CAGcast #351: Mushroom Tower Defense

CheapyD

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Shipwreck builds a Blockbuster in his basement, Wombat explains Net Neutrality, and Cheapy plays some games (Nidhogg, Rust).

 
Download (75 minutes) - iTunes -
https://soundcloud.com/cheapyd/cagcast-351-mushroom-tower

Show Linkage/Notes:
Intro: Mach Rider Mach Schnell OC ReMix - Outro: Blockbuster Video Commercial

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Please submit your show questions via CAGbag or Twitter.

I guess you can listen to Wombat's other podcast, Uninformed Opinions.

 
Wombat was wrong about the Zelda Collector's Edition pre order... sort of. The game you got for Pre-ordering Zelda: WW was Zelda Ocarina of Time OG and Master's Quest. The Collector's Edition was a giveaway you got by buying certain Gamcuibe consolse, free with Nintendo Power Subscription, or free by registering 2 qualifying games.

Yup, I'm a nerd.

Also I'm so happy Blockbuster is gone. Those rentals fees, lack of new releases, and dick employees always sucked as a kid. They got better once Netflix showed up, but by then the first nail on the coffin was already being hammered in.

 
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I have to say I completely agree with Wombat. If my internet is going super slow and I know nothing in my house is taking bandwidth, I get very irritated. I pay for cable internet with their high speed upgrade and I pay for cable tv with a few extra premium channels like showtime, stars, ect. My monthly bill is almost $200. Worse too when something is not working properly their customer service is shit and they always say we are working on the problem. I live in a smaller town so my options for internet are very limited. Blah I hate it...end rant
 
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Robert Goode @Shipwreck



 



People skeptically point out my Tweets about how I see things selling at Target/Walmart are anecdotal. Yup, but they are also accurate
 
 
 
I can see how your target tweets invoke jealousy as I have never found anything remotely close to what you have found.  No cheap external 3 terabytes hard drives for 50 LOL  No 30 for 30 collectors edition for 9 bucks.     I staked out my target at 6:00am on Tuesdays 3 weeks in a row 2 hours before they opened waited in the store all day and nothing.      The consensus is Ship has found away to clone target clearance stickers and  walks around with discounting what he chooses.   If he has an insider I am sure he got a huge Christmas bonus from ship for all deals ship posts.   LOL
 
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It's a shame to hear about the burglary.

The apartment I was living in a few years back was burglarized. The best way i can describe feeling at the time was a feeling of violation. All of my electronics, movies and video games were taken. Luckily, my insurance covered everything I had lost but I waited a long time before buying anything for fear that the perpetrators would return. I moved out shortly after....could never shake feeling unsafe there.

What really ticked me off about losing my video game stuff was losing all my save files!! For instance, I had put 100's of hours into Mass Effect 1 & 2 playing the scenarios different ways in anticipation of it carrying over to Mass Effect 3. With that lost, there was no way I was going to duplicate that effort. Kind of glad I didn't because I ended up not liking ME3. :)
 
Wombat- is the table named Mario after Nintendo's mario? Man that dude has staying power.

is it gauche to ask how much internet is? I am looking are getting rid of my cable tv and just keeping the internet. I would wind up paying about $75 for 30Mbps. (in Denver). I wonder how that ranks. 

I am extremely limited in choices...only Comcast or DSL which sucks. I think everyone is hoping for google fiber to come save them. 

 
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On the blockbuster video commercial what was that sound when they asked about kids movies?  It doesn't sound like a kid. 

 
Great show, guys. I thought it was funny that Cheapy D discussed not caring at all about Anime, JRPGs, or other otaku stuff in Japan. I lived there 2 years and didn't like any of that stuff. I was just in Japan 2 weeks and forgot just how much I loved the people and food. 

One often overlooked point that nobody seems to ever mention when talking about the quantity of good games on the new consoles is the fact that most new games and future titles are cross generational. If you are going to buy a new console in the near future (and money isn't tight), why not buy it now and play games with (usually) better graphics, performance, and occasionally new game mechanics?

