New Mass Effect 3 DLC announced – Video Games Update
Bioware has announced that it will release the latest multiplayer related downloadable content (DLC) for Mass Effect 3 (ME3) titled ‘Earth Multiplayer DLC pack’ on July 17.
Mass Effect 3 is the final chapter in the Mass Effect trilogy for which the first game, Mass Effect, was developed by Bioware and published by Microsoft exclusively for the Xbox 360 in 2007. Bioware retained the rights to the Mass Effect intellectual property
and after the acquisition by Electronic Arts (EA), Bioware brought out Mass Effect for the PC a year after the Xbox 360 release.
The first game was received well by fans and critics scoring a 91 percent on Metacritic but because of stiff competition from blockbusters like Halo 3 and Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare did not do as well in the market.
The second game, Mass Effect 2 was released simultaneously on the Xbox 360 and the PC in 2010. The Playstation 3 version came out a year later with all the DLC already included. The PS3 version also featured an interactive comic which brought first-timers
up to speed as the first game would never see a Playstation 3 release due to licensing issues by Microsoft. The second game in the series was praised by the whole industry and won many Game of the Year Awards including best Role Playing Game (RPG) of the year.
The third game however sparked controversy when the full script was leaked before the launch of the game. Gamers apparently were unhappy with how Bioware had chosen to end the trilogy. ME3 managed to get decent scores in the reviews but gamers where really
unhappy with it and petitioned Bioware to change the game ending through DLC.
Bioware finally caved due to all the fan pressure and released a free DLC called ‘Mass Effect 3 Extended Cut’ which would provide additional closure regarding the ending of the game. The Extended Cut DLC was met with mixed response from gamers. Many were
satisfied but many claimed that Bioware had ruined the excellent series by making the game more ‘accessible’.
Another reason for the fan hate for Mass Effect 3 was the games’ exclusivity to Origin, EA’s digital distribution service. Origin is currently not popular with PC gamers and many wanted to purchase the game on Steam.
Probably hoping to appease fans, Bioware will be releasing the Earth Multiplayer DLC pack for free but there are rumours that another story DLC called Leviathan is also in development however there has been no official announcement regarding that from Bioware.
Tags: