Been a While. Let's Talk About Stuff

I know I haven't done a blog in a while. In fact, the last blog I did was talk about The Last of Us II, and that was about three months ago. Sorry about that. I decided to get back into reading, and I've been hitting it pretty hardcore the past several weeks. I've done so much gaming during the COVID stay at home time that I've neglected my reading, so now I'm overcorrecting. What am I reading? Elmore Leonard. For some reason, I thought it'd be fun to read all his 40+ books before the PS5/Xbox Series X launch arrives, which we'll talk about later. I've got less than 10 books to go, so I'm almost done. Anyway....

Sorry, I was looking for an image for Super Mario 3D All*Stars and this for some reason popped up and I thought it was too funny not to share. :P

So, let's begin by talking about Super Mario 3D All*Stars (yes, they used a star instead of the dash, but everyone else is using a hyphen. I'm being different!).  First of all, let's discuss the banner. Do you see something missing on the far right? Like something should go there? I mean, what could it possibly be? Hmm.. I dunno, maybe Super Mario Galaxy 2? But before I go on, let me just preface this rant. I understand these three games are classics (Super Mario Sunshine is debatable) and we should be happy to have them on the Switch, but I've never been the one to just take whatever Nintendo manages to throw at me and say, "Thank you sir, may I have another!" I expect more from Nintendo. Always have. So yeah, I expected to see Super Mario Galaxy 2 in the collection when the first one was there. I mean.. you don't do a Super Mario All-Stars collection without Super Mario 3 when you already have the first two on there, right?

So yeah, it's a HUGE omission, but omissions aside, I'm also not really happy with what is there. I mean, you'll never take away just how good those games are (again Sunshine is debatable), but it's Mario's 35th Anniversary for crying out loud! We only got slightly enhanced visuals, which is fine because Super Mario Galaxy still holds up very well to this day considering what hardware was actually running it. But, we didn't even get an option to do widescreen for Super Mario 64 and the 4:3 aspect ratio of the game doesn't even touch the top and bottom of the screen! As far as Super Mario Sunshine is concerned, debug cubes were left in the game! I mean, how do you fuck that up? This illustrates just how lazy this port was. Nintendo is using previously emulated versions of these games, slapped them together on a cart and charged us 60 bucks for this. No manual, no art book, no physical soundtrack, no sleeve or even lithographic cover. This is not indicative of a 35th anniversary collection.

Let's also talk about the strange limited release of this game. I get physical games have limited runs all the time. One such site, Limited Run Games, even makes that their specialty. But this isn't a title that should have a limited run. This is a major title from a major publisher. Whatever the case, Super Mario 3D All*Stars is only available until March of next year, but to further exacerbate the situation, even the digital version is limited, also becoming unavailable after March.  Why?  At first, I wasn't even planning to buy the game, as I already own the original Mario 64 and DS version. Sunshine I never cared much for, and Galaxy still holds memories fairly well. But when I heard that preorders were already listing on eBay in upwards of 150 dollars, I got scared and jumped on it. For some reason, I didn't want to miss out on this game, and I realized this is what Nintendo wanted to do. They wanted to exploit their fans with FOMO, and it worked. Suddenly, we don't care that much anymore about the lack of effort put in the collection. Now, we are ever so thankful that Nintendo graced our Switches with this half-assed collection. I feel ashamed that I ordered a copy. But, I did. It's actually in my closet right now, unsealed, and will most likely remain that way where it likely accrue in value and not get unearthed again until the day I move. 

But you know what, let me just give Nintendo the benefit of the doubt and say that COVID impacted their plans for the game. Maybe they intended to put SMG2 on there, but couldn't set up the right virtual meetings in time to get it done. Maybe they intended to have more packaging to it, but manufacturing became an issue and they decided they didn't want to miss the anniversary and just went with it. If that is the case, it's understandable but at least give us SMG2 as DLC and patch out the debug cubes in SMS.

Now, let's talk about the PS5 and Xbox Series X. *takes a deep breath*

As rough as COVID has been on us this year, I thank my lucky stars that I was able to land preorders for BOTH systems. 

We all know what went wrong. Sony was supposed to announce that preorders would go live on the morning of Thursday, September 17th, but Wal-Mart had other plans. Shortly after the PlayStation showcase the previous Wednesday, Wal-Mart decided to go ahead with the preorders and they were instantly snatched up. Other retailers eventually followed suit, and a backdoor link to Amazon's preorder page was leaked on Twitter, so PS5s were already sold out on Amazon before preorders even went live. 

