Assassin's Creed II – White and Black collector's editions unboxing

Note: Prices I listed here are in AUD.

Okay, so I’ve been crazy enough to buy BOTH of the Assassin’s Creed II special editions.  Hopefully I will be able to trade one of the copies back at EB and recoup most of the costs of buying the white edition.

Anyway, unboxing after the jump.

We’ll start with the white edition, since it comes with less stuff than the black.

The box is just a regular standard cardboard box, nothing fancy.

The Ezio figure is what takes up all the space in the box.  It’s fairly large too, I’d say it’s slightly larger than most 1/8 anime figurines, but still smaller than 1/6.  The figure is of a decent quality too, I mean, if Ezio was some busty, anime chick, you’d be paying a good $50-80 dollars for this kind of figure online.

And of course, you get the game.  Note the ‘not to be sold seperately’ on the cover (there’s also no barcode on the back), since the bonus code for the extra mission is inside the case.

Now for the black edition.

Good thing to see is that the ‘Xbox360’ banner up the top isn’t printed onto the box like I first thought.  It’s actually a slip that covers the back and top of the box.

There’s a bit of art on the back side of the box too.

The box is also the window type which can open up and display the Ezio figure inside.  The panels have some city scape on them.

Inside you get a Bonus DVD and the artbook.  The bonus DVD comes in a crappy cardboard slip, and the disc is not secured in any way :S  The artbook on the other hand, is quite nice, hardcover and made of something like faux leather.

And of course, you get the game.  Again, has no barcode on the back and says not for resale.  The codes for the 3 extra missions are inside the case with the manual.

And finally, the black edition figurine.  The pose is the same as the White edition figure, except Ezio is wearing a different set of armour (from the upgrades you get in the game), and has a sword attached to his belt.

And finally, the two figures side by side.

Okay, so which edition is better?  Well the prices of the standard editions vary, so it’s hard to say.  The game can be had as low as $54 with trade bait using JB’s trade deal, $68 apparently from Toys’R’us, $78 from BigW / Kmart, and $89 from JB Hifi.   The lowest price for the white edition is $109, and the Black edition was $149 from EB, and it’s exclusive.

Obviously the Black Edition is superior, but it costs $40 more than the White Edition.  All you get extra is an art book, 2 extra DLC missions, a Bonus DVD and a somewhat better looking box.  The main bonus, being the figurine, bears no major differences.   Personally I don’t think it’s worth the price, they should’ve included some kind of nice tin case to hold the game and bonus DVD properly.   At the best case scenario, you could’ve bought 2 games for the price of the Black Edition.

Sooo, depending on how easily you could’ve gotten the game for cheap, the value of these special editions change too.

If you’re on  a bugdet, the most cost effective method would theoretically be to buy the White Edition and trade just the game back to EB for $87 ($95.7 with edge card).  This is until 25th November before the trade value drops.   And you’d be paying cost of game plus $22 (or $14 with Edge).  When I say theoretically, this is because of the ‘not for resale’ plastered on the case of the game.  Around $20 isn’t bad for the figurine I’d say.

Compared to the US version of the special edition (known as the Master Edition),  we miss out on the nice tin case, but the Black Edition here gets an extra code, the artbook is faux leather instead of the plain hardcover, and of course, the Black edition of the Ezio figure.

23/11/2009 Edit:  I managed to trade my PS3 copy to EB today which had the ‘not for resale’ on the cover.  Guess they don’t care.