Show/Rate/Review Your Latest Purchase!

[The3rdChildren]

So what's this all about?

 

Basically what I think would be cool is to have a thread where we can post about stuff we've recently bought, and post a little mini review about it. You could even add in how much you paid, link to/say where you bought it and all that other stuff you'd associate with whoring your newest cool stuff.

 

I'll kick it off:

 

 

Naruto Unleashed, series 1: part 1 DVD collection.

 

 

Naruto finally hits the UK uncut from Manga Entertainment. This 13 episode, 3 disc set promises everything Naruto fans have waited for, but how does it weigh up in the end? Let's take a little look.

 

 

Presentation?

The set is presented in a black slipcase with some attractive front/reverse cover art with our hero in his trademark pose upon the front. The interior case features a different Naruto image, whilst inside there are promotional insert slips and a small booklet which I'll get into when I talk about the extras.

 

The menus on the discs are very nicely done, set to the dubbed RISE theme which is oddly chosen as it doesn't seem to be present at all on the set (the intro and closing themes are the original Japanese ones, so rejoice!). Manga always do nice menus on their releases and Naruto is no exception.

 

Audio?

You'll find both Japanese and English DTS/5.1 tracks on this disc, as well as your standard stereo ones. The Japanese is a lot clearer than on fansubs and the English dub, whilst not to everyone's taste, is very watchable and accurate to the original script.

 

Video?

Naruto has always been a digitally animated show, and on DVD this really shows. Colours are clean and vibrant. A great transfer, and surprising for those who have only ever watched Naruto via fansubs and small YouTube windows. This set is worth the price for the 4:3 video transfer alone.

 

Extras?

The set ships with a small booklet containing summaries of all 13 episodes and some storyboard images of certain sequences. Interesting stuff, and all a bonus considering the great price this is available at.

 

The set is also host to textless opening and ending credits, "Anime to Manga translation" (shouldn't it be the other way around?) and a smattering of trailers for upcoming Manga Entertainment releases.

 

Where to buy?

It cost me £18 or so including delivery from play.com which is remarkably good for a set containing 13 episodes of a series when most studios opt to release four to five (usually less) episodes per disc at the same price.

 

Overall?

Naruto Unleashed comes at a great price, with a great episode count. It's the Naruto DVDs fans in the UK have been waiting for. The presentation of the set is very nice, and with the second set due to arrive in the coming months it looks like this will ultimately be a very attractive, affordable anime collection.

 

I'll get some screenshots and images up later, I need to go to work now.

[BlueStar]

Latest ebay purchases...

 

Snakeskin Wallet 10/10

 

Purple Silk Boxer Shorts 10/10

 

[demonmike04]

Ah, i'l be buying this when Volume 2 comes out as then i'l have the whole series instead of half waiting for the other.

 

I think the last thing I bought I can actually review is:

Final Fantasy: Dawn of souls

Final Fantasy I & II on one GBA cart is reason enough to buy this. Not only do they contain the originals that look exactly the same as the PS1 version, They contain extra's known as Soul of Chaos and Soul of rebirth.

 

Final Fantasy I: Its an interesting play, its the daddy of the whole series. Its a great play, but a very standard RPG as you'd guess. There are alot of bad points though, it lacks a good story. Sure its got the Warriors of Light and stuff, but thats something that could easilly get covered in one chapter in the other games. You could complete this game in about 5-10 hours if you really tried. Its very short.

Do not threat however, as there are 4 dungeons unlocked during the course of this game which are actually pretty difficult. This is a good treat if you have played through the game before, and a bonus for those who havent. Each dungeon contains monsters from other Final Fantasy games, and the more difficult the dungeon you go in, the more floors. Pretty difficult but incredibly fun.

