I only come here to complain about Kickstarter and MuvLuv

Yeah, I'm still around but I stalled my collection and I don't think I'll ever go back to the craze of buying so much stuff like before. Every new release has at least a super expensive edition. Plenty of small companies started to release limited prints of indie games that are impossible to keep up since there are so many nowadays. Companies like Square Enix are releasing super expensive editions that are hardly worth getting for the abnormally inflated prices. We're talking about poor content or small and incomplete items in an ultra big box that make it look like an awesome edition and then sell it for 150, 200... even more than that. And a big chunk of those still sell out real fast. Yet, they are easily rivaled in quality and contents by other editions previously released over the years that would cost less than 100. The only thing going for them is the low numbers, but low numbers are not big reason enough for me to drop big bucks on something I don't feel it's worth it.

I know that things have been like this for quite a while, even when I was still a sucker for these editions and bought many of them, but now it's already over the edge.. I've bought stuff before that I didn't think it was worth it... just not for triple digits. In fact, I do have a few things I regret buying in my collection but most of them came cheap. And I've reached my point of rupture, which I've been dragging along for a few years  due to my obsession with collecting all the missable stuff.

So I got tired of all that sh!t and finally got over it. Once I got freed from the streak of buying so much stuff and learned how to miss rare items, it became much, much easier to skip almost any game or edition unless I truly wanted it. I felt relieved in a way. I went back to the good old days before I became such a hardcore collector, when I would just buy the things I truly liked the most in order to fully enjoy them instead of just getting them to satisfy my fetish. I probably should have started doing this a long time ago. When I look back, I can clearly see I took things way too far but hey, I had fun doing it so it's not like I regret or consider it a mistake.

However, there's this one thing I still couldn't get over with, the thing that I truly regret. Something that I did during my crazy moments as a collector: Kickstarter. Oh boy, do I regret ever supporting a Kickstarter project?

I was blinded by the goodies and exclusive offers that only backers had access to if they supported a project. I was so obsessed with my videogame collection that I was afraid to miss on the only chance I had to get some exclusive items, even if they came from crowdfunds. Now I see this was nothing but pure ignorance and lack of self control. If only I had placed reason above my  passion... people make mistakes, they learn, they move on. Even in less important things like buying videogames.

Out of all the kickstarter projects I've backed, only one was materialized. The others resulted in nothing even thought they were all successfully funded.

I hesitated a lot when financing MuvLuv Collector's Edition, but at the very last moment I've decided to back for the Vita Physical Collector's Edition. After waiting for an eternity for the game to get a release date and constantly dealing with recent rumors of cancellation, I now learn that an edition for this game is on preorder for a much, much lower price than the original backer kit I've selected. Not only that, but the game gets a PAL version rated by PEGI, shipped from within Europe. This means there's an official PAL rating version of this game now, and the best I can expect is a delayed ESRB rated version subject to crazy custom taxes that will arrive much later than the one non-backers will buy.

This means people who didn't back up sh!t will get a physical edition much, much cheaper, and also much faster. So where does that leave me at? As a backer, someone who helped making the game possible outside of Japan, it certainly doesn't leave me happy. I might sound selfish, but I just can't ignore the fact that this is truly unfair. I'm fine with other people getting the game, but I'm not fine with knowing I was one of the backers who helped this project but end up burned. If I just had enough patience, I would have ended up buying the edition now and get it faster without going through a lot of sh!t for a few years, but who would have guessed?

Moral of the story: no more kickstarter or crowdfunds for me. There's no benefit.

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Damn...

This is a type of game that doesn't need presentation. Unfortunately I've missed the Prestige Edition because 1. it was very expensive and 2. my preorder was cancelled by Amazon... So I had to get Dark Souls III Collector's Edition locally...

Amazon used to be the best place to order almost anything, but lately it's been terrible with me, so... I just moved to local stores. Seriously, what the hell? I have been building my collection with awesomeness and thanks to some stupid mistake from a store I miss something as important as the Prestige Edition, which I will probably never own? Disgusting!

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That epic moment when...

... an epic japanese game gets an epic edition in Europe. I totally missed the first game because I didn't want to spend so much money on its edition. I ended up buying it from scalpers in the end. I thought the same thing could happen with this second game but it seems that I'll probably find it later when the price drops, considering the stupid amount of copies this received...

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Only one word: Masterpiece.

This was one of the most anticipated games since E3's conference last year and oh boy it's pretty damn good. I am not a big fan of The Witcher games but this one looks way too good and I really want to play it but I still can't :(. I am glad to own this edition of the game but I do have to complain (as usual...) because its size is enormous. There are too many huge editions coming out at once and this is becoming unbearable for any regular collector with a normal house. It's very hard to manage all the space available in a regular house to store so many big editions but companies simply keep'em coming because they know they sell like hot cakes. This will have to stop one day (I hope...)

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Nightmare is here

It's finally here, one of the most sought after games from recent times, and it's called Bloodborne. This is not another Dark Souls but pretty much combines all the good things from that game series into a brand new one and it looks pretty impressive. 

Unfortunately, I'm not in a position to buy popular press kits right now and I'm very sad to see that I'll be missing this game's press kit as well. But at least I managed to get the Nightmare Edition which quite heavy and packed with some cool items. My only concern with this edition is it abusive price.

Unfortunately there isn't much I can tell about the game itself. I usually don't like to spoil surprises by watching too many videos and trailers. On the other hand, I've got quite a few games to play on the list and not much of an opportunity to play them. It's been months since I played any of the consoles but thankfully within the next couple of months my biggest problem should be sorted and I'll finally have some time to rest my mind and to play a few videogames.

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Final Fantasy Type Irony.

