Wednesday 28 November 2012

Why I love games with good storylines?

My parcel from Amazon came in last week! Much earlier than expected! Expected delivery date was stated as Dec 13, so it was a very pleasant surprise.

The Assassin's Creed 3 Collector's guidebook is also included in this lot so with that, my Assassin's Creed 3 Collection has been concluded for now. Everything I have purchased and pre-ordered with AC3 is also in. Everything from AC3 I wanted for my collection is here. Only the Oliver Bowden novel for AC3 which will be released end of the year as well as NECA figures perhaps?

Plenty of good reading material.. Love these books and novels that expand the story of these games I love. 

I'm a big fan of games that tell a good story. If the game has an intriguing and captivating storyline with good character development, chances are, I will like it.. Don't have an interesting story to tell or if the game has a confusing and shitty plot, most probably I will be skipping it.

One of the most important aspect for me in a game is the story. Strong characters are also a strong plus point. I rate games like Grand Theft Auto, Assassin's Creed and Red Dead Redemption very highly because of the importance they give to these points. 

Sitting through hours of game play can get boring if there isn't a good plot. Personally some games I love don't get the same positive reviews from others. They complain about controls, visuals, fighting sequences etc.. Somehow these don't appear as major faults to me as I'm too distracted by the story itself. I think of myself as a kid sitting there open-mouthed while an adult tells me tales of how he sailed the seven seas. So what if I'm not getting the best experience? The good story-telling is enough to captivate me. 

Of course I want to hear more tales.. likewise with the games I play now.. Most of the books above expand on the lore of the games, with epilogues, prologues, new characters etc.. Games now have more stories to tell apart from their games and I'm just a eager little boy who wants to hear a good story..

Tuesday 27 November 2012

Giving away a CD Key for World of Warcraft Battle Chest

Got a mail from Blizzard the other day about a free digital copy of the World of Warcraft Battle Chest which includes 30 days of game time.

Cool! Free stuff! Maybe I should try it I thought.. But wait.. World of Warcraft?!! Isn't this the game that has destroyed lives as well as marriages all over the world? Isn't this the game that I have been ignoring since it's release. Isn't this the game that destroys your social life?

Yes it is! This is that game! I have had heard numerous horror stories about this game that I have decided to not to go anywhere near this game.

In a way, this game was ideal for me. Back when I was playing Warcraft 3, I was intrigued by the idea of the heroes feature in a strategy game...and I wanted a game where you play just as a hero, developing skill, training stats, completing missions.. and World of Warcraft was that game.

As much as it is a great game and all, I don't have the time to be playing this right now so if anyone wants the CD Key, please leave a comment below with your e-mail or e-mail me at jveron004@gmail.com. First one gets it!

Details of the CD Key

FREE digital copy of World of Warcraft® Battle Chest®, which includes 30 days of game time, The Burning Crusade® and Wrath of the Lich King® expansion packs.

You will need a Battle.net account to redeem the key and you have to do it before Dec 06, 2012 so hurry!
---

I will not be held responsible if you lose your social life, girlfriend/boyfriend, wife/husband, any other relationships. Don't come to me if you feel sick, feel depressed, feel like I am to blame for anything negative that happens by taking this offer. I will not entertain you!

Death and Despair Statue Lighted up!

In case you haven't seen it yet...

The Death and Despair statue from SOTA Toys all lighted up.. This is going to be a masterpiece..


Time to save up for this!

Saturday 24 November 2012

Assassin's Creed 3 US Limited Edition

Finally the last of the Assassin's Creed 3 Collector's Editions is in. Pre-ordered this with a local retailer in Singapore and with delays because of Hurricane Sandy and a lost package last "seen" in Saudi Arabia of all places, the 4th of my Assassin's Creed 3 CEs is finally in my hands! 

The boss was nice enough to arrange for free delivery to my residence because of the delays tough..

Box came in nice and mint, no visible dents or scratches so thankful for that.

On to pics..

Connor Statue
Going to keep it sealed in it's plastic clam shell as I will be selling it away. Already have this from the Freedom Edition so don't need another one, as much as it's tempting to flood my display with another, haha! If you wanna see more pics of this statue, see my post on the Freedom Edition.

