Goddamnit, thanks to that Ghost Recon trailer, I read your post in the voice of that bald Future Weapons guy... :(

After seeing many of the post here I've basically concluded that this may not be as big of a rip off as many claim it to be. I know a lot of folks think it might be easy to say that day one DLC should always be in the game to begin with and that it wouldn't be that hard to include it, but let's all be honest.

Unless you've actually worked in the industry itself none of us really know what goes on in the development studio and how tedious and difficult the process of making a game (especially with one of such high production value as this one) can be.

I'm still getting my copy and yes I'll be getting the DLC and then I'll pass judgement on whether or not if this was that big of a rip-off or disappointment. I know you might be thinking "we'll they've already got your money stupid"

True but I guess it'll be a lesson learned the hard way, bottom line to me is when the game is out and all is said and done then we can be happy or pissed, depending on how the game makes us feel. As of right now I don't think the situation with DLC and the like won't be any different than how it was with ME2 ,just this one happened to be on day one and has a ten dollar price tag if you don't have the collector's edition (which I couldn't get my hands on).

It isn't free for the collector's edition. We're paying 20 more bucks than you are for our collector's stuff. You want in on the party?

10 bucks please.

When they made the extended editions of LOTR they didn't include the extra 30 minutes for free and in every version of the DVD's, just sayin'.

I don't agree with this at all. The Protheans are a huge part of Mass Effect, in fact, there wouldn't be a Mass Effect 2 or 3 without them, thats why they were so integral to the story. Now we've got a chance to actually talk to one...and he's cut content, advertised months in advance, segregated to people who preordered the CE, which is bullshit. I don't buy for a second that they had him created after the game went gold, not when they've been advertising the CE with the character since last year. I'm also not paying 800 MS points just to get him, because chances are he'll be like Kasumi and Zaeed, and never have anything to say after the goddamn mission you do with him. This is like the DA2 team saying the 'only' had a year to work on the game, when a dev diary had stated they were working on concepts right after origins. Make no mistake, they're making another excuse to cover their asses, BSing people and trying to avoid the issues at hand. People are getting wise to this crap, its just taking a while for them to put two and two together in this case.

People don't see the issue, then let me lay it out for you: He's cut content, thrown into one extremely difficult ro obtain edition of the game for free, and everyone else has to pay for on day one. I've been saying this for years, that DLC nowadays is just cut goddamn content, even Kasumi was cut content, as someone found the code for her in the game upon release in ME2.

Taking an important, universe and story altering character and ripping them out of the game in order to make a bit of money is a practice that shouldn't have even been considered, and it shits on long-time fans of the series' support if the devs or EA have even considered this a good idea. Hell, I've heard people have outright cancelled their preorders for the CE because of this, and I don't think thats a half bad idea. If they're treating a game and lore changing character and story like backburner, what hope do we have for the overall game? Either make him important, or leave him out entirely, and let the story from the last two games be the end of that race's story once and for all. This is exactly the kind of crap that needs to stop, he was advertised before the game went gold, they put the game release back a little under a year, and now they expect us to believe that this new character was created after the game went gold? Fuck off with that theory, any of their official statements always seem to ignore facts that they've stated before, and it makes little to no sense to deny them not, covering their asses or not, its just fucking sad. Just when I was starting to think that they might actually respect their own source material, and bring the game back to its roots, they fuck it up with something so monumentally stupid, it defies all reasonable explanation, which they've proven from the sheer fucking stupidity of their statements.