I don't quite understand why some games from popular series never come out of Japan. Final Fantasy Type 0 is one of that kind of games. In my opinion, it should have been originally available in all world regions, especially because it's part of the spin off series based in Final Fantasy XIII. Instead, we had to wait for an HD version for the latest consoles. No, not even for PS3 or 360. It had to be for PS4 and XBone, with PSP-based HD graphics... You need a 400€ new gen home console to play a graphically outdated portable game that came out several years ago in Japan. That makes absolutely perfect sense! Nobody is going to pay full price for an outdated game for a portable console that the general public no longer plays. So they decided to release a new version for the latest systems because... well... it's more enticing to consumers, maybe? Even if the game looks more "outfashioned" and pixelated than a Minecraft version for Windows 95? Yeah, the game doesn't look like anything remotely close to a new gen game. I was excited at first but after seeing a demo of it, I became more reluctant because it doesn't look that good...

Yeah, I've bought the regular Collector's Edition from a local website. I say "regular" because the Square Enix Store featured a different edition with a much better looking package. But (there is always a but...) of course, it was impossible for me to buy it because I live in Portugal and Square Europe doesn't send items to Portugal without even explaining why. The usual 1st world problems, video game collectors version. We have tiny little companies making awesome games and sending them to the Moon if it's necessary, such as WaterMelon Games and Super Fighter Team. But then, Square Enix, a pretty damn big corporation with this website designed specifically for European consumers, decides to sell exclusive items only to a couple of selected destinations? Okay. I can live with that. Some people can live without a kidney, so I can live without that edition too.

Overall, I'm quite happy that I missed the special cover. I mean, it's not like I collect videogames at all, you see. Especially Final Fantasy games with exclusive editions and slipcases, I never buy those... It makes perfect sense that half Europe cannot order exclusive games from Square Enix Europe. (/irony).

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Crappy edition is crappy

Here it is, another Polish exclusive, this time for Dying Light. In fact this edition is quite interesting, except for a few major problems. First, my statue came with a broken arm and two broken fingers. Most statues arrived like this, unfortunately. Thankfully, I'm pretty confident I can fix that. The package is horrible as well. Inner supports are very fragile and arrived all dented and even ripped. 

Why can't they make decent packages? These are collector's items and there are some really serious and picky collectors out there reaching out for these. Why does almost no one cares about the way items are designed? It really troubles my mind to think that some people out there are making money producing really expensive editions with the crappiest packages ever. People buy online all the time and many editions are online exclusives as well, so why don't producers even consider making hard packages that can survive all the torture they go through during shipping process or at least ensure that the contents will survive the journey?

Other than that, the game is pretty cool and so is this edition, filled with some fine extras and a steelbook, like I usually hate. Being a country exclusive also rises my interested in it. I'm just disappointed with the outer package but I can live with that. Now I'll proceed to fix the statue and replace the inserts.

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Another one of these games.

Future Trunks has always been my favourite character in the Dragon Ball series. When I was younger I really wanted to get one action figure of his character but, sadly, those were unavailable over here. The only figurines available at that time were produced by AB Toys and they originated from France. Toys R' Us was the only place where I could find them. The best I could get was a bootleg figurine based on the original Bandai version which had only been released in Japan. I was very happy when I heard a Future Trunks statue was included this time with the Dragon Ball Xenoverse Trunks' Travel Edition. I felt even more tempted to buy it when I saw the first unboxing pictures. That satiny look of the statue makes it even more awesome.

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You know something's wrong when...

... you're in your early 30s, single and buying Skylanders. Yep, something is odd... I don't have much of an interest in Skylanders to be honest. I don't know who had this weird idea of releasing figurines that interact with a game. These are the most annoying "DLCs" someone released because there are hundreds of these things, some of them are limited, exclusive and extremely rare and... of course, they cost a lot of money, even the regular ones... damn! 

I do have a few exclusive figurines though, including a crystal clear one from the first game that seems to be quite rare. The only reason why I've bought this Trap Team Dark Edition starter pack was mainly because I've also bought the dark and light expansion sets and I completely missed/ignored the Kaos trap, which seems to be worth something. This set is already sold out everywhere and it includes an Ultimate Kaos Trap. This was the very last edition I've managed to find in a store and I didn't buy it immediately. I took some time to think about what to do because, honestly, Skylanders is not exactly my main goal. I have a near complete Smash Bros Amiibo set but let's just not talk about that...

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Not that easy to get...

I was amazed at how fast this one sold out even though it was quite pricey... Kingdom Hearts was a game I played and loved back in the days, but the second title didn't catch my attention as easily as the first one did. I never managed to finish the second game because I eventually grew bored of it. True story...

Considering the price, I don't know why they made such a fragile box. It's a shame some big companies simply try to catch the attention of consumers and collectors in general without really caring for them at the same time...

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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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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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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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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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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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AC everywhere...

I am still not sure if this was a good or a bad decision, but I've bought the portuguese version of Assassin's Creed Buccaneer Edition. It's exclusive to a store over here and most are either sold or in terrible condition because these editions are victims of torture by regular retailers who simply don't care about the sh!t they sell. It took me some time to find a near mint one. This is the PS3 version because it's the only one available in Portuguese. All the other versions for different systems come in Spanish only...

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Being a pirate is... expensive!

It finally arrived, the yearly fever of Assassin's Creed collectors is here and this time it brought us two very special editions among other equally important press kits, editions and promotional items.

Ubishop, the online store I hate the most for valid reasons, released one exclusive Assassin's Creed IV Black Flag: the Black Chest Edition, which I was able to get for the Xbox 360 thanks to a very kind buddy from CE. Thanks a lot Sneaks, if it wasn't for you I wouldn't be able to obtain this edition unless I paid stupid eBay prices :)

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