Britai 7018

OOOhh Beta fighter. That sounds awesome. I should go buy one of those Alphas now before demand picks up again. Good find!

Maybe he can be the next Woody Harrelson... and become an awesome villain. Or he can play a bookish villain like Mysterio like bsu said

I think that one thing to notice is that for every $50 game that we see advertised on TV or in Magazines, or otherwise just know about, there are 2-3 $50 games that come out, and no one buys, and price drops in a couple weeks. There are so many games that come out that no one picks up, and independant developers/publishers are struggling just to break even. I think that games are actually very affordable right now. Not only were games $75 in the SNES days, but you have to remember inflation. $75 back then was a whole lot more than the $75 of today. That being said, I hope that high quality games remain at the $50 mark if possible (on the high end).

I think it looks absolutely fantastic. It doesn't disappoint at all. If I could preorder one tomorrow, I would. Btw, gamespot has a FFVII tech demo for the PS3... oh man oh man. what a night.

The primary competition for Gamestop/EB (obviously used to be one another) is not so much the WalMarts or Bestbuys of the world, its mostly the Gamecrazys and other smaller specialty stores that sell video games. I mean the big megastores are of course selling the same product, but this merger is not going to make a big difference to the consumer in terms of where they decide to buy video games. Of course from a corporate standpoint is adds a tremendous amount of assets and value. What smaller specialty stores offer is a much better selection, better trained staff, more of the niche games and products as well as a more customer-oriented environment. Of course you can complain about the service you get, from bad experiences, but I'd say 9/10 times that anytime I goto a small store, I get better service or easier access to an employee than at a Bestbuy or other Megastore. I suppose one personal example, is that at my store, we keep a percentage of our stock of Final Fantasy or other fanboy favs completely unstickered and keep them in mint condition, because we know that there are collectors out there. And its like I said earlier, don't judge an entire chain by one store. There are EB's that I find horrible (customer service/organization), and there are Gamestops that I also dislike for the same reasons. It really depends on each store. The chain doesn't set the rules to keep the store messy or disorganized, its the employees who are responsible for keeping an organized workplace. As far as pricing goes, I think its decent across both chains. Their prices are generally very close, if you discount special sales or promotions. I think I've probably found better deals at EB, but thats possibly because working there constantly exposes me to different sales and whatnot.

Yeah this is gonna be fun. I doubt many EBs will close, mostly in mall stores (or strip malls) where both chains have establishments. We have similar business practices (pushing preplayed products, membership cards, trading in games, etc.) And many many people think that we're the same company already anyway. So the adjustment at the store level will be fairly smooth. As far as employees go, you're going to get your full spectrum of types. I mean when you have thousands of stores across the world, its going to be hard to say that EB/GS employees are like this or like that. Its definitely not written in the training log to favor a console and hate on another. Obviously your better employees will know their games and give you good info. My work (EB) probably has the 5 least gamer employees in the entire chain. 80% of the time when asked about a game, we'll spout exactly what info we get through customer feedback, magazine reviews and online reviews. There is no magical source of insider information that we get that gamers can't get access to. The only reason we might know something more is because we are constantly exposed to games.

Actually, my work (EB) already has XXX, Hellboy, RE: Apocaplypse, Once Upon a time in Mexico and House of Flying daggers in stock in UMD format, but I think they're all street dated until tomorrow. The cover art is almost identical to the dvds, and the cases are identical to the game cases. A little pricey at EB/Gamestop, but you can pricematch or just goto Bestbuy where they are $14.99 for the first 4, and $20 for HoFD.

Big thanks to Egan Loo (theres some UC Berkeley love). I remember that AX in 2000 that he talks about on that rememberance page. MAn. thats a moment I'll never forget.

I'd be careful about high heat around LCDs, it'll mess em up if it gets too crazy.

I have one lit pixel... its not too bad. good thing i have that extended warranty though... when they get more in stock i'll probably take care of it then.

