Mass Effect 3

[PsychoPere]

The same reddit user who first leaked details of the Rebellion multiplayer pack is back at it, with details on an Earth-centric MP extension:

The fighting is fiercest when it's your home at stake! Mass Effect 3: Earth adds mods, gear, and new maps for Rio, Vancouver, and London.

It features 3 new weapons: Piranha assault shotgun, Acolyte pistol, and Typhoon light machine gun.

Six new human N7 classes are also available: Destroyer, Paladin, Demolisher, Slayer, Shadow, and Fury!

He also threw in a description for the Extended Cut DLC, which is just fancy official-sounding phrasing using the information we've already been given.

No release dates were provided for either, though he was careful to note that these are two separate DLC packs. We already know that the EC will be free, and he did not comment on whether the Earth MP pack would be free as the previous Resurgence and Rebellion packs.

 

[throwback]

Is it my imagination, or are those multiplayer packs using variations of maps and characters already in the game? Why arent' they expanding the packs? In the planetary journals, there are descriptions of battles being fought in jungles on a Turian-held world and submarine warfare, with hit-and-run attacks on Reaper-held bases by a colonel militia, on an Asari-world. These are, especially the latter, far more interesting to me as a player than what has been offered.

 

[Reverend]

^I think the in-game justification is that the MP is only the N7 Ops engagements, which is obviously only small strike team skirmishes.

The real world reason of course is that is faster and cheaper to recycle as many assets as possible.

 

[DarkHorizon]

Extended Cut will be released on Tuesday 26th.

How much is the Extended Cut?

• The Extended Cut is available to download at no additional charge.

When does the Extended Cut release?

• The Extended Cut will release on June 26th on Xbox 360, PC, and PlayStation 3 in North America and July 4th for PlayStation 3 in Europe.

How large is the Extended Cut?

• The Extended Cut requires roughly 1.9 gigabytes of storage.

How do I get the Extended Cut?

• The Extended Cut can be downloaded from Xbox LIVE, Origin on PC, and PlayStation Network at no additional cost.

What is included in the Extended Cut?

• The Extended Cut expands on the endings of Mass Effect 3 through additional scenes and epilogue sequences. It provides more of the answers and closure that players have been asking for. It gives a sense of what the future holds as a result of the decisions made throughout the series. And it shows greater detail in the successes or failures based on how players achieved their endings.

Does the Extended Cut change the endings?

• The Extended Cut is an expansion of the original endings to Mass Effect 3. It does not fundamentally change the endings, but rather it expands on the meaning of the original endings, and reveals greater detail on the impact of player decisions.

What save game should I load to play the Extended Cut?

• [SPOILERS] To experience the Extended Cut, load a save game from before the attack on the Cerberus Base and play through to the end of the game. The Extended Cut endings will differ depending on choices made throughout the Mass Effect series, so multiple playthroughs with a variety of different decisions will be required to experience the variety of possibilities offered by the new content.

 

[TheGodBen]

When does the Extended Cut release?

• The Extended Cut will release on June 26th on Xbox 360, PC, and PlayStation 3 in North America and July 4th for PlayStation 3 in Europe.

I assume that means it will be out on the Xbox 360 and PC in Europe on the 26th, and not that it wont be released here on those platforms at all. Because if not, I'm murdering something.

 

[LeadHead]

Glad they're getting this out, hope it actually makes the end of Mass Effect 3 playable. Then, lets get some more DLC going quick! They need to regenerate interest in the series after this extreme debacle.

 

[TheGodBen]

http://na.llnet.bioware.cdn.ea.com/...ages/about/extended_cut/extended_cut-02-p.jpg

That's the flowchart of variables they're tracking for the new endings. It looks reasonably complex to me, certainly when compared to R/G/B.

 

[DarkHorizon]

When does the Extended Cut release?

• The Extended Cut will release on June 26th on Xbox 360, PC, and PlayStation 3 in North America and July 4th for PlayStation 3 in Europe.

