GameFly August 2012 Used Game Sale

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CheapyD

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[img-r=1]1372[/img-r]GameFly's monthy used game sale has returned with under $20 prices and free shipping on select titles. GameFly's games come complete with manual, case, and online passes. They are guaranteed and are usually in excellent condition. Out of stock items sometimes return later. Sale ends 8/20.

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Sale items

:360: Hole in the Wall: Deluxe Edition $7.99
:360: Jane's Advanced Strike Fighters $7.99
:360: Black Eyed Peas Experience $9.99
:360: EA Sports: Grand Slam Tennis 2 $9.99
:360: Hasbro Family Game Night 4 $9.99
:360: Rise of Nightmares $9.99
:360: Rugby World Cup 2011 $9.99
:360: Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City $9.99
:360: Final Fantasy XIII-2 $12.99
:360: Kinect Disneyland Adventures $12.99
:360: Street Fighter X Tekken $12.99
:360: Ace Combat: Assault Horizon $12.99
:360: Just Dance 3 $12.99
:360: LEGO Harry Potter Years 5-7 $12.99
:360: Need for Speed The Run $12.99
:360: Rage $12.99
:360: SSX $14.99
:360: Dance Central 2 $14.99
:360: Kinect Sports Season Two $14.99
:360: Sonic Generations $14.99
:360: PowerUp Heroes $17.99
:360: Assassin's Creed Revelations $17.99


:ps3: Jane's Advanced Strike Fighters $7.99
:ps3: Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine $7.99
:ps3: Everybody Dance $9.99
:ps3: Hasbro Family Game Night 4 $9.99
:ps3: Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City $9.99
:ps3: Sniper: Ghost Warrior $9.99
:ps3: Deus Ex: Human Revolution $12.99
:ps3: Just Dance 3 $12.99
:ps3: Lord of the Rings: War in the North $12.99
:ps3: Mass Effect 2 $12.99
:ps3: Rage $12.99
:ps3: SOCOM 4: U.S. Navy SEALs $12.99
:ps3: Street Fighter X Tekken $12.99
:ps3: Need for Speed: The Run $12.99
:ps3: Twisted Metal $17.99
:ps3: Infamous 2 $14.99
:ps3: Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One $14.99
:ps3: Resistance 3 $14.99
:ps3: Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception $17.99
:ps3: Assassin's Creed Revelations $17.99

:wii: Puss in Boots $7.99
:wii: Country Dance 2 $9.99
:wii: Fortune Street $19.99
:wii: Alvin & the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked $5.99
:wii: Barbie: Jet, Set and Style $7.99
:wii: Black Eyed Peas Experience $7.99
:wii: Family Feud 2010 Edition $7.99
:wii: Get Up and Dance $7.99
:wii: Gunslingers $7.99
:wii: Heavy Fire: Afghanistan $7.99
:wii: NCIS $7.99
:wii: Nickelodeon Dance $7.99
:wii: The Adventures of Tintin: The Game $7.99
:wii: The Price is Right Decades $7.99
:wii: Cabela's Adventure Camp $9.99
:wii: Hasbro Family Game Night 4 $9.99
:wii: Oregon Trail $9.99
:wii: The Price is Right 2010 Edition $12.99
:wii: Power Rangers Samurai $17.99
 
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[quote name='nhlducks35']Anyone know how long it takes for a game to arrive at your house with standard shipping? Same as a rented game?[/QUOTE]

4-7 days. Ima pass on street fighter. I rather play the tekken side of that crossover, whenever it comes out.

If I may add RE;ORC is only fun with other people. The AI partners are horrendous. Basically its bad.
 
[quote name='Royal High Knight']If I may add RE;ORC is only fun with other people. The AI partners are horrendous. Basically its bad.[/QUOTE]

It's pretty horrendous with other people too, lol. My friends and I picked it up from the BB sale a couple weeks ago and it's just an awkward game. You can have fun with it in the same way that you can with any 4 player co-op game, but the story is confusing as hell, the enemies are sponges even on normal difficulty, and you can beat the final level by just standing there and dying (seriously...we were just screwing around trying to get an achievement...and the game was like "awesome! you won!" lol)

I considered putting that last one in spoiler tags...but really, it gives nothing away except how inept Capcom can be. But hey...at least we got the exclusive BB bonus costumes (read: different colors of the exact same outfit...) On the plus side, it doesn't take long at all to beat (about 5-6 hours), so if you want to trade it back in quickly, it might be worth a cheap rental. Definitely not a game you want to hold onto though.
 
