20 years of PlayStation in the worst year of my life

Damn... this was by far the worst year I've ever had. Even the most stressful problems and situations I had to deal with my entire life were nothing close to all this sh** that I've been through in the last several months. Too much stuff.

I've just entered the Playstation 20th anniversary competition in order to try to win one of those beautiful limited edition consoles. Unfortunately, I don't think I stand a chance. Last year I managed to strike gold by winning one of the Ducktales Remastered press kits from Capcom. I still can't believe how that happened and you can't even imagine my reaction when I opened the message saying that I won, I wish I had recorded that. It was the first time in my life that I've actually won something that big (free toys inside cereal packages or kinder surprise don't count...).

I live in a country with a relatively small videogaming market but at the same time it's the most important market for Playstation in the world (at least that's what people say... hmm, hmm) Yet, that means nothing when it comes to the availability of important items like the PS4 20th anniversary model. It simply won't be available for sale over here. Why???? PS1 is my favourite system, the one where this entire collection started. This model is so beautiful and special that it bothers me a lot to know I almost don't stand a chance to get my hands on it. I can't live with the fact that I won't be able to get one*.

*I obviously can easily live with that, but this is the internet, the place where it's too easy to troll, dramatize, throw tantrums and insult people.

Now Sony came up with those words about the PS4 being sold on ebay. Yeah, it's a shame to see such a beautiful and limited model created with pure intentions being sold on the internet for easy money. This is not what you guys at Sony wanted. Guess what: it's obvious this would happen. Welcome to my everyday world as a collector. A world where scalpers and resellers steall all the good or important deals and the put them for sale for a lot of money. Easy profit. Yeah, it's a shame that people like me and many other folks out there, who wanted the 20th anniversary console, will miss these or pay big cash for them. Out of the 12300 systems, many will be available for sale now or in the future.

Over the years I've done the best I could to get some of the most illusive editions I currently own, and that was not easy at all. I seriously thought that it would be impossible for me to get some of those. I guess I could say the same about the Limited Edition PS4 console.. that it's just a matter of time until I eventually find one... That PS4, much like many other items I am still missing, are just too far away from reach. Usually I would go as far as I could to get them. But, unfortunately, I'm already tired of doing that and this must stop at one point in my life. After so many years trying so hard to get the editions I wanted, things couldn't be worse for a collector:

1. An overwhelming level of speculation;

2. Resellers absolutely everywhere, even in crappy local advertising websites;

3. Stores with exclusives that refuse to send overseas because of their policies (this can be a PAIN);

4. Preorders sold out in a few hours that I easily miss and they become nightmarish to find;

5. Generic 2nd hand stores that had all the bargains now selling for higher than you can find on eBay with postage included;

6.  Digital Media Rights that require online and dedicated servers, which turn any physical version into something useless once the servers are gone;

7. Not to mention all the digital stuff, DLCs Updates etc that you can't collect.

All these things are taking away all the fun of collecting games in general. If there's no fun, I can't call it a hobby. 

Anyway, this is probably my final post this year. 2015 will certainly be a much better year than this crappy 2014 that I'll try to erase from memories because there really isn't anything good that I can squeeze out of it.

I wish you a Merry Christmas or whatever you celebrate in your religion (if you have one). If you don't celebrate anything, then please have a great day. I also wish you a great 2015. I am very positive next year will bring good things this time around.

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Is there a Smeagol?

People are talking wonders about this game and the only thing I've managed to get so far was the press kit itself. I guess that's fair. I will just pick a regular copy once the price is low enough :)

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Please sign and share this petition to stop Ditto's sexual exploitation!

Ah... the memories... This brings me back in time...

Just kidding. I've only actually played Ruby Version for 4 hours or so. I bought the game but I found out that after spending so many hours playing the previous titles I finally got badly tired of Pokémon. I never touched another Pokémon game until Y came out. A break that lasted over 10 years.

I still had to preorder these two editions, which are kinda lame. They only come with steelbooks and I don't like steelbooks. Oh! I'm pretty sure I didn't mention this 100 times in this blog!

Unfortunately, they rust in countries with usually high humidity levels in the atmosphere and coastal areas, unless they are sealed. "Derrp we live in a hot, sunny country and we don't need thermal isolation and all that crap, so we can save money on materials and still ask a hundred thousand euros for shitty apartments". And nobody lives in the capital because houses  are old, very expensive or both. Not to mention we have some visitors from countries with much lower temperatures and snow that complain this country is cold during winter. No sh!t Sherlock!

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Not sure if designer...

I do not understand what some producers or whoever is responsible for designing video game packages have in their minds. Seriously. I am not a designer but I was lucky enough to be born with this thing "called" brain that seems quite reliable, at least when compared to most models I find every day lurking on this planet...

So, whoever made the design for this extraordinarily expensive edition... failed. It definitely isn't the worst collector's edition I've had on my hands. Capcom (in the US and Europe only because Japan is full of badass stuff) holds the gold medal on that category. 

To be honest, this edition is actually pretty decent overall, but unfortunately it has some big, stupid flaws that make it a little disappointing compared to the original images. I mean... Okay, so... no game inside the box. No news here, we've had that happen several times before, even with the newly released A.C. Unity: Guillotine Edition. But this time, the game is placed on the outer plastic slipcase, that has its own insert? That's new. What the serious business!? This is like someone having a surgery and the doctors leave the intestines on the outside.

It does not hurt too much to include an insert where you can actually place the game inside the box, does it? Because, you see, that's where the game should go: inside the box of the edition itself. And if there is definitely no place for it to fit because you were too lazy to figure out a solution, don't try to find an easy fix like this and just keep the game separated.

If you can ignore the slipcase disaster, the outer box is quite good. I'm not talking about quality or finishing because I don't know much about the materials, but the looks and textures are pretty cool. Then you open the box and remember how much you had to pay for it. Why? Well, if you are lucky enough, nothing is broken, because the interior design is horrible. I heard from the kind person who shipped this edition to me that most editions arrived at the German Gamestop stores with broken items inside and they had to be inspected one by one before being delivered to costumers. No wonder! Chances are you open the box and most stuff is out of its place, lying around loose, hopefully still in one piece but miserably falling from their places. The most fragile items are placed under the lid. When you open the box, they can fall. Yes, it's that stupid.  

