Lost Levels II

Time for round 2 of updates to my gaming collection. Like the first Lost Levels I have a couple of older, but by no means "classic" games I picked up, generally of the limited edition variety. I found these within the last month since the prior collection post, although I just now got around to snapping some pics. 

• Splinter Cell: Double Agent CE (Xbox 360) - I have to start by saying I am a sucker for the Splinter Cell series. At times they can be a bit too slow, but in general nothing beats breezing through a level without a single detections (or kill if you’re good). So when I spotted the collector’s edition of Double Agent, I just had to buy it. Fairly simple in design it doesn’t offer much over the standard edition. The red slip cover that reveals Sam Fisher with translucent night-vision goggles and pistol is a nice effect. Even with the hint of Christmas (Ol’ Saint Fisher?) the bright red cover is a bold image. Inside there’s the usual bonus DVD with documentaries, and it even had the original plastic decoder insert used for a contest website. I think I missed the entry date though. Trivial sure, but a nice find for completion’s sake. Nothing over the top elaborate, but a nice looking edition of a good game was definitely worth the price.

• Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne (PC) - Now I’m going to take some flack for this one: I’ve never played a Max Payne game. I vaguely remember playing the original entry in the series at my cousin’s house in college, though at the time I didn’t own a PS2 or Xbox so I never got into the game. Years passed and the backlog grew. Luckily, after a recent trip to my brother-in-law’s I happened to spot the PC edition of Max Payne 2 on a pile of older games. It didn’t take much convincing to let me adopt the game, so to speak. As far as I can tell this is just the standard PC version. If anyone knows about the original release, by all means leave a comment with any information. In either case it’s got gorgeous box art, with the simple black and white graphics of Max and Mona Sax. By the way, greatest name for a film noir character, just beating out Harvey Trombone. Once opened up the clear CD holder lets the screenshots of in-game graphics really shine. It’s a great one-two punch, effective and clean.