A Compulsive Collector's Haul - New Games and Gifts of Awesome! (5 Months)

Dag yo! So, I’m on my third to last “5 Months” blog. This time you guys are in for a treat, as I’ll be recapping the new games (yeah, I actually do get new ones, since they’re not available from Cash Converters, hahaha!) I’ve bought the past 5 months, along with a few super kickass gifts/trades I’ve received from some local Calgary homeboys. We’ve got stuff I’ve purchased from EB Games, Best Buy, Capcom’s Online Store, NIS’ Online Store, a Kijiji purchase, and a couple hookups/presents from my homies possumwrangler and Grimstar. This should be a bit more exciting than the last one (even though the last one had stuff from LIGHTS! =P), so hopefully you enjoy! But before that . . .

If I had a ton of money, I’d be frivolous and totally fucking waste it all, since I have no goddamn clue how to budget money or how not to be responsible . . . period! I’d just break shit and not care, because I can replace it for the time being, plus I’ll totally perpetuate the American stereotype of being a wasteful mother fucker. I’m pretty much narcissistic, because I have no real sense of reality and think that people will magically like me if I lose some weight, even though I have the personality of a giant asshole. I’ll totally somehow build a monument of myself as well, to somehow translate how much “better” I am than everyone else, even though I may have to rely on the food bank, yet will waste all my money on impulse purchases! With that done . . . on with the show! ^_^



So, you can tell how backlogged I’ve been with posting by this picture. Lo and behold, Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty Collector’s Edition. I was quite the fan of this collector’s edition, as it had unique packaging and just had all around awesome stuff. This is despite the fact that it’s pretty much the same as the World of Warcarft collector’s editions. As you can see, there’s guest passes, the game, a comic, a dog tag USB drive, an art book, a DVD, and a soundtrack. As any typical Asian would, I was pretty into the game for when I finally got around to playing it, around October/November, but was still really nostalgic for the old school strategies, hahaha!



Hey! Shut up! It said Final Fantasy and “Collector’s Edition” on it . . . <_< . . . >_> . . . -_-‘ Well, we have the travesty of Final Fantasy XIV Online Collector’s Edition here. The package actually has some really cool stuff in it, like mini-certificates and all kinds of other jazz, but even though I had no intention of playing it, it’s kind of sad to hear how terrible it was. It honestly looked pretty good at PAX 2010, but alas, it seems like it didn’t pull through. I’m still not a fan of the series going the MMORPG route, but I’m also not a fan of people who expect them to be all the “same” game either, but that’s for another day. Beside it, we have Dead Rising 2 Zombrex Edition. It’s not opened, but a few posts ago, my homeboy ChillyBilly opened his and gave you an inside look at its contents, which you can find here. It has some cool stuff like a syringe pen, a notepad, art book, etc. I’m a fan of the steelbook it comes in too.



Much like my collecting counterpart, I’m a tard too, and got a second copy of the game, only this time it’s the High Stakes Edition that was only available through Capcom’s Online Store. It’s pretty much “open,” so I decided I’d show you guys the contents, even if you forgot what it looked like from my homie’s post. The poker chips have a nice weight to them and the map is pretty ballin’ and realistic. Unfortunately, I didn’t get the golden ticket to win a life size zombie statue . . . lame . . . >_< Hahaha!



I should really play my PS3 more often . . . or console games for that matter. Here we have copies of MAG, Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time, and Grand Theft Auto IV: Episodes From Liberty City. Odds are, I’ll get around to the latter sometime, as I thoroughly enjoyed my experience in IV, where I think they lowered the “customization” from San Andreas just enough, but kept it still pretty wide open.



Now we have some DS love for some of my favorite companies around! We have Xseed, Atlus, Natsume, and to a lesser extent, WB Games . . . hahaha! We have the adorably cut Ivy the Kiwi?, the crazy mini-game filled 101-in-1 Sports Megamix, the somewhat improved Super Scribblenauts, and the very solid and still pretty much unknown port of Lufia: Curse of the Sinistrals.



