Bioware.. drinking the EA cool aid?

[DigitalSignalX]

From a wired article today:

BioWare VP Zeschuk added that multiplayer “makes the whole experience better” for a game like Mass Effect 3. The upcoming RPG will feature an optional cooperative mode called Galaxy at War, in which you can team up with other players to fight off marauding Reapers, earning bonuses and unlocking areas that you’ll be able to access in your single-player campaign.

So multiplayer will be *required* in order to fully experience the single player game. Sigh.

Also of note in the article,

“Multiplayer … can’t be tacked on,” BioWare co-founder and vice president Greg Zeschuk said

Then HOW COME IT IS EXACT THAT. (RPS review of Co-op)

It’s ultimately a pretty meaningless thing. But where the fun comes from is in realising it’s meant to be. It’s popcorn, alongside the square meal of the single-player game (assuming it’s of the same standard as the previous two – we’ve not played anything of the SP game yet.) It’s not going to be the sort of thing people will be playing long after the game’s been released.

Wired also writes:

The Old Republic has no single-player components

Really? I'm confused then. (Ars Technica review of SWTOR)

the game has clearly been designed to include people who want to play alone, and it has options at every point to make that possible. I never felt like the game was hobbled by my decision not to partner with other people

edit: Sorry for all the quoting, easiest way I could find to cite all the contradictory information flying around here along with this really scary first quote - if accurate.

[vinraith]

So multiplayer will be *required* in order to fully experience the single player game. Sigh.

Nope, nothing is unlocked by the co-op mode that can't be unlocked by playing the game in SP. RPS had a long series of articles about this when it first came to light back in the summer. I'd link you to them but, err, the site is of course blacked out at the moment.

[bwion]

Unless something has changed since those articles were written, of course. Though it's just as likely that the Wired article today got it wrong.

[DigitalSignalX]

Nope, nothing is unlocked by the co-op mode that can't be unlocked by playing the game in SP. RPS had a long series of articles about this when it first came to light back in the summer. I'd link you to them but, err, the site is of course blacked out at the moment.

I was using Google cache to find RPS links on ME3 co-op, and while it does appear to be completely tacked on and not interdependent according to RPS, this quote today in Wired is contradictory - and thus (??)...

[vinraith]

I was using Google cache to find RPS links on ME3 co-op, and while it does appear to be completely tacked on and not interdependent according to RPS, this quote today in Wired is contradictory - and thus (??)...

Oh it's definitely tacked on crap, no question of that. The quote from your OP doesn't really clearly indicate that the content that's unlocked can ONLY be unlocked through the co-op mode, and RPS's article pretty flatly states that's not the case. I'd be surprised if that had changed.

[Nalano]

Vinraith is right in his assertion: Co-op gives you nothing that you couldn't get in single-player.

How difficult it'll be to get in single-player is a matter of speculation, but I suspect co-op's a backdoor for players who don't have a savegame from a play-through of MEs 1 and 2.

[metalangel]

Yes, Bioware are drinking EA's koolaid. That's why the Draggin' Arse storage chest was in DLC and not in the main game, for example.

[deano2099]

How difficult it'll be to get in single-player is a matter of speculation, but I suspect co-op's a backdoor for players who don't have a savegame from a play-through of MEs 1 and 2.

It'd be a novelty to have something difficult to get in an ME game anyway.

The sad thing is, me and a mate quite want to give the multi-player a blast as it looks like a laugh, but we're concerned doing so will unbalanced the single-player game and make the best ending too easy to get.

[Nalano]

The sad thing is, me and a mate quite want to give the multi-player a blast as it looks like a laugh, but we're concerned doing so will unbalanced the single-player game and make the best ending too easy to get.

So have a separate profile for co-op.