8:28 My dad told me recently about how using a credit card used to go. You'd give the card to the employee, have the employee call the bank, have _the bank_ call the main branch of the bank, have someone there physically write down all the info of the transaction and check at a terminal there if they could authorize the transaction. The whole ordeal would take like a half hour. Truly, we don't know what suffering with tech is like.
I used to work the closing shift in the electronics department at a Walmart. One night after I clock out I decide to buy the Bayonetta 1&2 bundle for wiiU. I get home, it's midnight, I'm exhausted and hungry but eager to play "the best character action games" as I've been told. Pop open the case only to reveal, to my dismay, a blank, white Memorex burnable CD. I must have marched into that store the next morning looking like I was gonna shoot the place up. My coworkers knew I had the day off and something was wrong. I reached the electronics department just in time to grab the last copy of Bayonetta in the store. Now, policy dictates that games are non refundable and can only be exchanged if unopened. But the whole store knew me, even the girls at the customer service desk on the opposite end of the store. I explain to one of them how there is no way in hell this shit is my fault and that the least I deserve is a fair exchange, she complies. Before I leave I decide to open the new game case at the counter, in front of her. Thankfully, it was a legitimate copy. To this day I can't figure out how the hell that blank CD ended up inside a sealed Nintendo game case, behind a locked glass display, in a major retail super center! We did not have a shrink wrapping machine in the back, I would have known. I fucking worked there and stocked the games on the shelf myself!
Holy shit. That's happened to me before. One of the workers wanted to call the police on me and thought I was trying to steal from them. The store owners didn't believe me and I basically achieved temporary insanity and was about to commit hotblooded homicide in the fucking store. Thank fucking god the store manager saw some sense and just got me another copy.
Same here. As someone in chat mentioned at the time, there was probably bigotry involved (even if Woolie wants to give him the benefit of the doubt), but even if there wasn't that guy is still a scumbag of the highest order.
@@ttvp No doubt. I wasn't going to bring it up here because, you know, UA-cam comments section. There is a definite difference in the flavor of Woolie's experiences in youth compared to Pat's. In both of Woolie's experiences his character was assailed and he's unfairly accused of cheating or lying. Pat was disappointed in Saga Frontier and received "new" products that had obviously been used before which is something that happens to everyone. Woolie's experiences were targeted.
@@ttvp Woolie said the guy was a a greedy scumbag, but I'm glad a white stranger on the internet is here to let us know that this man from an anecdote was totes a bigot.
That's because now you're "in", now you remember that time this and that happened. Now you're there waiting for the reactions of the new people listening to these stories for the first time
Game Journalists and Industry Reps: "Brick and Mortar is dying because digital is more convenient." Anyone who either worked at or frequented Brick and Mortar game shops: "SUUURE, that's totally the only reason..."
Seriously, the Odin Sphere thing? "Hey, do you have this game?" "No." "Do any of your other locations?" "No." "Is there anywhere else I can try to get it?" "No." Well I guess fuck me then.
@@KotoRyu I'd say that Gamestop is stepping up there customer service cuz they've finally started to realize that digital can kill them, but I know it'll take some time for the gamers who didn't partake in the gamestonks revolution to trust Gamestop again. All I'm gonna say is that I'm getting a lot more value out of my trade ins and annual member ship.
@@theprofesionalist7927 I haven't bought a physical game since 2017, and when I manage to land a PS5 it's going to be the discless one of course. The only part of any of my systems to ever fail was the disc drive, so I opted not to use it anyway.
@@KotoRyu Fair point; just also gonna add tho that it's easier to get a ps5 from gamestop. Gamestop only sells their ps5s in package deals with games and accessories and scalpers are less willing to sweep those up since it's easier to sell the console as opposed to all the stuff that comes with it.
I remember being a kid and walking into a gamestop with my birthday money and I tried to get a new game without a pre-order and the cashier broke the rules to give me some other guy's copy
Sounds wholesome until you realise there's someone on a different podcast somewhere complaining about that time they pre-ordered a hot demand game and got to gamestop and they had given it away already.
@@miguelnewmexico8641 I typed it mostly for comedy so r/whoosh i guess, but for such a bug to occur means nobody there gives a shit, probably because they knew Black Panther would bring players back regardless and they could just fix it later after they got their money
In like 2016 I bought my PS4 along with a shrink wrapped copy of SFV from Walmart. Opened it up and instead of SFV there was in fact a copy of Life the Movie starring Eddie Murphy.
I still recall pre-ordering Halo: ODST and getting so excited to play as Johnson. I got home, cracked it open and go figure the code was used. Naturally when I wanted to get a new code they couldn't even figure out a good lie, and basically just told me point blank that there was nothing they could do. I remember the guys awful poker face as he was very specific in telling me that he *personally* had nothing to do with it, to the point where even my oblivious-ass teen mind was like "So this guy literally used my code didn't he?". To be fair one of the guys also recommended both my all time favourites Lost Kingdoms 2 and Portrait of Ruin to me, so it was a mixed bag I guess.
I mean, the price of that per order took Johnson into account as it was a GameStop preorder exclusive, so like, you were still robbed, but I can see how a separate scumbag could possibly think that recommending you purchase more merchandise from his store balances out stealing your money
@@manticorephoenix That's not even close to what OP said, dude; way to project with excessive cynicism. Besides, it's not "his" store, he just works there. He has no reason to care about bringing money in; he's just there for the paycheck. Your misinterpretation is utterly ridiculous.
God damn I'm not the only one? Had the *same exact thing* happen to me with my copy of ODST. Later down the line it happened to me again with Aliens: Colonial Marines but I realized THAT game was not worth playing within the first couple hours of popping it in.
Holy shit this unearthed an ancient memory of the time a now closed games store ruined christmas. I wanted Crystal Chronicles for DS, the brand new one in 2009. My dad went out the day it released and grabbed me a wrapped up copy. That absolute piece of shit game store owner had rewrapped the game, but even worse than Pat, he didn't put the cartridge back in the case. I opened the game, I ripped open the wrapping, I tore open the case, I saw nothing in it, and let me tell you I was 14, I hadn't cried in years, and I fucking sobbed. I thought I was finally becoming manlier, big heavy boy, and I sobbed into my mother's arms. We went back a couple days later, and the motherfucker, he couldn't even produce a cartridge of the same game, he had sold the last one, and MY copy was at his house. Had to settle for the new guitar hero for DS, which was the whole package, including the pick and the attachment, worth about 40 more dollars at the time than the game I wanted originally, and I got it because my dad went back there pissed as fuck, a man I had not seen mad in all my years, in such a quiet seething rage that the man at the counter just backed down, knowing he was the janitor at the biggest local church, and you piss off a church community (in at the time a community of less than 5k mind you), your store is done. I ended up loving that game, y'know 3 days after Christmas, where I sat depressed for 3 days and developed a severe trauma and case of PTSD, causing me to shake while writing this, but y'know game store guy got to play his game AND make 50 bucks, when that was putting legit stress on our finances. Long story short my dad did mention that to people at the local church, and people asked why I looked absolutely awful at the Sunday mass, less than 2 months later that place was having a closing sale, where I got another favorite, at the time would have been about 40 bucks, discounted to 15, Megaman Star Force 3: Black Ace
And like, Pat didn't like the game. What if the guy recommending it actually felt all that stuff was true? And on the third hand, Pat was ripping the rental places off egregiously for years, so fuck'm. Rental Guy Did Nothing Wrong.
I originally got MGS1 on a special collection where they all came in ps2 boxes... and the only way to find Meryl's number was to open up the manual and find that they listed a few example codex numbers including hers. Needless to say this memory stuck with me.
