Collector's Editions: I missed out on them all.

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I have a thing for dolls. Cooler people than I call them figurines or action figures but in the end….those are all just fancy smancy words for dolls. And I have a lot of them ranging from the Buffyverse to the Boondock Saints. I even have a nice selection of DDO miniatures. Heck, Bon Jovi sits on my mantle in his place of honor next to a Mickey Mouse Jedi and his utility droid. The one collectible I own that’s not a doll is the lightsaber replica – and that’s not really mine. It belongs to my partner, but I like to think we co-own most things. And it is also on my mantle.

Despite my love of all things collectible, I have purchased not one video game collector’s edition. Oh I’ve considered the purchase. The closest I came (until recently) was the serious contemplation of the Witcher 2 Collector’s Edition last year. And I was going to do it. I would have. Except that I couldn’t order it in Canada. Which is where I live. At times like these to my great dissatisfaction. So despite my yearning for the Geralt bust, art book, coins, paper craft and some other swag – I purchased the plain old regular edition. Which was good - just not what I wanted.

This is what I wanted.

All of that ends with the release of Mass Effect 3 - because I already have the Collector's Edition pre-ordered. Now, I can't help but wonder what I may have missed in waiting so long to jump on the CE bandwagon.

Apparently, I missed a lot. Let’s narrow it to five shall we? Five seems like a good number.

5 I remember back in late 2004 when the Halo 2: Collector’s Edition was released. Folks went crazy for this embossed metal box containing the game (for XBOX) and an extras DVD - including character outtakes and Dev commentaries. There was nothing in there that you couldn’t have found on YouTube a few months in, but the frenzy around this release was palpable nonetheless and it only cost $10 more than the regular game - so it makes number 5 on the list.

4 May as well keep with the shooters and move on to Call of Duty: World at War. This game went so far as to release a Limited Collector’s edition for PC and the X360 – wait, limited? Aren’t they all? The CoD: WaW CE came with early unlock of the FG-42 in game, one week of double multiplayer XP, a colored clan tag for X360 gamers and a stainless steel canteen with the COD emblem on it. Which is cool and convenient – you can keep the filled canteen nearby to assuage the inevitable thirst cropping up, as you try, unsuccessfully not to get sniped. Or maybe that’s just me - I die a lot in multiplayer shooters.

3 Batman: Arkham Asylum got great reviews for the most part. I am not a fan of the Batman franchise so I didn’t get very far into the game. But if you are a fan of the franchise the 48 page character encyclopedia, extras DVD, exclusive in game map and 14 inch batarang – that’s right, it came with an honest to goodness BATARANG! – would have made this one a keeper.

2The Ubisoft folks have consistently released some awesome Assassin’s Creed CEs. The first game’s Collector’s Edition, in particular was chock full of sparkly goodness, including a mini-strategy guide, AC themed short films, an Altair doll and a set of Penny Arcade comics all neatly packaged in the requisite tin box. The AC2 Black Edition UK exclusive came with the “Master Assassin” version of the Ezio doll, 3 in game bonus quests; the leather bound ‘Conspiracy Book’ and game soundtrack nestled inside of the autographed the collectible black packaging with unique holographic signature. Can’t wait to see what AC3: Revelations has in store for us. Maybe I’ll even pick this one up. If I’m allowed to do that in Canada. Come on Ubisoft! You know you want to! Please?

I know I said five was a good number but the best there seems to be a tie for first place on my very prestigious list between Diablo II and StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty.

Such a great doll.

1A Diablo II, released for the PC came with your typical extras - DVD, a special editions manual with dev autographs on the back cover and a spiffy box. But the marketing team didn’t stop there. The box was much bigger than most video game packaging needs to be (around 9” by 15”) - all the better to contain the Diablo II RPG kit (AD&D 2) included with the game. The kit included the quest book, rule book, DM screen, character sheets, dice and cut out map tiles. I think I paid well over $100 to get a comparable base set for DnD 4e last year. Given the CE’s approx. $100CAD price tag at release – it was totally worth it. If you have any interest in pen and paper that is. And I do. So...

1B StarCraft II: Wing of Liberty also came in at around $100 from what I can tell. Although it seems some folks who pre-ordered got it for 30% less than that. So that means for $69 or so these lucky individuals got the 176 page art book, soundtrack, behind the scenes DVD, SC comic issue #0, and a StarCraft dog tag 2G USB thumb drive preloaded with both Star Craft and Brood Wars. For those SCII crazies who are uber obsessed with the showy, competitive aspects of SCII the set also contained DLC in the form of army icons, avatar portraits and an exclusive unit decals and a unique version of the Terran Thor unit. (Oh and they threw in a special pet for players of WarCraft and in the hopes of enticing noobs to the Warcraft money pit to jump on in.) Blizzard wanted to release an epic CE. I’m pretty sure they succeeded. The box looks kind of nifty too.

That’s the list then, narrowed down to 6 games. With a couple of notable mentions throughout. Feel free to send me a line if you feel I overlooked something. And be sure to check back in approximately 165 days for a look at my brand new ME3 CE and game reviews/commentaries. More SWTOR and some StarCraft commentaries up sooner than that.