Those who purchased the Codex Edition of Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood have just lost a little something that makes that release special. Ubisoft announced that they will be offering “The Trajan Market” content free to uPlay members; which is pretty much anyone with a Ubisoft game released in the last year and an internet connection.
While the Codex Edition still has a lot more going for it in terms of collector’s appeal, it’s always disheartening when you spend the extra money up front for bonus content only to have it given away to everyone after the fact.
I will say that I do like the uPlay feature, if you haven’t signed up, it’s worth doing so. Basically you get to spend your achievement points on additional content. Of course this announcement comes after i just blew all of my U points on some new Multiplayer characters and costumes for Ezio last night.
whew… finally caught up with most of the new releases that have been announced over the last few weeks. I’ll be making news posts for some of them but getting them into the database is my #1 priority.
One discerning thing I’ve noticed is that nearly every new EA game coming out has a “Limited Edition” release. These aren’t LEs that are sold along side the regular edition, rather these are “First Edition” releases.
For those who don’t know a First Edition is basically an LE or CE that is the only version of a game that is available around the time of the games release date, where a less special regular edition comes out at a later date. This occurs frequently with books where the First edition is generally more expensive and hard bound while subsequent releases are cheaper paperbacks.
It would seem that EA is employing the book publisher’s strategy by rewarding release-day buyers of their games. Most of these only really provide a few in-game perks, like bonus XP or access to cars and weapons earlier in the game that players of the regular edition would have to play a bit before they could use.
They’ve employed this tactic with Battlefield Bad Company 2 “Limited Edition” already and so far three upcoming games have a similar LE announced:
Crysis 2
Medal of Honor
Need for Speed Hot Pursuit
It will be interesting to see if this trend continues or if other publishers will follow suit. I personally will not be adding any of these games to my collection unless I happen to be buying it anyway. I think it’s a great for the average gamer but seems to cheapen the “Limited Edition” title a bit.
Once again we see special edition content being sold separately, this week it’s the God of War III soundtrack. One of the biggest features of the Ultimate edition in North America as well as the Trilogy Edition in Europe is the fact that the game includes a heavy metal soundtrack by well known bands inspired by and specifically for God of War III.
Not content with having these be exclusive to the buyers paying a premium for the CE releases the Soundtrack is available for purchase right now for about $6. Of course right now you can only buy the 6-track EP which is significantly shorter than the full length album that comes with the CE, but content is content. At least European collectors get their money’s worth with the inclusion of the first two God of War games. Then again the “God of War Collection” hasn’t been released in Europe and I’ve been enjoying my copy here in the US for some time now.
Here’s hoping Pandoras Box is as pretty in person as it looks in the pictures.
A lot of people are looking forward to the upcoming Alien vs. Predator game. A lot of collector’s are looking forward to the Hunter Edition which includes don’t only a model facehugger, but also four exclusive multiplayer maps.
Well maybe not so exclusive… vg247 reported earlier this week that the exclusive maps would be released to the public “soon after release”, no price for the maps has been announced.
In the excerpts from the article Tim Jones goes on about the importance of the Special Edition to the fans of the IP.
How special the timed exclusivity of the mutiplayer maps actually is will remain to be seen.
Earlier this week Capcom announced the last 2 new characters that will round out the roster on the upcoming Resident Evil 5 Gold Edition: Rebecca Chambers and Barry Burton.
These characters will be playable on the revamped Mercenaries “Reunion” mode. So far the Reunion mode roster is slated to include the following characters:
Warrior Chris
Folklore Sheva
Heavy Metal Chris
Business suit Sheva
Josh Stone
Excella Gionne
Rebecca Chambers
Barry Burton
In addition to the revamped Mercinaries mode the Gold Edition will also include two new episodes for the single player campaign and new costumes.
The Xbox 360 release will include a regular game disc with DLC content codes to download the new content, while the PS3 version will include the new content on the disc. Those who already own Resident Evil 5 will be able to purchase the new content though the Xbox Live Marketplace, or the Playstation Store.
Those of you who recently picked up BioShock 2 Special Edition probably realize how important the Soundtrack is in making that particular CE what it is. I mean it’s the only CE I know of that includes an actual Vinyl LP, a piece of bonus content that defined the shape of the box. It also came with a copy on CD, and beyond that the only thing that made the Special Edition Special was the inclusion of a hard bound art-book.
Not content with making the soundtrack Exclusive to SE owners 2K games has made the Bioshock Soundtrack available for download in iTunes.
the Soundtrack can be purchased in 2 flavors:
STANDARD EDITION:
The Boogie Man – Todd Rollins & his Orchestra
How Much Is That Doggie In The Window? – Patti Page
20th Century Blues – Noel Coward
Nightmare – Artie Shaw & His New Music
Daddy, Won’t You Please Come Home? – Annette Hanshaw
Praise The Lord and Pass The Ammunition – Kay Kyser & His Orchestra
Dawn of a New Day – Horace Heidt & His Music Knights
Night and Day – Billie Holiday & Her Orchestra
My Heart Belongs To Daddy – Eddie Duchin & His Orchestra
Chasing Shadows – Quintette of the Hot Club of France
Jitterbug Waltz – Fats Waller & His Rhythm
I Cover The Waterfront – Connie Boswell
DELUXE EDITION:
The Boogie Man – Todd Rollins & his Orchestra
How Much Is That Doggie In The Window? – Patti Page
20th Century Blues – Noel Coward
Nightmare – Artie Shaw & His New Music
Daddy, Won’t You Please Come Home? – Annette Hanshaw
Praise The Lord and Pass The Ammunition – Kay Kyser & His Orchestra
Dawn of a New Day – Horace Heidt & His Music Knights
Night and Day – Billie Holiday & Her Orchestra
My Heart Belongs To Daddy – Eddie Duchin & His Orchestra
Chasing Shadows – Quintette of the Hot Club of France
Jitterbug Waltz – Fats Waller & His Rhythm
I Cover The Waterfront – Connie Boswell
Mental Strain At Dawn – Jack Purvis, trumpet solo, with rhythm accompaniment
Bei Mir Bist Du Schon – Benny Goodman & His Orchestra, with vocal by Martha Tilton
The Trouble With Me is You – Red McKenzie
The Skeleton In The Closet – Putney Dandridge
We Saw The Sea – Fred Astaire
La Mer – Django Reinhardt
Release of the above soundtracks coincided with the release of the Special Edition (really? not even a delayed release?) And for those who pay attention you could have been streaming it live though Rapture Radio since before release. Obviously a digital copy doesn’t hold the same Collector’s Pride that owning the sound track on vinyl does, but seriously, how many of you actually own a turn-table? …and no having one in some dusty storage box somewhere doesn’t count.
