Special Edition Games: Best and worst to buy
How many can you admit to buying?
1/21
Street Fighter 25th anniversary
What's in the box I hear you say loyal Street Fighter enthusiasts? To celebrate the 25th anniversary of Ryu, Ken and the rest of the beat-em-up fraternity, Capcom has unveiled this extensive special edition which includes Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix, Street Fighter III 3, Strike Online Edition, Super Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition and Street Fighter X Tekken. But that's not all you get for your investment, there's also a Blu-ray documentary, light up Ryu, a 11-disc soundtrack and a full size replica of Ryu's belt. Hadouken indeed...
Price: £95 | Link: Street Fighter
2/21
God of War 3 Ultimate Edition
Hiding inside the replica Pandora's box alongside a copy of the game and free DLC conrtent was a movie length documentary chronicling the making of the game, an art book and a soundtrack. But that was not all, there was also an EP which is described as a heavy metal “homage” to the game, with original music inspired by Kratos' murderous rampages.
Price: £60 | Link: God of War
3/21
Call of Duty Hardened Edition
Activision opted against the night vision goggles or remote control cars for its Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Hardened Edition going instead with a much more low-key 100-page journal detailing the CoD story. It also came packing a Call of Duty Elite year's subscription which offered MW3 DLC and meant multiplayer lovers could track stats and scores amongst other things.
Price: £50 I Link: Call of Duty
4/21
Infamous 2 Hero Edition
Want to run around work pretending to shoot electricity from your hands? Well, you couldn't exactly do that, but Sucker Punch Productions did throw in a full replica of Cole's sling backpack as well as a Cole MacGrath statue, Infamous DC comic book, new powers, weapons and a host of character skins to entertain to yourself with in the game.
Price: £99 | Link: Infamous
5/21
Mortal Kombat “Tournament” edition
If you spent a serious amount of time playing this beat-em-up classic down your local arcade, the "Tournament" edition came bundled with a fight stick-cum-case with classic concave buttons to deliver some 90's style playtime. It also included classic skins and avatar costumes for the game, but let's be honest, it was all about the fight stick.
Price: £95 I Link: Mortal Kombat
6/21
Fallout 3 Collector's Edition
Hoping to bring a bit of the post-apocalyptic Fallout world to life, Bethesda threw together a collector's edition that included an art book, a making-of Fallout 3 DVD, a bobble head Vault-Boy figurine all housed in a metal tin lunchbox that was both practical and pretty cool looking.
Price: £80 | Link: Fallout
7/21
World in Conflict
Surely the most unique collector's edition ever released, Sierra decided to include a piece of the Berlin Wall with the PC strategy title that was also bundled with a couple of DVDs (History Channel Documentary and a making-of DVD) and a Creative HS-390 headset. Take down the Berlin Wall in-game, own it at home.
Price: £40 | Link: World in Conflict
8/21
Halo 3 Legendary Edition
The third instalment of the galactic shooter actually shipped as two collector's editions: Legendary and Limited, but it was the former that was worth shelling out for as it came with a full size Master Chief helmet. Additionally there were two DVDs packed with documentaries, featurettes and a calibration tool to help increase your visual and audio enjoyment of the Covenant going up against United Nations Space Command.
Price: £80 | Link: Halo
9/21
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Prestige Edition
Activision and Infinity Ward could have simply thrown us some pretty looking art work and maybe a making-of documentary, but they decided to up the stakes on the collector's edition front by packing a pair of fully-functional night-vision goggles that worked at up to 50ft. A code to download the original Call of Duty made it an essential purchase for the true CoD fan.
Price: £119.99 | Link: Call of Duty
10/21
Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty Collector's Edition
Containing much of the usual collector's edition material, albeit a somewhat larger 176-page artwork book, soundtrack CD and an extensive behind-the-scenes DVD, many fans of the game would be content with this haul. Throw in an exclusive 2GB USB flash drive replica of Jim Raynor's dog tag (pre-loaded with Starcraft 1 and Brood war expansion pack), Starcraft comic book, and a host of other downloadable content for battle.net. and Starcraft fans were rewarded for their patience.
Price: £60 | Link: Starcraft
11/21
Star Wars: The Old Republic
Excellent eBay fodder or prized possessions for Star Wars fans, the special edition version of SWTOR included a poster of the Old Republic map, a journal that prequels the game's storyline, a soundtrack CD, a physical security authenticator key, an 8-inch tall Darth Malgus statue and seven in-game activated bonuses.
