I have this tendency, to wait until the day before to preorder games. For example, I just tossed preorders down for Syndicate and Asura's Wrath. I didn't really think much of getting a Mass Effect 3 preorder any earlier to be honest. I loaded up and started a fresh save in Mass Effect, (for which there will be a separate topic on how that game doesn't hold up that well), and while playing I pondered about how I don't want the abomination of the Xbox 360 standard edition to be on my shelf, and how I intended to get the Collector's Edition.

Amazon was sold out of the Collector's Edition for the Xbox 360.

Dude, what? I thought Amazon always had everything in stock forever?

Nope! I had to preorder from some place called goHastings. They had a nice logo, and so I assumed they were legit. There was no release date delivery option for the game, so more than likely I won't get it until the end of the week.

But, that's fine. I'd rather get it a bit later than have this fucking abomination poison my shelves.

So, ultimately, what's the storal of the mory here? For high-profile games, you should probably preorder a month or so in advance. It's important, don't you think?

But, that's fine. I'd rather get it a bit later than have this fucking abomination poison my shelves.

@Ghostiet said:

@Napalm said:

But, that's fine. I'd rather get it a bit later than have this fucking abomination poison my shelves.

And this is pretty much the only reason people buy the Collector's Edition. Same thing with Mass Effect 2 - my girlfriend couldn't give half a fuck about the artbook and comic, she just didn't want to have a lazy photoshop as the cover.

Yeah, because I didn't pre-order the N7 Edition in December because I wanted my trilogy of special editions to be complete, or that I wanted the goodies inside the edition itself. It's not like the Artbook in ME2 didn't have developer commentary describing their design ideas or ultimately why they went another route. God no.

And the in-game bonus stuff? Perish the thought, I and hundreds of thousands of other people couldn't have possibly wanted those. It's all down to a shallow jpeg printed on a case.

@Napalm said:

you should probably preorder a month or so in advance.

Yeah, it actually secures your copy. If you're buying from Gamestop, anyways.

Nope! I had to preorder from some place called goHastings. They had a nice logo, and so I assumed they were legit.

Hastings actually is a legit business, but their online store is horrible.

@Kandycane2029 said:

@Napalm said:

you should probably preorder a month or so in advance.

Yeah, it actually secures your copy. If you're buying from Gamestop, anyways.

Really? I know that the EB Games I go to has a 48 hour hold policy on pre-ordered copies. I didn't know about "secured copy" policy, though.

@Oldirtybearon: Derp. I forget that some people don't pick up their copies immediately.

@Ghostiet said:

@Napalm said:

But, that's fine. I'd rather get it a bit later than have this fucking abomination poison my shelves.

And this is pretty much the only reason people buy the Collector's Edition. Same thing with Mass Effect 2 - my girlfriend couldn't give half a fuck about the artbook and comic, she just didn't want to have a lazy photoshop as the cover.

I occasionally enjoy artbooks and the like, and that stuff will probably be cool for Mass Effect 3, but the really bad standard cover was the imperative concern at this time. Also, I think I get some in-game goodies, too.

@Oldirtybearon: To be fair, he is just talking about his girlfriend who doesn't have an interest in that extra stuff.

I remember the N7 edition for Mass Effect 2 was pretty great, but like that, I didn't have a huge interest in the game, and then went out and bought it the day of. Not the N7 edition, though. Just the standard one. And yeah, the original cover for that one was great. The one they came out with was pretty sucky. God, you are right. Why didn't I get the N7 edition?

@Kandycane2029 said:

@Oldirtybearon: Derp. I forget that some people don't pick up their copies immediately.

If you don't get it in like, forty-eight hours, they sell your copy awaaaaay!

@Oldirtybearon: i think he means "secured" as in if you lay down even 5 bucks before the game comes out then their database will show you have pre-order money down on the game and they will add that to the number of copies they order for when the game comes out so they will have a copy for you on release day. i'm assuming that is what he meant by that. i think both of the GS's here only have 24 hr holding policies for reserves once they release. i'm not totally sure though.

@Napalm said:

@Ghostiet said:

@Napalm said:

But, that's fine. I'd rather get it a bit later than have this fucking abomination poison my shelves.

