Mass Effect 3 Multiplayer to be released as DLC: Bioware stopping all discussion

[James Joseph Emerald]

It's better to be released as DLC, I say. If you don't want to play MP, don't buy the MP DLC. I want my ME3 to stay SP only.

The problem is that resources that could have been spent on Single Player are being diverted to this Multiplayer, which makes it bad for single player.
Additionally, with MP being DLC, it means there will be a far more limited player-base than if it was just included with the game. Which means even if it's a great MP game, it'll still suck, because what's multiplayer without lots of people to play it with?

 

[RYjet911]

I should have expected this sort of shit from EA. Thanks to this, general history of how EA is with DLC's, and the recent spat with Steam that might prevent me from getting ME3 at all, I'm beginning to wonder who is the bigger jerk: EA or Activision.

Still Activision.

 

[DVS Storm]

You know what?

If this is their project $10 part of the game, I guess I'm ok with that. Better they make it this way rather than cutting out people who bought it second hand.

The game has had a three year dev cycle. I highly, highly doubt we're only looking at an 8-15 hour game here.

I think your wrong. Every mass effect can be beaten in around 8-12 hours. But sidequests you say. I completed almost EVERYTHING in mass effect 2, playtime 26:34 hours. Thats around 40% of the average JRPG i play. Mass effect has always had painfully short campaigns its pretty much the Call of duty of RPGS. Also i forget to mention half of the sidequests in mass effect 2 are pretty much. Mercenaries are on this planet kill them.

average games but like i said Call of duty of Rpgs.

edit: BTW beat Mass effect 1 main storyline in 10:14 hours. mass effect 2's in 9:53.

Yeah well even if a game is 50 hours long, it automatically doesn't mean that it's good. I personally have found many JRPG's to be pretty boring(my opinion) simply because they seem to increase the lenght by cutscenes, ridiculously long introductions, fetch quests, dialoque or other tricks(there of course are other reasons for me disliking JRPG's). Also turn based combat takes more time than real-time(okay I am generalizing a lot but it would take a novel to explain this properly). I'm not saying that they all are automatically bad. Just that games sometimes use cheap tactics to lenghten the game and we don't notice, because we think that those sections are cool. That said, sometimes the sections that are meant to increase the playtime are good, if done right.

And the fact that ME games are short. Well yes they are shorter if you compare them to some games, but that does not make them bad(I'm not sure if you implied this but just to clarify). So what if it takes 10 hours to complete a games main storyline. If it is awesome, then it doesn't matter. I personally don't complete games just to see how long they take and then compare games by their length(quality>length to certain degree for me). As long as the game doesn't take 4-5 hours.

And COD of RPGs...Seriously????

OT maybe the multiplayer will be good, maybe it will be bad. But it is DLC, so we don't have to buy it if we don't like it. Also this is just a rumor.

 

[PortalThinker113]

I understand the impulse to rage, "multiplayer" and "DLC" are two rage-inducing words in the gaming community right now, and putting them together doesn't exact send the best message. But I think we need to calm down and look at this in a different way. Here are the facts:

1) This is a rumor that I heard for the first time in this thread and nowhere else- we have no idea if this is true in any way. This could be complete bullshit- remember the endless rumors of multiplayer in Batman: Arkham City that only stopped when Rocksteady came out and said "WE'RE NOT DOING MULTIPLAYER, OKAY?" We must wait for Gamescom, I guess.

2) If you don't want to have multiplayer, then don't buy the multiplayer. Plain and simple. I actually think that releasing the multiplayer as DLC is a really good idea, as it allows people who want to try the experiment of multiplayer in the Mass Effect universe to try it out, but the people who are here for the story and gameplay can just ignore it and miss absolutely nothing. The fact that it's DLC also leads me to believe that it might not star Shepard at all and instead be a side mission, maybe in the First Contact War or something.

3)The fact that it will be DLC also means that, likely, it will be developed in the downtime between the game going gold and the actual release. Therefore, no time will be taken away from the single-player that is near and dear to our hearts. I know I could be totally wrong on that, as I have no idea what is going on in the secret Mass Effect Fun Lab, but neither does the person who says "It will take away time from the development! The game will only be 10 hours! OH NOES!" We have no idea if that's the case or not, so making predictions of doom is not helping anyone.

