Apocalypso's Atomic Arcade: Classic Games Collecting

Showing posts with label Classic Games Collecting. Show all posts

2012/09/17

Classic Game Collecting: Fallout New Vegas: Ultimate Edition

Recently I was looking at some games at a local store and happened upon Fallout New Vegas: Ultimate Edition. Now I’ve been looking for this for some time, and I was even under the distinct impression it wasn’t available in this country, so I gladly snatched that up for R199. I don’t mind paying that much for a game of that calibre, even if there is still a global economic crisis going on.

I have played Fallout New Vegas – in fact I’ve played it through twice. This Ultimate Edition does have all the available DLCs: Dead Money, Honest Hearts, Old World Blues, and Lonesome Road, plus two additional add on packs in Courier’s Stash and Gun Runners Arsenal.

I’ll likely play it and have a review up in the near future.

2012/05/09

Classic Game Collecting: Borderlands GOTY

It wasn’t long ago that I was down at the local computer store and I went over to the game section. There were a few good, memorable games there, including GTA: San Andreas, which I played to death years ago.

But it was a copy of Borderlands that jumped out at me. And it was the Game Of The Year Edition too. What this is, is the full collection of Borderlands and the 4 DLC packs that were released in 2009 and 2010: The Zombie Island of Doctor Ned, Mad Moxxi’s Underdome Riot, The Secret Armory of General Knoxx, and Claptrap’s New Robot Revolution. Actually you get download tokens to get the DLC packs. A bit of a cheat. And yes, you still need to activate the game online before it’ll play.

I remember having an experience playing Borderlands a while back at a friend’s place, and liking it quite a bit. So I picked it up – for R99.

It might be a bit too young yet to be a classic in the truest form of the word (in my estimate about 10 years old at least), but it’s like they say: “It’s like Diablo – but with guns.”

2011/12/13

Classic Game Collecting: Diablo II Gold

I’ve been looking at all the brochures that come with the newspapers just lately, seeing as it’s Christmas soon. I also went online to view several retail websites, too. Why? to see all the games on offer, of course.

One thing caught my eye though: Diablo II Gold. In preparation for the release of Diablo III, Blizzard seems to have re-released a lot of their classics, but in some killer bundles. In addition to Diablo II, there’s StarCraft Gold and WarCraft III Gold – and these all come with the available expansions for said games.

Then it was off to the actual stores to take a look. At most places, such as Musica, CNA, and Look & Listen, I mainly spotted the expansion pack, Lords of Destruction, and the price was usually around R99.

Eventually I had to ask a salesperson if they had the Gold edition I was looking for in stock. It wasn’t even on the shelves. They’d been hiding copies in the back room. But I managed to get one for R99. And to think that on the shelves, they had either Diablo II or the expansion pack both going for the same price, separately. One wonders if they intentionally try to screw you over, sometimes. So instead of getting both for R198 and upwards, Diablo II Gold is at least half price.

Score. Now I’m going to play this old classic along with all the mods and unofficial expansions that have been made over the years. Like I always say, sometimes it pays to wait – in this case more than a decade.

2010/12/20

Classic Game Collecting: December Edition

The other day I was in Tygervalley Shopping Centre once again, on a mission to get a replacement debit card, and to deal with this Rica registration business before the cut-off date, which is the end of this month.

After all that was done, I had some time to browse through some of local stores which stock video games. So it was off to Game, CNA, and then eventually Musica.

So there I was at Musica, which is probably one of my favourite places to look for classic games that I so love doing – despite the apparent fact that the PC games selection keeps getting smaller each year. It was here that I came across some good compilations as well as a real rarity too.

One of these was Tomb Raider: The Greatest Raids, which is a compilation consisting of the first four TR games in the original series. Anybody who has played any of these knows that Tomb Raider I and II are the best. This was priced at R199.

Then another compilation was Prince of Persia Trilogy, which had three PoP titles, Sands of Time, Forgotten Sands, and The Warrior Within. This was significantly cheaper than the Tomb Raider anthology previously mentioned – priced at R59.

But the greatest find was seeing this game: Commandos 2. That’s right, it’s been a good 9 years since its release, and yet there it was, Commandos 2: Men Of Courage. For R59, I was almost tempted to buy it, but I all ready have the game as it is, and I’m not sure it would even run on my system. I’ve had some bad luck with some classics that I’ve bought in the past.

It’s rare to see games that old in stores anyway, unless you’re talking about Deus Ex or something. I rarely come across anything older than 10 years (released in 2000).