Reminds me of a couple of stories. I bought a ps1 game that was rare enough that the store only had one copy of, and they kept the game cases out front but the discs were kept in blank cases in the back. So I walked up with the case of the game I wanted and they went and pulled it from the back, but in the process of pulling the game out of the extra case it was in to transfer it to the real case the dude accidentally broke the disc in half. They promised to notify me whenever they got another copy in but as it was a rare game that never happened. A friend of mine went to a secondhand store and saw an n64 game shrink wrapped in its box. He asked the guy if he could unwrap it and look at the actual game. The worker said, "it's in there and it works". My friend insisted he wanted to see the game because he's a collector. The worker with absolute apathy and disdain wanted to know how likely he was to buy it. My friend said "Zero percent if I can't open this, 50% if I can look at it and see if its condition. I'll even re-shrink wrap it for you!" Needless to say the copy was in garbage condition and my friend didn't buy the copy.
I remember Gamestop used to use the ability to play product for free as an employment perk. Gamestop would literally keep the discs separate from the boxes sometimes
I turn 30 this year and I still remember how nightmarish the struggle of working with Games for Windows Live was and buying actual disks for PC games, only for the installation to be done in the most ass backwards way possible, or going out of my way to get tools to install Japanese games, because even getting a language pack installed was near impossible and Windows XP just could not deal with it back then. Haha, the bad old days. Also, I remember going to a local mall, stumbling upon a PS1 Gold Finger add-on and Dragon Ball GT Final Bout and I bought them, I hated Final Bout. But what a fucking time, because I would totally do it exactly the same.
I got GTAIV during a Steam sale and Windows Live absolutely refused to work on my Windows Vista. To this day I never played and really should have returned it.
the closest thing i've had to a situation like this was when i went to gamestop to buy a copy of Kid Icarus Uprising and the cashier said she doesn't know if they had it, she looked at the cover on the computer and asked the other person working their if it looked like skyrim (he told her bluntly, no) then i went back literally the next day because the website said it was in stock and low & behold there it was
As a former EB Games employee, I had days where I wondered why the hell anyone would shop at that scamhole. Then I quit and a month later the manager and branch owner were fired for a bunch of shit.
Physical copy > Digital copy - Because even though patches are digital, the fact remains that you don't have to worry about the PS Store or Xbox Live skeezing out of their obligation to give you a permanent product that you paid for, through the argument of "you're just paying for the license."
The seal breakage policy literally stole a game from me when I was shopping at GameStop one time. I had gone to buy DOA 4 cause I enjoyed DOA 3 as a kid and I also like Halo, so I wanted the spartan character, but despite the fact that I had the fucking case in my hand, they couldn't find the disc in their drawer to give to me, so I was stuck with finding something else.
Have to say, I had my fair share of bad brick and mortars, but when I was living in Dubai, there was a chain of shops Geekay Games there. It was amazing, the staff were all super lovely, all releases were on time, most obscure games got plenty of copies in, they were cheaper than in other stores...basically not a bad thing to say about them. This is not a promoted thing btw, I genuinely love those stores, and highly recommend people pop into them if they are ever in UAE.
This entire talk is a perfect example of the past not being as great as we think it is, you will find no end to videos on youtube remembering 'the good old' days when you had to buy games face to face, but always leave out shit like this. People can only remember the good times when the world changes but often forget the bad.
I remember the first time I ever preordered a game was Crisis Core from Game Crazy because they offered an exclusive Shinra UMD case with it. I got a call a day early to go pick it up, I went in maybe 2 hours later. Standing in line behind another customer, I see him clearly getting CC and his Shinra case as well. My turn. They give me the game, NO Shinra case. I ask about it. "Uhh we only got one in, um, and I gave it to the guy before you." Walk out, never go back in again. Im convinced they must have gotten one per preorder and the clerk was just holding onto the rest for himself and probably some of his buddies. I was fucking filled with joy the day I saw that piece of shit store chain close down.
9:50 - Thank you pat. Thank you for pointing out one of my fucking problems with MGS1. I had it for the PS1, and I was so fucking confused when I was a kid as to what the hell he meant by CD Case, because I felt like a fucking moron after I was given the CD from President Baker, and he said during that conversation "Codec for Girl is behind CD Case". That was a bad experience.
@@DrEarthwormRobotnik I mean it isn't the last time Hideo has done something like this. The most recent thing I can remember that compares to it is the picture collecting aspect of PT; where all of the Picture Pieces are in the hallway, but for some reason he thought it was funny to place one of them in one of the option menus instead.
Well I think quantifying digital on pc to 2003 is very narrow-minded considering almost all games were on dvd only till like 2010. At least in europe, idk about the US
I went to a play n trade and I only have good memories there. On my last birthday before they went under, I brought my pals over and we all played games on the TVs they had out, and the dude at the counter gave me a copy of Okami for free. Only good times.
The worst bug I've ever personally dealt with was for Soul Calibur 3 for ps2. There was a save bug where it would corrupt other saves on the memory card. I lost my saves for Rogue Galaxy and Star Ocean: Til the End of Time, both at endgame with around 60 hours of gameplay apiece.
There was something fucked up about the saving system in that game. I went through the entire story whatever mode, fought Night Terror and beat him after fucking forever, and saved the game. The save deleted itself immediately after and left me with literally nothing, having played the game for like.....weeks at least, probably months. Suddenly my save is blank and I don't even have all the normal characters. It's like playing through Devil May Cry until you beat it on Dante Must Die, and instead of unlocking super dante it just blanks your save.
oh man,i remember my RG disc was scratched, and a certain point of the story would cue up a cutscene but it wouldn't start. I never managed to find another copy, and only got any closure on it recently, playing it on PSN.
The one time in the last ten years that I bought a game from GameStop was actually me fucking *them* over, because I took advantage of a mislabeling. Their "New" copy of Dynasty Warriors 8 XL had a scuffed as hell case and had a sticker on it and was $40, but their "Used" copy was pristine (as was the manual) and only $20.
My copy of Turtles for C64 had copy-protection passwords printed in black on dark brown pages, like hundreds of them in the middle of the manual. No photocopying that, but then again, nobody asked. Later the crews cracked all of them, and they still do. My C64s still work, and thanks to card-reader and SCART adapter, I still play those wonky games.
Who here remembers the fun time of owning a gravis ultrasound or sound blaster and having to remember what system port, IRQ, and DMA Channel you had to specify for every game you installed? And then you try to help a friend install their copy and they have a printer so the card is on a different IRQ. Oh and lord help you if you're trying to remember if your board has an FM Sequencer or Midi device built in or not or if you're really special, a Pentium.
Remember to never let pat keep you from playing something. If pat hates something, it's probably for a reason that's insane, or one that would never bother a normal person.
Somehow one of my favorite parts of this is Pat's bad experience with SaGa Frontier while knowing it JUST got one of the most incredible HD re-releases SquareEnix has ever done (drastically improved graphics like they re-rendered all the prerendered stuff, content cut from the original game due to time constraints added back in, a whole new character campaign, AND the ability to run from battles). That said, I understand the pain as SaGa is obtuse and I'm STILL not actually a fan of Frontier. SaGa 2 is my favorite RPG of all time, Romancing SaGa 2 is up there, but SaGa Frontier? I dunno if I'm feeling it yet.