To those who say he'll be inconsequential...why does that not bother you? Why do some people not get that if he is completely pointless, then you're paying extra for him in your CE. If you love ME, then you should be pissed that he could potentially be pointless, and a waste of space, and yet you're still paying for him, and hes not contributing anything. The point here is, you're not really getting content for free...you're still fucking paying for a completely pointless character, whose significance has been severly downplayed, cut from the overall game, then 'given' to you for paying extra on a version of the game with hardly anything practical or useful in it. Any way you look at this, you're wasting your money, you should be pissed, and this is total and complete bullshit. The content of the game is incomplete, and yet everyone is still paying for something that they shouldn't have to...I'll be damned if I pay anywhere from 45-55 quid for Mass Effect 3, go home, input a 25-digit code for a fucking online pass because I can't just play a game anymore, wait for the fucking EA server to graciously sign me in, then go to the marketplace, buy an 800 point character, wait however fucking insultingly long it takes to download it, even though I shouldn't have to, have to restart the game, because thats just how it works, then have to go through step 4 again, because EA sign in times are insanely long. I, like anyone else, get about one day off a week proper, and if I want full content, I have to jump through an irrational amount of hoops just to access everything? On release day? Are you fucking kidding me? This has gone beyond reasonable, or even stretching apologetic, this is fucking insulting that I can no longer buy a game, and have full content, and simply sit down and play. I've never agreed with day one DLC, I've never agreed with online passes, and I've never agreed with extra sign-ins just to play a game, now, ME3 has all of these things, with ridiculous excuses to defend it. This isn't like Zaeed, he was free, that was totally different, this isn't even like Kasumi, because she wasn't day one. This is just wrong, and I'm sick of it.

@Alex11968 said:

@Bones8677: What incentive do you need ? Your getting the game day one for the regular price of $60, Don't try and take some moral highroad. Your just being cheap, while it's unfortunate that you cannot find the collectors edition, the full story is there in regular edition. Also Gamestop has pre-order bonuses too...

N7 Valkyrie Rifle: Deliver two rounds per shot with deadly accuracy. Stop the opposition dead in their tracks with superior high caliber rounds.

N7 Defender Armor: Improved shields and health. Survive even the most punishing of battles and withstand sustained enemy fire. Increased ammo capacity. Additional ammunition compartments ensure you are always battle-ready. Amplified weapon damage. Built-in power cells provide an additional punch to weapon fire.

M55 Argus Assault Rifle: Unleash a triple burst of rounds, effective for taking down enemies at close and long range.

I know about the preorder bonuses, Hell Amazon had that rifle, AND a $10 coupon attached to it. And I could get it for $50 with a $10 coupon I already have. But I don't believe that the whole story is present in the regular edition. Having a Prothean character might not seem like that big of a deal, but it is probably the single biggest deal in this whole franchise. It's the big mystery that surrounds the entire story of this universe. Hell the entire story of Mass Effect 3 should be centered around obtaining that character.

Also, waiting to buy a game cheaper than buying it day one at full price isn't cheap, it's being a smart consumer.

Is someone suggesting that DLC is a scam!?!

Let me pick myself up off the floor...

All this business makes me sad. Mass Effect 1 had such a good universe and everything was pretty neat, now everything is being retconned or just ignored to appeal to a wider audience. I need to just replay Mass Effect 1 and 2 and get the bad ending so I dont have to care about this one

People who are looking at this DLC as similar to Zaeed or even Shale are missing the point. Aside from the fact that those characters were FREE to those who bought a new copy (ANY new copy), neither were integral to the plot or universe. In the case of Shale, she was a fully fleshed out character, sure, and added a good chunk to the story and dynamic of the group, but Zaeed was worthless. He was a mercenary with no real bearing on the main thread of the story, and even the hardcore fan could get through the story with no real harm nor foul if they didn't have him.

In this case, it's content that is finished at-launch, concerning a character that by all means SHOULD have huge story implications. This isn't a random mercenary, this is a member of a dead species who have had (and really continue to have) a central part in the Mass Effect timeline, alive and as a selectable member of the squad.

And in that way, Bioware is trapped. If this is just another throwaway character, then why in the blue hell is he a Prothean? If he's integral to the plot, then why in the blue hell are we supposed to be cool with paying 10 bucks for him at launch?!

@AndrewB said:

@mosdl:

The possible exception would be the Lair of the Shadow Broker DLC. That was legitimately pretty great.

So was Overlord. Kasumi wasn't bad either and and well worth 5 bucks, and Zaeed is a legitimately entertaining character.

