It's almost that type of year again, Christmas.
For the record I'm a firm believer in Christmas is 25th December. People with decorations up in October? Sorry I just don't get it, surely by having them up for so long you actually detract from the 'special-ness' (not a word) of them through over exposure. Companies with really early Christmas adverts... same to you, and people counting down 'sleeps'etc from about 150. Yes that is why I stopped following you on twitter/hid your facebook posts.
Oh and the to anyone who posts 364 sleeps til Crimbo on boxing day. Words can not describe how swiftly you shall vanish from my timeline(s). That includes retweets.
But this blog isn't to rant about premature festivities (my staff Crimbo party was in November this year, and was good!), I may do that separately, in fact I'm pretty certain I will. This is about myself, me, moi. I have no idea what I want for crimbo, and times a wasting.
The good wife asked me a good while ago what I wanted her to buy for me, I didn't know, which isn't uncommon but generally I think of something (to give to Santa in case Gracie is reading this, fat bastard gets all the credit) sooner or later. But this year I'm struggling.
I'm 30 year old so if I get not much, especially after being a pain in the arse about it, I'm not going to cry. But I'm a blank. It's me and I like gadgets so something electrical is an awesome idea. Do I wanted a tablet, the Kindle Fire and Google Nexus 7 are both pretty awesome little machines (wouldn't want to carry a 10" one round) and let's face it my 3 year old netbook is feeling it's age. But would I use it? I think so, especially as I do love my kindle and either could replace/upgrade that on everything except battery life. Possibility.
I did ponder the idea of splitting a Wii U between us (and my birthday) but jesus they're so expensive, even the games are £50 (in Game who you should know my opinion of by now). Cut the price Nintendo, one of the selling points of the original wii was the accessibility and affordability, at least of the basic pack. They still bummed you hard for a remote. So probably not a great idea.
Batman blu-ray set, check.
Ummm apart from that, I could ask for a 360 game, there's a new cheap PS3 out, but I don't really want another console. Something retro? An N64 would rock, but I haven't played the SNES as much as I thought I would, so it could be a dust gatherer. The wife has a 3DS but I can't see me getting the use.
So any ideas anyone, I have gadgety friends, who may or may not read this tripe. What's good?
Showing posts with label 3DS. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 3DS. Show all posts
Tuesday, 4 December 2012
Monday, 8 October 2012
So, why is the website cheaper?
There's always been an issue of website prices vs instore prices, for stores who offer both anyway. Typically, a couple of years ago buying something off someone's website would be a decent amount cheaper than going in a shop and picking it up.
This is bollocks.
I've always thought it was bollocks and many companies have now caught on to this and realised 1 shop, 1 price is the future for fairness. Bravo to the likes of HMV, John Lewis, Argos, PC World/Currys, Comet et all who do this and I think for the most part most stores do, or at least be willing to meet the website price when challenged.
There are exceptions though, there are always exceptions, and one of those exceptions is usually Game. My darling wife would like a Nintendo 3DS, and with the big 30 coming up, a Nintendo 3DS she shall have. Game were selling these little things, pre-owned, for £99.99 on their website, reasonable, probably a decent profit for them too as chances are they gave some chav about £60 trade in for it a couple of weeks ago, they do love a good profit margin.
However, in store they came in at a not massively dissimilar, but nonetheless more, £109.99. Now I'm against paying £10 so a gorp from game can hand it to me instead of my polite and efficient postman, so I asked quite nicely if they'd no it for the website price, it's only a tenner after all.
No, apparently they're different shops, but if I speak to their customer service team they may do something. OK, what's the phone number? No, no phone, online chat only... great. While not known for their level of customer service, not being able to ring is pretty shitty.
Anyway on to my shiny, new, still fast, PC I go and then to the Game site to speak to an Indian with a UK sounding 'name' (I assume). The conversation goes slowly as they carefully select predesignated phrases from a list to match my questions and basically I'm getting nowhere, basically it's getting to the point where it's not worth £10 of my time, but I do enjoy this kind of thing, so fuck it and off we go. Once the handler is clearly confused and I'm starting to border on breaking out the sarcasm. (In response too 'it's on the website prices may differ', I think I could have made about 15 one liners, but resisted) So I ask to speak to a manager and after only the 2 attempts to stop me (Unavailable, they'll only tell you the same thing) I get put through to 'Sammi'.
