Is Gamestop Evil? The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

[CRTGAMER]

Buy 2 Get 2 Free?
Bah! I almost bought Fatal Frame and a cheap game in order to get Fatal Frame 3 and another cheap game free. I already have FF2 Crimson Butterfly, figured on completing the collection. Unlike the last B2G2F, the policy got changed.

Kills the idea of Buy One Get One Free
You can still get the freebie but not of the same value unless all four games cost the same. The last B2G2F, the employee would price match each set individually. Buy a $29.00 and a $5.00 game, get a $29.00 and a $5.00 game free. As long as the freebie was the same or cheaper, it was honored. This time the two cheapest games are free, leaving both Fatal Frames of 29 bucks being charged. This kills the idea of Buy One Get One Free connotations of two games for the price of one. I passed up on the reprints, eventually may get the original releases later.

Reprints
This is a puzzler. I noticed a lot of Gamestops received all three Fatal Frames a few days into the last Buy 2 Get 2 Free. All the ones I have seen are reprints without an internal memory card holder. Are the reprints from the publisher requested by Gamestop?

http://www.racketboy.com/forum/viewtopi ... 73#p410873

Fatal Frames-Originals and Reprints

Recently I bought the Fatal Frame series from Gamestop. My friend has the original copies and the ones I now have are the reprints. He let me borrow them to see them and there are some differences on them, espeically on the original Fatal Frame.

Obviously the you can tell ther're the repirnts because the have the new case. but I'm sure all of you out there can spot more stuff.

You can use this as a guide to see which copy you own or when buying this game.

Fatal Frame: One the cover art the left one is original the right is the reprint. There is a different logo on the bottom right. The book covers are really different and so is the font on the inside. The info in the book is the same but now there's the new ps2 pic in there, and the pics in the manual are much bigger.

[AppleQueso]

Are the reprints from the publisher requested by Gamestop?

No, I believe those are GameQuest Direct reprints. If I remember right, they're also the guys responsible for reprinting the GameCube ports of Resident Evil 2 and 3. I think they were responsible for reprints of a few Atlus games as well.

Personally, I support the endeavor.

Also I don't know why you seem surprised that Gamestop's being as cheap as humanly possible about this 'deal'.

[CRTGAMER]

Are the reprints from the publisher requested by Gamestop?

No, I believe those are GameQuest Direct reprints. If I remember right, they're also the guys responsible for reprinting the GameCube ports of Resident Evil 2 and 3. I think they were responsible for reprints of a few Atlus games as well.

Personally, I support the endeavor.

Also I don't know why you seem surprised that Gamestop's being as cheap as humanly possible about this 'deal'.

Thanks, that makes sense. I like reprints too, keeps a game available at a reasonable cost. Now if only Wii Metroid Trilogy would get reprinted. I wouldn't mind if the market gets flooded to get the price down. I don't even care about the tin case, just release the set again!

I Emailed the local District Manager to get clarity on the Fatal Frame reprints and the change of B2G2F policy. I'll post any updated info.

EDIT Update
Okay got a response back. Evidently the B2G2F has always been the two cheapest games free. I just got lucky last go around, the employee took care of me and taking the time to price match. This time around the cash register decides all the free entries.

District Manager unsure as to timing of all the Fatal Frame Reprints showing up at Gamestop, Corporate would know.

[flojocabron]

yeah. I've seen some of those extra fatal frames.

There are three gamestops close to me and it seems that all three got them. Minus the three I bought from one of them.

When I renewed my powerup card back in april, Gamestop sent me a printable cupon for "Buy 2 get 1 free" I used this to buy all three games.

I was a little hesitant. But I had recently got my tax return and $60 got me all three games!

So this time around with their buy 2 get 2 free deal, It would be harder to get a 'rare' good deal. There are fewer used games at around $30 bucks than there were a few years ago.

[coastercrazy10]

I spoke with someone who worked at GS during the last B2G2 and he said they got the Fatal Frames the day before it ended (the Saturday). Seems pretty consistent with the copies popping up and everyone else's experience. I took advantage though and bought Shin MegaTen Nocturne, which also turned out to be reprinted. Wish I would have gone for Suikoden 5 instead...

-Ben

[GigaPepsiMan]

So much easier to spot a reprint in the UK.
Some games were rated by the elspa when they came out:



There was also the bbfc:

There are stil BBFC rated games today but elspa was the main one.

Now it is all pegi:
Old pegi rating:


new pegi rating:


By using these you can tell if it is reprint or not.

Example original copies of Slient Hill 2, Slient Hill 3 and Zone of the enders 2 have the black pegi rating, the reprints all have the new colour coded pegi ratings.

Some games were rated under elspa when they came out and were then re-rated by pegi when they were re-printed (super smash brothers melee and other early cube games that went players choice for example).

[BoringSupreez]

Hey, I just bought an old PC game at a thrift store that had that rating system! I had no idea that was an old British rating system, I thought it was being done by the game's publisher.

[CRTGAMER]

A Single Penny!
Gamestop has tossed out all the cases for PS2 games that are under ten bucks. This is old news, but still a stupid lousy penny would have kept the game complete. I have been on the hunt for PS2 Scarface The World is Yours which sales for $9.99 used. In a touch of irony, my "keep all the cases" two Gamestops shipped two thirds of their inventory to Arizona just a couple of days ago. Both still has the game listed as in stock, likely were complete ones. What is it with Arizona, a lot of PS2 owners taking advantage of the B2G2F? I just want the one stupid game.

The Reason For My Search
TEKTORO sent me the Special Edition bonus DVD. After watching the making of the game in the DVD, I'm now wanting to try the PS2 game. There is a Wii version, but I think the PS2 version will be better for HDAdvance/HDLoader convenience. What caught my eye is it looks to play like Grand Theft Auto with a unique FPS Rage mode.

So Many Gamestops
There are a few more Gamestops in another district twenty minutes away, I'll give those a try tomorrow. I was looking for a Scarface Special Edition case, knowing Gamestop usually doesn't trade in any bonus DVD. Now any edition complete would be fine. I know PS2 used games have been merchandised what seems way pass its shelf limit, but used games are why I go to Gamestop. I'll continue to get used Wii games, but looks like Amazon is getting more and more of my used game business.

[Ziggy]

I went into my local Game Stop yesterday, just to check out the sale. Wasn't even planning on buying anything, I just wanted to see what was going on. Sign on the door said "CASH ONLY" and noted that they were running on partial power. Now for those of you that don't know, as of today, there's still 90K people without power since the hurricane last Sunday. I guess they were running the lights and little else off of generators so they could at least open. The computers and (obviously) credit card machines were off.

Anyway, long story shot.... NO PS2 GAMES ANYWHERE!

[fvgazi]

I went into my local Game Stop yesterday, just to check out the sale. Wasn't even planning on buying anything, I just wanted to see what was going on. Sign on the door said "CASH ONLY" and noted that they were running on partial power. Now for those of you that don't know, as of today, there's still 90K people without power since the hurricane last Sunday. I guess they were running the lights and little else off of generators so they could at least open. The computers and (obviously) credit card machines were off.

Anyway, long story shot.... NO PS2 GAMES ANYWHERE!

Go to the one in Hauppauge off rte. 347.