Mission Success!

Success! Good news everyone! I have successfully gotten my Borderlands 2 Ultimate Loot Chest Edition! I picked it up and Fry's and everything ended up working out.

I hope that many of you have successfully picked up copies of the ULCE at Fry's.  I have heard of many on the Borderlands 2 Gearbox forums that had gotten one from Fry's, and I am happy to have helped out.

If you are still looking for a loot chest edition, check out Amazon. I just got an alert that they are in stock, and that they are.  For all consoles they have ULCE all priced normally at $150. And they are being sold by Amazon. I'm not sure if these are the copies that people returned or cancelled, but whatever the case, there are still some amount left!

So act fast, as there is no telling how fast they will be gone (again).

I have been able to play Borderlands 2 for just 3 hours, but so far it is beyond my comprehension of awesomeness. They made the next best things to Borderlands 1, and that is a sequel that goes above and beyond. From new enemies to old enemies that have been enhanced and varied, to all the new procedural grenades, heads and skins and the GUNS GUNS GUNS GUNS. So many new types of guns, all sorts of craziness.

I was also worried I would not be able to play with PhysX. I had seen the videos of it, and ever since I have been praying I would be able to run it. It seems that I was worried for nothing, as it runs fine with the graphics up all the way and PhysX on High.

I really really really enjoy watching the PhysX physics. It is absolutely incredible. The videos they made demonstrating the physics does not do it justice at all. It is when you are in an intense firefight, and there is sparks, corrosion goo, debris, smoke and such flying around everywhere, it is incredible.  Oh and the blood. It is great to see the blood spurt out of an enemy, then pool up next to their body. Every once and a while I have to stop, and shoot a dead body for a while, just to watch the blood pool up. The PhysX physics really enhances the game a lot, and is something really incredible.

So yes, Borderlands 2 is as amazing and more amazing than I could have ever expected.  So everyone enjoy Borderlands 2! And your lootchest! If you don't have one, rush on over to Amazon!

Oh, but Fry's!

Just a couple days ago, I received another phone call from the Fry's software rep with some great news.  They said that the Fry's store just got allocations for the ULCE.  They then asked if I would like to have one, happy day!

So if any of you have pre-ordered  from Fry's, be sure to call them up and try to see if they have allocations, and if you can get one. There is still hope!

Oh and, 5 MORE DAYS!

Frys Frys Frys

So about a month ago I was able to contact Fry's directly via email, and I queried them, told them my story, and asked if it was too good to be true.  They responded that it was completely true, that they did have the ULCE's and that they would have their Head Software Representative call me, to clear out some details.

So I got a call a couple days later, and the rep had bad news for me.  They had contacted all their superiors and everything, and they found no actual allocations for the ULCEs.  So I was then out of my pre-order.

So, I lost the remaining hope I had left on getting a ULCE (without paying a ridiculous price, see the last post).  So that is why I am a bit late posting the news on my blog.

Even though this has happened, I have lost no respect for Fry's Electronics. I still think it is a really great store to go to, to browse their large selection of video games, movies, music, computer parts and the rest of the electronic goodies.

The Resellers

So for a while there have been people selling the Borderlands 2 ULCE pre-orders on ebay. These sellers are people who saw that the ULCE was selling fast, decided to buy a couple extra, to sell at high prices later for a profit. I could rant and rave all about this, but I'll try to keep my opinions out of this, unless anyone really wants to hear them.

So if you are still without a pre-order on the ULCE, then you still have a chance. Just today they have started reselling them on Amazon too. So if you would rather buy one on Amazon instead you can head on over there.

Still no news on if the Fry's pre-orders are legit or not. Mine hasn't been cancelled, so there still could be hope. I will be sure to post if I have any news.

Frys?

I am really hoping that the pre-order I got at Fry's Electronics will go through. It was just a bit odd that they had them up a month after they sold out everywhere else. The pre-order also popped up on their website for pre-orders, but were removed in a couple days. 


I am wondering if there weren't many people buying them in the store, so they still had some left. Maybe they then put it up on their website, and those who were still looking online for a Ultimate Loot Chest Edition snatched them up, therefore them disappearing from the website so fast.


