Monday, November 30, 2020

Robocop 3 - Better than you Remember

 I love Robocop. The original 1987 Paul Verhoeven Classic is one of my top 5 favorite movies ever, NOT that 2014 piece of garbage remake. Robocop 2 is also another great movie as well.


 I'll be honest, when Robocop 3 came out, I remember not really liking it very much. I don't know if it was because Peter Weller was not reprising his role as Robocop, or because (Spoiler) they kill Lewis fairly early on or what but I just did not care much for it. Over the years I have heard/read that it was not liked very much overall from most people.



About a week ago I was bored and looking to kill some time so I decided to peruse my way through YouTube's Free Movies, and came across Robocop 3. I decided that I would give it a watch and see if it really was as bad as I remembered, and to my surprise, it was not.


I enjoyed watching it and would watch it again. Guess 27 years makes a difference in opinion.


Give it a watch on YouTube - Free with Ads (as of 11/30/2020). Ads were minimal and short



Tuesday, November 24, 2020

Digital Codes with Physical Video Games, Why Not?

 I am a Staunch and some would say Snobby Physical Media collector in all my hobbies, Books (I absolutely refuse to buy digital books), Movies and especially Video Games. Now if you are a frequent reader of this blog this will come as no surprise to you. But, I will however admit that I do have some "digital" games on my Xbox 360 & Xbox One mainly obtained from Microsoft's Xbox Games with Gold deals, and I honestly cannot deny how much more convenient they are to just highlight, launch and play, especially on those days I am in one of those moods where it takes me 4-5 different games that I will start, stop & switch before I finally settle in on one. As you can imagine this can get repetitive and irritating getting up every couple of minutes to swap discs, put them back in their case and back on the shelf where they belong. 


This got me to thinking, why don't Video Games comes with a code for a Digital copy? This has been standard practice with Movies for years now. In fact when I buy new Blu Ray physical copies they also come with a physical DVD copy and a redemption code for a "Digital" copy as well. That's 3 separate individual copies for one price. 

The main thing I see is that people would make an argument about is the cost. Well chew on this, The week of release you can buy the Blu Ray + DVD & Digital combo pack for roughly $15.00. $15.00, that is One Quarter of what a new Video Game costs. Video Games when they are released are $60.00 and you only get one copy. OK, but what about the cost to make a movie vs. a game?


Let us take a couple of recent "blockbusters" like say Call of Duty Modern Warfare and Captain America Civil War and compare. I chose these two because I have full physical copies of both. If you lookup the numbers, you will find that Captain America Civil War cost 400 Million Dollars to make and made 1.1 Billion Dollars, where as Call of Duty Modern Warfare only cost 200 Million Dollars to make and made over a Billion (Activision does not releases actual sales numbers) Dollars as well. 


Using those numbers, if games only cost half as much as movies to make, why do they cost four times as much to buy and yet they only give us a third of of the content that a movie does? When you sit and look at it, it really makes a person think. There is No Way a game programmer/designer is going to be paid anywhere near what Scarlett Johansson, Robert Downey Jr., Don Cheadle or Chris Evans got paid for their role.




Then of course there is all of the additional paid Downloadable Content of Character skins, weapon skins, calling cards, etc... in the Call of Duty Games, Which I am quite sure they make absolutely Scrooge McDuck sized vaults of even more money off of. 




For the record, even though I get free Xbox credit through their Microsoft Rewards program, I WILL NOT pay for these additional skins, even if admittedly some of the character models do look really cool. If it does not come with the game, or cannot be earned in the game, then I do not need it.



Most of these DLC packs, with stuff that you would actually want to use are 2400 "COD Points" so for an additional $20.00, One Third of the initial purchase price of the game! Now playing devil's advocate,  if you have the disposable income and Call of Duty is your only vice, I am not judging, you do you. I am just pointing out how much more Cold Hard Cash games generate when compared to movies.


I can remember when I was an adult buying my own games and when a news console video game cost $40.00 new. And back then (Mid to late 1990's) There was only one store that I was aware of that sold games cheaper the week of release (like movies today) that store was CompUSA. They sold them for $5.00 less (again like movies today). 