Really, ME2 has a great DLC track record, I'm not sure what you're talking about. Arrival was the only "eh" piece of content.

Some people seem to be forgetting that Zaeed was part of the Cerberus network, which was used to entice people to buy a new copy of the game instead of used. You got Zaeed, Firewalker mission pack, and some other goodies thrown in there, all for free. The fact that it was DLC is irrelevant. It was an incentive to buy the game new and reward people for buying it new, not an attempt to shaft them by leaving out what very well could be an incredibly important character in an attempt to monetize it even further. It's a fucking Prothean after all. The same race that's supposed to have been extinct for 50,000 years. The same race that was indoctrinated by the Reapers. The same race that could know how to beat them. Zaeed is about the same to a Prothean as a gold brick is to a gigantic turd.

Could the character itself be minor and just stand around? Absolutely. Does that give them to right to shaft their loyal customers though? Absolutely not. I remember hearing about a DLC character months ago that would be available at launch. That means that content was intentionally held back from the game before it went gold. That's fine. But they're pushing it to the extreme in an attempt to make more money out of it. We're talking about script having to have been written for the character, voice work recorded and mastered, and character assets implemented into the game. No fucking chance in hell does that just happen overnight.

BioWare does also have a habit of releasing shit DLC as well. Both of the Dragon Age games have shit DLC. Mass Effect 1 has shit DLC. Mass Effect 2 has shit DLC, outside of Lair of the Shadow Broker which was outstanding and is the anomaly. So they're taking advantage of their fans by charging 10 bucks for what will probably be more shit DLC. All I see is blatant disrespect for their fans, especially the hardcore fans. There was even something with one of the God awful books not that long ago where they let someone write it that had no clue with the fiction and he completely fucked up parts that are already established in the universe. Then they released it without having someone go over it and say, "Uhhhh... this isn't right."

And further to the point is BioWare is censoring outcry on their own forums. Ever see that .gif of the EA logo slowly turning into the Nazi flag? Yeah. Insert that here.

Oh look, the internet getting up in arms over "day one DLC" even though no one can prove it was cut from the game and everyone knows it has a huge impact in the Mass Effect universe even though no one has played it.

*Cue exacerbation video from internet celebrity*

*insert picture of MW2 boycott*

@AiurFlux: That's pretty much the opinion I have too. Bioware are simply trying to cover their asses, and anyone who is calling them out it being ignored, because its 'just the way it is'. I fucking hate that attitude. I can't say I'm surprised they've done it though, anything EA touches is immediately sullied, and this decision just smells like poor marketing.

I would say that the fact that they've held it back means that it is, in fact, an incomplete product, because it really should be in the game, and it isn't ok to make money off of cut content, especially something so important to the story. If it isn't worth ten dollars, then people who bought it are going to be rightly pissed, and thats a fair few people. I don't know how this was ever viewed as a good idea, its simply amazing to see people rush to defend/ignore it, when the right thing to do would be to call Bioware out on it, en masse, and force them to give this to people who buy the game new, for free. Otherwise, what are they offering? An online mode that'll be dead within, at the most optimistic, two months? A story with a chunk of relatively interesting and important storyline missing? Or a game that seems to be trying to hard to appeal to everyone, inevitably only reaching the same, or slightly better in sales than the previous game? I'm guessing the last one...

@benjaebe said:

Oh look, the internet getting up in arms over "day one DLC" even though no one can prove it was cut from the game and everyone knows it has a huge impact in the Mass Effect universe even though no one has played it.

*Cue exacerbation video from internet celebrity*

*insert picture of MW2 boycott*

They would rather pretend it was cut even though Bioware already issued a statement, that says this.

"The content in “From Ashes” was developed by a separate team (after the core game was finished) and not completed until well after the main game went into certification."

They would also like to pretend it's integral to the plot because it's a Prothean, even though the leaked spoilers confirm he is not integral to the plot.

And we learn about the Protheans through the actual main story. Not him.

@CL60: I'm not terribly bothered by it, although it is kind of shitty that Bioware basically made Zaeed again, but decided to go "Give us $10".

