Cover your face: Resident Evil 4 obtained an odd mixture of paid and free DLC over the weekend. The free replace features a mercenary mode the place gamers can defeat as many enemies as doable inside a restricted time to earn a excessive rating. Capcom promised a mercenary mode, in order that’s to be anticipated. This is the second a part of the replace, which is a bit baffling.
In addition to the free mercenary mode, gamers will discover that they will now buy “Resident Evil 4 Weapon Exclusive Upgrade Tickets.” These digital coupons entitle gamers to “unique upgrades for weapons.” Tickets are $3 per ticket, $7 for 3 and $10 for 5. So, to unlock every unique weapon improve within the sport, it could price $40 to purchase in bulk, or $60 to purchase the 20 required tickets individually.
Before that, gamers needed to earn sufficient pesetas (the in-game forex) by means of hours of gameplay to purchase a single weapon improve. For instance, for 80,000 pesetas, a participant can get 5x the essential fee of the sport’s beginning pistol (SR-09 R). And there are a number of weapons that price 100,000 to improve. Only a couple of low-cost ones ring 10,000.
All instructed, gamers want to save lots of (learn: grind) 1,427,700 pesetas to buy the entire distinctive weapon upgrades within the sport. This determine doesn’t embody the price of buying weapons from in-game retailers. If this sounds acquainted, it is as a result of it is the very same content material paywall EA utilized in Battlefront II, however in the end deserted attributable to participant pushback.
The distinction is that RE4’s microtransactions make the sport simpler to play. Battlefront II’s locked content material consists largely of playable heroes, with no apparent benefits that make them higher (beauty).
In the previous, builders have typically locked content material behind cheat codes. Generally, they’re free should you can determine them out or get them from sport magazines. They are small items from builders to gamers as thanks for buying a sport. Now builders are charging gamers for “cheat codes.”
Look, I get it. I’m an old-timer. These days, video games are costlier to make, particularly among the higher-budget titles. In many circumstances, costs have not risen to match manufacturing prices, and paid DLC and non-obligatory decorations that do not have an effect on gameplay assist offset that distinction. I completely perceive and am prepared to pay (or not) for these items.
What I do not get is paying the participant to unlock upgrades that basically change the gameplay. It appears foolish to maintain content material and make gamers earn it by means of hours of useless replay except they pay the ransom, particularly since RE4 is an insanely troublesome activity.