Continue reading »]]> Ignoring the fact that local retailers have minimal or no time for the Wii on their shelves (My local Toys’R'Us has space for Wii games on the bottom row of one of their 5 shelves for games), I am utterly disgusted at the pricing of Wii games when taking into account PAL and NTSC imports. We’re being ripped off on a *lot* (not all) of titles!

Take for instance a couple of examples I came across at one of my favourite local online retailers Take 2. They’ve consistently managed to get imported games and DVDs at great prices. Compare these titles and prices (as at writing):

Resident Evil 4 Wii UK PAL – R477
Resident Evil 4 Wii US NTSC – R303
Eledees Wii UK PAL – R581
Elebits Wii US NTSC – R197
Mercury Meltdown Wii UK PAL – R659 (On special for R333)
Mercury Meltdown Wii US NTSC – R204

None of these titles seem to have local South-African launched versions (on Take2 anyway, I can’t see them anywhere else either, but I might be wrong?), and after looking at some other titles, it seems we do get some titles at cheaper prices than the import prices, but there are titles that are still cheaper to import than to buy the local version. Looking at the list above (I’m sure I can find more), the price difference is huge (I recall actually seeing the ResEvil4 NTSC version for R200 or so a few months back at Take2)

Now, the fact that NTSC titles are cheaper doesn’t help us PAL users, but then again, it does pose the question of whether it’s now worth it getting a Wii Modchip installed, to unlock the region locking on the Wii? Moral and legal issues aside, paying R800 to have a modchip fitted, is so worth it if I’ll be saving between R150 and R400 *per* *title* that I buy the NTSC version.

What’s a game-lover to do?

Me? I investigated modchip options for the Wii. Turns out there’s some differences between consoles and chips and chip versions and stuff. Wikipedia helped a lot with its list of Wii modchips page. I have a D2C chipset Wii (newer ones), and that limits my modchip options to one of four or so chips: D2Ckey, D2CPro, Argon, Infectus and the new Wasabi chip. After doing some serious research, turns out the Wasabi chip is likely to be the best, due it’s ease of firmware update, and the minimal number of wires needed to be soldered.

Not wanting to do the soldering onto the Wii board myself, I looked at alternatives, and found the Wii-Clip. It’s a device that allows you to solder the modchip onto the Wii-Clip, and then just pop the Wii-Clip-with-modchip-attached, over the necessary chip inside the Wii Console, so no actual soldering required inside the Wii. Sounds like the better solution to me!

And the cost? Well, having the D2CKey fitted locally will cost R1000, due to the kabillion wires that needs soldering on the Wii.
Compare that to: US$39 (About R310) for the Wii-Clip V5 (Wasabi version) from www.ic2005.com with Free Shipping, and the actual Wasabi chip for about US$55 (about R435) on just about any of the Wasabi modchip reseller site (I’m sure there are many of them that do Free Shipping too.) So that makes R750 or so for a non-destructive modchip for the Wii, that will allow me to play US import games.

Sorted.
Decided.
Ordering.

Continue reading »]]> While doing my usual morning round-up of going through my daily online comics (using the awesome Darkgate Comic Slurper), I came across yesterday’s latest Penny Arcade comic. I don’t usually read the news around their comics, but this comic mentioned a “Raid Deck“, which stirred my interest a bit. You see, I used to play Magic: the Gathering about 14 years ago, and sold all my cards for a measly R3000 (back then) in 1999 or so (I had a complete Ice Age, Homelands, and even a complete 4th Edition set), so the mention of some sort of “Deck” just got my interest. (I love card games, especially trading card games, but can’t afford to play them anymore. Doesn’t mean I can’t love them…)

So a Googling I go. I found that “Raid Deck” referred to the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game. After some digging I found that AnimeDirect sells this game online (although, looking at their prices, it seems a bit over-priced when compared to the US Dollar prices: $30 vs. R340), and I’m sure your local Wizards shop (my closest one is in Stadium on Main in Claremont) will also stock it. Interesting, you can even go through the interactive demo to find out how to play, and download PDFs of demo decks too. Awesome stuff.

All this reminded me of all the trading card game cards I still have lying around the house. After selling my MtG cards, a few years later I managed to convince the S.O. to play something a bit simpler, in the form of the Pokemon TCG. We bought several starter decks when the First Edition just came out here, and I tried my best to collect a complete set. I got quite far before I lost interest, but I still have all the cards here, all in display files in a folder etc. I also came across the two starter decks and several booster packs we bought for the Harry Potter TCG, which was also an interesting take on the TCG thing, but with the increasing cost of these cards, we just couldn’t keep up. I’m sure I could get a fair amount for these Pokemon cards, they’re in mint condition, and they’re all First Edition and Second Edition. Where to flog them though? Nobody in South-Africa still plays it.

Anyway, the whole point here was that I love card and board games. I even bought the Civilization Chronicles Box Set to get the Civilization card game (Fixed card amount, nice game really, takes a few hours to play one game), and more recently I bought the S.O. a Carcassonne box set, and the one expansion. Philly_Girl also told me about some other card games which piqued my interest, such as Murdero and Fluxx. Have to try those still. And Catan. I’ve played both Catan and Carcassonne on XBLA, and they’re equally fun there too. (And I want to try Sierra’s new “Lost Cities” card game on XBLA too… Launching over the next few weeks I think.)
And, if you’re interested in buying board games, I’ve found that the prices on www.boardgames.co.za are very good, they have a nice selection (Including Doom and World of Warcraft boardgames), and they do free shipping too.

So, while hunting for links for this blog post, I came across Penny Arcade’s news relating to their “Raid Deck”, and they’re giving WOW TCG stuff away. What makes this even more interesting and relating to my previous post about 100 words, is that the way to win some of the stuff PA’s giving away, is you’re to write a short story, set in the World of Warcraft setting, consisting of exactly 10 (yes, ten) words. Heh. I’m gonna try I tell you!