Also keep in mind that the leaked script is only partial, so we don't actually know his story significance. Edit: That being said, it is very possible it is cut content. Some of the info about and lines from the character were in the leaked script. The leaked script was from nearly half a year before the game went gold. Although it is also possible the character was an NPC at that point, not a squadmate.

As I'm not horribly incensed by it, I'll probably get the DDE. I do understand people's frustrations with it, though.

 Ever see that .gif of the EA logo slowly turning into the Nazi flag? Yeah. Insert that here.

@lclay said:

@AiurFlux said:

Ever see that .gif of the EA logo slowly turning into the Nazi flag? Yeah. Insert that here.

EA is committing genocide now?

It's EA, so yes. Yes they are.

I'll just leave it at that.

@CL60 said:

They would rather pretend it was cut even though Bioware already issued a statement, that says this.

"The content in “From Ashes” was developed by a separate team (after the core game was finished) and not completed until well after the main game went into certification."

They would also like to pretend it's integral to the plot because it's a Prothean, even though the leaked spoilers confirm he is not integral to the plot.

And we learn about the Protheans through the actual main story. Not him.

Yes, because BioWare and EA would never ever lie in an attempt to make themselves look better and to shrug off negative PR. Ever.

Look at it this way, if it's full featured it's obviously a hold back from the game in an attempt to monetize it further and to take advantage of the dedicated fans. If it isn't full featured and ends up being well... shit, then people got ripped off because there's no chance in hell that something like that, a CHARACTER, should be 10 bucks. Ever. Either way it is a lose lose situation. And to make it even more flagrant the game's own predecessor had an entire network and free DLC for a couple of months, so long as you bought the game new.

I'm not terribly bothered by it. For one, I rarely buy DLC because by the time it comes out, I've moved on to other games. Two, I sincerely don't expect it to be important to the plot like some are suggesting, just some bits of lore that I could easily watch on Youtube if I choose not to pick it up. And three, I preordered the game for only 45 bucks last month on D2D, so cancelling the game now because of 10 dollars worth of DLC would still cost me money even if they did cave and make it free content.

For some sort of moral high ground point on exclusive gameplay/character choices, it seems a bit self-defeating that no one cared about the exclusive mission/character advertised for the CE months ago before it was discovered to be a Prothean.

@EToaster said:

I'm not terribly bothered by it. For one, I rarely buy DLC because by the time it comes out, I've moved on to other games. Two, I sincerely don't expect it to be important to the plot like some are suggesting, just some bits of lore that I could easily watch on Youtube if I choose not to pick it up. And three, I preordered the game for only 45 bucks last month on D2D, so cancelling the game now because of 10 dollars worth of DLC would still cost me money even if they did cave and make it free content.

For some sort of moral high ground point on exclusive gameplay/character choices, it seems a bit self-defeating that no one cared about the exclusive mission/character advertised for the CE months ago before it was discovered to be a Prothean.

Well, if you are heavy into the Mass Effect lore (I'm not, but, you know, some people), I would imagine the last remaining Prothean would be a pretty important figure in the mythology of Mass Effect. If it is and they're holding it back for paid DLC, that's pretty shitty. If it's not, then it's kind of shitty that it's not, since the Prothean, to my understand, are a pretty big deal around here. Of course, if you're that into it, the case could be made that you probably ponies up the $80 for the CE anyway.

I kind of feel like to save face they should just give it to everyone who is buying the game new. The whole thing, either way, is kind of weird and it's just bad PR for a game that is heavily dependent on the story itself. I keep going back and forth about whether I'm going to pick this up Day One, and I was going back and forth before this even came to light, but I gotta say, this isn't exactly shifting my opinion into "Buy Day One" column. I did enjoy the first two games a lot, but I can totally wait til later in the year, pick it up for half the price and then play through the rest of the story.