 

Final Fantasy II: If you played through Final Fantasy games before except from one (I cant remember the number damn it, i think its number 10), your gonna be in for a shock. The levelling up system has had a complete revamp compared to most Final Fantasy games. Its not standard levelling up, its training abilities by doing specific things. Getting damaged in battle will raise defence, the more you use a weapon the higher the level you are in using a weapon of that type. Difficult to adjust, but i actually prefer this system.

Compared to Final Fantasy I, this game is so much better. Theres a decent story! Huzzah! Its actually quite interesting, but I forgot the beggining so im useless at telling you a brief summary of it.

I havent actually completed this one yet, but im tempted to stay up all night trying to complete this one, the story is excellent. Currently clocked up about 10 hours on it, not sure how far I am but its pretty decent.

I have no clue as to what Soul Of Rebirth is all about, but im pretty sure its a seperate quest that you can gain more powerful weapons in.

 

Overall: Pretty decent game to add to my collection, should keep you occupied for a while, especially if your a hardcore game that likes to complete things.

But, as a huge minus, it is very easy compared to the PS1 version and the originals.

 

Price and rating:

Its rare to find in Game stores from what i've gathered, so I got mine boxed pre-owned at Gamestation for £20. You may wanna check ebay too, im sure it goes for cheap.

I'd rate it 4/5.

[Shorty]

Nice thread

 

My new conroe from pcspecialist:

 

Processor 10/10

The shiney new Intel Core 2 Duo, or "Conroe" as it was codenamed, takes hyperthreading and laughs at it's silly little digits. It's not the newest (this is the 2x2.13GHz) and may be beaten by AMD soon, but I love it. This chip performs as two CPUs (I was so happy the first time I saw two windows in teh CPU usage part of Taskmanager), and runs everything in an instant. I can reboot my PC and log into windows in about 12 seconds. It's easy to rip/burn CDs while gaming at the same time, or encode video and watch it as well. Brilliant.

 

Display 9.5/10

Videoseven 19" widescreen (diagonal, of course) provides me with a super sharp 16:10 (1440x900) resolution. It's not the highest/biggest out there but I don't need any bigger, it beats my tv and looks very crisp. Would've been beaten of course by 21+ or dual display, but I'm very happy with what I got. I'd never heard of V7 but this is an awesome looking display.

 

An NVIDIA GeForce 7600GT powers my display, and so far I've found it fantastic. Coupled with the conroe and my RAM, games like CoV run so smoothly (CoV, despite having fair reccomended requirements, is actually the most demanding game I've played in a long time, large zones lag like hell on most PCs) even on a team of 8 with the graphics right up. I've also tried CSS, HL2, Prey and Hitman Blood Money which all run perfectly turned right up.

 

Audio - 9/10

I went with onboard sound, SoundMAX integrated audio. It's obviously not a perfect choice if you want some amazing sound, but I've never thought of audio as a big deal anyway. Coupled with some lovely basic black Creative labs speakers, I get crisp audio at full volume, what more do you need (yeah ok, surround maybe )

 

Other features: - 8.5/10

Wireless mouse and keyboard by Logitech. Amazing, I expected delays, dancing cursors - all that stuff, and got none of it. I can lower my resolution and sit right back on my sofa to browse the web.

Wireless network card by TP-link, this is fairly basic and probably the letdown of the system, basically because it froze my internet for the first couple of days and I had to use a USB adapter instead. I contacted the suppliers and they sent me an exe which fixed it in under 24 hours. Great!

TwinHanDTV TV Card, love it! Only cost £32 and I can pick up freeview with it. Took a while to get working right and only works decently connected to the outdoor aerial, also I can't get all the channels at home, but it still rocks. Can pause/record/rewind TV etc just like TiVo

RAM - 2GB Corsair, what else is there to say?

Cooling - they did a great job with the cooling, big posh fan on the CPU and some kind of cooling/circulation/huge plastic thing attached to the case backing on a hinge.