2010/07/04

Classic Game Collecting: Thief, Hitman, Deus Ex

Well, I went over to Makro today and went over to the multimedia and technology department. My brother and I had a look at a new DVD player seeing as his had packed up the other day. It was a Telefunken that barely lasted a year.

While we were doing that, I also had a look at the games section which has since last time, really gotten an overhaul. Makro got its act together in the last month or so. So, this time a few games caught my eye, and they were mainly in the Eidos stable of titles. I saw that they got a couple of PC Gamer racks up which have collections like the Thief Complete Collection, as well as the Hitman Collection, and the Deus Ex Collection. These I’ve never seen in any store locally before, let alone this one.

Thief Complete Collection has Thief Gold, The Metal Age, and Deadly Shadows – which goes for R99; Hitman has Hitman, Hitman 2: Silent Assassin, and Hitman: Contracts – which sells for R150. Deus Ex has Deus Ex GOTY as well as Invisible War, for R99.

I was tempted to pick up one or two, but I’ll be honest: I’ve had a few instances in the past where some of these games that I’ve picked up didn’t work on my system. I was tempted though. I haven’t played Thief Gold which is included in the pack, which basically is The Dark Project with a few extra missions and extras, released in 1999. My TDP disc doesn’t work for some reason. I’ve all ready got the other two.

I also haven’t played Deus Ex: Invisible War, the second game in the series by Ion Storm, which some say wasn’t that great.

Out of the Hitman series, I’ve played two of those game – namely Silent Assassin and Blood Money, which I own. The other two I didn’t really eve bother much with.

I might consider it at one point in the future though. It was just nice to see that they’ve extended their PC games section, as well as catering to the classics.

2010/05/30

Classic Game Collecting: Unreal Anthology

I went over to Makro for the first time in quite a while today and naturally went over to the section where all the games are. I was quite impressed with their selection of classic games, particularly from the early 2000’s and even some from the nineties – stuff that you don’t often see in some of the other shops. They had a shelf dedicated to classic PC games, as well as a bargain bin just filled with the usual rubbish and a few gems.

It was here that I stumbled upon something that caught my eye. There was a box that read Unreal Anthology.

Originally released in 2006, in it are several games in the Unreal series, namely: Unreal, Unreal: Return to Na Pali [the expansion, both collectively known as Unreal Gold], Unreal Tournament: Game of the Year Edition, Unreal II: The Awakening, and Unreal Tournament 2004. It’s also got a bonus soundtrack CD with music from the series.

This is a welcome addition to my collection, seeing as I do have the original Unreal, which I bought brand new years ago, back in 1998, but even though I’ve played all the others, I haven’t really owned them myself. The only one I haven’t played at all would be Unreal: Return to Na Pali.

I also all ready own Unreal Tournament III. So I’m missing what? Unreal Tournament 2003, Unreal Championship and Unreal Championship 2: The Liandri Conflict.

There were some other games there that I had a look at like some games in the Hitman series, but I settled for the Unreal Anthology, which has 4 or 5 games in one box for about R99. And it was the only copy in the store.

If you want to get a hold of Unreal Anthology yourself, you can grab it from Amazon, and even Direct2Drive.

Classic Game Collecting is a AAA original, where I talk about my shopping outings, where I usually pick up one or two games that appeal to my interest. The more games in the box, the better value, I say.

2010/05/15

Classic Games Collecting: Splinter Cell Trilogy and Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance

The other day my family was out at Makro in Cape Town, and my mom came across Aliens versus Predator – the one from 1999 – for R99,99. And she didn’t pick it up for me either, which was upsetting.

You all know by now if you bother frequenting this blog regularly that I am a big classic games lover, and I would have liked to have added this to my collection of classics. It’s been years since I played AvP Classic.

Anyway, this weekend I went to Tyger Valley Centre and popped in at Musica, where I saw something that I hadn’t seen there months earlier when I last visited to do some classic game collecting. It was Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Trilogy, which has Splinter Cell, Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow, and Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory. A three in one pack, originally released a few years ago, which today sold for R99.

*Yoink!*

Then I went over to CNA and had a look at what they had to offer. They had some pretty good stuff. I was impressed by some of the classics they had on offer. But I eventually settled for Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance – a classic that I haven’t seen sold in stores for years, and one that I’ve wanted to get a hold of for years as well.

I suppose the next time I’ll collecting will be next month. I all ready have my eye on Diablo II and the Lord of Destruction expansion, or else it would have to be StarCraft along with the Brood Wars expansion. I haven’t played either for years. I’ve played them, but haven’t actually owned them if you know what I mean. I played Diablo II years ago at a friend’s house.