@ Star_Gem To each their own. You and the gang can scream as loud as you want, at the end of the day it is a business. I have a job, I choose how I spend my money. There are games I don’t buy and DLC I won’t buy, but to act like all DLC is bad or if it is made/delivered in a certain way it is bad is a immature way of looking at things IMHO. The next time a buy a map pack will be the first, but I have no issue with a publisher/developer making nongame crucial content and selling it as an added bonus to those who choose to buy it. I actually prefer the $5-10 content released over time to having to fork over $30-40 for a huge expansion pack later down the road. Without the DLC GS rated ME at 9 and IGN has it at 9.5, so did they get a lesser experience reviewing the game because that wasn’t included? I could understand if w/o this content it was a 6-7 game and the DLC made it a 8-9. That isn’t the case. If this content didn’t exist you’d still get a AAA game experience (argue over the last 10 minutes if you please but you get 20+ hours of good game play). So if they provided added service to a 9 or so rated game by providing extra contend regardless of how they do it then I have no issues. Now when you give me a lesser quality game and ask me to buy extras to make it worth the $60 price tag then we have an issue.

@ UncleAnesthesia Actually, that DLC was free for those who bought the Collector’s Edition of the game. To make a extra character and give a weapon to people who bought the Collector’s Edition isn’t a horrible thing to do. In fact to give something like that to people who want to go out and spend the extra money is better to me than the companies that simply give you a tin case, a map, and a toy or some crap like that. Not having the character took nothing away from the gaming experience, but I think the fact that they gave people who didn’t buy the Collector’s Edition a chance to get the content on day one is a good thing. If you bought the CE you got a nice little plus and if you couldn’t get a copy or didn’t have the money at the time you still had a chance to get it or buy it later. It wasn’t crucial to the story. People are making a big deal out of nothing. The Street Fighter stuff was messed up but I don’t see an issue with what Bioware did here.

@Joedgabe No, no copy/paste. I agree with you, those that don’t agree with it just shouldn’t support it. There is a ton of DLC out there I don’t buy. One guy talked about buy Rock Band DLC and he feels okay with that. To me that is nickel and diming, and I’ve never purchased any of it. There are still a ton of people who buy it and we all win, they get what they want and are willing to pay for, the publisher gets money for a added bonus they provided to those willing to pay, and I didn’t spend extra money on something I didn’t see as worth it. No losers in the equation. But I’m also not going to run around crying about how they should’ve just added more songs on the game in the first place. But to try and separate the publisher from the developer and say what supports who is a waste of time. Without the publishers the games wouldn’t be financed, hence no game or at least as we know it, so for the purposes of this discussion they are basically one in the same.

Look people who are complaining about “nickel and diming”. Madden cost $60, it is developed in a year with much of the content being recycled year to year including commentary and animations. Mass Effect cost $60, it took multiple years to develop, they had a huge cast of voice actors, it is 20+ hours of game play even if you try and rush through it. All games are not created equally, but the price point is set at $60. If you want developers to cut production cost and give you exactly what they can give for $60 multiplied by the expected number of purchases of NEW copies of the game (because how many will be purchased used that they don’t get a cut of?), then you can get the crappy mass produced Activision crap that used to come out year to year with all those garbage movie tie-in games that used to make. OR they can spend the money to try and make AAA games and find other revenew streams to make sure that the effort is worth the cost. If you don’t want it then don’t buy it. It is that simple, but don’t blast legit companies for trying to make a profit to make doing it again worth it. If you enjoyed the experience then support those who create it and buy the content. There really isn’t much in-between. Don’t buy it and complain the whole time like someone is stealing your money. No one is standing at your door with a mask and gun making you buy it.

@ Unfallen_Satan I’ve played the whole game from start to finish. From Ashes is not pertinent to the story of Mass Effect 3. In fact, it is irrelevant and in the same vein of Zaeed from ME2, it simply adds a character and a weapon. In that sense it made perfect sense to give that out as a Collector’s Edition item like they did. You get the one extra mission, just like you did with Kasumi, and other than seeing back story of the character the game play that was part of the DLC wasn’t a big deal. All the fuss is for nothing. It is in line with all the DLC they had last time but for some reason there is this big fuss simply because it was released on day one instead of day 15 or whatever. The main story doesn’t change based on this content.

Whatever, this article is a waste. It is all case by case. You have a 20+ hour game and people complain about DLC. Then you have a FPS that has a 6 hour campaign that is crap, they release 100 map packs and people buy them all without much complaint. There is a bit of a double standard there don’t you think? Bottom-line is what one person deems worth the money another won’t. All DLC isn’t for all people but it is a good way to extend gaming experiences for those that want it. That is part of the purpose of sites like yours, inform us of which DLC is worth purchasing and which is a waste of money and stop wasting your time trying to tell us what to do and how to spend our money. Many would say paying money on a membership to a game site is a waste when much of that info can be found somewhere else on the web for free, but if someone likes your content I won’t tell them how to spend their money either. I rarely buy Collector’s Editions because most are a waste of money in my opinion, but one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. The main thing is allowing consumers to make an informed decision, because for every person complaining about a COD map pack there is another that would stand in line to buy it and sees value in it.

I was with you up until the last paragraph of the article. I agree, it isn’t a democratic process and yada yada yada. But to say that if the made another ending it would cease to be art is false. How many movies have an alternate ending? You can buy a DVD and in the special features go and watch that alternate ending. Now because that movie has an alternate ending does it then cease to be art? I’m not for the ending being changed. I’m more interested in seeing what their vision is for continuing the story. I know Shepard’s story is over but it is hard to believe they would leave all that money on the table and not have any plans to continue the Mass Effect Universe. The same was said about Halo a while back and now 4 is in development. All that said, if they decided to make alternate ending DLC it doesn’t cease to be art and they’d probably make a crap load of money in the process. Sounds like a win-win to me. Complaining minority gets what they want and EA makes a fist full of money.

i think many of you are flipping out over the ending and don't realize it is the ending to YOUR story. There are more endings then you have seen apparently. ***SPOILER*** There is an ending where both Shepard and Anderson live for instance. I haven't seen any of the complainers mention that one...

Metacritic is a waste. It is the place annoying fans go to complain. The game was great. I hope the series continues. As for the 3 issues you brought up in the article: 1 You can have gays in games, but I don’t like the way it was done. It was as if they were trying to draw attention to the character and make you find out he was gay With the things going on in this country concerning gay marriage and all the controversy and this guy talking about his husband that is something that will rub some people the wrong way. It didn’t taint my perception of the game, but they are bound to know that was going to turn some people off. 2 Complain about day-one DLC all you want, but what difference does it make when DLC is released in the grand scheme of things. It wasn’t DLC for people who bought the CE but it was something for people who didn’t want to or couldn’t get the CE. Do you really think many of these downloadable multiplayer maps aren’t done before these FPSs release? If you don’t want it then don’t buy it, it isn’t a must have for the game, which is why it is DLC. 3 I could’ve done without Jessica. I get the idea and it could’ve been a good one, but Jessica fell short for me. They should’ve gotten Olivia Munn, she probably could’ve done that better. All in all it didn’t hurt the game but it didn’t help either. But for people to use that as if it is a big issue is a weak argument when you look at the overall quality of the game.