Brett "player66"
Thursday, November 5th 2009

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For those of you that bought Dragon Age: Origins without a pre-order, or God forbid plan to buy it used, have missed out on mountains of loot. To add insult to injury, Bioware is offering some pretty game changing DLC on day one. Tom Chick has posted a rant aimed at Bioware and EA for the “Warden’s Keep” DLC, which offers additional inventory slots for either $7 or the purchase of the Digital CE. His complaint is that the game’s inventory management is cumbersome and restrictive with the only viable solution coming in the form of paid content above and beyond the cost of the game.

Gerog Zoeller of Bioware sent him a pointed response explaining that the decision to add inventory options via DLC stemmed from feedback received by early reviewers of the game and a desire to give players something, “cool…for your own keep.” Georg explains that during the development there were “camp storage chests”, but unforeseen bugs found late in the game’s development left them on the cutting room floor. He maintains that the inventory system as it exists in the final version was balanced as per Bioware’s design, but that players who purchased the DLC would get the bonus storage mostly as a value add and not out of “bilking” their customer base.

Just in case you think we (or Tom) are exaggerating over the volume or scope of Dragon Age: Origins DLC, please review the complete list below:

• Blood Dragon Armor:  Cross compatible with next January’s Mass Effect 2 and offered for free with any retail purchase (expires on April 30th, 2010).
• Stone Prisoner: A *new* Golem character named Shale you can recruit for the epic confrontation. Offered for free with any retail purchase (expires on April 30th, 2010) or $15 if purchased from Xbox Live as DLC.
• Warden’s Keep: A dungeon offering unique loot, player abilities and an expanded inventory solution. Offered as part of the Digital Deluxe (Download Only) Edition for free or as $7 DLC on Xbox Live.
• Memory Ring (Retail Pre-Order Exclusive): Adds 1% to XP growth and +1 Skill Point.
• GameStop Exclusive:  Feral Wolf Charm – Gives bonuses to Armor and Health Regeneration.
• Steam Exclusive: The Wicked Oath – Adds 10% to Critical Strike damage, Armor Penetration + 2 and +1 to Combat Stamina Regeneration.
• Amazon Exclusive: Lion’s Paw Boots – “Adds to Armor, Dodge, and Evading Missiles.”

Also, there are in-game rewards for playing Dragon Age: Journeys EA’s Flash-based tactical RPG teaser:

• Embri’s Many Pockets – +5% Fire Resistance, +5% Cold Resistance, +5% Electricity Resistance, +5% Nature Resistance, +5% Spirit Resistance
• Helm of the Deep – +2 Constitution, +10 Mental Resistance, +10 Physical Resistance
• Amulet Of the War Mage – +5% to Fire Damage, +5 % to Cold Damage, +5% to Electrical Damage, +5% to Nature Damage, +5% to Spirit Damage

I got my copy of Dragon Age: Origins at an extreme discount from the EA Company Store, so I gladly paid the extra $7 for Warden’s Keep without second thought.  For everyone else that doesn’t have teh hook ups, this probably feels like a slap in the face after paying $50-$60 retail. Now, if there was an in-game ad for the DLC every time you dropped a valuable item due to lack of space I think there’d be rioting in the streets; angry, nerdy, entitled, rage-fueled rioting.

[Update: Penny Arcade agrees. Or do they...? Yeah, they totally do. Yay!]

via: Joystiq