I know nobody gives a crap about what I think or write in this blog but here's a small message for producers/designers/humanoids that make these things: FFS this edition is almost 200€! If you're making such an expensive edition, make it right! People order stuff online like never before. People import stuff around the world. We have Paypal. People who buy this are mostly collectors who care about design, quality and condition of their stuff. A bunch of scientists just managed to land a satellite in a frickin' comet... That's a little harder and more expensive than making a decent package for a 170€ edition. Well, 170 if you managed to snatch a preorder before resellers decided to rape prices on eBay and other websites, like they usually do after they ruin all stocks from every store and website. Boxes and packages DO matter! Just make something that can last a ride without arriving in crumbles, please! Yes, I'm not the kindest person around but I paid , didn't I? Thank you.

BTW I'm talking about the Dragon Age: Inquisition Collector's Edition, but I'm pretty sure the text was too long and you immediately looked at the picture, so you already know.

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I was brave enough to pay more than the default price for this...

Bravely Default Collector's Edition...
*Didn't preorder because I thought it wasn't worth 100 euros.*
*Still think it's not over 100 euros but had to pay more.*
Looking at this description, I'm not sure if it classifies me as a serious collector or simply a dumb person...

Not cool... The game's awesome though.

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That's all for now folks!

In the next few posts, I'm going back to the present with some of the newest editions for the current consoles. Cheers!

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Pew Pew

What can I say about this game? It's another title in the awesome Darius series and it acutally made it to Europe. It's not on the same rarity level as some of the games I've posted before but still deserves some attention, specially considering it was not released on Nintendo's Virtual Console in Europe (I think?). There isn't much I can talk about it. The reason why I bought it? Because it's Darius. Yup. Now, let my quest for Syvalion begin...

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I've got them all, finally :D

The gargoyles trilogy, finally completed! After finally obtaining Demon's Crest a few months ago, Gargoyle's Quest II was the last game in the trilogy that I was still missing. Not anymore. It's not in a wonderful condition, but the price was also less than usual. Can't really complain. Yay!

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Meet George Jetson!

Seriously, kids can be some of the worst consumers ever. Back in those days, much before you had several TV channels displaying cartoons the entire day, you probably did the same as I did: you had to wake up very early during weekends to catch the morning cartoons. And then, out of all those shows, there were always some that you'd like the most. And you obviously wanted to get the games, toys, cloths and all sorts of related crap... and of course, videogames. Pretty much like the current hardcore Assassin's Creed collectors on eBay, who would probably pay hundreds if Ubisoft released a limited run of used toilet paper with the AC logo printed on it. No offense to AC collectors out there though.

2D cartoon-based videogames back in those days were great. Well, at least most of them, specially if they were based on Disney movies. There were many cartoon games that weren't as great and a few that even sucked but it didn't really matter that much if they were based in my favourite shows, so I had to get them. Sometimes it would be best to buy some other game instead and deep in my head I knew that  but I was so focused on getting that particular game from that particular show that I wouldn't even care. When I finally got home to play it, my first reaction was: "This game is ok. It's kind of cool". This is actually how a fanboy describes a crappy game based in one of his favourite shows. Several years later, you finally have enough maturity to admit you had some fun playing it but it sucked.

But then you have Dragon Ball Z Ultimate Battle 22. That game was so bad that even the most hardcore DBZ fanboy would trow up while playing it. It's probably the most horrible game I've ever played. I do remember a PS1 demo I played that was in the same putrefaction level as UB22, and it was a cartoonish boat racing game. I am glad I don't even know its name.Yuck!

All that crap to say that I've only bought this game because it was based in one of the cartoons I enjoyed back in the days: The Jetsons, for the NES. I don't even know how good or bad the game is because I haven't played it yet but I wanted to get it anyway. And this is not your cheap-ass NES game either.  20 years later I still behave like a kid. Damn! Adulthood is overrated anyway.

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Insert creative title here, 'cause my brain can't think of anything original.

And this is another classic gem that took me years to get a hold of. This game came from the arcade and it's a fantastic beat'em up by Capcom. Unfortunately it was another victim of a poor and rushed translation to English and that might be one of the reasons why it was exclusively released in Germany I believe. I haven't played it yet, but I've been wanting to for a long time. It's not easy to find at all, so I'm glad I have it!

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These games were so awesome

It took me some time to find out about some of the SNES gems out there. And this game is literally a gem. It looks beautiful and plays as good as it looks. The 16bit era actually had some of the most amazing genres: these 2d beat'em up sidescrollers are fantastic!

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The background makes me nuts.

This shockingly good game was still missing from my collection and it wasn't an easy catch. For some weird reason its value just went sky rocket high in the last few years. A couple of years ago I've had my chance to get it for like 60 euros and I didn't want to spend the money on it. Well, that was a lame decision. I'll try to forget how much this costed me was...

The box itself is not in that great condition like I usually prefer but... at least it's the official thing. I am still a little confused about what I think of repro boxes. Until I make up my mind, I prefer to make sure that I'm buying original boxes, even if that means sacrificing their condition a little bit. When I see an older game with a mint box, I am always unsure. I usually don't like to pay tons of money for a single game but when I do, I want to make sure I'm paying that cash for a fully original release. I would feel terrible if I paid the market value (the legit value, not the BIN BS) for a complete game just to figure out it came with a repro box instead. That's totally not cool.

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Computer broken. No money. Now what?

My poor laptop can't handle photoshop very well... now what? I guess I'm stuck with freeware programs that aren't as heavy as photoshop, so the next results might not be as gorgeous (ha!) as before. I've got a ton of things to show. Let's get this rolling with some older games first! =)

I've got a few posts ready and they will be here tomorrow :D

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Videogame Bushin no Jutsu

I used to like Naruto a lot. I originally started watching the anime and reading the Manga in 2003 and went as far as this game covers from the original story. I skipped the fillers because they're horrible. 

Considering I had already bought both CEs from the previous game and this one is pretty much equal to those, I thought it would be a good purchase. The statues included in these editions are very decent and they look good for display purposes,  although mines are staying inside their sealed boxes -  which doesn't make much sense but you can't expect to find logic within many collectors do you?

