Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty - Collector's Edition (PC & Mac)

I wrote a review for the game on the other listing, this specific review is about the collectors edition box sitting infront of me right now..

THE BOX
Made out of thick card, fully printed and imprinted as well (the little dots to mark rivets are indented into the box), it slides open like metal jaws, which I think are inspired from the original opening cinematic

THE GAME
Is a DVD box with a cardboard outer box, just like the standard edition, it comes with two Guest keys which allows you to let two friends try the game for free by just installing from your disk or downloading online

ART BOOK
A full hard-back colour book, beautiful detail and great print, whilst you may only look through it once or twice, it is indeed very pretty

COMIC
Must say I haven't opened the separate seal on the included comic book, but this again is fully coloured and looks great, hopefully worth its own collectors value in the future

SOUNDTRACK CD
Geektastic, all of the music from the game, not a lot more to add, comes in a standard jewel case

BEHIND THE SCENES DVD
SPOILERS! it includes most of the in-game cinematics, so will include spoilers, if you want to play through the games full campaign first, make sure to save watching this until afterwards.

MINI-THOR PET
Any World of Warcraft (Mac/PC) account on your Battle.net account will automatically have every single character you have sent this pet in the mail, it looks great but is obviously softened up a bit to fit into WoW graphics and look more like a pet, its very entertaining and has trouble sitting still.

This is not a separate key, it is part of the game CD-Key, so you can't sell this separately if you aren't a WoW player.

DOG TAGS
One of the coolest items in the box, a 2gig USB key made out of solid metal, its very nice and tidy and comes with a pre-installed Starcraft 1 + Brood War, making the whole box extra value for money.

SUMMARY
In all, I think this is a great example of a collectors edition box, personally I would have liked to see something like a figure of some sort, but with the box being slim, there wouldn't really be space.

If your a big starcraft fan, or a huge WoW fan and want the pet, I think this is highly worth it and you won't regret it.

One can only respect BLIZZARD for not setting a release date before they knew they could meet it. No matter that this was the most awaited game for over a decade, they would release it "whenever it would be ready". Well, it is ready, it is here and it rocks. Too bad they kicked the respect bucket in the end. But first things first.

THE GOOD OLD GAMEPLAY GETS THE CIGAR
Seasoned and new gamers alike will appreciate the simple yet highly enjoyable gameplay. The factions are well balanced and the units perfectly valued. You gather minerals and vespene gas, you build your defenses, you upgrade, you expand, you gather your forces - and you unleash hell. Repeat as needed until satisfied.

STARCRAFT: THE QUICKENING
The game is much faster than the original. Resource gathering, building, researching and expanding all go faster now. This is something that will appeal to most and I for one liked it. It conveys an enjoyable sense of urgency, adding to the immersion. And because the game is richer and deeper, the tension just keeps mounting.

SWARMS!
The game designers either enjoyed STARSHIP TROOPERS one times too many or they are fond of killer bees documentaries. Either way, be prepared to have to deal with a lot of swarming enemies! The plains shall be soaked in Zerg blood leaving you with a thick metallic aftertaste of accomplishment.

SPACE. SPACE IS BEAUTIFUL
Visually this game is GORGEOUS. It looks like C&C4 was supposed to (but failed miserably). The units are detailed in design yet clearly discernible whereas the environments are superbly done (although not that variable). True, I could do with somewhat more realistic graphics but I can see that this could only be done at the expense of clarity when the number of units rises. What needs a bit getting used to is how some of the buildings do not look that different. No complaints about how they look but one can easily confuse them and build the same building twice.

COME FOR THE VESPENE GAS. STAY FOR THE STORY
The story picks up just where SC-BROODWAR left off. Following each mission nicely done videos move the single player story along (no spoilers, not to worry) that, although we are given the illusion of choosing between different paths, apparently they converge towards a predestined end.

DAMN IT JIM, WHERE IS THE REST OF THE GAME?
Why only 3 stars then? Well, in a nutshell: GREED.
Apparently ACTIVISION's influence is not very healthy to customer relations. Together with BLIZZARD they are trying to turn the StarCraft franchise into yet another World of WarCraft phenomenon - and, at the same time, using STARCRAFT II as the vehicle, turn BattleNet into the new STEAM. Unfortunately this results in a barely palatable product and using your fan-base to advance your corporate ambitions is always tacky.
Although priced even more than a full premium game, this is not a complete STARCRAFT sequel. You would not know this by its price-tag(!) but this is only A...THIRD of the game, the first part of three: you can only play the Terran campaign. The Zerg and the Protoss campaigns will be released independently later (and priced as if they were full games, one could safely bet).
To add insult to injury, one has to keep spending even more money if he wants any "premium maps" and "premium content" sold only via the BattleNet. Since this is a game that will be played mostly online don't be quick to dismiss this if you have a competitive streak.

OK, LET'S NOT TALK ABOUT IT - BUT THERE IS A HYDRALISK IN THE ROOM, ISN'T THERE?
Much more serious is the NeverLettingGo-OnLineActivation requirement. The game will ask for activation during installation, which also includes signing up to BattleNet (and, yes, this means that even this expensive game never becomes yours to keep). But that is not all: a periodic OnLine confirmation is also required EVERY THIRTY DAYS, FOREVER. You can play offline but no more than a month between re-activating.
Unlike the latest EA and UBISOFT flops (which have an idiotic Always-OnLine requirement), with SC2, after its initial Activation, you CAN play a single player game (campaign and skirmishes) without logging on to BattleNet. Only, to do this you have to log on as a ..."Guest" (I know, a Guest to your own game and your own computer...). You will be able to save your progress but you cannot tie it to your BattleNet account later, so any progress or accomplishments are lost for your online Account. After your 30 days are up you have to re-activate once more.
That is why a Broadband Internet connection is included in the minimum system requirements. You can decide if this bothers you.

SORRY TO BRING THIS UP BUT SPAWN SEEMS TO BE MISSING FROM MY COPY...
Remember how we could take our original STARCRAFT CD to a gathering of friends, Spawn it on everyone else's PCs and start a LAN party? Now one can play with his friends only through the BattleNet - and the Spawn function has been eliminated! Yes, that means each one of your friends now has to have his own original copy of the game!
The brass at the top conveniently forgets that the ability to Spawn games was the main reason both STARCRAFT and DIABLO acquired such huge fan-bases.
Et tu, BLIZZARD?

This is the Collector's edition so for almost double the price you get: an issue No.0 StarCraft comic book; a hardcover book on the artwork of the game; a behind the scenes Making-of DVD; an official soundtrack CD; a replica of Jim Raynor's dog-tag which is also a 2GB USB flash-drive; the original Starcraft and Starcraft-BroodWar (preloaded into said USB flash-drive); a pet for WoW; some DLD items (such as special decals and Account Portraits).
Is it worth the extra expense? I guess it is up to each one of us to decide.

This is a good game, one I think we will be enjoying for years - or for as long as BLIZZARD shall allow us to do so. However, I had higher hopes for BLIZZARD's respect to its own customers.

RECOMMENDED.

Pretty nice stuff, got it on SC2 opening day.
I really love Jim Raynor USB 2GB, that includes SC1 game.