I once pre-ordered WoW Burning Crusade, because I liked Classic WoW back in the day enough to try the new area. I couldn't pick it up release night because I had school the next day, they sold my pre-order copy then refused to give me another one. I quit WoW not long after and never went to that EB again.
i remember running the return relay with gamestation back in the day, luckily my branch was pretty chill and they'd see me walk in and just be like "s'up dude we got atelier totori for ya"
Granted I don't go to eb all that much, I've never actually had a bad experience at them. They go through the script to ask if I want to preorder shit and whatnot but they are never pushy and the games are always sealed. The only thing that may annoy me is they put stickers on used game, but I don't buy used anyway.
What? The reason they don't keep the discs in the case is cause its extremely easy to steal. You can just grab it and walk out no problem. That's obvious and it always was like that here. Even as far back as 96 they wouldn't keep the cartridges in the boxes.
That's why instead of being morons, most of them just put dummy cases out on the floor. You pick what game (case) you want, bring it to the counter, and they give you the actual new thing, still cased and sealed.
My brother worked at a chain of rental place called Movie Gallery. Back in the day, Yugioh console games used to come with exclusive promotional cards, and when the new games would arrive at the place, they took out the promo card packs. And my brother would bring me the cards since i played. I had so much control over the schoolyard lmao
Places giving away sales still happens to some degree. I would occasionally go to my local gamestop because I wanted a physical copy of a new release and something my store started doing to promote pre-orders was only ordering the exact number they got pre-orders for again, just like places used to, until a few weeks after release. After the third time they didn't have what I wanted, I just looked at the guy and said, "you understand that I'm just going to walk across the street to best buy and give them my money today instead of you, right?"
33:36 literally when i used to go to gamestop and they would have one “new copy” of a game left. Its in a thin slipcase and the case is on display. Or when you bring them the game case that isnt covered in dirt or other brown stains, they end up giving you the one covered in them because they were just jerks.
Sagas Frontier is NOT!!! a bad game, it’s definitely complex and it’s systems for magic, combat, & leveling up are unconventional, but if you able to overcome those hurdles it becomes an incredibly satisfying experience, I also love the monster mechanic to absorb skills from other monster to transform into stronger monsters with some refinement you can definitely build a game around that mechanic starting with something as weak as a slime and ending with something powerful like a Black Dragon, or Mariche
All these negative game store stories make me remember the one good story that at least to me negates every bad experience I've ever had. Back in the mid-aughts I went to a local gamestop and on a whim checked their used ps1 games rack and found a copy of Suikoden II for $20. I was mind blown, as I knew how incredibly rare it was to find a copy even at that time. When I brought it to the clerk, even he knew what I had found and said to me something like "you know how rare this is, right?" My heart sank because I thought there was some kind of pricing mishap, but he put it through and it was only twenty bucks. That shit would never happen today.
Not as rare a game, but I walked into a used game store in my hometown to buy a gamecube in 2012 and found a boxed, pristine, manual-included copy of one of those Twilight Princess preorder bonuses that had Zelda 2, Ocarina of Time, and Majora's Mask priced for $3
Funnily enough the term "install disk" is another reason I'm surprised they didn't bring up in their rant; why buy it physically when 90% of the game isn't even on the fucking disk. Buying a new BIG game now is a crapshoot on whether or not you'll just end up getting an empty box and a piece of fucking cardboard with a download code on it.
In the world of Digital vs Physical... I do both. I mean, both have their failings and plus sides... I just do both. That said, as far as buying new games from stores go, I've had very little chance to do that myself. When I was a kid my father went to the store and got it most times, or my uncle gave me his old games. When there wasn't much money for games I went and got demo discs. When I had money, I didn't have money for newer consoles so I bought old games. I've never bought a new, recently released game from a store, only online. As for preordering, I've rarely had any preordering issues, and I will preorder games, but not on a whim.
Digital is ok... until you realize with older consoles and some games that you may have the only physical copy left. Homefront and Xmen Destiny, teo games I regret getting day 1 but appreciate them having them in my collection
I'll be honest, when I got physical copy of XCOM: Enemy Unknown, that's the first time I had to deal with installing Steam to play the game. Didn't really like it back then because I preferred the whole game to be on the disc, with my internet not being what is today at that time. It was rough then dealing with my connection plus downloading additional files for one game, So imagine my frustration seeing a growing number of PC games requiring Steam. Today? While I still prefer the entirety of a game to be on physical, I don't mind using Steam as much. They've improved enough that whatever lingering issues I had with digitally downloaded games has mostly vanished(provided that a game doesn't force me to be online all the time), and with physical copies of PC games being almost non-existent now(and brick and mortar stores don't really much of them anymore), Steam is pretty much the best place for me to get them.
I've got a magic game disk moment: One day at a local Blockbuster I got my hands on purchasing a copy of Paper Mario : TTYD and was pretty happy for a 13 year old. I popped it in with my memory card and found there was already a file edited to have max health( I think it was 999) and I played through it from the beginning. I double checked my memory card and was certain I didn't have any data before hand. It was a pretty easy cake walk.
That woolie story was told to use a few podcast before the best friends ended . this time with more anger. Plus the horrible hustle on children is wild
There were people in my town who just straight up would rent a game (ps2 era) at the local video store, then make an image of it and copy it onto another disc, print a random picture of the game on the front and bring it back to the video store. I played the few games at the video store religiously, so as soon as one of them stopped working on my ps2 since my ps2 wasn't jailbreaked, I notified the store owner. They didn't do anything about it other than ask people to tell them if they knew who it was. They went and bought another version of that game (game was Shadow of Rome for anyone who's interested) but in the end I think like 2 other games got stolen like that. Tbf their games library wasn't large, only like 8 games on the shelf but it was still annoying that they didn't have any method for checking.
I only know gamestop, that never tried to fuck with me. They were the chillest dudes ever, they've never tried to sell me a membership, they've never gave me unsealed games, when I bought something for new, I basically lived at that place when some new games came out.
Man our local library rented out PC games (they might still, I don't know, when's the last time any of us went to a library) and it was just the ABSOLUTE BEST. They'd also have a teen night thing every week or 2 and every time we'd install Halo on every PC and have a blast.
I went into GameStop to get a normal copy of Beyond Two Souls back in the day. I paid 60 dollars for the standard edition and they accidentally gave me the expensive collectors edition, which I didn’t question nor say anything about. It’s still on my shelf today, and I never not find that level of incompetence funny.
I remember in 1992 having a copy of Premier manager that came with a code wheel where you matched 2 items and got a code. I had to enter 99, Enter and after 3 attempts reset the Amiga, rinse abd repeat. When I got in the game I'd play all day as it was never know when I'd get back in. Back in the days when you'd go to some random man's house in the street and get 400 games in a box for £5 🤣
Nothing like being told by a Gamestop employee (as someone not familiar with looking up vidya info online) that the latest One Piece Pirate Warriors would ONLY be PS4, when no, it was for PS3 as well. They outright just talked out of their ass. I have had some negative experiences but all minor. But that stood out to me as I always thought Gamestop employees knew EVERYTHING about video games. nope
I miss Blockbuster but not for the movies. The one in town would always get multiple copies of newer games, then keep like 2 and sell the extras. For a couple years that's where I got most of my games. I think I actually rented a movie....once?
I remember when Persona 5 came out and i paid off my "Collector's Edition" 5 years ago. On the Day it dropped they called me saying something like: "So we got someone in store asking for your Copy do you still want it?" Me being baffled by this call said "Heck yes i still want it I fucking paid for it" "Oh good because we were about to give it to the customer in store if we wouldn't have reached you" Never bought anything from Gamestop ever again afterwards.