[quote name='Royal High Knight']4-7 days. Ima pass on street fighter. I rather play the tekken side of that crossover, whenever it comes out.

If I may add RE;ORC is only fun with other people. The AI partners are horrendous. Basically its bad.[/QUOTE]

Does it take 4-7 days for rented games to come to you?
 
[quote name='nhlducks35']Anyone know how long it takes for a game to arrive at your house with standard shipping? Same as a rented game?[/QUOTE]

If it is just one game in your order, it is really slow. Any order with 2 or more games, I find that they ship much faster.
 
[quote name='shurija']If it is just one game in your order, it is really slow. Any order with 2 or more games, I find that they ship much faster.[/QUOTE]

1 game = USPS First Class (3-5 business days)

2+ games = USPS Priority (2-3 business days)
 
I wanna know how bad are the glitches for Silent hill hd collection for xbox 360?Can actually beat the game or the glitches stop you from beating the game? Can you get the achievement on the game? I wanna pick it up.
 
[quote name='Bosamba']So glad I kept my :ps3: copy when it was $10 with @Gamer coupon from Best Buy. I wonder how many CAGs that flipped it to Gamestop now regret their decision.
[/QUOTE]
I played for a week and traded back to Amazon for $13.6, glad I did, I could not, for the love of god, get used to the sensitive controls. The last 2 hills took me a lot of frustration to beat.
 
[quote name='gundamb0i']I wanna know how bad are the glitches for Silent hill hd collection for xbox 360?Can actually beat the game or the glitches stop you from beating the game? Can you get the achievement on the game? I wanna pick it up.[/QUOTE]

http://shshatteredmemories.com/blog/2012/03/25/hd-collection/

I found the Silent Hill HD Collection to be a big disappointment. It is broken, lacks serious polish, and is not the upgrade we were promised. Instead Collection is a major downgrade.


Now I should tell you I’ve only completely played half of this collection. After running through Silent Hill 2 I was quite upset over its HD upgrade; that coupled with reading reports of how bad Silent Hill 3 peformed (missing textures, missing audio, lighting, and shadows) by other fans meant I just didn’t have to heart to continue playing. So this review will focus on my underwhelming experience with Silent Hill 2.

Before I get completely negative I would like to say I did find some positives in collection like the great texture upgrades that allowed for sharp clarity on a home console. I’ve never played the PC version so seeing everything from James’ jacket, store signs, and paintings in such high detail was a real treat for me. I’ve mentioned before, in my hands on preview, how impressed I was that so many hidden details are more prominent in the HD Collection now and I really think the game shines in that regard. It was exciting to see in game that James has replaced the corpse in the prison cafeteria painting or that there’s a staff photo hanging the the Silent Hill Historical Society without having to dig through ripped PC texture files for a closer look.

I was also quite fond of some of the new voice work. I know many fans are unhappy with the choice to recast the voices in Silent Hill 2 and 3 but I actually found myself liking some of the re-recorded lines more than the original. I felt that James’ later scenes in Silent Hill 2 were better acted and I really digged the raw emotion I could hear in Troy Baker’s performance. I was also quite fond of Angela’s new voice; she sounded like a troubled teen instead of a woman in her forties. That being said, I was not overly-wowed by everyone: Laura had the obvious sound of an older woman playing a child and as I’ve mentioned in the past I’m not fond of Mary Elizabeth’s deep voice for Mary Sunderland.

Unfortunately, the improved clarity of environment and a few better acted lines were are only small consolations given everything that is just so wrong with the collection.

Let’s start at the beginning, as you leave the rest stop by the Toluca Lake it’s immediately apparent something is off. It’s the main road; it is way too clean. This glaring change was pointed out before the HD Collection’s release by fans who had viewed the Gamespot comparison videos. Before the release I held out hope that Gamespot had a slightly older build and that once I played Collection in person maybe the texture difference would not be that off but, unfortunately, the reality is that the road sticks out like a sore thumb. It has very little texture and given the overall low contrast in Collection it looks more like a freshly paved road than the grungy and cracked road one would expect in such a run down town. Granted, a poorly rendered road texture isn’t a huge deal, but this lack of attention to basic detail is indicative of a larger pattern that repeats throughout the rest of the game.