I totally understand that one might be uncomfortable about this- I'm kind of uneasy about the prospect of Mass Effect multiplayer myself. However, that does not mean we should run through the streets screaming about how EA is shooting down the skies and kicking our puppies. I am no less excited for ME3, even if this is true.

 

[Aisaku]

On the bright side, if multiplayer is relegated to dlc, it leaves the single player experience mostly intact.

 

[PortalThinker113]

Has to be said, though:

"Ahh yes, 'Multiplayer.' The form of gaming that many publishers feel has to be shoved into perfectly good games to help the marketing and sell the game to a broader audience. We have dismissed that claim."

 

[Jumpingbean3]

Because it was soooooo popular when Resident Evil 5 did it.

I'm not against including Multiplayer in a game that doesn't need it as long as it's done well (see Assassins Creed Brotherhood) but if you're going to make us pay extra for a feature that should be included in the game from the beginning then you might as well not give it to us at all.

 

[karloss01]

i'll be fine with it if the MP is just co-op that allows two other people to join as the crew members while the host is shepard. otherwise it will suck and it shouldn't be there.

 

[Jumpingbean3]

i'll be fine with it if the MP is just co-op that allows two other people to join as the crew members while the host is shepard. otherwise it will suck and it shouldn't be there.

That's a big assumption to make when you dont even know how versus multiplayer might work in Mass Effect.

 

[teh_Canape]

to be honest, I don't mind extra value added to my games, as long as they don't tamper with the experience I actually bought it for, in this case, SinglePlayer campaign

 

[Eveonline100]

Eh, I'm gonna file this under "Rumor" until it's officially announced. It just doesn't seem like they'd do that in the last game in the trilogy.

Though certainly, it isn't below EA to cram multiplayer into games. Dead Space 2, for instance.

true the whole things seems rather Ominous when you think about it considering the whole crap storm with Command and Conquer 4 *cross fingers*

 

[spartandude]

Sorry to sound like a Cynical bastard but the DLC will not be produced post Dev-time. It will be produced in dev time and released after it has been given a quick spit-shine. I Fully expect Mass Effect 3 to be an 8-10 hour game and i fully expect EA to be charging full price for it and £20 or so for the multiplayer.

This is also what im expecting, or maybe a 15hour game but exactly like ME2 save for a couple of differences

lol seriously, Cerberus Network will likely give multiplayer for free, like it did for Zaeed, Firewalker and Normandy Crash Site. They made no mention of having to pay for the DLC. Be a little optimistic.

Im not concerned by the cost of the DLC as i will not be downloading it (unless its free, and even then maybe not) but its the cost it will have on the single player, its probably taken alot of time and money away from the single player which is you know why people who played the others are interested in this game

 

[Phokal]

It's EA,what did you expect? And even if they're considering it,it should be Co-op not multiplayer.

but co-op is multiplayer... anyways, ive never played mass effect but sounds fairly sensible to me, dont people complain alot about awful ai in ME 1&2? i suppose actual people in your squad might be better strategicly... or worse now that i think about it

Co-op(Cooperative) is up to 4 players.

Multiplayer is up to 5+ people.

and if the DLC says "Multiplayer" its definitely not Co-op.

Resistance 2 would like a word with you. It supported way more than 4 in it's coop mode, and had a competitive mode on top of that.

Coop means all humans are on the same side, fighting an structured AI, or AI bots that fill in for what could be human players.

Competitive means humans are on both sides of the conflict, in some way.

 

[Phokal]

You know what?

If this is their project $10 part of the game, I guess I'm ok with that. Better they make it this way rather than cutting out people who bought it second hand.

The game has had a three year dev cycle. I highly, highly doubt we're only looking at an 8-15 hour game here.

I think your wrong. Every mass effect can be beaten in around 8-12 hours. But sidequests you say. I completed almost EVERYTHING in mass effect 2, playtime 26:34 hours. Thats around 40% of the average JRPG i play. Mass effect has always had painfully short campaigns its pretty much the Call of duty of RPGS. Also i forget to mention half of the sidequests in mass effect 2 are pretty much. Mercenaries are on this planet kill them.

average games but like i said Call of duty of Rpgs.