Digital did actually scoff in my face once, but only once. I had minecraft installed literally like 4 years on my ps4, I deleted it one day to make room for another game, I did the opposite a short while later and what do I discover; but my copy, and ownership of minecraft are *just fucking gone*. Supports main response was basically “well no record of your owning it exists in our files, so go fuck yourself and buy it again, motherfucker🤷🏻” *as I’m staring at literal monthly progression screenshots from my main world* Guess I just never had the game I played for years then🤷🏻 And it was never rectified, to this day I still feel robbed
Pat is wrong. Installing PC games and managing registries and folders taught a lot of valuable basic IT knowledge to a lot of Xers and Millennials that Boomers who weren't heavily in to IT just did not have, and that later Millennials and Zoomers still don't have. And it was never *THAT* bad if you were a PC gamer and had even one geek/nerd friend or family member, which you almost certainly did, because Video Games weren't cool until about 2000, and all the geeks were excited to have more people interested in the same things. Hell, I've almost failed interviews for basic PC usage because I don't fuck around with the UI like they expect me to and just go right in to the guts when I want to mess with the PC. Edit: OK, the later issues, like missing disks and incompatible hardware / drivers that the program didn't tell you were an issue... that was real annoying. But again... you learned computers if you wanted to play your games. Copy protection also existed on NES games, most notably Star Tropics, which required you to dip the instruction manual in water to get a code to advance past the 3rd island IIRC. And it wasn't the only one. Pat is also wrong about Saga Frontier. It is not as good as FFVII correct, but it's not that bad once you adjust to it. He just fell victim to misleading expectation. Which is a valid reason for souring the experience.
I know pats pain about early pc games and trying in passwords to continue at a certain point in the game. In maniac mansion after you go up the stairs, there's a door there. Well you had to look at your big book you got with the game to put in the password. If you got it wrong and don't go into the basement to fix the breaker, the house would blow up
To be fair to an employee of like one of these games stores there just wasn't a lot they had the ability to do. Like with the whole "it'll come in next Thursday" that was probably just their delivery day which is the best guess as to when a game will arrive. As someone who works in retail you just often have to give a best guess because in my experience customers will not let you get away with telling them you don't know something even if it's the truth.
I occasionally end up near some brick and mortar stores, and every now and then there's a decent deal on a pre-owned game I want. My most recent experience, however, was basically the best thing that could have happened with the thing I was buying. Dunno if it was anywhere else, but in Australia there was a deal for like 40% off a Cyberpunk 2077 pre-order in exchange for two games off a list Happened to have two PS4 games I wasn't planning on playing again, and I even managed to get a PC copy (via download code, of course) so I got a copy that was both cheap and functional.
One of the saddest moments of my life was getting to the last fight of Diablo 1 on PC, and founding out my disk was scratched, so in the middle of the last battle the game would crash That and installing Virtua Fighter 2 on my old PC, that was also suffering for some reason AND Resident Evil 2, that also was a FUCK to install in my old as 4GB space Compaq laptop
I have to deal with similar shit nowadays if I want physical but at least I haven't encountered shit like fake discs in the shrink wrapped game.....yet. The big problem I had was fuckers ran out of stock the moment the game was advertised on their site/profile/whatever.
My dad rented Xbox games back in the early 2000s and install them on an internal hard drive, he never told me how he did it, and little old 10 year old me just had a giant game library of games that where rented for 3 days and after the 3rd day give them back and I’d still have them, just like Pat here, but done so it’s not suspicious, and now...let’s just say the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree
I gotta jump in at the Metal Gear digital ps3 version: you pause the digital with the ps button and it includes that game's manual and or cd box art front and back. It didn't age poorly.
I liked going to GameStop, but then again I only got to go like 2 or 3 times a year and usually just browsed, and by the time I could go and pay on my own I had already shifted to PC and steam. Question: Could physical game stores have had a chance if they weren't being run by cheap evil idiots, or is the core premise of a store for games just inherently flawed and destined to fail?
In 1998 I installed a Knights Of Xentar demo for Ms DOS off of a PC Gamer demo CD that would prevent you from going back to Windows because it would restart the computer and replay the demo. It wasn’t even playable. Had to call Compaq to get a disc to reset to factory settings.
Speaking of MGS1, my friend and I rent Twin Snakes for the Gamecube. Get to the “back of the box” part. We checked the in-game CD and couldn’t find the code. So we went in the codec and went through it one at a time until we got the right code. It took almost an hour, with some of that us stumbling on Master Miller’s codec and watched that sequence.
When I was a kid my grandma ordered TMNT for the Commodore 64 because I was super into TMNT. Within a week we lost the instructions which had the code key, so we had a poor port of an NES game that we couldn’t even play.
8:28 My dad told me recently about how using a credit card used to go. You'd give the card to the employee, have the employee call the bank, have _the bank_ call the main branch of the bank, have someone there physically write down all the info of the transaction and check at a terminal there if they could authorize the transaction. The whole ordeal would take like a half hour. Truly, we don't know what suffering with tech is like.
I used to work the closing shift in the electronics department at a Walmart. One night after I clock out I decide to buy the Bayonetta 1&2 bundle for wiiU. I get home, it's midnight, I'm exhausted and hungry but eager to play "the best character action games" as I've been told. Pop open the case only to reveal, to my dismay, a blank, white Memorex burnable CD. I must have marched into that store the next morning looking like I was gonna shoot the place up. My coworkers knew I had the day off and something was wrong. I reached the electronics department just in time to grab the last copy of Bayonetta in the store. Now, policy dictates that games are non refundable and can only be exchanged if unopened. But the whole store knew me, even the girls at the customer service desk on the opposite end of the store. I explain to one of them how there is no way in hell this shit is my fault and that the least I deserve is a fair exchange, she complies. Before I leave I decide to open the new game case at the counter, in front of her. Thankfully, it was a legitimate copy. To this day I can't figure out how the hell that blank CD ended up inside a sealed Nintendo game case, behind a locked glass display, in a major retail super center! We did not have a shrink wrapping machine in the back, I would have known. I fucking worked there and stocked the games on the shelf myself!
Holy shit. That's happened to me before. One of the workers wanted to call the police on me and thought I was trying to steal from them.
The store owners didn't believe me and I basically achieved temporary insanity and was about to commit hotblooded homicide in the fucking store. Thank fucking god the store manager saw some sense and just got me another copy.
warehouse worker grabs a free copy. replaces it with a disk. and wraps it up.
19:00 Woolie's story of that Microplay dude accusing him of cheating makes me so angry on his behalf, every time.
Ive heard that story probably 10 times by now and I get pissed everytime
Same here. As someone in chat mentioned at the time, there was probably bigotry involved (even if Woolie wants to give him the benefit of the doubt), but even if there wasn't that guy is still a scumbag of the highest order.
@@ttvp No doubt. I wasn't going to bring it up here because, you know, UA-cam comments section. There is a definite difference in the flavor of Woolie's experiences in youth compared to Pat's.
In both of Woolie's experiences his character was assailed and he's unfairly accused of cheating or lying. Pat was disappointed in Saga Frontier and received "new" products that had obviously been used before which is something that happens to everyone. Woolie's experiences were targeted.
@@Ragnorok64 Woolie isn't black.
@@ttvp Woolie said the guy was a a greedy scumbag, but I'm glad a white stranger on the internet is here to let us know that this man from an anecdote was totes a bigot.
"Consumer Product Destroyed" sounds like a post boss victory splash in a souls game.
Or No More Heroes.
That's why they play it in the back so you don't hear the title pop up
Theyve told some of these stories multiple times & for some reason they get funnier each time
Never gets old.
Evergreen indeed
Pat still not being over Saga Frontier since 1997 will always be funny.
That's because now you're "in", now you remember that time this and that happened. Now you're there waiting for the reactions of the new people listening to these stories for the first time
The cage match one kinda hurts more ngl
Woolie: “I got cheated out of a contest.”