Original Versus HD Collection

Fairly quickly in the game, you pick up a radio; this radio is a core element of the game since it alerts you to the presence of monsters by the increasing and decreasing levels of static. It’s an established staple of the Silent Hill games so I was shocked that its implementation in Collection was handled so poorly. There’s now a discernible pause between the static sound-effect loop which makes the sound of the radio distracting and intrusive instead of what it should be: a steady white noise in the background that alerts you to danger without drawing you out of the game’s action. It was so annoying and grating for me personally that I ended up turning it off in my own play through. If I was playing the game for the first time this would have put me at a severe disadvantage. You don’t need to be familiar with the game to be annoyed by the sound of the radio so I can see people turning it off like I did before realizing it’s supposed to be of aid to the player.


Collection Radio versus Radio in Original

The next jarring sound is when James runs for awhile and stops to catch his breath. Really, the first time this happened I thought he was going to die: James didn’t sound human; he sounded mechanical! It was like they took audio of one quick breath and only looped that one sound. It’s hard to describe – you will have to listen to it yourself in the video below but this particular audio change was not for the better.


Darth Sunderland

These weird audio problems continue to crop up throughout the rest of the game. Monster walking-sounds are extremely loud – to the point where I was confused: not only could I not identify it, I couldn’t figure out where “this loud clacking noise” was coming from. I had just left Brookhaven Hospital and thought there was something wrong with my game for a second because I only saw one monster near me on the street and it wasn’t moving, but I was hearing non-stop movement all around me. After running around for a bit I finally discerned that there was another monster several frames behind me, but there had been no variation in the sound to indicate distance: regardless of whether the monster was ready to attack or still 3 blocks away, the sound was equally loud. So again, we see one of the battle elements of the game that a new player might depend on being poorly executed in Collection. I found that the loud footsteps were not limited to the general enemies either because it cropped up again in a boss fight later. It’s almost comical how unbalanced the Collection’s audio is.

Speaking of audio volumes: there were times when it wasn’t even there at all! Key sound effects are either very muffled – like the scream in the apartment complex – or are completely removed like the fog horn in the Silent Hill Historical Society. The scream, for example, is supposed to direct your attention down a hallway to your first encounter with Pyramid Head, outside an apartment with a bloody corpse inside. In the original game, this scream is loud so it’s obvious why James is so surprised and wants to investigate its source, but in Collection it’s extremely weird seeing James’ jump and indicate there was a scream in subtitles when you can barely hear it in the game.

As for the missing foghorn in the Silent Hill Historical Society, its omission is very odd. The sound of the foghorn is a big audio clue to the player that they are traveling beneath Lake Toluca before they enter the old prison. These missing and muffled sound effects are not a big deal in terms of gameplay but overall it takes away from the atmosphere of the environments you are exploring. It has a negative impact for established fans who wonder what the heck happened to the missing sounds, and new players will miss out on the true aesthetic potential of Silent Hill. It’s further evidence of the lack attention to detail that went into the game.


Missing Foghorn

Moving on from audio to visuals, one of the most glaring differences from the original game was the treatment of the fog. Like the radio, the fog is iconic to Silent Hill and it helps define the game’s aesthetic, but in Collection the fog has been downgraded to an afterthought. Originally the fog served a dual purpose: to establish atmosphere and hide imperfections in the rendering of the game environment. But now it does neither. The fog line is incredibly stark as you are traveling outdoors and at times it looked like a large white wall of fog was racing away from James. It didn’t look natural. In fact, one of the scariest elements of the game has been turned into a cartoonish caricature. To be fair: the mechanics of the fog may act the same way in the original but, unlike Collection, there’s a whole lot of fog in that game to mask the wall. Fog completely fills the screen in the original game, making it extremely difficult to see buildings, monsters and objects not directly in front of you – but now the fog is only a minor inconvenience. Given that we were promised an HD remastering of the game, leaving out one of the core elements, a claustrophobia inducing fog, is not acceptable.


Wall ‘O Fog Versus Original

This lack of fog is glaringly obvious when James first meets Maria at Rosewater Park. In the original game the fog shrouded the horizon so the environment of the scene felt complete; however, in Collection this shroud has been lifted and the end of the world is blatantly obvious. Again, the effect is comical; it strips yet another layer from the town’s sinister environment and leaves the game looking unpolished, which is exactly what use of the fog was intended to avoid in the first place.


