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Back in the day a CE meant you get an art book, a soundtrack, and an extra large box it all came in, yawn. Nowadays though a collectors edition means a statue (gears, halo, gw2), a book end (MK9), a belt buckle (uncharted 3), etc. etc.

I for one like this change. I've got a shelf that's slowly collecting collectors edition gear, and I always look forward to what new stuff gaming companies think up to include in the box. Sound tracks and art books are little more than trash to me, but a book end with one end showing scorpion shooting a spear through a wall, and the other one with sub-zero impaled with said spear? Yes please.

So what are yalls thoughts on CE's? Any particular favorites?

My Darksiders 2 CE has a life size replica of death's mask, it's meant to be on a stand but could be modified to be wearable. The Diablo 3 CE has a mini demon skull. The Lotr war in the north CE has a quiver.

I feel ashamed for getting the CE of Mass Effect 3.

The game was such a huge disappointment compared to ME2, I felt like I was just feeding the disgusting beast that is EA.

 mondo80 wrote:
My Darksiders 2 CE has a life size replica of death's mask, it's meant to be on a stand but could be modified to be wearable. The Diablo 3 CE has a mini demon skull. The Lotr war in the north CE has a quiver.

That's...cool! I've got the quiver (which I actually use as a quiver, lol) and the skull (which was a disappointment. WAAAAAY smaller than I was expecting), but I didn't know D2 came with that mask. I wanna hunt one down now...

Back in the day CE meant you bought a Working Designs game.

I think the Collectors Edition stuff can be kinda hit and miss. Some of the stuff is really cool and other times its utter crap.


I've got the Bioshock 2 Collectors Edition and was really quite impressed with the contents. The massive artbook was fantastic. Even though i'm not one for soundtracks either the old vinyl record was a nice touch towards the 50's theme.

I'm guessing that they need to make it a bit more worthwhile to collectors. Soundtrack? Why spend the extra money, when you can probably get it cheaper on iTunes or some other site (there are even a variety of programs to download things straight from YouTube). Art book? Well, it's interesting, but you can probably find it all online now. Making of? See previous point. It's hard to replicate a physical collectible that doesn't have any actual content in it.

I've noticed that they're becoming more and more out of my realistic price range, though. I remember buying the Burning Crusade collector's edition back in the day, and (I might be wrong here) it wound up being no more than 10 or 20 dollars more than the game itself. If I'm not mistaken, wasn't the D3 collector's edition $100? And I seem to recall looking at the Guild Wars 2 super-special-awesome-collector's-edition box being priced at $130, over twice the price of the game itself.

SWTOR's CE was $150 and contains

Exclusive Gentle Giant Darth Malgus statue
Star Wars: The Old Republic game discs in collectable metal case
The Journal of Master Gnost-Dural annotated by Satele Shan
Old Republic galaxy map
Custom security authentication key
Exclusive music of Star Wars: The Old Republic CD
High quality Collector’s Edition box

Plus ingame items:
Flare gun: Fire flares into the air
Training droid: Hovers at your side for combat assistance
HoloDancer: Project your own holographic dancer
HoloCam: Keep visual records of in-game adventures
STAP: Sleek and unique in-game vehicle
Exclusive Mouse Droid: Spunky droid to join your adventures
Exclusive Collector’s Edition store: Unique in-game vendor with a dynamic assortment of items

I still have my Baldur's Gate II - Shadows of Amn T-shirt kicking about somewhere. Probably shouldn't admit that to the wife...

 filbert wrote:
I still have my Baldur's Gate II - Shadows of Amn T-shirt kicking about somewhere. Probably shouldn't admit that to the wife...

I'm honestly surprised she hasn't begged you to make love to her in it, or atleast thats how I see it.

Deathklaat wrote:
SWTOR's CE was $150 and contains

Exclusive Gentle Giant Darth Malgus statue
Star Wars: The Old Republic game discs in collectable metal case
The Journal of Master Gnost-Dural annotated by Satele Shan
Old Republic galaxy map
Custom security authentication key
Exclusive music of Star Wars: The Old Republic CD
High quality Collector’s Edition box

Plus ingame items:
Flare gun: Fire flares into the air
Training droid: Hovers at your side for combat assistance
HoloDancer: Project your own holographic dancer
HoloCam: Keep visual records of in-game adventures
STAP: Sleek and unique in-game vehicle
Exclusive Mouse Droid: Spunky droid to join your adventures
Exclusive Collector’s Edition store: Unique in-game vendor with a dynamic assortment of items

As horrible as it is, the biggest thing that sold me on TOR's Collector's Edition was the flare gun.

