Video Game Special Editions You Regret Purchasing

I have a tendency to buy the special editions of games. It has to be some kind of FOMO (fear of missing out). I also love good swag.

Sometimes those purchases go wrong.

I bought the Batman Arkham Asylum Special Edition. It came with a plastic Batarang on a flimsy stand and a passable artbook. When I popped the box open, the Batarang was all scratched up.

I called and complained that the silly statue was damaged. I was told that was how it was supposed to look. It looked like someone rubbed sandpaper all over it. The scratches were pitched as "Battle Damage". Hey man, don't give me a Batarang I can't effectively chuck at someone.

I recently saw that very same SE set under my mother's TV during a visit. The only reason it isn't in some landfill is that she refuses to through any of my nonsense away.

What physical or digital special editions of games have you purchased and later regretted? Was the swag terrible? Did it only come with horse armor (old joke)?

Probably the biggest regret for me was purchasing the Hellgate London Special Edition so I could get maps and a special documentary for a game that exploded less than 2 months after launch.

My most recent regretted purchase was the Guild Wars 2 Path Of Fire Deluxe Edition. Not that the game isn't bad - it's fantastic - but because I was kidding myself in thinking I had time to play an MMO.

(I miss Hellgate: London. That was fun and had such potential...)

Bioshock Infinite was a huge waste of money. I really loathed the plot in that game, just lazy and derivative. Heinlein did that plot first, in The Number of the Beast, and it's widely considered his worst book.

The statue is pretty cool, but really, it's just collecting dust. It doesn't have good memories attached.

Bioware's The Old Republic collector's edition was an equally dismal purchase. I played it for like two weeks, and dropped it because the customer service was so unbelievably terrible.

Malor wrote:

Bioshock Infinite was a huge waste of money. I really loathed the plot in that game, just lazy and derivative. Heinlein did that plot first, in The Number of the Beast, and it's widely considered his worst book.

Never read Farnham's Freehold, have you.

Destiny The Digital Guardian Edition thinking it would encompass all that would come to pass. It did not. What it did bring was not worth paying double and a pinch for. The DLC was trash. Both times. Whatever bonus in-game items were added were the definition of forgettable. The good expansion - The Taken King - would have been preferable to all of it. I may not have blacklisted the series had I not got burned by this special edition early adoption. To be fair, the sequel done nothing interesting, anyway.

tanstaafl wrote:
Malor wrote:

Bioshock Infinite was a huge waste of money. I really loathed the plot in that game, just lazy and derivative. Heinlein did that plot first, in The Number of the Beast, and it's widely considered his worst book.

Never read Farnham's Freehold, have you.

I've read both. Both are terrible, but Number of the Beast is worse. Heinlein at his most creepily incestuous.

RnRClown wrote:

Destiny The Digital Guardian Edition thinking it would encompass all that would come to pass. It did not. What it did bring was not worth paying double and a pinch for. The DLC was trash. Both times. Whatever bonus in-game items were added were the definition of forgettable. The good expansion - The Taken King - would have been preferable to all of it. I may not have blacklisted the series had I not got burned by this special edition early adoption. To be fair, the sequel done nothing interesting, anyway.

I hear ya. I bought that as well. The only justification for the purchase was a few friends had Destiny and were pretty into it. I have yet to play Destiny 2 but I feel if I do get it, it'll be a special edition. I get suckered into that all the time.

No Halo 3 cat helmets?

Once upon a time I thought Age of Conan was going to be the be-all, end-all mmorpg, so I bought the collector's edition. It's sat on a shelf mocking me for years til I finally threw it out.

On the other hand, last year I got my teenager the Dishonored 2 CE for Christmas, and he loved it. The Corvo mask and ring are on display in his room, Wanted poster on the wall. That was a good collector's edition.

ClockworkHouse wrote:
tanstaafl wrote:
Malor wrote:

Bioshock Infinite was a huge waste of money. I really loathed the plot in that game, just lazy and derivative. Heinlein did that plot first, in The Number of the Beast, and it's widely considered his worst book.

Never read Farnham's Freehold, have you.

I've read both. Both are terrible, but Number of the Beast is worse. Heinlein at his most creepily incestuous.

I don't think I've regretted a special edition purchase, and there are also two things from high school I do not regret not getting into along with my mates: Dave Mathews Band, and Robert Heinlein.

