Mass Effect 3 co-op multiplayer trailer! Special Forces!

[Taskmage]

Re: Mass Effect 3 co-op multiplayer trailer! Special Forces!

According to the producer, "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," so that to me justifies the day-one DLC aspect. Putting this content on the disc would have delayed the release date. The $10 price tag is another matter. One expects all content available on day one to be part of the main package and thus included in that price because things have more or less always been that way. Had this been a lower profile title that was not guaranteed to sell a bajillion copies, it's entirely possible that content like this would have been released for free on day one as a goodwill gesture, but EA knows they can get away with charging for it, and based on their decision I think it's justifiable to say that they care more about making a little more money than making their customers a little happier, which is repulsive. On the other hand, had this DLC been released a month or two from now with such hard-hitting content, I'd have said, "Finally they might have made some DLC worth the price," and shoved my tenner at them with a smile on my face.

On another note: Mass Effect 3′s reputation system explained | PC Gamer

“In Mass Effect 2, if you wanted to get the hardest Charm options, you had to play an almost completely Paragon character,” Patrik Weekes explains. “We intended many of those Charms to be fun Easter eggs, but many players felt like they had to play pure Paragon to avoid being penalized by the loss of a dialog option. In Mass Effect 3, your Reputation score determines both Charm and Intimidate options, and that score is determined by adding your Paragon and Renegade scores together.”

I feel like I should object somehow to them gutting the morality system, but I can't think of any way that this is anything but a good thing.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Mass Effect 3 co-op multiplayer trailer! Special Forces!

According to the producer, "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," so that to me justifies the day-one DLC aspect. Putting this content on the disc would have delayed the release date. The $10 price tag is another matter. One expects all content available on day one to be part of the main package and thus included in that price because things have more or less always been that way. Had this been a lower profile title that was not guaranteed to sell a bajillion copies, it's entirely possible that content like this would have been released for free on day one as a goodwill gesture, but EA knows they can get away with charging for it, and based on their decision I think it's justifiable to say that they care more about making a little more money than making their customers a little happier, which is repulsive. On the other hand, had this DLC been released a month or two from now with such hard-hitting content, I'd have said, "Finally they might have made some DLC worth the price," and shoved my tenner at them with a smile on my face.

I'd believe this if info on "From Ashes" hadn't been leaked twice.

First time was back when the Collectors Edition on Origin went up for sale on pre-order NINE months ago. It mentioned a the same playable DLC character. OOPS. It was shortly scrubbed from the site afterward and Chris Priestly said it was an idea that had been scrapped. Of course, he said the same thing with other content that also came into existence anyway.

Bioware hasn't even successfully scubbed the forum of this information from their forum and a few searches can bring up threads asking about this same recruitable character that long ago. I don't think all of the DLC they do is just dreamed up after production - things like Shadow Broker were already written into the plot of ME2, yet somehow that little adventure got to be DLC.

I really will not be surprised if fans that are saying "This will be my last Bioware game" make good on their threat. EA keeps sinking to new lows and the reason for their online passes has become flimsy. ME3's online pass is for the mulitplayer, yet we don't need one for Syndicate and only kind of need one for SSX. The online pass was previously for things like Shale or Cerberus Network, but now that content is paid.

When Nintendo's first DLC plans look like "First Fire Emblem DLC pack is free for six weeks, no strings attached" what EA is doing looks terrible. Nintendo's taken forever just to do get around to the concept and they're doing in it a way that can't offend anyone. The DLC comes out a month later, has a new story and recruitable characters from other FE games in it.

On another note: Mass Effect 3′s reputation system explained | PC Gamer I feel like I should object somehow to them gutting the morality system, but I can't think of any way that this is anything but a good thing.

Honestly, the system in the previous two game is so arbitrary in how it doles out Paragon and Renegade values that I'm amazed there's a point system for them at all. Bioware kept the scoring because they felt they had to for some reason, but then you look at a game like Deus Ex: Human Revolution and you have all these choices without them.