Believe it or not, I do give my PSP some love. Can’t really go wrong with any of these RPGs, particularly with the companies behind them. We have Sega’s Valkyria Chronicles II, along with Aksys’ Blazing Souls: Accelate, and the great Atlus’ Knights in the Nightmare, which also has a download voucher for the very excellent Yggdra Union in it as well! ^_^



You know what’s annoying? How it’s extremely rare that Nintendo games will EVER go down in price? Unless there’s like a VERY special reason or sale, notice how Nintendo published games never go down in price? It gets annoying when you want to get it, but it’s been out like over a year and still the same price . . . >_< Enough with that though, since we have an exception in the form of Wii Music. Continuing with the Wii, we have the bundle edition of GoldenEye 007, which has that sexy Gold Classic Controller Pro! To finish the picture off, we have my second version of Plants vs. Zombies!



Special edition time! d(‘-‘d) We start off with the second of the Ys special editions that Xseed and Falcom are releasing on the PSP. It is Ys: The Oath in Felghana Premium Edition and it has a soundtrack and calendar in it. Next up is God of . . . erm . . . I mean Castlevania: Lords of Shadow Limited Edition, which has a soundtrack and a nice art book in its packaging. Finally, we have Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II Collector’s Edition, and it has a collectible steelbook, some downloadable content for skins, lightsabers, etc., and a 2GB Starkiller flash drive.



Speaking of Ys, I mentioned back in September that I won a contest to get my name in Ys Seven as a quest giving NPC. I didn’t have time to play the game, so I was never able to find myself, until PekoponTAS wrote his blog for his 2010 Game of the Year Awards, where he mentioned he played the game. Long story short, I asked him to find me and he did! ^_^ =D =) =3 So, I can officially now say I am forever in a video game . . . hahaha! Hopefully I’ll have my mini-gift for you out by the time I post this for finding me mate! Thanks again!



So, the NIS Online Store is pretty much the best thing ever if you want any of their games. They almost always have super limited (usually 2,000 at most or less) pre-order bonuses for their already usually rare games. This time around, we have Atelier Rorona: The Alchemist of Arland. This special edition bundle came with the art book (which is also in the Gamestop [USA at least . . . no Canada . . . >_<] exclusive version) and the fairly limited soundtrack. Awesome!



Keeping with the NIS Online Store, we have Z.H.P. Unlosing Ranger vs. Darkdeath Evilman, which not only has one of the craziest and best names ever, but through pre-ordering online, I got a sticker that was limited to just a few hundred or so. Not as cool as a soundtrack or the other stuff they usually offer, but still appreciated nonetheless. Along with that, we have yet another Atlus game with Etrian Odyssey III: The Drowned City that also came with an art book of all three games!



Here we have a still sealed Fallout: New Vegas Collector’s Edition. I honestly can’t remember absolutely everything that’s suppose to be in it, but my homie ChillyBilly opened his copy and showed off some of the contents. It seems like there are playing cards, some dice, that platinum coin flipper thing (it’s coming back to me), poker chips, coaster, and like a poster.



What we have here is a pretty ballin’ Call of Duty: Black Ops Prestige Edition. You get the Hardened Edition in it as well, which has a steelbook case, there’s a medal somewhere in there too, a few other doodads, and you get an actual working RC Car that also has a camera on it. Pretty sweet if you ask me. Also, I find this game to be much better than Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, even though it’s made by Treyarch, mainly due to the fact it’s significantly less buggy, broken, and gimmicky.



I was quite the fan of this Collector’s Edition of Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood! You get a big box with some awesome art on it, and in it you have one of those pre-printed and signed posters, a bonus content DVD, the game, an art book, and the super kickass jack-in-the-box. Pretty cool for a game that I hear is a significant upgrade from the previous games in the series.



Now we’re back to some DS lovin’. To start off, we have Rune Factory 3: A Fantasy Harvest Moon, which is apparently the hands down best in the series. I unfortunately haven’t had the time to invest in the game yet, but my very close homeboy Zoel says it’s nothing short of sensational. To the point where he has GameFAQs’ only guide for it, which you can find if you click here! It’s a pretty in-depth guide for a pretty fun game, from what I’ve played. Next to it, we have the superior to the Wii version of Sonic Colors. Nothing much I can say about it, only that it came with some awesome swag you’ll see next week or so.