I also love how everyones saying this is okay. the SAME people who would call a boycott on any other developer. Oh escapist community i love how hypocritically biased you all are.

edit: BTW beat Mass effect 1 main storyline in 10:14 hours. mass effect 2's in 9:53.

Did your crew survive in ME2? I'd be pretty impressed, even at 26 hrs. Did you skip dialog or let voice actors talk, or use a walkthrough to know where to go? I know ME games can be beaten quickly, but I'm surprised by how quickly you go through it while still doing everything.

 

[RYjet911]

Sorry to sound like a Cynical bastard but the DLC will not be produced post Dev-time. It will be produced in dev time and released after it has been given a quick spit-shine. I Fully expect Mass Effect 3 to be an 8-10 hour game and i fully expect EA to be charging full price for it and £20 or so for the multiplayer.

This is also what im expecting, or maybe a 15hour game but exactly like ME2 save for a couple of differences

lol seriously, Cerberus Network will likely give multiplayer for free, like it did for Zaeed, Firewalker and Normandy Crash Site. They made no mention of having to pay for the DLC. Be a little optimistic.

Im not concerned by the cost of the DLC as i will not be downloading it (unless its free, and even then maybe not) but its the cost it will have on the single player, its probably taken alot of time and money away from the single player which is you know why people who played the others are interested in this game

Yes, because that makes the month extra wait entirely necessary. It's likely they've got a small team working on the multiplayer right now, who will go on to help finish off single player closer to release, and then once that's finished everyone will switch to multiplayer to get that sorted.

 

[Hawk of Battle]

Only the gaming community can complain about there being TOO MUCH content in their favourite past time. Just because a game is predominantly single payer does not mean it can't have a very well made and enjoyable multiplayer as well people, just look at Uncharted, Bioshock, Portal, Assassins Creed, etc.

Ok granted it's being developed as DLC instead of being put in the game for release, which IS worth complaining about, but don't start complaining just because they're even MAKING a fucking multiplayer! Jesus christ why do people have to whinge about every fucking thing these days?

 

[Echopunk]

I'm going to go on record as saying I hate multiplayer in games. I play games to kick back and relax after a day of avoiding attempted kamikaze strikes from idiot/distracted drivers, putting up with clients who think they know everything about everything, and beating my head against a desk whenever I have to work with something that someone else built poorly and expects me to fix or just work around. Why the hell would I want to go put up with all of them up again, plus hordes of teens/twentysomethings for whom random acts of vicarious homoerotic digital necrophilia are the norm and not the exception, during a "friendly" gaming session?

I like the Mass Effect universe. The first ME was one of few games that I have ever chain-played, which is to say as soon as I finished one character, I immediately started another one up and had just as much of a blast. I like the story, the characters, the whole package. I don't want to see that cluttered up by a bunch of real-world jerks intruding into my entertainment.

That said, I get that it is a dlc tack on, so hopefully there will be no effect on the core of the game that I'm buying it for.

Still, after the switch they pulled with the KOTOR franchise, I was actually half expecting ME3 to somehow get bastardized into a PS3 exclusive mmo taking place 400 years after Shepard blew up the collector base. So, if this is the compromise that averted THAT, I'm all for it.

 

[Jamboxdotcom]

90% of what i'm reading here is "Whaaaaaaa! They're asking, rather than forcing, me to pay for a feature that doesn't interest me!" Seriously, this is a good thing, not a bad thing. The solution here is simple: don't buy the multiplayer DLC.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

I'll believe it if it is officially announced from BioWare or if it actually comes out. Until then, just remember that anyone can post anything on the Internet, and anyone can claim they are something they are not. As for why BioWare is locking the threads, it's very possible they are simply sick of the rumors and don't want a new one starting up.

 

[karloss01]

i'll be fine with it if the MP is just co-op that allows two other people to join as the crew members while the host is shepard. otherwise it will suck and it shouldn't be there.

That's a big assumption to make when you dont even know how versus multiplayer might work in Mass Effect.

i doubt there would be versus mp as this is a game focused on single player. the resident evil versus mode didn't work in nor did the MGS as both are built and controled with a AI opponant in mind and both were clunky when battling human opponants.

i don't expect ME3 to be much different in that perspective.