Then again, Adam Jensen was written better and any choice presented to him wasn't inconsistent with his past or how he was living up to the events of the game.

[Taskmage]

Re: Mass Effect 3 co-op multiplayer trailer! Special Forces!

I'd believe this if info on "From Ashes" hadn't been leaked twice.

First time was back when the Collectors Edition on Origin went up for sale on pre-order NINE months ago. It mentioned a the same playable DLC character. OOPS. It was shortly scrubbed from the site afterward and Chris Priestly said it was an idea that had been scrapped. Of course, he said the same thing with other content that also came into existence anyway.

Bioware hasn't even successfully scubbed the forum of this information from their forum and a few searches can bring up threads asking about this same recruitable character that long ago. I don't think all of the DLC they do is just dreamed up after production - things like Shadow Broker were already written into the plot of ME2, yet somehow that little adventure got to be DLC.

I don't understand what about this contradicts the story that From Ashes was still in production when the rest of the game went to cert. I think maybe you're misunderstanding me into saying that the content was planned to be on the disc but got pulled at the last minute to make a cert deadline. No, I think it's entirely likely that they planned this to be DLC far in advance to divorce it from the production schedule of the main product, so that something could still be in active process while most of the content was on lockdown for certification. That just seems like a smart if slightly ruthless business move on EA's part to get 100% utilization out of the studio and avoid any downtime.

---------- Post added at 03:59 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:55 PM ----------

When Nintendo's first DLC plans look like "First Fire Emblem DLC pack is free for six weeks, no strings attached" what EA is doing looks terrible.

That does seem like a clever and politic way to accomplish many of the same things that these other PR catastrophes are trying to do.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Mass Effect 3 co-op multiplayer trailer! Special Forces!

The thing about how I like what Atlus USA does or Nintendo is doing is the polar opposite of what EA does, but what they do get me to do what EA wants.

I buy those games new and I don't trade them back in. I mean, that's what EA wants, right? They don't want me putting those games back into rotation so Gamestop can make pure profit.

Atlus layers games with incentives to add value to the game product they sell. The result is I do not commonly trade in such games, which helps prevent the issue developers have with resale. Nintendo seems to understand the value of their IPs to consumers and goes to great lengths not to damage those IPs when adding contemporary features to them. These IPs have a longer history than most others in the industry, so you can't just fuck around with them like EA does.

[Firewind]

Re: Mass Effect 3 co-op multiplayer trailer! Special Forces!

I'm going to post a video with a rather large spoiler here, but it takes a few minutes for the video to get there and for those that don't want to hear it, I can certainly paraphrase:

I disagree with his pretty much brainwashed rationale of the online pass, but he's right to criticize EA and Bioware on the dick move they're pulling with ME. What's being talked about here is that there's a DLC pack with a character available at launch and this content and this character are INCREDIBLY relevant and central to the Mass Effect universe and its lore.

If you don't buy the collectors edition at Gamestop or the Digital Collectors Edition of Origin, then you have to pay for Day One DLC - the very thing that the online pass was supposed to be incentive to buy new is now either in a $80 collector's edition or cough up $10 to buy it off PSN, XBL and Origin.

And yet, there's still an online pass for the multiplayer. Its worth pointing out that EA just made concessions with two releases - Syndicate and SSX - where an online pass is not required for the online multiplayer. Additionally, ME3 has also sorts of monetizing going on here, especially for PC gamers. If you buy an N7 themed Keyboard, laptop, speakers there's a little bit of DLC for each. It seems EA and Bioware can do everything but put content that should just be in the game anyway in the game.

My attitude toward EA and other businesses of late has actually changed. Instead of just boycotting or buying used, that attitude is now "Well, if you're just going to drive yourself off a cliff anyway, I may as well help make sure you get there."

I know Gamestop will drive itself off a cliff, I work there in a fictional sense of late. I don't get hours becausse how they do things is unsustainable, just like how EA does things.