After initially making me repeat myself (thank you copy n paste) 'Sammi' is a little more helpful and offers me £5 credit on my Game card, but can't change the price, so I suggest giving me £10 credit so it's the same... no movement. I queried whether they'd lose the sale over £5, and 'Sammi' was happy too.
So she(?) did. Cerys wanted games too, so Game essentially cost themselves £130-£180 for the sake of a fiver. We did pop down for a look at them and for the sake of £5, Game's 'they'll buy it anyway' plan could have worked, but also their entire stock of 3DS had been battered the shit out of. Guessed as much when the shop dude, got the box and went to seal it without giving us a look at it.
Instead the money went to Amazon, where as there was a free game, we even managed to acquire the XL model. Lovely!
I know some sites such as Tesco and Amazon ship from reduced tax areas from their website, this is a reasonable reason for different prices, different tax levels. But I doubt Game are doing this. It's easy too see why a store like that ended up with the administrators in previously when they don't seem keen to move stock, no matter how many pretend discount sales of their pre-owned games they have.
Oh well Game p'd me off and lost my Football Manager pre-order, I'll just get it form Steam instead!
This is bollocks.
I've always thought it was bollocks and many companies have now caught on to this and realised 1 shop, 1 price is the future for fairness. Bravo to the likes of HMV, John Lewis, Argos, PC World/Currys, Comet et all who do this and I think for the most part most stores do, or at least be willing to meet the website price when challenged.
There are exceptions though, there are always exceptions, and one of those exceptions is usually Game. My darling wife would like a Nintendo 3DS, and with the big 30 coming up, a Nintendo 3DS she shall have. Game were selling these little things, pre-owned, for £99.99 on their website, reasonable, probably a decent profit for them too as chances are they gave some chav about £60 trade in for it a couple of weeks ago, they do love a good profit margin.
However, in store they came in at a not massively dissimilar, but nonetheless more, £109.99. Now I'm against paying £10 so a gorp from game can hand it to me instead of my polite and efficient postman, so I asked quite nicely if they'd no it for the website price, it's only a tenner after all.
No, apparently they're different shops, but if I speak to their customer service team they may do something. OK, what's the phone number? No, no phone, online chat only... great. While not known for their level of customer service, not being able to ring is pretty shitty.
Anyway on to my shiny, new, still fast, PC I go and then to the Game site to speak to an Indian with a UK sounding 'name' (I assume). The conversation goes slowly as they carefully select predesignated phrases from a list to match my questions and basically I'm getting nowhere, basically it's getting to the point where it's not worth £10 of my time, but I do enjoy this kind of thing, so fuck it and off we go. Once the handler is clearly confused and I'm starting to border on breaking out the sarcasm. (In response too 'it's on the website prices may differ', I think I could have made about 15 one liners, but resisted) So I ask to speak to a manager and after only the 2 attempts to stop me (Unavailable, they'll only tell you the same thing) I get put through to 'Sammi'.
After initially making me repeat myself (thank you copy n paste) 'Sammi' is a little more helpful and offers me £5 credit on my Game card, but can't change the price, so I suggest giving me £10 credit so it's the same... no movement. I queried whether they'd lose the sale over £5, and 'Sammi' was happy too.
So she(?) did. Cerys wanted games too, so Game essentially cost themselves £130-£180 for the sake of a fiver. We did pop down for a look at them and for the sake of £5, Game's 'they'll buy it anyway' plan could have worked, but also their entire stock of 3DS had been battered the shit out of. Guessed as much when the shop dude, got the box and went to seal it without giving us a look at it.
Instead the money went to Amazon, where as there was a free game, we even managed to acquire the XL model. Lovely!
