The fifth of march 2000 was a memorable day for gamers all around the world. Our now beloved Playstation 2 got released in Japan and went on to change the future of gaming!

After launching worldwide, the console has gone on to sell over 140 million units globally, making it the best selling home console. Ten years in, the console is still alive and kicking. There are still video games being released on it!

What better what to say “Happy birthday, PS2!”, than by naming your favorite PS2 title. What are you waiting for? Get to it!

So I have been lacking on my blogging lately. It’s been 8 days since I last posted on here and I felt I should put something up, even if it is lackluster.

My life lately has been consumed partially by the Winter Olympics, as it’s going on in my country. Not close enough for me to go see, but still fun to watch. It is fantastic for my other collecting love. See, I’m a video game collector only as a secondary hobby, it’s not quite the top of my list, but has been pushing lately. My other love is game used/autographed sports memorabilia. I have been glued to not only the games, but to the ebay store of the 2010 Olympics.. watching.. waiting.. hoping that I can score something. As we speak I am counting down an hour to the next lot of items up. I am also counting down the three hours to the game used hockey pucks that are on. Bored yet? lol

So to this point I ask all of you, is video game collecting you primary hobby, or do you have something else that catches your fancy?

1- The game used/autographed sports goods
2- Video games

That’s it for me in order. Once the games are over, I’ll be fully back into the video gaming blog, so for the three people who are wondering where I’ve gone, I’m still here, just distracted.

And I leave you with a few thoughts….

You know you’re a gamer when…

you play for hours, but the controls are so automatic for you that when someone asks what to push for jump, you actually have to think about it…

you consider playing MAG with someone a date

when something goes wrong, you try to remember when you last saved, but you realize that it’s real life

when you and your buddies try to figure out if guitar hero/rockband actually has a story line

There it is, my lackluster update of my life, and pathetic excuse for a blog topic. lol

See you after the games!

I learned about Jojo’s Bizarre Adventures a few years back when a friend showed me a crazy youtube video of some of the combo’s that are possible in this game. A while back I found this pretty rare game at a local flea market, so now I can judge wether the game only looks great or plays great as wel!

I’m not a good fighter, not in real life nor in video games. But I do enjoy my fighters when it comes to gaming!

I grew up with classics like Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter 2 and always loved to learn, excecute and watch the most incredible combo’s. For that same reason I love the Marvel vs and Samurai Shodown series, combo’s combo’s and more combo’s!

Jojo is a pretty straight forward fighter based on a Japanese Anime show with the same name. It has a story mode that (i think) follows the series and a versus mode where you can battle the CPU or a second player. With every fight or episode that you complete you gain credits, which you can use to buy new characters and outfits etc.
The roster of fighters is pretty diverse, with different agile, strong, ranged or combination players.

The thing that makes Jojo different from most fighters is the “stand”. Most characters have a “stand” which is an avatar that you can call with the X button. This avatar performs combo’s, fights and blocks for you. However this stand has a life bar of it’s own, leaving you vulnerable for a moment when it gets destroyed.
The controls are very simple, with the square, triangle, circle being light/medium/heavy attacks and the shoulder buttons combinations of those three. The trick of Jojo’s is learning how to use your character and stand at the same time, performing incredible combo’s and special moves.

The animations in the game are pretty good, they’re quite grainy for today’s standards, but it is a PS1 game we’re talking about here. The combo’s and full screen special moves look stunning and make it a treat for the eyes to slam someone to his death.
The Japanese voice acting is as over the top as the graphics are, but it adds to the atmosphere of the game.
Gameplay wise the game is solid, the charactar responds well to your commands and the special moves come out pretty easily without breaking your thumbs.

Personally this game is in my top 5 fighters of all time, I really recommend this game to everyone who likes fighting games and isn’t turned off by some very absurd characters (a chiuaua with a sand monster for instance) and anime style characters.

Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure Combo’s

I’m very proud to announce that the new frontpage / weblog for PlaystationCollecting.com is now online!

Behind the scenes we’re still working on improving the layout and features but the weblog is now the new mainpage and you can find the forum on the bar above!

We’re planning on updating the weblog a few times a week with new posts from our contributors, so subscribe or check the site daily!