 I don't know how far into the Juubi fight this game goes into but I assume that, with so much crap happening in the same battle, they could produce 3 or 4 games that fight alone. The main problem is that they'll continue having these CEs and I will buy them... derp... Anyway, enjoy this new Samurai Edition with a failed attempt at "Super Saiyaning" Naruto on the cover. 

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Dynasty Link

I don't really feel like writing about this so I'm just posting a random paragraph and the picture. The game doesn't excite me that much. I wish it was a brand new Zelda game instead of this sort of crossover spinoff. I bought it because it's Zelda and it's limited. Can't go wrong with that. The Japanese version was way better than this edition that only includes a scarf. I don't find that particularly fascinating. In fact, the latest Nintendo editions seem nothing more than the game and a preorder bonus item in a proper package...

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Wow! A Lego videogame about Lego!

I don't really care about those Lego games about movies or super heroes. I know they're good, but I don't really like them. Yes, I've tried to play a couple. It's not my style, honestly. That's why I'm skipping most of those small limited editions with the figurines.

I wanted a Lego game without any of that stuff. Just Lego. There were some in the past, but nothing tastes as good as Lego City Undercover. I originally finished the game on the 3DS and loved it. The other day I had the urge to play the Wii U version, so I picked this used copy for a decent price and I'm loving it!

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Gotta find the balls

France has always been the number one door for Japanese animation and games in Europe. Nowadays that's no longer true because Japan's influence over the entire world is creating a new generation of kawaii baka-chan teens (which are basically the only words most western people who select Japan as their location on Facebook know).

It's hard to imagine a game based on an anime series named Dragon Ball being released in France before the 90s (and 4 years later in Spain). And they even had that show on TV. That is very impressive. Of course, the game was also catastrophically released in the US at about the same time. I don't know what those guys in the US had in their heads, but they had to screw anything good that was brought from Japan. That tradition still seems to remain nowadays (Evolution... yuck!). The US version of this game is called Dragon Power and suffered a major editing. I wonder what they named Goku... Sam? John? Ritchie? And I don't even want to imagine the rest of the names. Edit: meanwhile, I already learned that they kept Goku's name...

This is how they did back then: you replace the cute Japanese covers with some horrific artwork that shows general stuff like a karate kid wearing a bandanna. Then you replace the main character that actually looks fun and cartoonish with an atrocious freak that has absolutely nothing to do with the character on the cover. You take away the boobs and the pixelate-suggested sex content. Finally, you remove some interesting parts of the game to make it more Americanized. I find it hard to believe that they replaced the rice cakes in Alex Kidd with... burguers... Also, it's okay to hit on Chun Li, Sonia and basically all other female characters in fighting games. However, it was completely unacceptable to hit Poison in Final Fight because it's a women. "Yeah, let's also hide some of the additional pixels that show too much of her body and accept the poorest excuse ever invented by the makers of the game (the one about her being transsexual)..." Well done!

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And yet Europe missed Chrono Trigger...

Now this is one game that's totally worth owning. Unfortunately not that many people seem to know about this game, except those who know the Mega CD games well enough. The Space adventure is based in a Japanese cartoon series mostly known as Space Adventure Cobra (or simply Cobra) that started out as a comic book. I'm pretty sure you're already searching for it on Wikipedia. Right? Are you? No? Hey... whatever...

The Mega CD has all sorts of games (not really...), some of which are quite amazing(ly terrible). There are however several exceptions to that rule and those are the exact reasons why you should consider getting one if you don't have it already. I'm not going to list what it's worth or not, but I have to focus on one particular game called Snatcher. If you search my blog, I've already posted a picture of it. 

That game is probably more popular for being made by Metal Gear creator's Hideo Kojima than for its great quality. It's a graphical adventure, a genre that doesn't really suits all likes. As you know, some Mega CD games have tried to be more creative by introducing actual video footage but the truth is.. it was still an underdeveloped technology and the result is not very satisfactory - at least in my humble opinion. Some games do it right, but most fail miserably. Mega CD was a system that should not relay on 3D graphics or actual video footage. The games that took advantage of the 2D graphical capabilities of the console did it right. Not just Snacther but many others, such as Sonic CD. And The Space Adventure is yet another example of a game that picked up a rather unknown series in the west, went as far as receiving an european release (that's very surprising if you ask me!), gave it the anime look and voila! You might not get something as good as Snatcher but this is definitely something to look out for. It's not as expensive but definitely rarer. This was on my wishlist for a few years now. Another tough one scratched off that list!

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Castlevania rhymes with 'lots of money'

Here I am, sitting in front of eBay, trying to find two copies of the last two European Castlevania games that I am still missing... they are Castlevania and Castlevania II for the NES. Yup, I'm just missing two of the most common Castlevania games ever. Why? Because most of the times they end up more expensive than I want to pay. They are crazy common and people never stop buying these things. Why?? I even managed to get Castlevania III in mint condition, which is by far much harder to find than those two titles, for less money. Heck, even Castlevania Legends was cheaper. 

And then we have Kid Dracula, which took me some time to find out it was a Castlevania spin off that had an European release and is just as great as most of the other Castlevania games. "Let me search this on eBay to see how much it sells f... WHAT THE F*** £220 WITH OVER 20 BIDS!?". Yup, that was my reaction. I knew I'd be screwed.I obviously didn't pay anything remotely close to that. I was a little bit luckier this time, even though it wasn't necessarily a bargain.

And what is wrong with that cover? Why did they change the original character design from the Japanese version? I'm not sure who was responsible for this stupidity, but I assume it was the american Konami counterpart trying to make the cover more appealing to the western audiences, just like they've managed to disgrace Megaman in the original NES cover and a few other atrocities... At least this one isn't that bad. But it's still a shame cause the original japanese design of the character on the cover is much better looking. Akumajou Special FTW.

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Went to hell to get this and came back

This is yet another nightmarish game that took me ages to get. Why? Because it's impossible to get a boxed copy of this thing in good condition for less than 200 euros. Damn, what the hell? And this is just one of like 15 SNES insanities I still want to get. Not to mention its prequel or whatever it is, released for the NES. I already have the GB game too. Even though the NES version is not as expensive (most of the times), it's even harder to get *brain malfunction*.