That said, Bioware fans should be giving Bioware and EA all the shit they can over this and demand they make that content free, EA does not have a leg to stand on now that the reason for the online pass has become so flimsy. Sometimes incentive to buy new, sometimes not. Sometimes for mulitplayer, sometimes not. If they can't be consistent about what its for from release to release, then they have no business using them anymore.

I'm a fan of TotalBiscuit's videos, he tends to be pretty fair in his reviews and it's refreshing to see a reviewer that actually plays the bloody games he reviews.

As a gamer, consumer and someone who is utterly sick and tired at being gouged by the retailer; I can agree with his online pass rationale as it is probably the only justifiable pro-DRM argument out there. Remember that the retailer will be charging you some inflated price and pocketing cash from the game sale even though they had absolutely nothing to do with the game. I'd much rather my cash go to support the devs than some retailer be it a brick and mortar establishment or online distribution network. gog.com is the only retailer I actually don't mind giving money to due to how much work they put into making sure that all those old games will work on a modern PC. Honestly for the last couple of years I've been buying games direct from the developer/publisher's website where possible.

However there is one massive, gaping flaw is his argument: We have no way at all of knowing just how important that companion in the DLC actually is. Remember that Legion, as Geth was "INCREDIBLY relevant and central to the Mass Effect universe and its lore." yet Legion played no role in the story whatsoever. We have no way of knowing until the game is actually out.

The peripheral DLC stuff. Isn't that just cosmetic and does little to change the game anyway? Stuff like that has been going on for years in various games like Pokemon (you're paying to go to some convention to get a code to unlock something already in the game), or promotional offers you get with some products. You know, enter this code at the website and download X item or Y character costume for your game, so singling out EA for that isn't really fair even if they do like to use stuff like that a lot. Wasn't aiming that at you but it does get tiring when people harp on about EA like they are the only company that blatantly monetises their products *Eyes Blizzard, Activision, Sqaure Enix, Capcom, Valve and Nintendo*

There is one thing in his video that baffled me though and that is that he likes "Digital Collector's Editions". You aren't really getting anything extra in them half of the time, just a bunch of cosmetic in game stuff and nothing to really add to a collection. I just never really understood the concept behind them other than appealing to the people who like to run around online with shiny stars by their name or a slightly different looking weapon or something because they can't wave their penis in your face over the internet. Don't get me wrong, unique cosmetic items aren't bad but some people can be dicks about it. Vale has also become ridiculously obnoxious about monetising that fact over the last couple of years (The "Preorder this game for it's full price, because we won't to rob some poor indie devleloper, now and get some virtual hats for TF2!" thing, forcing Steam onto the user even if they do buy retail or from the dev, and the whole diamond ring bullshit). Again it's not that different to what EA is doing with ME3 really but I was pointing it out as a lot of people do harp on at EA

I do agree with the overall point of both the video and the post I quoted though. It is going a bit too far to charge for release day DLC even if it was made during the downtime between completion and release. If there was the actual full development process going into it rather than using the downtime to finish unfinished content then I wouldn't really be that bothered but considering it's finishing off unfinished content, most game companies would have done something like put in a code to download it for free or just even made the DLC free as a goodwill gesture.

Also remember that people in the EU will be getting gouged as $10 is nowhere near the same as €10 and €10 is not the same as £10 (£10 is about $16, the difference adds up FAST when you consider a new game costs $70-80 over here depending on where you buy it from). Consider yourself lucky that you get cheap games and cheap DLC

That said a full on boycott of EA...I don't see it happening and if it did happen I don't see it changing much in the big picture.

And mentioning Gamespot...In the UK Game (basically our biggest and at the moment only retailer devoted solely to games) is actually about to go under which will take Gamestation (Oh dear god this chain is awful) with them. Basically this is going to mean that there will basically be no major bricks and mortar retailer out there that sells only games in the UK. Basically they gouged the consumer again and again and paid the price. They actually announced that they won't be stocking ME3 because of it.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Mass Effect 3 co-op multiplayer trailer! Special Forces!

Remember that the retailer will be charging you some inflated price and pocketing cash from the game sale even though they had absolutely nothing to do with the game.