The rest of the contents comes in this box.
A White Box.. Not pure white, it has some design on it, but still pretty white. For all of Ubisoft's brilliant artwork, they decided not to use any for this box.. No words.. No artwork.. No Assassin's Creed emblem.. nothing.. just white..

I know it isn't the most important thing and it's not the box cover but still.. When I took this out, I flipped it over to see the back (Actually what I thought was the front where the design was..) but there was nothing. It did say "AC3 tray" or something like that one of the sides but still very peculiar not to use any artwork on the box.. err tray..

Well then again.. it is what's inside that's more important..
Neat! Like this concept!

4 Exclusive Missions only on PS3! Reminding us why PS3 rocks!

A Sponge? Nah.. This is the Metal Belt Buckle.. Don't really have a use for it plus I feel it wouldn't make really make a nice display item so decided to sell it off. So keeping it sealed and mint..

Here's a pic I grabbed off the internet if you wanna see how it looks like..
 George Washington's Journal
 It didn't come with the bookmark like the ones in the 2 UK editions. Not sure if someone forgot to put it in or the US editions don't come with it. I guess the people in the US don't really bookmarks.. they read entire books in 1 sitting! Good for you Speed-Reading Americans!!

Assassin's Creed Flag
Very nice and huge flag. Good quality too! Bought this edition mostly for this item.. and very pleased with it. Where I'm going to display this remains to be seen. Hopefully no one mistakes this for the US Flag and asks me stupid questions..

Overall a very nice Edition with plenty of goodies. The flag and belt buckle is exclusive to this CE. Statue is fantastic and the Journal is a nice extra and serves as a art book as well but you have to read in 1 go.. ;)

Have a few extras like the statue, journals, belt buckle and possibly even the boxes, so drop me a mail at jveron004@gmail.com if you are interested..

Do return to my blog soon to see the final item in my Assassin's Creed 3 Collection!

Thursday 22 November 2012

Assassin's Creed 3 Join or Die pics

I'm late with pics again! I'm getting these CEs and packages faster than I can take pics of them and upload them for my blog! Just got my US Assassins Creed LE and the Amazon book package so I better hurry up and update!

Ordered my Join or Die edition from JB Hi-Fi in Australia because they had a pre-order bonus of the pewter figures.

2 Packages came in a single box..

Second box contains the pewter figures and the white envelope contains the rest of the goodies..

Opened the white envelope to find another surprise!
One of the Assassin's Creed 3 Steelbook! This wasn't mentioned in the website at all so it was a pleasant surprise to see it included! However, they had to put a sticker on the bottom left.. oh well..

Codes for Bonus Content
Can't remember if this was included in the website but certainly wasn't expecting this. Instructions says it is to be redeemed in-game. Does that mean I can use it for my R2 copy of the game? Will be great if I could!

The box itself..
Pretty cool looking.. Nice but like I mentioned before, was hoping for a plastic box for durability. Mine was received in absolute mint condition though..

The Game


George Washington's Journal

Have an extra copy of this so will be selling it away. US$20 anyone?! Will ship internationally!

Connor's Medallion
Much bigger than I originally thought it would be.

The British Soldier and Connor Pewter figurines..
They look ok.. Nice but somehow I'm not really liking them too much as I hoped I will. I guess I love colour. They look fine though.. guess I have a different kind of taste..

Altogether now..


Not the best Assassin's Creed 3 Edition out there. Already knew that the "collector's box" wouldn't be plastic but decided not to cancel my pre-order. Not really moved by the Pewter figurines but they look good. Came with extra goodies that I wasn't expecting so it was still worth it overall. No regrets about buying though!


Monday 19 November 2012

GTA V Portal right here in J Veron's World!

So if you have been following the news for the past week, you would have noticed that One game took the limelight. GTA V, GTA Five whatever you call it. 


After the release of the second GTA trailer, gamers all around the world were hungry for more info, and Rockstar were happy to oblige. With the news that GTA V will feature 3 main characters, the map is going to be huge, demo of the first mission, GTA V was the talk of the town.

With so much info all over the internet, yours truly decided to do a GTA V Portal. A hub where you can find all information about the game. I will be putting up screenshots, trailers, links to news articles, previews and much more all on one page. Anything that you need to know about the game will be in there. You can come view the trailers over and over again, read the latest news, find more info about the game all there.