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I've spent so much 'Mana' in this game

Yeah, being a fan of JRPGs and cool looking games with fancy characters can really make your wallet drain. This is yet another game that took me ages to get, mostly because it was very expensive. I know I buy press kits and limited editions that are worth quite a bit and these old games are amazing, but for some reason I don't always feel like spending much money on them. Maybe because they are just regular games that you have the chance to play through other means, or maybe because a single cart costs much less that the complete thing and I don't think a box and manual are worth so much... I don't know.

I already have the 3rd game for the Super Famicon as well as the 4th title for the PS2, both original japanese versions. But the most important one, the original Secret of Mana 2 (in Japan) and the only of the series to see the daylight in Europe was still missing from my collection. Not any longer.

SNES games are so hard to collect that for many times I've though of just getting the carts alone and find some repro boxes and manuals. Seriously. I've always wanted to have everything official, but this is too much. Finally, I've decided to get this game at all costs and I've managed to track down a dutch version in good condition and complete with all the stuff for an acceptable price (but still expensive). The text in this cart is in English, so hurray.

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Knuckles the weird hedgehog

I know, he's an echidna. And he's on steroids in the next Sonic game...

The 32X console is deffinitely not my favourite system, hence why I only own a handful of games up to now. I could tell the same about Mega CD. These two systems weren't much of an upgrade to the already great Sega Mega Drive and they deffinitely were not worth spending so much money on back in the days. 

I am glad that I already have two nasty exclusives for this console, but there are others equally tough to get. A few years back I've managed to find a brand new copy of Kolibri but Knuckles Chaotix was a pain in the butt to find. I never really managed to see one for sale except on eBay and I seriously hoped to find a cheaper copy some day, somewhere. It's only normal that you get tired of waiting for a copy of this after 7 years of search. So it's here now. It's in a really good condition, thankfully.

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Life can be tough...

You know those moments in life when the world seems to be against you and you have so many serious problems going on at once? Especially when they only tend to get worse with no solution at sight? Well, that's my life right now. And I'm not joking about this. My life's pretty messed up, so much that almost brought me down to depression. I always overthink too much and that doesn't help at all when thinking can't really help you finding a solution. I eventually have some break downs that lead to depression and sleep privation. I'm doing my best to keep my head straight up... kinda... sometimes I don't do a good job and I just let myself fall a bit, but heh I'm only human after all.

Unfortunately, some of these problems will take some time until they get fixed and there isn't much I can do about them but wait. I had some plans for the rest of the year but now I feel I stopped in time. Oh well... I guess this is what we call life.

Over the years I have been collecting all kinds of rarities and special editions. I have a huge wishlist that keeps growing and growing with no end at sight. There's just too much money involved on collecting games with all this seriousness like I've been doing for so many years straight but I need to slow down. Before I do that, I need to catch the big fish and leave the tiny ones for other (hopefully better) years of my life.

I no longer have that patience to search intensively for many items at once because that consumes a lot of time. So now I am extensively searching for a bunch of games while ignoring most of the others. The top priorities are a few SNES exclusives I've been wanting to buy for so many years. I'll move on to other priorities once I'm done with these. I expect to fill the blank spots on my wishlist in less than a couple years with a few dozens of tough-to-get titles. I don't need (in fact, I don't want) to get all the rarities and crazy rare games so I'll just stick with those that I consider to be important. Once I'm done with that, I'm also done collecting retro games. For good.

My quest for the toughies already started and I already nailed a handful of these games. You can expect a new update soon with more pics, but this time there will be nothing out of ordinary like press kits or unusual editions - mostly regular games.

Cheers.

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Road to the 4000

Exactly 15 years ago, my father told me I was spending too much money on videogames that I would get rid of before I reached an adult age. It was basically his kind wat to tell me I was wasting money on useless things instead of saving for my future. At that time I was only buying 5 to 7 titles per year and my collection had less than 50 games. I said that I wouldn't get rid of the games so easily, considering how much I liked them. I am pretty sure he already recognizes he was slightly wrong... 

I was very surprised to find out that my collection is close to reach the impressive number of 4000 games/items. It's been 10 years of intensive collecting. Even though my older games date from 1997, I only started collecting more seriously in 2004. Unfortunately, the growth was much slower during the last couple of years, but still, what an impressive number! 

Some time ago I had a problem with the excel file where I list my entire collection and lost all the updates I had been doing for an unknown number of months. I had to restart from an outdated file and, unfortunately, I've never managed to completely update the list. Basically, I wasn't really sure about how many games I had but I knew they were over 3000.

For the last couple of weeks I've been focused on making great updates to the list. It's not easy to update thousands of items in an excel file... it takes a long time and lots of patience but this was something I was wanting to do for some time. I finally found the patience for that. I had to check all the message board entries, this blog, all my e-mail accounts, every picture I've taken and the older store receipts I kept in order to find out every game I had bought in the last few years, including the estimate year of purchase (and month, when possible). Unfortunately I can't know for sure the year of purchase for several games, so I had to resort to my memory, which was reasonably accurate. How do I know that? I randomly picked several titles from my list which I had proof of purchase and tried to guess the year to see if it matched the excel entry. I missed a few but got most right. But the thing is... the number was much bigger than I expected and I'm already over 3800.

When I've reached about 2000 games, I never knew if I would actually go much further. Yet now I have almost twice as many and never felt so determined to keep going further, except that money is becoming a serious issue at this point of my life. Hopefully, things will turn around for the best some day soon and I will keep pushing my collection forward. 

There are still well over 100 titles until I reach the definite number of 4000 but I am very impressed to have come this far. According to my estimates, when I reach a number of 5000 games, the goals I've set to my collection will finally be accomplished. However, it's particularly bothersome when a majority of the titles I am still missing for the older platforms are the really expensive ones. I don't know what I will do about it but at my current financial condition it won't be easy to be paying over 100 euros for every title I'm still missing, let alone those that are worth 3 to 5 times that much... Spending that much money on a regular retro game is something that I don't do more that a small number of times per year. But every year that goes by, eBay resellers succeed in increasing the value of the already expensive games to the point that it's almost impossible for me to collect them. On top of that it's nearly impossible to find many titles outside eBay, which became the House of Speculation flooded with overpriced Buy it Now deals.

