Far Cry 2 (SteelBook Edition)

Sometimes less is more, and sometimes less is just a really nice SteelBook. The Far Cry 2 SteelBook Edition on Playstation 3 strips away all the bonus extras and lets the metal do the talking. It's the same open-world African chaos you know, just housed in a case that actually deserves a spot on your shelf.

This one was a UK exclusive through play.com, which immediately tells you two things. First, the distribution was limited to a single online retailer in a single region. Second, play.com has been dead for years, so there's no going back to casually reorder one. That combination of retail exclusivity and a defunct distributor makes tracking down a clean copy a genuine hunt.

For PS3 collectors building out their SteelBook walls, Far Cry 2 occupies a specific sweet spot. It's from that mid-generation period when publishers were still figuring out the collector's market, which means these early SteelBook releases weren't produced in the massive quantities we'd see later. The case itself is the entire value proposition here, no art books, no figurines, no soundtrack discs. Just metal and game.

If you collect PS3 SteelBooks, this Far Cry 2 edition is the kind of quiet gap-filler that completes a shelf. Don't sleep on it.