Your buddy is correct: Addictive Drums is pretty good. It may well be the best drum sampler any DAW comes bundled with. Expansion packs are reasonably priced and often on sale. 
 
It's not a selling point for me, and I expect it's not going to sway many others here, either. New users, though, are getting a good deal, as are old-timers who've been getting by with Session Drummer.

Addictive Drums is my favorite Drum program...
And I have them all...

That being said, the fact that they would allow Cake to 
package the full program as an included VSTi says that
AD2 is very near...as that will generate upgrade money
for XLN Audio...and compete with the BFD 3 release.
Where is Superior Drummer 3?  Isn't it time?

There are FREE versions of both Addictive Drums and Addictive
Keys....visit the XLN Website and get 'em....even the free
versions are well worth having..

Jonbouy
I see Craig as the most likely person to steer a DAW manufacturer into creating what could be one of the most useable DAWs ever given his background of 'How To's' but I'm darned if I'm going to earnestly set about getting the matching face of a two year old minutes after he's been set free with a fine chocolate pudding any time soon...

About the only other person to best him would be Stephen St. Croix.
 
Is that brown-nosed enough for you?
 
Remember I have a pic of me an Craig at NAMM 2013 and it ain't photoshop'd.

I shore do miss ol Stephen St. Croix.  He called em like they was.

drewfx1
I think I'll wait until CW at least, you know, actually announces it and puts up the web page before passing judgment.
 
They're always going to throw bundled stuff in to entice more people to upgrade, given that they're only being able to produce so much new code every year. I, like many here, certainly don't lack for plugins, but I also don't have to upgrade if the total package isn't attractive. And the trick for them is to try to make the total package attractive to the largest number of users.

Hey, we don't need any of that reasoned, sensible commenting here - take it somewhere else buddy !! ;)

I'm waiting to hear about take lanes and the audio engine. They are both huge issues that I think need some work. Color customization isn't a selling feature. We had it, they took it and now they're giving it back. Duckbar does that for me today.
 
I'm still learning all the plugs I already own, so meh, to the bundled plugs. I'd happily pay $149 if they've managed to address some of the meat & potato issues and reduced the random lock ups.

I still have to upgrade my hardware in order to fully use X2!  I'll probably do that before I can even think about X3.  I've had a few distractions this year that delayed the hardware upgrade. 

MachineClaw
 
I'm leaning toward Reaper / FL Studio.
 
I really just want to make noise, not have a bunch of stuff I have to learn workarounds because it's included.
 
So far reading the specs I'm not that impressed with X3.  guess it's a wait and see.

Hey Claw, I left the farm for awhile and did deep searching. I was *almost* settled on Reaper until I ran into some deal breakers. Don't like the FL Studio paradigm. Mixcraft was too Garage Band-y. Samplitude was too convoluted, Digital Performer was too obtuse. In the end, I came home to S2. Now I'm building a new DAW, *perfect* time for S3!

Peter J

MachineClaw
 
I'm leaning toward Reaper / FL Studio.
 
I really just want to make noise, not have a bunch of stuff I have to learn workarounds because it's included.
 
So far reading the specs I'm not that impressed with X3.  guess it's a wait and see.

Hey Claw, I left the farm for awhile and did deep searching. I was *almost* settled on Reaper until I ran into some deal breakers. Don't like the FL Studio paradigm. Mixcraft was too Garage Band-y. Samplitude was too convoluted, Digital Performer was too obtuse. In the end, I came home to S2. Now I'm building a new DAW, *perfect* time for S3!

Yeah I'm not really positive about Reaper and FL Studio yet.
 
maybe *gulp* Cubase 7.
 
I'm very glad that Sonar X1d works solidly for me and I really don't HAVE to choose anything.  Just feature envy I guess.  Maybe Bitwig will answer all prayers (joking people, really joking).
 
The more I read the officially unofficial feature information Bakers post I'm more and more inclined to think X3 might be pretty damn cool - IF it works good.
 
This week I 've been running into hardware PC issues and thinking that it's actually time to invest in a production UBER PC.

Links are back now up at Sweetwater-
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/search.php?s=SonarX3&Go=Search