Then when the Original Xbox & Playstation 2 came out, games prices went up to $50.00, Xbox 360 & Playstation 3 went up to $60,00. thankfully for us gamers the price did stay the same for Xbox One & Playstation 4 but with the next generation of consoles (Xbox Series X/S & the Playstation 5 the games are going up to $70.00 for a brand new game 😲


I am not asking the Video Game Industry to lower their prices, go ahead and charge your $70.00, that is fine with me. What I am asking for is that they include a FREE digital copy, It could be on a separate piece of paper with a one time use code (Like movies) or have an actual downloadable file on the disc itself, that uses the physical copy you purchased for the key to install it.  Or tell you what, I would even be willing pay an extra $1.00 for the convenience to download the digital copy, as long as I am the original purchaser of the physical version. Minecraft did something similar to this that I have used.


A person was able to buy a digital copy of Minecraft for $5.00 if they had already purchased a physical copy. I did this for both my Xbox 360 & Xbox One as it was an easier way for my Wife and Daughter to play when I was not around. My daughter who is 9 now, and I still prefer her to not touch physical discs, my wife has put games in the wrong case, which is a Huuuuge pet peeve of mine. So for them to be able to launch and play the game from the dashboard = awesome!


These are just my personal thoughts and opinions on the subject, feel free to comment or Email me if you would like to have a discussion.


Thanks for Reading!



Monday, November 16, 2020

I Bought Another Xbox 360 Console

I have both Hoarding and Impulse Control problems when it comes to my Video Game collection, and I happen to come across another Xbox 360 Console I just had to have.......



But First


It was really bothering me that my Modern Warfare 2 Console had the wrong color Hard Drive on it.

So I did what I do best, hopped on the internet to find a proper replacement

It's not the proper 250GB Hard Drive that originally came with the console, but I use my Xbox 360 E with the 500 GB Hard Drive to play my games anyway so as long as it matched, it was $10.00.


Much better than the gray HD.

Oh and while looking I also found one of these

A Halo 3 20GB Hard Drive for $10.00

The next console I am chasing is the Halo 3 Edition Xbox 360, a few of the ones I have looked at have been missing theirs, so figured might as well pick one up, just in case I need it.


And onto my newest console purchase from Goodwill for $12.99

An Xbox 360 "Arcade" model

I have always wanted one of these, just cause. This was the Entry Level model. The "Pro" models came with a Hard Drive, Chrome disc tray door and eject button. My original pro (I gave to a girl I was hanging out with when I bought my Elite) also came with a copy of Need for Speed Most Wanted.

Does not come with a Hard Drive, but instead has a cover in it's place.

And another difference with these

No HDMI port, just the standard Xbox A/V connector


Close up shows this is a Gamestop Refurbished unit. 

I am going to leave the Gamestop sticker that was placed over the Microsoft sticker, but I might remove the other barcode, although it is nice to know when this was refurbbed (May 11th 2010), it looks sloppy.

I normally just pass these models by when I see them, but it was a base model that I had been looking for, and for the price I made an exception. Let's plug it in an see if it works, or it is just a shelf decoration, I am fine either way, I just bought it to put in a Xbox 360 display someday.


Works Great!


So how do you save files on this console? You get a Memory Unit, There were four sizes available, 64 MB, 128 MB, 256 MB and a 512 MB. 

I have a 64 and 512, will get each of the other two, just cause.


Finally got to use those Memory Slots in the front of the Original 360's


A nice "new to me" working Xbox 360 with cords and a controller for $12.99, Nice!





















Wednesday, November 11, 2020

Star Wars The Force Unleashed II - Building the Ultimate Edition

 


Since I had recently been so disappointed with the latest Star Wars game offering (Jedi Fallen Order-Blog) I Decided that I wanted to go back to a better game to clense my palate, Star Wars the Force Unleashed II. I know it may come as a shock, but I had not played all the way through to the end, as I am sure I got distracted by some other shiny new game.


I picked up the collector's edition back in 2013? From a used game store for around $15.00. and got the artwork for the standard copy from a place I used to be able to get artwork and manuals from before they went out of business (R.I.P. BRE Software) and was the copy I played.

