Cheapest way to play through the Mass Effect series?

Hello,

I'm interested in finally playing the Mass Effect games. I currently own all 3 of them on PC (gotten cheap in sales) and am trying to get around to playing them.

Ideally I want to play through them with the DLC (at least the relevant pieces which it seems like 2 especially has a lot of) but there doesn't appear to be any way to get the DLC other than buying them for full price. Is this correct?

I was prepared to buy the trilogy before learning that didn't include any DLC and as far as I can tell there's no GOTY versions of the games either. So am I really going to have to drop more money than I spent on just one of the games per piece of DLC? Or is there a cheaper way of getting them?

Cheers!

Essential DLC:

ME2:

• Shadow Broker
• Zaeed
• Kasumi
• (people really like Overlord but it's self contained and not essential)
• (arrival bridges the 2 games but it's bad, you should read what happens instead of playing it)

ME3:

• From ashs
• Extended cut
• leviathan (finish it just before the point of no return)
• Citadel (some of the best stuff ME has to offer, download and play it AFTER you've finished the game)

Skip the rest.

As for the price, I don't know if there's a way to get those on the cheap. It's well worth it at the regular asking price though.

I could be wrong about this but looking into it myself I was surprised to learn the collection on Origin only has two of the DLCs. I think you are going to have to get each DLC separately, there is a deluxe edition on Steam for ME2 that I thought had all the DLC, but I could be mistaken. Funny enough I just started replaying these from the beginning the other day. I decided to just play it on the couch with the ol' 360, I'll live with the ME1 frame rate. Hope someone else knows an easier way for you to get all the content.

I believe you can probaby buy them going through the mass effect website. I remember when the Dragon Age II dlc was coming out I had to pick them up from the websites online store cause I purchased the game from Steam and valve was no longer adding new EA products to their store.

Yeah, I remember there being something really dumb about Mass Effect 1/2 DLC, like you had to buy it directly from the Bioware website or something.

Anyway, a sale on Steam or Origin is probably your cheapest bet.

The PS3 ME2 has all the DLC included, so picking the disc up used should be really cheap.

Borrow them off a mate. Its not like they're playing them.

It's so weird how hard it is to get this trilogy as a whole. Reminds me how bad I want a repackage / HD remaster - and yes, I know, you're tired of that. We're all tired of it! But come on, Mass Effect.

Did you not even read the OP? He owns all three already...

For the most part this. None of the DLC for ME1 is necessary. I think the cheapest way to get the DLC is to wait for a holiday sale.