Maybe the Hitman absolution special edition, I thought, on the whole, the game was still fun, and I like the statue that came with it as a fan of the series, but I shouldn't have bothered, I've no idea where that statue is now, and I'm not too sure my girlfriend would be happy with it on display in our new home

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/DL1Q4Ii.jpg?1)

I actually feel like I made out like a bandit and went out on top with my final Collector Edition purchases.

OG Bioshock - With that sweet Big Daddy statue. Really nice quality at a reasonable price.

Fallout 3 - Inc. cool lunchbox and Vault Boy Bobblehead (that I sport at work to this day).

After that, I retired the CE habit. Feels good.

Still get Bethesda (sandbox rpg) hardback guide books for memento purposes though.

Aaron D. wrote:

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/DL1Q4Ii.jpg?1)

I actually feel like I made out like a bandit and went out on top with my final Collector Edition purchases.

OG Bioshock - With that sweet Big Daddy statue. Really nice quality at a reasonable price.

Fallout 3 - Inc. cool lunchbox and Vault Boy Bobblehead (that I sport at work to this day).

After that, I retired the CE habit. Feels good.

Still get Bethesda (sandbox rpg) hardback guide books for memento purposes though.

I still use that Fallout Lunchbox to hold my drafting tools. The included Fallout Boy also kicked off an unhealthy Bobblehead/Funko Pop addiction. I need help folks...

I'm usually pretty good about not buying special editions, because I don't want to spend extra to have a gizmo hanging around for a game that might not be any good.

That said, I thought super hard about buying the special edition for Titanfall when I found it discounted to about $40. That's a super sweet robot. The statues for the recent Halo games were pretty nice too.

I did get the Dishonored 2 collector's edition from a buddy who works for a Bethesda studio when he didn't want it. That mask is really damn cool.

I totally identify with you, superblack. I've gotten a number of special editions that I love, but the FOMO causes me to take chances, because they often sell out quickly and I've been left with regrets in the past (or would have been).

Generally, my regrets have more to do with the quality of the game (don't want to remember it with a keepsake on my shelves) than the quality of the items.

Probably the worst pick was Max Payne 3, because that enormous statue made me feel pretty guilty about chucking it (after holding onto it for a long time). It was, like, a foot high! Nobody wanted me to pawn that off on them. Many of the Assassin's Creeds also had swag that was inferior to stuff I could have just bought separately; and they started getting increasingly extravagant as the series began to slide downhill for me.

But by and large it's been worth it. I can look around me in my home office and tell you about a ton of games and my happy memories associated with them, just by looking at my shelves. I realize that other people might not need or care for such physical reminders, but I like 'em.

beeporama wrote:

I totally identify with you, superblack. I've gotten a number of special editions that I love, but the FOMO causes me to take chances, because they often sell out quickly and I've been left with regrets in the past (or would have been).

Generally, my regrets have more to do with the quality of the game (don't want to remember it with a keepsake on my shelves) than the quality of the items.

Probably the worst pick was Max Payne 3, because that enormous statue made me feel pretty guilty about chucking it (after holding onto it for a long time). It was, like, a foot high! Nobody wanted me to pawn that off on them. Many of the Assassin's Creeds also had swag that was inferior to stuff I could have just bought separately; and they started getting increasingly extravagant as the series began to slide downhill for me.

But by and large it's been worth it. I can look around me in my home office and tell you about a ton of games and my happy memories associated with them, just by looking at my shelves. I realize that other people might not need or care for such physical reminders, but I like 'em.

Indeed. There are some things I look at (Gears of War 3 Marcus Statue) and think "That was well worth it". Then there are others, like that Batman Batarang nonsense, that I'm just confused by at this point.

These days I just get the big digital bundles which are even worse. I don't actually own anything. Just a lot of 1s and 0s and promised content.

beeporama wrote:

...
Probably the worst pick was Max Payne 3, because that enormous statue made me feel pretty guilty about chucking it (after holding onto it for a long time). It was, like, a foot high! Nobody wanted me to pawn that off on them.....

I thought I was the only person on the planet who got stuck with that thing. I ended up with mine because my local Gamestop messed up my preorder and gave me a return of this for the same price. So I don't feel guilty, but I still don't know what I'm going to do with that statue.

Do season passes count? I regret probably three out of four season passes I buy. But I keep buying them. I'm a terrible consumer.

I almost never buy those, and broke down for the XCOM2 one. "It's Firaxis," I thought, "how bad could it be?"

Pretty bad, as it turns out. That will be the last time I buy anything game-related without knowing exactly what I'm getting.