Meeting Maria fog comparison

This blatant disregard for visuals continues later in the game when you have to cross Lake Toluca by boat. It’s sad when games from the 8 bit era can render more realistic water than modern hi-fidelity hardware. At first it looked like James was taking a boat that was floating in the white fog but it got a lot worse when he started to cross the lake. Not only could I make out the grid that mapped the plane for the surface of the water, but the current was now made up of large bright white rings rippling over the black grid. It didn’t look like water and it certainly didn’t look that bad in the original game!


Horrible Water

I also found it upsetting how overall desaturated the game looks. It’s just too dark and murky, and the difference in color saturation is very apparent when you compare the original and Collection side by side (as in the videos above). Again, this may not be a problem for any new players but as a long time fan it was incredibly disappointing once I realized how stark the saturation difference really was.

Less blatant (but just as annoying) was the application of a grain filter over the CGI cutscenes. The scenes were already slightly stretched and blurry to fit the new aspect ratio in Collection, but with the filter on top of that they look very low quality and nothing like an HD upgrade.

In the end, it was lucky I was playing the Xbox 360 copy of Collection as I only had to deal with what were, ultimately, aesthetic issues. On release day there were many reports that if you were unfortunate enough to play this on a Playsation 3, the game was effectively unplayble. Konami released a patch for PS3 owners the following day but there continue to be reports of technical issues with the patch. In fact, I’ve had several PS3 Collection owners comment on this site from that the patch has done nothing to fix their issues.

Even beyond that, the assumption that you can release a broken game and patch it a day later is disrespectful and unprofessional as it assumes people have the internet access and subscription services needed to download such fixes. Playstation Network maybe free now but it may not always be, and if knowingly releasing incomplete games becomes an acceptable model, it will, in a way, force players to pay for the game multiple times. You may not have to pay for the patch itself but you do have to pay for the internet access and, possibly, the subscription service you’ll use to download it. It’s worth pointing out that Xbox Live is currently a paid service which, by the way, does not seem to be getting a patch any time soon.

This is not acceptable. At all.

The advantage to owning a console has always been that when you buy a game it will be playable. We don’t have to worry about upgrading to the latest graphics card, sound card, or processors: if we have the console, the game will play. Nothing else is required. The compromise we have always accepted for that assurance is that the games may be limited by the hardware in the console until the next console upgrade. So our games may not have always been as pretty as those on PCs, but we accepted that as the price we paid for stability. I’m not liking the growing trend of companies releasing incomplete and broken games then counting on the ability to patch them later if enough people complain. A game should be fully functional once you’ve given someone money for it.

As a result, my recommendation is that no one buy this collection. Not only are there aesthetic issues that make the game a downgrade instead of the upgrade we were promised but there are technical issues that render the game unplayable for some. Buying the game will not only reinforce the message that poor development and shoddy QA are acceptable but that we are okay with buying an incomplete product which may or may not be fixed in the future.

As much as I love the series and I love the idea of being able to play older titles on my next generation console, I feel this collection does not deserve to do well in its current state. After all the delays it’s mind boggling just how bad this looks. We need to send Konami a message that this sort of shoddy “upgrade” is not okay. Already the game is under review on Amazon due to the numerous costumer complaints about Collection’s sub-par quality. I hope Konami takes notice and will not only patch this collection but also re-release a fixed version down the road. Until that happens I highly recommend playing/buying the originals over Collection if you can. But if you can’t and this collection is your only option just be forewarned that you are getting a lackluster shadow of the original game. It’s not the HD upgrade you are paying for!

Videos (long running time)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58n-Gg1GrE4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_1vlqb9Zrk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-znPOfaEwX0&feature=relmfu
 
[quote name='gundamb0i']I wanna know how bad are the glitches for Silent hill hd collection for xbox 360?Can actually beat the game or the glitches stop you from beating the game? Can you get the achievement on the game? I wanna pick it up.[/QUOTE]

I know that the 2nd game is beatable, since my friend has beat it 10 or so times since it release. The thing to remember though is that the 360 version will not get the new patch that the ps3 version got recently.
 
Silent Hill Collection got an 8 or 9 from IGN, pre-patch. I assume that was on the 360, which preforms WAY better than the PS3 version did at release.
 
