Gears, Carbon and collectors' editions

Posted by Doug

10:44 AM, November 8, 2006

I picked up my copy of the "Gears of War" collectors' edition last night. Last week I purchased the "Need for Speed: Carbon" collectors' edition for the 360. I thought I would share what joy, if any, my extra $20 has brought me.

As I mentioned a few days ago, tracking down a "NFS:Carbon" collectors' edition caused me quite a few headaches. Was it worth it? Kinda.

The "bonus" DVD that comes with "Carbon" is completely silly. There are non-narrated short features on what went into making the game... and by that I mean the cut-scenes, actors and story-line. There is very little insight into the game itself. Instead we get to see how tons of money is dumped into the portions of a video game that no one watches or cares about.

Quite possibly the most ridiculous vignettes are the "Cars" features. These are nothing more that hand-drawn sketches of the cars followed by their final rendered versions. Huh? It's so goofy I would have expected this on a TurboGrafx-16 game. I really expected more.

Now on the game disc itself, "Carbon" does give you ten bucks of extra content (at least by Xbox Live Marketplace standards) in the form of extra cars and pre-tuned vehicles. Sadly, there is nothing to designate these extras as part of the collectors' edition (I had to go online to figure out if I even had the right game disc) and none are true exclusives. All extras can be purchased in the Marketplace or earned in the game. If you didn't know any better you would never miss this stuff. It's mostly for lazy gamers that would rather not spend the time to earn better cars and upgrades.

FYI: if you're really lazy, you can buy all the "Need for Speed: Carbon" items online and spend nearly another $50!

(More after the jump)

I feel I eeked out $10 of extras from "Carbon" (that plastic slip-cover is worth at least three cents), but the "Gear of War" collectors' version is great!

"Gears" comes with a small hard-bound book with the game's story line, character profiles and concept art. I loved this and it's better than putting up with it in the game. This book alone was worth the extra ten bucks for me.

Like "Carbon" the ubiquitous "bonus" DVD is also included. Thankfully the included vignettes are much better for "Gears" than what EA gave us. Thumbs up here.

Sadly, there is nothing extra in the game, it's the same ole disc that everyone gets no matter what version you buy. An extra character, a new costume or a bonus gun would have been fun, but alas, nothing. No biggie. The rest of this collectors' pack (and the cool metal box) make up for the lack of in-game extras. Besides, the game is so great I would have been happy with a pack-in stick of "Gear of War" gum!