That little trinket has been the most amusing tool to troll/RP with. Signaling the start of raids with a flare gun as I pulled on my Sniper will always be a fond memory.

 Locclo wrote:
I'm guessing that they need to make it a bit more worthwhile to collectors. Soundtrack? Why spend the extra money, when you can probably get it cheaper on iTunes or some other site (there are even a variety of programs to download things straight from YouTube). Art book? Well, it's interesting, but you can probably find it all online now. Making of? See previous point. It's hard to replicate a physical collectible that doesn't have any actual content in it.
.

Agreed. I have NEVER seen a collectors eddition that is even remotely interesting. I NEVER care about soundtracks and many of the phyiscal things like an art book are very "thats intersting, but I dont care" to me.

I actually enjoy the "making of " things but I have never seen one on games even though I have 2 games that the disk came with it (I keep telling myself I will) so in C.E. thats the only thing I ever seem to be okay with.

I only have limiteds of Halo Wars and HAlo Reach.
I like 'em though, especially the Halsey's 'journal' that came with Reach.

Fallout: New Vegas came with a really awesome deck of cards with character art on them, a good making-of DVD, and a cool prequel graphic novel with some pretty snazzy art. The poker chips were cool too and felt really authentic, even if there's not much use for them. Still bummed I missed out on the Fallout 3 CE with the lunchbox and bobblehead.

I really like the Duke Nukem bust that came with the DNF collector's edition. Unfortunately the deck of cards was absolutely tiny, the dice were horribly, horribly miscast and misprinted, the comic book was good but thin, the artbook was too tiny to really appreciate the art, and the game itself was, well, you know.

 Necroshea wrote:
Back in the day a CE meant you get an art book, a soundtrack, and an extra large box it all came in, yawn.

Those are pretty much the only reason I buy CEs.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Locclo wrote:
Soundtrack? Why spend the extra money, when you can probably get it cheaper on iTunes or some other site (there are even a variety of programs to download things straight from YouTube).

There is a huge difference between a physical CD, and a digital file. Just ask my iTunes copies of all the Avatar seasons, may they rest in peace.

Either way, collectors don't point at digital copies of things and think "Yeah, I've got that." They like stacking stuff on shelves so anyone that walks in their home knows they've got it.

 Locclo wrote:

Art book? Well, it's interesting, but you can probably find it all online now. Making of? See previous point. It's hard to replicate a physical collectible that doesn't have any actual content in it.

The opposite is true. The physicality of the thing is an asset in itself. For example, I have emulators for basically every game system ever made. In fact I have a box dedicated to emulation. But I also have an NES, SNES, Genesis, Dreamcast*, Saturn, TurboGrafx-16, Colecovision, 2600, and I'm bidding on a CPS-2 board.

None of these will ever be touched, realistically, but I like having them because they're tangible objects. Well, except the CPS-2, that's going to be in an SF Alpha 2 cabinet.


*Obligatory:

Well, to each his own, then. I, personally, would never buy a game for any older console, simply because I can get (almost) every one I want for free via the use of emulators. Same goes with the soundtrack to the game; I've bought a number of CDs over the years and right now they're gathering dust in my closet because I use my iPod to listen to them. And even if you don't like iTunes, then go out and find the soundtracks elsewhere. Amazon has digital downloads now, I'm sure there are dozens of sites out there willing to take money for OSTs, and like with the emulators, you can find everything online for free in some form.

I'll admit, if I didn't have disposable income I wouldn't shell out money for outdated hardware either.

Its interesting, I'm not that old, but the way I began to process games was very much physical (NES, SNES, etc.) and I like having the actual cartridges in my house. But people that are only 5-6 years younger (I have no idea how old you are, btw.)than me see things very differently.

I've got my Death Mask from Darksiders 2 and my Purity Seal from Space Marine, as well as plenty of other stuff.

I really love stuff like this as it adds to the experience and if its a game you really care about it's almost like having another way to cherish that.

I'm very old fashioned when it comes to video games though. I personally don't really like using services to download digital copies etc, I like having something physical to show for my money. It probably sounds a bitty petty, just the way my mind is wired I guess.

