DoctorEncore

On 6/21/2023 at 3:31 PM, avatar! said:

Been a while since I was excited about a a major Hollywood production -

If anyone has seen it, let me know your thoughts!

I don't think Nolan has made a particularly good movie since Inception (Tenet was awful), but I'm looking forward to this. Still, a good biopic requires interesting dialogue and that's where Nolan usually fails the hardest. We'll see.

On 6/21/2023 at 5:58 PM, Mega Tank said:

One of the better Shyamalan movies I have seen

 

I'm definitely interested in seeing this, but the last two Shyamalan movies were just so, so bad (Old and Glass). When he misses, he misses big.

4 hours ago, avatar! said:

Never been a fan of Rick & Morty. I think it's meant to shock and awe, but I find it just bland. I would much rather watch Futurama which I think is actually funny, especially compared to the former.

I watched a few season of B99 and overall the show has so much promise, but it's totally ruined by Andy Samberg. He's just not a good actor. The other actors are all excellent, and he just seems to ruin the show with his high school level charisma.

Of course those are just my opinions

I think some of Rick & Morty is genuinely good, but Futurama is just on another level. Can't wait for the new season.

18 hours ago, Reed Rothchild said:

No.  I can't imagine a ton of people here have seen it, especially in the last 30 years.

The Burbs and Nothing But Trouble were two movies that I always found somewhat disturbing as a kid and, for whatever reason, I also always associate them. Maybe they ran back to back a lot or something. Regardless, I never found either of them particularly enjoyable. I'm pretty sure The Burbs is actually decent, but I'm also pretty sure NBT is awful. Maybe someday I'll watch them as an adult, but definitely not any time soon.

On 6/28/2023 at 11:38 PM, GPX said:

My genuine query about this issue is in the determination of today’s “market value”. There’s clearly 2 sorts of market happening:

- eBay/free market

- Heritage Auctions and other auction houses. 
 

Market value

= average(eBay + HA) price
   ————————————

                       2

??

 

                     

They ask you to do all the legwork and submit values, then they check to see if they are reasonable. If a company is focused on collectibles, then they know all about eBay and prominent auction houses and they have in-house or contract experts for each type of item they insure. They aren't going to give you the gem mint price unless you can prove it's worth that BEFORE the damage occurs. They are going to give you the average price for an average item. You may also have some below average quality items, but at some point, it is not worth their time to confirm the value of every $50 object in your collection. It is, however, worth their time to check and see if you have a graded 10/10 first-print, high-value item. So basically, they aren't going to give you the high-end, Heritage Auction price of something unless you can prove ahead of time that it is worth that.

On 6/29/2023 at 4:08 PM, RH said:

Here's my question, moving away from the idea of collectibles and games, but how is anything of small size but excessive value insurable.

For instance, I assume art is insurable.  What if, hypothetically, "Grandpa knew Picasso" and we in our family have a small painting conservatively valued at $5m?

Ok, let's assume we're bad people.  We hide the Picasso and burn down an old family house and claim the painting is in there.  We lie and collect $3m in insurance.

Then, 20... 50... 75 years later, the family brings out the painting and it's now worth $50m (ignoring inflation).   Grandpa made $3m but we still hold the painting and it's long been forgotten that we committed insurance fraud.

You can change the subject matter and the numbers a bit, but if it's small enough and insurable, you can fake the destruction of anything and, with enough time, you (or your family) can turn around and sell it.

My specific question is this--this fraud may not be common but it's plausible and easy to do for the person who would be willing to try it.  How do insurance companies account for this and mitigate it?  Are there similar, insured markets that the game/small collector market could mimic?  Maybe insurance for distribution centers of products, or small businesses?

I feel like this is a problem with a solution, and I also feel like it's been solved before.  Just not for collectibles.