This is just all my hopeful speculation. There is some good news though, a Gearbox Employee is checking the situation with Fry's out! See here. Hopefully this will clear things out, if the Fry's ULCE pre-orders are legit or not. I am really hoping they are. I will post here as soon as there is  more news.

play-asia

So it looks that play-asia has some pre-orders for the Borderlands ULCE still. If you have yet to get a pre-order here is possibly one of the remaining chances to do so here.

I am going to pre-order from play-asia too, just in case the Fry's pre-order falls through. I have yet to hear from 2K yet, hopefully they will be able to explain if Fry's could be selling it or not. If the Fry's one sounds like it will go through, then I will just cancel the play-asia one. Good luck to anyone else trying to get one! Also this version is PS3.

Thanks to user Xboxygenic Oxymoron from the Gearbox Borderlands 2 forums for the link.

Frys!..wait, Frys?!?

So today I was at Frys, for no apparent reason. Who doesn't want to go to a place that has electronics and fun things galore from time to time? As I went to check out the video game selection I notice they have some flyers posted up for pre-orders. And guess what they had posted up. Yea, I couldn't believe it myself.  "Borderlands 2 Ultimate Loot Chest Edition" it said, "Pre-order Now!" it said.  At first I thought it was some cruel joke that they posted this a month after it quickly sold out. So I decided it is well worth trying to get one, why would they have the flyer up if they didn't have any? So I asked one of their associates if I could get a pre-order on it for PC. Then he proceeded to print me out a reservation sheet for it. I took it to the cashiers and I payed for it. So now I have payed for it, and I have a receipt. So it seems pretty solid in gold, but who knows. I am pretty optimistic about it though.

So if you are still looking to get a pre-order on the Ultimate Loot Chest Edition, for PC, Xbox, or PS3, head on over to your local Frys Electronics.  I checked their online site, and they had none posted.  I am wondering if they are only doing them in store, if that is the case, it must be why they actually have them left in stock.  I am guessing most people who have pre-ordered have done it online. All of the other retailers allowed it; Best Buy, GameStop, Amazon and the such.  But it seems since Frys did not post them online, people didn't figure to check if they had any in store. So run quickly to your nearest Frys, if you have one that is. Maybe I just got lucky, but I never would of thought of checking Frys if they had any, so it's worth a shot for anyone else. Good luck to all.

Amazon!

One day when I was checking Amazon and I saw that there was a ULCE in stock! No way! There was only one in stock, so I acted very fast and pre-ordered it.  I sent the seller an email asking if they really did have any, as it seemed too good to be true. Of course, very sadly they responded that they were out of stock of the pre-orders and recommended that I cancelled my order. I then responded with another email, and they never responded, so I have been in contact with Amazon about this. I should have more news in 1-2 weeks.

De Nederland!

User Iggy from the Gearbox Borderlands 2 forums shared that the Netherlands online retailer bol.com was selling Borderlands 2 Ultimate Loot Chest editions!  Oh but it gets even better!  Iggy said that there was a good chance the edition would be in English.  So I proceeded to contact bol.com.  Luckily there was someone there that spoke English.  They told me that I would be able to use American credit card.  They also told me that the version they were selling was produced for the Dutch market.  This was great, as it meant that the game was in English, and that the cover was in Dutch.  This was great news! They also did mention that there would be extra fees for the shipping and such. But there was one point that I missed in the email, and that was that they only ship certain items outside of the Netherlands, video games not being one of them.  Through another email I learned that all the contents of the edition, including the game, all the stickers and the book all the extra stuff in the edition would indeed be in English! But they pointed out that they wouldn't ship it outside the Netherlands. I was so close! So I sent them another email asking if there was anyway they could possibly do it, just this one time. I have yet to get another email back from them yet. Great customer service from them so far though.

Wait for Launch

There still is hope right?  I started to believe that there might be a chance if I wait until launch to grab one.  I figured that they would have some on the shelves at stores when the game launched. I also figured they would have some more at launch, put off to the side. But after a while from seeing what people were saying on the forums, and Randy Pitchford's statement, I lost hope that there would be more at launch. By this time the ULCEs were sold out on Amazon.de.  So I went back to the forums to see if anyone else had had any luck.

