PS2 Review: The Getaway Black Monday

If you've read my review for the first part of The Getaway, you should know how disappointed I was with it. After seeing how poorly received, and rightfully so, the first one was, I was shocked to see there was a sequel! After doing a very short bit of research I set out to pick it up from a local Shamestop and give it a go.

When I got to Shamestop the PS2 games were all in disarray and I searched for nearly 30 minutes before I was fed up enough to ask the kid behind the counter whether they had it in stock or not. Sadly they did! I demand my games are mint and complete in their cases with the manuals, but for $2 I was willing to let that slide in this game's case. Although I did ask for a spare PS2 case, and instead got a broken 99 cent store black case...

After cleaning the disc, thanks to Shamestop's lack of give-a-damn, I popped it into my PS2 and off I went! I played the first mission and was pretty well over the experience right there. Same overly simplistic, shove it in your face BS as the first game, with minor (and I do mean MINOR) improvements. The game is pretty much a mirror image (or as one review I read online stated "More of an expansion off the first, instead of it's own game.") of the first!

I had to suffer through all this to get into Free Roam, the only reason I even bought this game!? Well... No! From the start there is a Free Roam option, but the hidden cars are all locked up depending on how far you've progressed into the story. Well hey, that just means I'll free roam about London and when I feel like I give enough of a shit, I may just go through the story mode!

I do have to say that while healing is still done in the stand by a wall and wait for your character to rest, resting doesn't drag out as long as it used to. Also, driving doesn't seem like such a pain in the ass, traffic has a flow that allows for quicker speeds with less (less doesn't mean none) crashes. The headaches of the first game are still present, yet they are alleviated with the aforementioned, minor, improvements.

My only issue is that now I own a game that I may want to keep in my collection that doesn't have the original case or manual. Although the game still doesn't earn it's stripes to be called a GTA clone, this one does work better than the first as an open world, free roaming game. I just hope this is the last we see of this franchise, perhaps the lack of a third is a good sign!

After use put it in it's CASE!

It baffles me, the amount of games that originally came in perfectly good, plastic cases that are now just a cartridge, or disc, all alone in the big world of video games. When it comes to Nintendo, they always gave you a cardboard box that typically ended up in the trash, thus boxed games for the cartridge based Nintendo systems are always going to be harder to find. But when it comes to Sega, or the disc based systems, there is absolutely NO excuse for these games to be loose, none!

I've seen a lot of loose Nintendo games, and since I understand that people trashed the boxes, and sadly the manuals, I understand why they're loose. When it comes to Genesis games, they're either loose, or boxed with no manual. I'm pretty strict when it comes to Genesis games, I see no reason in why they should be loose, albeit I won't turn down a good deal on loose Genesis carts that I really want to own.

Now that I'm going to be building up my Sega Master System collection, all of my games are complete (with the exception of my very first game before I even owned the system) and that is the way I want the collection to be! Master System games are hard to find as it is, let alone having to find them complete with the manual and in good condition, but that isn't to say it will be an impossible feat, and again I couldn't turn down a good deal on a loose SMS cartridge.

While reading through the manual for Hang On/Safari Hunt, under cartridge care it states "After use put it in its CASE", which hit me as funny. Sega knew people should return the cartridge to the case, why was it so hard for people to put the games back? The plastic case wasn't like the cardboard Nintendo offered, it was reusable.

Many of my Genesis cartridges are loose, but I would rather have them all complete. When it comes to disc based video games, I will almost never buy it without a case and manual, but if I find one super cheap in a bin at a thrift store I may pick it up. But it truly baffles me as to why people let discs and cartridges that came in plastic cases just float around loose.

Let me reiterate...

It never ceases to amaze me how life will take things out of my hands to give me a better deal. I had decided to treat myself to a rare holiday gift and finally own a piece of video gaming history I had wanted for a long time, a Sega Master System. As an avid thrift store hunter I had always hoped I would run across the system and some controllers, or anything from the Master System, and I never did.

I took to ebay to see if I could get a lot with some games, as the only other options were Disc Replay ($50 system alone) or a local indoor flea market, which had a Sega Master System sitting in there since July ($40 or $45 for the system), so if I ran out of options that would be the way to go. After losing 4 auctions I decided I would just go ahead and buy the one sitting in the flea market, but when I went down there to get it... it was gone! That thing had sat in the case for nearly 6 months and now it was gone? Wow!

Back to ebay I went, watching auction after auction exceed the limits of what I was willing to spend. One day I noticed a local listing, so I shot the person an email and asked if they were willing to sell it outside of ebay, after agreeing on a price we setup a meeting. That day was filled with anxiety and excitement as I was within hours of collecting my Sega Master System, taking it home and playing it.