Why did I decide to do this? 
It's GTA! Even though I wasn't one of the fans that kept bugging Rockstar about GTA V, I wanted it badly. Red Dead Redemption, LA Noire, Max Payne 3 are fabulous games but GTA is in a league of it's own. 

This is also the first GTA game that I will be anticipating.. Wasn't really a gamer back in the PS2 era. I didn't really know what GTA is about until friends told me. GTA IV came out before I got a PS3. So GTA V will be the first GTA game that I will be looking forward to and get it on it's release. So thought of doing up a hub/portal for people just like me to get their fix.

Do check out the GTA V Portal here or click on the tab above. Do comment below or on that page and let me know what else you would like to see!

New but crappy PSN Store

What the fuck is wrong with the new PSN store?!!

I appreciate the new interface and all.. but it's incredibly laggy and keeps giving me error messages. Max Payne 3 was having a triple xp weekend just this past weekend and I decided to jump back into the oh-so-addictive Multiplayer yet again. 

And then I wanted to download the Hostage Negotiation DLC pack which was free since I had the Rockstar Season Pass but the stupid PSN store kept giving me the "error occured" message. What's up with that? And the loading between "add to cart" and accessing the cart itself takes ages! Isn't a new store supposed to speed things up?

These was after it kept giving me a blank screen whenever I logged into the PSN store..

It isn't all bad though.. I like the new Game Pages where you can access all content associated with a particular game. Accessing the Max Payne 3 page, I could find all trailers, DLC content, avatars, themes etc all in 1 page. Much more neater than the previous store where each category was in a different page and you had to go back to the main page to access it. 

But then again, it's not really easy to find the Game Pages of older games unless you use the search button. Even with that I couldn't find the AC: Brotherhood Game Page. Still needs lots of patching but in the long run, it will most likely be better than the old PSN store.

What do you guys think? Like the new one? Or still prefer the old one? Chat with me, comment below!

Friday 16 November 2012

Assassins's Creed 3 Freedom Edition - Freedom Baby!

Finally the 1 edition that I was most excited for!

Though I bought 4 different CEs for Assassins Creed 3, the one I was most excited for, was the Freedom Edition.

Why? Firstly, for the Connor Statue that's included in it.. True the US Limited Edition also has the same statue but the PS3 game from the Freedom Edition is also the one I will be playing. It comes with the most DLC content plus I have been playing R2 discs for all the Assassin Creed games up till now. So just keeping with the trend...

Thanks to a friend in UK that I got to know on the Collectors Edition forums, he was the one who helped order the Freedom Edition as well as ship it to me. So when it finally arrived, I was very happy. So here it is..
Very cool-looking box. 

Once you take off the outer cover..you see the same design inside but without the PS3 logo and all the other necessities..
A little disappointed that the box wasn't made of hard plastic like the Assassin's Creed Revelations one, especially when they were advertising it as a "Collectors Box".

Another reason why I believe Collectors Edition boxes should be made in plastic..
Cardboard boxes won't survive shipping. It has happened over and over again.. and it will happen again. Unless factories and retailers take very special care when shipping the items, damages to CEs are going to happen. Problem is they won't.. (The guy who shipped it to me wasn't at fault, it was already damaged when he received it..)

Lucky I'm not too fussy about the original Collectors Edition boxes so damages don't bother me too much. I usually throw away the boxes cause they take too much space and aren't usually that awesome looking. (I see death stares...) 

But of course, seeing mint boxes arrive is always nice!

Ok so now you know that it's not really the box that I'm interested in.. let's see what's inside..

Surprise Surprise! The Game!
George Washington's Journal and a Bookmark
A Steel Book!
The Back
Don't really collect Steel Books but this looks pretty amazing! Was thinking of selling it off but I'm tempted to keep it now..

Lithographs!
Another collectible that I don't go buying are Lithographs but I got plenty of these from various Collectors Editions. Very nice..

And the most amazing item in the Freedom Edition..
The Connor Statue! This one is different from the previous Connor statue that I have. Both statues are made by different companies (but could be the exact same China factory worker!) but still have a similar feel and look to it. 

Both Connor Statues look good together and together with all the rest of the statues, they look amazing! I was too excited to place this guy in my display cabinet with the rest of the figures that I forgot to take a picture of it with the Flag attached but you can see a picture below with the rest of the items. 

