Tuesday 25 October 2011

Holy Unboxing, Batman!

Alright, it took a bit longer than 24 hours but anyone who's played the game will understand that my free time has been somewhat occupied since the game's release. Anyway, after the crushing disappointment of Arkham Asylum's Batarang and the fairly poorly presented UK Mortal Kombat Kollector's Edition, WB have delivered a belter here. I'll start with a 360° shot of the box.




 

Note the last shot of one of the side panels, the contents sheet can be removed to reveal another panel underneath featuring the same artwork on a plain white background, much like the opposite side with The Joker.


When the plastic sleeve is removed the four outer panels fold down to reveal the Kotobukiya-produced statue (Kotobukiya make all of the DC Direct collectible statues commercially available, which are often priced upwards of £100). The statue is really we presented, and it feels sturdy and well made. It's probably on a par with the Assassin's Creed II White Edition's statue. Also need to point out (I found out after I finished with the photos) that on the back of the standing panel, behind the back fold-down panel, is another piece of black and white artwork, this time depicting The Riddler.


The base of the box has a drawer in it that conceals the animated movie Gotham Knight on BluRay in a plastic sleeve. I haven't actually watched this yet on BD, but I've owned the film on DVD since it's release, and it's quite a good watch. Story wise it fits between Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, and it is comprised of six short movies written by different authors and drawn by different artists in a similar manner to The Animatrix, and all feature the legendary Kevin Conroy as the voice of Batman, just as the game does. Not sure if the film is still on BD for the XBox360 CE, presumably it's just a standard DVD as you can't assume that all 360 users have access to BD as you can with PS3 users.



The standing panel houses the artbook, pictured above (more on that in a second) and various leaflets which are (pictured row by row, left to right) the health and safety leaflet for the statue (no joke, it even shows you where the sharp points are on the ears and gauntlets, as if you can't work that out for yourself), A download voucher for the 'Music inspired by' album (featuring original music from bands such as Coheed and Cambria and Panic! at the Disco, which I have yet to listen to but I will at some point), The Frank Miller inspired Dark Knight Returns costume DLC code for use in the game's Challenge Rooms, The Iceberg Lounge Challenge Rooms DLC code, The game's instruction manual, the Catwoman DLC code (which adds her as a playable character in the challenge rooms, and also adds four Catwoman chapters to the main campaign), And finally a code to get access to the closed beta of Gotham City Imposters, which looks shite, and some B:AC themed content for the game once it's released. I'll more than likely not use that, so if anyone wants the code give me a shout. I think it's format of your choice, because you redeem it on the game's website.



A couple of shots of inside the art book, good quality print and all. Had a flick through and then put it back in the box where it shall live on for all eternity, as with every other art book I own. I purposefully chose a page with The Joker's arse on it though.


This is my only bugbear with the set, the Asylum CE had the game in a cardboard sleeve which was the size of a standard DVD case, which stood out a clear centimetre or so above the rest of the PS3 games on my shelf. The City CE just houses the game inside the art book. Is it so hard just to include the case?


Finally a close-up shot of the statue, next to two DC Direct figures as a size comparison. Also unintentionally pictured is the Sacred 2: Fallen Angel Collector's Edition 'Statue', further showcasing what a failure that was in comparison. This is now where the statue remains, rightfully in front of the Asylum Batarang that so let me down two years ago.

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