Pre-ordering Black 2 & White2

g.a.b.e.

I have pre-ordered White 2 in Japanese and expect it to arrive soon.

I plan to buy Black 2 in English on October 12th, but where is the best place to buy from to guarantee I get it on release day?

Cheers guys.

Banjo

It's a high profile title - it's not like you're trying to get Tales of the Abyss or anything - any major chain is going to get it on day one, so the question is which large game retailer is nearest to your house? I'd go with Smyths personally, as the games thing is only part of what they do, they face less competition from online stores because you can't bring a 3 year old to Amazon and let them loose! They'll still be here in a months time. HMV and Gamestop? Well who knows?

SamIAmNot

What I tend to do is wait until nearer the release and ask the stores are they doing any promos i.e. a poster or charm. Most of the time they wont know themselves till the day before the release.

I ended up getting a HMV only metal box case cover for Platinum by checking out what the stores had instead of pre-ordered from any of the stores. They also have price differences and HMV for me usually works out cheaper than Gametop

g.a.b.e.

Yeah that does seem to be the best option. It's a whole 3 months away, I guess I'm a little impatient :P

Urizen

Last time around, myself and TheChrisD just headed into town early and checked out the stores on the day. HMV worked out best for me last time, think Chris went with Gamestop.

Basically, just head in early. And, if you're really worried, try to get to one of the more out of the way shops, like Blanchardstown or Liffey Valley.

And I FULLY advocate blowing off college/work/school/wedding to get these games :P

g.a.b.e.

I may just have to book a week off work too. Totally worth it!

Buzzthebatgirl

Shopto are in the habit of sending games a day or two before release over here (London), no idea how it would work over at home. Failing that take the plunge and book a trip to London in case a launch party (shameless plug #1) is announced the week before. Previous launch parties have had free goodie bags, t-shirts, signings, posters (BW had all the above and Poképark2 had just posters) had and the odd free game (Poképark2 and 3DS Launch).

TheChrisD

Urizen wrote: »

Last time around, myself and TheChrisD just headed into town early and checked out the stores on the day. HMV worked out best for me last time, think Chris went with Gamestop.

I think that's because I had a Gamestop voucher at that point in time, so it worked out cheaper with my discount, despite it being cheaper in HMV to begin with!

This year, depending on the Amazon price I might buy online and hope for early delivery

Urizen

TheChrisD wrote: »

I think that's because I had a Gamestop voucher at that point in time, so it worked out cheaper with my discount, despite it being cheaper in HMV to begin with!

This year, depending on the Amazon price I might buy online and hope for early delivery

Awesome day though. Pokémon and Crack Bird

g.a.b.e.

Hmm I wonder if it will be available from midnight at a 24hour tesco.....

Angron

g.a.b.e. wrote: »

Hmm I wonder if it will be available from midnight at a 24hour tesco.....

You could try, but as it's not gonna be as high profile as the Call of Duty games and the like, you'd be running the risk that they wouldn't think to put it out at midnight.

g.a.b.e.

Yeah I suppose. Maybe I could try and even just ask a staff member. It would be pretty nice to get it at midnight and stay up all night being a Pokémon master and all that.

Angron

g.a.b.e. wrote: »

Yeah I suppose. Maybe I could try and even just ask a staff member. It would be pretty nice to get it at midnight and stay up all night being a Pokémon master and all that.

Yeah, asking a staff member would probably be the better idea.

wobbles

Buzzthebatgirl wrote: »

Shopto are in the habit of sending games a day or two before release over here (London), no idea how it would work over at home. Failing that take the plunge and book a trip to London in case a launch party (shameless plug #1) is announced the week before. Previous launch parties have had free goodie bags, t-shirts, signings, posters (BW had all the above and Poképark2 had just posters) had and the odd free game (Poképark2 and 3DS Launch).

Could i get mine charizard to melt mine a little bit??

g.a.b.e. wrote: »

Hmm I wonder if it will be available from midnight at a 24hour tesco.....