I can't decide between street fighter x tekken or twisted metal. I sold twisted metal in march in hopes of getting back cheaper someday, and with SFxTekken, I haven't played a street fighter or tekken game since the ps1/arcade games and I've had the sudden urge to play some fighting games
 
[quote name='LebongJamez']I can't decide between street fighter x tekken or twisted metal. I sold twisted metal in march in hopes of getting back cheaper someday, and with SFxTekken, I haven't played a street fighter or tekken game since the ps1/arcade games and I've had the sudden urge to play some fighting games[/QUOTE]

If you want a fighting game then get Super Street Fighter 4 Regular/Arcade Edition. It is so much better than SFXT is.
 
[quote name='tylerh1701']Silent Hill Collection got an 8 or 9 from IGN, pre-patch. I assume that was on the 360, which preforms WAY better than the PS3 version did at release.[/QUOTE]

Knowing IGN the reviewer probably id not play the game. It was HORRIBLE in pre patch phase. And it's PRETTY BAD after the patches.
 
[quote name='wwe101']Just picked up uncharted 3. This is the first time I order from gamefly, do they always tax you?[/QUOTE]

Yes.
 
[quote name='Bosamba']http://shshatteredmemories.com/blog/2012/03/25/hd-collection/

I found the Silent Hill HD Collection to be a big disappointment. It is broken, lacks serious polish, and is not the upgrade we were promised. Instead Collection is a major downgrade.


Now I should tell you I’ve only completely played half of this collection. After running through Silent Hill 2 I was quite upset over its HD upgrade; that coupled with reading reports of how bad Silent Hill 3 peformed (missing textures, missing audio, lighting, and shadows) by other fans meant I just didn’t have to heart to continue playing. So this review will focus on my underwhelming experience with Silent Hill 2.

Before I get completely negative I would like to say I did find some positives in collection like the great texture upgrades that allowed for sharp clarity on a home console. I’ve never played the PC version so seeing everything from James’ jacket, store signs, and paintings in such high detail was a real treat for me. I’ve mentioned before, in my hands on preview, how impressed I was that so many hidden details are more prominent in the HD Collection now and I really think the game shines in that regard. It was exciting to see in game that James has replaced the corpse in the prison cafeteria painting or that there’s a staff photo hanging the the Silent Hill Historical Society without having to dig through ripped PC texture files for a closer look.

I was also quite fond of some of the new voice work. I know many fans are unhappy with the choice to recast the voices in Silent Hill 2 and 3 but I actually found myself liking some of the re-recorded lines more than the original. I felt that James’ later scenes in Silent Hill 2 were better acted and I really digged the raw emotion I could hear in Troy Baker’s performance. I was also quite fond of Angela’s new voice; she sounded like a troubled teen instead of a woman in her forties. That being said, I was not overly-wowed by everyone: Laura had the obvious sound of an older woman playing a child and as I’ve mentioned in the past I’m not fond of Mary Elizabeth’s deep voice for Mary Sunderland.

Unfortunately, the improved clarity of environment and a few better acted lines were are only small consolations given everything that is just so wrong with the collection.

Let’s start at the beginning, as you leave the rest stop by the Toluca Lake it’s immediately apparent something is off. It’s the main road; it is way too clean. This glaring change was pointed out before the HD Collection’s release by fans who had viewed the Gamespot comparison videos. Before the release I held out hope that Gamespot had a slightly older build and that once I played Collection in person maybe the texture difference would not be that off but, unfortunately, the reality is that the road sticks out like a sore thumb. It has very little texture and given the overall low contrast in Collection it looks more like a freshly paved road than the grungy and cracked road one would expect in such a run down town. Granted, a poorly rendered road texture isn’t a huge deal, but this lack of attention to basic detail is indicative of a larger pattern that repeats throughout the rest of the game.


Original Versus HD Collection

Fairly quickly in the game, you pick up a radio; this radio is a core element of the game since it alerts you to the presence of monsters by the increasing and decreasing levels of static. It’s an established staple of the Silent Hill games so I was shocked that its implementation in Collection was handled so poorly. There’s now a discernible pause between the static sound-effect loop which makes the sound of the radio distracting and intrusive instead of what it should be: a steady white noise in the background that alerts you to danger without drawing you out of the game’s action. It was so annoying and grating for me personally that I ended up turning it off in my own play through. If I was playing the game for the first time this would have put me at a severe disadvantage. You don’t need to be familiar with the game to be annoyed by the sound of the radio so I can see people turning it off like I did before realizing it’s supposed to be of aid to the player.