Pat: “I had to play a beloved game I didn’t like.”
Game Journalists and Industry Reps: "Brick and Mortar is dying because digital is more convenient."
Anyone who either worked at or frequented Brick and Mortar game shops: "SUUURE, that's totally the only reason..."
Seriously, the Odin Sphere thing?
"Hey, do you have this game?"
"No."
"Do any of your other locations?"
"No."
"Is there anywhere else I can try to get it?"
"No."
Well I guess fuck me then.
@@KotoRyu I'd say that Gamestop is stepping up there customer service cuz they've finally started to realize that digital can kill them, but I know it'll take some time for the gamers who didn't partake in the gamestonks revolution to trust Gamestop again. All I'm gonna say is that I'm getting a lot more value out of my trade ins and annual member ship.
@@theprofesionalist7927 I haven't bought a physical game since 2017, and when I manage to land a PS5 it's going to be the discless one of course. The only part of any of my systems to ever fail was the disc drive, so I opted not to use it anyway.
@@KotoRyu Fair point; just also gonna add tho that it's easier to get a ps5 from gamestop. Gamestop only sells their ps5s in package deals with games and accessories and scalpers are less willing to sweep those up since it's easier to sell the console as opposed to all the stuff that comes with it.
@@theprofesionalist7927 I have yet to see an online listing for an unsold PS5, let alone a physical one in a store.
Its weird seeing two middle aged men talking like they're my grandparents.
they ARE your grandparents.
The generation gap is larger than usual because of the Digital Revolution.
Kids and NEETs don't have stories to compare.
Rookie Mistake: Listening to these podcasts while working out.
I remember being a kid and walking into a gamestop with my birthday money and I tried to get a new game without a pre-order and the cashier broke the rules to give me some other guy's copy
Sounds like based and game-pilled employee.
Sounds wholesome until you realise there's someone on a different podcast somewhere complaining about that time they pre-ordered a hot demand game and got to gamestop and they had given it away already.
"Asked to install disc 18 of 25 but disc 18 is missing."
I too know this pain.
still wild this all spun off from talking about the accidental Marvel doxxing
Tangents are the best part of CastleSuperBeast
“Accidental”
*deep smell*
Ah yes, perfectly organic
@@manticorephoenix why would they have done it on purpose?
@@miguelnewmexico8641 I typed it mostly for comedy so r/whoosh i guess, but for such a bug to occur means nobody there gives a shit, probably because they knew Black Panther would bring players back regardless and they could just fix it later after they got their money
In like 2016 I bought my PS4 along with a shrink wrapped copy of SFV from Walmart. Opened it up and instead of SFV there was in fact a copy of Life the Movie starring Eddie Murphy.
I still recall pre-ordering Halo: ODST and getting so excited to play as Johnson. I got home, cracked it open and go figure the code was used. Naturally when I wanted to get a new code they couldn't even figure out a good lie, and basically just told me point blank that there was nothing they could do. I remember the guys awful poker face as he was very specific in telling me that he *personally* had nothing to do with it, to the point where even my oblivious-ass teen mind was like "So this guy literally used my code didn't he?".
To be fair one of the guys also recommended both my all time favourites Lost Kingdoms 2 and Portrait of Ruin to me, so it was a mixed bag I guess.
I mean, the price of that per order took Johnson into account as it was a GameStop preorder exclusive, so like, you were still robbed, but I can see how a separate scumbag could possibly think that recommending you purchase more merchandise from his store balances out stealing your money
@@manticorephoenix That's not even close to what OP said, dude; way to project with excessive cynicism. Besides, it's not "his" store, he just works there. He has no reason to care about bringing money in; he's just there for the paycheck. Your misinterpretation is utterly ridiculous.
@@Harril8265 they still stole from him
God damn I'm not the only one? Had the *same exact thing* happen to me with my copy of ODST. Later down the line it happened to me again with Aliens: Colonial Marines but I realized THAT game was not worth playing within the first couple hours of popping it in.
tell me y'all are uploading the clip with the AtLA character reads, because watching Pat's soul die on camera is always an absolute joy...
Holy shit this unearthed an ancient memory of the time a now closed games store ruined christmas. I wanted Crystal Chronicles for DS, the brand new one in 2009. My dad went out the day it released and grabbed me a wrapped up copy. That absolute piece of shit game store owner had rewrapped the game, but even worse than Pat, he didn't put the cartridge back in the case. I opened the game, I ripped open the wrapping, I tore open the case, I saw nothing in it, and let me tell you I was 14, I hadn't cried in years, and I fucking sobbed. I thought I was finally becoming manlier, big heavy boy, and I sobbed into my mother's arms.
We went back a couple days later, and the motherfucker, he couldn't even produce a cartridge of the same game, he had sold the last one, and MY copy was at his house. Had to settle for the new guitar hero for DS, which was the whole package, including the pick and the attachment, worth about 40 more dollars at the time than the game I wanted originally, and I got it because my dad went back there pissed as fuck, a man I had not seen mad in all my years, in such a quiet seething rage that the man at the counter just backed down, knowing he was the janitor at the biggest local church, and you piss off a church community (in at the time a community of less than 5k mind you), your store is done. I ended up loving that game, y'know 3 days after Christmas, where I sat depressed for 3 days and developed a severe trauma and case of PTSD, causing me to shake while writing this, but y'know game store guy got to play his game AND make 50 bucks, when that was putting legit stress on our finances.
Long story short my dad did mention that to people at the local church, and people asked why I looked absolutely awful at the Sunday mass, less than 2 months later that place was having a closing sale, where I got another favorite, at the time would have been about 40 bucks, discounted to 15, Megaman Star Force 3: Black Ace
Lil Pirate Pat gets a bad game recommendation and bears a lifelong grudge because he thinks he was robbed.
And like, Pat didn't like the game.
What if the guy recommending it actually felt all that stuff was true?
And on the third hand, Pat was ripping the rental places off egregiously for years, so fuck'm. Rental Guy Did Nothing Wrong.
Book of Grudges moment
@@Revan058 If anything Pat stole way more from rental guy then rental guy ever stole from him.
What a salty sally. SaGa Frontier is incredible
@@theothermc Indeed. Sadly, Lil Pat simply had bad child taste.
Every box is open,
The seal always broken
I’ve even forgotten my name
I don’t know the season
Or what is the reason
I’m standing here holding my blade
"3 year old weren't installing pc games."
Not me, the kid whose parents said "here's a copy of Quake 3 for your birthday" at 3 years old.
True story.
Sounds like a rad childhood
@@pranavarora9976 It fuckin' was.
Rad.
And then everyone clapped
I originally got MGS1 on a special collection where they all came in ps2 boxes... and the only way to find Meryl's number was to open up the manual and find that they listed a few example codex numbers including hers. Needless to say this memory stuck with me.
It was on the back of the box sleeve
That feeling when you get a used copy with all the secrets written in the back of the book.
Reminds me of a couple of stories. I bought a ps1 game that was rare enough that the store only had one copy of, and they kept the game cases out front but the discs were kept in blank cases in the back. So I walked up with the case of the game I wanted and they went and pulled it from the back, but in the process of pulling the game out of the extra case it was in to transfer it to the real case the dude accidentally broke the disc in half. They promised to notify me whenever they got another copy in but as it was a rare game that never happened.
