Yesterday I DIDN'T Buy

I really don't want to become a hoarder myself, but then again, I've still got all the "congrats on the new home!" cards I received in a drawer somewhere.

There's no shame in that, I have to clear out my card drawer every so often because at the end of an event everything gets shovelled in there. I keep my sister's and The Lady's cards because they're funny.

I keep all my cards until there are too many, then bin the lot. Its the same way I used to treat haircuts, when it grew back.

At least cards don't take up as much real estate as Funko Pops! I can understand wanting to keep things like that - I have kept a few of this year's Christmas cards for slightly sad reasons - but last year's cards are usually a good indication of who you need to write to this year!

A SEGA Saturn

Recently I've been looking at picking up a N64 or a Saturn, and I've been looking on eBay etc but both have risen in price over these past 3 months and a bit more than I want to pay.

Anyway went to the local indy game shop yesterday for the first time, and they had a Saturn that had been traded in, it was unboxed, 3rd party controller, RF Unit and was £80. The guy in the shop was like if this was at the start of the year would have been maybe £50 and with a game but with CEX next door prices, that unfortunately they're paying around that for it themselves.

I don't blame them, they don't want it going to CEX so got to pay top dollar themselves, just for me to spend that sort of money on one I would want boxed, scart and least a game like Daytona.

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Back on the old chat Digital PS5 and hearing a lot the Xbox Lockhart/Series S will very much focused on digital / streaming

I can see how much they go for here, if you like? Apparently Saturns are region locked but theres a converter cartridge that fixes it easily enough.

Yeah really easy to get around region locking also so many more games and cheaper in Japan.

Not something I've seen but something I'm planning to sell and that's my PS4 Pro + PSVR.

You might be thinking that's odd, your are resident PlayStation fanboy.

Well looking at the release schedule between now and the PS5, I only see 13 Sentinel's that is exclusive to PS4 that interests me as I plan to play the likes of Tony Hawk on Xbox One and stuff like Assassin's Creed Valhalla (if I play it) plan to play on next gen.

That sure I could wait for when the PS5 launches but due to COVID console prices are still high (you'd actually make money on a Switch at the moment) and you'd think most will wait for when the PS5 launches which by then prices may have dropped especially if a influx of used PS4's.

That from looking on CEX and talking to my local, at the moment for what I would get for the PS4 Pro, PSVR and a few bits (extra controller etc) is a very good prices and maybe even get £500+

I don't plan to trade in my games such as Death Stranding, Persona 5 Royal, Uncharteds etc as I hope they're backwards compatible with the PS5 from the get go.

That with only one game within the next 4 months or so, I think I might as well cash in now and pretty much pay for the PS5 just with a PS4 Pro and PSVR.

I've actually been looking into selling all of my PS4 stuff too, think I could get a decent price on it if I shift it now rather than once the 5 is out.

I'm in the process of getting new parts for a new PC, so it would all go towards that. Probably won't be until September that I build it though because the next generation of graphics cards and cpu chips should be out in the wild (or at least benchmarked) by then. Exciting rumours have it that nVidia will actually have competition from AMD in the high-end graphics card market so hopefully the prices will either be competitive, or the performance of this generation will be very good.

Have been doing a lot of video editing at home for work recently and could seriously do with an upgrade. The machine I built around the time I joined here has served me well and still runs like a treat, but it's got to the point where I'd need to buy a new motherboard if I wanted to upgrade and at that point I might as well build the whole thing again. I don't really want to build it myself but I compared prices and I can get what I want for about £600 cheaper if I do it myself!

This might be the first generation where I don't get a playstation. What with Microsoft's game pass being compatible with PC, and Sony belatedly releasing games like Horizon on computer, I'm not even sure I'd need anything other than a Switch.

That and, while I do have a contract through to March 21, there's no guarantees I'll be earning enough to justify getting something I don't use enough.

Yeah I heard some new quality graphic cards are coming.

Even if Sony don't release more on PC, got PSNOW again belated releases but do see most on it.

Rumour has it that the current flagship nVidia card will be about 20% slower than the entry level next genration card.

No idea what the pricing will be like as the current flagship card is like £1200 or something absolutely insane. So very much a wait and see how the value works out, especially if there is some competition now.

On the contrary, I've been underwhelmed by both PS5 and Xbox Two, so will be keeping an eye on PS4 Pro prices when the PS5 price is announced. Hopefully people trading them in drives the price down, as I've just bought a 4K TV and my two options at the moment are either a PS4 Pro for a few years (until next-gen impresses me) or get a proper Switch. I'll probably lean towards the proper Switch, as the Lite gives me hand cramp if I play it for any longer than 30 minutes. But seeing Ghost of Tsushima, Last of Us 2 and presumably Cyberpunk, all look beautiful in 4K, the jump to next-gen will be a way off in the gjones house.

Really if you can wait like the 7 years for the end of the gen, you can go pick up all the quality games for that system sensible price but fomo especially with single player games, dam you internet with The Last of Us Part II.

Ohh and this will be the fourth Xbox system, which the newest one is called Xbox then Series X much like how iPhones are named.