I think people give the importance of this particular DLC to the main storyline too much weight. I hate all manner of day one DLCs and what they represent, and the excuse that it was developed by a different studio doesn't really hold water in that regard due to outsourcing that is going on everywhere in the industry. Still, it is reasonable to expect that although the prospect of a character with deep implications to the arching storyline of the series is intriguing, the way it is implemented, as an optional DLC, will simply not do it justice. It is tantamount to EA/Bioware ironically making quick buck husks out of their own property that otherwise should have been fully featured and respected. There is really no winner here in this scenario, none so more than the fans who supported the series. Just my two cents.

Here is another way to look at it

The DLC was going to be exclusive to those who ordered the Collectors Edition.

Result: Fans cry about exclusive content on such a vital character

Resolve: Releases DLC to the masses for $10

Gamers are never happy. Gamers are the most demanding and feel they have the right to everything to do with games. The majority of gamers need to get off their high horses and realise even though games make million, they take millions to make and not every game company is huge and successful.

@AhmadMetallic said:

@Tomkang: Keep bending over

I don't not agree with this sentiment.

it's absolutely a case of trying to squeeze as much money out of customers as possible. having dlc prepared for the first official day of your game being released is fucking stupid and annoying but whatever, i just won't buy it. i'm sure the vanilla game will be fine without it.

I've played exactly zero pieces of DLC from the ME games. I will continue to play zero pieces of DLC from the ME games. I expect to have a full story experience without it. Life will go on, BioWare will still make an assload of money off of the Prothean DLC because half of the people screaming about this will buy it, day one DLC will still happen just as it has for years, and people will continue to mutter about it with wallets wide open until the next highly-anticipated game does something that perpetually angry gamers consider egregious.

Just as this is yet another example of the video game industry doing what the video game industry do, as too is this yet another example of the Internet doing what the Internet do; flipping the fuck out over nothing. People need to chill out, accept that this is an entirely optional piece of content, that your Mass Effect 3 experience is not going to be diminished because you don't have an optional character, and that if it wasn't being sold for $10, it'd either be exclusive to the Collector's Edition, and you'd bitch and moan over that, or it wouldn't exist at all. And now this post is yet another example of people responding to threads about the Internet flipping the fuck out over DLC.

/circleoflife

I have an idea. Let's all wait until release, see if someone roots through the coding like they did 2, and finds the Prothean character in it, fully playable, without a patch or DLC. I'm genuinely curious. I mean, we only know he was in the game already, he 'wasn't' a playable character...and is a soldier, which raises a lot of questions as to how he survived 50,000 years if a contruct like Vigil had to shut down life support for all the scientists in stasis, as they were the most important of the race...and then he suddenly was? No, that's not how it works. If they had the game finished, then even with a patch, the commands, scripts and voice would have had to be part of the game in pre-gold form. Patches just unlock the data in-game, which had to have been there.

Whatever PR says, I'm inclined to be believe otherwise, because this does seem just a little too conveniant from a profit point-of-view. I smell some shit-of-the-bull, and its wafting from Bioware. To those who say 'he's not essential' or 'he's optional, listen to the PR guy/girl'...if he's in the game already, that argument has no weight to it, let alone when he was advertised as content last year, and is just mind-bogglingly stupid in concept, which is really what's shooting them in the foot...I don't know, this whole thing is a nightmare, and people have every reason to be pissed.

@Dookysharpgun: The Holocaust was a nightmare, this is a luxury consumer product.

Christ.

Ever see that .gif of the EA logo slowly turning into the Nazi flag? Yeah. Insert that here.

He won't be crucial to the main story...