Sorry for the stock picture, my personal copy is packed away in a box somewhere

  • Collector's Edition extras: collectible steelbook, Starkiller 2GB flash drive designed by Mimobot, digital art book. In-game content (3 exclusive challenge mode levels, exclusive Ralph McQuarrie concept "Deak Starkiller" skin, exclusive lightsaber crystal)

Then I remembered, there were a few different editions of the game available from the various different retailers. Remember the dark times of gaming with the developers and their "online pass" and the different retailers were all fighting for your gaming dollar? The main players (Best Buy, Target and Walmart) Offered different pack ins to get you to buy the game from them. Well if you are a regular reader of this blog, you will know I like to make my own "Ultimate Editions" by getting all of the different extras, and putting them all in one copy for my Xbox 360 Collection.


The 4 various editions

If I was better or even decent with Photoshop, I would put all 3 of those bonus boxes down the left side and print the custom artwork. But I am not, so I cannot. Hey, I can admit when I an not good at things. But it still begs the question, Which case artwork am I going to keep and use?


Bonus Mini-Comic (Target)

Bonus Trading Card (Best Buy)

Bonus Mini-Hint Guide (Walmart)

What is weird about Walmart & Best Buy, is that it is usually Best Buy that was the retailer to have the Mini-Hint Guides. I have several other games with Hint Guides only from Best Buy. 

Amazon and Gamestop also had digital codes for in game content, but since I am a snobby physical collector so do not really give a shit about these digital extras, so could care less about having those.


Everything Together

And packed in the case

Decided to use the standard artwork case













Tuesday, November 3, 2020

Playstation 2 Game Pickups of the PAL Variety

 I was out at a slightly out of the way Goodwill, but I was on my way home from St. Cloud, MN on a game hinting trip (Pictures coming soon) so I decided to swing in, and I found some PAL Region Playstation 2 Games.

The PAL region is a television publication territory that covers most of AsiaAfricaEuropeSouth America and Oceania. It is so named because of the PAL (Phase Alternating Line) television standard traditionally used in those regions, as opposed to the NTSC standard traditionally used in Japan and most of North America.

I picked them up mainly just to get the Region specific colored cases, just cause.




Tiger Woods 
Blue Case w/Memory Card Holder


Stuntman
Blue Case w/ Playstation Logo stamped above disc


Gran Turismo 4
Silver Case with Playstation Logo stamped above Disc
with Need for Speed Underground Disc.


I swapped the artwork, manuals and discs into plain black Disc cases and traded them into a game store. I did keep the Gran Turismo 4 Art and Manual though, as it is one of my favorite game series. I think I might find a NTSC disc and keep the case varitation, Or maybe put it all in a U.S. PS 2 Case.








Sunday, November 1, 2020

Recent Playstation 2 Game Pickups Part: 2

 As promised, more Playstation 2 Game Pickups for the Collection!

Same as last Blog, These were $1.99-2.99 either from Salvation Army or Goodwill


First up, some Cabela's Games. I am no Outdoorsman or Hunter by any stretch of the imagination, but I have always enjoyed the Cabela's games as they are great time killers.


Cabela's Trophy Bucks
Complete


Cabela's Outdoor Adventures
Complete


Cabela's Dangerous Hunts 2
Complete


Cabela's Deer Hunt Season Opener
Complete


Cabela's Deer Hunt 2004 Season
Complete

Cabela's is getting some mileage out of this template


And along the same vein

Deer Hunter
Complete



Sea World Adventure Park
Shamu's Deep Sea Adventures
Complete


Ghost Recon
Complete with Greatest Hits Disc


Ghost Recon Jungle Storm
Complete


Hummer Badlands
Complete


MX vs. ATV Unleashed
Complete with Greatest Hits Disc


MX vs. ATV Untamed
Complete


Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon
Complete


Ace Combat 5 The Unsung War
Complete


Devil May Cry 3 Dante's Awakening
Complete


Winter Sports 2 The Next Challenge
Complete


Thunder Strike
No Manual



That's it for this batch of Playstation 2 game pickups


More Soon!