Just to make sure everyone is aware, PlaystationCollecting.com doesn’t only have a great forum and an awesome weblog but also a kickass YouTube channel on which we feature collection video’s from our members.
Check out the latest video’s and don’t forget to subscribe!
http://www.youtube.com/user/PSXcollecting

As the industry of video games evolves, the question keeps coming up (at least in my mind).  Games are always changing in some way, shape or form.  Look at the current projects of Sony and Microsoft.  Sony has a new motion controller on the way, while Microsoft has Project Natal.  Now these are physical accessories to our beloved systems, they will have many games tagged onto them.  Will they come on a disc like I love so, or will they be download only?

The day I heard that Patapon 2 was coming out, I was extremely excited.  I loved Patapon 1, and still enjoy just popping in my UMD copy of the Patapon 1 demo.  Then the talk of Patapon 2 turned into it being the “guinea pig” for digital media.  Patapon 2 was set to become one of the first digital download only games on PSN.  This, as funny as it may sound, upset me quite a bit.  Here is a gamer, and a collector who is loyal to Sony being told that he won’t be able to have a physical copy of a game like this.  The debate raged for a while, when finally a “compromise” was met.  The game would be released digital only, however they did release the UMD case with box art, instructions, and a little scratch card with your number.  Ok, thanks guys, you gave me a little bit of what I wanted.  Great game by the way.

My point here is that not only as a collector do I enjoy having the game to play, but having it sitting on my shelf proudly displayed is great too… of course this rolls the girlfriends eyes every now and again… oh well, she’ll get used to it.

Let’s explore some pros of having physical media

Box Art

I don’t know about all of you, but some games impress me greatly just by how they look on the shelf.  One of my personal favorites is Bioshock.  The Big Daddy, the huge guy with the glowing face, being escorted by the Little sister, a creepy looking female child with glowing eyes and a needle, this appeals to me just looking at the cover.

Inserts

Yes, I know, some download only games do come with instructions (I’ll touch on that in the Pros of digital), but I enjoy having the book next to me in case I need a refresher when I first buy the game.  One of the other cool things about having the booklet is that you get to read up on some of the characters or the back story prior to putting the game in.  How about those great maps that we get with games like Grand Theft Auto?  Some of us like to use them while playing as a quick reference point to know where we are going.  I had the map of San Andreas up on the wall while I was playing. When buying a game to add to my collection, unless it’s uber rare, it must have case, box art, instructions, and of course, disc.

Collectability

The maps we just spoke of are one example.  How many of us have the cloth map that came with Lunar?  The hardbound instruction book?  The soundtrack?  All kinds of things like this come with collectors editions.  Check out the Lunar coming out for PSP.  The limited edition comes with a soundtrack, and “bromide” cards that illustrate the girls of Lunar.  I think those are pretty cool for a collector and have it on pre order already!  It’s out soon!  If this game was digital only I doubt that any company would release the game only to have to actually mail you your collectors material or your pre order “prize.”

Aside from the aspect of losing out on collectibles like the pre order bonuses you get, we would also lose the ability to show off our collection.  What looks more impressive, the list on your computer screen or the cases out in the open.  I guess that depends on who you’re talking to (see girlfriend reference up top lol).  If you haven’t seen the collection of PS1 games on the Sony PS1 Forum (http://boardsus.playstation.com/playstation/board?board.id=psxgeneral) then do it.  Go find photos of collections and look at Dangerboy’s.  It’s almost shocking at how much the guy has.  Claims to have every variant ever made.

Now I’m very bias here, so the only real cons I can see right now when it comes to having physical media are these

Care

Keeping those discs in good shape can be a challenge for some people.  I myself have put a scratch or 2 in some cherished games just by dropping them accidentally when pulling them out of the system.  The preservation of the cases can be tough with the old plastic jewel cases of the PS1 as well.  They seem to break just by opening them sometimes.

Space

Yes, our beloved collections take up quite a bit of shelf space, or room space depending on how much you have.  Storage can be a big deal for those of us stuck in 1 bedroom apartments.

All of that being said, the benefits of digital media are here as well

Cost

Put yourself in the shoes of a big wig at any of our developers.  You have a game such as flOw for the PSP.  It sells on the PSN for something like $7.99 US when it comes out.  You have 100 people download this you make yourself $799 in theory.  Now let’s say you release this for $20 as a UMD release.  Yes, you have 100 people buy it at that cost, you get $2000 in theory.  Big number, until you factor in the cost of packaging it, printing it, illustrating box art and instructions, etc…  Would that work out to benefit the company or not, I don’t know, but it’s just a point I thought of.