A friend of mine went to a secondhand store and saw an n64 game shrink wrapped in its box. He asked the guy if he could unwrap it and look at the actual game. The worker said, "it's in there and it works". My friend insisted he wanted to see the game because he's a collector. The worker with absolute apathy and disdain wanted to know how likely he was to buy it. My friend said "Zero percent if I can't open this, 50% if I can look at it and see if its condition. I'll even re-shrink wrap it for you!" Needless to say the copy was in garbage condition and my friend didn't buy the copy.
Just curious but what was the rare ps1 game you were trying to buy?
I remember Gamestop used to use the ability to play product for free as an employment perk. Gamestop would literally keep the discs separate from the boxes sometimes
I turn 30 this year and I still remember how nightmarish the struggle of working with Games for Windows Live was and buying actual disks for PC games, only for the installation to be done in the most ass backwards way possible, or going out of my way to get tools to install Japanese games, because even getting a language pack installed was near impossible and Windows XP just could not deal with it back then. Haha, the bad old days.
Also, I remember going to a local mall, stumbling upon a PS1 Gold Finger add-on and Dragon Ball GT Final Bout and I bought them, I hated Final Bout. But what a fucking time, because I would totally do it exactly the same.
Oh my god… just to get lost planet 2 working on PC was annoying.
I got GTAIV during a Steam sale and Windows Live absolutely refused to work on my Windows Vista. To this day I never played and really should have returned it.
Walmart sold me a PS4 at full price with someone else’s user information still on it back at launch.
the closest thing i've had to a situation like this was when i went to gamestop to buy a copy of Kid Icarus Uprising and the cashier said she doesn't know if they had it, she looked at the cover on the computer and asked the other person working their if it looked like skyrim (he told her bluntly, no)
then i went back literally the next day because the website said it was in stock and low & behold there it was
It would be hilarious if you literally walked right past the truck that brought in the game XD
@@vcom741 lol not even, what I mean is they had the game the whole time the cashier was just incompitent
Pat: "ITS NOT SHIPPING LIKE THIS!"
Anthem: "Allow me to introduce myself"
As a former EB Games employee, I had days where I wondered why the hell anyone would shop at that scamhole. Then I quit and a month later the manager and branch owner were fired for a bunch of shit.
It's kinda strange to hear stories like this. I never experienced getting ripped off of games from stores.
Physical copy > Digital copy - Because even though patches are digital, the fact remains that you don't have to worry about the PS Store or Xbox Live skeezing out of their obligation to give you a permanent product that you paid for, through the argument of "you're just paying for the license."
The seal breakage policy literally stole a game from me when I was shopping at GameStop one time. I had gone to buy DOA 4 cause I enjoyed DOA 3 as a kid and I also like Halo, so I wanted the spartan character, but despite the fact that I had the fucking case in my hand, they couldn't find the disc in their drawer to give to me, so I was stuck with finding something else.
Have to say, I had my fair share of bad brick and mortars, but when I was living in Dubai, there was a chain of shops Geekay Games there. It was amazing, the staff were all super lovely, all releases were on time, most obscure games got plenty of copies in, they were cheaper than in other stores...basically not a bad thing to say about them.
This is not a promoted thing btw, I genuinely love those stores, and highly recommend people pop into them if they are ever in UAE.
Well it IS Dubai.
Won't they still cut your hand off for theft there? Or is that just Saudi Arabia?
This entire talk is a perfect example of the past not being as great as we think it is, you will find no end to videos on youtube remembering 'the good old' days when you had to buy games face to face, but always leave out shit like this. People can only remember the good times when the world changes but often forget the bad.
Thank you
That’s about it, those rose glasses are nearly limo tinted
Remember pop-up ads?
I remember the first time I ever preordered a game was Crisis Core from Game Crazy because they offered an exclusive Shinra UMD case with it. I got a call a day early to go pick it up, I went in maybe 2 hours later.
Standing in line behind another customer, I see him clearly getting CC and his Shinra case as well.
My turn. They give me the game, NO Shinra case. I ask about it.
"Uhh we only got one in, um, and I gave it to the guy before you."
Walk out, never go back in again. Im convinced they must have gotten one per preorder and the clerk was just holding onto the rest for himself and probably some of his buddies.
I was fucking filled with joy the day I saw that piece of shit store chain close down.
Damn Damn Damn... an entire clip that made me feel old.
Dealing with game stores and PC instillation in the 90s and early 2000s. Geeze
9:50 - Thank you pat. Thank you for pointing out one of my fucking problems with MGS1. I had it for the PS1, and I was so fucking confused when I was a kid as to what the hell he meant by CD Case, because I felt like a fucking moron after I was given the CD from President Baker, and he said during that conversation "Codec for Girl is behind CD Case". That was a bad experience.
To be fair, that puzzle actually has a failsafe (call colonel 4 times, and Meryl’s frequency is added automatically)
@@DrEarthwormRobotnik You know what, that probably was how I solved it after wandering the area for an hour and a half when I first played it.
@@Khotgor Yeah, it's not really copy protection so much as just more of a puzzle that wasn't thought out in the best way.
@@DrEarthwormRobotnik I mean it isn't the last time Hideo has done something like this. The most recent thing I can remember that compares to it is the picture collecting aspect of PT; where all of the Picture Pieces are in the hallway, but for some reason he thought it was funny to place one of them in one of the option menus instead.
Why would that confuse you? Genuine question. Like, did you not know what a CD case is, or did you just have pirated copies?
I LOVE it when a topic just escapes them and they chase it down to crazy parts XD
Well I think quantifying digital on pc to 2003 is very narrow-minded considering almost all games were on dvd only till like 2010.
At least in europe, idk about the US
I went to a play n trade and I only have good memories there. On my last birthday before they went under, I brought my pals over and we all played games on the TVs they had out, and the dude at the counter gave me a copy of Okami for free. Only good times.
The worst bug I've ever personally dealt with was for Soul Calibur 3 for ps2. There was a save bug where it would corrupt other saves on the memory card. I lost my saves for Rogue Galaxy and Star Ocean: Til the End of Time, both at endgame with around 60 hours of gameplay apiece.
There was something fucked up about the saving system in that game. I went through the entire story whatever mode, fought Night Terror and beat him after fucking forever, and saved the game.
The save deleted itself immediately after and left me with literally nothing, having played the game for like.....weeks at least, probably months. Suddenly my save is blank and I don't even have all the normal characters. It's like playing through Devil May Cry until you beat it on Dante Must Die, and instead of unlocking super dante it just blanks your save.
oh man,i remember my RG disc was scratched, and a certain point of the story would cue up a cutscene but it wouldn't start. I never managed to find another copy, and only got any closure on it recently, playing it on PSN.
Soul Calibur 3 is great...
But also fuck Soul Calibur 3.
Damn I remember that bug. I eventually bought a memory card and labelled it "Soul Calibur 3" and never saved anything else on it.
The one time in the last ten years that I bought a game from GameStop was actually me fucking *them* over, because I took advantage of a mislabeling. Their "New" copy of Dynasty Warriors 8 XL had a scuffed as hell case and had a sticker on it and was $40, but their "Used" copy was pristine (as was the manual) and only $20.
My copy of Turtles for C64 had copy-protection passwords printed in black on dark brown pages, like hundreds of them in the middle of the manual.
No photocopying that, but then again, nobody asked. Later the crews cracked all of them, and they still do.
My C64s still work, and thanks to card-reader and SCART adapter, I still play those wonky games.
Crazy how I still remember Woolie’s story of getting accused of cheating at the challenge
45 minutes of Pat just snitching on himself for low end white collar crime xD
I actually found out about the ps1 and ps2 disc thing right now.
Holy fuck my life was a lie.
