NFS Carbon 360 downloads Comments by Tom Bramwell

lol, got mine in the post just a moment ago from Amazon :)

"And if you're buying the game but can't actually be bothered to play it, EA's got you covered too, with its now-standard range of downloadable content designed to let you toy with advanced kit without having to go through the painful process of playing the game to unlock it."

Classic line! :)

lol

Edit: I was sharing the hilarity of the first comment, obviously.

maybe EA could bundle in a blow job and all the NFS achievements in an affordable bundle as well. First, it was a microrapement for some of the various stadiums and alternate uniforms in madden. I am not sure if they followed a similar protocol with FIFA. It wouldn't surprise if Arsenal fans had to pay to unlock Highbury. Second, it was the purchase of in-game money for the godfather and better weapons. In the past one never had to pay for cheat codes. Now you can pay $50 for all the NFS content. Microsoft needs to manage the marketplace better. It shouldn't be a laissez faire whorehouse where Xbox gold members are treated as guinea pigs in the great economics sodomy experient of 2006. I can't wait to see what EA does to my beloved Burnout. Perhaps, I will skip this iteration. EA -- it most definitely is on your disc, but you have to pay to have it in your game.

Hahahahaha.

This is so amazing, I love the next generation and it's 'downloadable' content :)

subpar games at lofty prices --- lay off the crack pipe EA. Nothing good will come of it.

All of the DLC is already on the disc ffs!

Sort of like MS's Vista pricing - everything is on the disc, what you pay will unlock just the content you purchased.

"And if you're buying the game but can't actually be bothered to play it, EA's got you covered too, with its now-standard range of downloadable content designed to let you toy with advanced kit without having to go through the painful process of playing the game to unlock it."

Wow - I agree with vane here. Amazing. So much contempt cannot possibly be compressed into one sentence anywhere else. If I were EG, I would have awarded the game 2/10 on the basis of story (ha-ha) and screenshots alone.

Thanks to EA and others using this sort of DLC model I've decided next-gen can feck off.

I know they're saying "it's all optional" at the moment (although that's strictly by omission - EA's current gen offerings are currently far more feature-packed than the next-gen ones) but the prospect of buying a single player game to find that something essential to that game has to be paid for and unlocked online is not one I relish.

Next-gen games are supposed to be fuller and more complete than anything that's gone before. Why, then, are gamers (not "consumers", thank you very much Mr EA) being asked to pay more for the initial game and then additional amounts for content the likes of which has been totally gratis (or at least included in the cover price) previously?

how long until they make an action relay DLC unlocker for EA games?

I saw all this on last night, and thought "Peej is gonna frikkin hit the roof".

It's not a game I'm all that interested in, so meh. But I do think the downloadable content model is heading in the wrong direction.

Oh look, EA stuff misreported again - why can't anyone get this right.

The 'downloadable' unlock codes unlock things including ones you CANT UNLOCK THROUGH PLAY. It's all in the small print on marketplace. This is just like Godfather, which had GUNS AND FEATURES YOU CANT UNLOCK THROUGH PLAY.

Please, PLEASE start getting this right, EG? A lot of people are starting to believe the content is all unlockable through play, and it's not - the gouging goes deeper than that.

This is the biggest rip-off regarding downloadable content I've seen so far. Sometimes it's hard to tell whether a company has purposefully held back content or just couldn't get it finished in time. This is the first case I've seen where the content is finished before the game is released!!
Why the fuck isn't it in the boxed copy? This is just a slightly lesser example of what Sony/Polyphony are planning with Gran Turismo:HD.

This is even more reason to stick to my "Anyone but EA" philosophy, because they can just fuck off if they think I'm going to be buying any of their blatantly unfinshed and shit games.

"Oh look, EA stuff misreported again - why can't anyone get this right."

The smallprint on Marketplace, as you put it, notes that the three cars are unlockable through play, and says that a portion of the other items that make up the performance/autosculpting packs can be unlocked through play. I realise that you can't unlock all of it that way, which is why I said so. Incidentally, I haven't ever said that the level-4 weapons in Godfather can be unlocked through play - if you listen to our most recent podcast, you'll hear me making that point during a debate about downloadable content, too.

"A lot of people are starting to believe the content is all unlockable through play, and it's not - the gouging goes deeper than that."

I agree that it's unsavoury. But I will say that it's unfair to tar EA with this brush exclusively - other publishers have had content on the disc that can only be unlocked through online purchases, and since long before Godfather did it too. As for the general point, I'll simply reiterate what I said in the podcast: if you want to keep them honest, or if you disagree with their policy, keep posting on comment and forum threads, keep writing to EA and Microsoft, and don't buy the content.

But I don't think you give the average punter enough credit. Certainly to the average Eurogamer reader, a 108 kilobyte downloadable next-gen content pack that costs 6 quid and supposedly consists of 10 cars among other things is quite plainly something you are unlocking on the disc and not downloading, and while we may make more of a habit of emphasising this in future copy, I don't think we need to spell it out every time.

It's clear by the timings that this content was delibverately held back to further increase EA's profits. Who is supposed to benefit from this content as it sure isn't the consumer. The whole pont of this kind of content was to increase the life span of teh product and not to withhold content for a quick buck.

The only way to stop this nonsense it to refuse to buy it. Let's face it, it must be costing EA some money to post this drivel.

its all about choice!!1111

Whoops - I didn't notice that part in the final paragraph - you did mention it - sorry! I don't listen to the podcasts, not really my thing. There's a lot of people still claiming that you can unlock everything through play (Godfather), both on forums and news sites. Makes me sad.

I thought the only other company to do this was Sega, with Chromehounds - are there others? We realised one day when getting attacked by AI mechs carrying unreleased "downloadable" weapons. Can't have been very good weapons because the mechs were mostly sat there covered with flames and smoke, but it was an eye opener.

I think you're giving the average punter a little too much credit unfortunately. Try wandering around the xbox.com forums, it seems to have the largest cross section of general users - although they're still several steps above the local chavs who will rush down to GAME in force, to buy NFS Carbon at the full EA RRP.

is it the Koenigsegg with the spoiler or the one that tried to kill the stig?

Ea has got that damm gold egg laying bird in its sights........

This really reminds me of the 2600 game crash. These idiots could well do it again.

I got the game two days ago and checked out the downloadable content today. Well the content for "download" is actualy a patch (only 108 kb which could not hold 12 cars and 6 tracks) that opens content already on the gamedisc you bought.

/gets calculator

Wow paying as much as a full game on what is effectively cheats you think of the worse for Micrtransactions yet astonishingly a company like EA just exceeds those fears.

I'm so glad i've gone off the only EA game I actually like these days which was burnout.

The collectors edition is the only good move from EA.

Not bad?

So basically the release the game without "full content" and then they try to charge you for it?

If that's not bad then what is bad?