Well played Bioware, well played

YM

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(Completely spoiler free since I've not played it)

So the ending of Mass Effect 3 apparently is tied somehow to the amount of mulitplayer you do. Less multiplayer means a less rose-tinted ending.

It stands to reason that anyone not owning a legit copy (for whatever reason they choose to pirate *cough*origin sucks*cough*) they'd not be able to play any multiplayer and thus have a gimped ending (though to what extent I have no idea). Seems like a pretty good reason to buy a legit copy rather than pirating it.

That's smart DRM. What's not smart is that it screws over anyone only wanting a singleplayer experience and also screws over everyone cause origin still exists and it's not on steam.

Rant about EA and Origin here. (No spoilers please or I will spoil you)
 

LeSwordfish

semi-trained quasi-professional
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Aug 8, 2010
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http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/03/06/m...eadiness-how-multiplayer-affects-your-ending/

Spoiler-free.

Here’s what I recommend: don’t. Don’t do any quests that are boring, don’t play multiplayer if you don’t want to, and don’t go through old save games trying to optimise your decisions for the most War Assets. Don’t let BioWare’s seedy design decision manipulate you into playing in a way you don’t want to.

If they’ve made a game that’s brutal, harsh and dark if you don’t play multiplayer, they’ve made a game that’s brutal, harsh and dark. That’s how I reviewed it, and it’s still phenomenal.

So it's just the final cutscene. It has less effect than the previous game's loyalty missions. Presumably it makes some kind of difference between "Shepard saves the universe and everyone is friends and lives happily ever after" and "Shepard saves the universe and it still sucks balls"

The review has me really psyched though. If the combat is as good as it sounds...
 
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Ida

deer
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Jan 6, 2008
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Yeah, it's a pretty smart way to combat piracy, I guess. But that doesn't stop it from being a completely unacceptable way to design a story-based game. Forcing people who play the game for the story to play the multiplayer if they want the best ending is quite frankly absurd. Fortunately for me I like both elements, but that doesn't stop me for feeling this is a pretty bad design choice. In theory anyway - who knows, maybe it somehow turns out to be ok once I try the game.
 

Fruity Snacks

Creator of blackholes & memes. Destroyer of forums
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Clever girls....

notbad1.jpg
 

Pocket

Half a Lambert is better than one.
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You know what's a smart way to combat piracy? There isn't one. Piracy will happen no matter what you do, always and forever. But you know what you can do to ensure that you'll still make money? Make it not suck, so that the sorts of people who are inclined to pay for their entertainment without being coerced into it (and yes, they do still exist despite what the doomsayers in the industry say) won't just say "forget that game" and play something else.
 

YM

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I like the batman method, if it's a pirated copy, batman forgets how to glide and just falls off ledges, otherwise 100% playable.

The film industry is just beginning to realise that people pirate films most when there's a huge gap between international releases, no one bats an eyelid over a few days difference but for the larger gaps (UK release of UP was something like 5 months after the US release) people pirate it.

Also I believe there was a study a few years back that said of people who pirated films, something like 100% of those pirates spent more annually on buying films than those who didn't pirate films.
 

Sergis

L666: ])oo]v[
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Jul 22, 2009
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I like how in pirated versions of Operation Flashpoint, your gun slowly loses effectiveness until the bullets do literally no damage and spray almost horizontally out of the barrel.

youve been using the service of some quite shitty pirates.
 

YM

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My source is swordfish's link. I guess it'll be a few days before the world can be sure (unless bioware confirm/dismiss in the mean time)
 

Jack Riguel

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Jul 19, 2009
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Wait, what? I heard that you could achieve a 100% optimal ending either with or without multiplayer, but that obviously you'd need to play more of the singleplayer if you didn't play any multiplayer.

Yea i've got a few friends who's said exactly that. Apparently it's some sort of resource gaining, which is faster via multiplayer, but can still be gained via single.
 

grazr

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It still sucks that you don't get all the game content unless you buy deluxe, which will not only cost you 33% more than the standard copy of ME3, but 33% more than any next gen game release ever (except maybe Rayman?).
 

MangyCarface

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Feb 26, 2008
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It still sucks that you don't get all the game content unless you buy deluxe, which will not only cost you 33% more than the standard copy of ME3, but 33% more than any next gen game release ever (except maybe Rayman?).

Er, what? Deluxe editions have run up past 120$ before.
 

grazr

Old Man Mutant Ninja Turtle
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Except previous deluxe editions didn't cut content from the original bog standard game. Ergo, the game is being monitised to hell and back. A large Prothean storyline is being cut from the game and reserved for deluxe editions, as well as a second IOS app which progressing the main game for you.

EDIT: potential spoilers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ri0vrJ-y2zM
 
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YM

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They already explained that, it's not cut content, it's additional content created after the main-game content lock which happened to be ready for launch day. That's absolutely fine by me, though it would be nicer if they could simply bundle that for free since it's ready.

My biggest problem with the launch day DLC is the price, as with pretty much any DLC it's over twice what the DLC is actually worth. DLC is always incredibly bad value for money, if the full game was priced the same way as the DLC then the game would be upwards of £200.
 

grazr

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I just think it's a shame that out of anything that they could have implemented as DLC they could have chosen something less important to the lore of the ME universe. As apparently do several tens of, if not hundreds of thousands of people seem to agree judging by the stats on that 1 video alone.

I don't exactly blame Bioware, the company didn't have any of these issues before they joined EA. As i said, my problem isn't the fact that there are additional missions up for grabs as DLC or Deluxe Edition content, but the nature of that content.
 

Boylee

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Apr 29, 2008
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Quoted from the aforementioned link:
PCGamer said:
"It is possible to get the best ending in single player without playing multiplayer, but it’s twice as hard."
I wonder if it really is twice as hard. That does seem like a bit of a dick move if it is.

EDIT: ah crap I accidentally a whole page.

On the subject of DLC, they should've just bundled an unlock code with new copies of the game. That way they encourage people to buy new and they only screw over people who are eating into their profits by buying second hand. I think I know why they didn't though and that is because Microsoft hate doing free content on Xbox, and that is probably Bioware's main platform for ME3.
 
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YM

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I'm finding conflicting reports, some say "lots of SP" some say "only MP"

Perhaps the worst thing about this is that it's not clear.
 

Empyre

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That's what EA does to companies it assimilates. Bioware the company no longer exists. It is now simply a division of EA. They would probably still support NWN if it weren't for EA. A few devs still do, but not on company time.