My guess is the PS4 will drop at most $50 USD in the next 12-18 months. I will gladly lose out on a bit of money for a year's worth of better experiences. Also, I wouldn't want to replay a recent game such as Assassin's Creed IV or Tomb Raider on a new console just because it looks better on the new consoles. So your one-time experience will forever have been (in general) inferior. It strikes me as odd that people often omit cross-generational games when talking about "good" games available on the new consoles.

I was wondering what you guys think about all the VR headsets, both announced and rumored. Occulus Rift has been in the spotlight for a long time now. Valve had a behind closed-doors meeting about "the future of VR", showing off their take on the technology. Most people are anticipating Sony to reveal something soon. Are you guys interested in VR gaming and, if so, do you want it on consoles, pc, or both? 

 
Like Wombat, I also pay a lot for my internet.  In order to have a decent amount of data usage I had to increase my internet speed to 50mb/s for $100 a month.  My internet goes down to less than 1mb/s atleast once a week, sometimes twice a week, for a few hours during the day.  It also gets lower than 50mb/s on a regular basis, but sometimes, rarely, the speed will be 100mb/s+.  

I've attempted to get techs to repair the problem, but I've had more than 10 techs come to my to my home and there's been no change.  It's not even worth wasting my time.  If a better ISP ever comes available here, come on Google, then I'm going to switch asap.

 
CAG #351

2:30 Net Neutrality
4:00 Ship solves net neutrality by building a Blockbuster in his basement
10:30 Tai's adventures
13:15 Mario Vampires
14:15 Show feedback
14:15 - XBL vs PS+
16:00 Boatcrash Chronicles
18:30 Watch This: Frontline
19:30 - Tila
21:00 - True Detective
21:30 - Austin City Limits
23:00 New Releases
23:00 - Niddhog
25:15 - Assassin's Creed Liberation
27:00 - Chibi Robo
27:15 - Broken Age
28:00 - Banner Saga
29:30 Cagnews/deals
29:30 - Child's Play
31:15 - New front page
35:30 - PSN 14 for 14
36:45 NPD
40:15 Trigger Happy
41:30 Lego Marvel
43:30 PS Now price & HD versions of games
44:30 Ryse
45:15 Titanfall group size
48:30 Cableboxes still connected through XB1?
51:15 RBI Baseball
52:45 The Wolf Among Us
54:00 Day Z vs Rust
58:00 Castle Doombad
59:00 NBA Rush
1:00:00 Rayman Run
1:00:11 SteelSeries Siberia Elite headphones
10230 Steam controller
1:03:30 Cagbag
1:03:30 - Phantasy Star Online II
1:05:00 Theft
1:07:30 Titanfall controller/best limited editions
1:09:45 Avengers 2 game
 
I don't even bother checking my target clearance anymore, it hasn't born fruit in years.

Yep, google fiber is tantalizingly close, one town over but so far, they are snaking outward in the opposite direction unfortunately. The local cable company pretty much has a monopoly on high speed internet so the prices suck and the service is meh, less than a year ago they still had data caps in the low 40 GBs for crying out loud.

Have you been showing Tai Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade perhaps?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7_Ai6hLWks

 
I don't even bother checking my target clearance anymore, it hasn't born fruit in years.
I'm sorry to hear that. Earlier this week I went to Target to buy a Swiffer Sweeper and a Panasonic home phone. Wouldn't you know, the Swiffer Sweeper was on clearance and they had an online returned Panasonic phone that was actually the slightly better model than I had come in to buy. My wife just assumes they know I'm coming and what I want to buy.
 
Regarding net neutrality, it's just a scam. Netflix already pays for their connection to the internet, it's not like they're hooking up directly to your ISP for free without them knowing about it. It's not like they're a neighbor running an extension cord from your outside power outlet or something. They pay for their connection.

What's happening is that ISPs want to be able to give discriminatory access to sites and services, based on money given to them, when all they're supposed to do is just be a conduit to the internet.

This is a huge conflict of interest, especially when ISPs like Comcast/Xfinity will prefer their own streaming services and then raise the rent on Netflix.

ISPs should be like any other utility and just charge you for using the utility itself. Triple dipping by 1) charging the users for basic service and 2) charging the content providers who already pay for their pipe to the internet and 3) charging users for faster access to the targeted services is wrong. Not to mention benefiting from giving preferential to their own streaming services that they charge extra for already.

