BioShock Ultimate Rapture Edition

Two of the greatest shooters of the seventh generation, one underwater city, and every piece of DLC ever made for them. The BioShock Ultimate Rapture Edition on Playstation 3 is the kind of all-in-one package that makes digital storefronts nervous, stacking both BioShock and BioShock 2 with their complete DLC libraries onto a single PS3 disc.

BioShock brings the Plasmids Pack, Challenge Rooms Pack, and that Bonus Museum Level where you can wander through Rapture's creation as a piece of interactive game design history. BioShock 2 comes fully loaded with Minerva's Den, the standalone story DLC that many consider superior to the main campaign, alongside Sinclair Solutions Tester, Rapture Metro, Kill Em Kindly, and The Protector Trials. A collectible sticker pack from BioShock Infinite's Columbia rounds things out, teasing the sky-bound sequel that was on the horizon.

What gives this edition lasting collector value is permanence. Every piece of downloadable content for both games exists on this physical disc, immune to server shutdowns and delisting decisions. As we've watched PS3-era digital storefronts face uncertain futures, physical compilations like the Ultimate Rapture Edition have quietly become the most reliable way to preserve complete versions of these games. That Columbia sticker set is a nice bonus, connecting three points of the BioShock timeline in one box. A man chooses to keep his collection complete. A slave passes this one by.