Okami Cover Art Marred by Ad

Rawmeat Cowboy over at GoNintendo picked up his copy of Okami at his local Gamestop yesterday (that was his first mistake) and was dismayed to find that underneath the cellophane, which has a sticker proudly displaying the game's "A" rating from 1up.com, is another rating, a 9.5 from Play magazine, printed directly on the artwork. Here's what it looks like with the cellophane on:















and off:
















Why would they do that when you've already purchased the game if you're removing the cellophane? Well, Capcom is obviously aware of Gamestop's policy of not displaying sealed copies on the sales floor. They remove the game from the case (discarding the shrink wrap) and place a price sticker directly on the box to prevent theft. Because removing the shrink wrap also means the sticker is gone, Capcom has to print it directly on the artwork to insure it gets its message across. Just another reason why Gamestop sucks.

I don't know if this only applies to copies of the game sold at Gamestop, but I doubt Capcom made an alternate version just for them.

If it helps sell some extra copies to people who may have otherwise passed it by, that's a good thing in any case, but people really need to stop shopping at Gamestop. Just go to Best Buy, they'll have 10 times the amount of copies and won't get pissed at you if you don't reserve stuff.

[via GoNintendo]

Collector's Edition Round Up

Some publishers have practically made an art out of putting together the most pointless "Collector's Edition" versions of their games to get you to shell out an extra $10 with as little cost to them as possible. The recent Rainbow Six Vegas 2 LE comes with a poker chip keychain, which is the kind of thing you'd expect to get for free with your pre-order, and that's about it as far as tangible goodies go. The rest are videos included on a bonus disc. Wow. And the cover art is lame. It's certainly a contender for worst Limited Edition ever.




$70 LE's are increasingly becoming a thing of the past however. The new trend is to charge $20 extra or more for the Collector's Editions to make them a little more attractive, especially when it's a AAA title people have been waiting ages for. Halo 3 of course had its Legendary Set which featured a Master Chief helmet for its packaging and cost an absurd $130. Within a month Amazon was clearing the things out for $60.










Then you've got the GTAIV LE which is actually a decent set at $89.99. The game itself comes in a black metal safe deposit box emblazoned with the GTAIV logo, complete with working lock and keys hanging from a special Rockstar keychain. The lockbox also houses a soundtrack sampler CD (meh) and a very classy GTAIV artbook, which looks like it may be a little light content wise.



All of THAT comes in a special black Rockstar DUFFEL BAG. It looks surprisingly nice and Rockstar's logo is so simple (the R with a star next to it) that you could actually use the bag without feeling like a dork. Just writing this is making me want it and my plan has been to Gamefly GTAIV and return it when I'm done (which is pretty much what I do with every game now).



Seeing all these expensive editions, Konami wanted to get in on the action, so they produced their own $85 version of Metal Gear Solid 4, the most highly anticipated PS3 exclusive yet. Thing is, they remembered to jack up the price but forgot to put anything worthwhile into the set. It has a bonus Blu-ray disc with not one, but TWO "making of" features you'll never watch, as well as a soundtrack CD. That's it. Not even a pack of MGS4 cigarettes. Oh, and the cover art is better. At $70 it would be a weak special edition. At $85 it has crossed over into "what the hell were they thinking" territory. Anyone who buys this turd deserves to be robbed at gunpoint. The robber needs the money more than you do. He has a family.

Also, keep in mind that a Director's Cut of MGS4 (you know, like MGS2:Substance and MGS3:Subsistence before it) is pretty much a certainty for next year and it'll probably have its own LE version. I bet they'll call it MGS4: Subservience.


The latest game to join the "enhanced collector's edition" club is Bethesda's long awaited Fallout 3. Just announced last week, it will contain a "nearly 100 page" artbook, a bobblehead figure of the iconic Vault Boy, and a Making of Fallout 3 disc, all housed in an awesome "Vault-Tec" lunch box for $80. Not a bad deal considering all that extra stuff will make it more expensive to ship. The MGS4 LE certainly doesn't have that excuse and it's still more expensive than Fallout's.

I would've preferred a Vault Tec thermos to go in the lunch box, but Vault Boy actually works pretty well as a bobblehead.

[Fallout Image Stolen from Kotaku]

Bioshock Regular Edition Cover

This cover just screams out, "Buy me, or I'm gonna punch you in your face right in front of this little girl!"

Games like this make me wonder if regular edition box art is purposely made to look lame in order to encourage people to buy the Limited Edition.

I mean, come on. Bioshock is one of the best looking games ever made, with an umistakable art style, and they slap a goofy looking Big Daddy in an awkward pose on the cover. Does he really need to be throwing a punch at the person holding the game? It looks more like he's holding his fist out, waiting to be acknowledged with a little return fist punch. That's how Big Daddy rolls. Don't leave him hanging now...

