• 6 months ago
Pay extra... to play a worse game.

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00:00Deluxe editions and pre-order bonuses are already pretty controversial.
00:04Generally, it involves a company saying they'll give you a little something extra for a few more of your dollars
00:09or your faith that the game is going to be good before it's actually come out.
00:13That said, not all these something extras are made equal.
00:16Sometimes these are cosmetic add-ons, sometimes they're entire maps or armour sets,
00:21and sometimes they're an extra that is so fundamental to the game that it provides a totally different experience
00:28for those who have it versus those who don't.
00:30In this list, we'll be digging into a bunch of deluxe edition and pre-order bonuses that for one reason or another
00:36kinda wrecked the game underneath.
00:38I'm Jess from WhatCulture and here are 9 video game deluxe editions that broke everything.
00:439. Griffy – Ni No Kuni
00:46One of the especially weird things about video game pre-orders
00:49is that sometimes you'll get different bonuses depending on the retailer you decide to pre-order from.
00:54This was the case with Ni No Kuni, where if you ordered from Amazon, you could get Griffy.
00:59This'd be all well and good for a JRPG like this one, replete with hundreds of familiars,
01:04of which Griffy is one, all set to march into battle for you.
01:08But our Griffin buddy happens to be intensely overpowered.
01:11As in, game-breakingly overpowered.
01:14It's only once you get to the real pointy end of the game that you'll even think about subbing him out,
01:18since by then you'll have found better familiars,
01:21but until that point, none of your other familiars will compare to his stats.
01:25Reportedly, people keen to get their hands on him were paying as much as $50 to anybody who had a code for him.
01:31Now I gotta touch on something here which is relevant to this entry and more entries on this list,
01:35which is the argument that if something's OP, just don't use it.
01:40Now of course that's a totally viable approach,
01:42but we're talking about the fact that these things, these bonuses, are game-breakingly OP.
01:47If you do use them. If you don't wanna use them, you're all good.
01:50End PSA.
01:51Number 8. Save Scumming. The Quarry.
01:54The latest blockbuster brainchild from Until Dawn developer Supermassive
01:58was a big hit with reviewers in particular.
02:01Though it might be because those reviewers were given the special edition,
02:04which includes three mulligans, if you happen to get one of your characters killed.
02:09Much like Until Dawn, The Quarry has a teen horror movie setup
02:12where you'll need to make a lot of choices correctly
02:14in order to try and keep your ragtag group of youths alive.
02:18While Until Dawn had no implemented save scumming system,
02:21it had pretty loose checkpointing,
02:23so if you really wanted to and you just messed something up,
02:26you could just quit out of the game, load it back in, and redo that thing.
02:30If that's something you wanna do.
02:31Supermassive have ensured this isn't possible in The Quarry,
02:35as the game saves immediately as you make a life or death choice.
02:39But that doesn't mean save scumming is completely out of the game.
02:42They just charge for it now.
02:44In Australia, The Quarry is already a $90 game,
02:47and if you want the version that comes with the rewind system,
02:50essentially granting you three extra lives for any mistakes you make,
02:53you'll need to pay another $20 on top of that,
02:56making this a $110 game that'll only take you about 10 hours for one playthrough.
03:01The problem here is that the true ending hinges on the survival of a few select characters,
03:07so not having a do-over if you mess up one thing has a huge impact on your experience.
03:12You can earn the death rewind feature after going through the game once,
03:16but that's a big time commitment,
03:18especially for a game that won't let you skip cutscenes the second time through.
03:22If you're keen for multiple playthroughs anyway, this won't be a problem for you,
03:26but for everybody else, it's a vastly different experience,
03:29and it feels kinda scummy on the business practices side.
03:32Number seven, the game-breaking pre-order ship, No Man's Sky.
03:36You probably noticed in this list when we talk about something that broke everything,
03:40we're generally talking about things being overpowered
03:43and messing up the difficulty curve and stuff like that.
03:45Not in this entry, though.
03:47In this entry, it was a ship that actually broke No Man's Sky.
03:51Hesitant as I am to continue dumping on No Man's Sky,
03:54this was such an oversight, we can't ignore it.
03:57Cast your mind back to 2016,
03:59and you might remember sitting down with No Man's Sky for the first time
04:02and taking on the beginning challenges that involve obtaining a blueprint
04:06for a hyperdrive to warp your ship around
04:09and building new warp cells to charge said hyperdrive.
04:12It's the early game gating system designed to teach you the space travel fundamentals,
04:16and it's pretty important.
04:18Of course, you'd have been forgiven for missing out on that entirely
04:20if you got the alpha vector ship with your pre-order
04:23that already has a hyperdrive,
04:25meaning you could've just ignored picking up the hyperdrive or antimatter blueprints,
04:29thereby actually preventing you from moving forward in the game.
04:33Poor No Man's Sky, as if it needed even more things that complicated its launch.
04:37Oh well, let's just focus on the fact that apparently, by all accounts,
04:40it's a much better game now.
04:42Number six, The Bouncer, Ratchet & Clank 2016.
04:46Insomniac's Ratchet & Clank series has quite the legacy,
04:49and the PS4 edition was no exception to the history of bright visuals,
04:53exciting gameplay, and delightful characters that fans expected.
04:57They'd also have expected the suite of weaponry,
04:59and one particular pre-order weapon turned out to be especially overpowered.
05:04The Bouncer has appeared in multiple Ratchet & Clank games,
05:07but it's only been a pre-order bonus exclusive for the version on PS4.
05:11You can grab it early in the game for 100 bolts,
05:14so long as you snagged a pre-order code,
05:16but doing so is really worth it if you want to absolutely breeze through the game.
