Gears of War 3 Takes DLC To a New Low

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CoFree
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Gears of War 3 Takes DLC To a New Low

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Gears of War 3 Takes DLC To a New Low
by: Chris Carlson

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Epic Games have finally brought Gears of War 3 before us, but their attempt at DLC is the most pathetic approach I’ve seen this console generation. Before I dig into this issue, I want to clear a few things up. I’ve purchased every Gears of War title at midnight, including Gears of War 3.

I absolutely adore the series. In fact, if you were to have me select only one new IP this generation not to miss out on, and skip the rest, it would be Gears of War. I’m not telling you these things to make you believe my claims are legitimate. I’m telling you these things because I’m utterly disgusted as a fan, and I’m disappointed in Epic’s decision on how to handle Gears of War 3‘s DLC.

Normally when a company chooses to provide DLC that’s a blatant rip-off, I tend to ignore it and not purchase it. In fact, I’d make jokes about it and laugh it off. The difference is, Epic Games is known for listening to their fans, giving them what they want, and being very loyal. However, their decision to make their fans pay to unlock content already on the disc is a disgrace to their community. Paying for on-disc content isn’t something that hasn’t been done before, but Epic Games took it a step further.

You remember when you beta tested Gears of War 3 back in April and got to use that sexy urban camo? Did you realize that five months later, in order to use that camo again you would have to pay $3? Not only were you participating in a beta to make the overall product better, you were also “testing” paid DLC that had been completed nearly half a year before release. Take a look at this screenshot captured from Gears of War 3 multiplayer.

Pink Lancer Day 1!! "bad word" Yeah!!! Oh wait, I need Microsoft Points.

Notice the pink lancer? Yeah, the one you can purchase for $3. This screenshot was taken from gameplay footage shown back in January of 2011. Nearly 10 months ago, Epic Games has shown off the pink lancer and even boasted about how players can choose a pink lancer if they wanted too. Not only was that a partial lie -since you must purchase it separately-, we were looking at screenshots from DLC nearly a year before release.

It only gets worse from here. Have you played a match with all bots yet? Manage to see characters like “Big Red Dizzy” and wonder how to unlock them? Too bad, you can’t. That’s even more on-disc DLC in which you’ll have to purchase at a later date. The most pathetic part of all of this, is Gears of War 3 offered $75 worth of DLC before the game was even out. More than the actual game cost, but for less content than the actual game we purchased.

Epic Games also took the approach of “pre-ordering” DLC before it becomes available. Paying $30 for the season pass will grant you the first four pieces of DLC at no additional charge. As long as that specific content isn’t locked on my disc, I’m perfectly fine with that. Do your thing Epic. But locking away multiple characters, 20+ weapon skins and god knows what else, is just wrong. If the game shipped with more than 4-5 weapon skins (disregarding the beta unlocks) and offered more at a later date that wasn’t included on the disc, I probably would have purchased all of them. Sadly, that’s not the case.

Want all these purty weapon skins? $45 please.

Lets take it further than that. Have you happened to look at the leaderboards? Specifically for Horde or Beast Mode? Try it, then hit left once on the D-pad and look at what pops up. Oh, what’s that you ask? A map that’s not even playable yet, like Blood Drive for example, or Azura. Now, I’m not going to harp too much on this, mostly due to the fact I have no physical proof these maps are already on the disc and awaiting “activation”. I have however, seen “leaked” footage of these maps being perfectly playable. So it’s indeed possible these three maps are already on the copy you paid for, but it’s not definite.

This may not mean much, but I’m glad to see the Xbox Live community rate these “weapon skins” down to one and two stars on the marketplace. I’m sure a bunch of silly stars with a number planted next to it means nothing to Epic, but to me though, that’s saying I’m not alone, and many others agree with such juvenile behavior from such a well respected company. Surely, this isn’t the first article you’ve seen written on this subject.

I love Gears of War, and I still love the work Epic has done and they will not lose me as a fan. They have however, lost a lot of my respect and have me on a thin line between not purchasing future Gears of War 3 DLC and supporting such behavior. I’ve seen some damn pathetic attempts to rip gamers off (Resident Evil 5 “Multiplayer”), but Epic has gone too far to the point where they disrespected their fans, and ultimately embarrassed themselves. I can’t express how frustrated and angry I was on September 20th around 12:30AM launching Gears of War 3; selecting my weapons, then going to choose a weapon skin and see nothing but a bunch of dollar signs with locked content. I was downright furious.

The worst part of it all, I defended Epic Games before I was aware of the weapon skin announcement. They made the announcement shortly after I finished my writing for that day, and some random person in my XBL party was talking about them having $45 worth of weapon skin DLC. I actually told the guy whoever informed him of this false information was a damn moron because, “Epic Games would never do something like that!”

I was so quick to defend a company I had much respect for that I made myself look like a total ass. Not only do I now feel like a complete dick for doing so, I feel ashamed that I stuck up for a company that was stabbing me -and its fans- in the back as I was praising them. Never in a million years would I have guessed Epic Games of all developers would do something so shady. So my question to you Epic is;

“Why?” Did Microsoft have something to do with this? Did you wake up one day and decide Gears of War wasn’t making you enough money? I can not see one legitimate reason to charge forty-five dollars for some damn weapon skins and locking multiple types of DLC on the disc I’ve already purchased. I feel betrayed and used, taken advantage of, by a company that I never thought would stoop this low.

We gave Gears of War 3 a 10/10 in our RipTen Review… but between a Rip and a Ten? This DLC plan gets buried.
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Re: Gears of War 3 Takes DLC To a New Low

Post by trailz »

$45 worth of weapon skins??? Epic, I love this game, but I want to shoot people and rip them in half with a chainsaw, NOT play dress up.
But there's no sense crying over every mistake,
you just keep on trying 'till you run out of cake.
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