Who here remembers the fun time of owning a gravis ultrasound or sound blaster and having to remember what system port, IRQ, and DMA Channel you had to specify for every game you installed? And then you try to help a friend install their copy and they have a printer so the card is on a different IRQ. Oh and lord help you if you're trying to remember if your board has an FM Sequencer or Midi device built in or not or if you're really special, a Pentium.
Remember to never let pat keep you from playing something.
If pat hates something, it's probably for a reason that's insane, or one that would never bother a normal person.
SaGa Frontier is great but lol if you think normal people would not be bothered by its unique brand of wacky bullshit
I stop shopping a Gamestop because of the whole opening games and selling them as new thing
Somehow one of my favorite parts of this is Pat's bad experience with SaGa Frontier while knowing it JUST got one of the most incredible HD re-releases SquareEnix has ever done (drastically improved graphics like they re-rendered all the prerendered stuff, content cut from the original game due to time constraints added back in, a whole new character campaign, AND the ability to run from battles).
That said, I understand the pain as SaGa is obtuse and I'm STILL not actually a fan of Frontier. SaGa 2 is my favorite RPG of all time, Romancing SaGa 2 is up there, but SaGa Frontier? I dunno if I'm feeling it yet.
I once pre-ordered WoW Burning Crusade, because I liked Classic WoW back in the day enough to try the new area. I couldn't pick it up release night because I had school the next day, they sold my pre-order copy then refused to give me another one. I quit WoW not long after and never went to that EB again.
i remember running the return relay with gamestation back in the day, luckily my branch was pretty chill and they'd see me walk in and just be like "s'up dude we got atelier totori for ya"
Granted I don't go to eb all that much, I've never actually had a bad experience at them. They go through the script to ask if I want to preorder shit and whatnot but they are never pushy and the games are always sealed. The only thing that may annoy me is they put stickers on used game, but I don't buy used anyway.
wait so shmupgodpat and patstaresat are NOT the same person?
What? The reason they don't keep the discs in the case is cause its extremely easy to steal. You can just grab it and walk out no problem. That's obvious and it always was like that here. Even as far back as 96 they wouldn't keep the cartridges in the boxes.
That's why instead of being morons, most of them just put dummy cases out on the floor. You pick what game (case) you want, bring it to the counter, and they give you the actual new thing, still cased and sealed.
My brother worked at a chain of rental place called Movie Gallery. Back in the day, Yugioh console games used to come with exclusive promotional cards, and when the new games would arrive at the place, they took out the promo card packs. And my brother would bring me the cards since i played. I had so much control over the schoolyard lmao
Online stores will try and screw you, but brick and mortar stores did that while wasting your time, gas, and patience. Good riddance.
Places giving away sales still happens to some degree. I would occasionally go to my local gamestop because I wanted a physical copy of a new release and something my store started doing to promote pre-orders was only ordering the exact number they got pre-orders for again, just like places used to, until a few weeks after release. After the third time they didn't have what I wanted, I just looked at the guy and said, "you understand that I'm just going to walk across the street to best buy and give them my money today instead of you, right?"
33:36 literally when i used to go to gamestop and they would have one “new copy” of a game left. Its in a thin slipcase and the case is on display. Or when you bring them the game case that isnt covered in dirt or other brown stains, they end up giving you the one covered in them because they were just jerks.
I still value physical copies of stuff since they're hard to come by. But yeah, that store shit sounded like hell.....
Companies also can’t steal my physical copies. I paid for it, it’s fucking mine now, let me play it
Sagas Frontier is NOT!!! a bad game, it’s definitely complex and it’s systems for magic, combat, & leveling up are unconventional, but if you able to overcome those hurdles it becomes an incredibly satisfying experience, I also love the monster mechanic to absorb skills from other monster to transform into stronger monsters with some refinement you can definitely build a game around that mechanic starting with something as weak as a slime and ending with something powerful like a Black Dragon, or Mariche
All these negative game store stories make me remember the one good story that at least to me negates every bad experience I've ever had.
Back in the mid-aughts I went to a local gamestop and on a whim checked their used ps1 games rack and found a copy of Suikoden II for $20. I was mind blown, as I knew how incredibly rare it was to find a copy even at that time. When I brought it to the clerk, even he knew what I had found and said to me something like "you know how rare this is, right?" My heart sank because I thought there was some kind of pricing mishap, but he put it through and it was only twenty bucks.
That shit would never happen today.
Not as rare a game, but I walked into a used game store in my hometown to buy a gamecube in 2012 and found a boxed, pristine, manual-included copy of one of those Twilight Princess preorder bonuses that had Zelda 2, Ocarina of Time, and Majora's Mask priced for $3
Shout out to the now dead Gamestop that sold me a copy of FF7R with a busted install disk.
Funnily enough the term "install disk" is another reason I'm surprised they didn't bring up in their rant; why buy it physically when 90% of the game isn't even on the fucking disk. Buying a new BIG game now is a crapshoot on whether or not you'll just end up getting an empty box and a piece of fucking cardboard with a download code on it.
In the world of Digital vs Physical... I do both. I mean, both have their failings and plus sides... I just do both.
That said, as far as buying new games from stores go, I've had very little chance to do that myself. When I was a kid my father went to the store and got it most times, or my uncle gave me his old games. When there wasn't much money for games I went and got demo discs. When I had money, I didn't have money for newer consoles so I bought old games. I've never bought a new, recently released game from a store, only online.
As for preordering, I've rarely had any preordering issues, and I will preorder games, but not on a whim.
Digital is ok... until you realize with older consoles and some games that you may have the only physical copy left. Homefront and Xmen Destiny, teo games I regret getting day 1 but appreciate them having them in my collection
@@dakota4384 As I said, I do both. As they say , don't put all your eggs in one basket.
17:44 I guess it's official that I've lived under a rock, 'cuz I only found out about the supposed color of PlayStation discs RIGHT NOW...
I was there when the Microplay Pat talked about closed. I'm part of history now.
I'll be honest, when I got physical copy of XCOM: Enemy Unknown, that's the first time I had to deal with installing Steam to play the game. Didn't really like it back then because I preferred the whole game to be on the disc, with my internet not being what is today at that time. It was rough then dealing with my connection plus downloading additional files for one game, So imagine my frustration seeing a growing number of PC games requiring Steam.
Today? While I still prefer the entirety of a game to be on physical, I don't mind using Steam as much. They've improved enough that whatever lingering issues I had with digitally downloaded games has mostly vanished(provided that a game doesn't force me to be online all the time), and with physical copies of PC games being almost non-existent now(and brick and mortar stores don't really much of them anymore), Steam is pretty much the best place for me to get them.
I've got a magic game disk moment: One day at a local Blockbuster I got my hands on purchasing a copy of Paper Mario : TTYD and was pretty happy for a 13 year old. I popped it in with my memory card and found there was already a file edited to have max health( I think it was 999) and I played through it from the beginning. I double checked my memory card and was certain I didn't have any data before hand. It was a pretty easy cake walk.
Soon the kids will have no idea that video games came on disks.
That woolie story was told to use a few podcast before the best friends ended . this time with more anger. Plus the horrible hustle on children is wild
Wonder if that was a scheme where Disk 2 was always damaged and they just kept charging renters for it >_>
There were people in my town who just straight up would rent a game (ps2 era) at the local video store, then make an image of it and copy it onto another disc, print a random picture of the game on the front and bring it back to the video store. I played the few games at the video store religiously, so as soon as one of them stopped working on my ps2 since my ps2 wasn't jailbreaked, I notified the store owner.
They didn't do anything about it other than ask people to tell them if they knew who it was. They went and bought another version of that game (game was Shadow of Rome for anyone who's interested) but in the end I think like 2 other games got stolen like that. Tbf their games library wasn't large, only like 8 games on the shelf but it was still annoying that they didn't have any method for checking.
