The Hot Topic Returns

[Maryokutai]

I hope the stories of live service games completely collapsing in development will finally result in publishers reevaluating this nonsense and start back-pedalling next year. I fear there will be some more casualties along the way but after 2023 there's really no reason anymore to steer the ship in that direction.

 

Other than that, I hope the new Nintendo system is cool, I hope it comes with MP4 and I hope there's a bit of truth in the rumours about a new Castlevania.

[Sly Reflex]

I hope that the trend of games coming out half baked stops, but I think I may be pissing in the wind there. if anything I think it might get worse.

[radiofloyd]

Dragon Quest XII coming out of hiding would be nice. 
 

It would nice to see what Ron Gilbert is working on next. Thimbleweed Park and Return to Monkey Island have both been excellent.

[Nag]

No official question...

 

 

Quote

Nag says "Thanks to a comment from @one-armed dwarf earlier this week what's your favourite dlc?... could be an expansion, character pack for a fighter or more tracks for a rhythm game... as long as it's not included in the base game it's allowed. Also do you think dlc is generally good value or are we being fleeced?"

 

[shinymcshine]

Favourite DLC would have to be:

 

Bitterblack Island (Dragons Dogma Dark Arisen) - albeit not really sure if it counts as DLC or a pseudo DD remaster with added content?

[AndyKurosaki]

Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare is an obvious choice, it’s really bloody good. Such a shame that we’ll never see its like again in a Rockstar game, as they can no longer be arsed with making good DLC anymore. All they care about is pumping out shit cash-grab Casino content for GTA Online. Exactly the same thing will happen to GTA6, there will be no story mode DLC such as The Lost and Damned, or Ballad Of Gay Tony.

 

It’s a recent one, but I’d strongly recommend Cyberpunk: Phantom Liberty. It’s a hefty add-on, with a bloody great story, interesting variety in missions, and it has Idris Elba, which is always a good thing.

[DANGERMAN]

Back when I wrote for bitparade, I think we only gave out 3 10/10s in its entire history. One of them was giving the 2nd (actually 3rd) Dishonored story dlc, The Brigmore Witches, full marks. 

 

It's got all the atmosphere of the main game, a more interesting character, and a much better story. Both the story dlc for Dishonored are worth playing, but this is the better of the 2

 

 

I won't mention Bioshock 2 Minerva's Den other than to say that is very good, probably the series high point, I'll let someone else go in to why if they're going to. As mid as Bioshock Infinite was the Rapture dlc for that was pretty good too, better than the main game. 

 

My most played dlc though is almost certainly the survival mode for Streets of Rage 4. It's a fairly basic idea that adds a couple of characters for the main game, which is decent enough, but also a rogue-like survival mode with set weekly routes, but also more random ones. I was regularly dipping in to that on a Sunday morning for quite a while. It's not a concept that would ordinarily click for me but the combat in Streets of Rage 4 is really good, it's the levels that are a bit flat, I do recommend it though 

 

And as we're also mentioning recent ones, I did really like God of War Valhala 

[mfnick]

99% of DLC is pretty poor or pointless IMO. Not worth going back to the game for and  not worth the prices. They just don’t tend to add much making their inclusion worthwhile, most being a marketing stunt just so they can sell season passes.

 

if I do have a favourite though it’s probably the Driveclub ones. Not only did they give you an ok amount of extra cars but they created new specific championships for you to use the cars in. All for a very reasonable price. 
 

One important point though, Expansions now get called DLC. & they’re very different. Now a lot of those are in fact excellent, worth going back to and mostly worth the money. If we include those (as I imagine is in the spirit of the question). There’s a few favourites. The 2 that stand out immediately in my mind are The Ballad of Gay Tony for GTA IV and the LEGO Expansion for FH4. Both are fucking excellent

[Nag]

I'm not allowing Bitterblack Isle as, to the best of my knowledge, it wasn't available as a standalone purchase.👍

[shinymcshine]

Fair enough.

 

I that case it's probably one of the Fallout 3/4 DLCs that I enjoyed the most, as they added a decent amount of new areas & content - most notably; Point Lookout & Broken Steel; or Far Harbour & Nuka World.

 

Shivering Isles for ES: Oblivion was great too (as a concept) but ran terribly on the 360.

 

The recent Mario Kart (NS) Course Expansion has been pretty good - albeit I still wish they'd put in the option to play on 4 random tracks in local multiplayer (rather than having to play a set 4 in a cup).

[shinymcshine]

Another one, if I'm remembering it correctly, was the Export Key Code for Rock Band, so you could import & play all your songs packs across the different versions of the Rock Band games (although there were some limitations due to licences & age restrictions).

[one-armed dwarf]

The Citadel DLC in Mass Effect 3 is a very effective tone balancer to what is otherwise a very harrowing story, and I think it brings a lot of the game's themes full circle. It's a DLC about the importance of self-care in the end-of-days war time scenario the galaxy finds itself in

 

One issue though is it's a little hard to figure out where to begin playing it, it doesn't integrate into main plot threads very well particularly as characters who are at each other's throats in the main story can be the opposite in citadel. Which is why I think a lot of people look at it as more of a postnote 'deleted scene' kinda thing. That's why I think Phantom Liberty is maybe the best expansion of this sort, cause it actually integrates with the main story. Characters in the main game who show up in the DLC react to things you did earlier, and in the opposite direction if you do the DLC first they will have something to say in the main game. It also gives the player character another route to investigate their problem, but not necessarily with the promise that it will ultimately solve everything. It doesn't subtract and replace existing narrative throughlines but rather supplements them in a non-intrusive way.