Insurance fraud is not a new idea and they have plenty of ways to combat these type of things. If something is extraordinarily valuable, they simply will not insure it without appropriate precautions. They may require proof of fireproof or waterproof storage as well as a security system. They could even require you to store it in a maximum security bank vault. That bank would then also have insurance against damage and theft. These companies won't take on risk if there is not appropriate reward and a high likelihood of overall profit. Additionally, they have sophisticated investigation techniques to find evidence of foul play. They would gladly spend $2 million dollars on a detailed investigation to save $5 million in payouts. They could then sue the person who committed fraud to get their money back, possibly forcing sale of the valuable items.

A good analogy for something that would be difficult to trace would be a stamp collection. Small, easily destroyed, easily hidden, difficult to trace. I don't know much about stamps, but I guarantee they have some strict requirements for storage and tracking if they're going to insure them for $10 million. I'm also pretty sure they keep a ledger of all large payouts and would continue to track auction houses and private dealers for hundreds of years if necessary to reclaim their money.

I'm sure there is more, but you get the idea.

Yeah, these have been popping up intermittently for quite a while now. It's interesting because they aren't always there. I suspect they do it as a way of advertising products to make you want to buy them more.

Finally got my Playdate and couldn't pass up on a copy of Zelda for $40 from QVC of all places. Haven't played either yet, but going to mess with the Playdate later today. Last pic for size comparison. It's tiny!

Just now, spacepup said:

Well said Dr! 

While I prefer PS5 personally, I can't refute many of your points.  There isn't really a right or wrong here, it's all about people's personal preferences and what they enjoy.  That has typically been my take with most of the Console A vs. Console B debates.  People sometimes try to debate them scientifically and logically and find a 'winner,' but there will always be an element of subjectivity and personal preference.  One console doesn't have to "lose," as they can both be good and have different strengths.

Absolutely! I love them both. I traded in my SNES and a bunch of games () to buy the original Playstation and I love so much of what they've done over the years. Uncharted, Horizon, and Returnal are all amazing and I recommend them all the time. For me though, nothing beats an intense match of Halo with my best friends and I can't wait to get lost in Starfield.

12 hours ago, RegularGuyGamer said:

I already have game pass for the next 2 years bc I upgraded from gold for $1 and had 3 years on it so it's a no brainer for me. And Sony's controller is still the bastard offspring of the dualshock 1. It was cute to not have offset thumb sticks in 2003 but it's inexcusable in 2023.

Ideally, I would like to have both but I haven't owned a PlayStation console for any substantial amount of time since buying a PS2 at launch. I'm not against Sony and I actually prefer a lot of their products generally but the PlayStation hasn't excited me for a long time. 

I didn't mention this in my post, but I 100% agree on controllers. Some people love them, but I absolutely hate Playstation's symmetric analog sticks. I find them very uncomfortable, especially for shooters. Despite that, I thought the PS4 controller was the best controller they ever made, and then they totally messed with the shape for the DualSense and I hate it again. It's the wrong size and the wrong shape and it just doesn't feel good to hold. The haptic stuff can be very cool when implemented correctly, but it can also be really annoying when used improperly.

The new Xbox Series controller and the Xbox Elite controller are the best I've ever used. I don't have the DualSense Edge controller so I can't comment on that, but I believe it has the same shape and size as the regular controller.

Full disclosure, I have both systems. I primarily use my Xbox for console gaming, although I do have a decent older PC with a 980Ti that I use for the occasional RTS or point and click adventure game. For the sake of this post, let's ignore that all Xbox games and many PS5 games come to PC and focus on consoles.

Games

This is actually a really tough question right now and it mostly comes down to what type of games you enjoy. Neither console has done much with this new generation yet and we're only finally starting to see exclusive titles.

Xbox is clearly becoming the place for western RPGs. InXile, Obsidian, and Bethesda host some of the most talented and experienced developers and designers in the world and will probably crank out at least a few all-time classics in the next ten years. In fact, the existence of Starfield alone may be reason enough to choose Xbox if you like that style of game. They've also got a lock on multiplayer action and live service games with Halo, Sea of Thieves, Gears of War, and Grounded. Lastly, the console boasts excellent, free backwards compatibility dating back to the original Xbox.