Collection Radio versus Radio in Original

The next jarring sound is when James runs for awhile and stops to catch his breath. Really, the first time this happened I thought he was going to die: James didn’t sound human; he sounded mechanical! It was like they took audio of one quick breath and only looped that one sound. It’s hard to describe – you will have to listen to it yourself in the video below but this particular audio change was not for the better.


Darth Sunderland

These weird audio problems continue to crop up throughout the rest of the game. Monster walking-sounds are extremely loud – to the point where I was confused: not only could I not identify it, I couldn’t figure out where “this loud clacking noise” was coming from. I had just left Brookhaven Hospital and thought there was something wrong with my game for a second because I only saw one monster near me on the street and it wasn’t moving, but I was hearing non-stop movement all around me. After running around for a bit I finally discerned that there was another monster several frames behind me, but there had been no variation in the sound to indicate distance: regardless of whether the monster was ready to attack or still 3 blocks away, the sound was equally loud. So again, we see one of the battle elements of the game that a new player might depend on being poorly executed in Collection. I found that the loud footsteps were not limited to the general enemies either because it cropped up again in a boss fight later. It’s almost comical how unbalanced the Collection’s audio is.

Speaking of audio volumes: there were times when it wasn’t even there at all! Key sound effects are either very muffled – like the scream in the apartment complex – or are completely removed like the fog horn in the Silent Hill Historical Society. The scream, for example, is supposed to direct your attention down a hallway to your first encounter with Pyramid Head, outside an apartment with a bloody corpse inside. In the original game, this scream is loud so it’s obvious why James is so surprised and wants to investigate its source, but in Collection it’s extremely weird seeing James’ jump and indicate there was a scream in subtitles when you can barely hear it in the game.

As for the missing foghorn in the Silent Hill Historical Society, its omission is very odd. The sound of the foghorn is a big audio clue to the player that they are traveling beneath Lake Toluca before they enter the old prison. These missing and muffled sound effects are not a big deal in terms of gameplay but overall it takes away from the atmosphere of the environments you are exploring. It has a negative impact for established fans who wonder what the heck happened to the missing sounds, and new players will miss out on the true aesthetic potential of Silent Hill. It’s further evidence of the lack attention to detail that went into the game.


Missing Foghorn

Moving on from audio to visuals, one of the most glaring differences from the original game was the treatment of the fog. Like the radio, the fog is iconic to Silent Hill and it helps define the game’s aesthetic, but in Collection the fog has been downgraded to an afterthought. Originally the fog served a dual purpose: to establish atmosphere and hide imperfections in the rendering of the game environment. But now it does neither. The fog line is incredibly stark as you are traveling outdoors and at times it looked like a large white wall of fog was racing away from James. It didn’t look natural. In fact, one of the scariest elements of the game has been turned into a cartoonish caricature. To be fair: the mechanics of the fog may act the same way in the original but, unlike Collection, there’s a whole lot of fog in that game to mask the wall. Fog completely fills the screen in the original game, making it extremely difficult to see buildings, monsters and objects not directly in front of you – but now the fog is only a minor inconvenience. Given that we were promised an HD remastering of the game, leaving out one of the core elements, a claustrophobia inducing fog, is not acceptable.


Wall ‘O Fog Versus Original

This lack of fog is glaringly obvious when James first meets Maria at Rosewater Park. In the original game the fog shrouded the horizon so the environment of the scene felt complete; however, in Collection this shroud has been lifted and the end of the world is blatantly obvious. Again, the effect is comical; it strips yet another layer from the town’s sinister environment and leaves the game looking unpolished, which is exactly what use of the fog was intended to avoid in the first place.


Meeting Maria fog comparison

This blatant disregard for visuals continues later in the game when you have to cross Lake Toluca by boat. It’s sad when games from the 8 bit era can render more realistic water than modern hi-fidelity hardware. At first it looked like James was taking a boat that was floating in the white fog but it got a lot worse when he started to cross the lake. Not only could I make out the grid that mapped the plane for the surface of the water, but the current was now made up of large bright white rings rippling over the black grid. It didn’t look like water and it certainly didn’t look that bad in the original game!