I know some sites such as Tesco and Amazon ship from reduced tax areas from their website, this is a reasonable reason for different prices, different tax levels. But I doubt Game are doing this. It's easy too see why a store like that ended up with the administrators in previously when they don't seem keen to move stock, no matter how many pretend discount sales of their pre-owned games they have.
Oh well Game p'd me off and lost my Football Manager pre-order, I'll just get it form Steam instead!
Friday, 8 April 2011
3DS
I had significant doubts when I heard about the 3DS. It must be the 5th version of the hand held Nintendo have banged out over a reasonably short space of time, each time offering an upgrade yes, but also each time demanding more money, as well as horribly devaluing any consoles already in circulation. But now I've tried one and I can confirm they are good.
My initial doubts were how they would present the 3D effect, however it is good and does look good, when potentially I suppose it could have been a disaster. The effect gives a great impression of depth and the augmented reality software that comes included is excellent. I also had a quick go at pilotwings and it was nice to look at, easy to control, everything you'd want or expect from a game of that series.
Of course there are limitations to the system, Nintendo have introduced region locking on games going forward sop no importing titles early. Security has been stepped up to try and prevent DS cards fitted with micro SDs (such as the R4) running nicked software (you'll never stop them Nintendo, give up), and the 3D effect does have a tenancy of dying on its arse if you don't have the console at the right angle.
My question is what kind of software support it'll get. The Wii was a cracking idea as was the original DS, but one thing they have been plagued with from the start is mountains and mountains of shovelware. The kind of crap cheap to produce game that is purely a money maker, I'm on about the 5000 party games compilations, the 2000 variations on the sims and nintendogs. It's very easy for software companies to shovel out this crap knowing people will buy it, than invest in a deep, clever, fun game that may not appeal to a good proportion of the userbase.
The Wii has had 'proper' titles, but few and far between, with the majority failing commercially (Okami anyone) regardless of their quality. I fear the same for the 3DS, I fear the same for all future consoles casual is ever mentioned in conjunction with, I fear the same for Kinect too if I'm honest.
But the hardware and the principle is sound. It'll doubtless get the usual smattering of traditional openers, I believe Mario Kart 3DS is already on route. I'm not ready to part with over £200 to own my own, I've just bought my netbook after all, but when the 3DSi comes out next year (followed by the 3DSi XL of course) I may pick one up cheap :)
Oh and everyone 21st of this month sees Portal 2 come out. Can't express my expectations for this game, not in words!!
My initial doubts were how they would present the 3D effect, however it is good and does look good, when potentially I suppose it could have been a disaster. The effect gives a great impression of depth and the augmented reality software that comes included is excellent. I also had a quick go at pilotwings and it was nice to look at, easy to control, everything you'd want or expect from a game of that series.
Of course there are limitations to the system, Nintendo have introduced region locking on games going forward sop no importing titles early. Security has been stepped up to try and prevent DS cards fitted with micro SDs (such as the R4) running nicked software (you'll never stop them Nintendo, give up), and the 3D effect does have a tenancy of dying on its arse if you don't have the console at the right angle.
My question is what kind of software support it'll get. The Wii was a cracking idea as was the original DS, but one thing they have been plagued with from the start is mountains and mountains of shovelware. The kind of crap cheap to produce game that is purely a money maker, I'm on about the 5000 party games compilations, the 2000 variations on the sims and nintendogs. It's very easy for software companies to shovel out this crap knowing people will buy it, than invest in a deep, clever, fun game that may not appeal to a good proportion of the userbase.
The Wii has had 'proper' titles, but few and far between, with the majority failing commercially (Okami anyone) regardless of their quality. I fear the same for the 3DS, I fear the same for all future consoles casual is ever mentioned in conjunction with, I fear the same for Kinect too if I'm honest.
But the hardware and the principle is sound. It'll doubtless get the usual smattering of traditional openers, I believe Mario Kart 3DS is already on route. I'm not ready to part with over £200 to own my own, I've just bought my netbook after all, but when the 3DSi comes out next year (followed by the 3DSi XL of course) I may pick one up cheap :)
Oh and everyone 21st of this month sees Portal 2 come out. Can't express my expectations for this game, not in words!!
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