Tag: gaming

Destiny: The Final Shape Collector’s Edition, A Year-Long Wait For a Shelf Piece

Collectibles Review · Pre-ordered 2023, charged 2024 · $274.41 CAD ($202.39 USD) via Bungie.net

Destiny 2: The Final Shape Collector's Edition
Destiny 2: The Final Shape Collector’s Edition. Photo via Noble Knight Games.

Pre-ordering a collector’s edition means making a bet almost a year before you know if it paid off. This is how mine landed.

The Background

I put money down on The Final Shape Collector’s Edition back in 2023, well before the game’s story content, release timeline, or even final box contents were fully locked in. That is simply how Destiny 2 collector’s editions work: Bungie announces the tiers, you pick a lane based on trust in the studio and love for the franchise, and then you wait. The charge did not actually hit until 2024, closer to launch, which is why this shows up in my 2024 spreadsheet despite the pre-order going back a year earlier.

The Final Shape mattered more than a typical expansion because it was billed, correctly as it turned out, as the closing chapter of the entire Light and Darkness saga that has run through Destiny since the very first game. For someone who has put real hours into this universe, that context is the whole reason a collector’s edition made sense at all.

Living With It

Collector’s editions live or die on physical execution, and Bungie’s track record here has genuinely been inconsistent across past expansions, some tiers landing beautifully, others feeling thin for the price. This one landed on the better side of that history for me: the included statue and art book both felt like genuine collector-grade items rather than an afterthought bundled onto a digital purchase, and the packaging itself was clearly designed with display in mind rather than just shipping efficiency.

The digital side (season content, exclusive cosmetics, and the expansion’s exotic weapons and armor) delivered exactly what was promised at launch, and playing through The Final Shape’s campaign with the knowledge that this was the actual conclusion to a decade of storytelling gave the whole experience a weight that a standard edition purchase would not have carried in quite the same way.

The honest caveat, and the reason I cannot universally recommend this to anyone reading who is not already a Destiny player: none of this makes sense outside the context of years of investment in the game’s lore.

What I Liked

  • Physical items felt like genuine collector-grade quality, not an afterthought
  • Meaningful send-off for a decade-long storyline, which added real emotional weight
  • Digital content and exotics delivered exactly as promised at launch
  • A noticeably stronger collector’s edition than some of Bungie’s past efforts

What I Didn’t

  • Pre-ordering a year out is a genuine leap of faith with no guarantee on final quality
  • Entirely dependent on prior investment in the franchise to justify the price
  • Bungie’s collector’s edition track record has been inconsistent enough that trust, not certainty, is what you are buying on

The Value Verdict

Rating: 4/5

For a general audience, this is an easy pass, it simply does not translate outside the context of the game. As a longtime Guardian who wanted a real physical marker for the end of the saga, I got exactly what I hoped for: a well-made shelf piece and a proper closing chapter, at a price that only makes sense to people already this deep in.

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Vonado’s Horizon “Thunder Claw”: Building the Machine LEGO Never Made

Vonado Review · Purchased February 11, 2024 · $427.99 CAD via Vonado

Thunderjaw Horizon building block set
A Thunderjaw compatible-brick build. Photo via FantasMall.

Some of the best entries in a compatible-brick catalogue exist specifically because the official license holder never got around to making them.

The Background

LEGO has released exactly one officially licensed Horizon product: the Forbidden West Tallneck set (76989), a mid-size build that came out to solid reviews but left an obvious gap for fans of the game’s other, more aggressive machines. There has never been an official LEGO Thunderjaw or any similarly named “Thunder Claw” set. What I bought is a fan (MOC) design manufactured and sold as a compatible kit through Vonado, filling a hole in the official catalogue that LEGO itself has simply never addressed.

This arrived as part of the same large February order as the Star Wars sets earlier in this series, and at $427.99 it represented a real step up in both price and ambition from those smaller builds.

Living With It

Machine-creature builds like this live or die on articulation, and this is where the set earns its price tag. The legs, head, and tail all have genuine poseable joints rather than being fixed in one aggressive dinosaur-esque stance, which meant I could actually pose it in a way that matched reference art from the game rather than settling for whatever the instructions defaulted to. Getting that kind of mechanical complexity right, with joints that hold their pose under the model’s own weight instead of drooping, is a genuinely harder engineering problem than a static ship or building, and it shows in both the piece count and the build time, which ran closer to a full weekend than a single evening.