The thing is, I was willing to spend $40 on the system, hookups and controllers, and when life took that option away I spent $20 more and got 10 games, one of which lists for the extra cash I ended up spending on the whole lot anyway. Everything looked as if they were only played on rare occasions, the games were all complete in the hard cases and the only real issue was one controller's cord is a little worse for wear. Had I bought the system alone, I would never have found the games for $20, hell I have a hard enough time finding Sega Master System games period.

Whats in a dream?

We've all had those dreams, the ones where no matter how long ago we may have had them, they're still as clear as the day we awoke from them. I have a handful of those dreams, most of which are merely a combination of chemicals recessed within my memory awaiting me to recall it for some unknown reason.

One dream has me walking into a lone, tiny pawn store on a hill and falling in love with a bass guitar, which had obviously been set ablaze and setup to be playable. Another involved walking through an abandoned basement video game store, with the only source of light coming from the basement windows, and sifting through tons of dust covered bins and glass display cases. But as vivid as these dreams are, they don't compare to the one that haunts me the most out of all of them.

It was a sunny, clear day in what I assumed to be some kind of an old 1930s district of Chicago. All the buildings were brick and abandoned. One building in particular caught my attention, and something within myself told me that a Nintendo NES top loader was inside.

The inside of the building looked as though it was an old hardware store. The building was tall and narrow, the walls were brick and there were some broken wooden stairs, as well as broken glass everywhere. The standard dust and cobwebs were present too.

Even though I had this dream the better side of 8 years ago, this dream is still as vivid as ever. I still remember feeling the cool weather, the sun at my back and smelling the dust rustled up from searching through the abandoned building. I never found anything inside, and much like this dream I have yet to find a Nintendo top loader.

Is it a sign that I will find one within a brick building? Will I find a good deal on one from Chicago, or will I find one abandoned for free? What this dream means is anyone's guess, but I know that I will eventually find one, no matter where I have to find it.

The mystery continues...

As a collector there are quite a few things I actively keep my eyes open for, yet most of them always seem to elude me. There is the NES top loader and there is also the Sega Master System, among many other things. Now I've seen a couple Sega Master Systems, albeit behind glass, and they generally seem to run the same price as other systems that are considered rare. Perhaps the SMS is rare, but I just assumed that since it wasn't as popular as the NES it wouldn't be as highly sought after as it is, I was wrong.

Like any other collector, I'm always keeping my eyes open for systems, games, controllers, etc. that I don't already own or want really badly, but the problem is that I feel that I can't keep my eyes open long enough to get the things I want. I've had to accept the fact that I've undoubtedly missed out on some super deals when I couldn't be at any given thrift store. But most of the time I try to live by the philosophy of out of sight out of mind, or it simply wasn't there.

Yes I've bought a lot of really great stuff at really great prices, but there are still things that I haven't even held in my hands, both items mentioned above are tops on that list. I've passed up good deals and kicked myself later, but at least I've seen it. But it really drags on me that I have never in my life held an NES top loader or Sega Master System and had to debate whether or not I wanted to buy them or not. Obviously if I found them, it probably wouldn't be much of a debate.

Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving holds a special place in my heart, and not just because its a holiday filled with eating and sleeping. When I was a kid my NES was inside my parent's room, as they had the only other TV in the house that wasn't in the living room, so I spent a lot of time in there playing my NES and one particular Thanksgiving was no exception.
It was a cold Thanksgiving and I was keeping warm by huddling on the floor with my Advantage controller, while playing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Arcade Game. I remember having a blast, but I wanted more so I went to Gamewinners.com and spent the next 10 minutes trying to get the Advantage to enter the codes properly.

Once I entered the codes correctly I skipped all the way to the last level with a large number of lives. After a short while I had beaten the game and although I didn't beat it the proper way, it still felt like a victory to me. The smell of the cooking turkey and the excitement of beating the game, no matter how, all mixed and gelled within my mind as a great moment in both my video gaming history and Thanksgiving day history.

Flea Markets, Dirt Malls, whatever you want to call them!

In my hunts I often find myself at thrift stores, but I also spend a good chunk of my time sorting through indoor flea markets. Over the course of time, I've learned there are a few different types of flea markets. There are ones where all the vendors seem to have meetings, so they all have the same insanely over the top prices on video games. And there are the ones that have some seriously clueless vendors who either don't browse the other booths or just don't give a damn, which can be both good and bad.