Interesting on the Lite as I found the classic too bulky for portable play and I think Jas bought some grips for his to make it nicer to hold.

There's an Ayrshire Hospice charity shop down the street that had a Wii bundle displayed in it's window. It was a console, some remotes, a balance board and a stack of of around a dozen games, all for £40. What appealed were the games - there was some really good first-party stuff (such as Mario Galaxy and WarioWare), and even a few games I don't have.

It sat there for four months, and I've had my eye on it during lockdown. But no, I didn't buy it: the charity shop suddenly closed for good and removed all their stock.  

I donated tons of books, DVDs and games to that shop too, and knew folk that worked there. 

You could made a few quid on that during lockdown, Wii were upto about £90 (don't know about now).

My PS4 selling should bring me to £603, that should buy a PS5

Sorry to read Cappa. Hope those affected can find work easily enough. It’s not a good time for charity shops.

JayMoyles wrote:

Ah, I love the sound of WtG from your little write-up there Balla! ...trying it through a month's free trial of Apple Arcade won't break my self-imposed "let's not buy any new games for the rest of 2020" rule, right?

I just sold my Apple TV, which the money has gone into the next gen fund.

I liked the idea of it and Apple has far as I know now want fewer games on Arcade but better ones instead of lots of okay ones. From a channel I follow-on YouTube that covers Mac and Apple gaming this seems to be true as Arcade just got Samurai Jack which is £30+ on Console.

The thing for me is even though I want to be able to play all the quality games, and not just limit myself to one system and miss out on good games, there is still only so much time & money. Till very recently the Switch was my 3rd played system that the Apple Arcade was even further down in the pecking order.

With the biggest issue being I'm not in that ecosystem like I tried to add Scully as a friend but couldn't as I can't set up a gamertag as I need a iPhone or iPad to do it, which I don't have.

Guess it's the same for you guys when I say (saw Andy playing it via Xbox so guessing he played via Game Pass) Spiritfarer is on Game Pass why would I play £20+ on Switch, but I've got an Xbox One, an Android phone & tablet for XCloud and a decent'ish laptop that the service is great for me as I'm in the ecosystem. Where this would be like Balla just having an Android tablet, sure he could play Spiritfarer on it but I reckon he'd much sooner play on Switch or the Ladies PC.

Also, I didn't buy this


Was offered it for £200, I passed

Went into town after two days in doors and see what's about as got some money.

The indie game shop had a bunch of retro consoles a SEGA Saturn for £150 boxed with FIFA, SEGA Rally, Steering Wheel and Memory Card also both boxed all looked mint which I was tempted by it then I looked to see what other games they had and wasn't a great selection it was more football games.

What put me off it be £150 with only SEGA Rally to play till whatever I could buy on eBay arrived then take Nights its £30+ which isn't a lot when I just spent a lot on a game I can't really play (Policenauts), just other Saturn games costing a fair bit make it a system that's just too expensive now unless previous chat look at imports.

The game shop also had a N64 boxed with Goldeneye bundle which also great condition but that was £105, they did have a good selection of games though such as SM64, Banjo, Perfect Dark the thing is I can play most of those elsewhere.

So I didn't buy either and even though be cool to have, not really needed in 2021 or too expensive to get games for.

I see your point about the Saturn. I've gathered a decent-ish collection of Saturn games, but it's mostly the common and cheap stuff. Games like Manx TT, Athlete Kings, Virtua Fighter and SEGA Rally are all well and good, but once you get past that I just don't see much that's very appealing for under thirty quid. Don't get me wrong, I'll not stop anybody paying £25 for Independence Day or Space Jam or something like that...but I don't know why anybody would. The expense is the main reason I've only bought one Saturn game in the last ten-or-so years.

There's still lots of stuff that's worthwhile on N64 though.

I walked into a local hospice charity shop while I was passing by, knowing that they occasionally get some retro games donated. I clocked four big stacks of DS games in the corner, there must have been over sixty of them. Proverbially licking my lips, I brisky walked over in anticipation…only to find that it was stacks of the worst, most shovelware-ey DS games thinkable. Dolphin Island. Horse Life. Imagine Babyz. They were all there, and much more. Sixty plus games, and not a half-decent one among them.

Even at £1.75 a game, I bought nothing. How shite is that!

A pile of games so shite you didn't even come away with some film tie-in platformer is a horrifying thought indeed.

Welcome to our world Cappa, this is what the rest of us know charity shops to be.

Yep, that sounds like my charity shop video game experience right there! I need to find this promised land of deals that Cappa lives in.

It’s been a couple of years since I found anything really good in a charity shop. The days of reliably picking up a weird PS1 games or import GameCube games are long gone, replaced by an occasional snifter of a PS4 FIFA.

I saw my first charity shop Switch game in a British Heart Foundation a couple of weeks back though. It was My Time At Portia for £9.99, but it didn’t really interest me enough to take a punt on it.

Not as exciting as DS games, and I might still get depending how much I get for birthday (Getting Pokemon Legends and Uncharted, so doubt anything else) but I've cancelled both the Blue and Pink DualSense as can't remember when I last turned my PS5 on and don't really plan for big session to Horizon Forbidden West, by then the Purple DualSense be out anyway.