern players call these games modern RPGS but I can't consider these games as RPGs. Japanese RPGs to me are still the best, except they they are too cheesy or filled with their pop culture. The last gerat experience I've had with an RPG was Xenoblade. I don't think I'll play such a great RPG in a long time.

Anyway, back on the tracks...  I knew this game was receiving good reviews but to be honest I don't think it was that appealing. A close friend told me I really should try it before making a judgement. For no particular reason at all, I suddenly had that necessity to actually try the game. I visited a local GAME store and found a used copy of this Augmented Edition for a rather affordable price. Why not' It's used, so I can't have the excuse to keep it sealed like I did with the Collector's Edition.

Basically, I do think the game has its flaws like most games do (even Xenoblade has plenty) but I really loved the game! I mean it. The gameplay is awesome. It really reminds me of Mass Effect, but I think this one 's much better in that field. The storyline is quite interesting - nothing very original but it's developing well.  The scenarios are big enough and very well built. The game actually lets you play it your own style: you can choose the routes you want to take as there are several ways to accomplish the missions and you can even chose to either sneak throughout the scenarios or go on a rampage and kill everyone - and it does all this very very well. The sidequests and missions are actually useful, they are strongly related to the storyline and unlike many other games they are not excessive at all. I'm loving this game, now I just wish I had more time to play it :/

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PS3 and Xbox 360 again, for both systems. Someone make me stop.

Ok, I'm not that hyped, considering I only played 1/5 or so of the first game before my Xbox 360 became ill with the usual Ring of Red (ill? more like died and resurrected), and after purchasing a Slim model I still didn't play it.

Anyway, I just couldn't miss the N7 edition of this game so I bought it. Well... actually, I bought two. The Xbox version and the PS3 version. I usually don't buy the same edition for the two different systems unless there's a good reason to do so.  My preferences would be just the 360 version, because it all started there and because it's the only console with the limited editions of the previous games. But then, the PS3 had a different box. Yeah, I prefer the PS3 box. So I bought it. How lame is that? Silly excuse to be paying double just because the box is different in a time I really really need money to buy other things and had to be selling some doubles. There are obviously other reasons behind, but you don't really need to know those. 

The first time I did that was probably with the FFXIII Collector's Edition but being such a huge FF fan I really wanted to get both. The same thing is true for the Crystal Edition. I originally missed the PS3 version because scumbag HMV decided to cancel my preorder one week before the release date, by the time it was nearly sold out everywhere else, so I bought the only version I found: the 360. I usually have some sort of preferences when I buy a particular game for a particular system of more than a system get the game. In FF's case, it's quite esay to find out why I would prefer the PS3 version...

Then the same thing happened with Metal Gear Solid HD Collection. Preordered the PS3 version, then found out they weren't numbered and they would get an Australian release. Suddenly, a wild 360 version appears. Just to make sure I wasn't going to regret, I prerodered it. Yeah, you all know what happened to the PS3 version when the first 4000 were announced. BOOM, 200 to 500 pounds on ebay. Scumbag sellers...

I also have another copy of Dead Space 2 Collector's Edition waiting for me. I preferred the 360 version because it included the chinese-made plasma cutter replica... I mean, that thing is indeed crappy as it DOESN'T EVEN ROTATE. There are many things that upset me a lot, like poverty, wars, bad behaviour and stuff like that, but something as silly as the fact that this replica doesn't even rotate really tingles my nerves. Anyway I knew the PS3 version included the full edition of Dead Space Extraction and the differences between the two would justify owning both. Finally my dear good friends (not...) Johnny and Dark-Vash found a few copies lying on a stote still sealed for a little less than 12 euros and they decided to call me. I'm thrilled (almost... not quite actually). They told me it sounds gay when I thank them, but I must, so - thanks guys :P

...

And more recently... There ya go! Dead Island GOTY Limited Edition for both Xbox 360 and PS3. I actually intend to play this one online with a couple of mates :P

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Harry Potter visits Hyrule and this happens.

"It's like Zelda" they said.

"Computer says no..." but it's actually quite enjoyable and the regular game also comes bundled with the complete Move set for a fairly good price. It's probably the best Move bundle out there. But anyway I don't really want to talk about the game or the regular bundle. I got the press kit instead, which is fairly interesting. Could be better if the materials used were better as well, but overall it does look good.

In case you don't know what I'm talking about, it's the press kit for the PS3 Move title Sorcery. =)

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So, what's new?

It's been a while now. But I don't have much time to update this. Today I decided to take this blog to a whole new level... Okay not really, I just added the "like" and "share" options for Twitter and and AssFacebook. Seems like these things are everywhere. I'm still not infected by those, but I decided to try it out and add a couple of things to the blog.

Next update will be quite massive, with at least 20 new posts and pictures mostly from limited and collector's editions, a couple of press kits and a couple of rarities, but overall nothing too big or impressive compared to other updates (I think). Still worth to check though. I should be done with this next weekend or so.

To finish all this, I just turned 29 last Saturday. Happy birthday to me ^_^

Cheers!

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