With this Statue, my Assassin's Creed Statue Collection is now complete!

Freedom Edition with all contents..
Very nice Collector's Edition. Highlight for me was obviously the Connor Statue but the Steel Book and Lithographs would have probably excited other collectors as well. The George Washington's Journal was also a nice touch and the PS3 game with extra DLC content is always a plus.

Thursday 15 November 2012

GTA V Trailer

New GTA 5 Trailer



Fucking Awesome! That's all I have to say!

Actually I got more.. I'm planning to do a GTA V Portal page with all the GTA V information that I can find out there. Your one-stop fix for everything related to GTA V.. What do you think?

Connor the Hunter statue

One of the things that I bought to add to my collection for Assassin's Creed 3 was the Connor the Hunter statue. Yes there was already a different Connor statue in the Freedom Edition, which I also purchased, but how could I let up the chance to add yet another Assassin's Creed figure to my ever-growing collection.

So in it came..

Fantastic looking display box with a nice window display to see the statue inside.

But that's not going to deter me from opening the box..
Connor comes in this pose where he sits atop a tree branch aiming an arrow at possibly a templar or animal. Hunting is one of the activities that you can do in the latest Assassin's Creed 3 game and traversing trees is also an option.

A different pose compared to the standing poses chosen for the previous Assassin's Creed statues but it still fits well with the rest.

Connor also comes with a range of weapons that he will use in the game..
The weapons are nicely done. They don't look cheap and it doesn't feel like they are there for the sake of it. All weapons are finely detailed and nicely painted. The bow 'string' is made of a real nylon string from the looks of it so it feels and looks real.You can also remove it from his hands, but no real purpose in that.

The only flaw in the figure I received was the arrow..
The material used to make the bow is bendable and it seems the top part of the arrow wasn't stretched out straight before it was glued so it looks bent now. 

You can have the best sculptors doing the original statue but if the bloody China worker in the factory screws it up, then you are fucked!

Other than that, this figurine is awesome, much more detailed than the previous Ezio and Altair statues but still fits in well if you display them altogether. 

Now just waiting for the Freedom Edition to arrive with the other Connor figure and my Assassin's Creed Figure collection will be complete!

The last image a Templar sees before he hits the ground..
More images below..

Friday 9 November 2012

J Veron's World Updates - 09 November 2012

Ok Status Check!

I bought a whole load of things related to Assassin's Creed, especially Assassin's Creed 3. Some of which have arrived while others haven't.

So just a list of things that I have already received and opened as well as stuff that you can expect to see in the near future.

Assassin's Creed 3 Ubiworkshop Edition (Arrived!)
Assassin's Creed 3 Tomahawk Replica (Press Version) + Altair Crouching Figure (Arrived!)
Assassin's Creed 3 Connor the Hunter Statue (Arrived!)
Assassin's Creed 3 Join or Die Edition
Assassin's Creed 3 Freedom Edition
Assassin's Creed 3 US Limited Edition
Assassin's Creed 3 Collectors' Guide + Other video game books

Hmm.. can't think of anymore.

3 parcels received.. All without any problems except the Great Ubiworkshop Swap. So quite happy with that..

4 more to arrive. The Collector's Guide and other books from Amazon won't arrive anytime soon as I chose the cheaper shipping option. Estimated delivery is Dec 13 2012.. Wait what?! Dec 13?! I can cycle to Amazon's warehouse, pick it up and come back to Singapore faster than that! Oh well.. pays to be cheap. But there shouldn't be any problems with orders from Amazon..

Freedom Edition was shipped out by a friend from UK few days back and tracking shows it should arrive today! Hell yea! Can't wait to get home after work!

US Limited Edition was due to arrive yesterday at my local retailer but still no news as of now. I have still have to make time to go pick it up.

But I'm a little worried about the Join or Die edition from JB Hi-Fi in Australia. Shipped out on 29 Oct but still no sign of it. They didn't have a tracking option so I have no clue where it is now.. Hoping for the best..

So if the Freedom Edition does indeed arrive today, pics will be up soon after. And yea I still have yet to put up pics of the Connor the Hunter statue.. Here's one I took on Instagram for now..