i remember buying Falcon 3.0 back in the day with 0.5 kilogram manual + 2 huge military maps...would be sold now as super deluxe expanded special directors collectors edition , and for another 20 bucks you get a postcard with the crysis logo on it

I agree most of the stuff they throw in will only get looked at once. the best part of the deal is the soundtrak. I am buying the game for the game so if you want to give me somthing give me game related stuff like maps, exclusive weapons etc. etc.

@ Anonymous n# 1;

In the golden olden days every game would be packed with a 100 page full color high quality manual, come in a box, and have a nice marketing value. Nowadays, all you get is a plastic box. Even the most complex flightsims nowadays only get a 15 page "what to do if my dog barks at me while flying" manual, and a referral to a pdf located on the disc... which you can print or have printed at your own leisure. In comparisson though, a game like Mech Commander, which required absolutely no knowledge of anything, came with a brilliant manual that really put the player into the game and the history of the BattleTech universe...

Too bad marketing has started to kick immersion in a very small very dark corner, because something as simple as that, could seriously increase the replay value of a game.

It seems once companies smell money , they try to suck every last bit out of it , it used to be a small team of programmers who would often be the artists at the same time , making inovative games , graphics were nice to have but it wasnt about graphics and then build some game around it... in all those years since games havent gotten much more complex compared to the graphics.

Games sold alot less back in the day , cause the market was smaller , still we got a nice box , manual , extras , basicly a game where you put in the cd and could play straight away ...

Now you have to google first for figuring out what patch to install since after the first month already 3-4 came out since 1.0 is unplayable ( silent hunter 4 is one example ) check online fan made FAQs to figure out how the game actually works. It makes the game you bought feel very useless , since you could basicly download it , burn it , and put it in a box and it would feel equally special to have .

But even though there is piracy no doubt for all systems , good games still sell , and if they dont , blame it on piracy like the music industry does .

Bioshock is a rare refreshing example of how you make a facinating game , where graphics add to the atmosphere and gameplay , not the other way around .



/end rant for today

Man you guys ramble like old folks.. " you know back in the ol'day when everything was better'' I always unwrapped the game asap without even looking at the manual I installed it and began to play.

I have got an original Quake 3 Arena steelbook box and use it for keeping all those pc related cables and adapters that you just seem to accumulate from nowhere. Bring on the tinnies....