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Question of the Week: Best and Worst DLC?

by: Randy -
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Best and Worst DLC

It's becoming more and more apparent just how much of a tug-of-war downloadable content creates in the videogame marketplace.  But let's ignore the numbers for now...
 
What's one of the best, and one of the worst, DLCs you've ever paid for?

John Yan's Barbie Horses Riding Camp DLC Armor doesn't count since he actually got a promo code for that one.

Ben Berry:  To me, I think it's obvious that the best DLC is some of the songs that have come out for Rock Band. There are songs that have been released in DLC that I think would have been better than some packaged with the game.  The worst DLC's are also for Rock Band. Why in the world are there exclusive tracks for a particular console?? There are two tracks coming out for Wii that I would love to play, but there's no way in the world I'm buying the same game for another console. Sure it's a standalone track pack, instead of DLC, but it's the same thing. It just doesn't make any damn sense.
 
Adam Dodd:  Some of the worst DLC I've noticed recently was all the crap EA had for Dead Space, which consisted of loads of weapon skins.  I mean, seriously?  Weapon skins?  Give us a new chapter, or a new weapon, or something to add to the replayability of the game, not half a dozen DLC packs that change the looks of my character and his weapons.  As for good DLC, Burnout Paradise has been getting great expansions, and free is always fantastic.  I also really enjoyed Mass Effect's Bring Down the Sky expansion, though it might've been slightly overpriced it was a lot of fun.  (Currently playing:  Prototype and Left 4 Dead)

Charles Husemann
:  While I'm not a big buyer of DLC the worse DLC released so far was  last year when EA started selling upgrades and cheat code like items for a few of their games.  While it was certainly within their purview to sel these items it left a bad taste in my mouth.  For the best DLC you have to look at what Bethesda and Criterion have been doing.  Bethesda has done a great job of extending Fallout 3 with new content and has even played with their core gameplay modes a bit (although it hasn't always worked out).  Criterion has done an amazing job of continuing to release solid DLC for Burnout Paradise.  I'm hoping that Volition does a good job with the DLC for Red Faction: Guerrilla as I'm looking forward to blowing more stuff up in different ways.  (Currently playing:  Trine and Prototype)

Randy Kalista:  My forays into the ever-enlarging pool of DLC have only been ankle-deep.  Okay, I count four instances.  One was Mass Effect's Bring Down the Sky (still love that title).  I didn't feel that tiptoeing around minefields was an activity worthy of Commander Shepard's time, but watching an asteroid's red-shifted horizon burn towards a blue planet certainly was.  The second DLC for me was Grand Theft Auto IV's the Lost & Damned.  I still can't stomach the Liberty City Hardcore radio station, but I could at least quit playing so much phone tag and instead just roll around the muddy town with a pack of hogs.  Aside from their curiously awkward names, the Fable II episodes didn't broaden the game's horizons like they could have.  Knothole Island created something of a city in a snowglobe, while See the Future took that idea quite literaly.  (Currently playing:  Little WheelSeed of Destruction, Droplitz)

Matt Mirkovich:  I'm going to come clean and say that I bought the Tales of Vesperia content to get some extra money. I feel ashamed.  But man all that Rock Band 2 DLC sure does look good on my 360 HDD.  As long as the music is good I'll keep paying for it until I die (sadly).  (Currently playing:  BlazBlue (360), Monster Hunter Freedom Unite (PSP), Cross Edge (PS3))

Nathan Murray:  I have a 20GB hard drive which means that it is entirely devoted to game saves and bare minimum DLC. I really loved the Boston song list for Rock Band because it is a band my dad loves however I've yet to convince him to jump on the mic when I'm playing. There hasn't been anything I downloaded that I really hated that I had payed money for. As for the Two Worlds demo? That's a different story.  (Currently playing:  Rock Band 2, Call of Duty 4, Battlefield: Bad Company, Final Fantasy Tactics (PSP), and soon Tranformers: Revenge of the Fallen)

John Yan:  have to say the best DLC I've played are the Fallout 3 ones not named Operation Anchorage.  As an avid Fallout 3 fan, I'm very happy to see more content and the continuation of the story as well. It's great that they extended the game allowing you to continue past the end game with Broken Steel and added more locations with The Pitt and Point Lookout.  The worse DLC ... I would think the way that you had to buy Darth Vader or Yoda for Soul Calibur IV depending on the version you picked up. The characters should have been free later on but they charged money for it which is kind of bad in my view.  (Currently playing:  Shadow of the Colossus and Killzone 2)