Woot! Pokemon Platinum in the bag! The boy has been slobbering over this for a couple months now. And we had a gas each playing Pokemon Diamond and swapping stuff and battling pokemon between ourselves on our DSes So a month ago, I bought 2 pre-orders at GameStop. The reason was that you get a figurine of the new top-dog pokemon. And well, this is probably his last blast at something so silly and innocent as Pokemon. By the time the next one comes out, he will be disinterested unless it offers something more interesting - like bare bewbies Last night I check online to see if GameStop was having a midnight event or something. No soap, but they were opening up at 9 instead of noon today - the release day 9:05 the boy is hammering on my door "C'mon dad! they have been open for five minutes! It takes me an hour to get myself together - coffeed up. teeth scraped. The whole time the boy is practically gibbering, pelting me with machine-gun trivia about the game that he has dredged up online. We trek up to the GameStop. Oddly enough there isnt a line up. Walk in, present the pre-order and the strategy guide and we are off. Wait, hold the phone. There is only one figurine in the bag. Not so fast, there I go back in and tell the dude "Um, I had two pre-orders and I got one figure" "Sorry we are only giving out one per. They didnt send enough" "And I am sorry, but I paid for two pre-orders. I am supposed to get two figurines" "Look we didnt get enough" "Well really...the whole point of doing two pre-orders was the promo. You can't change the terms of the deal 'just because'" The dude gives a mighty teenage sigh (I swear he did the teengirl eye-roll) and slaps another box in my hand. I smile "Thanks, I appreciate it" *grunt* Now I completely understand his position. They got shorted. I am only one of the first he is going to have to deal with. and he probably got arm-twisted into working early on a Sunday. But he made the right choice. I was under-caffeinated and thus dangerously unstable. Now, off to capture some Bidoof
My kids have been sooooo excited for Platinum to come out. They really know how to squeeze every last dollar out of that franchise don't they?
Most successful game franchise ever. My boy is having a blast. But he is bummed because he just found out that TRU had 2 super rare pokemon for wifi download...and one ended back in feb and the other ended yesterday actually they do a lot of really clever things with those games.
I hate to break it to you Jonny but we killed your girl Bittercup. I'm sorry man, I really am, but she just wouldn't put that damn collar on and went she went nuts Charon pulled out his combat shotgun and took her out. You just can't stop that guy when something goes red.
Clever is figuring out how to get one family to buy multiple copies of the same game. I hate their marketing department. The kids love it though. If you ever question your kid's memorization skills just start asking them about their Pokemon and all their powers and when they level up and what their new name is after they evolve. It's a whole different language and I don't understand a word of it.
The Shiney Things move dosen't make sense to me either but I don't plan to abandon the thread. I picked up Farcry2 & F.E.A.R yesterday. I'm an idiot.
oh but wait - ask them how to breed pokemon! Actually pokemon and other games like that seem silly to us, but they are quite complex. And the benefits certainly outweigh any drawbacks. Consider this - 40 bucks on the game vs 40 bucks to take them to lunch and a movie.
I had the original Pokemon Red for gameboy when it first came out. Damn, that game was a minimum of 60-80 hours of game play easy. The whole thing is just a capitalistic venture, but it was a hell of a lot of fun and very addicting. If I still had it sitting around I'd dig it and my old gameboy advance out and not post on here for a few months.
My kids would probably pay 20 bucks for that old Pokemon Red. They still play some gold version from the ooooooooooold school original Nintendo Gameboy that they picked up at the flea market for ten bucks.
Yep, just like that..only more so. Each game has a unique monster that can only be captured in it. And the color versions (red, green, etc) can be exported into the diamon/pearl versions on the DS. And *those* versions have unique monsters as well. But the DS introduced exchanging pokemon. Others can only be gotten by growing them. Etc Etc. The complexity of the games is pretty astounding..which is why I think it is cool because it is simple enough that pretty young kids can play it while being complex enough that older kids can continue playing..and then there are old weirdos like me who enjoy playing it with our kids. Pretty damned brilliant design, actually
It kills me that they've essentially figured out a way to keep you buying the same game over and over again. I really should be a KLR rider.
Why not? The music industry has managed to get us to buy the same music over and over...Oh wait that is another thread... Actually the bang for the buck is pretty astoundingly good. Even factoring in the cost of a DS at 120 plus the 38 bucks for the one pokemon game - which I estimate at a conservative 80 hours of *unique* play - it works out to about 2 bucks per hour. A movie is about 10 bucks in a theater- thats about 5 bucks per hour - if you can find a full 2 hour movie anymore. And if you buy it on VHS, no wait - DVD, hang on - Blue Ray! it is even worse because you can only see the same content over and over. Which brings up the interactivity factor - you have strategy, grouping, factoring bonuses, and so forth. No, I wouldnt call it an educational tool per se. But when my son was struggling with the concepts of groups and the intersections of groups, our common knowledge of pokemon handed us a tool to illustrate the concepts.
I just recently realized the value of the video game. I used to go into Target or wherever and say "Sixty bucks for a video game! You've got to be freakin kidding me! :eek1 " Then my friend loaned me Fallout 3 for the 360 and I totally got sucked in. I started doing the mental calculations of how many hours of entertainment it was worth. It completely blew dinner and a movie out of the water for "best bang for your buck". It may be a different sort of entertainment but well worth the $$.
Exactly. Now that doesnt devalue the worth of a good book or a great film - it just puts things in a bit of a perspective.
Alright. That's it. I'm gonna have to regulate your slaver ass. I'll meet you at Paradise and send you to the gates of hell personally.
Me too. And a plasma gun. Just call me Billy Bad Ass. (I love the clumping sound the armor makes when you walk.)
Y'know, I actually found the power armor pretty disappointing when I got it. The extra protection it provided didn't seem worth the loss in bonuses and extra weight versus the Ranger battle armor -- not like the earlier Fallouts where power armor (IIRC) seemed like it was clearly the 'best' armor in the game. I ended up sticking with the Ranger armor all the way to the end on my first playthrough. (Still haven't started a second.) I guess it just made more sense for the kind of character I was playing, anyways. I didn't go for heavy weapons, either.