About paying more for peace of mind

I forgot to place a pre-order for Diablo III: Reaper of Souls - Ultimate Evil Edition before it's 19 August release date. My biggest concern was that I'd missed out on the 'pre-order exclusive' items, particularly the Infernal Pauldrons. 

After realising I'd missed the pre-order date I emailed Kalahari's support centre, as they were my preferred online retailer. I enquired as to whether the day one copies of the game also included the codes for the Infernal Pauldrons, etc. I received an automated response saying, "We are working extra hard  to respond within 24 ~ 48 hours."

By Friday afternoon I still hadn't received a reply to my question. So today I went to my favourite 'brick & mortar' shop for all my gaming needs, BT Games. The game was more expensive in-store than it was on either BT Games' and Kalahari's online stores, but regardless, I picked up a copy and asked the store clerk if they still had copies of the day one release that included the DLC codes. He said he wasn't sure. So I asked if I could open a copy to check its contents. I was told that I could, but then I'd have to buy the game, whether the DLC codes were included or not. It was a risk I was willing to take.

Initially the clerk tried to open the packaging in such a manner that if the codes weren't inside, he'd be able to reseal the packaging. Unfortunately this wasn't working out, so the clerk resorted to ripping the shrink wrap. The clerk told me that he could feel the disc was loose inside, so it was a good idea to open the packaging and check for scratches anyway. My heart sunk a little when the cover opened, and there was no DLC insert immediately noticeable. Instead I all I could see was the generic PS3 insert for the default controls. The insert looked pretty thin too, so I didn't get the impression of there being more than one. Fortunately I was mistaken, as upon leafing through the insert I discovered that there was indeed more than one,* and that one of these was the redemption code for the Infernal Pauldrons DLC. I thanked the clerk for his assistance, and happily paid for the game. 

At the end of the day I paid an extra R80 more (~18-20%) for the game than had I ordered it online, but at least I knew right there that it included the content I wanted. Ordering online may at times be more convenient, and cheaper, but in instances like this, it's great to have a local games shop like BT, where one can interact with staff who are genuinely passionate about the hobby, and eager to help customers. As the release dates of Alien: Isolation, Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, and Far Cry 4 draw closer, I'll definitely consider ordering from BT Games again, over their competitors.

Despite it not even being 21:30 yet, I'm just too knackered to switch on my PS3 in order to redeem the DLC codes, link gaming accounts, and then create a new character to check the 'exclusive' items stats, etc. So guess what I'll be up to first thing tomorrow morning while my wife is making me Belgium waffles for breakfast. Maybe I'll even post some pictures.

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* As an added bonus, there was a third insert advertising an additional Legendary Ring being available through a creating, or linking a Battle.net to a valid PSN account.

Q3-4 2014 gaming releases

There are quite a few games to be released during the second half of this year, that I'm really looking forward to playing. There are so many in fact that I've forgotten which is coming out when, so I decided to put together this list of release dates for the titles I'm most interested in.

1. Diablo III: Reaper of Souls - Ultimate Evil Edition (19 August 2014)
2. Alien: Isolation (07 October 2014)
3. Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor (07 October 2014)
4. Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel (14/ 17 October 2014)
5. Evolve (21 October 2014) (Delayed till February 2015)
6. The Evil Within (21 October 2014)
7. Far Cry 4 (18 November 2014)

My wallet is probably going to take quite a knock in October, although I may pre-order either Alien: Isolation, Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, or Evolve a month or two earlier, depending on whether or not there are collector's editions announced. At present Alien: Isolation is the only one of those three titles that does not have some sort of DLC attached to pre-ordering the title.

It will also be interesting to see how the sales of Alien: Isolation/ Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor, and Evolve/ The Evil Within will differ from one another as they are being released on the same dates. Given the number of accolades Evolve received at E3 last month, I don't think sales of The Evil Within will be particularly record breaking, despite the two being games in vastly different genres. Evolve's multiplayer aspect will probably be a much bigger draw card than any of single player campaigns of the other games on this list.