Now to talk about this blog... This blog never had a big visibility - it was never intended to have anyway because I like to keep a low profile. When I originally started it, many people were unaware of the existance of certain editions and press kits. Nowadays it's completely different. Everybody knows about or has access to press kits, so there is nothing really impressive that I can show to you right now. I can't even keep up with all the important stuff coming out and sadly I have to sacrifice most of the newer press kits. Still, this is really the only way I have to list pictures of my collection and I do appreciate the presentation I've given to it. I've put a lot of efforts behind this blog over the years. I hope that the old visitors still have the time and patience to read through all the crap I write :D.

A new update will be coming soon with a few items that were left behind and some newer things. Stay tuned :)

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You really though I'd miss the fun? You were right...

(title) ... because I'm keeping this sealed :P. But yeah, you can't miss special editions from Nintendo when there are so few released. I say this, but I skipped Bravely Default because it was stupidly expensive and now I can't get it because there are resellers everywhere. Everywhere. People should be ashamed of reselling such items. I'll eventually get one in the future, it just takes patience.

This Mario Kart actually boosted Wii U sales quite a bit. It really needed. Well done, Nintendo. Now release Xenoblade and Zelda please. Thank you.

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Not one but TWO? HOAH!

Those who know me or have followed this blog know that I am not really a PC collector. Collecting PC games isn't really my thing. I always preferred consoles from a very young age, even after listening so many times how great/much better the PC is to play videogames blah blah. I just don't care. I'm not an HD fanboy so I simply don't care.

But every now and then I get something for the PC, just because. And that's exactly what happened with the two following Collector's Editions, whose prices dropped to only 20 euros: World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria and Starcraft II: Heart of the Swarn. There's not much to complain here.

Now what makes me feel not so good for buying these is the fact that I don't have all the previous releases, such as the 1st Starcraft II CE and the previous 3 WoW CEs. But these are a pain to get at this moment. I'm not sure if I'll even bother in the future. I guess that whenever it comes to PC games, I only snatch the real opportunities I come across without too much effort. 

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I'm just bad with titles

What? You really thought I'd miss this? 'Course not! The portuguese Collector's Edition of inFamous: Second Son arrived at my home on release date. For some reason this edition was never fortunate enough to make it to the blog, but here it is now.

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Too many pieces

This particular game was not something I was actually willing to buy so quickly. I wanted to wait for a price drop or something, even though it's a big risk to expect price drops for these kind of editions because they usually sell out rather quickly and most people tend to overvalue them. The reason why I got it on day -1 (yeah, a day before the release date) was thanks to a promotion from a local retailer and the fact that this CE was already sold out in some of the places I usually search. 

I didn't buy the previous Pirate Warriors 2 CE because it was too expensive. It only came with a figurine that didn't look that great, especially when compared to the boat that was included with the first game. Thankfully that seems to be the easiest edition based in One Piece to find as it's still available here and there. 

One Piece: Unlimited World Red Chopper Edition looks definitely nice and it was not excessively expensive. It comes with plenty of extras, although nothing too remarkable. I'd love if Bandai Namco included a small Chopper figurine but we can't have everything.

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My thoughts on E3 this year...

This isn't exactly the "oh I've just bought a new item to my collection" post. I am not even sure why I feel like sharing such a post in my blog. I guess I do it because it's the only place I have to write my own stuff. Not too long ago, what seemed to be a legitimate leaked list of the games to be present on E3 appeared on the internet. The list was amazing to say the least but nobody could confirm if it was fake or real. That created some real expectations on me for the E3 this year, considering how weak I think they were in the last few years.

What I disliked the most about the conferences, especially Sony and Microsoft, were the amount of times they were mentioning DLCs, exclusive contents, closed Betas, Free to Play and other crap that's totally unsuitable for videogame collectors and gamers like myself in particular. I have not bought a single DLC so far nor I plan on doing that any time soon. I don't care about paying for missing bits of games or alternative costumes. That's one of the most frustrating things about collecting games in this generation: even when you buy a brand new retail version of a particular game, you know you're not buying the whole package because many pieces are missing.

I was actually satisfied with the showcase on the conferences this year, comparing to how poor they were the years before. It wasn't too surprising because not all games are suitable for my tastes but there were some pretty cool moments. I am a little tired of shooters, so I was not really hyped with any of that, nor with the many cartoonish games that were showed. But the fact that these games do look good is undeniable. I did enjoy watching Call of Duty Advanced Warfight (such an unoriginal name!), Battlefield: Hardline, as well as as Tom Clancy's The Division. No matter how tiring these shooting games are becoming, they always look good. CoD is trying to look futuristic and I'm perfectly fine with that since I love futuristic stuff (if done properly). I also have to mention Halo Master Chief Collection, which will be a great compilation of the series' most important games. It was a nice move from Microsoft or Bungie (not too sure). Even though I'm not a big fan of shooter, I can easily say I was satisfied with what I saw.

I can't say I feel the same about the so-called RPGs like Dragon Age: Inquisition and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt or Fable Legends. RPGs are my favourite types of games, but I can hardly call these RPGs to be honest. The gameplay is heavily focused on action and adventure. While the first two games I mentioned are the same old medieval open world wannabes with costumizable loot and the same type of enemies and wooden villages where you start killing wolves and minions before Dragons and other worn out creatures pop up, the last one looks like inspired by a Shrek movie and it didn't seem half fascinating. And then we have Scalebound, a brand new action (?) game featuring some sort of spoiled younger brother of DMC's Dante and his huge pet. I didn't like the main character looks, sadly. I don't know what to expect from this game but I am not very excited with it. I could tell the same about Crackdown 3 and Phantom Dust (a game that never came out in Europe - why?) and other games I didn't mention.

Another thing that's being exploited to death are zombie games. Dead Island trailers are always amazing and this one was no exception. But the game itself is yet to come. The Order: 1886 seems to try hard to do something different but I'm not too convinced yet.

There weren't many racing games shown this time. Only two actually. I guess people prefer shooters. Forza Horizon 2 is fine but nothing I was impressed with. The Crew actually looked quite interesting due to its length but I'm not sure how well the gameplay can compare to other racing games and hybrid simulators already in the market.

