The Joy of CEX (and other brick 'n' mortar establishments) - The Bear and Badger

LivDiv

I was trying to remember the last thing I bought in Game.
I'm pretty sure it was NSMBU + Luigi. It was while at my old job so can't have been later than 2014.
I also returned it because they gave me the standard version without Luigi and didn't have the right disc in the drawer.

Kernowgaz

acemuzzy wrote:

So Game are now charging £4.99 to post a disc. Boo.

But they'll give you a £5 if it's posted to a shop and you go collect. Groovy! And it even helpfully shows you nearest open stores... which are all almost exactly 150 miles away cos they're all in Wales cos of the lockdown dur...

That’s what sports direct do, isn’t it owned by Mike ‘Cunt’ Ashley?

mistercrayon

It’s not even if you buy a disc but if you buy two discs in the same order it costs you £5 per disc!!

g.man

That's outrageous. Fuck 'em.

davyK

They can go fuck themselves.

GAME is a depressing, dreary, pikey hole to go into now anyhow. It's all used mobiles and tat that doesn't ever seem to shift off the shelves.

One in 3 times I go in there I have witnessed a row between the manager and some mouth breather over a return or a trade in.

Bob

I have a soft spot for Game. Even know that our local one has been bundled into the local Sports Direct.

Syph79

I don’t think it helps that the shelves are filled with 10’s of replica boxes all showing the same game. Why would I want to look at 50 cases all showing the cover of the latest Call of Duty? They have the space, but really need to use it better.

Diluted Dante

Activision paid for that space.

EvilRedEye

We all piss money up the wall sometimes.

Blocks100

So I understand I'm a mug for shelling out 60 quid on the latest ass creed via the PSN store. But it was sold as a digital bundle for PS4 plus PS5 upgrade. I just wanted the bog standard PS4 version but there is no option for this.

Is this what we've got to put up with now?, more expensive last gen games that are sold with a ,'free upgrade' to the next gen but aren't actually a free, but just a fiver onto the usual £55 digital price? It's shite.

davyK

Modern gaming feels joyless to me. Even the Switch with its manual-less physical games are a disappointment.

It's turning something that should be quirky and novel into a commodity. I find it a massive turn off and am reverting more and more to retro (if that were possible).

Yossarian

davyK wrote:

Modern gaming feels joyless to me. Even the Switch with its manual-less physical games are a disappointment.

It's turning something that should be quirky and novel into a commodity. I find it a massive turn off and am reverting more and more to retro (if that were possible).

Indie gaming is where you’ll find your quirky, novel experiences these days. There’s loads of good quality stuff in that space.

I pretty much seem to spend my game time playing indies these days, with only the very occasional AAA experience making its way through to me.

bad_hair_day

Quirky and novel? Yoss, tell 'em about Pistol Whip.

davyK

Yossarian wrote:

davyK wrote:

Modern gaming feels joyless to me. Even the Switch with its manual-less physical games are a disappointment. It's turning something that should be quirky and novel into a commodity. I find it a massive turn off and am reverting more and more to retro (if that were possible).

Indie gaming is where you’ll find your quirky, novel experiences these days. There’s loads of good quality stuff in that space. I pretty much seem to spend my game time playing indies these days, with only the very occasional AAA experience making its way through to me.

Aye. Steam is a nice place for it I have to say. I'd like them to offer some sort of physical media service for collectors but I have to live with the fact that such a thing would be very niche and unlikely to ever happen. The transitory nature of PC gaming is all part of that too of course.

Tempy

If you're yearning for the days of bedroom coders, get on Itch.io, or Pico-8

davyK

Not necessarily bedroom coding. I like my games to be polished - so Steam tends to scratch that itch. I'm not a graphics tart but I do like a pro-designed look which makes all the difference no matter what the resolution.

I don't look back on the 8bit micro era with much fondness - the media got in the way. Tape loading piled on the woes of the slow speeds and cheap video/audio circuitry. Some great ideas but I'd have taken little more craftmanship and a little less innovation.