With the first it seems like an idiot disease, spreading like wildfire from booth to booth. Everyone watches everyone and makes sure they don't undersell their products, possibly giving someone a good deal on their unwanted items. (GASP!) You can tell this type of flea market fairly easily as you'll notice more than one booth that has any spare video game cartridge thrown in among their doilies and trinkets. All of these games, no matter which booth, will be marked at generally the same price.

Locally there is a flea market with a handful of booths with NES games, all $5, but they're just tossed in among CDs, DVDs, Dolls, etc. I'm not saying SOME games aren't worth what these people are asking, but for argument's sake the fact is vintage games don't always equal CHA-CHING! The main problem is some games are highly sought after, so collectors will pay almost anything just to say they own one, which as a collector myself I can kind of see their point. This causes the untrained vendor to think they may be missing out on cash by not knowing what they have. To rectify this, they simply mark all their games at a set, and often times insane, price and hope they're not losing any money. The truth is the fact that true hunters, like myself, will NOT pay those prices unless the game is an absolute steal, even at the set price they're asking. Although rarely to never the case, I've honestly seen(!!!) the occasional person who has a childhood flashback right in the store and picks up the game simply based on that, paying no attention to the price tag.

On the flip side comes the clueless vendor, which as I said before is sometimes good and bad. This type is the type that I like, vendors playing against each other in an all out war of who will sell their games first. With these vendors who have games, one will generally be fairly reasonable, while 2 or 3 will be completely out of their minds, not taking a hint that the other booth has the exact same game for $2 and it hasn't sold in the 5 weeks it has been there.

Or for a real example, an Xbox. One booth wants a reasonable $50 for a fairly good looking Xbox with everything needed, as the other wants $180. This is the old, black Xbox and not an Xbox 360, most of which aren't even $100 used either. Or an Atari Flashback, one vendor wants $20(fair since it was CIB) and the other wants $75.

Simply clueless vendors can however be a good thing as they just want to make a little profit off the things they offer for sale. I enjoy flea markets quite a bit, because vendors will pack their booths with anything they think they can make a profit on. If they find it in their attic, closet, basement, etc. they will put it up for sale and just see if it goes. Often times I would love to make an offer for a lot of video games, but since the vendors setup their booth and leave, there is absolutely no haggling to be done with these people, so their products just sit there and take up space.

My principle is simple, I refuse to pay $5-10 for the one or two games that are worth it, simply because if I do the vender will see their stock moving and think that price must be ok! I would much rather take the chance and see if the vendor will lower the price just to get things moving. If I see a game for $3 or less, most of the time, if everything checks out, I will buy it. I found Casino Kid 2 for $2.50 at a flea market, originally priced at $5 the vendor was having a sale that day and just wanted to get rid of their games. Sadly, they moved out of that flea market before I could buy up all the games I wanted, but hopefully they'll return.

Almost every flea market I've been through has vintage video games, most of them are games I don't want to buy due to lack of interest or the price they're asking for them, and for one reason or another nobody else buys them either. If nothing else I've learned that even though there are more video games at the flea market than their are in the thrift stores, the vastly varying minds of each different vendor causes finding a deal to be just as much of a crap shoot as the thrift stores.

Almost not worth mentioning!

I know better, I do! But it always shocks me to go into a Salvation Army that has given me video games for 39 cents and a Gameboy Color for 59 cents, to see a WALL of NES games for $3 each. Call me spoiled, call me crass, but I almost refuse to pay more than $1 for cartridge based video games anymore. I will, on occasion, buy a game I really want for more, but that is from a resale shop such as Disc Replay or something like that.

Salvation Army literally had a wall of NES games today, maybe 30 or 40 games, all lined up on a shelf. Most of them were mint, in the black sleeves and most had their manuals. But $3 each!? Come on! Sure there were great titles, and I snagged most of them, but still they have no overhead on these. They didn't buy them off Frankie five fingers and need to earn the profits before the fuzz show up.

Today though, was my mistake. In my haste to make a deal I settled on $1 each if I bought more than 10. I should have asked if I bought them all could they do it for $20, if there were really 40 games.

I searched the building for an NES and came up empty handed, probably mostly due to my desire to cut and run with the deal I had gotten! I'm not sure how many other game hunters or maybe resellers go to that store, but it seems that systems and games that I pass up don't last long. I truly hope that I can get more of those games, as I was mainly picking through and just taking what I wanted right away.

If I can't find them again, at least it was a good experience to have, and I got a great deal on some really good NES and SNES games. Though I can hope that I was the first to pick through them, I probably wasn't, and I can assure you that I won't be the last. What games did I miss, I'll never know. Hopefully more things like this will occur and I will get more and more games.

Funny how that works out, huh?