ISPs don't lose money from the amount of data that flows through their already existing connections. Whether there is a lot of data flowing through their connections or not, they are still available. It is the ISP's responsibility to have a budget that allows them to maintain and enhance their infrastructure. What they seem to be arguing here is that all subscriber fees should be 100% profit, and they should charge web sites and services extra in order to provide the same services they are today. What, you think the extra money they get will provide a better infrastructure? Ha! In reality this will inhibit the use of the infrastructure by raising the prices such that less people will be using the bandwidth and they can maintain the status quo.

If this goes through, Steam, eShop/PSN/Live downloads and updates, PlayStation Now, OnLive, will all be affected in addition to iTunes, Amazon, Netflix, Hulu, even Google.
 
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Maybe CheapyD should send Tai to Hebrew School for some sense. Mushroom Towers and Libraries on Fire? Oy vey!

Frontline really needs to be seen by a lot more people, but too bad people would rather watch the Tia Tequila.

 
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I think Cheapy talking about the Tila Tequila video was more awkward than any of his poo or even his fap stories.

Even though I'm a big fan of anime, I'm not really jealous of Cheapy because I don't think I'd want to live in Japan. Visit, yes, but not live. (But like Cheapy I'm not really into Japanese games at all, just not my thing.) Even so, that was a pretty dick answer you gave that poor guy, lol.

 
I think something is wrong with the CAGcast RSS feed.  It seems to only go up to episode 346 (Forza No Moreza) and none of the ones that come after it.

 
Ghostbusters 3 is coming out, so I guess if they don't, they will. My parents made me watch Ghostbusters, didn't they make you watch movies they liked? Maybe kids will see it that way.
 
CheapyD's Tai stories were hilarious. 

In theory, living in Japan sounds like an interesting experience. Of course, not knowing the language would make everything difficult, so yeah. 

 
It's funny how Wombat was explaining the Net Neutrality thing poorly and then his second example explained it correctly.

Net Neutrality means Internet traffic is neutral, there is no preference for one data, stream, etc. over another.

Essentially with Net Neutrality struck down, if you cancel your cable TV package and then start streaming Netflix or Hulu to watch "your stories", your ISP can just decide to block all your streaming, for any reason, and may be likely to do so if they know they are your only possible broadband option.

In the past, it was illegal for them to do so (or they could say your data plan is for "only the first XXGB" of data).  In the past, you could get a credit if you complained that your Internet was down or slow.

Now, if your router can ping Google, your Internet is "working" and you will always be paying regardless of use.   #thanksObama

 
Regarding Dennis Rodman, I was really hoping he was so crazy he was actually going over to North Korea to kidnap / assassinate Kim Jong-un and then be hailed a hero.

But then again, videogames like Homefront have taught me that Korean reunification leads to a Red Dawn situation in the US.

 
Going along with what TonyGeezy was saying, with regards to net neutrality, from a business perspective it makes sense why an ISP would want to do this.

Since there are so many people moving from having cable to using Netflix, if say, Time Warner started charging Netflix more, the prices would go up, and maybe people would start paying TIme Warner again for cable. Normally, if a company started doing something like this, Netflix would call them out, and people would use a different company for their internet, but since landline broadband for most of the US is through a government granted monopoly, there isn't much of a choice.

 
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Exactly, it seems like a huge conflict of interest, and I'm glad the FCC is trying to fight against lobbyists' special interests and is trying to legally establish net neutrality. I hope enough people care to support them and that they are successful.
 
I was really surprised as I heard about Ship buying the block buster shelving thing.. just because I did the same thing a couple weekends ago for my upstairs where I keep last gen and older, I kinda felt crazy after I did it.. hearing that someone else did it makes me feel better lol

heres a pic of it all setup (PS2 games front facing are my highlights from GS 75% sale)

rLZfmXY.jpg


I also purchased the same Vizio wombat got on black friday (love it), which felt strange as I had just purchased that before that particular show as well

 
The problem with Assassin's Creed Liberation HD is that it's coming out two to three months after Black Flag came out, so most AC fans are busy with that game or have played it recently enough that they may not be looking for more AC so soon. They should've had it come out in May or June to take advantage of the lull that happens around then and give people a bit more AC while they wait for whatever new game will be out that fall.