I ordered the Limited Edition of Elemental: War of Magic because I like GalCiv 2 a lot, and they kept talking up the role-playing aspects. But the game was a total mess, the foldout map was tiny, and the writing in the lorebook sucked. Then things... well... got weird with Brad Wardell and it just made the whole thing not fun to think about anymore.

I'm reading this thread with bemusement. You mean there's special editions that you don't regret?

Spoiler:

I know, horses for courses and all that. Even so, I'm mystified that there is actually value to some plastic tchotchkes once the impulsivity of the purchase fades into memory. No surprise that my total number of special editions purchased can be counted on no hands.

Jonman wrote:

I'm reading this thread with bemusement. You mean there's special editions that you don't regret?

I have rarely ventured from standard editions, for financial wellbeing, but there are a few special editions that I think back on and wish I had opted in for. Only a few, mind, so it's probably a justified approach. Probably. There's a little bit of wonder to having my home (or a single room) decked out with such gaming memorabilia.

Aaron D. wrote:

Still get Bethesda (sandbox rpg) hardback guide books for memento purposes though.

I really love the hardcover Fallout guides. I want to grab the one for Fallout 4 but it's around $40 new right now. I missed the boat earlier in the year when this was a lot cheaper. I saw the Skyrim hardcover for the first time this weekend and mistook it for an encyclopedia. That thing is MASSIVE.

93_confirmed wrote:
Aaron D. wrote:

Still get Bethesda (sandbox rpg) hardback guide books for memento purposes though.

I really love the hardcover Fallout guides. I want to grab the one for Fallout 4 but it's around $40 new right now. I missed the boat earlier in the year when this was a lot cheaper. I saw the Skyrim hardcover for the first time this weekend and mistook it for an encyclopedia. That thing is MASSIVE.

Final Fantasy 13 collector's strategy guide. Played that game maybe 2 hours. If that.

Ultima 9 "Dragon Edition". The reason I will never buy a special or collectors edition of any game again.

It was maybe the first thing I bought online, and definitely the first thing I bought online from another country.

I asked for the full box to be sent. It arrived without the box and squashed into a smaller box.
The game was hyped up to be awesome. It was awful.
Origin released a patch that was supposed to make the game better. It didn't. They promised to send everyone a replacement CD with the patched version on it. The CD never showed up.
I kept all that junk for years because I paid money for it. Finally threw it out maybe last year.

93_confirmed wrote:
Aaron D. wrote:

Still get Bethesda (sandbox rpg) hardback guide books for memento purposes though.

I really love the hardcover Fallout guides. I want to grab the one for Fallout 4 but it's around $40 new right now.

I bought that one. It got dubbed "The Bible" in the midst of my Fallout 4 obsession. It really is great. It was also the first guide of any sort I had picked up since Warcraft 3, as I tend to prefer going in dark and figuring it all out myself.

Jonman wrote:

You mean there's special editions that you don't regret?

Yup--that would be all of them. Every special edition I very willingly purchased and do not regret the extra money. That goes all the way back to getting every Working Designs PS1 JRPG (Lunar, Vanguard Bandits, etc). Gimme dem soundtracks and statues--love it all.

Hellgate London lifetime sub

I'm another survivor of the Hellgate special edition with lifetime sub. It was supposed to be the game that got me away from WoW, but I lost all desire to play after finishing the main story. I was so hopeful that I bought a GTX8800 when it was still pretty new so I could see all the effects they added. I have some small hope that if they release another Hellgate, they'll give us something extra for it.

Jonman wrote:

I'm reading this thread with bemusement. You mean there's special editions that you don't regret?

Spoiler:

I know, horses for courses and all that. Even so, I'm mystified that there is actually value to some plastic tchotchkes once the impulsivity of the purchase fades into memory. No surprise that my total number of special editions purchased can be counted on no hands.

I've said it in other threads, but the best analogy I have is that they are like having pictures or souvenirs from a vacation.

I realize those don't appeal to some people, either, but that's my memory for you.

And I realize that some might find it disturbing that I have more fond memories from Karnaka or Spira or Rapture or Eden Prime, than I do from Cancun or Jamaica or Aruba... but at my age, whatever is broken about me and my pleasure centers probably ain't getting fixed, so I'm rolling with it.

I realize this is mystifying for some people; but I can't understand why some people like to get peed on, or climb big rocks, or go to operas, or read celebrity gossip. Like, I get why people like a lot of things that I don't, but some are completely alien to me. We're a weird species.