@Brodehouse: Do we have to derail every possible minor phrase and overemphasise it to compare it to the holocaust? Because I've seen this used far too often. I study history, I love history, and I'm passionate about certain aspects of it, and can fully comprehend the scale of certain events, grim or not. What really pisses me off is not that people possibly get a little too into what they say, but when others attempt to undermine it by referring to the outright genocide of over six million people as a way of making some sort of bullshit statement against anyone who uses just one word that can be misconstrued out of a particular context, while the rest of what they say is ignored. As if there is any goddamn comparison. Taking things that far just to prove some kind of twisted point goes far beyond anything you could have possibly read into what I've written. The fact that you've mentioned the Holocaust as a point of comparison here seems to imply that you're somehow so much smarter than anyone else. Guess what? It just proves that you can use a well-known and tragic event in an unnecessary context, because you feel like it'll make you seem logical and well-balanced. It doesn't, and all you've proven here is that you've got no concept of scale, or comprehension of a topical reference. Don't come at me with that overused, and quite frankly pretentious standpoint, as if it's something that even remotely applies to this situation. The Holocaust was a horrifying event, a scar on the history of the human race. It has a context, so don't you dare undermine it by bringing it up like it's just another event you can rhyme off in some defence that was unnecessary.

You actually make me sick with that kind of action. As if people don't know about the gravity of that event.

The nightmare, by the way, refers to PR, as in PR nightmare. So well done on that.

Here's the deal. But no doubt people will ignore this.

The prothean is in the game as an NPC. The DLC just adds a tacked on mission and adds him into your party.(This was created by a separate team, AFTER the game went gold.) So stop saying this is on disc DLC, and that it is integral to the plot. Because neither are true.

@Dookysharpgun: Holy Christ, you're only serving to further emphasize my point.

It's a product you can choose to purchase or not. It's not worthy of the ridiculous overreaction.

news flash: for profit company tries to make more money by exploiting consumers' love of a brand. news at 11. and 11:10. and 11:15. and 11:17:30. and 11:18:45.

p.s. i feel like a sheep. i pre-ordered the N7 version cause they said "limited supplies." i couldn't imagine missing out on any content, even if it was a book i'd never look at again. EA, because of BioWare, you have me by the short and curlies. please stop pulling.

@Brodehouse: ...and you've once again managed to totally miss the point, and try to twist it to serve your own purposes...lemme just grab your quote:

@Brodehouse said:

@Dookysharpgun: The Holocaust was a nightmare, this is a luxury consumer product.

Christ.

That is not ok. The point I made in reply to this, was specifically aimed at that comparison, insofar as there should have been no comparison.

You're clearly trying to make yourself out to be rational, and you are failing. You've taken a point, and perverted it with a tasteless comparative point. Seeing as you're either too bull-headed or too ignorant to admit that your comparison there was, at best, a stupid and childish way of trying to prove a point, I'll let you live with your little world where you're seemingly so intelligent, but can't seem to differentiate one issue from another, as is very clear from our brief, and mind-boggling time together. You're the kind of person I avoid, as you just don't have the capacity for actual logical debate, instead, referring to overused and wildly inappropriate comparisons to make a point that renders itself null and void, due to its foundation in pure and utter stupidity.

Want an actual discussion? Make a point without being a pseudo-intellectual ass, and learn what references belong in what discussion topic.

Though whatever I say here, you're just going to ignore it and continue your utterly ridiculous train of thought, so what does it matter?

@Tomkang said:

Here is another way to look at it

The DLC was going to be exclusive to those who ordered the Collectors Edition.

Result: Fans cry about exclusive content on such a vital character

Resolve: Releases DLC to the masses for $10

Gamers are never happy. Gamers are the most demanding and feel they have the right to everything to do with games. The majority of gamers need to get off their high horses and realise even though games make million, they take millions to make and not every game company is huge and successful.

So the next time I buy a car I should accept no steering wheel and seats, because I didn't buy the "premium edition"????

If EA want to make more money on day 1 DLC (and why wouldn't they??) there are loads of ways to do this that DO NOT mean excluding people of vital content ( and I don't care what people say about the Prothean not being the important, it's still a F*****g prothean). I would say that if the he is not vital to the game, it's even worse, that if he is just an afterthought.

Why not just make skin packs?? what is wrong with them? they don't offend anyone, and can be a good addition to the multiplayer, by creating some variation. People will buy this sort of stuff, just look at League of Legends, they basicly only make money off skin packs, and they are doing pretty well.

Besides if no puts their foot down and stand against publishers trying to rip you off like this, what will the next thing be? and the next and the next? everytime gamers let this happen, publishers will take it at step further.