That Wednesday afternoon before I even knew they were up everywhere, I decided to check BestBuy.com and HOLY SHIT, they were up! I immediately tried to order one, but as with millions of other people, I was met with refreshing errors and out of stock notices. Minutes after, I got the email from Best Buy that preorders were live, but it was already too late. At least to their credit, Best Buy was the only retailer I subscribed to for notifications that sent me one. So while I was fighting with Best Buy, I was checking all the other places. Target? Sold out. Wal-Mart, didn't even have the listings up (which later was because they were already sold out so they didn't bother to have the pages up anymore). Amazon wasn't live yet, and GameStop was hit so hard, they were giving everyone a "You've been blocked" splash page. 

I was having the best luck with Best Buy so far, as it was the only site that I was actually able to get a PS5 in my cart, so I stuck with them. They'd kick the PS5 back out of my cart. I'd refresh, they'd have the preorder button still up, so I put it back in, try to check out, get stuck at the Place Your Order stage, lose the item from my cart again and then keep this dance going until one in the morning. I even took my phone with me during my hour long walk doing nothing but hitting that "Place Order" button. Anyway, I was laying in bed with my phone out, still hitting that damn button, and it turned 1 AM. I gave myself five more taps and if I didn't get, it'd just chalk up the loss. On the very last tap before I decided I was finally going to sleep, it went through! Could not believe my luck! In fact, I was so energized by this that I had trouble sleeping for the rest of the night. 

As for games I preordered for the PlayStation 5, I of course had to get Spider-Man: Miles Morales. I went with the basic 50 dollar version, though, because I thought it was a bit scummy of Sony to charge an extra 20 for a remaster of 2018's Spider-Man. Then, I had to get Sackboy: A Big Adventure because I've always wanted a single-player focused 3D platformer from the Little Big Planet universe. It looks great, and I can't wait to play it! Then, I spent a few days going back and forth on whether or not I wanted to get Demon's Souls. I loved Demon's Souls on the PS3, but god dammit that game was hard! I really wasn't looking forward to playing the game again because of numerous areas I'd dread revisiting, but after watching some videos of the remake, it just looks too good to pass up. Plus, there were some really cool environments in the original that I would love to see again with the power of the PS5. And well, it's being done by Bluepoint who did an amazing job with Shadow of the Colossus, so you know it's going to be quality.

But back to Sony being scummy, do you remember when Sony said they would give us plenty of notice when preorders went live? You can technically say it wasn't Sony's fault but Wal-Mart's for selling early, BUT, Sony could have announced the September 17th date a week beforehand like MS did with theirs, so yeah... Sony still carries a bulk of the blame. What's also scummy about Sony is when they said they were moving way from the PS4 and were going to focus on PS5, so Miles Morales and Horizon: The Forbidden West would be PS5 exclusives. I was actually commending them for that decision, because exclusives help move consoles and give a reason for a new console existing, but then they backpedaled and announced that they'd be cross-generation and release for the PS4 as well. It's almost like they KNEW PS5s were going to be so hard to find, they didn't want to take a serious hit to their wallet with Miles only selling two million copies because there are only three million PS5s out in the wild. 

As for the Xbox Series X, everyone had hopes that preorders would go a bit more smoothly as MS announced a preorder date of September 22nd, 9 AM MDT, and retailers looked to be holding to that date. Only one problem for me, though. They went live the moment I had to clock in at work, but I had a plan. Due to COVID, we don't have that many people in our building, so I wasn't worried about dicking around on the computer. I'd clock in a bit early, open up my browsers to all the major retailers, and start refreshing a couple minutes before 9. Just as I got the last browser open, there was a ring at the door and I completely forgot that one of our higher ups was vising us that day. SHIT! 

So, I hop off the computer swearing under my breath, let her in, "HI! So nice to see you again! How've you been?" All that good stuff. She actually walked past my computer to go straight out to the floor and look around. Thank God, I had some time. Alright, here we go! Get an email from GameStop, "Xbox Series X preorders are now live!" Ok, they're a bit early, but ok. Click on the GS tab, they got a "You're in line. Please don't refresh" splash page up. Ok cool, they're doing something to manage the traffic. Check Best Buy and Amazon, not live yet. Target's up, so I try to preorder, I get stuck trying to confirm my address. I go to Wal-Mart, get one in my cart, try to check out, and they say they're out of stock! At 9:02, they're out of stock! So I'm thinking this isn't right, and just keep trying. I can get it in the cart, check out, told out of stock, but I can get it in the cart again. 

While I'm in the middle of doing this, my higher up comes back in the workroom and is now asking questions about how our workflow's been going due to COVID. She's also asking if there's anything she can help with, and here I am stuck at Wal-Mart with my credit card out on the desk trying to check this fucking thing out. She's now noticed what I'm doing, but hasn't said anything and well, I decided to just explain and she's cool about it. Really awesome lady. And then after being told out of stock five times, it FINALLY goes through, and then she congratulates me! I love my job! I really, really do!