Case - a basic stylish case, didn't want anything fancy, has a nice blue light on the front though and opening it is great, so easy to open and the drives come out at an angle - made it very easy to install my IDE HDD to go with the SATA they provided

Other basics: 6 high speed usb, tv out, tidily packed power cables, 600W of power, quiet system, CD/DVD multi-format rw.

 

Price - 8/10

About £915 with a year's warranty and free return/delivery.

 

Delivery 4/10

Awful. Took nearly 3 weeks for them to put it together and get it to my door. Total let down, but now it's here I couldn't care less.

 

Overall? 10/10 (not an average)

Overjoyed.

 

 

 

Edit: Guy, I think I'm gonna buy the UK Naruto boxset based on your review, although you didn't mention the subtitles! I heard there were some annoying modifications to kage bunshin and some weird things like product placement (Pot Noodle?? In Japan, a Japan existing outside of real life timeframes? *sigh*)

[Tellyn]

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

 

Very challenging and enjoyable classic.

 

GRAPHICS: 6/10 (for the GBA)

 

COST: 14.99 GBP (Preowned in GAME)

 

GAMEPLAY: 9/10

 

OVERALL: 9/10

[Oli1983uk]

I have just recieved a few of the movies I bought and I watched Labyrinth last night and it was just as cool as when I saw it as a kid! i give them films a 10/10.

 

[conzer16]

I bought this:

 

And strangley I really really love it!

I bought (what I thought to be) an EU copy, but in actual fact it was A US copy. So it was (technically) my first gaming import!

It took me a day to understand what I had actually bought as it is a weird game :p but I'm really enjoying it! It fascinates me!

I will rate it a soothing 8/10

[Ashley]

So I turn up to work and they tell me I have to tidy the stockroom, and I realise my iPod's charge is on its last legs. So I say I'm popping to Argos to put a charger and I bought the universal dock and I got it back to the store and realised it doesn't come with a power adaptor, so I ended up taking back. So I do not rate it well.

[mario114]

A crane stock for my airsoft gun:

 

I give it a 8/10

Cost: £60 +(£90 for new batteries)

 

The crane stock was delevoped by special forces for carrying batteries for NVG (and possibly for touches/lazers), while still providing a well balanced adjustable stock.

 

It looks much nicer than the solid stock my airsoft gun had before, it was a tad pricy and meant I had to get new batteries, it also requrried re-wirring and plently of fiddling to get in on (well basicaly most of the gun had to be taken apart).

[Katie]

I got a Morphy Richards Cafe Marito this week.

 

 

Main reason I bought it was because it was half price at Boots - £29.99 down from £59.99. I already had a Senseo but this is much better and will now be it's replacement.

 

It's not too big so fits in nicely on the counter, looks good and is easy to use. Most of all it makes a very nice coffee, I love the frothy milk.

 

8/10

[Meik]

I bought an apple yesterday. It was a Granny Smith, and it was delicious.

 

 

Presentation?

 

Unfortunately the apple wasn't presented very well, no box or anything.

 

Audio?

 

The apple gave a very delicious-sounding crunch with every bite, therefore I rate the audio of this apple extremely high.

 

Video?

 

There was no video. However, the apple looked very nice and fresh.

 

Extras?

 

Extremely disappointing. There were no audio commentaries, deleted scenes or interviews included with this apple. I think if they were to rerelease it, a bit more extra material would be nice.

 

Where to buy?

 

I bought mine from Tesco, but any supermarket or greengrocers will do. Failing that, a tree.

 

Overall?

 

Very impressed with this apple. Mouth-wateringly juicy and delicious. Highly recommended.

[Shino]

I can't rate here what I buy from the internets.

[Letty]

10/10

[demonmike04]

Pocky? You really addicted to anything Japanese letty..

[Letty]

Pocky? You really addicted to anything Japanese letty..

 

what makes you say that?

[Noodleman]

My last purchase and likely to be my last for a while.

 

 

 

[Dan_Dare]

what makes you say that?