And then we have Nintendo still focused on delivering yet more platform adventure games based in Mario universe, featuring Yoshi's Epic Yarn (I know that's not the name), Toad and "do-it-yourself" Mario. These games used to be cool, but now there's like dozens of them on every single Nintendo console. They will keep selling like hot cakes but I'm getting tired of them and obviously less enthusiastic. Hyrule Warriors didn't look that good either as it reminds me of a lower quality version of Dynasty Warriors featuring Zelda characters. The newer Zelda, on the other hand, was something. Quite something. And I'm not going to mention Xenoblade Chronicles X which looks absolutely stunning despite not being a new announcement. As far as those Mario skylanders go, they are actually very cool and they add features to several games. That was a smart move, especially because Mario and Zelda figurines are tempting to buy. But if they come up with rare variants like Skylanders, oh crap... No wallet can handle that.

Ubisoft... no matter how much I hate that company, they had a decent presentation as well. I'm not really interested in Sims or dancing games, but FarCry 4 looks good and so does AC Unity. I must say that Ubisoft did a terrific job in creating such a popular series like AC, but after the 3rd or 4th game released one year after the other I already grew a little exhausted by it. Again, I will say it: it looks great. It's just that looks aren't everything in a videogame and I don't feel that tempted to play it. There was one exception to this rule though. I might be a little exhausted of shooters or AC games, but even though Batman received several games in the last few years I felt very impressed by the newer Batman: Arkham Knight trailer (as seen in Sony's conference) and I seriously want to play that game.

From EA, the best thing I can take out of that conference was Mirror's Edge 2. I loved the first game despite not being considered by many critics as one of the top games. Sports games... ugh...

Indie games also had their fair share in these conferences. What surprised me the most was No Man's Sky, which is actually made by a small studio but it looks like something that can beat the crap out of many big productions. It wasn't really a brand new announcement, but it's probably the thing I liked to see the most in the entire conferences.

Overall, they were good conferences. They did not create the hype I expected but the proof that companies are doing a good job is the fact that I like to see some gameplay videos and trailers of games and styles I already grew tired of. It's useless for me to talk about Uncharted 4, Halo 5 or even the new Mass Effect. We all knew these games would be coming out eventually but very little was shown about them. Kinda like they were just there to create the hype. It's going to be a while until we trully see their potential (which is very big).

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Zelda is not the green guy

You know that moment when you finally lose your head to buy something you've been wanting for a while but was kinda expensive and you'd prefer to save the money for other things? That summarizes what happened last week:

Even though I already had a white Wii U, what I truly wanted was the Limited Edition Zelda version. A local supermarket dropped its current price by 33% and I though it was now or never. What actually boosted my will to get this version of the console was the newer trailers for the next Xeno game, which seems to be called Xenogears Origins if the leaked E3 list is really true - which looks like total BS since E3 is no longer the place where new games are announced, they just show new footage and details about games we already knew would come out.

And since we're talking about Zelda, I might as well add the picture of the 3DS XL model of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds (with the crappy DLC Code instead of the physical game... what the hell, Nintendo?) I've bought several moons ago but never posted before.

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Mother of Children!

So, the same moment Amazon decides to cut Super Saver Delivery for many european countries, most of the packages I receive from them arrive in crap condition which forces me to send them back. That's great, Amazon, just great... 

I originally ordered the UK version of this, which arrived in trash condition  because the envelope it came in was too small for it to fit. I asked for a replacement and... boom, it was sold out. so I had to order it from France and it came in the very same crappy card envelope.

Amazon is starting to become more and more like Zavvi and Game....

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These things should have never been released

Got this Skylanders set for a very cheap price. It doesn't matter how cool and innovative these games are. Truth is they are a pain to collect. They're like toys' versions of DLCs. It was a genius move by Activision and I feel sorry for those that wasted so much cash trying to get the exclusive figurines. And there are wayyyy too many to collect. Way too many!

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Real Saturn Chronicles Episode 5: Miss Croft returned! This time on Playstation!

It's been a while since I wrote some stuff about my past as a collector. So just bear with me, cause now it's time to continue what I already started. Previously, I've told you why and how I was able to buy my original PlayStation console (which I still own).

I was finally the proud owner of a Sony PlayStation console after the disappointment I felt when Sega decided to abandon its Saturn console in Europe to focus on Dreamcast. It was the summer of my 14th birthday :D

Playstation was the console I really needed. And the only reason why I originally wanted to buy it was just to play Tomb Raider II. I told that to a couple of friends and they said I was crazy for buying a particular gaming system just to play a single game. It was pretty obvious to me that I wouldn't play just one game and I'm pretty sure they thought the same. The main problem was... I already had a Sega Saturn. Back in those days, it was very unusual to find a kid my age with two different systems from the same generation. The few lucky kids who already had a current gen console either had a Sega Saturn or a Sony Playstation, but not both. Parents were not very fond of this idea either. If you had two systems from the same generation, many would be jealous of you and consider you rich. That's how it was.

Much like Saturn, as soon as I bought the Playstation I had to wait some time until I finally had one game to play. My nice parents would usually buy the console but not a single game. They always made me wait. Thankfully, this time I had a demo disc to play instead of looking at a spaceship floating in space while playing free music discs (I'm referring to what happened when I bought the Sega Saturn in the previous episode I wrote). 

After a few weeks waiting, Tomb Raider II was almost being released in Europe and I was literally dying to get my hands on that game. However, I knew that games would usually take much longer to arrive in Portugal and release dates over here were incredibly inaccurate. Knowing this, I still had to go to the store on release dates to see if the game I wanted was already available, even knowing the game wouldn't be there. I was a very impatient kid and I would usually come out of the store with a major disappointment. My parents used to go shopping many Fridays at night. When they were at the supermarket checkout line, I'd rush to the music store to check out the games. On that particular night, it was Tomb Raider II's European release date.

As usual, the store had nothing. The employee told me the game was expected to arrive next week on a certain day. On that certain day I went back to the store just to find out that the game would only be available some other day later. And this happened a few more times until I finally gave up waiting. Almost one month later my parents were at the checkout and my mother found strange that I still hadn't gone to the store. She asked me why and I replied with a hopeless voice: "it's no use... the game will never come out...". Ya know, childish stuff.... She eventually motivated me to go to the store. I walked in the store and the guy at the counter already knew me. I hopelessly asked: "The game is not here yet, right...". To my surprise, his reply was: Actually, it is!". I was overwhelmed!