That was a huge relief, a massive weight off my chest. Then I got to hear the sad stories of people who went through the same loops of not being able to get their orders through, very similar to what happened to the PS5. Refresh loops, out of stock notices, people patiently waiting in line at GameStop, not refreshing because the splash page told them not to, only for the site to crash saying "Oops, something went wrong! Refresh page." Best Buy apparently didn't even go live until an hour later, and I don't even know when Amazon put theirs up. Just a nightmare. Seems nothing was learned from the PS5 disaster. I did have a friend who got extremely lucky because after I posted that I got one, he said he was trying for a couple hours and got nothing, but I replied to him that they're going up in waves and to just keep trying and then like magic, he tried again and instantly got one. 

As for games, I got Assassin's Creed: Valhalla, which I actually had preordered months ago on sale for 50, but because of Xbox Series X's Smart Delivery, I'll get the next gen upgrade at no additional cost. I'm really warming up to what MS is doing this generation and only hope that Sony follows suit quickly. I don't think the 70 dollar price tag will last long. I also preordered Dirt 5 and Watch Dogs: Legion and I had 36 dollars in Rewards points, so I got the last two games for 82 bucks. Not bad. 

But man... We've got to find a better way to handle these preorders. For starters, a major issue was MS and Sony not making enough to meet demand. To be honest, that's an almost impossible order to fill, because how do you supply several million consoles to everyone who wants one on day one? Even though Sony and MS reportedly are making more consoles than previous gen, it still wasn't enough. A solution to that would be to postpone the launch in order to manufacture more units as COVID has impacted plants' efficiency. I know both MS and Sony don't want to miss that holiday money, but Nintendo has proven with the Switch that you don't need to launch during the holidays to be successful. I mean, come on. Who's not going to buy the new Xbox or PlayStation when they drop, regardless of what time of year?

One major problem to solve is what to do about the bots and scalpers. Considering just how far internet technology has advanced the past two decades, you'd think someone would have a program to install to their sites that could detect these bots. Maybe it's as simple as seeing someone refreshing 10 times a second, and then block their access for five minutes. As for scalpers, I don't think anything can be done to stop a person from buying consoles from multiple stores with multiple cards using family and friends in order to use multiple phone numbers and addresses. 

That's going to be the hardest thing to address. You're going to need to fight basic human and corporate greed. eBay knows it's a shitty thing to do to take a highly anticipated machine out of the hands of people who want them and then sell it back to them for more than twice the price, but eBay wants a cut of that flip. Auctioning predicates itself upon people's desperation of needing things far more than they want them and until you make laws to fight back against capitalism, this will always be a thing. I mean, when assholes started flipping hand sanitizer, Clorox Wipes and fucking toilet paper, eBay and Amazon started shutting that shit down because they're necessities; people NEED them. People don't need video games. They'll always be looked at as luxury items. 

Oh, and then we have the physical GameStop stores to contend with. Some stores got a handful of systems and some even got as few as TWO units to sell. Can you imagine standing in a line of a hundred people at GameStop only for the clerk to come out and announce they only have TWO to sell? If that isn't infuriating enough... Get a load of this. 

Imagine going to your local GameStop early enough that you were line to actually get a PS5 or Xbox Series X (You know what I just realized? I never even mentioned Xbox Series S... and I'm not going to because why?) but you missed out because the store leader bought five of them and is currently selling them on eBay. I mean, seriously. FUCK GameStop. (Although I would have bought one from their site if only it worked).

And then in breaking news:

Rapper Travis Scott appears to already have a PS5. Well, isn't that just nice. To be perfectly honest, I'm not mad. I'm just, again, thankful that I managed to land a preorder. As Rich says in the video, celebrities getting free things is nothing new. I remember before the 360 launched, one reason why that machine was so scarce was because MS kept putting them in celebrities' goodie bags. But even though this is old hat, it still is frustrating. The richer you are, the more free stuff you're given? I get why. Companies want free advertising. But does Sony and MS really NEED free advertising, though? Isn't there already enough hype in regards to these systems? They don't need to give anyone free consoles to promote. They need to give more consoles to people who actually have the money to buy them. To hammer the point home:

They don't need to give anyone free consoles to promote. They need to give more consoles to people who actually have the money to buy them. 

Oh yeah, Microsoft bought Bethesda! But, this blog has already gone on long enough. Thank for you reading if you got this far. I will say, though, I'm very much looking forward to seeing what MS does with them. I'm really hoping Elder Scrolls 6 will be Xbox console exclusive. I know there's a crowd that wants to do away with exclusives altogether, but I've always believed in console identity, but that's a topic for a different blog. Again, thanks for reading, and I'll try not to wait so long until the next blog. I for sure will have blogs up for the PS5 and Xbox Series X when they release, possibly even unboxing videos if I get them in time, so watch for them.