That being said, if you like the style of third person, over the shoulder action-adventure games that dominated the PS4, you should probably go in the direction of Sony's machine. Sony is also the home of several excellent open world action games for many years now with things like Horizon and Ghost of Tsushima. Lastly, PlayStation hosts a much wider variety of third party exclusives and smaller Japanese games. The best new gen game in my opinion, Returnal, is a PlayStation exclusive and Final Fantasy 16 just released. Legacy backwards compatibility is not quite as strong, but is still excellent for PS4 games.

Ecosystem

Xbox has been fostering an online ecosystem for a bit longer than PlayStation and, in my opinion, it has a much better feel. Multiplayer and party systems feel more natural to me on Xbox and are easier to navigate. Due to better backward compatibility, all of your old digital games automatically transfer over to the new console. That being said, many people prefer the PlayStation ecosystem, so this is mostly a wash and probably has more to do with what you are used to than the actual quality of either system.

Value

Outside of the actual games, this is where I see the biggest difference in the consoles. Game pass ultimate is simply an amazing value. Every single first party Xbox game launches there on day one. Additionally, they host a ton of day one launches for third party games, especially indie stuff. It's very nice to have a curated list of high quality games to pick from at any moment. Considering you can get three years of GPU for about $200 ($180 for Xbox live Gold for 3 years and $15 one time fee for conversion to Game Pass ultimate), you only need to play one first party launch game per year to make it worthwhile. Additionally, you get access to PC Game Pass and cloud streaming which is great for slower games or trying things out quickly. PlayStation Plus has rapidly become a nice alternative, but It is missing some of the features of Game Pass and doesn't include first party games on day one.

Decision

Considering the types of games I like, and the way I like to play them, Xbox is a clear winner for me. I don't necessarily have a monetary budget for gaming, but I do have a time budget due to my work and family life. As such, I love having a high quality, curated list of games always available in Game Pass. I also really enjoy their exclusive titles such as Halo, Gears of War, Fable, Forza, and hopefully Starfield.

However, if you enjoy single player games with extremely high production values, PS5 is probably a better choice for you. PlayStation continues to provide a good mix of linear, story-based content and beautiful, open-world action games. They are pivoting towards live service games and they desperately need a multiplayer hit, but third party support for those type of games remains extremely strong. Even if they do produce a big live service hit, I suspect Sony will continue to produce things like Uncharted, Ratchet & Clank, and Spider-Man for many years to come.

I've used E-Trade for years. Their Power E-Trade platform is pretty solid.

https://us.etrade.com/what-we-offer/pricing-and-rates

On 6/20/2023 at 6:55 PM, fox said:

I want to like this a lot more than I do but I can’t seem to gel with these immersive sims 

6/10 based on what I've played so far.

I'm feeling you man. You are like my kindred spirit when it comes to game opinions.

This game just isn't doing it for me. I've been working on it for months and I literally never feel excited to play it. The world is somewhat interesting, but I don't care about the characters at all and I'm not that curious about what's really going on. Even though there are several different levels with layouts that change with the time of day, it feels really small and repetitive. I wouldn't even say it's doing anything particularly unique and the things it does do well are still done better elsewhere. I can't for the life of me figure out why it reviewed so well. On the flipside, I completely understand why it didn't make much of a splash with the average gamer. It takes a while to get going and some of the systems feel needlessly complex and punishing, perhaps just to pad out the length of the game. That's not to say the game is particularly hard; you could even say it's pretty forgiving since you get a few "lives" every day, but for some reason dying and losing progress in this game is incredibly frustrating compared to most other games. I know it's not really a rogue-lite, but it compares very poorly to something like Returnal which makes repetition tolerable and even fun.

It makes me concerned I might not be that interested in Arkane's other well-regarded games.

I'm seriously contemplating playing this as my next game, which is pretty wild since I never buy games near release (Game Pass excluded). I was a massive FF fan as a kid and teenager, but fell away with the PS2 and beyond. I'm playing FFX right now and, while I don't love it, I do enjoy some of the changes they've made. I'm concerned about the transition to an action game, but reviews are positive and the story could be good.