 
Baseball Stars had stats and stat growth before most games had stats.  RBI had stupid looking fat ballplayers hitting flat levatating balls in straight lines.  And as a baseball fan, they were both fun.  Basewars blew them both out of the water though.  Please tell me you played basewars...

 
Did anyone correct Wombat about Net-Neutrality yet?  He's going to be surprised when HE get charged extra for streaming games instead of the website.  Your provider can now charge you a tiered level for different sites.  It doesn't even have to be tied to bandwidth.  For the standard monthly tier your Netflix will lag but if you pay an extra $10 a month you'll be able to watch HD films.  For another $10 a month you can use Steam.  Wombat is going to love the new non-neutral net & he doesn't even know it yet.

 
Thanks for the Boatcrash Chronicles shoutout! Your support has helped earn me two cents a day in ad revenue. KaChing!

Jason Isbell's lyrics are pretty downtrodden, but in a good way! The level of melancholy in his songs is in direct proportion to his success. He's the Sarah McLachlan of alternative country!

 
Another watch this, bitches. Given that Argentina is facing another currency crash, now is a great time to watch Nueve Reinas.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0247586/

A great grift/con movie, it was set during Argentina's previous currency crash.

Highly recommended. Yes. It is in Spanish. There is a US version in English too, it's a decent movie but not as good as this.

 
Thanks for the Boatcrash Chronicles shoutout! Your support has helped earn me two cents a day in ad revenue. KaChing!

Jason Isbell's lyrics are pretty downtrodden, but in a good way! The level of melancholy in his songs is in direct proportion to his success. He's the Sarah McLachlan of alternative country!
Bookmarked! I've got a lot to catch up on, the only ones I've ever seen were the ones linked somewhere on CAG, mostly these feedback threads.

 
You could now have to pay extra $$ to access gaming sites. It may become package deals like cable TV.
It could also mean that Microsoft or Sony could pay the ISP to prioritize their service over the other. I suspect this already indirectly happening, because the only way I can watch HBO Go on my TV is via Xbox 360. Comcast doesn't allow for Roku or AppleTV to stream HBO Go in my area. I suspect there was money exchanged behind the scenes, and it will only get worse for the consumer with the ruling.

 
Think I'm done with this sale, total haul

disk only (making cases)

Ace Combat 4

Ace Combat 5

Bully

Cold Fear

Disgaea 2

Fatal Frame

Gengi

Gungrave

Fatal Frame

Goblin Commander

Midway Arcade Treasures 1, 2, & 3

Warrior Within

Psychonauts

Soul Calibur 3

Tekken Tag

Tekken 4

Timesplitters 2

Onimusha Blade Warriors

Onimusha 3

Obscure Aftermath

Musashi Samurai Legend

Katamari Damacy

Spartan Total Warrior

Virtua Fighter 4

Primal

Viewtiful Joe 2

Xenosaga Ep 1

Heavenly Guardian

LOTR: ROTK

Guilty Gear XX Accent Core 1

Time Crisis 3

Time Crisis Crisis Zone

Snoopy vs. The Red Barron

War of The Monsters

Twisted Metal Black

Siren

Marvel vs Capcom 2

CIB-

Persona 4

Would have liked to pick up Half Life and Gradius 3 & 4

 
Robbed & Violated

I would just like to share my story on how I felt after my home was broken into and I was robbed of my prize possessions.

Hi guys, my name is Roger (FR33ZER BU12N) on all platforms. I'm a 36 year old Gamer/Nerd/Full Time Worker/Family Man. 

So, about 2 years ago around the middle of November 2011 my son came home from school to find our home broken into and burglarized. When I got home from work and seen the mess left behind, I was appalled! I felt so victimized. Our home had been ransacked and the only things that appeared missing were mostly my electronics. This happened in broad daylight and thank goodness there were witnesses that seen some strange activity in the neighborhood. Because, they actually scared off these robbers before they could get to our Master bedroom and pillage even more valuables from in there. (Mostly of my wife's stuff) 

Anyways, they made off with my Xbox Slim 360, my sons Xbox 360 Pro, Playstation 3, PSP, a Laptop, an iHome Dock, and about 50 games and controllers from all consoles. Stupid Dumbasses forgot to grab any of the power cables or AV cables for any of said consoles! 

