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Thursday, May 19, 2011

REVIEW: The Witcher 2 Collectors Edition items


Welcome Gamers!

Today i'd like to talk about "Collectors editions". These items are usually a special box set put together for someone looking for more than just the regular game, this little bit extra could be a bonus code for something downloadable in the game, to an art book showing behind the scenes concept work into the games development, or even to an action figure or night vision goggles!

I'm a sucker for concept art, so any collectors edition that comes with an artbook holds a spot in my heart. I love seeing the development process for a game, ranging from early sketches to final designs, what didn't make it past the cutting room floor, and alternate ideas that may be used later on, after all video games usually may take up to 5+ years to complete so theres bound to be some fantastic concepts that deserve to be shown off.

The Review:
I picked up my preorder of the Collectors edition box of The Witcher 2 this week, the clerk behind the counter said it was the only one that came in and he was interested on what was inside, almost as if he was asking me to open it there in the store, I denied this request.

The box itself is a sleek black box with The Witchers Wolf emblem at the edge of the box folding over both sides.


Opening the box, I am greeted by my favorite portion of this set, the Art Book!


And what an Art book it is!, this thing is huge and filled with great artwork, design concepts and the story behind a few of their ideas for environment and the creation process of blending in historical data with their imagination to create a new world, heres a look at a few more pages...



Did i mention this thin was big? 195 pages to be exact!



Included in the box is also a few stickers promoting the game, and a paper craft kit to create! oooh, aaah.



Digging a bit deeper we get a beefy 2 disc DVD for the game installation, a 2 Disc soundtrack and a 96 page manual that reads like a mini adventure book! Very cool!

saucy






Next up, the Main piece. Inside the box (which had some heft to it  by the way) was a mini bust of our main character Geralt of Rivia. This piece is solid, the design is nice, it doesn't feel cheaply made, and is sturdy enough to make for a good bookend, 


this was the view from inside the box, notice the  weight of the statue was too much for the packaging




A few more goodies lie beneath starting with a deck of cards, a bag of die (dice? whatev) the pattern on the bag resembling the Witchers emblem, and an instruction manual on how to play the card game, pretty neat i think that you can play a game from within a video game.



i didnt open the cards yet, i'll update with images
 Last but not least a small gem for immersion a "gold" coin with the kings head on one side and the shield on the back, it wont buy me a coke but it looks cool!







All in all, this set was well put together selection of items for any collector, or big fan of The Witcher series.


-Mikol 

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