Whether you think it’s a necessary re-contextualization of the awkward and much-protested Mass Effect 3 ending, or a dangerous assault on the authorial agency, Mass Effect 3: Extended Cut, the free DLC intended to flesh out the series’ conclusion, is coming on June 26th. Unless you have a PlayStation 3 in Europe; then you have to wait until July 4th. We’ve known about this for a while, since BioWare caved and announced they’d release an addition — not a revision, but an addition — to the game’s end, later clarifying that it would come out this summer and be free. Now it has a date, and it’s very close. It’s up to you whether or not you want to risk getting your hopes up.
A few extremely vague details regarding what exactly Extended Cut will do leaked a few days ago, but you’d be hard pressed to suss anything concrete out of them. From Polygon:
“Mass Effect 3: Extended Cut: An expanded ending for Mass Effect 3. Additional scenes and an extended epilogue reveal the impact of Shepard’s choices on the future of the galaxy.”
Sure sounds like ad copy. So far, all references to the addition have mentioned new cinematics and an “epilogue,” but no direct mentions of gameplay, which is something you’d imagine they’d want to advertise if it was in there. When it comes to nitty-gritty practical details, however, BioWare has said the following. There’s a vague spoiler below if you haven’t finished the game yet.
- The DLC is roughly 1.9 gigabytes and will be available for free on Xbox Live, PSN, and Origin
- [The spoiler one] Gamers who want to see the new digs should load a save game from before the attack on the Cerberus base and play through from there. No specific word on whether any of that content has been changed though
BioWare has also put out a little 10-minute podcast interview with Executive Producer Casey Hudson and Lead Writer Mac Walters.
Personally, I’ve been waiting on this content before I hop back in for my Hardcore, Paragon, Infiltrator run-through, so I’ll be glad to have an excuse to boot her back up and be at least apprehensive if not excited. Here’s to hoping, right?
(via @masseffect)
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