As a gamer of all platforms and genres, I was really hit hard when I realized that a couple of weeks prior I had just finished my first play through of MASS EFFECT 1. Also I was at that moment playing through Fallout 3 and about half way through when all this took place. I felt very discourged about starting over from scratch. And all my game saves and progress were on those consoles. So distraught I was to realize this. The next thing that sucked was soon enough that Microsoft announced their Cloud Gaming feature only two weeks later at the start of December. Man was I bummed. My Game Saves could have been saved but the timing sucked! On a good note though was that some games actually were saved onto certain game publishers Servers. Like my Gears Of War 3 and COD campaigns were still all unlocked and I could continue gaming as if nothing had happen. This I did not realize for a while as I initially thought all hope was lost soon after the incident and I did not play because I felt so down. As a full time family man and employed worker, my gaming times are very limited. So when I finally got my consoles replaced, my first game to play was Mass Effect. Having Mass Effect 2 on hand, I was ready to play MY Story I created and continue the adventure.

Side note:(Mass Effect) 

1st play through: 40 hours

2nd play through: 20 hours

Of course Home Owners Insurance covered everything I lost but can not recover my hurt emotions of our home being vandalized and us victimized like that. Your home should be a safe sanctuary for you and your family to reside in.

Gaming is important to me and is my full time favorite hobby of mine but nothing compares to the importance of keeping my family and pets safe and sound in the one place that is truly there home. So as long as we're all safe and healthy, that is what is mostly important. Electronics can come and go and can truly be replaced.

The feeling after this incident still haunts me! I just don't feel safe leaving anything lying around anymore even in my own home. Every time I use my Laptop or iPad that when i'm done I still have to try to hide it somewhere in my home so that I feel safe about it. I feel so victimized & I don't know if I will ever shake this feeling. I know it's all in my head, but until it actually happens to you, you will never know this emotional experience and the toll it can take on a person. Only time can heal this wound. 

In the end with the help of neighbor witnesses, it was discovered that a group of teen boys were going around my neighborhood and casing all homes in the middle of the day. Only one was caught which happen to be the getaway driver because his license plate number was caught. This kid didn't give up any names and was solely held responsible for the crime. And to this day I'm still waiting for any restitution to be paid back to me.

Thanks for letting me tell my story and experience on this matter and sorry if I went on a little here and there. But it feels good to get it out and share this. It can happen to anyone and no one is safe from dumb stupidity that crooks choose to possess! 

 
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That really sucks dude, glad things are better but I can understand the feeling OK being violated and never again being able to feel 100% safe even in your own home. The best thing I can think of would be to get some motion detecting infra red cameras for your house that you can check on from anywhere and record suspicious activity. Hope you can feel safe again.
 
Hey its me DarkGothicFayt the one who recently got broken into and mentioned on the CAGcast, i figured I'd come on here and tell my story, which I had already typed out and posted elsewhere so I'll just paste here

Story

Came home from work with my fiancé and her brother (roommate). Got home and got out of our car to unlock the gate to the driveway. I then walked over to the front door to unlock it so we can go inside and relax. As I walked pass the window next to our door I noticed the blinds were messed up as if someone had looked outside and didn't bother to fix them. I then thought the worse and without reaching for my keys I reached for the door know to the screen door, it was unlocked. I started to panic, but then thought maybe my dad had came in to fix something, as they own the house and they rent it out to us, and happen to live across the street. I reach for the door knob, unlocked as well, I flip on the light switch and automatically my eyes go to the entertainment center. All my newer consoles are gone! I yell out to my fiancé and her brother, that our house has been broken into, everything we've saved up for taken like nothing. They had broken a window, our bedroom window and ransacked our room and living room looking for whatever they could take.

