Messages

91

Modern Video Games / Re: Are Steelbook Editions Getting Too Expensive?

« on: August 16, 2019, 07:08:33 am »

I was thinking what most of the folks think here have already said, don't see the fascination in the first place, let alone paying extra for them. I mean, some of the artwork is gorgeous, but the steelbooks themselves either get scratched and are ruined, or come with those plastic slipcases which seem a lot more prone to scratching than the standard plastic you get on game cases. I've spent god knows how many years replacing game cases to get them looking spangly, so card or any other material that can't be replaced as outer packaging makes me grind my teeth. It doesn't help that, as you point out, publishers seem to think that limited edition steelbooks aren't just nice to look at, they're 'must have' and add value.

92

General / Re: What are you playing?

« on: August 12, 2019, 12:05:47 pm »

Dragon Quest Builders 2, probably going to be my game of the year, love it. Hard to believe it's by the team behind Dynasty Warriors, but it might explain why Dynasty Warriors 9 was an open-world mess.

93

General / Re: Free time for games

« on: August 12, 2019, 11:55:27 am »

Mrs SHFan is on maternity leave and likes to go to bed a reasonable time, SHFan jr is 5 months now, so I need to start to get more hands-on with looking after him, I still manage to get some time in the evenings or when madame and the little one are visiting someone, but when I'm daddy daycare we'll just have to see how it works out. Got the feeling it'll be handhelds for a few minutes here and there.

94

Off Topic / Re: My house got broken into today. (How do you protect your collections?)

« on: August 11, 2019, 11:54:24 am »

I'm really sorry you had that awful experience, so pleased they didn't get through the third door and that your dog's OK. 

95

General / Re: VGC's Anonymous/"General" Topic:

« on: July 19, 2019, 12:30:58 pm »

YS VIII is a real breath of fresh air for a current-gen game Telly, it just does what you'd want it to.

96

General / Re: So, a funny thing happened this past weekend...

« on: July 13, 2019, 06:34:18 pm »

Well, good on you! If your collection's moved your buying habits and gaming habits (and priorities) in the wrong direction then it's time for a change. I had a similar thing happen several months ago and have since shed hundreds of games that I was in no hurry to play. SwordDude's suggestions are very good - for the cheap 'chum' games at the very least, it's a good idea to trade them in if there's somewhere you'll get either cash or swaps that are of use to you. I traded in all the low value ones to a chain called CEX, then took the resultant hundreds of pounds worth of vouchers and turned them into some rare games I did want, blu rays and a blu ray player.

Now I'm focused on 4 main areas: childhood memories, "well it looks interesting", "it's a genre I really like" and "played and liked". Ones which just look interesting I've whittled down to barely anything, even games in genres I like have been given a good examing and downsized.  Could do with an ongoing preen to get rid of rubbish, but it's better all the time, I'm also really focussing on what's likely to played down the line, a lot of these limited release games aren't worth the trouble and expense.

97

General / Re: What Does Everyone Think of the Nintendo Switch Lite?

« on: July 13, 2019, 09:43:28 am »

It's the opposite of what I was hoping for - a cut-down model just designed to be plugged into the teevee without the portability. Still, perhaps down the line I'll get one of these if they go cheap.

98

General / Re: Your favorite swag

« on: June 30, 2019, 07:04:09 pm »

BioShock blew me away and the sequel's announcement got me majorly stoked - so when my local supermarket had a card standee featuring a little sister on a big daddy's shoulder I had to have it, the manager let me have it and I gave a donation to charity in thanks. Unfortunately it's been in my parents' garage roof ever since because I've had nowhere for it - I'm hoping to be able to finally display it somewhere in the house now, 10 years later nearly.

99

General / Re: What are you playing?

« on: June 20, 2019, 03:55:02 pm »

Drakengard (PS2), Bloodstained (PS4) and RuneScape.

100

Modern Video Games / Re: ELDEN RING E3 Leak - New Soulsborne game Incoming!

« on: June 10, 2019, 06:11:26 am »

All aboard the hype train!

*Hoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooonk, hoooooooooooooooooooooooooooonk*
*Vengabus music starts to play*

Soulsborne games are just a perfect combination of exploration, stat/equip tinkering and combat for me, I'll gladly take every one FROM create.

101

General / Re: In your opinion whats the best system to collect for and why

« on: June 06, 2019, 04:22:30 pm »

Whatever's accessable and cheap in your part of the world, to get started with.

Recently I've become a lot more interested in PC games, particularly noughties indie/casual/obscure ones on CD/DVD-ROM, they can be picked up for pence and there's a lot of different genres and oddball titles.

102

General / Re: Your opinions on limited quantity, physical release online retailers

« on: May 30, 2019, 07:19:47 pm »

To me they're like Kickstarter, something which initially looked very exciting but over time has shown itself to be a cardboard cut-out with nothing behind it.

The concept of games being released on physical is great, but the mechanism for reserving a game (be there and hope) is poor for consumers. In addition to that, the actual games themselves are more often than not little more than flash games which can be played online free. There is the occasional gem, but instead of actually delivering titles like Castle Crashers or the like, we're getting any old thing they can convince the creator to slap onto a disc.

Pricing's another problem - you've got these substandard games which cost more than you could buy a better game released via a standard publisher which has gone down in price a few weeks after release. Postage costs make this so much worse - Limited Run charge $15 to get a game to me in Europe - it seriously bumps up the investment needed to secure one.

I order occasionally, but only very occasionally, far too much dross - the interesting games (like Bomber Crew) tend to go with specialist or budget publishers rather than the limited ones.

103

Off Topic / Re: What Was The Last Movie/Anime You Watched?

« on: May 16, 2019, 04:34:42 pm »

Long overdue watch of an old favourite, invasion of the willy-monsters Love the Arrow Video blu ray, lovely picture and nice extras.

104

General / Re: VGcollect Checking In Thread (May 2019 edition)

« on: May 12, 2019, 07:10:57 pm »

Still active but circumstances have changed - now have a 10 week old son, so most of my time is spoken for and the remainder is more likely to be spent gaming rather than getting more, despite which I've built up plenty of store credit at my local indy game shop and CEX to splurge on games and blu rays over the year. CEX Have a lot of casual PC games and noughties PC games for 50p + £1.50 postage, so for a couple of quid I can pick up something different.

105

General / Re: What are you playing?

« on: May 05, 2019, 07:52:19 pm »

Playing Warcraft III: Frozen Throne on PC, been god knows how many years since I played it last, not sure if I ever beat it either, so it's marked as unbeaten in my Backloggery, hoping to change that.