The Playstation 2 Story

June 20th, 2007

slim line playstation 2 australia

How it (tradgically) went down

I haven’t posted about this yet and I really should. Basically I’d been meaning to buy a PS2 for probably 2/3 years now and I finally got around to it the other week. I have been keenly looking for one for about 3 months and found and pretty good deal at Harvey Norman. That was:

-Playstation 2 console
-Extra Controller
-8mb memory card
-2x Platnium titles Total price – $299

So I worked that out to be about $170 or so just for the console by itself. Which was close enough to my target goal. The deal had everything that I needed to get started so and I was getting a bit anxious of just watching a few decent sales go by. So I decided to get it.I was assuming that they may have a few other titles that I might want to pick up down at my local Harvey Norman so I was prepared to maybe buy a few more games. Unfortunately their range of games were pretty average infact I was more impressed by their PSP bargain bin. Out of the limited range I chose Burnout Revenge and Tekken 5 as my 2 platnium titles, they also had the Prince of Persia Trilogy for $50 which was too good to pass up. Especially having played the original on the old C64. 😀

All was well until I had to actually pay for the lot. This is where Harvey Normans payment procedure collapsed into itself. Chris(my brother if you haven’t caught on) and I went to the checkout and had the girl scan all of the items, we pointed out that it was a part of the deal and showed it to her in their catalogue. She didn’t seem aware of the promotion and spent several minutes staring blankly at the page. She then scanned up all of the items and looked back at the catalogue for a few minutes. Chris and I had a bus to catch, unfortunately Chris had been slowing me down(as always) before hand so we didn’t have much time on our hands. So we explained the deal to her again and kindly tried to hurry it along.

She then said that she would need to do an invoice for the package which seemed a bit bizarre. So we grabbed our goods and followed her around the store until she could find a spare staff member to do the invoice. She found one quickly enough and we sat down and this other guy went thru the products, once again looked at the catalogue for a while and then proceded to discount each item on the computer. He then wrote the discounts down on a piece of paper and led us back to the front of the store so that the other chick could finish off(or is that start?) the sale. After another customer went thru we got our goods put thru and our ‘invoice’ was printed out an overally large reciept printed from a printed that wouldn’t look out of place in the 80s.

This whole ordeal took about 25 minutes and as you may have already guessed we missed our bus. Now I can’t help but feel sorry for those poor sales people. I mean I don’t blame them for any of this as its not their fault. Except for not knowing that you have a major special in your catalogue that has been running for 4 days or not knowing how to take a few %s off a few products.(why would you employ someone that couldn’t do that?) You see its the POS(point of sale) procedure where the fault lies. There are many many Harvey Norman stores around Australia and yet they don’t have a database system in which they can scan an item an it will come up as a reduced price. What we noticed was that any price reduction has to be entered manually. Now what happens in the ‘invoice’ case is that each item must be marked down individually by a certain amount(%) and those calculations would be sent to the checkout staff to process. This is a ridiculus system of time wasting for the customer and makes no common sense.

I spose its no surprise really I very rarely(infact I don’t believe that I have even bought something from their before the PS2) shop at HN. Infact bfore I bought the PS2 I despised them for their -ve comments on the Nintendo Wii, seemingly morotic staff and well…they just plan annoyed me. But (thankfully) I have a real reason to hate them now. Ain’t gonna shop there again.

I haven’t had a retail bitch for sometime. So thank you for letting it get off me chest.

What else I snapped up

I bought the console a few weeks ago and hence in the time of me wiritng this to back then I have had the time to buy some games for it. Luckily for me its been a great time to buy games. Being the end of the finanical year numerous retailers are having great deals on some stellar games. Everything that I’ve bought has been reduced. ^_^ Here’s the list of games:

-Tekken 5
-Burnout Revenge
-Prince of Persia Trilogy
-Super Monkey Ball DX
-Soul Calibur 3
-God of War
-Final Fantasy X
-Final Fantasy X-2
-Kingdom Hearts 2
-GTA: LCS
-GTA: VCS
-Sega MegaDrive Collection

I’ve been trying to stay focused on certain games and here’s my brief impressions:

Burnout Revenge

This game is totally apt, fantastic production values, gameplay thats fined tuned to perfection. Its just too good. I love playing this game as its such a rush. I found it a wee bit tricky to settle in but now that I have its totally awesome. Soundtracks great too, go Junkie XL.

