Collectors
DrWorm
26th of April, 2005
I just received my Collector's Edition version of Guild Wars from EBGames today, and I figured I'd post a quick mini-(pre)review of it... since we can't technically play yet. Some of this will apply to both the Collector's Edition, and the standard Retail Edition. I've organized it by heading, so if you only care about one and not the other, you can skip.
Installation
The game comes with 2 install CD's. If you've played any of the preview or beta weekend events and already have the client installed, there's no need to uninstall anything. You can just put the install CD in and click "Install". The install script will merge the CD resources with your current install. It appears that it also keeps all of your old settings too. The graphics and audio are just how I left them after the last Beta Weekend. Unfortunately, I can't see if my customized controls also made the transition--the Control Setup button is grayed out. Things certainly look promising, though.
After installing, I had roughly 875 MB of game resources on my hard drive. The installer actually connects up with ArenaNet during the install, so some of that 875 MB was downloaded--but not much. Like before, the client will continue to stream some files after running it for the first time. I've left the client open while I write this, and it's still downloading new resources--21 MB more so far. If you have a slow connection, I highly recommend that you install as early as you can so that you can update as many game resources as possible before Guild Wars goes live on the 27th.
Post-Installation
After installing the game, you'll be able to run GW and log in using the same email address and password you used during the Beta Weekend Events (if any). One of the things I like about Guild Wars is that it uses my Email address as my user name. Other NCSoft MMOs have a different login ID, and I wasn't sure if the Email address login ID would survive the Beta. It did, and I have one less login ID to remember. If, however, your email address has changed since the original WPE, there's no need to sign up for a new Guild Wars account. Just sign in with the old one, and you'll be able to update your email address later.
After logging in, you'll see all of your previously created characters. You can't actually play with them, but it is nice to see that they still exist. As of this post, my role playing ranger character still had all of his drake-scale armor too, so I was able to get a pre-wipe screen shot of him--something I forgot to do during the last BWE. I imagine that the only thing left of him when the game goes live will be his name. One word of caution: You cannot create new characters at this time, but you can delete characters. You don't need to try it, I've done it for you.
Enough of what you can't and shouldn't do, and on to what you can and should do. While you're waiting for all of those game resources to download ahead of time, you'll want click the "Edit Account" button and get ready for the 27th/28th. If you have a new email address or want to change your password (a good idea if you shared your preorder BWE with some friends), this is where you can do it.
The edit account screen is a bit odd. You have to check the task you want to do, then click "Next" in the bottom right hand corner. Unlike what you'd expect, you can only check one thing at a time, and so the interface is a bit unintuitive, but functional.
One thing you'll want to make sure you do, however, is add in all of your preorder keys and release keys. Unlike the preorder, there's no index-card in an envelope with your CD Key. In retail, the CD Key is on the back of the CD jewel case insert, hidden beneath a super-secret, spy-proof, foil scratch off--like what you instant lottery players are used to. You probably saw this when you installed the game above, just scratch it off with a blunt-edged coin (ridges make me nervous) and enter it in. The game will actually list the preorder/collector's edition bonuses you qualify for. Lucky me has both the Ithas Bow and Kanthan Targe because Best Buy canceled the Deluxe Edition--which I originally preordered, and was exactly the same as the collector's edition, but $20 cheaper. Oh well, foo on you bait and switch Best Buy, and hello EBGames--I liked your preorder item better anyway.
The Art Book
The art book is 128 pages of hardcover beauty. It contains concept art, renders, and paintings--some of which we've seen on ArenaNet's web site, but much of it never seen before. Many pages include captions explaining what you're looking at and what the piece was used for. The binding for the book seems excellent and I have no worries about it holding up. I'm incredibly pleased with the Art Book, which, in my opinion, is worth the price difference by itself.
The Sound Track
The Collector's Edition soundtrack has 28 tracks (you can see a list here). As a game sound track, it's fairly strongly themed throughout--which makes it a bit monotonous for extended listening, if excellent for it's intended purpose. You probably won't sit through repeated listenings as you would an actual symphony. Even so, it's one of the strongest soundtracks to a mere video game I've ever heard--easily comparable to the best motion picture soundtracks--and I'm quite happy to own it.
If you have the music from the preorder, some of these tracks are duplicates. The obvious ones being (Pre/CE track #):
- 01/01 - Guild Wars Theme
- 02/26 - The Charr
- 03/27 - The Great Northern Wall
- 05/28 - Droknar's Forge
The Logitech Headset
This is just like the Internet Headset found here but with "Guild Wars" screen printed on the earphones instead of Logitech. It's fairly comfortable, and makes for a decent headset... but is nothing to write home about. The sound quality is about what you'd expect for earphones that retail for about $13--really shoddy--and I'm not sure the microphone makes up for it. I'm not going to give a solid review here, google for it if you want one, but if you're only interested in the Collector's Edition for this headset, I'd go with the regular version and buy a real headset with the money you'd save.
It does come with a 3 month subscription to Speak Easy / Teamspeak. Since this is the kinda thing I'd want to test while playing, I'll skip it here. But if you're big on voice, or love X-Box Live, this is something to consider.
The Manual... er Manuscript!
Guild Wars comes with a full color paperback manual that, oddly enough, dedicates only a third of it to helping you actually play the game. The majority of it is beautifully presented background information--stories, character bios and history from this fictional world. I've played other MMOs whose manuals had glaring inaccuracies after just a month of going retail... so I don't think this is a bad thing at all. Particularly since an online manual will be much easier to keep up to date.
The manual itself is of very high quality. It's all full-color and fully illustrated. Unlike some manuals I've seen, the background is dark enough, and the text light enough to make reading it very easy on the eyes, and the font is bold and pleasing. If you're a fan of spiral-bound manuals, this one could disappoint you--it's bound in the normal way. Given the nature of the manual, however, you're not likely to want to keep a specific page open while playing--the main benefit of spiral-bond manuals. If you read it at all, you're much more likely to read through it like a normal book, and not like a reference--a task for which the normal binding is much better suited.
Summary
Overall, I'm very happy with the Collector's Edition. The only really weak part is the Logitech Headset, and that's more than made up for by the Art Book and Soundtrack.
To comment on this article you can post here in our forms: Collector's Edition (Pre)Review.
