Purchasing Mass Effect is Still a Frustrating Experience
by Anthony Murphy – Mar, 2, 2017 - Editorial

Last weekend I pre-ordered Mass Effect Andromeda. This isn’t strange, I’m sure quite a few people have pre-ordered the game, but it is strange for me as I usually don’t pre-order games. To find out why I did this you need to go back a little bit further to when I was thinking about buying the game. I checked Origin, EA’s digital storefront, and the standard edition of the game was going for $89.99. For the PC version. Now I could have sworn that digital distribution was supposed to be make things cheaper, not more expensive. But hey, they can sell it for whatever they like right? So I exercised my consumer right and found a place to buy it at close to half price. Capitalism Ho!

Already this had put a little stink on the deal. $70 would have been a done deal. It’s a price point I’m used to and pretty much the maximum I’ll pay. People can argue about the cost of making games, the dollar value per hour of entertainment and mimimum wages in Australia being high, but the bottom line I can’t afford $90 for a video game so I won’t pay it.

So I decided to play through the first three games prior to the release of Andromeda just so they’ll be fresh in my mind. I start Mass Effect up and it’s great, just how I remember it. I edited some ini files and got it working at a nice resolution and it looks great on my modern PC. I finish the session just as I reach The Citadel and I honestly had a good time.

The following day I talk to Dave on the phone about this week’s podcast. I float the idea of reading out a bunch of Mass Effect 1, 2 and 3 reviews for our Letting Off Steam segment. Dave likes the idea so I go digging for some funny ones. Hmmm… That’s strange there’s a lot of negative reviews about Mass Effect 2 on Steam, it seems the DLC is not available on Steam only on Origin. That’s shitty, but no problem I got copies of Mass Effect 1 and 2 when I installed Origin and it sucked the details out of the Steam installed copies on my PC.

I go into Origin and that’s when things take a very rapid drop into frustrating bordering on unfair. The DLC requires me to buy “Bioware Points” and the larger more important DLC’s are still $16 or 800 “Bioware Points”. It’s been seven years and this hasn’t gotten any cheaper. Let that sink in for a moment. Lair of the Shadow Broker is a piece of content that features the continuing story of a major character in the Mass Effect series, if you romanced Liara in Mass Effect this continues that story. Not only do you have to buy the game to see what happens you then have to buy something extra if you’re invested in a particular portion of that story. Or you can just miss out. Now I’m starting to remember why I got frustrated with EA and Bioware in the first place. Seven years has dulled my feelings about them a little but now it comes rushing back.

I remember From The Ashes; a piece of DLC that was announced prior to the release of Mass Effect 3 that includes the last surviving character of a race of aliens, the Protheans. The downfall of this alien race is intricately linked to the main character of the series, but if you want to find out more about them – $16 please. On top of purchasing the game of course. Yeah, there’s that frustration we were talking about again.
So maybe there’s a complete edition I can buy to fill the holes in my collection. Sure enough there is, and it doesn’t come with the DLC for Mass Effect 2 or 3. All you had to do EA is release some kind of reasonably priced ultimate edition and tie the marketing to your new game. Everyone would have forgotten the mess you created with the DLC over the last few games. But no it looks like we’re doing this again.

As I said, over the years my attitude to EA and Origin had softened. They ran a fairly good platform and seemed to be more customer focused. Now, I’m frustrated, hostile and actively looking for ways that EA might be trying to get more money out of me. Every hour I spend playing Andromeda will be coloured by this experience. I’m not cancelling this pre-order because I want to cover this game for the site, but you can bet if there is a hint of bullshit I’ll be talking about it.

Share on FacebookTweet about this on TwitterShare on RedditShare on Tumblr

220 Comments

OYC 277

[…]check beneath, are some entirely unrelated web-sites to ours, having said that, they are most trustworthy sources that we use[…]

milfgilf porn

[…]we like to honor several other world wide web web sites around the web, even when they aren’t linked to us, by linking to them. Underneath are some webpages worth checking out[…]

luxury vibrator

[…]we like to honor lots of other web web sites around the web, even though they aren’t linked to us, by linking to them. Beneath are some webpages really worth checking out[…]

PPPD-787

[…]Every after inside a whilst we select blogs that we study. Listed beneath are the most up-to-date web sites that we opt for […]

Slot Jackpot Online

[…]although web-sites we backlink to beneath are considerably not associated to ours, we feel they are essentially really worth a go via, so possess a look[…]

dank cartridges

[…]although websites we backlink to beneath are considerably not connected to ours, we feel they may be essentially worth a go via, so possess a look[…]

duke

[…]we prefer to honor several other world-wide-web internet sites around the internet, even if they aren’t linked to us, by linking to them. Beneath are some webpages worth checking out[…]

Washroom Supplies

[…]Wonderful story, reckoned we could combine a few unrelated information, nonetheless genuinely worth taking a appear, whoa did one particular understand about Mid East has got a lot more problerms as well […]