Horrible Water

I also found it upsetting how overall desaturated the game looks. It’s just too dark and murky, and the difference in color saturation is very apparent when you compare the original and Collection side by side (as in the videos above). Again, this may not be a problem for any new players but as a long time fan it was incredibly disappointing once I realized how stark the saturation difference really was.

Less blatant (but just as annoying) was the application of a grain filter over the CGI cutscenes. The scenes were already slightly stretched and blurry to fit the new aspect ratio in Collection, but with the filter on top of that they look very low quality and nothing like an HD upgrade.

In the end, it was lucky I was playing the Xbox 360 copy of Collection as I only had to deal with what were, ultimately, aesthetic issues. On release day there were many reports that if you were unfortunate enough to play this on a Playsation 3, the game was effectively unplayble. Konami released a patch for PS3 owners the following day but there continue to be reports of technical issues with the patch. In fact, I’ve had several PS3 Collection owners comment on this site from that the patch has done nothing to fix their issues.

Even beyond that, the assumption that you can release a broken game and patch it a day later is disrespectful and unprofessional as it assumes people have the internet access and subscription services needed to download such fixes. Playstation Network maybe free now but it may not always be, and if knowingly releasing incomplete games becomes an acceptable model, it will, in a way, force players to pay for the game multiple times. You may not have to pay for the patch itself but you do have to pay for the internet access and, possibly, the subscription service you’ll use to download it. It’s worth pointing out that Xbox Live is currently a paid service which, by the way, does not seem to be getting a patch any time soon.

This is not acceptable. At all.

The advantage to owning a console has always been that when you buy a game it will be playable. We don’t have to worry about upgrading to the latest graphics card, sound card, or processors: if we have the console, the game will play. Nothing else is required. The compromise we have always accepted for that assurance is that the games may be limited by the hardware in the console until the next console upgrade. So our games may not have always been as pretty as those on PCs, but we accepted that as the price we paid for stability. I’m not liking the growing trend of companies releasing incomplete and broken games then counting on the ability to patch them later if enough people complain. A game should be fully functional once you’ve given someone money for it.

As a result, my recommendation is that no one buy this collection. Not only are there aesthetic issues that make the game a downgrade instead of the upgrade we were promised but there are technical issues that render the game unplayable for some. Buying the game will not only reinforce the message that poor development and shoddy QA are acceptable but that we are okay with buying an incomplete product which may or may not be fixed in the future.

As much as I love the series and I love the idea of being able to play older titles on my next generation console, I feel this collection does not deserve to do well in its current state. After all the delays it’s mind boggling just how bad this looks. We need to send Konami a message that this sort of shoddy “upgrade” is not okay. Already the game is under review on Amazon due to the numerous costumer complaints about Collection’s sub-par quality. I hope Konami takes notice and will not only patch this collection but also re-release a fixed version down the road. Until that happens I highly recommend playing/buying the originals over Collection if you can. But if you can’t and this collection is your only option just be forewarned that you are getting a lackluster shadow of the original game. It’s not the HD upgrade you are paying for!

Videos (long running time)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58n-Gg1GrE4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_1vlqb9Zrk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-znPOfaEwX0&feature=relmfu
[/QUOTE]

To be fair though,the company who did the collection was handed the incomplete source codes of the games,since Konami apparently never kept the final versions.Now that doesn't excuse them from releasing it in that mess though.
 
[quote name='UNDERSTAR']What the odds of getting Twisted Metal LE?[/QUOTE]

Next to none, only one person got the LE during the last sale so I'd assume your chances won't be any better this time around.

I'm surprised I couldn't find anything in this sale, decent selection of games but nothing really great though.
 
Ordered Rise of Nightmares, tennis, me2, and SFxT yesterday. Got them today. Excellent condition with the usual chip which some of the sensitive people hate about here. Anyways, fast turnaround. Guess that's since the shipping center is local.
 
[quote name='Thomas96']Where is 007 goldeneye?! I've been waiting for this game to come up for sale![/QUOTE]

Same here it does not seem to be part of ANY sales which is weird all the other 007 games were part of all kinds of sales in the past.
 