Next day I immediately told a friend of mine that I had finally bought the game. His name was Angelo and he also had a PlayStation console and a ton of pirated games - something very common back in those days and one of the main reasons why most people over here in Portugal would prefer a PlayStation instead of other consoles. I survived all the pressure from friends who called me stupid for paying so much for a game that I could get for little money through piracy. I always loved to own the original copies of the games I've bought, so piracy was out of question. As I was talking to Angelo on the phone, he came up with some temporary bad news for me: "Cool, nice to know you already have the game, but do you have a memory card to save the game data?"

Needless to say, it was the first time I ever heard about such a thing. Even though I had my Saturn for a couple o years and knew about that expensive card called "Backup Memory", Saturn had an internal memory and I simply didn't know what that thing called "memory card" exactly was until he mentioned it to me for the first time. I figured I needed more cash to buy that thing if I wanted to play the game and save the game progress. For a brief moment I started to worry, but thankfully my friend Angelo ended the conversation saying something like: "Don't worry, I'll lend you a memory card if you lend me your game after you finish it. I'll take it to you tomorrow". PHEW!

And there I was, finally playing Tomb Raider II on my brand new Playstation system, Hell Yeah! Just a few months later I made the best decision of my life with another videogame I've randomly decided to buy. That one had such a huge impact on me and PlayStation became my favourite console soon after. But I will leave this for another post some time in the future!:D

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Greatness Arrived.

Just don't call me a Playstation fanboy. Call me an XBone hater instead, because that's what I am and I'm pretty sure I already wrote some stuff about it in a previous post. No, I didn't buy the super ultra limited edition of Titanfall. It wasn't even released over here. It was too expensive. The game wasn't included. I don't want anything related to XBone for the reasons I already described before. It's just pure hate I have for it, even though I've quite enjoyed the 360 and built a pretty big collection that equals or even surpasses my PS3 collection.

There, the blog probably lost some viewers with this rant.

Instead, I've decided to... well, I didn't really decide anything. The PS4 was supposed to be a Xmas gift last year, but unfortunately something bad and unexpected happened and I didn't get it. For a brief moment I didn't want to buy any games at all. On top of that, I promised I would only buy a PS4 if I found one that was made in Japan. Yeah yeah, I know what you're thinking: "that doesn't matter, Chinese units are just as good and the sabotage was just a rumour...". While the sabotage was not a rumour, only a batch of these consoles were actually sabotaged and they were probably never shipped to Europe. And yes, the Chinese models are as good as the Japanese ones because the quality parameters imposed by Sony are always the same, no matter if they are produced in China, Japan or in a different planet.

And yes, I do have a fetish for 'made in Japan' stuff. People can say it's the same and I'll just reply "no it's not, because mine says 'made in Japan' instead'' and I really don't care about what they think. When you're a videogame collector, you kinda become immune to some of the usual criticism, most of it becomes unoriginal after a while anyway.... That, and the old questions like "what if your house burns?" or "what if someone steals your collection?". Or the classic "what are you going to do with your collection when you get old?".

Yes, this model was made in Japan and officially released over here by Sony. I've been searching for one since the release date in most stores I visited and I gave up some time ago because I was unable to track a single model. All the consoles I picked up to this point were all made in China. I thought that the Japanese models only came in a small first batch that was sold out during preorders. Nope. I found this console (as well as another one) in a regular store where I've searched before since the release date. I was so used to pick the console boxes and check if they had the 'Made in Japan' sticker that I've kept doing that automatically with no serious intention of actually finding one. But I did find one, and I couldn't resist. After checking dozens of consoles in dozens of stores, I accidentally found one and confirmed that these models were indeed released over here.  

Yes I bought it, but I'm sure you've figured that out yourself if you've read this far. No, I didn't want to spend so much money. I didn't even had that much available in the exact moment. But who cares... I now have a PS4 and I'm in love with it, especially with the controller. The Xbox 360 controller was far better than the old design of the Dualshock 3, except the D pad which was beyond horrible for me. However, this PS4 controller is so sweeeet and feels so good. Too bad the analogue sticks' rubbers wear so fast... It doesn't make much sense because the quality of the whole thing looks neat.

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Now this is unusual!

I usually don't buy games for certain consoles that do not fit my criteria but for some time now I've wanted to buy a Nokia NGage. I still don't have it, but knowing that I'll eventually get one I just couldn't miss this chance of buying these brand new games and press kits from a very kind lady who had them for sale. I have to thank my friend Johnny for warning me about the deal that I'd just miss if it wasn't for him. Almost all the regular games are still sealed, which is awesome.

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Goku hasn't aged at all...

The newest Dragon Ball came out not too long ago and I was fascinated with the statue it comes with. It's much bigger and better than Gohan's Statue included with Ultimate Tenkaichi and it also seems to be pretty scarce compared to the previous edition, so I couldn't resist it and got it. I really wasn't expecting to buy this any time soon.

I still didn't have the chance to watch the new movie but to be fair I don't feel very interested in it... I never liked the Dragon Ball movies that much and I particularly hate when they make up stories that don't really fit in the original story.

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It's back, merciless as ever!

Dark Souls' sequel finally arrived! With it, an amazing Collector's Edition also came. It's not the only one, another one's on the way. I didn't really expect to buy this. Seriously. I was expecting a small sized figurine but once I walked into a store the day before the release date I was able to see that the edition was quite impressive! I had it on preorder and I was about to cancel it, so I decided to check my preorder price and... 40 euros cheaper than the retail price in stores. And here it is :)

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New company for the GP Family

Over the years I was able to target some of the GamePark Holdings handheld consoles around the country. After GP2X F100 and GP2X F200, Caanoo popped up for sale around here and who am I to refuse the opportunity? I would probably never buy these systems if I didn't find them for sale around here. I've managed to pick them up personally from all the sellers and I'm happy with them.

I really didn't know what to put in the background this time. So I put bananas. Because I can. I hope you didn't try to find logic in that.

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Another Press Kit.

Yeah, basically, that's it... another press kit, this time for the Injustice: Gods Among Us, the game that features all sorts of heroes and creepers heroes from the DC universe allied to an amazing gameplay (Mortal Kombat style). I'm a fan of 3D fighters and I quite liked the game. The press kit didn't seem that good but it actually surprised me when I received it. Not only it comes in a hard box with a pretty big size, it also looks cool in the end. I was expecting something far more fragile and smaller. The contents itself include the game itself. Even though I have the Collector's Edition for the PS3, I couldn't be more satisfied.