T shirts

[…]very couple of internet websites that come about to be detailed below, from our point of view are undoubtedly nicely really worth checking out[…]

Pain Tramadol

[…]that is the finish of this report. Right here you’ll come across some internet sites that we assume you’ll enjoy, just click the hyperlinks over[…]

Lose Weight while sleep

[…]although internet websites we backlink to beneath are considerably not associated to ours, we really feel they’re really really worth a go via, so possess a look[…]

Eweka

[…]we prefer to honor several other internet web-sites on the internet, even when they aren’t linked to us, by linking to them. Underneath are some webpages worth checking out[…]

Boston Car Service

[…]we like to honor quite a few other internet web-sites on the net, even if they aren’t linked to us, by linking to them. Under are some webpages worth checking out[…]

pc app free download

[…]although web sites we backlink to beneath are considerably not connected to ours, we really feel they may be truly worth a go by way of, so have a look[…]

apps for pc download

[…]we prefer to honor many other web internet sites around the web, even if they aren’t linked to us, by linking to them. Underneath are some webpages worth checking out[…]

apps for pc download

[…]we prefer to honor numerous other world wide web web sites on the internet, even though they aren’t linked to us, by linking to them. Underneath are some webpages really worth checking out[…]

siofok siofok siofok siofok

[…]we like to honor several other world wide web internet sites around the internet, even when they aren’t linked to us, by linking to them. Below are some webpages really worth checking out[…]

money exchanger

[…]just beneath, are numerous absolutely not connected internet sites to ours, having said that, they are certainly really worth going over[…]

fset 842

[…]check beneath, are some completely unrelated websites to ours, having said that, they may be most trustworthy sources that we use[…]

cheap follower

[…]very couple of web-sites that transpire to become in depth below, from our point of view are undoubtedly very well worth checking out[…]

pppd 780

[…]check below, are some completely unrelated sites to ours, on the other hand, they are most trustworthy sources that we use[…]

gay men using toys

[…]although internet sites we backlink to beneath are considerably not connected to ours, we feel they are actually worth a go by means of, so have a look[…]

xxx

[…]please pay a visit to the websites we comply with, such as this one, as it represents our picks from the web[…]

mide 675

[…]Wonderful story, reckoned we could combine several unrelated data, nonetheless definitely really worth taking a look, whoa did one particular learn about Mid East has got additional problerms at the same time […]

boho jewelry

[…]although websites we backlink to beneath are considerably not associated to ours, we really feel they are truly worth a go by, so possess a look[…]

Google

That is the finish of this post. Right here you’ll discover some sites that we assume you’ll value, just click the links.

قمبل دات کام

[…]we prefer to honor lots of other internet web sites on the web, even when they aren’t linked to us, by linking to them. Below are some webpages really worth checking out[…]

podcast

[…]we like to honor numerous other web web-sites on the net, even if they aren’t linked to us, by linking to them. Underneath are some webpages really worth checking out[…]

sexy bondage kit

[…]although websites we backlink to below are considerably not associated to ours, we feel they are truly worth a go via, so have a look[…]

russian porn

[…]very couple of internet sites that occur to be detailed beneath, from our point of view are undoubtedly nicely really worth checking out[…]

onewalmartwire.com

[…]very handful of internet websites that come about to become detailed beneath, from our point of view are undoubtedly very well worth checking out[…]

english translation

[…]we prefer to honor a lot of other world-wide-web websites around the internet, even when they aren’t linked to us, by linking to them. Below are some webpages worth checking out[…]

vixen massager

[…]although internet websites we backlink to beneath are considerably not connected to ours, we feel they’re truly worth a go via, so possess a look[…]

porn

[…]very few websites that come about to become detailed below, from our point of view are undoubtedly properly really worth checking out[…]

liteblue login

[…]Every the moment in a even though we select blogs that we read. Listed below would be the most recent web-sites that we choose […]

Fashion Station

[…]we like to honor numerous other net sites on the internet, even though they aren’t linked to us, by linking to them. Below are some webpages worth checking out[…]

Julia Ann Porn

[…]that will be the end of this post. Right here you’ll uncover some websites that we believe you will value, just click the hyperlinks over[…]

porn

[…]although sites we backlink to beneath are considerably not associated to ours, we really feel they are actually worth a go through, so possess a look[…]

sex paddles

[…]that would be the finish of this post. Here you will obtain some websites that we believe you will appreciate, just click the hyperlinks over[…]

12 inches dong

[…]just beneath, are a lot of completely not related internet sites to ours, nevertheless, they are certainly worth going over[…]

Google

Check below, are some entirely unrelated internet sites to ours, nonetheless, they may be most trustworthy sources that we use.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Anti-Spam Quiz: You can find the answer to this question in About Us.