: I don't entirely buy Urk's "cut content" spiel, but I don't think
: that game fans especially tend to romanticize the cut content in their
: heads. The reality is you only have X amount of time, and barring some
: dramatic changes chances are getting Y would mean Z and A would have to
: suffer in comparison.

I think most people have rose-tinted glasses when it comes to cut content because to most it seems like some cut content, especially the stuff that comes up in the "deleted scenes" DLC, because it looks like it is perfectly playable and would just add to the game, so it seems cut for no reason. Good example, is the DLC campaign mission for Gears of War 2. Of course what they don't see is a lot of the ideas thrown around in concept art and early planning meetings that never even makes it to in-engine design. And this is the issue because people have a hard time distinguishing the stuff cut early from the stuff cut late in development, and they are two very different things.