Prince of Persia: Sands of Time

Some people think that this series is the series of last gen, but I have to disagree. The games reek of Ubisoft quality but I can’t help but feel that its not as refined as it could be. Specifically the combat, I often find myself become more and more frustrated with it. The acrobatics are definetly very impressive. The game is the perfect 3D conversion of the old 2D PoP games in terms of design. Which is very reminiscent of the older games, I can’t help but dig the nostalgic value from my old C64 version.

Soul Calibur 3

I haven’t played any single player of this game yet. Chris and I have been furiously duking it out in the Vs mode. This game is a true step up from SC2 which I wasn’t expecting. The gameplay flows more beautifully than the silk that drapes the walls of some levels. This game makes Tekken 5 feel like something from the stone age.

Sega MegaDrive Collection

I wasn’t expecting to buy this game for a while but it was price at EB($25) which was too good to pass up. The best part about this collection is that it does justice to the old MegaDrive. That is the emulations are faultless, presentation is slick and the additional options such as saving anywhere are just downright handy. Oh and nothing beats playing some co-op Golden Axe. 🙂 Once again this one brings back those oh so lovely nostalgic memories, from playing this console at my cousins place every weekend when I was a young chap.

Conclusion

Its about time that I bought a PS2. I’m glad that I’ve decided to do it now as its at the perfect time in terms of software range availability and price. I’m also pleased that I bought it now instead of holding off. Thanks for reading. ^_^

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Playing Console Catch ups

June 13th, 2007

zelda mail man

I’m sure that some of us gamers may have done it once or twice. Infact its inevitable for most of us poor gamers out there. There comes a time when we need to decide whether its worthwhile to invest in another console. This can be because we missed out the first time around or we just want another console to expand our gaming horizons.

Deciding whether it is a worthwhile investment is the tricky part. I’ve done this numerous times before and did it again today. So lets take a look at whats required to make that important decision.

Getting started

Lets make the case study for this article be the latest console that I’ve picked up; a Playstation 2. Its better late than never I guess. I’ve been eyeing one off for about 2 years but only recently has it been the best time to buy. Lets take a look at what I did to prepare for a console catch up.

Deciding the worthwhile-ability

The key reason why you are buying an older console is for the games, right? Grab and pen and paper and jot down all of the games you are interested in on that console. Don’t be too strict with your list. Now write a total at the bottom. I’m not going to tell you what the number should be.

The next thing that you need to keep in mind is how expensive the games are going to be and also how easy it is to get your hands on them. Its all well and good wanting Ikaruga or Radiant SilverGun but if you can’t get your hands on it easily then its almost pointless wanting it.

Hopefully this simple task has helped you manage to grasp what you are likely to be playing with your new old console. The point here is to give you the idea of what you’d get with your console, how hard it would be to get and how much it’d cost. As these are the major points of consideration. Especially the strength of the games list, there is little point on buying a console for just one game.

I didn’t really need this step as I already knew that purchasing a PS2 was rather worthwhile. But I did it anyways. I did this with my brother and we got a list of about 40 games (these are the essential must have games BTW). The prices and availability for most of the games are pretty good. We could probably get the whole deal sorted out for a few hundred dollars. So yeah, definetly worthwhile.

Fine tuning your preferences

Okay, now that you know what you are interested in. Its time to find out whats worth buying. Obviously there are some games that you just know that are worth you buying, but there’s probably a few that your unsure of. And its worth checking them out. I did quite a bit of this for games that I was unsure about. Depending on what your into this can be done in many ways. But I’ll just explain it in the way that I did it.

When I research old games I look at videos, reviews and critical reactions. The best sort of video that you can get are Video Reviews as thry run thru the essentials. Places like Gametrailers or IGN do pretty good video reviews.

In terms of reviews the best places to check out are review aggregators. GameRankings is pretty good. Just search for the game your after and have a look at the review scrores for the games reviewed by decent sources. Check out the reviews as well if you want.

Now if the games that your after are too old for GameTrailers or even just your internet reviews(before 1995?). Then Wikipedia is your best bet. Wikipedia is good for regurgettating too much storyline as the pages are generally edit by the huge fans. Have a quick read thru and see if its the type of game for you. Also the Critical reaction part is pretty good to get an idea on if the game isactually any good.