So, I was a tard and was hoping that Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride would eventually go down in price, or I would find a copy at my gaming mecca, Cash Converters, but it just disappeared on me. That’s why I just decided to bite the bullet and buy this from EB Games used when it finally showed up, for a price I thought was inflated. Still, it’s from the Dragon Quest series, so you can’t really go wrong. Next to it is a game that I PROMISE you that I am going to play, Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors! I got some sweet stuff with that as well, but you’ll have to wait until next post. Aksys has really been on a roll lately with releasing really niche but awesome games! ^_^



And now for the opinion dividing Disney Epic Mickey Collector’s Edition. I haven’t had a chance to play it aside from PAX, but it seemed to be a better game than a lot of people are saying about it. Still, it seemed like a sweet collector’s edition, particularly due to the Mickey Mouse figure that is in the box, which I was told some people were buying it solely for.



A new expansion comes out, so it just naturally means I’ll have to pick up the Collector’s Edition of World of Warcraft: Cataclysm. Somewhat interesting tidbit, I actually don’t have the Collector’s Edition of the original game . . . -_-‘ Anybody out there looking to offload a complete version of that to me? Private message if you are willing to! =)



A couple more random games I got a hold of, both of which were the Deal of the Day for EB Games’ in Canada. We start with NIER on the PS3 for a cool $10 and then the ever so expensive $5 I spent on America’s Test Kitchen: Let’s Get Cooking, which I picked up solely for the Club Nintendo points.



Somehow I messed up and forgot to include this Genesis copy of Ys III: Wanderers from Ys in my last post, especially since it came from Cash Converters. Along with that though, we have Red Dead Redemption and Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare, which were on sale for like $40 together around Christmas time.



Just a typical “Premiere Edition” guide for a Nintendo game, this time being Golden Sun: Dark Dawn.



I don’t know how, but somehow I forgot to do my typical photograph of this in my room, like I do with the rest of my collection. I was too lazy to bring this upstairs, so I just brought the camera downstairs since I was heading down anyways. Still, we have Super Mario All-Stars here, on display in my “collector’s edition” corner of my gaming collection.



Here are a few random things that I got from either Kijiji or from some local friends. We have a boxed copy of Arkanoid: Doh It Again (really? “Doh It Again?”), some mad ballin’ Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals, an Xbox copy of Capcom vs. SNK 3 EO, and last but not least, for some reason, a relatively elusive copy of Fullmetal Alchemist 2: Curse of the Crimson Elixir! Many thanks yo! You know who you are.



So, every once in a while, my fellow collector homeboy possumwrangler will order guides on Amazon for us. He’ll also check out their Atlus selection to see if there are any sellers of stuff that I’m missing. Well, this time he hella pulled through for me. First up is a game that I didn’t even have on my “Atlus Buy List,” which is High Velocity: Mountain Racing Challenge[i]. It’s on freakin’ Saturn yo! That’s pretty sweet, although, now I have to find one of them cases for it . . . >_< . . . hahaha! Along with that though, we have a sealed copy of [i]DemiKids: Light Version for GBA, which even Mr. I’m the Shin Megami Tensei Fan With No Avatar Picture didn’t even know it was from the series! So much Atlus . . . so much win! ^_^ Thanks dude, you’re the best!



So, we’re almost at the end of this haul friends, but I have some awesome stuff to follow up the Atlus stuff. Here we have two of the PlayStation’s most notoriously hard to get games in the form of the late Working Designs’ Vanguard Bandits and the ever lovable The Misadventures of Tron Bonne. Another local homeboy in Grimstar is a fan of that Japanime stuff, so he went to the mini-Japanime festival thing in Calgary. He knows a vendor that goes there, so I just gave him money and he picked up these two gems for me. Awww yeah! =) Many thanks dude, tis be nothing short of awesome . . . and shiny! d(‘-‘d)



Awww yeah! =3 Not only did he manage to snag the previous two for me, he also managed to get this gem from the same seller for me as a Christmas present! The possibly even more elusive/expensive Mega Man Legends 2. Dude, you da man for helping with the collection and being a brotha from anotha motha! So, a huge shout out to you Grimstar, and I know it’s late, but you’ll most definitely enjoy what I have in store for your Christmas present! =P

Well, so concludes another edition of one of my hauls. I’m thinking swag will be the next one, then finally hardware the one after. We’ll see. It is a long weekend for me, so I might try to get up some Japan pictures for Monday. Still, due to some . . . “circumstances,” this may be the last week of my post bannism but not really “rants” at the paragraph before pictures, but things may change! =D Hahaha! Until next time, latez mates.

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LOOK WHO CAME:

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possumwrangler   1

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