I only know gamestop, that never tried to fuck with me. They were the chillest dudes ever, they've never tried to sell me a membership, they've never gave me unsealed games, when I bought something for new, I basically lived at that place when some new games came out.
Wiki says Saga Frontier was released in the west in 98
Man our local library rented out PC games (they might still, I don't know, when's the last time any of us went to a library) and it was just the ABSOLUTE BEST. They'd also have a teen night thing every week or 2 and every time we'd install Halo on every PC and have a blast.
Unless it's Nintendo that makes the digital scoff at you if you didn't buy it's games in-time.
I went into GameStop to get a normal copy of Beyond Two Souls back in the day. I paid 60 dollars for the standard edition and they accidentally gave me the expensive collectors edition, which I didn’t question nor say anything about. It’s still on my shelf today, and I never not find that level of incompetence funny.
Reminder that SaGa Frontier is good and Pat is wrong
I remember in 1992 having a copy of Premier manager that came with a code wheel where you matched 2 items and got a code. I had to enter 99, Enter and after 3 attempts reset the Amiga, rinse abd repeat.
When I got in the game I'd play all day as it was never know when I'd get back in.
Back in the days when you'd go to some random man's house in the street and get 400 games in a box for £5 🤣
Nothing like being told by a Gamestop employee (as someone not familiar with looking up vidya info online) that the latest One Piece Pirate Warriors would ONLY be PS4, when no, it was for PS3 as well. They outright just talked out of their ass. I have had some negative experiences but all minor. But that stood out to me as I always thought Gamestop employees knew EVERYTHING about video games.
nope
I miss Blockbuster but not for the movies. The one in town would always get multiple copies of newer games, then keep like 2 and sell the extras. For a couple years that's where I got most of my games. I think I actually rented a movie....once?
I remember when Persona 5 came out and i paid off my "Collector's Edition" 5 years ago. On the Day it dropped they called me saying something like: "So we got someone in store asking for your Copy do you still want it?" Me being baffled by this call said "Heck yes i still want it I fucking paid for it" "Oh good because we were about to give it to the customer in store if we wouldn't have reached you" Never bought anything from Gamestop ever again afterwards.
That story about pat returning to that microplay years later just to do the exact same shit just makes me giggle
Digital did actually scoff in my face once, but only once.
I had minecraft installed literally like 4 years on my ps4, I deleted it one day to make room for another game, I did the opposite a short while later and what do I discover; but my copy, and ownership of minecraft are *just fucking gone*.
Supports main response was basically “well no record of your owning it exists in our files, so go fuck yourself and buy it again, motherfucker🤷🏻”
*as I’m staring at literal monthly progression screenshots from my main world*
Guess I just never had the game I played for years then🤷🏻
And it was never rectified, to this day I still feel robbed
Wow. I must’ve been lucky.
Never too late to give thanks to Gaben and GOG-chan
"Hey, you installed this game! It's a shame you dont have the right sound card!" This was always a nightmare.
Pat is wrong.
Installing PC games and managing registries and folders taught a lot of valuable basic IT knowledge to a lot of Xers and Millennials that Boomers who weren't heavily in to IT just did not have, and that later Millennials and Zoomers still don't have. And it was never *THAT* bad if you were a PC gamer and had even one geek/nerd friend or family member, which you almost certainly did, because Video Games weren't cool until about 2000, and all the geeks were excited to have more people interested in the same things.
Hell, I've almost failed interviews for basic PC usage because I don't fuck around with the UI like they expect me to and just go right in to the guts when I want to mess with the PC.
Edit: OK, the later issues, like missing disks and incompatible hardware / drivers that the program didn't tell you were an issue... that was real annoying. But again... you learned computers if you wanted to play your games.
Copy protection also existed on NES games, most notably Star Tropics, which required you to dip the instruction manual in water to get a code to advance past the 3rd island IIRC. And it wasn't the only one.
Pat is also wrong about Saga Frontier. It is not as good as FFVII correct, but it's not that bad once you adjust to it. He just fell victim to misleading expectation. Which is a valid reason for souring the experience.
I know pats pain about early pc games and trying in passwords to continue at a certain point in the game. In maniac mansion after you go up the stairs, there's a door there. Well you had to look at your big book you got with the game to put in the password. If you got it wrong and don't go into the basement to fix the breaker, the house would blow up
"... Disk 18 of 25 of Alone in the Dark"
FUCK. That one hits hard. My mind blocked such trauma, but damn, what hell that was
To be fair to an employee of like one of these games stores there just wasn't a lot they had the ability to do.
Like with the whole "it'll come in next Thursday" that was probably just their delivery day which is the best guess as to when a game will arrive. As someone who works in retail you just often have to give a best guess because in my experience customers will not let you get away with telling them you don't know something even if it's the truth.
the nostalgia level is strong in this one
In Australia it's still faster to drive to the store and buy a game. Than it is to download it with our primeval tier internet.
I occasionally end up near some brick and mortar stores, and every now and then there's a decent deal on a pre-owned game I want.
My most recent experience, however, was basically the best thing that could have happened with the thing I was buying.
Dunno if it was anywhere else, but in Australia there was a deal for like 40% off a Cyberpunk 2077 pre-order in exchange for two games off a list
Happened to have two PS4 games I wasn't planning on playing again, and I even managed to get a PC copy (via download code, of course) so I got a copy that was both cheap and functional.
One of the saddest moments of my life was getting to the last fight of Diablo 1 on PC, and founding out my disk was scratched, so in the middle of the last battle the game would crash
That and installing Virtua Fighter 2 on my old PC, that was also suffering for some reason
AND Resident Evil 2, that also was a FUCK to install in my old as 4GB space Compaq laptop
I have to deal with similar shit nowadays if I want physical but at least I haven't encountered shit like fake discs in the shrink wrapped game.....yet.
The big problem I had was fuckers ran out of stock the moment the game was advertised on their site/profile/whatever.
My dad rented Xbox games back in the early 2000s and install them on an internal hard drive, he never told me how he did it, and little old 10 year old me just had a giant game library of games that where rented for 3 days and after the 3rd day give them back and I’d still have them, just like Pat here, but done so it’s not suspicious, and now...let’s just say the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree
20:15 The answer is clearly to gut that person like a fish
I gotta jump in at the Metal Gear digital ps3 version: you pause the digital with the ps button and it includes that game's manual and or cd box art front and back. It didn't age poorly.
I liked going to GameStop, but then again I only got to go like 2 or 3 times a year and usually just browsed, and by the time I could go and pay on my own I had already shifted to PC and steam.
Question: Could physical game stores have had a chance if they weren't being run by cheap evil idiots, or is the core premise of a store for games just inherently flawed and destined to fail?
In 1998 I installed a Knights Of Xentar demo for Ms DOS off of a PC Gamer demo CD that would prevent you from going back to Windows because it would restart the computer and replay the demo. It wasn’t even playable. Had to call Compaq to get a disc to reset to factory settings.
Speaking of MGS1, my friend and I rent Twin Snakes for the Gamecube. Get to the “back of the box” part. We checked the in-game CD and couldn’t find the code. So we went in the codec and went through it one at a time until we got the right code. It took almost an hour, with some of that us stumbling on Master Miller’s codec and watched that sequence.
When I was a kid my grandma ordered TMNT for the Commodore 64 because I was super into TMNT. Within a week we lost the instructions which had the code key, so we had a poor port of an NES game that we couldn’t even play.
Hell yeah credit rentals. That shit got me the Red Steel 2 experience.