Personally, I think people might be disappointed when they find out you don't get to play as Mr. Driller's misunderstood sibling, punching anyone who tries to get near his Little Sister.

That'd be a cool twist in Bioshock, if there was a hidden mode where you get to play as one of those drill handed muh-fuh's. I probably wouldn't punch guys so much though, seeing as I've got a 4 foot drill mounted on my other arm.

Shadowrun 360 & PC

Shadowrun is an interesting case not because it is a particularly good cover or even because the PC version is different from the 360 version. What's odd is that they're different while being almost exactly the same. I'm not sure why Microsoft decided to make the cover art different for the different platforms but having it be the same exact design just with slightly variant art makes it even stranger.

I assume it's supposed to symbolize the PC/360 cross platform play as the guy with the sword on the 360 box looks like he's the guy with the shotgun in the bottom corner of the PC box. Likewise, the guy with the shotgun on the 360 box is the guy with the sword on the PC box.

I'm thinking, either way, that guy with the sword is screwed.

Bioshock LE Cover/Contest Winner Revealed

Bioshock publisher 2K Games recently enlisted (read: bribed) fans on its Cult of Rapture community site to design the cover of the Bioshock Limited Edition for them. I can't blame them, that's more time they have to play the game! Thousands entered, but only a few won.

Without further ado here are the three winners:


3rd Place(Alun Bestor)






















Not too shabby, but certainly a little too abstract. I'm not sure if that symbol has any significance in the game but it seems kind of random to make the focus of a box cover. It also looks unfinished, with nothing going on in the periphery of the cover. That said, still better than anything that I would've designed, especially if the symbol was created by this guy.


2nd Place (Jason Montgomery)





















Wow. Now THAT is a nice design. It completely incorporates the art deco style so prominent in the game itself and just overall looks awesome. I love how it features the image of the city from the logo and depicts Rapture as it was no doubt originally conceived, as a beacon of light. This guy definitely put some thought and creativity into his design. Congratulations on winning Jason, I can't wait to bring this bad boy home! Wait...what's that? This isn't the winner? You mean, there's a cover better than this? Well alright then, bring it on!


1st Place (i.e. what you'll be bringing home on August 22nd) (Adam Meyer)






















Alright, I'm ready, where's the cover that's better than the 2nd place entry? Oh, I see, it's inside this envelope with the logo on it, cool!

Hey, this isn't an envelope...

Oh. This is the winner. No, no, it's cool. See, it's got the logo and...umm, the logo. Damn, that's a nice looking logo.

In all fairness, this design looks the most producable out of the three finalists and the 2nd place design didn't feature the logo at all (even though the entire design is inspired by it). It's not bad by any means, just compared to the 2nd place entry it's not even in the same league.

Here's to hoping Jason Montgomery's design gets used somewhere in the packaging, perhaps on the back of the case or at least the cover of the instruction manual.

What they should do is use Jason's design as the etching on the metal case and put Adam's logo on the slip case. Bam. Problem solved, everyone wins. Well, except the third place guy. I'm sure he'll try harder next time.

The Cult of Rapture via Kotaku

Big Brain Academy Wii Degree

Now this is more like it, US and Japanese box art that couldn't be more different right down to the different names. My Japanese is only advanced enough that I can read the hiragana (which is in romaji underneath it anyway) not understand what it means, but I'm guessing Wii de Yawaraka Atama Juku doesn't translate to Big Brain Academy Wii Degree.

The first thing that comes to mind is: What is up with Nintendo of Japan and yellow box art lately? Regardless, the Japanese design looks nicer, particularly the images of the puzzles in the background. The US box art is way too goofy and slapped together looking (as most US box art usually is). I'm not a big fan of Mii's either and the Japanese version doesn't make them the main focus.

It's interesting that this game is being branded with the Touch Generations logo in the States. So far, Touch Generations has been used exclusively for Nintendo's DS games that appeal to everyone and focus on touch screen use. Perhaps we'll see a Waggle Generations line of games in the Wii's future.

Also of note is the "Game Experience May Change During Online Play" on the US box, indicating previously unannounced online play. I can only imagine the kind of smack talk one might hear after a particularly rousing match of "Count the Boxes".

Super Paper Mario

Super Paper Mario just might be one of those rare cases where the American box art is actually superior to the Japanese design. Not that the Japanese cover is bad by any means but the US art is a bit more cohesive and decidely less...yellow. The US cover also incorporates the "into-the-screen" 3D aspect of the game into its design, which is a nice touch.

I do like the strange fellow peeking out from the flap in the corner of the Japanese cover though...

I also find it interesting that every character on the Japanese cover, including the butterfly, is facing the opposite direction on the US cover. It's like whoever was in charge of the US box art had to make it as different from the Japanese cover as possible.