05:21For 130,000 bolts, you can upgrade it to the Omega Heavy Bouncer,
05:25and to put it plainly, this thing can clear a room with just a couple of shots.
05:29In essence, that means making the incredible souped-up weapon
05:33that has bombs for bullets hit even harder and with a greater area of effect.
05:38This is either the most amazing thing,
05:40and something you'll have a ton of fun with, or it wrecks the game,
05:42depending on your perspective.
05:482013 action game Metal Gear Rising Revengeance changed up the Metal Gear formula
05:52in a way most people found to be pretty refreshing.
05:55But for the people who bought the GameStop pre-order,
05:58things were about to get a whole lot easier.
06:00The retailer offered up the grey fox skin, which is pretty snazzy,
06:04and a 24-page art book, which is great if you like that kind of thing,
06:07but the game-breaking thing was the fox blade.
06:10This weapon has the same stats as the HF blade, but it ignores armor.
06:15Its single special upgrade increases the chance of ignoring armor to 100%.
06:20In short, once upgraded, this thing slices and dices like nothing else.
06:25It's a ton of fun to use, but you'll quickly notice
06:27the difficulty curve has been completely flattened.
06:30If you love using OP weapons, you'll have no problem at all with this one.
06:34But if you wanted to play the game as intended,
06:36this is not the weapon to equip.
06:42Like many of the entries on this list,
06:44while this one can now be acquired by purchasing DLC,
06:48it was originally only available to those who got it alongside their pre-order.
06:52Specifically, the Vault 13 Canteen came as part of the Classic Pack,
06:56which also included the Armor Vault 13 suit and the Weathered 10mm pistol.
07:01But the Vault 13 Canteen was so OP, it sort of undermined the game's Hardcore mode.
07:06In Hardcore mode, you'll have to battle with a bunch of survival aspects,
07:10including the fact that healing items take time to take effect,
07:13and you'll also have to do things like sleep, eat, and stay hydrated in order to not die.
07:18Undercutting the whole Hardcore part of Hardcore mode is the Vault 13 Canteen,
07:23which your character will automatically sip from every 5 minutes to counter dehydration,
07:28and it can never empty.
07:30It also restores 15 hit points whenever you take a sip from it.
07:33So two of the biggest things that can become an issue in the game's Hardest mode
07:37are no longer a problem.
07:38Much like the other OP items in this list,
07:40you'll probably find this one to be a huge relief or a gigantic cheat.
07:44Either way, I think we can agree it sort of messes with the game's Hardcore mode.
07:493. Blood Dragon Armor – Dragon Age Origins
07:52BioWare loves its add-ons and DLC,
07:54and this ridiculously OP armor set for Dragon Age Origins is no exception.
07:59Those who picked up the Ultimate Edition of the game,
08:01or a new copy of the Origin Standard or Collector's Edition,
08:05would be granted with this armor early on,
08:07but for RPG fans, you'll notice quickly it really throws off gear progression.
08:12Not only does the game gift it to you immediately,
08:15but you'll be hard-pressed to get anything else later in the game
08:17that'll make you want to swap it out.
08:19It requires 38 Strength to wear,
08:21so you can't don it right out of the gate,
08:23but the stats are super impressive,
08:25especially once you can complete the set
08:27by buying the other pieces at the party camp.
08:30If you do don the whole set, then you'll be able to get the set bonuses,
08:34which have a plus 3 to your armor and a plus 1 to your defense.
08:37Basically, as long as you're vibing with the whole silver and red look,
08:41there's no reason to swap it to anything else.
08:43Number 2, Franklin's 500 Grand, Grand Theft Auto V.
08:48If you're somehow not across it,
08:50GTA V has three primary protagonists.
08:53Two of the guys are at least retired bank robbers,
08:55but the other Franklin is an up-and-coming kid with big dreams
08:59and a story based around being strapped for cash.
09:02So it doesn't make a ton of sense for him
09:04to have half a million bucks in his pocket.
09:06To call this one game-breaking is admittedly pretty strong,
09:09but it does sort of destroy the narrative
09:12when the whole story is about him being hard up for cash
09:15and you just know he could just wander into any car dealership he wanted
09:19and walk out with the ride of his dreams.
09:21Without the backbone of trying to make cash
09:23underpinning the narrative and Franklin's backstory,
09:26a lot of things don't really shake out.
09:28There's a very good chance you don't care about this
09:30because, hey, your pre-order got you a bunch of free in-game dollars,
09:33but it's worth pointing out if you're one of the 12 people
09:36who were playing GTA V primarily for the story.
09:39Number one, BFG 9000, Rage 2.
09:42With a name like BFG 9000,
09:44you'd expect the gun to be just a little game-breaking,
09:47and not to worry, it definitely is.
09:50The deluxe edition for Rage 2 comes packed with neat tidbits
09:53to make life way easier for you
09:55and way harder for anything on the wrong side of your weapon.
09:58The BFG is exclusive to the fancy versions of the game
10:01and while ammo for it is an expensive pain in the butt,
10:05this thing can finish off a boss in one shot.
10:07Maybe two if they've got armour.
10:09It should come as absolutely no surprise
10:11that the infamous BFG is game-breakingly OP.
10:14I mean, the thing fires explosive laser balls, for God's sake.
10:18If this isn't the be-all and end-all weapon
10:20to steamroll your way through a game,
10:22I don't know what is.
10:23That's the end of our list,
10:24but do let me know down in that comment section
10:26if you can think of any other special edition
10:29or pre-order bonuses that you reckon broke games.
10:32As always, I've been Jess from Mock Culture.
10:34Thank you so much for hanging out with me.
10:36If you're liking, come say hi to me on my Twitter account
10:39where I'm at JessMcDonald,
10:40but make sure you stay tuned to us here
10:42for plenty more gaming goodness.

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