Dragon Age - CE Selection Guide @ GearDiary.com

The Watch's Mike Anderson (txa1265) has posted a detailed guide to getting the most for your money if you're planning on preordering the Dragon Age Collector's Edition. The article is over at GearDiary.com.
Here's a snip:

It would be nice if every ‘Collector’s Edition’ was the same, and all we needed to do was figure out which exclusive item worked best for our character, but of course life isn’t that simple. For example, neither GamersGate nor Impulse offer a special exclusive item, nor do they mention the Formari (memory) Ring as a bonus that was supposed to be included with all pre-orders. The pricing is universally the same at $64.99,
In the end I decided to chart it all up, see what is included and what is not. Why? Because historically I have *never* gotten ‘Collector’s Editions’, as all I really care about is the game. The addition of actual in-game content made it an incentive I couldn’t pass up … but if I’m spending $15 extra I want every bit of value I can manage! That chart is below along with some comments.

More information.

Mike, you remain a prince among men. Thank you. (I already pre-ordered from Newegg but was wishing for something like you made here back when I did. I probably won't cancel it.)

Good article. I'm a bit confused and wondering if someone can help via response on this thread.

I don't care about additional items (such as armor, ring, helmet, staff, etc.) but I do care about added gameplay such as new areas to explore and an additional meaningful NPC, I only slightly care about additional abilities. I also care about cost. What should I buy? I will probably download from D2D or wherever rather than purchasing the game in a store unless I'd be missing out on something I care about.

1) Regular version -- I should make sure that I pre-order so that I can get Stone Prisoner (additional quests and areas), right?
2) Collector's edition -- I should probably order this so that I can get Warden's Keep (additional areas), right?

I'm worried that I'm being swallowed by the hype so that if I just buy the regular version I get what I want but on the other hand I don't want to miss out on anything I want.

Thank you in advance.

Just get the regular edition. Everyone who purchases a new copy gets Stone Prisoner, doesn't matter if you pre order or not. It's mainly to discourage people from purchasing a used copy I'm guessing.

I don't quite understand all the obsession with these in game items you get for purchasing the CE or pre ordering it somewhere. But hey, some people seem to and if it brings bioware some extra revenue I guess it's fine. However, I'm a bit less thrilled about actual content (Warden's Keep) that they won't be including and instead sell separate on launch day. I won't purchase that out of principle, they can go on about different dev teams all they want.

The STone Prisoner is included in all new purchases as noted and includes gameplay as well as items and the NPC.

The 'deluxe digital' comes with 'Warden's Keep' which will sell for $7 and is a new area.

So my recommendation is 'boxed regular' or 'collector's edition digital'.

Unless you happen to want a cool metal box and a cloth map (plus the other bonus content on a dvd and not digitally). So I guess the decision between CE digital and physical comes down to whether you want the box/map or the Warden's Keep.

I like to actually own most of my games physically, especially if I have waited for them for a long time. That's why I have my physical CE pre-ordered.

If you don't care about the three bonus items, soundtrack or wallpapers, there's really no reason to get the deluxe digital edition. Cheaper to just buy the regular edition, and if you happen to want Warden's Keep, purchase that separately.

Just to mention…but the Formari Ring does come with Impulse Pre-Orders. It was showing up on my pre-order screen when I placed mine a few days back and its still there for both Regular and Deluxe version and still does.

The digital CE is kind of interesting, but it annoys the hell out of me that we have to pay the same amount of €'s on Steam as you do $'s…

I assume you get all the bonus items on ALL characters you create? Otherwise it'd be quite uninteresting. Anyone know for sure?

It's for all characters, you'll be getting a code and it'll be tied to your ea account.

Nice guide. I didn't even know about GamersGate. Anyway, I ended up with Impulse because they had a 20% off promotion coupon if you fill out a survey. This is still cheaper by a couple bucks than the incorrect Steam price for CE edition for what its worth. The code can also be applied to SE edition to get about $10 off. Lithsq is correct that even with that discount its cheaper to by wardens keep separately but now its only about $5 for the extra trinkets.

Now we are getting "the multiple paths and solutions" experience as role playing gamers wished all for. Anybody complained about it is either console player or rpg noob.

To be honest this looks like a bunch of marketing BS to me and I'll get the regular boxed edition just to avoid all this trouble.