 

 

 

 

The Gezetta sig helps

 

I last bought a ticket to Snakes on A Plane

 

11/10

[arnold]

Oli wins so Far, Short Circuit = Win on many levels, and flight of the navigator, Haven't seen that in AGES along with Batteries not included.

 

My Purchases that I've just ordered:

Optimus Prime Pepsi Convoy, Had y eye on this for a long time and I want to start a Transformer Collection so why not start now got my little space to pop it on abocve my TV. I ahve no idea what it looks liek yet, ahven't recived ti yet ;-;

 

Along with Huzzah =D Unboxed but who cares it's gonig on display, everythings with it as well so i'm happy.

 

Would love a Grimlock figure though =(

 

Also that 19inch Samsung HDTV, but didn't buy that mum did...for me thoguh Birthday prezzie =D

[MoogleViper]

Broken Sword: The Sleeping Dragon

 

7.5/10

 

A good game but not as good as the first two. The reason for this being that THQ decided to "improve" the game by making it 3D. Now you use the arrow keys to move and the graphics are more realistic. However I much preferred the cartoony first two and the simple clicking. If you enjoyed the first two then get this game. Mine was £3.29 plus £1.99 P+P from amazon.co.uk marketplace.

[Ninty 182]

Modern Times - Bob Dylan

 

 

Very good, not as heavy as his previous outing (Love & Theft) and with a few tedious songs, yet overall I really like it. It definately has an easy going feel about it, like the band was just jamming, pulling off a solo here and there, yet the arrangements are still tight.

 

The song writing is genius as usual, yet it's not as good as his last album, however like most of his stuff I'm sure it'll grow on me and I'll like it more and more as I listen to it.

 

8/10

[demonmike04]

what makes you say that?

 

The fact Pocky is Japanese :p

[Sarka]

Well, i bought a camcorder for £210 yesterday and abnout a minute ago I bought a 20GB Zen Touch - I shall review them both when they arrive!

[Bogbas]

I got this: http://www.nexustek.nl/images/breeze500_big.jpg

 

Quite basically it's the best case I've ever had. But it's not perfect 8/10.

 

Inside:

 

CPU

Intel E6300

Seems to be fast enough. And apparently can be overclocked to fx-62 speeds (and beyond) with stock cooling. 8/10

 

Graphics

Asus EAX1900XT ~140€ cheaper than an XTX though can be oc'd to the xtx speed. Also if it has 1.1ns memory chips it can be upgraded to be an XTX by flashing the card's bios. Haven't checked that yet. But the cooling system could be designed better. Currently it's pretty massive. 8/10

 

Motherboard

Asus P5W DH deluxe, features:

- LGA775 socket for Intel Core2 Duo, Core2 Extreme and next generation Multi-Core CPU

- Intel 975X +Intel ICH7R

- 1066/800MHz

- Dual-channel DDR2 800/667/ 533 max 8GB

- 2 x PCI-E x 16 / 2 x PCI-E x 1/ 3 x PCI

- Support ATI CrossFire graphics cards

- Intel Matrix Storage technology

- Dual Gigabit LAN

- Dolby Master Studio technology

- ASUS EZ-Backup

- ASUS Digital Home features

 

Haven't had a problem with it yet. It has more features that I will (probably) ever use. 9/10

 

RAM

2Gb kingston valueRAM 533Mhz. Don't have the need for faster more expensive memory so this will do. 8/10

 

Hard drive

300Gb sata samsung or seagate (can't remember...) It works and have had no problems with either manufacturer previously. 8/10

 

+Generic DVD burner + keyboard they work, so 10/10

 

Overall

nice and powerful system that I won't be upgrading in the next three years. 9/10

[The3rdChildren]

I bought three cartons of Somerfield fruit juice, consisting of Still Lemonade, Tropical and Apple. I rate them highly because they are highly delicious.

[dabookerman]

 

hes only been in the house for a few hours, and already hes taking control, thats my man Snake.

 

30/10

 

Review coming soon