A Guide To Recognizing Your SteelBooks

Ok so Maybe the title is misleading but I couldn’t help myself. First Look Studios apparently really liked what I did with the last SteelBook pre-release they sent me, Sukiyaki Western Django, and decided that they’d like to send me another.

This time around I received a Limited Edition SteelBook for a movie called A Guide To Recognizing Your Saints. To be perfectly honest I had never heard of this film and after the initial confusion over the name wore off a brief glance at the cover led me to believe that this looks like quite the interesting film. It took home some Awards from the Sundance Film Festival (always a good sign in my book) and it stars some well known talent too, Robert Downey Jr. being the most prominent name on the list (and the cover art).

Of course I haven’t actually had a chance to WATCH this film yet (I’ll be sure to check back in here once I do) so in the mean time lets take a closer look at the case.

Both the front and back covers make good use of bare metal, sometimes this kind of thing works and sometimes it doesn’t, but here I think it really works fantastically. The front cover really had an interesting mix of bare and colored areas that give the cover as a whole a very rugged and raw feel. The back cover design utilizes the bare metal in a different way; it juxtaposes an image from the movie against a back drop of bare metal, combine with the angle of the shot gives it a real 3D quality despite being completely flat.

On the inside we’re treated to one of my favorites features of most SteelBooks and that is the almost panoramic scene that stretches across the inside of the case.  It’s like an Easter egg in your case as it’s usually hidden behind the disc and booklet.  The inside of this case features another shot from the film in a cepia tone to mach the front cover.

Perhaps the most interesting quality of this particular case design is the film title on the front of the case. I attempted to capture it in this last shot but really the way it’s designed it has to be seen with two eyes as opposed to the single eye of a camera. The title is embossed into the case and the way they’ve utilized the reflective properties of the metal against the dull wash of the surrounding images it looks almost like the text is floating above the surface of the case. I’ve probably stared at this cover for far longer than is healthy but it’s really an interesting effect and certainly something I haven’t seen accomplished (albeit possibly attempted) on a SteelBook before.

Case aside I’d like to applaud First Look Studios for giving the Limited Edition SteelBook treatment to yet another indy film. As someone who tends to appreciate films with vision and good writing over the latest big budget explosion-polloza I find it heart warming that films with attention to detail in their content are receiving attention to detail in their packaging as well.

This SteelBook is slated for release on February 3rd at a price of $14.98. Judging by the case design alone it would make a welcome edition to any SteelBook collection.

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Resident Evil 5 North American Collectors Edition Details Unveiled

Gamestop has unveiled details on the upcoming North American Release of Resident Evil 5 Collector’s Edition.

The Collector’s Edition comes in a carboard box containing the following:

• The Game in a SteelBook Case
• A Bonus Disc with a making of featurette, digital art gallery and movie trailers
• A Chris Redfield Figurine
• A TriCell Messenger Bag
• A Kijuju Necklace
• A BSAA Patch

This looks to be quite a nice package.

It will retail for about $90 and it ships on March 19th.

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Biohazard 5 Deluxe Edition Details Released

Kotaku has released details on the Deluxe Edition of Biohazard 5. According to the report it comes in a metal tin and includes a “Select Track” soundtrack CD. Slated for release March 5, 2009 at a price of ¥8,800 (US$97)

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Street Fighter IV Final North American Box Art and Details Revealed

StageSelect has revealed the final North American Box Art details for Street Fighter IV Collector’s Edition.

Detail on what it includes:

North American deets for the long-awaited Collector’s Edition! We’re not just throwing a craptacular “behind-the-scenes” video and “art book” with less images than you can find on any website into a cheesey tin box. Instead, we’re bringing you a gorgeous package that includes:

1. The game (duh)
2. A limited-edition (ie., not sold anywhere else) figurine – Ryu in the PS3 box, C. Viper hotness in the 360 flavor. Decisions, decisions…
3. Street Fighter IV: The Ties That Bind: a 65 minute anime movie — created by Studio 4C — that sets up the story of SFIV by explaining events post-SFII. BluRay disc in the PS3 box! The Xbox version is a 360 game disc that outputs the movie at 720P, not a DVD.
4. A mini-strategy guide from Prima, written by the same people doing the full-on guide and illustrated by Udon Comics
5. CD soundtrack. Rock SFIV stage chunez in your car!
6. …Plus some secret additional downloadable content that we’re not quite ready to reveal at this point. Look for more announcements soon!

All this wrapped up nicely in a box that features Ikeno-san’s instant classic illustration of Ryu, with images of the other characters on the sides.

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Street Fighter IV Collector’s Edition Detail Announced

GameStop released detail of the upcoming North American release of Street Fighter IV Collector’s Edition for Xbox 360 and PS3 earlier today:

The Collector’s Edition for Xbox 360 or PS3 will include a bonus disc with a 65-minute full-length Anime movie and promotional trailers; a CD soundtrack; a collectible Ryu figurine for the PS3 edition; a collectible C. Viper figurine for the Xbox 360 edition; a Udon/Prima Hint book; and 5 downloadable costumes. Ships February 17.

The Pre-Order Bonus through GameStop has been known for a while

Reserve Street Fighter IV and receive an exclusive headband like the one worn by martial arts master Ryu. Channel the power of Ryu with this official Street Fighter headband. Available for online and store in-store customers only while supplies last.

1up is also reporting details of the European SFIV CE. Which is slated to include an HD film, Downloadable Content as well as 2 figurines.

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Prince of Persia Pictures Posted

Pictures have been Posted for the Xbox 360 Prince of Persia Limited Edition

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MK vs DC Xbox 360 PAL CE Canceled

According to Sealed Game Hevean and elsewhere, It would seem that the Xbox 360 PAL Kollector’s Edition of MK vs DC was canceled. Despite the fact that the game has been released the Xbox 360 Kollector’s Edition in Europe mysteriously never made it to store shelves. The PS3 was actually released and there is photographic evidence as well. Both the PS3 and 360 release were originally slated to be GAME exclusive releases.

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Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe Pictures Posted

Pictures and details for Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe Kollector’s Edition have been posted.

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COD: World at War One of First Games to Include NetFlix Trial

I picked up Call of Duty: World at War Limited Collector’s Edition today. I must say that it has the nicest case of any Call of Duty game released thus far (though the actual Bonuses for COD4 were much better).

Interesting though is that this game included the previously rumored Netflix/XBL Gold trial code.

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Halo Wars Limited Edition Announced

Amazon.com and Gamestop.com are both listing a Limited Edition of the upcoming title, Halo Wars. The game is Scheduled for release February 2nd 2009 at a price of about $80.

The LE is slated to include the following:

• Three New “Halo 3” Multiplayer Maps – Be one of the first to experience the Mythic Map Pack* which includes three new maps, “Assembly,” “Orbital” and “Sandbox”
• Halo Wars: Genesis – a beautiful graphic novel by Phil Noto chronicling the first military campaign against the Covenant. The novel centers around the Sprit of Fire on a mission to discover why the Covenant are so interested in the world of Harvest
• Unique In-game Vehicle – “Honor Guard” Wraith
• Six Leader Cards – Leaders possess elite skills which can turn the tides of battle
• Spirit of Fire Patch – Start the journey as an official Spirit of Fire crew member

Also those who pre-order Halo Wars through Amazon.com will receive (via email) a marketplace code to download a special in-game Warthog vehicle with Flame decals.

GAME.co.uk has had a Limited Collector’s Edition of Halo Wars listed for the UK region for some time now. No word on what is included in that package but if past Microsoft Game Studio releases are any indication it will be nearly identical to the North American Release.

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