My Own World

24/12/2014

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.

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 :)

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!

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.

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.

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!

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...

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!

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.

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!

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!

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.

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

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.

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...

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!

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!

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!

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.

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*.