Ultimative Beutekiste

Checking out foreign retailers seemed like a great idea. Thanks to user "Rokenroleg", they suggested to get the Borderlands 2 Ultimative Beutekiste from the German site Amazon.de.  So I went to Amazon.de and loaded it up on Google Chrome, in order to get automatic translation.  I successfully found the Ultimative Beutekiste on the site, but I was worried that I could not use my American Credit card, and that the game was fully in German. So I did an online chat with the US Amazon.com. This did not help at all.  They couldn't help me one bit.  But from my previous experiences with Amazon, I've learned to use their email service, and not there online chat.  So I emailed Amazon.de with my queries.  They told me that I could indeed buy the game with my American card.  But they did say that the game would be in German and that all the content it came with would be in German too.  Also I would have to pay extra for shipping and other fees.  So I became a bit hesitant.  I really didn't want to have to buy a German copy, then buy another copy of the game in English, I'm not rolling in the dough.  So I decided to pass on that for now. 

It Begins

Here I am, 20 days late, looking through the Gearbox Borderlands 2 forums trying to find any way to get the Ultimate Loot Chest Edition.  I'm reading post after post and I start generating some ideas. One was in-store pre-orders.  I was checking retailers from Best Buy to Amazon to Gamestop, and they all said something like "Sold Out Online".  So I figured, maybe it is possible to still get a pre-order in-store.  But as the day went on and I was planning to call Best Buy later that night, I figured there was no chance that they would be able to set me up with a pre-order, as they probably use something similar to the online site for the pre-orders.  So that idea was a goner. 


The next thing is buy.com. Someone had said that they got a pre-order from them recently, but they are not listed as an official retailer, so they were a bit worried.  But by the time I checked buy.com, there were none left anyway.


Then something really hopeful came up.  How about buying the game from a non-US retailer. This was brilliant I thought! Next I will talk about my fun with Amazon.de.

Prologue

The Borderlands 2 Loot Chest Edition is full of many awesome goodies for any Borderlands fan. It comes with stickers, posters, a cloth map, a bobble head, but most importantly it comes with a big loot chest, modeled after one of the chests in the game.  This loot chest is very cool, as it is something that Borderlands fans know very well from the game in a material state. To have a piece of the game like that is just too cool.

I'm a big Borderlands fan, I have been watching the game ever since its original announcement in GameInformer. I was then very disappointed when I saw the game take a dramatic artistic style change.  But the whole idea of being able to loot millions of guns and have RPG elements in a shooter sounded like the coolest game ever.  So I did get it eventually, and when I did, it did not disappoint one bit.  The art style with its cartoony looks and humor fit perfectly, better than I could of ever imagined. 


Once Borderlands 2 was announced I was extremely excited, and when that first trailer came out, I ended up watching it many times over the next coming days.  When they announced the Limited Editions and I saw that chest, I was instantly sold on it.  Next comes my mistake.


I have seen many limited editions of games in stores well after the game had been released, so to me a "limited edition" of a game is never quite a limited edition.  It just is more of a special edition, that they make a ton of copies of, and they end up sitting in store shelves for a while.  So I felt when pre-orders opened for Borderlands 2 Ultimate Loot Chest "Limited Edition" I didn't have to rush to get it, I figured I'd get it sometime before September.  I was on vacation when the pre-order was opened, and I never heard any news of it anywhere, nor was there any announcement saying it would happen on that day.  If I had seen something I probably would of done it out of excitement, but I had figured the pre-orders would open up later sometime like July or August. So I was in no rush.


Of course by the time I notice that the Borderlands 2 Ultimate Loot Chest edition was open for pre-order was about June 20th.  Now by that time the pre-orders were sold out just about everywhere. Hearing from others it was sold out 2 days from the time it opened which was something like June 1st. 


So here I was, 20 days after the pre-order opened and I'm without a pre-order.  So I head on over to Amazon to do my pre-order and of course there's none available. So I start Googling around and find that they had sold out very quickly.  I then head to the Gearbox Forums to whats going on.


And this is where my adventure starts. My goal: Get a Borderlands 2 Ultimate Loot Chest Edition for PC. My Deadline: September 18th.