The tradeoff for all of that is durability handling: with this many articulated joints, this is not a set you want younger hands or a curious pet handling roughly, since the connection points that allow posing are inherently a little less rigid than a fully fixed structure would be.

What I Liked

  • Fills a real gap, there is no official LEGO equivalent at this scale or price
  • Genuinely impressive articulation and poseability for a brick-built creature
  • Shell and plating detail translates the source game’s design language well
  • A satisfying weekend-length build rather than a quick evening project

What I Didn’t

  • Poseable joints mean less structural rigidity than a fixed-position build
  • Not something to display somewhere it might get bumped or handled roughly
  • A meaningful price jump from the smaller sets earlier in the same order

The Value Verdict

Rating: 4/5

For a Horizon fan, this is close to essential specifically because nobody else has made it. LEGO’s own catalogue leaves this exact machine on the table, and Vonado’s version fills that gap with a genuinely well-engineered build. Just budget real assembly time and a stable shelf for it once it is done.

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Dead Island 2 Deluxe Edition: Buying the Whole Meal Instead of Ordering Extras Later

Game Review · Purchased January 16, 2024 · $70.50 CAD via PSN

Key art for Dead Island 2
Dead Island 2. Photo: PlayStation Store

The Setup

Dead Island 2’s Deluxe Edition bundles the base game with its full expansion pass and a handful of cosmetic extras, essentially pre-purchasing both the story expansions I reviewed separately elsewhere in this series and the core game in a single transaction.

The Review

The base game earned its positive reception honestly: gory, physical melee combat with genuine weight behind every swing, and a strong, distinct sense of place across a zombie-infested, sun-bleached version of Los Angeles that manages to feel different from the series’ earlier tropical island settings despite the shared DNA. Character progression through the skill card system gave real room to build a personal combat style, whether that meant leaning into elemental weapon effects, crowd control, or straightforward melee damage.

Buying the Deluxe bundle upfront, rather than the base game alone with the intention of grabbing the expansion pass later, turned out to be the financially smarter move: bundled together, the combined price undercuts what buying both pieces separately at full price down the line would have cost, a fairly rare case of a “deluxe” tier actually representing straightforward savings rather than just cosmetic upselling.

The expansions themselves (covered in more depth in their own post in this series) landed as solid, if not essential, extra content, which does put a small dent in the overall value proposition of the bundle, but the core game alone was strong enough to make this purchase worthwhile even setting the expansions aside entirely.

What I Liked

  • Genuinely satisfying, weighty melee combat
  • Distinct, well-realized setting
  • Bundled pricing meaningfully undercuts buying the pieces separately later
  • Flexible skill card system supports different playstyles

What I Didn’t

  • Included expansions are decent rather than essential, slightly softening the bundle’s overall value
  • Open-world structure occasionally repeats itself across the map’s different districts

The Verdict

Rating: 4/5

Buying the Deluxe bundle upfront was the smarter financial call versus buying the base game and expansion pass separately later at full price, and the core game’s combat and setting hold up well enough on their own to justify the purchase regardless.

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The Dark Pictures: Devil in Me, The Anthology’s Best Character Writing Yet

Game Review · Purchased December 27, 2022 · $80.00 CAD via Gamestop

The Dark Pictures Anthology: The Devil in Me key art
The Dark Pictures Anthology: The Devil in Me. Photo: Steam

The Setup

The fourth and final entry in Supermassive Games’ first Dark Pictures season, sending a documentary film crew to a museum built as a working replica of real-life serial killer H.H. Holmes’s “Murder Castle,” where the curator traps them in a deadly game.

The Review

This is the best-written entry in the anthology so far by a clear margin — the film-crew characters feel like more than just vehicles for quick-time events, helped considerably by each one carrying a unique gadget that turns into a genuinely clever character-specific puzzle tool rather than a generic interaction prompt. The slasher-movie premise, playing off a real historical serial killer’s methods, gives the environmental storytelling and collectibles a stronger hook than some of the more purely supernatural earlier entries.

The visuals and animation are noticeably behind Supermassive’s own The Quarry from earlier this year, with stiffer, more segmented character movement during routine interactions that occasionally breaks the immersion the writing works hard to build. Still, as a closing chapter for the anthology’s first season, it goes out on its strongest character work, and that’s the part of these games that actually matters most.

