Thanks to the modding community, PC players can finally enjoy Mass Effect's Pinnacle Station DLC with enhanced graphics as part of the Legendary Edition.
The DLC couldn't be included in the remaster because the source code was lost, but all of the first game's expansions were included. Nonetheless, if you want the full experience, the Pinnacle Station is available on the Nexus website right now with a handy installation guide.
Pinnacle Station sends Commander Shepard aboard a top-secret Alliance space station built into an asteroid. It features four simulator maps and different combat modes — no content was cut for this port, but plenty of bugs and issues were fixed.
You can start this DLC at any time — the only thing you'll need is access to the Galaxy Map on the Normandy. A tracker will be added so that you can find the Pinnacle Station in the Argos Rho cluster in the Phoenix system.
BioWare's Mac Walters confirmed the entire ordeal of trying to get the code was "an emotional roller coaster" but creating Pinnacle from scratch would take another six months or so from the studio. It simply wasn't feasible.
Modders managed to bring it to the game by using the Legendary Explorer toolkit designed to edit "cooked" versions of the game, all without the source code. Nevertheless, it has taken the team months of work to complete just as Walters stressed it would.
Another thing the creators mentioned is that the mod is GPU intensive (at least Nvidia RTX 1070 or AMD Radeon RX580 recommended) because the lighting is calculated in real-time rather than precalculated and there is no way around this at the moment. If you have a powerful rig, you might be alright, but it's still not ideal.
Mass Effect has just celebrated its traditional N7 Day so aside from diving into the Pinnacle Station, you can get some new merch and even grab the Legendary Edition for its lowest price yet. In addition, BioWare revealed a new teaser for the next Mass Effect game currently in development and fans are going wild with speculation.