This can also benefit us as consumers making our games less money to purchase.  There are games, however, like Grand Theft Auto Chinatown wars which is $40 to download (ridiculous), but this one can be purchased as physical media.

How about those PSP Mini’s?  I’ll admit that I have a few of them.  Those little releases that cost us under $5 in some cases can be quite entertaining, and are nowhere near big enough to be placed on a UMD.

Storage

Pro, no boxes to keep.  Instructions at the click of a button in the start menu.  I’ll touch on this as a con as well.

Care

You somehow corrupt your downloaded game!  OH NO!  Oh, wait..  just redownload it.  Nothing to scratch, nothing to break.

Now for some cons

No collectors editions or extras

I doubt that a company will release limited editions of download only games.  If they did, it would probably be an extra level or 2.  Yay…

Storage

Memory cards.  Space.  Yep, some games are pretty big.  Buying multiple mem cards for your psp can be expensive!  Granted that in a few years we will probably have 10 Terabyte cards the size of your thumb nail, but not yet, and not affordable either even if we did.  And keeping track of those cards can suck too.

Used games

No more going to EB or Gamestop to buy your games used!  I would miss picking up a PS2 game I have been after for $5.00 at EB.

Keep in mind that this is all my opinion, or rant if you will.  Your opinion may be different, and if that’s the case, I’d love to hear it!

I’m all for physical media, how about you?

Happy Gaming!

…comes the blog of me, Jeff (aka jeff002400 if you want to go by username).  My blog will be coming to you weekly and will touch on various topics.  Today is just an introduction of myself.  I will be posting my first actual blog by Tuesday at the latest!  Look forward to an interesting piece.

I am a Sony collector through and through.  My collection spans the PS1, PS2, PS3 and PSP.  My collecting habits tend to be a little A.D.D. as I switch systems regularly.  Right now I’m on a PSP kick having just picked up Tales of the Earth; Radiant Mythology (so far it’s a pretty cool game by the way, maybe a review in the future when I finish it?)  I enjoy picking up almost anything, as long as I like it.  “The hunt” is always better when you come away with a steal of a deal (Xenogears for $5 anyone?)

My personal favorite game would have to be Final Fantasy 8.  It is also the very first game I got for the PS1.  Yes the debate rages on which Final Fantasy is the best, and most are amazing, but 8 takes the cake IMO.  As for favorites per system I would say FF8 for PS1, Marvel Nemesis for PS2, Uncharted 2 for PS3, and Mega Man Maverik Hunter X for PSP. As I said, I collect what I like, not necessarily what’s rare or sought after.

I look forward to blogging your way in the near future, and look for my first “official” blog in the coming days.

Happy gaming!

Every game with at least a bit of role-playing elements has them: consumables!
You either get them for bringing back the missing puppy, or you bought dozens of them to make sure you’ll outlive that annoying boss. But not everyone uses them in the same way!
So what are you? a big spender, a hardcore gamer or a saver? read more and find out!

Roughly taken the consumables can be divided into four main groups:
- health/mana replenishing consumables
- stat increasing consumables
- attack/defend consumables
- random/fun consumables

In every class the consumables come in all sorts and shapes. From the simple, but effective, health potions and mana potions to the expensive flasks and disguise potions. Some of them are cheap and acquired in all sorts of quests, chests and stores. Others are rare, take days to brew or cost a fortune to buy.

But what it all comes down to is how you use them!
Are you the kind of gamer that uses a potion as soon as the health/mana bar take a hit or do you like taking a risk and wait till the last moment to make full use of your potions?
Maybe you keep the potions stacked “in case it gets even worse” or are you a player thats always fully buffed before he enters a fight?

Personally I’m a risk taker, I want to make full use of my consumables so I usually wait till the very last moment to use them. Also I’m kind of a cheapo, I’d rather wait for a minute to let my mana regenerate and heal myself instead of using a valuable consumable.

So, what type of user are you?

Hey every0ne,

as of now i’ve officially opened the www.playstationcollecting.com weblog! here you will find blogs by members about their gaming and collecting experiences!

Since the blog was only created today, don’t mind the layout and visuals etc, they will be changed as soon as possible!

However, starting today you can find regular blogs here done by me (Xed) and other members from the Playstation collecting community at www.playstationcollecting.com

So sign up and don’t miss out!