Thanks for the mention, and for generously characterizing my post as 'sensible.'
I have to echo yeshuap and say that the best, or at least most memorable map bundled with a game for me has to be Morrowind - no game before [or really after] actually felt like I could GO to any place on the map, or that the map would be USEFUL as an orienteering tool, the way Morrowind's was. With no instant point-and-click fast travel, the in-game map getting revealed in detail only as you explore, even whole settlements obscured if you've never visited them, I spent a lot of my time on my first playthrough with the physical bundled map actually at my side, often propped open on a tabletop music sheet stand so I could tell which foyada a questgiver had told me to pass through, see where the nearest settlement might be, know when I'd gone too far and needed to loop around. And then when I started modding, and realized the whole landmass of the game, all fully traversable and potentially interactive, could also be freely molded, it took on even more meaning. Outstanding.
I wish I’d had a Morrowind map, it’s an incredible game but navigation is one hell of a learning curve for newcomers (especially at low levels when you run at walking speed and go into combat on the brink of fainting from stamina loss).
As an old timer I LOVED just cracking open manuals and reading them on the way home from buying them. They used to have so much lore. The Warcraft/Starcraft manuals had long lore explanations of each unit as well as overall story.
The Morrowind physical map was brilliant, bursting with color and extremely useful figuring out how to get places, literally had it in front of me.
I didn't know Morrowind had a physical map! I do have a physical copy of the game but it was a very late edition, from the time when Steam was becoming the main distribution system, so it lacks the bells and whistles.
All honourable entries. As a slightly older user of PC games in the 90s, the stuff we used to get inside those big boxes were very generous and numerous. Maps yes but also coins, figures, stamps - sometimes even actual cloth maps!
That's so cool, I love the manuals from that era as well, they were so stylish and well-written, my personal favourites are the manuals for Fallout, Arcanum and Darklands. System Shock is great too, and Elite's an earlier example.
Great manuals were an art form unto themselves. I never played Arcanum but I read about it in magazines (another relic of that era) and have wanted to catch up with it, Nox and Silver ever since
I feel the same way. I wrote an article about missing physical media and box inclusive are one that I will miss. All of the stuff that came with the standard edition of CyberPunk 2077 were so cool.
I didn't want to get too into pre-order exclusive stuff, but Elden Ring's pre-order box is pretty amazing. Posters, postcards, embroidered patches, stickers, it's got it all.
Thanks for the mention, and for generously characterizing my post as 'sensible.'
I have to echo yeshuap and say that the best, or at least most memorable map bundled with a game for me has to be Morrowind - no game before [or really after] actually felt like I could GO to any place on the map, or that the map would be USEFUL as an orienteering tool, the way Morrowind's was. With no instant point-and-click fast travel, the in-game map getting revealed in detail only as you explore, even whole settlements obscured if you've never visited them, I spent a lot of my time on my first playthrough with the physical bundled map actually at my side, often propped open on a tabletop music sheet stand so I could tell which foyada a questgiver had told me to pass through, see where the nearest settlement might be, know when I'd gone too far and needed to loop around. And then when I started modding, and realized the whole landmass of the game, all fully traversable and potentially interactive, could also be freely molded, it took on even more meaning. Outstanding.
I wish I’d had a Morrowind map, it’s an incredible game but navigation is one hell of a learning curve for newcomers (especially at low levels when you run at walking speed and go into combat on the brink of fainting from stamina loss).
As an old timer I LOVED just cracking open manuals and reading them on the way home from buying them. They used to have so much lore. The Warcraft/Starcraft manuals had long lore explanations of each unit as well as overall story.
The Morrowind physical map was brilliant, bursting with color and extremely useful figuring out how to get places, literally had it in front of me.
I didn't know Morrowind had a physical map! I do have a physical copy of the game but it was a very late edition, from the time when Steam was becoming the main distribution system, so it lacks the bells and whistles.
All honourable entries. As a slightly older user of PC games in the 90s, the stuff we used to get inside those big boxes were very generous and numerous. Maps yes but also coins, figures, stamps - sometimes even actual cloth maps!
That's so cool, I love the manuals from that era as well, they were so stylish and well-written, my personal favourites are the manuals for Fallout, Arcanum and Darklands. System Shock is great too, and Elite's an earlier example.
Great manuals were an art form unto themselves. I never played Arcanum but I read about it in magazines (another relic of that era) and have wanted to catch up with it, Nox and Silver ever since
I feel the same way. I wrote an article about missing physical media and box inclusive are one that I will miss. All of the stuff that came with the standard edition of CyberPunk 2077 were so cool.
I didn't want to get too into pre-order exclusive stuff, but Elden Ring's pre-order box is pretty amazing. Posters, postcards, embroidered patches, stickers, it's got it all.
Exactly! That is all part of the things I will miss