When I bought my Nintendo Gamecube I only had 3 games; Mario Kart Double Dash, Donkey Konga and the Gameboy Player boot disc (sans the actually Gameboy Player), which isn't even a game. The first of which was too scratched to play and the other, well its Donkey Konga! I really had nothing to play so my Gamecube sat dormant in it's box for quite a while.

There was a copy of Madden 05 sitting in a Salvation Army for what had to be 4 months, untouched, but only recently did I decide to check it out. The game was complete and everything looked great, until I turned the disc over. The disc had a noticeable scratch on it, so I was afraid it wouldn't work. Even though it was $1, I passed it up.

After a week of sitting and wishing I had a game to get my Gamecube up and working, I decided I would just pull the trigger on the Madden and get things rolling. What happened next may amaze you but its a simple fact of life for myself, the game was GONE. I've seen this happen with numerous items I've picked up, pondered over, placed back down and walk away from. It seems no matter how long the item(s) in question sits on the shelf, after I pick them up and later decide I want them, they're gone.

Now there are a few different outcomes of this that I have personally experienced. First, I will probably find the item at a better price somewhere not long down the road. Second, I will never find the item ever again. Or the third and final outcome is that will free up money for me to make another purchase.

Funny how that works out, huh?

So after missing out on Madden, which didn't break my heart in the least to be honest, I decided that I wasn't going home empty handed and headed to Disc Replay. The first one had barely any Gamecube games, so I went to another one. This one had just what I was looking for... Animal Crossing! I popped the case open and there was the manual! I figured for $3.99 I would just go for it and cut my losses, just to give my Gamecube something to do!

So in this case outcome number three came into play, so all wasn't lost and I've been playing the hell out of this game. I will be writing another article soon about Animal Crossing, with a little backstory to why I wanted it. Keep your eyes peeled!

Here we go again...

I have a love hate relationship with thrift stores. This may be due in large part to the fact that thrift stores never cease to amaze me with their seemingly endless supply of either don't give a fuck, or don't know their ass from a hole in the ground. You may already be able to sense the anger, and trust me it probably won't get any better!

My Tuesday, as many of my Tuesdays are, was filled with thrift store hopping. What did my eyes happen to see inside one Salvation Army but a Sony Playstation 3. The box was pretty damaged, but it otherwise looked to be closed. After I saw the price tag I didn't care to continue looking at it to see whether or not it had been opened.

There are a lot of factors that go into this, and to be honest I don't care! Was it new or used? Was it a fat or slim? What size hard drive was it? Was it a refurb? Was it factory sealed? How did Salvation Army acquire it? I have no answers for any of those questions, but they wanted $200 for it.

Ok, I understand that Salvation Army is entitled to ask whatever they want for their products and they deserve to make a fair profit, keying in on fair. There is a reason Salvation Army is a thrift store, you never go into the place and expect to walk out ready for a magazine photo shoot wearing Salvation Army clothes, although I'm not saying that is impossible. You go into a thrift store and expect to get a good deal because they have no overhead on products, all profits are 100%.

Lately I've noticed that quite a few local Salvation Army stores have a plethora of laptops and cellphones in the glass cases, I'm assuming these are probably overstocks. But what warrants Salvation Army to ask retail prices on all these items? Even if these items are brand new and never used, Salvation Army really shouldn't be asking these prices for these items.

Salvation Army should learn to cut someone a deal. It isn't like little Timmy saved up his lawn mowing money all summer and went to Salvation Army to buy himself a PS3 and 10 games, he would go to an electronics store for that. In this economy some thrift stores have decided to up their prices (on everything!) to make more profit off the demand for lower priced goods, that just seems like a greedy business practice to me, but I digress.

Keep in mind that with that price tag at other places you get a guarantee that if the product is bunk in any way, you can return it for an exchange or refund, not so with Salvation Army. The Salvation Army policy is, in short, once it leaves the store, you can't bring it back anymore. (Clever rhyme there huh?) So while you're paying $200 for a PS3 at Best Buy or where ever, if it craps out you're not out of luck. With Salvation Army you just have to fork over that much cash and take it on the chin of it breaks down.

I've made quite a few good deals at Salvation Army stores, more so than any other thrift store, so I can't be too harsh on them. But from time to time I notice a shift in pricing, sometimes they just tag it for small change and put it out, while other times they'll mark everything for way more than it's truly worth. Oddly enough most everything sells, I've went back looking for overpriced items just to own it and it's gone!

I guess this is a supreme case of taking the bad with the good. While I can pickup video games for anywhere from $2 and under, the PS3 that I don't want to own, but still feel offended by their asking price, has to sell for $200 with no promise of it working and no return if it doesn't.