And this is pretty much the only reason people buy the Collector's Edition. Same thing with Mass Effect 2 - my girlfriend couldn't give half a fuck about the artbook and comic, she just didn't want to have a lazy photoshop as the cover.

I occasionally enjoy artbooks and the like, and that stuff will probably be cool for Mass Effect 3, but the really bad standard cover was the imperative concern at this time. Also, I think I get some in-game goodies, too.

@Oldirtybearon: To be fair, he is just talking about his girlfriend who doesn't have an interest in that extra stuff.

I remember the N7 edition for Mass Effect 2 was pretty great, but like that, I didn't have a huge interest in the game, and then went out and bought it the day of. Not the N7 edition, though. Just the standard one. And yeah, the original cover for that one was great. The one they came out with was pretty sucky. God, you are right. Why didn't I get the N7 edition?

It frustrates me when people make asinine, blanket statements like "this is the only reason people would buy [the N7 Edition.]"

As for the ME3 box-art, it's actually more in line with the original ME box-art than ME2 was. It's Shepard at the center and behind him other shit is happening. For ME3, it's Shepard in the center and Earth is blowing up behind him. From a design point it could have been handled better, but I feel like it's a nice call-back to where it all started. That all said, you got the game on the way, right? I'm pretty sure that once you pop the disc in you'll completely forget about the lacking standard edition box-art. At least, I hope so.

@Napalm: I've had my collectors edition pre-ordered since the first week it was announced.

I ordered the N7 edition. I keep all my games in a cd binder/folder so im gonna throw away my cover. Mah mah mah mah.

There's still about 20 copies (and more in back, I asked) of the Mass Effect 2 one in my local gamestore...
 
They're not selling out on their collectors edition, they make the most money off it.

@TaliciaDragonsong said:

There's still about 20 copies (and more in back, I asked) of the Mass Effect 2 one in my local gamestore... They're not selling out on their collectors edition, they make the most money off it.

Dude...

@Mike76x said:

@Napalm: I've had my collectors edition pre-ordered since the first week it was announced.

Riveting tale, chap.

Preordered the PC collectors edition months ago!

I wouldn't be surprised if amazon gets a second run of the collector's editions.

@TaliciaDragonsong said:

There's still about 20 copies (and more in back, I asked) of the Mass Effect 2 one in my local gamestore... They're not selling out on their collectors edition, they make the most money off it.

Dude...

@Mike76x said:

@Napalm: I've had my collectors edition pre-ordered since the first week it was announced.

Riveting tale, chap.

@TaliciaDragonsong said:

Just saying, you'll find one sooner or later! But perhaps not on release day!

Err. You did read the OP, right? Where I say I already preordered it? I was commenting on the fact that I don't have the N7 edition for Mass Effect 2, and that it is tempting.

@TaliciaDragonsong said:

Just saying, you'll find one sooner or later! But perhaps not on release day!

Err. You did read the OP, right? Where I say I already preordered it? I was commenting on the fact that I don't have the N7 edition for Mass Effect 2, and that it is tempting.

Yeah, I did the - admittedly a tad overboard - total fanboy thing of preordering it like, last June. I missed out on the ME2 CE, and never knew about the first game enough to want to pick up the CE when it came out, so I thought it'd be nice to get this one to commemorate the end of the trilogy, so to speak. They've only recently been selling out though, or at least Bioware have only started mentioning that recently, so they've started to big up the digital deluxe version on Origin instead. They keep saying 'oh when it's gone, it's gone, we won't be making any more' spiel, but there'll probably be a few that turn up eventually.

I take that if you want to own all CE for the trilogy or have all the stuff that comes in them , but I can't belive that your main reason to buy one it's because you don't like the regular edition cover , like really? how much time do you spend looking at any cover , if you have them on a shelf even less time sience you just pop the disc out and put the box away , anyways it's your prerogative but sounds a bit too #Firstwordproblems to me.

@Kandycane2029 said:

@Napalm said:

you should probably preorder a month or so in advance.

Yeah, it actually secures your copy. If you're buying from Gamestop, anyways.

