Variants
IMPORTANT: The September 9/11 version was strictly released as a double jewel case version with both inserts, manual, disc, and weapons guide. Over the years I’ve seen dubious folks try and pass off incomplete copies as the ‘Single Case Variant’ release – where it’s just the manual and back insert with the disc. These are NOT complete copies. It appears handfuls of the original materials meant to be destroyed made it out of Sony’s grasp. One seller even blocked me for pointing out the obvious – buyer beware.
Most copies – both sealed and open complete were already in warehouses ready to be sent to retailers when they were recalled. My personal copy came from a used game store where a Sony warehouse worker had traded in his copy bought through his employee program during the original time frame of the recall.
Syphon Filter 3, along with Spider-Man 2 Enter: Electro were pulled from their original release dates in order to re-evaluate and change assets that could connect it to September 11th, 2001. Syphon Filter 3’s packaging went through a major revision on all fronts.
September 11. 2001 Unreleased / Undistributed Version
- The manual and front insert have their artwork 100% changed. This essentially removes the virus attack within a government building imagery.
- Its back insert’s copy has been heavily edited to separate it from any real world references. “United States Federal Bureau of Investigations” now reads “Agency Mission Briefing”, and “Deadly Force Authorized. – Agency Director” is replaced with “Stop Gabe Logan! – Agency Director.”
- Funny enough, a typo or kerning issue is fixed from the 9/11 version – the word “Classified” is originally written as ‘Classif ied.”
- For the first bullet point, “…a deadly arsenal, including…” is stripped out. For some reason the remainder of that text removes reference to the grenade launcher, artillery, and then cleans up the text.
- In the 3rd bullet point, “Agency operatives and terrorists” is replaced by “enemies.”
- The left inside art removes the original SF1 Gabe key art and Greatest Hits image of SF2 to just completely focus on a larger image of SF2. Right side insert replaces the entire art panel with a remix of the new disc art.
- Disc art becomes a generic ‘with logo’ version.
- The Weapons Guide replaces some of the background artwork that featured the original cover imagery with generic vehicle images, and there are some extremely minor tweaks to copy and color tones.
- I haven’t had a chance to see if there are any in-game differences like Spider-Man 2 Enter: Electro.
The revamped version seen at the top of the page was also re-released as a Greatest Hits.
Greatest Hits Release
Misprints
- There are no known misprints.
