Limited edition, special edition, or collector's edition, news, pics, and chat

[MarkuzR]

My DVD collection has a lot of decidedly awesome items, but my games are primarily standard editions. As far as I'm concerned, there's no point buying a "special edition" or a "collector edition" if it doesn't actually come with something extra to entice me into buying it. I have that same X-Com set (bought for a fiver in PC World's bargain bin, score!!) and the C&C set but wouldn't call them special editions as there's nothing "special" about them... but that's just my own personal way of thinking. If it comes with a trinket, a model, a little something extra then I'd consider buying it for collectible reasons but only then. I think my ONLY special edition game, looking at it that way, is the Two Worlds set with the t-shirt, pack of cards, A2 poster (double sided), "Kilgorin" replica letter opener, "Making of" DVD and soundtrack. I never bought the Fallout 3 lunchbox, as much as I love Fallout 3, as I just didn't think it was impressive enough and almost bought the PipBoy version but saw enough close ups to realise it was too plasticky. I'm FAR too fussy now, but it's good for the finances



EDIT: Actually... looking at this now, the t-shirt is really quite spiffing looking. I'm now tempted to open up the set and stick the t-shirt on, although it'll probably be far too small. I hate not opening special eds. Damn.

[The Preacher]

That Pipboy clock is definitely of the cheap and plasticky variety. I was sucked in by the pictures on eBay. I think it is a very fair point though that a lot, if not most, of these so-called "special" editions don't have a lot that's special about them. I still keep buying them, though. Whoever markets these things knows how weak I am.

And a fiver? Seriously? I spent £40 on that bloody X-COM collection... definitely why I never have any money...

[MarkuzR]

Yeah, the thing is though... the XCom set hadn't been out for long anyway, so I'm guessing that one of the Saturday workers (the ones with slightly more acne) threw it in there at a fiver by mistake and was probably supposed to do it with the standard Enemy Unknown cheapo. I only went in there for blank CDs and it was my ex that lifted it out the bin, held it aloft so I could see it from the other side and gave off a feeble whistle. I was over the moon. I really like the look of the ME2 set though, if it's the one I used in your article http://www.gaminglives.com/2010/02/0...me-you-wanted/

[Rynstex]

God of War III is a bit special:

[The Preacher]

That is the Mass Effect 2 set, yes, but good luck finding a copy that you won't get ripped off over. All things considered, it's not got much to justify the price, either... there's a comic book, a 30 minute documentary DVD, and the DLC, but otherwise it could be the basic game in a tarted up case.

I think I'm going to go back to my previous post and edit it to strike-through all the special editions that only have a collection, or a bonus DVD or a steelbook or something, rather than actually anything that exclusive about them. It'll be interesting to see what's left. Twilight Princess, for example, I know to have been declared a special edition purely because it was on the Gamecube at all, after they switched development to the Wii. It is a fairly flimsy premise for labelling it as such. And steelbooks aren't that special at all. They just threaten to snap disks in half every time you want to get them out.

The Anno set is still the best I've seen, though I do like the Assassin's Creed sets with the Altair and Ezio figures.

EDIT: Ben, if I had a PS3 I'd buy that in a second, but I don't, and I'm unlikely ever to. I may be somewhat retarded about things with special/limited/collector's edition stamped on the side, but I only get ones I can actually use. I loved the first two God of War games, but God of War III isn't enough to make me get over my rage at how many PS2 failures I suffered and buy a PS3.

[Sketch]

I saw that God of War set a few weeks back couldn't believe it...stunning! Very expensive as I recall.

[pix3lboy]

That is the Mass Effect 2 set, yes, but good luck finding a copy that you won't get ripped off over

My local Gamestation had it for £60 like a week back. I would've got it but I had no money

I only get steelbooks because a lot of the time they have better cover art.

I'm also one of these people who open their collectors editions because I don't care about resale value, I buy them because I like the stuff in them

[The Rook]

I have a few steelbook edition games, but don't class them as a special edition. I had forgotten about my Fallout 3 special edition with the Brotherhood of Steel figure. Not quite as big as Fred but still nice.

[ZeroMark]

I dont have many collector's edition games, i think the last one i got was Batman Arkham Asylum purely for the batarang. I tend to get the collectors editiion of MMO's. I bought the deluxe edition of Warhammer Online that came with a book of concept art and a comic book that were both really good.

[Rynstex]

Starcraft 2

• The Art of StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty, a 176-page book featuring artwork from the game
• An exclusive 2GB USB flash drive replica of Jim Raynor's dog tag, which comes preloaded with the original StarCraft and the StarCraft: Brood War expansion set
• A behind-the-scenes DVD containing over an hour of developer interviews, cinematics with director's commentary, and more
• The official StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty soundtrack CD, containing 14 epic tracks from the game along with exclusive bonus tracks
• StarCraft comic book issue #0, a prequel to the comic series
• A World of Warcraft mini Thor in-game pet that can be applied to all World of Warcraft characters on a single Battle.net account
• Exclusive Battle.net downloadable content, including special portraits for your Battle.net profile, decals to customize your units in-game, and a visually unique version of the terran Thor unit

Owning a couple of Blizzard collectors editions already can say it'll be worth it alone for the Art Books, all hardback all absolutely stunning.

Do...Want...Now...