What I Liked

  • Best character writing in the Dark Pictures series so far
  • Character-specific puzzle tools are a genuinely clever addition
  • Strong environmental storytelling tied to real historical horror
  • Engaging slasher-movie narrative throughout

What I Didn’t

  • Visuals look noticeably dated next to Supermassive’s own The Quarry
  • Stiff, segmented character animation breaks immersion during routine interactions

The Verdict

Rating: 4/5

The anthology’s strongest character writing yet closes out the first season on a genuine high note, dated visuals aside.

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The Quarry: A Nearly 200-Ending Slasher Movie You Actually Control

Game Review · Purchased July 12, 2022 · $90.65 CAD

The Quarry key art
The Quarry. Photo: Steam

The Setup

Supermassive Games’ follow-up to Until Dawn drops nine teenage camp counselors into one supernatural night at the isolated Hackett’s Quarry summer camp, mixing monster-movie horror with slasher tropes and a genuinely star-studded cast including David Arquette, Lance Henriksen, and Ted Raimi.

The Review

This is cinematic, choice-driven storytelling done at real scale — branching decisions and quick-time events across an 8-10 hour story that reportedly has close to 200 possible endings depending on who lives, who dies, and what you decide along the way. The performance capture and voice acting carry a lot of the weight and mostly earn it; the story holds attention for its full runtime, which isn’t something every game in this genre manages.

The accessibility options are a standout — Death Rewind lets you undo a fatal mistake, which is a genuinely welcome addition for a game this branching, though it does soften the tension if you lean on it too much. The character animation dips into uncanny-valley territory in some scenes, and the creature design doesn’t hit the same memorable highs as some of Supermassive’s other work, but as a big, well-produced interactive horror movie, it delivers exactly what it promises.

What I Liked

  • Engaging, well-paced story that holds interest for the full runtime
  • Strong performance-capture acting from a genuinely notable cast
  • Near-200 possible endings give it real replay value
  • Death Rewind and other accessibility options are a welcome touch

What I Didn’t

  • Character animation dips into uncanny-valley territory in places
  • Creature/monster design is less memorable than in prior Supermassive games
  • Death Rewind can undercut the tension if overused

The Verdict

Rating: 4/5

A well-produced, genuinely replayable interactive horror movie — the near-200 endings alone make a second playthrough tempting.

Where to Buy

Dying Light Anniversary Edition: Catching Up on Harran Before Never Sleeping Again

Game Review · Purchased January 6, 2022 · $55.98 CAD via Amazon.ca

Dying Light key art
Dying Light Anniversary Edition. Photo: Steam

The Setup

With Dying Light 2 on the horizon for early 2022, picking up the Anniversary Edition of the original felt like mandatory homework. It bundles the base game with every expansion, most notably The Following, plus the 4-player co-op and the asymmetric “Be the Zombie” mode, all in one physical package.

The Review

The parkour is what sells this game. Free-running across Harran’s rooftops feels tight and purposeful in a way that makes traversal genuinely fun rather than a means to an end, and it’s woven directly into the melee combat — you’re just as likely to escape a fight by vaulting over a wall as you are to win it outright. The real hook, though, is the day/night cycle: daytime is a fairly standard open-world loot-and-clear game, but at night the fast, aggressive Volatiles turn the exact same map into a stealth-horror gauntlet where being spotted means running for your life back to a safe zone.

The story and cast are forgettable, and the game wears its Far Cry/Assassin’s Creed open-world DNA on its sleeve without doing much to disguise it. But the parkour-horror hybrid was a genuinely novel pitch back in 2015, and playing through the whole thing plus The Following right before the sequel made for a good refresher on why the format worked in the first place.

What I Liked

  • Parkour traversal is tightly integrated with combat and still feels great
  • Night sequences with the Volatiles create real, sustained tension
  • The Following expansion and Be the Zombie mode add a lot of value to one package
  • Skill-tree progression gives the moment-to-moment loop a satisfying sense of growth

What I Didn’t

  • Generic, forgettable story and characters
  • Mid-game pacing sags into grinding
  • Open-world structure borrows heavily and obviously from other franchises

The Verdict

Rating: 4/5

A genuinely clever traversal-horror hybrid that still holds up, and good pre-sequel homework with all the expansion content included.

Where to Buy