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by Shadow Wave:
©2009 Ben Cadwallader:
Today is the day that many gamers will wake up with a knife in their hand, the day they speak with a foreign accent and the day that they will sit on a bench with people they do not know.
Sound vaguely familiar?
Well it should, Assassins Creed 2 is out today!
It’s the day many Assassins Creed players have been waiting for: a chance to finally understand that ‘WTF’ ending of the original title! And maybe learn a bit more about Desmond and his Animus adventures.
OXCGN’s Assassin’s Creed 2 Review here.
And while Assassins Creed is out today, and I’m sure it’s selling very well, there is a special version that comes with an additional $50 on the price tag that sold out here in Australia well before release.
The Black Edition:
- Rare “Master Assassin” Ezio Figurine
- 3 in-game bonus quests
- Conspiracy Book (its an art book)
- Game Soundtrack
- All inside a sleek black box
Let’s open her up shall we?
1) The black box: I’m sure most people will notice when they pick theirs up how light the box feels to hold. This could be bad….
2) Took off the back cover of the box (just had the rear box art on it) to reveal this, which was a nice little surprise as you opened it.
3) I lifted up the flap on the box, and opened it up to reveal Ezio, the “Master Assassin” inside his protected box, he’ll have to come out to get those foams bits off his hands.
4) Upon removing the figurine I found the art book, and the bonus disc with “trailers, soundtracks and wallpapers” I haven’t tried this disc out yet but it sounds quite gimmicky. The disc was a little scratched inside the poor cardboard holder.
5) Here is Ezio out in the wild, next to Bobble Head, Big Daddy and Master Chief.
In Depth Impression:
The most alarming thing about this is that the entire package is so light weight, and as it turns out the figurine is not a statue. It’s not made of hard plastic, it’s made of a kind of a squishy, flexible/soft plastic.
And while the detail of the figurine is quite good when placed on a shelf, it does feel very cheap to hold… especially when you’ve paid quite a premium cost for it.
You can bend his sword with your finger etc., the stand on my figure does not sit flat so there is a slight wobble on both sides, and though it’s nothing huge it once again adds to that feeling of cheapness.
I guess the value of this figurine will depend on the eye of the beholder. It looks good, but it feels cheap. It’s a good size, but it could break easily. I personally think I would have preferred a higher quality plastic or metal with the size of the figurine sacrificed just a bit.
The art book is very nice. It’s leather wrapped, and has a lot of pages of art, and if you’re a fan of art books this is one of the best art books I have seen for a long time. It feels classy and is detailed enough to maybe make the extra price tag worth it for you, if that’s your thing.
The bonus DVD has yet to be tested, looks a bit gimmicky, so not getting my hopes up for whenever I get around to testing it. The cardboard case is very dodgy- it’s scratched the disc up a little, and I have had the disc fall out multiple times already as it sits very loose in there. Be careful when you open yours!
The bonus In-Game Quests are simply redeemed in the games’ redemption system which simply unlocks the content that is already on the disc.
Finally, I was disappointed that the actual game itself is the same as the standard edition. For all this ‘Black Edition’ I don’t get why we didn’t get a black box art or tin or something. It feels very dodgy that they just threw in the standard edition with a white cover and everything.
It would have been great to see something that showed what collector’s edition you had. I honestly would have hoped for a tin case to go along with my Assassins Creed 1 case.
Overall, this collectors edition is a mixed bag, and I think its value will be determined by each person as it has its ups and downs. The best thing by far in this black box is its art book, full of detail.
The figurine I think some will love and some won’t be impressed by its flexible plastic etc. And finally, I think the rest of people will just want to play the damn game.
If we are talking about full RRP prices I’m willing to say that the extra $50 on the price tag (it cost AUD$150) might be worth it depending on who you are.
But in Australia, if you take into account the price of the standard edition which is on sale for as low as AUD$78, and the fact the Black Edition is an EB Games Exclusive, which means there is no price matching available, it makes the Black Edition potentially up to $72 more expensive than the standard edition…
So is this worth it you? Your comments and thoughts in the box below.
©2009 Ben Cadwallader
• Other games in genre at discount $’s for ALL OXCGN readers + Bonus Points
Filed under: 3rd Party Games, Blogbanter, Console gaming, Editorial, Game Impressions, GameBanter, Software News & Updates, Xbox 360, Xbox 360 News | Tagged: Assassin's creed, Assassin's Creed 2, Assassin's creed 2 black edition, Black Box, Black Special Edition
With regards to the quality of the figure and the comments from outside of Australia:
I have quite a few figures and this Ezio figure is definitely up to standard in my opinion – I might even say that it’s above expected quality for the relative cost. The detail is excellent and the build quality is good.
This article implies that the whole figure is made out of soft plastic, but that’s just not the case with mine nor any other I’ve heard about. The bulk of the figure is solid, with only some accessories and the hood/cape being made out of softer plastic. I don’t see any issue with that whatsoever, constructing figures out of mixed materials is perfectly normal.
Smaller parts like the hidden blades would be much more susceptible to breakage if they were made out of a harder material. With a more flexible plastic, they’re not likely to break unless you actually try to break them.
The weight is also quite normal and no cause for concern at all. The only reasonable complaint I can see is that the base is a bit light, but it looks perfectly fine and isn’t going to break any time soon. The figure itself is very, very good.
As for value, I think that between the figure, the book and the extra game content, the extra cost over the standard edition is well worth it. You could even call it a bargain, depending on your opinion of all that stuff – I would. My only real issue with the Black Edition is that the book – beautiful though it may be – is brimming with spelling errors and typos. Very unprofessional.
It’d be a shame for this article to put anyone considering the Black Edition off their purchase (if they can still find it). Everything is up for personal opinion, but I urge people to go and look at a variety of opinions rather than just taking this one at face value. It seems a little too harsh to me (at least with regards to the figure, I do agree with some of the other points).
Really? Weird. I live in the UK and my figure is a very hard plastic (excluding the cape and other small accessories which are soft). It is well detailed and the base stands very flat. THen again, I ordered mine almost instantaneously so maybe they cut production expenses to make more models faster?
Wow, you got ganked! Here in the states we got the same sort of deal here… but different:
1st) It was a Gamestop exclusive only available via pre-order, and it wasn’t “black”;
2nd) The whole thing came in an enormous, em/de-bossed tin (MCs whole helmet would fit inside);
3rd) My statue rocks! The amount of detail work, the different layers of pieces, the weight, this thing would fetch $20-$30US easily in a fan store, albeit w/a heavier base.
4th) The standard issue is $60US, this edition was $80US. Yeah, you got ripped off.
How do I redeem the bonus missions? I purchased the black edition but it doesnt have any codes in the box/packaging and the game itself, as mentioned above is the same as the standard edition game, so how do i redeem the bonus missions…please help!!
I’ll have to leavethat one to oBen to answer mate, but the White Edition has the code on the back of a ccrad.
You sign in to your Xbo360 Dash, Go top Redeem Code, enter the code, and then it “should” accept it, then accept the download, and bingo.
But perhaps the Black has something different, but doubt it – Ben??
The code was inside the actual game case behind the manual I think.
You have to redeem the code IN GAME. Not through the xbox dashboard.
Could you give Baku a rough idea of how mate . . . ?
Would you go into the marketplace via the in-game marketplace to gain access?
Does it have a check for updates or marketplace content or something?
you just do it in the extra’s menu. its not DLC, it just unlocks it on the disc. Each game has the content but its just locked unless you have the code
ahhh, sneaky buggers, thanks for that, most appreciated.