What was all that was taken? Here's some stuff

·         Xbox One w/ kinect 2 controllers and 6 games, but left the power cord

·         PS3 Super Slim w/ move camera, 1 controller and about 40 games (left 4 games)

·         Wii U Deluxe, gamepad (left power cord for wii u and gamepad along with sensor bar)

·         Xbox 360 MW3 edition, with 1 matching controller, kinect, 60 games (left a bunch games)

·         2 iPad Minis (ours and roommates)

·         both of our room TVs both 32" HDTVs

·         apple TV

·         fiancé's laptop

·         3ds xl along with 15 3ds games and 40 ds games and 2 GBA SPs

·         my beats by dre

                The one thing that gets me is that it literally happened half an hour before we got home. How do we know? Well our lovely neighbors let us know, 1 side said they heard our 2 small dogs going crazy about 25 mins before (inside our home in their kennels because of the cold days) and our other neighbor heard glass breaking 30 mins earlier but didn't bother to look. Neither of them did. Wow really? Every time I hear a car stop, honk, car door close, dogs bark, any weird sound I look to see what's happening and make sure everything is ok, but you can't do the same?

                Another thing, maybe I'm just overanalyzing it, is that it's weird what they took and didn't take, maybe they didn't have time but it seemed like they were choosing what to take and not, apart from the cords they left, they left all my older consoles, SNES, N64, Dreamcast, Genesis, PS1, PS2, Xbox and GameCube. They also left 4 PS3 games Resistance 1-3 and White Knight Chronicles 2, didn't' take any Wii U games apart from Mario 3D world which was in the Wii U and took all but 2 Wii games some kids Active Life Explorer I got for nieces/nephews to play and Bust-A-Move Bash, took only C to D and E to G in my 360 games (have them all alphabetical) and then just took Red Dead Redemption. Took 3 empty DS game cases (because all games were in a carrying case, which was taken) and even took the cardboard box to my Project X Zone Limited Edition. Also didn't bother taking the Apple TV in the living room even though they took the one in my room, even our roommate's laptop was sitting in plain sight and still here. They did also leave my old fat PS3 that they must've forgotten, was in a pillowcase on the couch another thing is they left my Vita here too. Didn't take my Pikachu 3DS, luckily I took that to work with me.

                Not sure who did this but I'm hoping they get caught, cops got a lot of fingerprints and I hope it helps. Maybe no one will care but I had to write this for me, again since the first time I wrote it disappeared, helps me cope with what happened, and I just need to get it all our since I'm always thinking about it, especially when I see empty shelves and spots in the entertainment center.

End of story

This isn't even my first time being broken into and robbed, its the first time in my new home, but when I was younger and lived with my parents it happened about 3/4 times and it doesn't really get any easier :whistle2:(, only thing that sucks worse is that when living with my parents everythign was covered under their insurance so I was able to get most back from that, and now that I liveon my own I didn't have any renters insurance or anything yet so now I have to slowly get everything back -_-.

Some more info for this story is that one of our neighbors a few houses down heard about what happened and told us how his house was broken into months before and after that he installed security cameras to maybe catch them one day and he said he would look and see if any camera caught someone in the alley or anything. Well he was looking it over and said you could see a some guys walking up and down the alley the same day but no faces can be seen. But the creepy thing he said was that he said he had heard a noise the other night in his backyard and went to look and saw nothing, and he came across that footage on his cameras and that about 20 mins before sees 2 guys go into his yard and are hiding, then he seems himself go out and look for the noise he heard walks by them without seeing them and goes back inside and that the guys stood there silently and not moving for another 30 mins. Another camera even saw some guys hiding in his neighbors yard and even his neighbor walked by them and didn't see them and were waiting for him to leave for work, but luckily other people were home so they ended up leaving after a while. Creepy tho how they sneak around in the dark no flashlights and can be so hidden that no one can see them. Now I'm like they could be in the backyard and we wouldn't even know. But we've been leaving the dogs out for a good part of the day. Should get a bigger meaner dog for full time guarding lol.

Also the saves!!! no! lol not until i read heard did I rememeber all my saves are gone! Well all my Wii U and 360 and Xbox Ones saves, luckily all my PS3 saves are on the cloud so I'm ok there.

**AND YES we have tried the Find my iphone thing on the ipads, no luck nothing comes up, either there no in WiFi, or they could've restored them already :whistle2:(**

 
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