Price: £129.99 | Link: SWTOR
12/21
Fallout New Vegas Collector's Edition
When post-apocalyptic events head to the City of Sin, Bethesda gave its special edition a Vegas-style makeover complete with "Lucky 7" poker chips inspired by the 7 casinos in-game, a New Vegas themed deck of cards and a hardback graphic novel written by Chris Avellone (Creative Director for New Vegas) which prologues characters before New Vegas. Throw in a “Lucky 38” platinum poker chip and it wasn't such a bad haul of Fallout-inspired kit.
Price: £70 | Link: Fallout
13/21
Saints Row The Third Platinum Pack
Comfortably the most tongue-in-cheek game of 2011, the Platinum Pack featured the game soundtrack on CD, Professor Genki's Super Ethical Reality Climax Hyper Ordinary Pre-Order Pack and a Saints Row headset that featured a vocoder voice processing feature to let you sound like premier Pimp Zimos. The only problem was that it was only compatible for PC and smartphones however it did make for good Phonejacker-style prank calls.
Price: £69 | Link: Saints Row
14/21
Crysis 2 “Nano” Edition
If playing the visual splendour that is Crysis wasn't enough, Crytek had a few special suprises for its Nano edition of the game including a seven-inch tall Prophet figurine, a studio art book and a replica Nanosuit backpack which could hold a 17-inch laptop if you have to play Crysis literally everywhere you go.
Price: £130 | Crysis
15/21
Bioshock 2 Collector's Edition
Game soundtracks are great, but we are suckers for getting it on vinyl, which is why we loved the fact that the Bioshock 2 Collector's Edition was released with the original Bioshock soundtrack to re-live all the bumps, scratches and realism. Also included was a 164-page hardcover art book and the Bioshock 2 soundtrack on CD.
Price: £44 | Link: Bioshock
16/21
Duke Nukem Forever “Balls of Steel”
The perennially delayed Duke Nukem Forever did not live up to the hype. Okay, it was pants. But it did give 2K time to produce this limited “Balls of Steel” edition of the game. It was rammed with loads of extras including; Duke Nukem Forever sticker, playing cards, a set of dice, two poker chips, a Duke Nukem papercraft booklet, postcards from the game, a comic book, and a 100 page hardcover art-book and a 5-inch bust of Duke himself. You can fully expect to pick this up for significantly less than the original price.
Price: £40 | Link: Duke Nukem
17/21
GTA IV Collector's Edition
Did Rockstar Games give us a rocket launcher? No. In fact its GTA IV special edition was a much more subdued affair. Packaging a far too sensible duffel bag and a metal deposit box for stashing any questionable items along with the usual production artwork, and game soundtrack, it was a solid, sensible offering from the publishers that brought us flying tanks in Vice City. Disappointing...
Price: £120 | Link: Rockstar Games
18/21
Lord of the Rings: War in the North Collector’s Edition
With standard art book in tow Warner Bros Games also included a music documentary with composer Inon Zur at Abbey Road and footage from the E3 2011 concert. The most precious thing to get your hands on was the cloth-map of Middle-Earth with two of Legolas' finest arrows serving as end-rods. We just wish there was a certain ring, a few miniature friends and a white wizard to help us included.
Price: £70 | Link: Lord of the Rings: War in the North
19/21
Alan Wake Collector's Edition
At a glance, this looks like a 450-page book, but on closer inspection it houses the usual suspects: a game soundtrack and a making-of DVD. But what sets it out from the rest is its 129-page book. It's not an after-thought mind you, but a proper novel titled The Alan Wake Files, with full colour photos and glossy paper, which was longer (and better) than some actual novels.
Price: £80 | Link: Microsoft Game Studios
20/21
Assassin’s Creed II Black Edition
Assassin's Creed 2 came bundled with much of the usual limited edition content, an art book and bonus DVD with game soundtrack being among them and three exclusive in-game bonus quests. But standing out amongst the usual suspects was a 20cm replica model of Ezio Auditore, in his new black garb, with hidden blade exposed; it is visually striking and not mockingly miniscule.
Price: £75 | Link: Assasin's Creed
21/21
Batman: Arkham Asylum Collector's Edition
Rocksteady nailed the game part and also managed to get together a collector's edition that was equally as decent. Inside the hard-case box was an impressive 14-inch replica 'batarang' (that unfortunately didn't come back when you threw it ), an embossed Doctor's Journal with dust jacket, additional DLC and a behind-the-scenes DVD.
Price: £70 | Link: Rocksteady Studios
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