At the moment I'm leaning towards getting Alien: Isolation over Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor, and Evolve over The Evil Within. This could however change depending how each of these handles on 'old-gen.' consoles, with the exception of Evolve which isn't getting an 'old gen.' release. 

My prediction for how I'll spend the rest of my gaming year is thus;

Today - 19 Aug.: Deadpool, Diablo III, and Rage

20 Aug. - 07 Oct.: Diablo III: Reaper of Souls - Ultimate Evil Edition and Rage

08 Oct. - 17 Oct.: Alien: Isolation

18 Oct. - 21 Oct.: Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel

22 Oct. - 18 Nov.: Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel and Evolve

19 Nov. - 31 Dec.: Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, Evolve, and Far Cry 4

Who am I kidding, there is no way I am going to be able to get this much gaming time before the end of the year. With the exception of Deadpool, any one of these games could keep me busy for the rest of the year after its release. At this stage I'd be content with having just enough time to finish the storyline of Diablo III, and possibly the Reaper of Souls expansion too, before the October releases start pouring in. Fitting a weekend in before the end of the month to do nothing but play Deadpool and eat chimichangas, would be nice too.

--Updated 09 August 2014--

Diablo III: Reaper of Souls - Ultimate Evil Edition

Eleven months ago, the Reaper of Souls expansion pack for PC versions of Diablo III was announced. This was closely followed by the console release of Diablo III a month later. I pre-ordered a copy with the intention of playing it at a later time. That time arrived, and I managed to reach complete most of the first act with my chosen character.

Then life and other games got in the way, and Diablo III sat neglected in my gaming box for a while. Recently I begun playing Diablo III as my primary game again (I often swap between two or more titles, when I get stuck, or have simply had enough of a particular genre), and now I am quite excited about the news regarding the Reaper of Souls console release in the form of the Ultimate Evil Edition.

OK, so the news hit nearly two months ago now, but I've been a little preoccupied with arranging a wedding and stuff. Last month the PlayStation exclusive items were announced, and once again they're centred around tie-ins with PS exclusive titles. This time round the games are The Last of Us, and Shadow of the Colossus, neither of which I've played. There is also an additional piece of armour available as a pre-order incentive, the Infernal Pauldrons, which should look pretty neat when paired with the Infernal Helm pre-order incentive from the console base game.

While I'm mentioning the base game, it will be included in Diablo III: Reaper of Souls - Ultimate Evil Edition. That means if you have yet to get a copy of Diablo III for your console, all you'll need to buy in order to join in on the console experience is the Ultimate Evil Edition. Not a bad deal at all considering PS3/ Xbox 360 version is retailing at only R 419. The same retailer is selling the PC version of the Reaper of Souls expansion for R 379, and that excludes the base game, which is required to play, and will set you back another R 451.

For those who already own console versions of Diablo III, and only want to add the Reaper of Souls expansion, digital downloads will be available through the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live closer to the release date. I'm thinking that for only R 419, I may as well buy a physical copy of the Ultimate Evil Edition, as I like to have physical discs over digital downloads. Call me old-fashioned, or whatever, but if I ever decide to delete games from my PS3 harddrive, I want to know that I will still be able to play them again in the future, without having to waste time downloading them again.

That said, I'll wait and see what the price difference between the physical and digital versions of Reaper of Souls are before committing to either. At the moment though, I'm still leaning towards buying a physical copy.

Diablo III expansion announced

While some PC gamers have been getting pretty uptight over the release of the console version of Diablo III, they can now rejoice as they too are getting some love from Blizzard Entertainment, in the form of Diablo III: Reaper of Souls.

For now the expansion looks to be a PC exclusive, but I'm pretty sure (read: really hoping) that Reaper of Souls will be released for consoles too.

The expansion includes a new hero-class, the crusader (which looks like a Black Templar from Warhammer 40,000), a fifth Act to the story, and no doubt a new arsenal of weapons and magical goodies to help slay some new monsters.

Ironically, I've spent the last few afternoon replaying Diablo II, so that I can complete Act V of Diablo II, before I get stuck into Diablo III in September.