Was doing well with a nice zero balance on my credit card when the Videogamesplus sale hit. Oh well, it's nice to have fun spending when we can.
First up: new 360 games. Had Alan Wake on order for ages, was really looking forward to it. It's not really what I expected - not a bad game by any means, but very action heavy. I was going to hold off on Red Dead Redemption for a few months, but the buzz got to me. I am not sure what's going on with the alternate cover art, I think it was some preorder thing down here.
My fiancee has been a bit naughty and given me some more anniversary presents early - the problem is that she goes and buys more surprise gifts to replace them. I don't have a problem with receiving gifts and I love having a generous partner, but I think I might have to put my foot down and enforce some fiscal responsibility soon. I gave her a surprise gift (Ar Tonelico) early to compensate. I always wanted a steelbook version of Dead Rising (my main copy of the game is a promo copy I used for a review when it first came out), and she finally found one after two years of looking. It took her so long since most of the ones listed on eBay are in rubbish condition due to the fact that hardly anyone takes care of their damn games. The two Sonics are variants for my growing Sonic collection - I was so stoked when she gave me the JP version of Sonic & Knuckles as I didn't think I'd get one in such good condition. I'd love to find a PAL and US one in that shape, but I'll have to pay through the nose for them.
We added a few more games to our N64 collection too. These were all quite cheap - the seller we bought them from had a heap of games listed, and many of them ended up going for ridiculously high prices - we're talking double or even triple market value; Conker's Bad Fur Day usually goes off for $AU80-100 fairly consistently, but this one went for $AU230 - makes my PAL StarCraft 64 seem cheap! Sure, it was in great shape, but I got one in comparable condition last year for $AU70.
I like to grab hardcover versions of strategy guides when I can since they usually are very high quality and have a bunch of behind the scenes info not in the regular books. The MadWorld and Killzone 2 ones were UK exclusives, pushed out by Future last year. I also have the Bayonetta one due in the mail tomorrow, and Super Mario Galaxy 2 and Alan Wake ones shipping out this week.
Now we're into the VG+ sale stuff. First up - Halo Wars Limited Edition. I do believe this is the last Halo limited edition I need. I believe I just need a Halo 1 GOTY, Halo 1 JP version and Halo 2 Multiplayer Map pack to complete the set. I am in debate about whether the Halo 3 ODST controller bundle counts, and am unsure as to whether there was a big box PC release for the first game. VG+ threw in a Halo 2 soundtrack, which was lovely of them.
Next is Battle Stadium D.O.N., which is essentially a dream come true for a shounen anime loving manchild like myself. I don't recall hearing much about this when it came out. I love the Japanese GameCube cases.
I'd only intended to get the Halo Wars LE from this sale and be well behaved. That didn't happen. Ended up going nuts and grabbing a bunch of other cheap games. Unfortunately, they're not all that cheap when you factor in the $CAD7.50 per game shipping. Grabbed these two PSP cheapies for $10 each.
These DS games are all ones we'd been waiting to spring on for the right price. I'll have to get a new case for the Exit DS since the publisher crammed the French manual inside the case, which has caused some warping. Really hoping that Bleach: Dark Souls is up to the standard of Blade of Fate.
We bought a US PS2 late last year so I couldn't resist a few bargains there. DQ8 is my fiancee's favourite PS2 game, and she wanted the US version since it has a pretty outer box. Rule of Rose and Dragon Ball Z: Infinite World both had terrible PAL distribution, so it was just easier/quicker/cheaper to get the US versions.
Unfortunately, I was unable to stop at just VG+'s sale section, I had to go around the rest of the site looking for more things we'd wanted. I've heard Mega Man Battle Network 4 is the worst of the series, but for $10, I don't really care. Still need the first three, though. Classic NES Metroid is another notch in the belt for my Metroid collection - still need complete copies of Metroid for NES and Metroid 2 for GB (and a whole bunch of variants). My fiancee wanted the Summon Night games, so I added them as a surprise.
My copy of Super Mario Galaxy 2 will be here either late this week or early next week, but I think I'll have to keep a lid on things for a while after that.
