FEGuy

Since the drawing hasn't happened yet, I've got a second copy of Sunrider I can give away, if it's not too late to update the prize list.

I donated an item for this, but never got a confirmation or instructions on what to do next. Any guidance (it’s a digital item).

Looks like your item is in the prize list, which is as much confirmation as I got. Presumably, we'll be notified with the winner's account name (or twitter handle, or paypal email, etc.) once the drawing's done and everything's sorted. As far as I'm aware, we're responsible for making sure the prizes get to the winners.

Just realized, but there are two items listed as B67; one looks like it should be B68. Maybe there is something to be said for including the whole item name in a bid.

I've already got a $1 bid on one of them; might as well match it on the other.

Even if you didn't get the email, it wouldn't hurt to log in to Paypal and click the Wallet link to see if it's active. I didn't get an email, but there was a notification there about it even before the offer went live.

Great deal for PS4 owners. Dunno if PS3 owners are gonna get much mileage out of it.

Pretty sure the game comes out Tuesday, not Monday, and knowing PSN not until the afternoon. I'm gonna put myself down for a resell either way; I'm not gonna have time to play til probably Thursday or Friday anyways.

Persona 5 PS3 Group (assumed $50 total)

Phantoms $8.33 each

1. Das_Regal

2. Open

Resells 16.67 each

1. FEGuy

2. Open

Yeah, for big digital games you'd have to go with an SD card anyways. A fraction of a second per loading screen is negligible.

Some notes on importing Japanese physical games:

- The games with English support really seem to include it fully. Even the Home screen cards and titles are probably identical to what you'd see in an American release:

- Maybe I just picked some bad examples here (I Am Setsuna has no physical NA release, and Disgaea 5 won't be out here until the end of May), but it doesn't seem like you can collect My Nintendo points on out-of-region games. Both of them give the same error saying I can't collect points "yet". The My Nintendo page seems to link points given to the USD value of the game, so a game with a title code for another region likely won't credit. I might try again once Disgaea 5 is out in the US, but I wouldn't count on much changing.

- DHL's tracking system is perfectly serviceable for tracking packages up into the "destination service area". Once they take it and hand it off to another carrier, it's utterly worthless. Instead of giving you the new tracking number for whatever carrier has it, they'll update the DHL number with a new "Forwarded for delivery" status every time the other carrier's tracking updates. Nothing on what's actually happening or even where it is; every update I got on my package in the last 48 hours was still stated as being located in Milwaukee, a state over and 300 miles away.

It's not that big of an issue. The Switch's screen is glass, and is therefore fairly resistant to scratching. It is considerably more resistant than the DS line of handhelds, which all had pressure-sensitive plastic screens. (and ABSOLUTELY needed screen protectors) There's also the reduced need for touching the screen. I'm sure there will be more games in the future that utilize the touchscreen more extensively, but for now it's not that big a deal.

 

One thing I notice is that the touchscreen on the Switch has a texture that makes it a bit more difficult to swipe your finger across it smoothly. For most games this isn't an issue, as poking at the screen works just fine. But I could see it becoming a problem with Fruit-Ninja style games. I'm going ahead with the tempered glass screen protector I ordered. The one I got for my smartphone looks and feels great. It is crystal clear and has a silky-smooth texture that makes it very easy to touch the screen. I wouldn't mind having something like that on my Switch. Scratches and damage to a screen protector is easily remedied. Scratches and damage to the unit itself is quite a bit more costly to address. That's why I usually employ screen protectors. That, and the fact that I collect these systems and love to have them in pristine condition, even after years of use.

The Switch screen isn't glass, though. It's capacitive touch, but it's still a plastic screen. Hence dock scratching and whatnot being actual issues people are concerned about.

Amazon JP is on point, at least. Ordered late Thursday/early Friday, and if DHL doesn't make a mess of things my games could be here as early as tomorrow.

Just realize joy-cons don't have a charging port. So we gotta spend another $30 for a charging dock, and I believe it's not available.

Yeah, out of the box you can only charge by plugging them into the Switch. If you fully power off the Switch, even in the dock, the joycons don't charge. On one hand, the battery life for them is 15-20 hours, so it's not like you'll drain them in one session. On the other, you need to leave your Switch in sleep mode rather than fully powering it off to recharge them.

Honestly seems a bit greedy to include a non-charging grip in the box and then have a charging grip available for purchase on day one.

 I want to get Disgaea, but I don't feel like purchasing a bunch of Japanese eShop cards for it.

 

[...]

 

Disgaea 5: $66.23 (More expensive­)

For what it's worth, game carts are region free too, and Amazon JP is pretty painless for importing. If you let them charge your card in USD, it'd come out to $62.35 shipped for the physical JP version; might even be lower if you let them charge in yen, depending on your bank's exchange rate and foreign transaction fees. It'd be $63.59 for the US version at retail price plus taxes, for me, plus I get to play nearly three months early. With Prime or GCU, though, the US version would be a better deal.

For some reason I keep pressing the wrong L button and end up popping a bomb rather than targeting or pulling my shield. I don't really understand why I'm doing it, though. But otherwise the only joy-con complaint I have is that it feels awkward to reach from the sticks to the buttons or vice-versa in handheld mode. Individual joy-cons are fine, with or without the grip, but something about the way you hold them in tablet mode just feels the slightest bit wrong.

Emailed Amazon about why they'd charged my card and claimed from Wednesday up through 8:30pm Friday that it'd be delivered by 8pm Friday, without ever shipping anything. Got no real answer but was assured that my order would be upgraded to Two-Day Shipping (I was already a Prime member with Release-Day Delivery, so what the was it before?). Order is now scheduled to ship tomorrow, and I should "Rest assured you will receive the item on Guaranteed delivery by:March 5, 2017". I have no idea who even delivers on Sunday, but I doubt it'll have shipped by then either way.

Honestly between a handful of messed-up orders through the fall and pretty much everything related to how the Zero Time Dilemma LEs were handled, I'm probably not going to renew Prime.

The benefits of the Switch being region free didn't fully occur to me until today. Taking a chance on Setsuna actually having full English support.

Technically I would've paid at least $1.60 more at full retail price for the US versions, but I do lose $12 or so on Prime savings for Disgaea 5. Seems like a fair tradeoff to get it a couple months early and to have a physical copy of I Am Setsuna.

Looks like Disgaea 5's JP version has full English support, and it's a launch title there if you didn't want to wait until May. Also, looks like cross-region eShop is entirely possible with prepaid codes.

https://www.gamefaqs...switch/75056669

Save data transfer will likely come with a system update in the near future. I think the goal was to have basic functionality in place fast enough to rush a launch.