I had 5 dollars towards a game since I did some survey. Picked up Twisted Metal. If i get the LE sweet. If not oh well. Should have the playpass though
 
[quote name='acsguitar']I had 5 dollars towards a game since I did some survey. Picked up Twisted Metal. If i get the LE sweet. If not oh well. Should have the playpass though[/QUOTE]

Wow, this is exactly what I was gonna post, expect change the survey 5 dollars for the $5 reward they give to members. My $5 reward was expiring on 8/18, so I decided to get TW in the chance that I get the LE. Eitherway is ok since it should have the online code. Came to $11.xx.
 
Nice see Twisted Metal for PS3 is back so got it and Lord of the Rings for PS3....better to grab 2 so it will come quicker!. My SSX & Hasbro Game Night 4 for 360 shipped yesterday and will be here today:).
 
Street Fighter v Tekken is back in stock at the moment. Picked up the PS3 version for the extra characters. Lotta hate for this game, but when I redboxed the game at launch, I really liked it. Fwiw, I'm a casual fighting gamer.
 
Played Rise of Nightmares demo awhile back and had fun with it so i grabbed that. My Kinect needs a lil attention at least.
 
[quote name='GUNNM']Aw they banned the chip disc ftl dude[/QUOTE]
Nah, that's chunli ROCKS, chunli BARBIE was banned. Different people.
 
[quote name='Tsel']Nah, that's chunli ROCKS, chunli BARBIE was banned. Different people.[/QUOTE]

Oh I was about to complaint about the banning. The FTL guy is an integral part of Gamefly's sales threads.
 
Just ordered Twisted Metal. What are the chances of getting the Twisted Black voucher?
I get my gamefly games shipped from Austin, TX and I'm curious to know if anyone got a voucher in their game shipped from that facility.
 
[quote name='maxpower0965']Just ordered Twisted Metal. What are the chances of getting the Twisted Black voucher?
I get my gamefly games shipped from Austin, TX and I'm curious to know if anyone got a voucher in their game shipped from that facility.[/QUOTE]

Read the posts above you. Your answer is on top of the page.
 
Yep got SSX & Hasbro Family Game Night 4 for 360 today, Twisted Metal & Lord of the Rings shipped today for PS3!
 
[quote name='maxpower0965']Just ordered Twisted Metal. What are the chances of getting the Twisted Black voucher?
I get my gamefly games shipped from Austin, TX and I'm curious to know if anyone got a voucher in their game shipped from that facility.[/QUOTE]
Really? What the hell.. see thats what confuses me the most. I'm in Dallas, wouldn't it make more sense to get them shipped from ATX instead of Pittsburgh?

Lol anyhow, I think only one person reported saying they got TM Black voucher. The rest ended up getting the SE even though that was the first time GF had a sale on TM. So I don't know man, 30/70? Then again, if yours get shipped from ATX and not Pittsburgh, maybe you'll have better luck.
 
[quote name='themaster20000']To be fair though,the company who did the collection was handed the incomplete source codes of the games,since Konami apparently never kept the final versions.Now that doesn't excuse them from releasing it in that mess though.[/QUOTE]

To be fair, they (or at least the producer who made the calls during development) knew it was beta code last year but continued to work the way they wanted to instead of opting for the more complicated, yet more effective reverse engineering process.

Some of their aesthetic changes make little to no sense, too, but I won't get into it...point is it's Konami's fault first but Hijinx doesn't really deserve full excuse from blame either. The main producer is incompetent just like them.

It absolutely wasn't worth $40, but anything under $20 is a decent deal for someone who never played the originals. Otherwise, stick with what you already had/have.
 
just got Grand Slam Tennis 2 and SSX in the mail today, only took 2 days with regular shipping which was free awesome stuff. also, the online pass for grand slam tennis 2 is now free so everyone can play online! :)
 
Shit. I forgot to change my shipping and billing info when I ordered. Why would that charge a card that is expired? Makes no sense. How is there customer service with this type of thing? I contacted them but I assume I won't hear anything until tomorrow.
 
:ps3: Jane's came in today. There's more chips on the disc than I expected but every game I've bought from Gamefly has worked on me so I'm hopeful it doesn't crap out.
 
[quote name='Prismatico']
It absolutely wasn't worth $40, but anything under $20 is a decent deal for someone who never played the originals. Otherwise, stick with what you already had/have.[/QUOTE]

I would pretty much say the opposite. Only buy this garbage collection if you know the originals like the back of your hand. The volume of missing affects and ruined scenes would sour many first time players.

The boat, oh my fucking god the boat.
 
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