Seems a little disingenuous to be releasing new content for Mass Effect 1 when Mass Effect 2 is due sometime within the next six months (incidentally, we hear tell that unlike the infuriatingly tardy first game, the PC version will be released at the same time as the 360 version. Huzzahs!), but shouldn’t grumble really. Now live on the EA digistoremacguffin is Pinnacle Station, which promises 2-3 hours of bonus space bimbling for $5/£4. Not extortionate by some DLC standards, though it does sound as the contents are all a bit shooty-bang-bang…
Here’s what it is:
Test the limits of your combat prowess aboard a remote, top-secret Alliance space station. Do you have what it takes to hold the top spot amongst the best of the best? This module includes a new land-able space station, 13 exciting combat scenarios, and approximately 2-3 hours of game play.
Compete in a series of high-stakes battle simulations to earn amazing weapons and armor that can be used in the main game. Unlock new achievements, and even win ownership of a dedicated base of operations for Commander Shepard. Challenge modes include Survival, Time Attack, Hunt and Capture and even a scenario modeled after the First Contact War.Features
* Visit the military training center at Pinnacle Station and engage in a series of combat simulations.
* Players of any level can hone their Mass Effect combat skills, shooting your way to the top in 12 unique combat scenarios.
* Make a bet with the station Admiral in a final 13th mission. The stakes are high, Shepard risks his life and the life of his crew to prove that he is the best of the best.
* Farm your main game achievements in an easy to access combat simulator.
* Player can take their prizes and play with them in the main game. Making your next playthrough easier.
* Combat is more dynamic and fast paced.
* Combat simulator feels like a holo-deck of sorts, environments and enemies look simulated.
* Encounter Vadinos (Turian), and win his weapon.
Hmm. The gunplay wasn’t exactly Mass Effect’s greatest strength, so I’m not entirely sure as to the wisdom of this. Hopefully it’s not quite as DLC-for-DLC’s-sake as it sounds. The idea of having a second base as a change from Shepard’s spaceship is kind of appealing, at least.
Also released today is the long-awaited 1.02 patch, which fixes up a troubling number of bugs and crashy stuff, and also sorts out the mucky textures on poor Garrus’ face.
Incidentally, I also notice that Mass Effect itself is down to just £10 from EA’s store wotsit, which sounds eninently reasonable.
Related Stories:
2-3.. so about an hour and a half (not that I doubt EAs marketing estimates at all) for £4. Hmm.
Nah.
@Lintman: They did remove the DRM. That’s why I bought it. :)
It’s not on the Steam version, like you said, but they also released tools to remove the DRM from the boxed version. So buy it wherever you can find it on the cheap.
@Geoff: I don’t have a problem with EA releasing DLC for ME. It annoys me that they charge money for PC DLC in general, and especially for something so lacklustre as Pinnacle Station seems to be. But that just means I’m skipping it, not that it angers me in anyway.
@jalf:
Are you sure they have a tool that really _removes_ the DRM? Last thing I heard was that they have a tool to raise the limit back to x installs once you completely de-install the game.
Mass Effect was a good game, but I’m not buying this. Too much faff with download platforms so poorly designed I’m afraid of losing my damned product before I get my hands on it.
Still, good to see Bioware can now add another name to their list of games with gratuitous and unnecessary ‘arena’ sections.
That makes 6 games out of 9 in total now by my count.
@neolith: Oh yikes, you’re more or less right. Looks like it de-authorizes (but doesn’t uninstall!) the game on the *current* computer. So if you don’t have access to the machine it was installed on, you’re screwed. And if you launch the game again on that machine, it obviously re-activates.
Sheesh, and here I thought it was useful. That renders the whole tool pretty damn useless.
Good thing I bought it on Steam then. And thanks for making me check up on that. Guess I’ll still have to avoid boxed versions of EA games then. There goes my Mirrors Edge purchase.
@jalf:
Well, that means still no Mass Effect for me. :( I really want to play the game but I neither want to deal with restrictive DRM nor Steam…
Wait a minute, how did I miss this? “Farm your main game achievements in an easy to access combat simulator.”
They’re seriously, literally referring to achievement farming as a bullet-point feature? Has the world gone mad?
This seems like a really cynical move. The first DLC had new aliens, a side mission that actually felt important and an interesting. They were also nice enough to make it free on the PC.
Now they’re charging $5 for what seems like something that was designed to be the cheapest way to take up a few more player-hours.
You can get a 20% discount … enter HotUKDeals20%
@Geoff,
Everyone is quite obsessed with ridiculous achievements. I can’t stand them, because it makes people go crazy and forces them to play a game in a certain way just to get a medal. It’s basically causing people to play a game not for the fun of it, but to gain medals, which… is kinda awful to me.
In ME aren’t they talking about the kind of achievements that actually unlock things, though? There’s a world of difference between traditional, utterly pointless achievements and “achievements” as a new word for the old “do x, get y” kinds of unlock systems.
I find this good news. I never got around to playing Mass Effect (though I’d like to some day) and the existence of DLC, which will eventually, appear in a combo GotY-style pack on shop shelves, means that the basic package will be going down in price shortly. Hurrah!
Mass Effect for £10 is a steal, an utter must have and everyone should buy it for that if they don’t already own it. Go, my pretties, go and buy!
In the initial advertising campaign, Bioware hinted that the DLC would be released in episodes that took place between the end of ME1 and the start of ME2. These would help bridge the gap between them and ultimately add story juiciness.
They lied. It would’ve been a quantum leap forward for DLC in general, and it was never executed.
Played through it this morning, and sadly I can’t really recommend it to be honest. The combat modes in the simulator are semi interesting, and there’s a loose quest based around getting the best scores on all maps/modes, the end result of which being
1: a weapon choice that isn’t worth it if you’ve already got access to Spectre gear, and
2: an interesting looking, but woefully under functioned apartment. The three trade contacts only ship one item at a time, it’s random and one is extremely expensive.
Add to that limited and repetitive dialogue, and an area no bigger than any of the frigates you can board in the normal game, and you’ll question why you paid for it when Bring Down The Sky (the other DLC) was free for PC users. It was bigger, had a better questline, and more stuff to acquire if you were inclined.
I love Mass Effect, but this is definitely a step backwards, and has the whiff of a publicity shenanigan about it designed to whip up some interest for ME2 by getting people to replay the first game. As a freebie it would have been fine, but I can’t help but feel i’ve wasted money on this. Let’s hope that ME2 puts the negativity this will generate into the box labeled “mistakes we learnt from the hard way” when hardly anyone buys it. A shame.