I work in tesco, not a 24 hour one though, so might see if i can buy one when the arrive in the shop. Last time they didnt arrive until a few days after the release though

g.a.b.e.

A few days after release :O
This disappoints me [supersadface]

cloud493

Glad I preordered black, I got that cool case from HMV. Probably do the same this time for any preorder incentives.

Urizen

cloud493 wrote: »

Glad I preordered black, I got that cool case from HMV. Probably do the same this time for any preorder incentives.

I got that too, didn't preorder :P

But still, its always best to preorder, for the random goodies.

g.a.b.e.

Aww I really cannot wait for the English version. I'm playing my Japanese White 2 version now and its sooooooo good!!

Banjo

How can you tell ?
But no, really, how different from B&W 1 can it be if you can't follow the plot?

st3veebee

Yeah Im confused about this. Why buy the English version if you are happy enough with the Japanese?

Do you ignore the story and learn off the moves, or look the translation online? OR do you speak Japanese? I'm fairly sure there is no language change..

Banjo

Maybe I should be a bit clearer :
Having played B&W in Japanese first and then English, you do it to get a 6 month head start on playing the new generation's mechanics. You can look up moves on the web so you know roughly what's going on. You get to explore the map, catch the new mon, get all the japanese wifi events etc and lord it over people in internet forums. The plot is not really that important, you know it's going to go "boy meets mon, boy trains mon, boy defeats hilariously inept crime syndicate and captures cosmic god in a small ball, boy beats E4 and becomes the champ". Or girl.

What I don't get is why you'd do that with B&W2 since there's not much fundamentally changing, you can't use the 3DS features unless you have a Japanese 3DS handset and B&W1 are available in english. The selling points (the new plot and the new 3DS integration) are useless to you.

st3veebee

I'm still a little confused though. Is battling not incredibly difficult? You'd learn off your moveset japanese wording..but what about learning new moves? Do you look it all up online etc? Is it not very difficult?!

Angron

st3veebee wrote: »

I'm still a little confused though. Is battling not incredibly difficult? You'd learn off your moveset japanese wording..but what about learning new moves? Do you look it all up online etc? Is it not very difficult?!

Well I doubt the move-sets have changed drastically from B&W1, so it would be a bit easier with this game.

Banjo

B&W1 was a challenge. You'd be surprised how much you figure out from the number of PP a move has, it's type and it's category, but you would need to do a bit of reading up in advance on whichever 'mons you're training so you know what to expect and to plan - but then it's nothing you probably wouldn't have done with english version either. Android and iPhones have made this kind of research on the go a doddle. There's still a bit of hit-and-miss experimentation with new moves, like that Zorua one that uses Phy Attack against Special Defense (or is it vice versa?), but I almost never made any horrible mistakes that I regretted enough to ditch the borked 'mon and catch a new one.

Angron

Banjo wrote: »

B&W1 was a challenge. You'd be surprised how much you figure out from the number of PP a move has, it's type and it's category, but you would need to do a bit of reading up in advance on whichever 'mons you're training so you know what to expect. Android and iPhones have made this kind of research on the go a doddle. There's still a bit of hit-and-miss experimentation with new moves, like that Zorua one that uses Phy Attack against Special Defense (or is it vice versa?), but I almost never made any horrible mistakes that I regretted enough to ditch the borked 'mon and catch a new one.

My biggest "derp" moment was teaching a Kadabra that Psycho Cut move, and not realising it was physical. Started wondering why a move with 70 damage was doing so little >_>

TheChrisD

Banjo wrote: »

There's still a bit of hit-and-miss experimentation with new moves, like that Zorua one that uses Phy Attack against Special Defense (or is it vice versa?)

Foul Play, base 95, but uses the target's Attack stat to calculate the damage :pac:

Banjo

I knew it was something screwy. Turned my awesome Venkmanesque ghost slayer into the Hello Kitty of the werewolf world. I hate that move!

cloud493

That's what foul play does? :mad: I was getting absolutely pounded on the battle subway by that move.