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Thank you for treating us well, Namco Bandai.

As the big RPG fan that I am, I obviously couldn't miss this game. Too bad that 1. this is a poor conversion of the previous titles with no additional features (it actually had some features removed...) and 2. you can't compare this edition to the NA version. Still, the fact that RPGs like this are still coming to Europe after most people sold their souls to the western RPGs I don't like that much is already surprising, let alone with CEs.

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Bring Heavy Rain Back!

So, the second game by Quantic Dream stars one of the most popular (and cute) actresses and it's called Beyond: Two Souls. This is yet another game I really want to play. Heavy Rain was amazing, but I've heard this game is good, but not as great. Mostly because it's very straightforward and your decisions do not affect the storyline, which is a shame because that's one of the things that made Heavy Rain so great (not to mention its amazing plot that matches and even surpasses some of the most recent Hollywood movies). I will still play the game though.

All this chitchat just to say that I got the Press Kit. Thanks again, Michael.

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Puppeteer Press Kit. (because I couldn't think of anything else for this title)

I don't know that much about this game, except that most people talk nice things bout it. And once I have a chance to buy a press kit for a fairly good price, I won't miss it. I have to thank my friend Michael for the opportunity.

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Following the alternative path

Being a huge Tomb Raider Fan, I couldn't help but get the newest PS4 version of the latest Tomb Raider game, entitled Definitive Edition. This game received a very small CE that wasn't released over here but for less than 50 euros for a PS4 port, I couldn't really complain and decided to buy the digipak version of the game.

However, I will probably stop collecting new gen videogames so seriously now that the newer generation came out. It's a little hard to explain how I feel using English grammar, but since this blog is written in english since the beginning it would make no sense to change that now. 

 I have been assembling games since I was 12 or 13, during the Sega Saturn and Playstation 1 age. I started collecting more seriously a few years later but now I am getting a little tired. I still love collecting but companies are trying to milk the cow to death and I am having personal issues with that. First, the DLCs came. When I first heard about it I was a little reluctant. It was supposed to be something good to extend the lifetime of a particular game. But then they started with all that crap such as extra costumes and completely useless additions that do not affect the gaming experience in any way. Suddenly, many DLCs started to come out on the game's release date. Some were exclusive to certain editions whereas others were available if you preordered the game from a particular store. That's like buying a puzzle where some pieces are missing: you can still assemble it, but you'll end up with a few empty spots in the end. DLCs are not something that you can really collect. The most dramatic case I know of is Asura's Wrath. The game was actually offered to me by a very nice friend but I wouldn't buy that game unless it was brand new and the price was bellow 5 euros. Why would you even buy a game where you are forced to pay extra if you want to see the real ending? Those DLC could pretty much come inside each game disc on release date. But no, many think it's a better idea to actually sell another copy of the same game with all the extra stuff a few months later. How many different Skyrim editions are there already? Even being a DLC enthusiast, I never paid for a single DLC.

On top of that, too many important games are only coming out in digital format. That's actually good. Well, in theory at least. Producing so many physical copies is a waste of resources and digital copies are supposedly cheaper (not in every case..). But companies are not concerned with that. They only do that because they can cut production costs in games they don't expect to sell so well and hopefully increase their profit. Nothing new here... And suddenly they came up with a "wonderful" idea: Free to Play. Some games are actually very good and do a decent job where you don't really need to buy anything unless you want to progress faster in the game, such as Warframe. Others however are cancer in my opinion, such as that Free to Play Tekken. I am a huge Tekken fan but I downloaded the game and I couldn't stand more than half an hour. But the main issue I have with Free to Play games is, again, you can't collect them, you can't actually own a physical copy of that game, you have to buy too many DLCs in order to progress. 

Another problem I see with collecting games is the enormous amount of editions that come out for the same game in different countries and sometimes for unbearable prices. It all started with Modern Warfare, the game that receive the 189 euros  edition with night vision googles. Right now we have Titanfall for the XBone which has an edition priced at almost 300 euros and it doesn't even include the game inside the package. I started collecting CEs and LEs when they were 10 to 30 euros more expensive than the regular game and when they were really special. Nowadays each important game gets at least one edition and half of them end up in the bargain bin. 

Then we have the steelbook fever. Steelbooks do look beautiful but the materials used are bad: cheap metal that rusts. They are not made of stainless steel or aluminium, they're just well handled cheap metal. If you're unlucky enough to live in a country with average to high humidity during the cold season like me, they tend to rust much faster and that's almost inevitable. Some people seem to live in a dream world and believe steelbooks don't rust, or simply rust when they are scratched and painting is chipped due to bad handling. That's completely wrong. I gave up collecting steels unless they come factory sealed or kept in vacuum, but most editions nowadays include one steelbook and people are not happy if they don't...

Finally, we also have the terrible attitude from companies like Microsoft. The Xbox 360 did something quite amazing and became a popular console all over the world, competing against the older videogame giants such as Nintendo or Sony. Me, being a Sony fan, bought one of these. And now I even own three. My 360 collection is just about as big as my PS3 collection. But now they just trashed the small empire they've built over the years around the world and decided to produce a console 100% oriented towards the US market, ignoring most of the other smaller countries. They were even able to upset the US costumers with all those rules about used games etc etc and decided to step back. Now I live in a place like many others in Europe and around the world that didn't even know when and what would be released here related to XBone by the time I originally wrote this post a few weeks ago.

All these things together become a nuisance for a collector like me. I am sticking with PS4 for this generation and I will definitely slow down my collection habits this time. With so many great games I am still missing in my retro collection, it's now time to spend more time and money to get those games instead of the overpriced CEs coming out from now on.

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The Last Price of Persia Press Kit arrived at last :)

I was just missing the numbered frame with Elike. Now I finally have it and this completes the set of the three press kits available for this game. Unless there's a 4th one. I hope not...

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Update coming!

It's been nearly 3 months with no updates. What a shame! That's about to change soon though. I already wrote about 15 new posts and I have more coming. All that's missing is taking photos and upload them before posting. This should be done pretty soon, within the next couple of days or so. So stay tuned :)

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