So Makoto and Nu were just confirmed as DLC characters. I like how they already have pictures of Makoto being played, and there have been hints of her for a few months now (people just thought it was her in story mode teases). This pretty much tells you that she was made and then deliberatly withhold from the game so they could release her as DLC. Then Nu, this is a character that was already made, she was in the last game, then they replaced her with a pallet swap named Lambda, and I use that term losely since she's exactly the same just different color pallets, she even has the same exact moves, hell *spoilers* Lambda is actually Nu so Arc are charging you for the same character TWICE!

I've already explained how DLC characters for a fighting could, and most likely will, cause tons of issues online, and then when playing the game in tournaments DLC characters will be strait up banned for the obvious reason of that not everyone that owns the game actually has these characters. Why I hate this idea of fighting games having DLC character, well if they were free patches that would be cool since that would get rid of this problem, I can still respect developers wanting to add mroe content to there fighters down the line, I mean there is talks of arcade version of Super Street Fighter IV adding more characters and of course Capcom would have to make them DLC for home version as well, and upcoming Mortal Kombat is going back to the original MK Trilogy roots and want to only include characters from the first 3 games so adding DLC characters after that timeline makes sense, however deliberatly withholding already made characters for DLC just ticks me right the f*** off.

I have bashed Capcom a lot in the past for locking the alternate costumes on the SFIV disk and Super SFIV disk too, and other developers for deliberatly withholding content to make it DLC (EA's a prime example), but still those are just little things that have no impact on balancing or multiplayer. I mean I love Arc so I even let them slide and forgave Arc for charging for freaking DLC colors since that was so pointless, and there of course was the Unlimted Character DLC earlier this year for BBCT, but that was content made for European version and so they gave it to everyone so that goes back to my earlier statement on DLC characters, and the fact they were for fun boss versions that were unavaliable in ranked matches anyway made them pointless and irrelevant. Now Arc are withholding actual gameplay just to make a quick extra buck. Plus when you factor in that BB Continuum Shift only added 2 new characters to arcade version, then a second version of Noel to the home version, withholding and charging for characters when you already get so little in the character addition department compared to every other fighting game sequal/update not named Virtua Fighter (Super Street Fighter IV added 10, King of Fightes XIII 9 and that's not counting the yet to be revealed bosses, and potential home version characters, for example) so that makes it even worse. I mean like with Virtua Fighter I used the "quality over quantity" defense since 2D sprites take awhile to make when people bash Continuum Shift for adding so little in the character department, however when they are deliberatly withholding made characters then it means it should have had more so I send an apology to anyone I disagreed with when they said BBCS should have had more characters. What's worse is Makoto is a character I have been wanting too, and now she's tainted by people being a-holes.

I mean you can use that tired "if you don't want, don't buy blah blah blah" argument, which stands true for stuff like costumes, colors, boss versions of characters you can't use online anyway, however with something like characters to some extent you need them so you can practice how to fight them online (really hard to fight a character when you don't know what there moves are) even if you don't want them. So I congradulate on Arc on being the first fighting game developer to actually somehow out d*** Capcom. My respect for Arc is now fully gone, not even Noel's existence can make me over look it (watch them kill her off just to further tick me off). A finger right back at you Arc. I guess I can hope that the reason Aksys delayed the game another week awhile back is they're wanting to give us these characters already on the disk unlike Japan (would make up for lack of Limited Edition and Noel Nendroid), but I doubt it. On the positive side the European trailer said 7 new character and since it's coming out a few months later it seems like you guys might just get them for free, good for you. Anyway respect for Arc, who I have had tons of respect for, is now gone.

Ok I am through. Sorry if I came off as whiny, and like one of them annoying "I'm not buying this game now, so let's boycott this game for this and this reasonWAH" but I don't think any news in this history of gaming has ever ticked me off this much. I seriously now hope Continuum Shift flops just to teach them a lesson since they need a big face slap like SNK got after King of Fighters XII since the success of BBCT is clearly going to there head, and seeing how the game has pretty much no marketing, and no free limited edition to entice people (a lot of people that played the original still don't know there is a follow up), there is a good chance that could happen. I will still get this game, but I don't know if I will reserve it and make sure it's a day 1 purchase now.

Anyway feel free to share your thoughts on developers deliberatly withholding content and gameplay for DLC, and feel free to disagree with me. However I am warning you to be very respectful when doing it, and I will do the same when replying, if you don't, well, you don't want to make me more madright now. :evil: