04/03/09 – Time Is Money

Since the dawn of gaming there has always Easter eggs and bonus material included into games.  Some of these would be so well hidden that unlocking them would earn you considerable bragging rights.  However, with our busy lifestyles in this day and age, many people can’t commit as much of their time to gaming as they would like, and therefore many unlockables in games go unlocked.

Step in EA with their new approach to downloadable content.  Of course I am referring to the Time Is Money DLC for Skate 2.  It costs around £2.50, and once downloaded unlocks all the locations, skaters and gear that can be otherwise unlocked the old fashioned way by playing through the game.

Similarly with Burnout Paradise, EA has released the Time Savers Pack, also costing £2.50, which allows you to unlock all the cars and bikes in the game without actually having to go through the motions of unlocking them all yourself.

With some twisted kind of logic, I can kind of see the point to this.  However, from my somewhat overly moral and ethical standpoint, in my opinion all this really boils down to is cheating, does it not?  Either way, these packs will probably sell well enough, and probably encourage other developers to start releasing them also.  While they will allow anyone coming late to the game to be able to use, for example the fastest cars in Burnout Paradise from the start so they will be able to keep up with other players online, it takes away the sense of achievement from playing games.

Hopefully this is not a trend that will be picked up by other developers, and hopefully EA won’t release many, if not any more of these.  Either way I urge you to avoid these packs and do things the old fashioned way, it may take some time, but it will be worth it.

- Mark.