I picked up some bootlegs from the local anime store for $20 for the whole series (minus the "final" part). They seem to be pretty cheap, but man, the subtitling is so bad it almost makes the gunbuster dvd look good.

I'm kinda worried about how the PSP will be able to hold up to shock, say, if i was to run with it, jogging while playing mp3s. 2 more days... 2 long days. I'm just sitting around at home reading all the game sites, looking at my Hori screen protectors, imagining the psp behind it. It gets even worse at work when I get to see the actual boxes and games...

I use RaPIZ PSP Video Convertor, it starts off in spanish, but you can change the language to english, and its pretty easy to use. Has all the usual bells and whistles, change sound quality, volume, video quality, etc.

I'm pretty sure the fixed square buttons are official, at least it was reported fixed on both gamespot and ign. Disc Cannon! Can't wait. As if mp3s, movies and games weren't enough...

Regional coding isn't on the games, but it IS on the movies, and all indications are that you won't be able to interact w/ other US models. That is, gamesaves and multiplayer won't work correctly.

I went to a gamestop, and the guy there told me all their accessories and games were street-dated on the 24th. That doesnt sound quite right, my personal suspicion is that they wanted to hold on so they could increase the tie-rates on their individual psp sales. In this particular case i think it hurt them because in that same mall, not 5 stores down there was an EB selling games and accessories =| I just picked up some Hori screen protectors... man these are going to be a long 4 days. Im just really excited about Lumines, too bad all reviews (mags and firsthand) on Dynasty warriors seems to be pretty negative. Im now thinking about wipeout, untold legends or darkstalkers as my second game.

Sorry if this was posted somewhere else, or doesn't belong in this forum, please feel free to lock or move. I just went to Robotech.com and it said that it was going down March 21st @ 1PM PST. No reason or anything. Anyone know why?

AFAIK, EB Games is selling the 1 gig Mem stick for $149.99, and there currently are programs that can convert video format. There are rumors that sony will put out a utility later this year that will simplify the conversion, but theres no info on whether or not it will be a psp firmware upgrade or computer program, or something else altogether.

I talked with a Sony Rep today, first off, the PSP is fantastic. So sleek and solid feeling. The screen res and mulitmedia options look fantastic. The case thats comes with it is more like a sleeve, and its not leather, its more like like neoprene or other synthetics. Theres no room on it for more than just the system, so if you want to carry a couple UMDs or batteries, etc. you'll need another case. Oh also, the video format that will play on the PSP is Mpeg-4, so you can convert your avi or other format to that one, and watch it. (Off the memory stick) She said that only that format will play. For music: Its Atrac and MP3 formats.

I bought the game the first day and its gREAT! Im not hooked on it the same way I'm hooked on world of warcraft, but anytime my PS2 is on that what I'm playing. A little tip, in Tuner Village, under HPa performance, there is a 530hp 600lbft 4wd R32 that is only a little over $30,000 cr.

I went to wondercon yesterday, pretty fun experience. met some great artists, got some autographs, got to gawk at linda tran, good times overall. Saw a dealer w/ a full set of 1/60s and 1/48s at pretty decent prices ($175 or so for the 1/48's). MPC VTs were going for around $50 around the show, Alphas were 70-ish.

i saw the commercial and was extremely extremely excited about it. But then came the part about the AI plane that goes beserk, and it all came crashing down. I still want to see it, but my expectations are alot lower than what i had initially thought.

wow... thats quite a weird match. superman and the SDF-1. Good find! Oh, and my Blue 2000 Celica has a SDF-1 Sticker...

Yeah, I highly recommend watching the Mini-Pato series as they go over the physics of Patlabor. You can find it in the Patlabor 3 movie box set. And it is HILARIOUS.

I think that the GBA SP was over $100 for awhile... $120? I'm not positive about that. Today at work (EB Games) we had alot of people come in and ask about it, and almost every single one flinched when I said $250. Personally I don't think its too extreme, but I'll be waiting until it drops to around $180 or 150.