I'm singling this statement out because it ignores quite a few facts:

- Retailers do not see a lot of money from new sales. This made the existence of the used market necessary and rather than address it, publishers has never changed their ways.
- What consumer gouging? People can't wait to for a used game price to drop? Because that happens. No one makes you buy used and it is always on the consumer to be informed.
- Amidst this love/hate relationship, big publishers do spend money to have retailers pimp their games.

Let me expand on that last point, as the first two should be common sense..

Every person on the floor has a stake in that big-name title when publishers are paying retailers to promote it. Employees are actually judged on how many pre-orders they take in and how many rewards card subscriptions they sell. This (at least allegedly, I believe luck is involved as well) will determine how many hours you get, raises, promotions and all that. An entity like Gamestop got paid to promote that new EA or Activision game, so as saturated as an employee might think the message is they still have to shove it down your throat or its their job on the line.

I consider Gamestop to painted as a big boogyman by publishers. Gamestop will follow in the footsteps of game and I say that because I've worked for Blockbuster and Wherehouse as well. Those two were also retailers that over expanded and shoved promotions down people's throat. As someone that does retail, I know how I get repeat business and it is NOT by shoving pre-orders down your throat, but by connecting you with the games you love. This is what makes my store stand out and makes it attractive to people, but it is not something that can be broken down and put on a spreadsheet for the corporate offices to understand. They don't want me like my boss wanted me - which was because I knew games - they just want me to help them maintain this outdated approach both they and big publishers love so much.

Gamestop will collapse. Maybe not like GAME is, but I know from working at a Gamestop that their business model is starting to show signs of strain. Even if I did do everything they wanted me to do and even if my store did everything met every goal set for them (and they have) we still do not get the hours our people needed. Corporate tried to push my boss to ask me to quit just a week and a half ago. They asked because they would not give me hours, but because they would not give me hours I had no recent performance to gauge for firing. They asked because they wanted to avoid a payroll tax and paying out unemployment.

I stood my ground. Pushed back citing that I had been available for work and they were not giving me any. A week later they caved. It really is not my problem Gamestop is run like a giant money grab. I've worked for other retailers that over expanded, but they never cut hours dramatically as Gamestop does.

I only bring that up because I just know EA is run by the same kind of out-of-touch people with the same mindset. A boycott will not be needed. EA overexpands. They take in developers and overexpand them to a point until those developers are no longer what gamers loved or they don't perform that well. The latter is not really the fault of retailers, but EA itself. The developer also shares some blame.

See, some of the games EA puts out don't always have to be as big and bad as they want them to look. Too much money is poured into development for games that might end up with a break-even point that is too high. EA will take them that way and it is the development studios fault for signing contracts with them. They sign on with EA because they have dollar signs in their eyes an not the future of their studios best interests at heart.

Bioware might have another big win this week, but what they see as the end of a trilogy will not be that for EA. They see a cash cow. They will make another ME game (in fact, its rumored the hooks for your choices have already been planted in ME3), might even push for an MMORPG. That might sound nice, but they already have TOR eating up attention. They still have Dragon Age to fix after fucking it up pretty good, they're fucking up Warhammer online and now they're making a Command and Conquer game which I just don't feel is their sort of thing. Their future is one big question mark.

I think they need a fresh IP and a long development cycle for it, but EA being EA I just don't see that happening.

[Grizzlebeard]

Re: Mass Effect 3 co-op multiplayer trailer! Special Forces!

Basically they (Game UK) gouged the consumer again and again and paid the price. They actually announced that they won't be stocking ME3 because of it.

I think this is probably more a case of EA refusing to supply them most probably out of belief they won't receive payment from a company about to go under. It's a shame for all the people who will lose their jobs but Game have had this coming for years. Besides, high street retailers are coming under increased pressure from the likes of Amazon of late. Consumers are always going to go with the cheapest price and as long as companies can benefit from the tax loopholes of places like Jersey then UK-based suppliers are always going to be in the position of being undercut.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Mass Effect 3 co-op multiplayer trailer! Special Forces!