 

I did not even unlock the new ending that Phantom Liberty provides, cause it did not feel faithful to the character I had been inhabiting that whole time. A future playthrough will have me look at that option, but it massively enhances the role playing immersion space in a way that the original game was somewhat lacking at, and by a point of comparison it also elevates every end-game decision that already existed because of the ways in which the choices are different to each other. What previously felt like very shallow choices become much more weighty decisions, cause there's this other choice you could pursue as well, with its own tradeoffs to think through. It is the best example of a 'directors cut' in gaming I think, and this is where Cyberpunk became 'good' for me. Not 1.5, or 2.0, both of those releases were neat but it's still more or less the same game it ever was. Neither of these patches 'fixed' Cyberpunk*. But Phantom Liberty finally gives it its coda

 

*In a sense, I would argue it never really got 'fixed', just that the last gen version got memory holed when the next gen ones came out

[DANGERMAN]

In terms of the question of whether it's good value, I think that's impossible to say. I suspect we're probably all at the point where we accept it exists, and that it can be worth our time, but there's no denying that is can be, and definitely has been, massively cynical. It's one the the reasons I think I've fallen off fighting games. I can deal with there being dlc characters I suppose, and while I don't like the series maybe Mortal Kombat do it the right way. Seeing Street Fighter announce that Akuma is going to be DLC, he's a series mainstay, a fan favourite, he should be included in the main game or put out for free. 

 

I don't mind games being made with DLC in mind, and fortunately we seem to have got past the stage where the real ending of a game was hidden away. Better to do it like Witcher 3, Bioshock, Borderlands (which has a very hit and miss relationship to the quality of its dlc). I mean I liked Asura's Wrath and Prince of Persia 2006 a lot, the real ending being stuck in dlc was utter comtempt

[Nag]

There's been some very good expansions mentioned already... and I'll give a shout out for another CD Project Red game with Blood and Wine for the Witcher 3.

 

Resident Evil 4 remakes Seperate Ways is much better than the original version and I enjoyed that a lot.

 

The Hivebuster dlc for Gears 5 was pretty great... and free with Game Pass so that was a bonus.

[shinymcshine]

I really liked the aesthetic for Blood & Wine - the area they created had its own technicolour feel, but I though the story was a bit underwhelming (but then TBH nearly everything in W3 felt poor compared to the Bloody Baron quest).

 

Or maybe it was:

Spoiler

I was fed up of the whole vampire thing being used in TV shows, movies, games etc.

 

[AndyKurosaki]

2 hours ago, shinymcshine said:

Fair enough.

 

I that case it's probably one of the Fallout 3/4 DLCs that I enjoyed the most, as they added a decent amount of new areas & content - most notably; Point Lookout & Broken Steel; or Far Harbour & Nuka World.

 

Shivering Isles for ES: Oblivion was great too (as a concept) but ran terribly on the 360.

 

The recent Mario Kart (NS) Course Expansion has been pretty good - albeit I still wish they'd put in the option to play on 4 random tracks in local multiplayer (rather than having to play a set 4 in a cup).

I’d agree, all of the Fallout 3 DLC was fantastic, loved every minute of all of it.

 

Shivering Isles on Oblivion is a great call, that was excellent. I loved how absolutely insane it was.

The Last Of Us: Left Behind was excellent, shame really that Part 2 never received anything remotely like that quality as an expansion. I prefer Left Behind to Part 2 in general, as 2 is pretty much relentlessly miserable.
 

 

[Sly Reflex]

This is a good question. The one that sticks out for me is Borderlands: General Knoxx Armoury. That was huge and there was so much to do.

 

Left Behind from TLoU was great. Way better than the main game.

 

There's probably more, I cannot think of any that I have played off the top of my head. 

 

Sort of surprised nobody has mention the DLC for Bloodborne which seems to garner insane amounts of praise. 

[one-armed dwarf]

We've definitely had a hot topic before where it came up. It's also exemplary and turns BB from a 9 into a 10. You can play the whole game with a pizza cutter

[radiofloyd]

Echoes of the Eye is very cool DLC for Outer Wilds, both from a visual and gameplay perspective. It was also quite a tonal shift for the game.

[Maryokutai]

I usually don't buy DLC for various reasons I mentioned over the years, but among the few exceptions I will say the DLC for the WiiU version of MK8 was excellent back then. It was a steal for the content it offered and the courses were among the best in the game, with two very cool F-Zero hommages to boot. I know the game has become a bit of a running joke as of late as it turns 10 this year, but at that point in time it was a really exciting proposition still.

 

I did play some other stuff that eventually came included in a 'complete' release and I think among those Witcher 3's Blood & Wine would be my favourite as well. I never felt the Twilight fatigue with its vampire theme because it clearly goes more in the Bram Stoker direction, and the new area, with its almost fairy-fantasy look to it, including an entirely new soundtrack, really gave this game yet another boost even after the 100 hours or so you would have spent with it by the point your arrival there. A really wonderful 'epilogue-ish' conclusion to the game IMO.