Mass Effect 3 pre-order bonuses barge in, guns blazing

Honestly, I've pretty much given up on pre-orders. The way my backlog stands right now, I'm rarely compelled to do a day-one purchase on a game unless the pack-ins are really, really cool (the collectors' editions of Infamous 2 and Uncharted 3 spring to mind). And given that any content becomes available for download later if I want it anyway, it's usually not worth the trouble when I can wait for a good sale on Amazon.

With regard to Mass Effect, while I love it, I still haven't beaten the first one (didn't get a 360 till about a year ago, so I'm catching up on the good exclusives, still), so I definitely won't be getting 3 until I beat 1 and 2. No pre-order for me. :-)

I'm definitely going to get this game, I just hate the idea of giving money to Gamestop up-front simply for an in-game gun! It isn't even real!

This whole "pre-order bonus" stuff is as much BU11S4!T as the endless stream of DLC! When I drop $60 freakin' dollars on a video game, I expect a couple of things...
1) If it's a single-player game, or has a single-player focus, for $60 it should give me a MINIMUM of 20hrs of play time, even FPS's. Games like Deus Ex: HR, Fallout 3/NV, Crysis2 (excellent replay IMO), Borderlands, and of course Mass Effect get this concept. "Modern Bro-fare" and clones DO NOT...
2) If it is something important, such as ENTIRE NEW SINGLE PLAYER MAPS, it should be packaged with the game when I buy it! NOT offered just two weeks post-release as a $15+ "DLC Bonus Pack"! I know piracy hurts profits, but those of us who actually buy the company's products shouldn't be forced to suffer for the jack@sses who don't!
3) Unless the game is multiplayer-only or HEAVILY focused on multiplayer, don't make the single-player mode suffer so that the multiplayer mode is the "replay value"... I don't buy games so that I can listen to a bunch of pre-adolescent and/or 30-year-old virgins calling me "f@g" or whatever incredibly not clever "insults" they throw from behind their "Shield of Anonymity".

So, game developers, here's the deal:
Why don't you take the hundreds of millions of dollars you've made off of selling virtual (as in DO NOT ACTUALLY EXIST) goods to players who have already shelled out $60+ for your game, and do something to better fight piracy rather than making us honest consumers pay for the Cheetos-stained, greasy-haired, ghastly-pale losers who haven't paid for a game in years, and somehow think that it's their "right" to get anything they want off of torrents.
I am a Biochemical Engineer and Psychopharmacologist, working in the development of various new (brain-affecting) medications, so I understand that there are ALWAYS people trying to skirt the system and to steal your ideas (a new, effective medication can be worth hundreds of billions of dollars due to patent laws). The game industry isn't much different, except it would seem that rather than worrying about other companies, the worry is about the consumers themselves stealing from you.

So fix that... Take the insane amounts of money you've made selling DLC, use what, 1/1000000th of it(?) to create a better form of DRM; one that protects what you have made from anyone trying to copy or steal it, but also one that does NOT infringe upon the rights of the person who bought it. I am not a software engineer, so I don't know what should be done or not in regards to specifics, but I do know that lots of people are getting sick of paying for stuff that should be included with the retail game, simply to offset the cost of the (in Crysis 2's case, 3.9million) pirated versions.

To everyone else: HACKING IS NOT "NOBLE", "COOL", "ADMIRABLE", "SEXY", ANY TYPE OF "BRAGGING RIGHT", AND IT DEFINITELY DOES NOT (REPEAT: DOES NOT!!!!) MAKE YOU "BAD@SS"!!!! You just screw everyone else over with your sociopathic behavior. Ugh...

(For the record, I am not innocent... I have downloaded music, plenty of it, but I realized that I was in fact stealing and stopped... People deserve credit for the work they produce, and if you think it's not worth what they're asking, DON'T BUY IT! However, that does not in any way give you the right to steal it either!!! There is no justification, so no "well, durrr, they have enough money anyway, it's not like they'll miss it" or "it's not hurting anyone" bullcr@p...)

*END RANT*

PS: Sorry, didn't mean to "go off" there...

lol @ "Panic in the Sky"

Pre-order bonuses that just make the game easier are like shooting yourself in the foot with a M55 Argus Assault Rifle.

Can I play it without Origin.

At _most_ I am willing to install Origin in a VM to get a keycode to plug into the game (Like I did for ToR). But I am not going to install Origin. That thing is just horrific, and barely works. I still can't log in from the website. Only the client.

Otherwise, I'm a sad panda that I'll have to miss the final chapter.

or *shudder*

get it on console.

www.nooooooooooooooo.com

I don't mind pre-order bonuses, but I HATE retailer exclusive pre-order bonuses. We were so close to release that I thought EA heard my prayers...

I'll be preordering this game where I preorder every game. Amazon. Free shipping and day of release delivery can't be beat.

I really don't care so much about pre orders anymore since as others have stated before me they are either for looks or quickly get replaced if they had a use. I also noticed quite of few games doing it, but they'll most likely be up in the marketplace/PSN in no time anyway. RDR did this even though it took them awhile after release. RF Armageddon, Batman AC, Brink are just other examples.

Didn't the inferno armor for ME2 also go up for grabs later on? Yeah. Pre Orders...