Copies of the Halo 3: Limited Edition are being plagued by scratched discs and shoddy packaging.
Halo 3 is upon on us already and the world is slowly being divided into a new caste system because of it. There are those who will buy the game in the shops, those who pre-ordered the Limited Edition and then there's me - who came to within a single frag of beating the developers at the recent Microsoft Xmas Showcase. A single frag!
Sigh.
Even more annoying is the news that those who pre-ordered the Limited Edition copy of the game may be getting hold of unplayable copies of the game thanks to shoddy packaging.
According to some
NeoGAF users, the tin packaging of the Limited Edition has central hubs which are incapable of holding the disc securely. One minor bump and the disc comes loose in the tin, bumping about and getting very badly scratched.
“
A friend just opened three copies of Halo 3 Limited Edition and with all three copies both disc were loose inside of the package and scratched to death,” explained the original poster of the thread on NeoGAF. “
This Limited Edition has a poor plastic nub and foam pad disc holding design that is a major flaw and the discs pop off with ease.”
This raises a very important question for gamers all over the globe: Who is sad enough to pre-order
three separate copies of the same game? I don't think anybody has done that since Tim bought every single version of
BioShock and even then still wanted more.
The matter has been backed up by forum members who work at game stores and have seen many copies of the game have loose discs. So far though the reports only apply to the Limited Edition version of the game,
not the Legendary or Standard editions.
Will you be buying
Halo 3, or are you utterly bored of the Green Meanie and his adventures in outer space? Let us know
in the forums.
45 Comments
Discuss in the forums ReplySame here.
"Swagbag" is also loose in the metal casing
at the risk of getting my ass flamed off, prepare to be dissapointed
halo really hangs on the multiplayer, and like any reasonable person, there is only so much squeeky voiced abusive twelve year olds i can take
It would take quite a bit of work for a crazy fanboy to make so many discs loose, personally I blame it on crappy case design. I've had many game or DVD cases where the disc will just not stay clipped down, I mean is it really that hard of a thing to test out? Anyway not sure if I will even buy Halo 3 yet, its too bad theres almost no hope for a demo, it would be nice just to try it out.
Not sure what ill be doing with mine like cause going for daft amounts on ebay lol. I know a lad at work same time I got mine bought 2 and he dosnt even have a 360 lol
Ill probs end up keeping as second hand I recon itll go for what I payed for mine new.
Very true - even then I was never very fond of the gameplay for some reason. It was a little too different from regular FPS's.
He won't, Bungie denied that would be happening to anyone. I don't think there's anywhere that says you aren't allowed to play Halo 3 early in the EULA, it's the fault of the shops breaching contract if you get it early, not yours, so MS can't legally punish you AFAIK.
I still have a busted Big Daddy because 2K wont replace them. When I e-mail them about it they refer me to the usa replacement page on their website. (Im in the Fr****** UK) and Game say there arnt any stock to replace it and therefore wont replace it.
Now I have ordered a Limited Edition Halo 3 and If this is scratched, im going to be soo unhappy :(
Yes, that is my number one fear.
Number two being I have no idea what happened in the first two games.
But I got it for $46 shipped, so I can unload it later for little to no net cost if need be.
I can wait awile...
Wrong. The IGN opening is a development kit where Bungie sent them the Legendary Edition but included the game in the Limited Edition case. The Retail Legendary will be in a regular DVD case similar to the Regular Edition.
I'm picking up my LE in person on Wednesday so I'll give the box a shake and if I hear discs rattling I'll be going through them all until I get one that doesn't rattle. If you think about it, the shops aren't going to let you open them all up.
Yeah they will.
Once you have been given it you stay at the counter while you open the box, if disc scratched then they cannot accuse you of doing it and you then ask for a replacement.
Repeat until you have a good copy.
FYI, I work at JVC Disc Packaging, where Halo 3 was stamped...
I knew they should have just made it a wearable helmet instead of some stupid game case.
Wow MS really working hard at there anti copy protection :p
but... shipping broken stuff still sucks...
If mine is scratched will you send me a new one :)
Got My Halo 3 Collectors Edition today and, yip, it was scratched, but not badly - more marked really. It still loads on the Xbox360. But since the scratches - marks - are further towards the inside of disk, I am a bit concerned that as I get further into the disk, the errors will begin. As this problem exists with many of the Collector's Edition packages, I can't really see the point of returning the disk for a replacement as the likelihood of my getting a replacement disk that is just as bad or worse is quite high. Ah, well...such is life.
I didn't know that. I just thought that DVD and CD were read in the same manner as Vinyl Records (Remember those...???) from the outside in. Ah well, you live and learn...
About these disk repair devices, how good are they in reality and can they damage disks? What about the Brasso option mentioned above? Is that safe?
Ta.
as for the repair stuff... i'd say stay away from it and return it to the shop as a broken product to get a new one.
What the brasso/disk cleaners do is just remove the top layer of plastic. On a CD you have the shiny data bit, then quite a thick layer of plastic (relatively speaking) that protects the data. 95% of scratches, even deep looking ones, are just scratching of the plastic layer, the data is still perfectly intact underneath that, the reason it doesn't read is the laser can't penetrate to the data it wants to get to, most minor scratches won't cause any problems loading, big ones can however. Brasso is just like a very fine grit sandpaper in liquid form, so using it just takes the very top layer of plastic coating off where the scratch is, and because it's fine grit it leaves you with a nice surface finish. I haven't done it myself, but I first heard the method here a while ago. If you do want to try it out, I suggest scratching a burnt CD then testing to see if it works ok if no-one else vouches for the technique.
EDIT: Damn you Doug I want my copy!