Cinnamon Toast Crunch and Peanut Butter Cap'n Crunch are the GOAT. Don't even bring that stale Reese's Puffs ripoff into my house.

Finished up Planet of Lana for the Series X. An absolutely wonderful experience and, as far as I'm concerned, the pinnacle of this type of game. It is artistic and beautiful and checks every box I want for a modern 2D adventure-puzzle-lite platformer. My favorite game of 2023.

Man, I really have zero love for the 3D and new 2D Mario games. Outside of Zelda and Metroid Prime, Nintendo has almost completely lost me. Hopefully their lineup will get rejuvenated with a Switch successor.

Out a pretty underwhelming presentation, this was one of the few highlights for me. I wouldn't mind diving back in and playing an updated version of this.

4 hours ago, Reed Rothchild said:

Ghost of Tsushima + Iki Island = long game

I'm digging it.  I think the setting and atmosphere go a long way.  I know open world is a dirty phrase nowadays, and people love to complain about walking around a map doing all of the little things, and it certainly does commit some of those sins (how many standoffs do I need to do?).  But I'm thinking it's an 8/10.  

I had low expectations and the game really surprised me. It's easily one of the best open worlds I've ever experienced. Loved the environmental storytelling and it's just a ridiculously beautiful game. Combat was also superb. My only really criticism is that, despite the individual characters being quite strong, the overall story felt a bit generic.

Welcome back and I wish you all the best. Hopefully the sense of community here can help you through tough times and you can find some solace in returning to your hobby.

11 hours ago, greenthunder said:

Very relatable. Did you buy the Kokopolo games from LRG or secondhand?

Bought from LRG directly. Got that full set FOMO. Yuck.

LRG is a blight on this hobby and I'm part of the problem.

@dr_orangejuicer has this one listed on eBay: https://www.ebay.com/itm/256104725087?hash=item3ba107fa5f:g:qVcAAOSwE7Bkg0Sf&amdata=enc%3AAQAIAAAAwO4Dboq8BRvqNU9dO8aSFxOJ0iRVOEGGgJITwbFjs6P3dBOelIOqQxPnWmuxtnXELPXAuhPiJM5TD2BWUbka%2Fh3h7I0MV7yyzyWlIGXeJU3TcA6gZN8g2jizJoKFLuglP%2BOu9LCJ9NczyOwKI2ectdY%2BxAVpAwW9ba14CpXGZsRiu9Ud%2FVFamy3uabS442lAn0afgB33RJJBzXgWU3UV8jLqSFvPLt1AKHj6lr9RqWwFgWr4HnAczaKi4tki%2F1Yazg%3D%3D|tkp%3ABk9SR_jWzNSYYg

It looks like exactly what you described in your first post. My guess is that they were packaged multiple ways, possibly depending on production date. It's also possible the seller in your post sealed his up to protect it or increase value. Personally, I wouldn't spend too much brainpower on it.

I'm not an expert in SNES or Earthbound, but It looks pretty legit to me. The most common mistake I see in repros are alignment and quality of art assets. I didn't do a direct comparison to a known copy, but this looks well-aligned and appropriate in print quality.

6 hours ago, DefaultGen said:

If your sealed Super Mario Bros is destroyed you will get $4.99 so you can rebuy it on Wii Virtual Console

Too close to the truth for comfort.

On 6/12/2023 at 9:41 AM, Reed Rothchild said:

Now since we're nitpicking one of my thirty scores being maybe 1 point off of where a different version of the game would land, I expect to seem some other tallies before the year is up  

On 6/12/2023 at 4:16 PM, Brickman said:

I was just curious because I was surprised to see that game in the 7’s. But playing the PS2 version makes sense for the score.

You have the level break up and also you had to play that game with a controller, I couldn’t imagine playing that game with anything but a KB and mouse because it was made during an era where PC games were still designed around KB and mouse.