I think this is probably more a case of EA refusing to supply them most probably out of belief they won't receive payment from a company about to go under. It's a shame for all the people who will lose their jobs but Game have had this coming for years. Besides, high street retailers are coming under increased pressure from the likes of Amazon of late. Consumers are always going to go with the cheapest price and as long as companies can benefit from the tax loopholes of places like Jersey then UK-based suppliers are always going to be in the position of being undercut.

This is certainly true. GAME's credit over all is deeply in question and you can't blame EA for not wanting to supply them when UblSoft, Nintendo and others are backing away as well. This has been a consistent problem. As a person who consumes RPGs, my faith in a business like GAME would be shaken when two of they dropped the ball on two of the biggest RPGs this year in two weeks - The Last Story on Wii being the other to suffer this fate.

But then there's the other side of the coin and a problem EA is responsible for - People paid down pre-orders for collector's editions they're now not getting and must either find elsewhere or settle for the standard edition, which EA is still hoping you want to pay out extra money for "From Ashes" on. This DLC was to be included in the CE and now GAME customers have to go through EA to get it.

I don't really look at the US having it "better" on game prices, its still inconvenient in proportion to what the EU gamers deal with. People still want to be able to have things that help them unwind and its companies like EA that choose to exploit that rather than try to change to keep it comfortable to consumers. While I don't like saying businesses don't deserve to be successful, EA is one that is most certainly testing the limits of what's acceptable. Being that I'm still rather occupied with playing the first to games and lining up and experiencing the scenarios I want to have ready for ME, I may just pass on ME3 and wait for a price drop and get SFXT instead.

It just depends on how things look monday, but I've got plenty of other games to play and catch up on. To think I'd really be willing drop ten more on what I already planned to spend is extremely presumptuous of EA. In fact Bioware said all the "real fans" would probably pick up the CE. Well, except those that pre-ordered with GAME.

It would be a nice gesture in light of the backlash and the GAME situation to give this DLC away for free for a limited time, but its EA so I doubt they really care.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Mass Effect 3 co-op multiplayer trailer! Special Forces!

for reference:

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Mass Effect 3 co-op multiplayer trailer! Special Forces!

I think I love the Scorpion. I wasn't sure it was something I could obtain in the game, even though I saw Major Kirrhe using one.

I've loved the idea of sticky grenades since Halo, this is a pistol that shoots sticky grenades.

If this is unlockable in multiplayer, I need it.

[Nandito]

Re: Mass Effect 3 co-op multiplayer trailer! Special Forces!

LIKE A BAWSS

Seeing the old crew again always puts a smile on my face. Jack's new haircut is... fitting, and Mordin is awesome as ever. Can't wait to see Tali again~

Sucks we can't use them anymore, though. Who's bright idea was it to drastically reduce the number of squad mates?

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Mass Effect 3 co-op multiplayer trailer! Special Forces!

Well... saying would be spoiling.

ME3 was always intended to be a series finale and when you have that you usually also have dramatic things going on with and happening to the cast. Sometimes senseless things, sometimes satisfying conclusions. It begs the question why James Vega was so important that he had to be in the story at all. He really adds nothing to story except "Hey we got this roided out Latino guy on our squad who can't even." Hearing Freddie Prinze Jr. drop into Latino slang without any accent actually makes Vega worse.

So I knocked him around pretty good.

I used to knock on Jacob but at least Jacob has some kind of personality, even if it wasn't the best one. Jacob is just all about his work, a little stoicism to offset Mordin's comic relief. Vega offsets... the gay shuttle pilot, I guess?

Well, he is a better pilot than Vega.

I would have opinions on Diana Allers, but I told her to take a flying leap because she is not reporting from my ship. Jessica Chobot voices her. NOT ON MY NORMANDY. Not paragon Shepard and certainly never renegade Shepard. Airhead tells me she can help my cause and gain more support, maybe she missed the part where I'm Commander Shepard. If I needed reporters I wouldn't be punching them.