This is a nice guide for NA, but it seems things are different in different countries too - there is some kind of oddity in the UK which means even our digital downloads are different.

I think to get all the goodies (here in Aus) I'll have to go to EB and preorder the CE. That will cost me a lot more than a regular edition from JB Hifi (about $40 - $50 more, in fact) but I think this game is one where I want all the goodies. I think the cloth map is the clincher!

I'll just have to buy Warden's Keep seperately. There's no way I'm downloading a 15 GB game here in Australia.

BTW, does Warden's Keep remind anyone of Watcher's Keep from Throne of Bhall? I wonder how similar they will be beyond the names…

Thank you, Mike for this easy way of letting us know which versions of DA: Origins there are Nice work

On a different subject, I've have a comment about Bioware and EA going after the second hand market, forcing people to buy a new copy. In your CE Collection's guide at:

http://www.geardiary.com/2009/10/16/…e-order-money/ )

you said this near the end:

txa1265 wrote:

By adding loads of DLC they add incentive to buy new by making the cost of the full experience higher: if you buy the X360 ’standard’ version game used at GameStop for $50 (new is $60), it will cost you $15 for the Stone Prisoner alone, and even more when you add any pre-order bonus and the Blood Dragon Armor DLC. So suddenly either GameStop has to lower their pricing or the used copy will become less attractive than the new one.

I've just quoted part of your article, Mike, (the last part of it) from geardiary.com - as I have a comment to this:

I agree that this is what EA and Bioware wants people to do. However, I doubt that people on consoles will do this. My guess is that people will buy the game, DA: Origins, at the reduced price, but won't buy the DLC for the game e.g Warden's Keep or the Stone Prisoner.

I visit from time to time my local Gamestop store; Mass Effect, Bioshock etc. will sell for a reduced price, maybe for 40-50 US dollars. However, I think that the way it goes is that people (the first wave) will play the game for about 1-2 hours, then sell the the game to be re-sold via Gamestop or Ebay.

I prefer physcial discs way too much, however the steam items looks interesting.

I would like to add that I'm abselutely appaled about EA (and Bioware) pulling a fast one us as pr. pre-order. You need to decide from where you will buy the game, from where you will pre-order this game, especially if you want some of the pre-order items (or just one of them).

It used to be that we got the game with all these items included. Even the extra content in BG2: TOB special edition was made public and free to download.
Now we get questions about making the extra items into DLCs for the game.

Luckily, I haven't a computer strong enough to play this game as of yet which is both a blessing and a curse. A blesssing because I don't need to make any of these decisions descriped above; a curse because I really like the feel and the look of this game.

I've preordered the CE, which comes with a 200-page guide and a Dalish Promise Ring. It's already sold out at the biggest online retailer in my country.

Its £24.99 +del on gameplay (cheapest I have seen, likely to get it few days early as well) for standard and £29.99 for the digital on steam with extras.

*edit - actually amazon is £24.99 as well with an extra 2 items, not sure if Gameplay have an offer. Also not sure if they all include the NPC*

Think I'll go for physical delivery. Valve is pulling the same crap with Left 4 Dead 2 and including baseball bat melee weapon - though at least if 1 person is using it on your team you can all use it.

Funny how Risen came with all content included …….. how old fashioned.

I guess digital distribution is the future but …. the margins are much bigger for the publishers with no need for physical retail, I suppose trying to encourage people to go digital … but at the end of the day its about making more profit and more money. Isn't it? I dunno. Feels a bit like carrot dangling.
"Look > shiny shiny > these are the DLC you are looking for …. these are the DLC you are looking for ……."

I have bought I lot of indie games from steam, and pretty happy with that, but no full price games ….

Why can't I seem to even see the Colector's Edition on Amazon.com - I can only see an overpriced copy from an 'associated' (i.e. black market) dealer. Are they sold out or is this an IP filter because they aren't allowed to deliver overseas?

Originally Posted by Badesumofu
There's no way I'm downloading a 15 GB game here in Australia.

One of the reasons I went with Internode as my ISP as they have unmetered downloads from the Australian Steam servers. So I'll be getting a Steam version for sure, probably the DCE edition as well since our dollar is doing pretty well. It comes out at just over $70 Australian.