I assume that means it will be out on the Xbox 360 and PC in Europe on the 26th, and not that it wont be released here on those platforms at all. Because if not, I'm murdering something.

Yes - a more sensible organisation of release dates is on the BW forum:

The Extended Cut will be available to download at no additional charge for Mass Effect 3 game owners starting on June 26 for PC and Xbox 360 customers worldwide. Playstation 3 customers in North America will be able to download the Extended Cut DLC on June 26 and the rest of the world on July 4.

 

[Reverend]

This is interesting: -
[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3y7xk1_x8ko[/yt]
Notice that they still refuse to admit the ending sucked. I mean come on, even Weird Al says so! Can they please just admit it so we can all move on?

 

[firehawk12]

They also announced changes to the EMS system, but gave no concrete numbers, so I assume you'll still have to play multiplayer to get an ending that you might want to see when you replay the ending.

I was hoping that they'd just get rid of it completely, because I was able to break free of the MP credit grind and leave that part of the game behind completely.

 

[throwback]

I think there are political and personal considerations involved in why this is so, and I think to expect Bioware to admit they flubbed the ending is to ignore these considerations.

 

[-Brett-]

As long as Starchild remains in the game and the Normandy inexplicably winds up on Pandora with a bunch of people who were on Earth five seconds ago, I'm not seeing that this could be much of an improvement.

Oh well, if it's free, I guess there's no harm in downloading it.

 

[throwback]

I am surprised by how quickly the turnaround was for the Extended Cut DLC from announcement to release. I hope for the fans who kept the game that this DLC isn't another rushed item. For myself, I will be reading about it on release day.

 

[John Clark]

Well, I'll be downloading it as soon as it's available. I probably won't actually play through it till the weekend though. We'll see how that goes.

 

[TheGodBen]

Notice that they still refuse to admit the ending sucked. I mean come on, even Weird Al says so! Can they please just admit it so we can all move on?

Yeah, I got about a minute into the podcast before I had to stop because Casey Hudson was saying the same old crap as before. I'd like to imagine that they can't admit to flubbing the ending because it would open them up to legal problems due to not delivering on their promises, because if they still don't understand why the ending is bad then their attempts to fix it will be in vain.

 

[PsychoPere]

Hah, the "best" line from the interview podcast:

I think the Extended Cut is really more about taking the things that are there and making them shine even more, rather than trying to change and adapt what's there to reach out to what a broader audience that's looking for something that just was never intended.

 

[Reverend]

Notice that they still refuse to admit the ending sucked. I mean come on, even Weird Al says so! Can they please just admit it so we can all move on?

Yeah, I got about a minute into the podcast before I had to stop because Casey Hudson was saying the same old crap as before. I'd like to imagine that they can't admit to flubbing the ending because it would open them up to legal problems due to not delivering on their promises, because if they still don't understand why the ending is bad then their attempts to fix it will be in vain.

Same here. I'd actually prefer the think that they're bullshitting us because they have no choice because the alternative is that they're idiots and the quality of the rest of the game(s) doesn't support that premise.

 

[Skywalker]

Hah, the "best" line from the interview podcast:

I think the Extended Cut is really more about taking the things that are there and making them shine even more, rather than trying to change and adapt what's there to reach out to what a broader audience that's looking for something that just was never intended.

I don't know, I don't think Hudson and Walters really believe the crap they're saying. I think they're just toeing the company line because they have to. I mean, there's a point where it stops being stubbornness and becomes denial.

 

[Reverend]

^ I can't help but wonder if there's a degree of denial on our part in this. Is it possible we just really don't *want* to believe that they really are blind to what most of us see as an obviously flawed ending?

 

[LeadHead]

I think that given how high an opinion we all seem to have of the series in general, the fact that they do not acknowledge the utter horrific patheticness of the ending is a major suspension of disbelief.