I'm being unfair. Bedroom style can be classy. Cave story floated my boat.

Tempy

I think you’re assuming a lot, yeah. Tools are better now, people can make things look professional level quite a lot easier than they could back then. Take a punt.

davyK

I will indeed.

Cheers. It does look nice.

LivDiv

That is Debenhams gone and another 13,000 jobs with it. Seriously rough times.

I guess where I am in Bedford is a typical smallish town and the high street is decimated.
In the 4.5 years I have been here we have lost Debenhams, Beales (regional dept store chain), M&S, BHS, Topshop/Man, Game, Carphone Warehouse and a fair few indies including one of the oldest retailers in the country.
Probably will lose Argos as well as I think they are scaling back their high st presence.

Its pretty much just Boots, TK Maxx, Next and Wilko now. It is honestly hardly worth going and that's the issue, the loss of footfall is exponential.

mistercrayon

Before I moved to Newport (South Wales) about 10 years ago the big hope was Debenhams would show up in the new sexy plaza. It didn’t show up until years late (maybe 5 years ago now) and now it’s going to close down.

A real big blow.

davyK

Debenhams is most likely an anchor tenant in one of Belfast's major city centre shopping centres - called Castle Court - has been going quite well for 30 years. It's hanging on as it is this year - but if Debenhams goes under it will start to look like the reception area of Alex's block of flats in Clockwork Orange.

We lost House of Fraser just over a year ago from the city centre's 2nd shopping centre - though it seems to be living on in a rebranded form. It was/is an anchor tenant too.

Dinostar77

I like debenhams shame to see it go. Covid has accelerated the decline of the high street. Hopefully the high street can reinvent itself, though without some sort of tax on internet purchases, it always going to be fighting a losing battle against online shopping.

LivDiv

Sadly I think most High Sts will die and with wealthier office workers looking to move out of towns to work from home the future of town centres seems pretty grim.
Destitution seems all but inevitable now.

acemuzzy

You have to hold that something will come back and take advantage of that space. Of that means smaller Indies, cafes etc, still with local flexible workforce and without (generalizing somewhat) corporate tax dodgers creaming off profit and lowering quality, then it could have positives... But obviously that won't happen overnight, and is little solace to those affected by today's news.

I'm sure Green will top up the pension pot at least tho, right??

afgavinstan

I'm gonna move into a empty Debenhams and start an art collective

LivDiv

Wealthy towns populated by ex-city folk will get some indies, quant little coffee shops and all that.
Poorer towns are gonna be rough.
Even then what do you do with a department store? You can't put indies in them.

Honestly the only appropriate thing I can think to do with the space here is turn them into homeless shelters.

You get to the point where there is no money coming into the town and end up being another Northampton.

edit: Ha, posted that before Gav's post appeared. No offence Gav.

poprock

The empty shopping centre in Paisley has just recently been bought by a developer who plans to turn it into a mixed use development – town centre flats with shops, bars and restaurants on the ground floor.

So basically for town/city centres the era of shopping centres has been a failed experiment and we’re heading back to how things were before they took over – shops at ground level with living spaces above.

Except now we have out of town shopping centres to add into the mix, and online shopping already endangering even those.

LivDiv

As well as less people with buying power actually wanting to live in a town centre.

They did all that shops below, flats above thing in Milton Keynes in a project called "The Hub".
Trouble is nobody in their right mind wants to live above Los Iguanos. Now the flats are half full of escorts servicing blokes on business trips.

poprock

At least they’re half full.

Spoiler:

Yossarian

High streets could be used for so much more. Put a crèche in there, a couple of art galleries, a couple of venues for bands or performances, a subsidised cafe or two, a youth club, a library, perhaps a careers advice centre, a citizen’s advice bureau, a subsidised gym, workshops, studios. They could be community spaces which would offer so much more than they do filled with shops.

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