I'm the same with ebooks and actual books though too, while I do have an e-reader, if I can get a physical copy of something, I'd go for that first,

The Guild Wars 2 collectors was pretty awesome, other than the Charr Statue. The statue was a decent model but there were quite a few mould lines and the paint job was little more than basecoat and heavily wash.

Some of them are pretty cool. I liked the Purity Seal that came with Space Marine. The 2010 AVP game also came with a sweet face-hugger toy/model that was close to a scale model.....but I still find that most CE's are hit or miss.

I was a fan of the older style collector's editions that were generally $10 to max $20 over the price of the normal game. A small art book, a second DVD with some making of /behind the scenes stuff, and an ingame customization that is purely visual (no in game effect) and I'm happy. I don't personally have any use for a spartan helmet that only fits cats or statues/busts that look like they came from a Southwest tourist truck stop. Mind you... I don't mind if others buy them but they just don't interest me. I still see collector's editions of videogames languishing in the bottom shelf of my local Walmart, unbought after years.

 warboss wrote:
I was a fan of the older style collector's editions that were generally $10 to max $20 over the price of the normal game. A small art book, a second DVD with some making of /behind the scenes stuff, and an ingame customization that is purely visual (no in game effect) and I'm happy. I don't personally have any use for a spartan helmet that only fits cats or statues/busts that look like they came from a Southwest tourist truck stop. Mind you... I don't mind if others buy them but they just don't interest me. I still see collector's editions of videogames languishing in the bottom shelf of my local Walmart, unbought after years.

Ya thats kind of what im looking for, $10 for some small stuff though usually im not a fan of art work. I dont usually care for things like a giant spartan helmet or something

Yeah, options are good as long as they make the really expensive version truely limited so it doesn't sit on shelves for years but still have a "medium" collector's edition with the same virtual items but less phsyical. That for me is a perfect spread of SKUs. What I really don't like is when the only upgrade is the superexpensive version.

I honestly don't care one iota about digital bonuses. They're either something that should be available to everyone from the get go or they're purely cosmetic and tacky. Blech.

 Brother SRM wrote:
I honestly don't care one iota about digital bonuses. They're either something that should be available to everyone from the get go or they're purely cosmetic and tacky. Blech.

except for SWTOR's digital bonuses, well most are useless junk but you can get Imperial Trooper armor that looks freaking awesome. Granted i think everyone should be able to get it but it is pretty dark sweet and its really usefull too. you can use it from level 9 to level 50.

I'v only bought 2 "Collectors Editions", Fable 2 and FF13. Both of which I now regret.

Fable 2 promised a multitude of nice things which were eventually pulled which really annoyed me. Tried to soften the blow with some rather stupid DLC. So yea it wasn't worth it in the end.

FF13 looked okay but essentially I got caught in peer pressure and got it.... Not the best choice I made. I spent probly £15-20 on a soundtrack, artbook and artcards. Once again not worth it.

Looking back its funny how I consider both games bad.

To get me interested in a CE you need to provide more than artbooks and soundtracks. The Hobbe statue originally in Fable 2 was what hooked me just to have it pulled. The Alduin statue from Skyrim? Hell yea, if only I had the money to get it.

Same story with Guild Wars 2, I'v not played the game yet but the figure is tempting but i'm not paying £130 for it. The figure I would pay £25-30 for and the artbook about about £15. So including the game that comes to £95. Paying another £35 for a bunch of DLC and random items is just not worth it. The deluxe edition at £65 for the DLC stuff for an extra £15 fair enough, if it was all permanent items. 3 items gone in either a week or seconds.


Its easy to get me interested in a CE but if devs want me to buy it then they better get the price point right.

EDIT: Whooops, this is quite a long post XD

Am I the only one that ran around my house in the dark with my MW2 nightvision goggles, giggling like a schoogirl...?

And I didn't even get the game, I bought them off my cousin for $10 bucks!

Priceless!

 Jihadnik wrote:
Am I the only one that ran around my house in the dark with my MW2 nightvision goggles, giggling like a schoogirl...?

And I didn't even get the game, I bought them off my cousin for $10 bucks!

Priceless!

I did too! My friend and I tried to play beer-pong with them...it was damned difficult

 Jihadnik wrote:
Am I the only one that ran around my house in the dark with my MW2 nightvision goggles, giggling like a schoogirl...?

And I didn't even get the game, I bought them off my cousin for $10 bucks!

Priceless!

A guy i went to school with had those night vision goggles from MW2. He took them on a school camp and went Wombat hunting one night. Teachers were furious when they found out.