At least we got a good discussion going  

I know Reed has plenty of experience doing this, but rating games in the context of their release is INCREDIBLY hard. It is just not possible to fully immerse yourself into the appropriate tech limitations, gaming conventions, social norms, journalistic standards, and every other little detail of life that makes contemporary criticism meaningful. I think it's only natural for scores to drift down over time, no matter how hard we try to add relevance into the conversation. I score similarly to Reed and am more than happy to give a game that I think is not fun to play now a 6 (looking at you SM64).

And relevant to this conversation, I've been putting a lot of time into FFX. I just finished up the Zanarkand ruins and presumably only have the final battle(s) remaining.

This is one of those absolutely beloved games like The Last of Us and SM64 that just doesn't do it for me. There are, of course, many improvements over the older games, but overall it feels so remarkably inferior to FF4-9 that I don't know how it could be anyone's favorite unless nostalgia/childhood plays an enormous factor. That's not to say it's all bad; the graphics are really impressive, the combat system is fluid and a lot of fun, boss battles are meaningful and require intense strategy and resource management, and the music is beautiful.

Its biggest sin is the painfully linear nature of the main story which prevents interesting detours, turning it into one long dungeon crawl that feels neverending. In fact, everything about the game feels like a grind. The encounter rate is irritatingly high and many late game enemies have a ridiculous amount of HP. I understand that this encourages swapping characters and strategic gameplay, but fighting a Behemoth with 30,000 HP that can insta-kill your characters every five steps gets old fast. I'm also not a fan of the sphere grid upgrade system; even though it advertises flexibility, the characters mostly move along a set path with few side branches available. This makes leveling a tedious chore rather an interesting way to shape your growth and slows progress through dungeons even more. Furthermore, in order to add any really interesting traits to weapons/armor/aeons, you must grind to collect rare resources. Lastly, if you step back and look at if from a higher level, the story is extraordinarily simple and filled with cringeworthy dialogue, one dimensional characters, and very little actual happenings.

I'm not done with the game yet, so perhaps the finale will be unbelievably amazing and I will be singing a different tune in my final impressions, but right now this one is near the bottom of my FF rankings. Everything about it screams growing pains with tons of filler to pad the length. I have not done a deep dive on the development, but I bet they had to scale it way back due to the transition to new hardware. This would also explain the fact that it needed a sequel to flesh out the world, story, and characters.

Haven't made much progress on Deathloop as I'm just not excited to play it. It's definitely well-crafted, but not really what it was advertised to be. I'll finish it at some point.

Anyways, that's my weekly old man yells at cloud update. See ya'll next time.

On 6/14/2023 at 9:25 AM, a3quit4s said:

I’m always skeptical as well, especially since no one has ever actually come to look at it themselves. As long as you have pictures and document your collection they say that’s is generally enough. In NY they say it just falls under the general category and I have enough insurance to cover all my normal stuff plus my collection. I’d have to raise my coverages my collection value was over it. My company has a separate collectibles policy but video games aren’t considered collectibles by them. 
 

Im pretty sure if my house burnt down we’d be arguing the value of things that haven’t had recorded sales in years. But luckily I’ve paid for a lot of stuff through PayPal so hopefully that evidence would get me paid appropriately. Plus I don’t consider making me whole just giving me money for an item - making me whole would be getting the item back.

I just put up a post in the other thread so I won't repeat it here, but I'd highly suggest you purchase collectible insurance separately. I'd be highly skeptical of your insurance company's claim.

Sorry to bump the thread again. Everyone go here instead:

Came over hear after seeing @Nintegageo's other thread.

In general, homeowner's insurance will not cover collectibles. I would be very skeptical of any company that says you're covered, especially if you haven't submitted detailed item lists with value estimates and pictures. If this is not in writing in your policy, you don't have it, no matter what the rep says on the phone. For a real world example, when my basement flooded, USAA refused to replace any videogame related items, even with documentation and proof of purchase.

After that sad event, I purchased collectible insurance with a company called American Collector's Insurance through my account at USAA. They required documentation of all items with overview pictures of the collection and detailed pictures of anything worth more than $1,000. I now have extensive Excel files listing every game I own with estimated value (I really need to update that... ugh).

Hope this helps.