Really? I know that the EB Games I go to has a 48 hour hold policy on pre-ordered copies. I didn't know about "secured copy" policy, though.

i dont know it sounds like its more popular this year but for mass effect 2 i was able to just pick up the collector one off shelves at best buy day one. fuck gamestop bestbuy is my store orders like a million copies ftw.

The same thing happened last time I wanted to get ME2 CE on Xbox and ended up ordering it for PC instead since you could still find the CE for that. Same thing will happen this time. Which is fine by me, the PC demo has been pretty good.

Well, I cancelled my CE pre-order last week after realizing what a god awful waste of money it was going to be, so maybe there will be one more available now! Just get the normal edition with the $10 amazon card. That's an incredibly better deal unless you're looking for useless crap to line your shelves.

Pre-ordered mine the week they announced it. Quite happy about it.

I had no intrest in ME2 when it came out as I didn't like the first much, but alas the stars alighned and the day it came out was a few days after payday, and I was up eary to dorp my lady friend off to school, and had the whole day off. So out of curiosity, and boredom, I siad screw it, it'll probably be better than the first. I stopped to the store and all the collectors editions were sold out. Took a chance and went across the road to Wal Mart and they were back to the wall with CEs.

Fast forward to today, all the CEs of 3 are sold out and I couldn't afford a preorder until now. I plan on getting up early and raiding all of the 3 Wal Marts in my city till I find one that morning.

I saw this too and didn't care until I found out the CE came with a character and mission, which I know will be available but I'd rather have it when it comes out. Basically I hate how EA is handling the "exclusive" things for Mass Effect 3.

I grabbed an Asia region copy of the CE from HMV Hong Kong. Not sure if it's region locked or not, but they are still taking preorders last I checked.

I preordered ME3 about a year and a half ago, because who the fuck isn't going to buy ME3?

But yeah, the SE has been sold out for a while at most places.

Always preorder far in advance, then cancel if you don't want it.

Sucks bro

It actually took some legwork for me to find a spot. I should have pre-ordered the thing earlier, but usually...these things don't seem to dry up this early. I had hard time finding a spot in January, and wound up going with Bestbuy.com before it sold out there.

All the covers to the Mass Effect Collector Editions are pretty cool. Even the first one, where Shepard's wearing some armor that doesn't even show up in the game.

Wow that sucks.

Must just be my area, but every store around me always has a shit load of collector editions sitting around. I remember the "extremely rare" Uncharted 3 collectors edition...my Walmart still has four or five copies rotting in their glass case.

All the stuff on the Collector edition will be available on DLC right??? RIGHT!????? Cause I forgot to preorder the collector edition too. Hopefully maybe gamestop will have some copies left.

There's ton of the PS3 versions left, but yeah for X360 it's sold out everywhere.

I don't really care what the case looks like. It's just a case. Not like I'll take it with me to my grave or anything...

Heads up. Gamestop.com is taking pre-orders again.

http://www.gamestop.com/xbox-360/games/mass-effect-3-n7-collectors-edition/91368

@huntad said:

I don't really care what the case looks like. It's just a case. Not like I'll take it with me to my grave or anything...

You mean you aren't going to be buried with all your games and consoles?!

Shit. I missed it too.  I'll just wait until Amazon restocks it.

Doesn't the ME1 Limited Edition go for like $1200 on the internet? Maybe people want to jump on that now?

@JeanLuc said:

@huntad said:

I don't really care what the case looks like. It's just a case. Not like I'll take it with me to my grave or anything...

You mean you aren't going to be buried with all your games and consoles?!

No, just my strategy guides.

I bought mine back in September. I knew even then that no matter how shitty the game may look as it edges closer to release, I'm buying it on day one.

Thankfully, I'm a lot more confident in that game being good now.

Third person cover-shooter popular with 360 owners, who'da thunk?!

i preordered collector's on the first day they were available, so i'm not too concerned with my copy of the game :O

goHastings is legit so no worry there.

I don't mind the artwork on the cover. I just want the game

My local game stores weren't even taking pre-orders for the PC Collectors Edition a month ago. I went to check again a week later and they were all pre-ordered up. I'm probably going to get the digital CE, just for the robot dog.

This is why I pre-ordered six months in advance.

I'm perfectly happy with this development. This means I will have no temptation to buy something I will never use.