Now that you have sussed out any games that you weren’t sure about. You can remove any games if you want.

Last minute additions

Any games that you’ve forgotten? Man I just hate that feeling. If you do think that you’ve missed something head over to Gamerankings and check the top scoring 50-200 titles released for that system.

Final Considerations

Well now that you know what you want, go out and get it. Be sure to look around to ensure that you get the best prices. If you are getting some older titles then it might also be worth checking out the Xbox Live Arcade, Virtual Console and the PSNs game titles as there might be a few tucked away in there. Good luck, I hope this wasn’t too tedious and might actually help people.

BTW if you want to get those games for a decent price check out my article on Bargain Hunting for Videogames.

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Bargain Hunting for Video Games

June 6th, 2007

super castlevania artwork
Yes, nothing beats old school Super Castlevania IV art!

Don’t you just love it when you go out on an early morning and find a quality game for a cheap price? It just feels that much more rewarding when some of that hard earned cash stays in your wallet. Now I haven’t been out looking for bargain for sometime now but that’s not to say that I don’t have a few tricks up my sleeve to help out you fortunate readers.

Rule 1 Wait until the time is right

If your buying thru your department stores then never, ever buy a game at full price, unless:

Now, the trick is to be patient and wait until the game is going out at a reduced line. Nowadays the wait isn’t all that long. You can find new release games drop $30 within 2/3 weeks of release.

The other thing to wait for is sales. Now department stores generally cycle through their specific reduction themes. That is just before easter time camping gear will be reduced as everyone likes to go camping over the easter break etc etc. This eventually happens with games, so hold off until that period comes and take advantage of it. You’ll find out about these sales if you check your letterbox weekly.

Also be weary of the clearance sales, some stores(like the one I work at) can’t stop having clearance sales, be it Stocktake, Christmas, Bellow Cost, Closing Down it doesn’t matter what excuse they make, you’d be stupid enough to not give it a try.

The other things to wait for are price markdowns down on the rrp. That is when a manufacturer releases a budget range of games or a tie in deal with a console. Try and guess when the markdowns will occur and then go for it. I bought my GBA SP about a week before it was put down $40 and then stuck in a few game bundles. It sucks, so don’t let it happen to you.

Rule 2 Vary your sources

The chances of you finding that cheap rare title increases dramatically when you look in places beyond your local shopping centre. Try places that you wouldn’t normally look. Here’s a few ideas:

different game/department stores
the buy/sell sections of the newspaper
garage sales
second hand stores
clearance/closing down sales
try online auction sites
online retailers
import your games
your local community forum trading post

Rule 3 Demand the cheapest

If your going to buy games anywhere then ask if you can get them a bit cheaper, even a few dollars. It always pays to ask. This works even better if you are going to buy a console in the package as well.

Now if you shop at a store where they claim to beat a competitors price, wait until one of their competitors has a good deal and then go and better it at the other store. Demand the cheapest, the mark ups are plain ridiculous.

Rules 4 Give Pre-owned a go

I’m rather against this whole buy pre-owned deal but in reality its not that bad. 2 of my Gamecube titles are pre-owned and they work fine. I picked up TimeSplitters 2(extremely rare and always full price in Australia) for $AUS30 instead of $AUS100+. My brother nabbed Tales of Symphonia for $AUS70 when it goes for $350 on eBay.

Pre-owned games are pretty easy to find these days, in Australia EB and Cash Convertors are fairly popular pre-owned games sellers. You can also buy second hand games down at garage sales or you can even buy some off your best mate.

When you are buying pre-owned make sure to check:

the return policies
the disc/cart condition
everything that’s included

Rule 5 Never stop looking

That is unless you have all of the games you would ever need, but that only exists in fairy tales.

If your a professional bargain hunter then you would have noticed the first error in the opening paragraph. That is I haven’t been out looking for bargain for sometime now and that’s the trick, you never stop looking. Whenever your out and about always have the bargain at the back of your mind. If your out shopping in a place which you normally don’t shop at, check out the local game stores as they may have a gem hidden away for a good price.

Alrighty folks, that should be enough help to at least get you started. If you’ve got any tips/tricks/success stories/whatever then leave me a comment. ^_^

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