Game Update 20: DLC Round-Up 5

It's getting close to a year since I've done of these. I'm not quite as focused on seeing every piece of content from every game I play as I used to be.

Bioshock 2: Minerva's Den


Minerva's Den has a reputation as one of the best DLC add-ons for a game ever made, and it's well earned. If you didn't need to buy Bioshock 2 first to play it, I'd say you could just skip it and play Minerva's Den to get all you need out of the experience. It serves as a sort of smaller version of the main game, again having you play as a Big Daddy and collecting most of the same equipment as you experience a story that's a lot more tightly written and emotionally effective than the main game's. It always seems a bit odd to focus on praising the narrative of a video game, especially a downloadable add-on, but Minerva's Den really is exceptionally well conceived and executed. Worth checking out even if you didn't love the main game.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution: The Missing Link


Another add-on that acts as a microcosm for the main game, The Missing Link explores a gap in Human Revolution's story and basically allows you to make a new Adam Jensen from scratch that you will use for a few hours before the story wraps up and connects back to the main plot. You begin on a ship and eventually end up on another secret base, which you can either sneak or shoot your way through until you reach the ending. Obviously this DLC doesn't capture the other side of the game that lets you just walk around and explore, and there were a few annoying aspects of the level design, particularly the way the mission requires you to go back and forth in the same space repeatedly and pass through the same extremely slow doorways until you get sick of them. But if you really enjoyed Human Revolution like I did, it's hard to say no to another clandestine base to infiltrate, especially if you can get it on sale.

L.A. Noire: Rockstar Pass


None of the DLC for L.A. Noire was very substantial, but the way Rockstar distributed it was very cool. There were several individual cases that were available for download for okay prices, but if you knew you wanted to play all of it, you could plop down a little extra for the "Rockstar Pass" and get all of it as it came out at a lower rate. It encouraged people to pay more up front with the knowledge that they wouldn't miss anything. The cases themselves seem like they were merely snipped out of the main game without much thought, some of them even revealing certain story elements that were referred to "later" in the main plot without explanation. The original game was plenty long enough, so I didn't feel cheated, and the cases themselves were a natural extension of what made the game fun in the first place. Neat investigations and adequate action sequences abound.

Portal 2: Peer Review


The best kind of DLC is free DLC, and Valve knew that when they put out Peer Review, an extension to Portal 2 that added something similar to the challenge mode from the first game that was missing in the sequel, and more importantly, added a new section to the already stellar co-op campaign. This section mixed and matched various concepts from earlier in the co-op to put together some really fiendish puzzles, creating perhaps the most difficult (and no less entertaining) Portal gameplay that I've experienced. And of course it's framed within the context of Portal's very funny and entertaining universe, which means plenty of new GLaDOS quips and robot antics to laugh at. It's hard to get a better value for your no dollars.

Game Update 17: DLC Round-Up 4

Surprised it's been over a year since I've done this. But I guess that happens when you don't buy any new games for almost a year.

Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood: The Da Vinci Disappearance

Review at Player Affinity

Costume Quest: Grubbins on Ice


This add-on to Costume Quest was roughly one third the length of the original game at one third of the price, which made it a nice way to extend the experience a little for fans. It takes place after the original and has a winter theme, though the gameplay is pretty much the same - you trick or treat until the area is clear, fight simple turn-based battles, find some collectible costumes and upgrades, and find stuff for people. The boss fight at the end was the most challenging encounter they've made so far, although it still wasn't terribly difficult. The ending teases more content on the way, though I suspect at this point it will be another stand-alone game rather than a small five dollar chunk.

Left 4 Dead 2: The Passing/The Sacrifice


Originally, the intention was to release The Passing for L4D2 and then The Sacrifice for L4D1, tying the two games together and killing off one of the original characters. The Sacrifice ended up also being released for L4D2 though, which allowed players of that game to play with the old characters using the equipment and enemy upgrades from the sequel, as well as starting the release of all the old content in the same way. So while the two campaigns are kind of short and don't add a whole terrible lot in terms of new twists on the series, they're still pretty fun and helped Valve experiment with new ways to roll stuff out to players. The online comic that preceded The Sacrifice's release was interesting as well.

Mass Effect 2: Arrival

Review at Player Affinity

Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare


Pretty darn meaty for ten bucks, Undead Nightmare completely changes Red Dead from a western-themed shooter to a game all about scraping by against a horde of zombies. Ammo is limited, enemies charge at you in groups and only go down easily from headshots, and there isn't a lot of help to be found. You'll usually divide your time between doing missions to advance the lengthy and surprisingly funny story and rescuing and defending outposts from invasions, which is more fun than it sounds. Most DLC doesn't come close to changing the game as much as this one, and it's a lot of fun. There are a bunch of other supernatural extras like side jobs involving horses of the apocalypse and sasquatches. One of the best DLC packs for the money I've ever played.

Game Update 15: DLC Round-Up 3

We ain't gonna stop this DLC thing.

Assassin's Creed 2: Battle of Forli


Assassin's Creed 2 was a lot of fun, so I was excited when I heard they were extending its life with a couple of cheap add-ons. They were made up of content that had to be cut from the original release for time, but I was still interested in seeing those gaps get filled in. Unfortunately, both packs had a few issues that made me see why they might not have charged a ton for them. Battle of Forli adds a repeatable mission that lets you play with Da Vinci's flying machine if you want some more of that, and a little more of the story in Forli, a city that you passed through in the regular game but didn't spend much time in. I liked seeing some new details of what happened during that missing period, but ultimately the missions themselves weren't that fun. A couple were fine, but too many eschewed the normal stealthy, acrobatic gameplay for awkward, uninteresting battles between groups of soldiers. It's not that mixing it up is bad, but the game just isn't made to handle it well, and the chapter seemed pretty anticlimactic in general.

Assassin's Creed 2: Bonfire of the Vanities


Vanities cost a bit more and I was hopeful about it, since it unlocks an entire section of Florence that was missing. And it started off fine, giving you a bunch of small assassinations to take care of. Unfortunately, some of them are designed to be arbitrarily difficult with no justification for the ridiculous conditions they set, creating an uneven, sometimes frustrating experience. Most of the problems come from a few missions deciding that you can't be spotted by any guards before intercepting your target, which would be fine if there was any reason for it and if you didn't have to run away from all of the now fully aware guards in the area once you pull it off. It would also help if it was just a bit clearer about what did and what didn't get you seen. There was a more expensive version that also unlocked a few tombs that were exclusive to a special edition of the game, and they were pretty fun, though maybe not worth the five bucks. I don't really regret playing these, although they really didn't add much to the game in the end.

Heavy Rain: The Taxidermist


I don't think this is publicly available yet, but if you preordered the game like me you got a free download code for it. It's pretty much Heavy Rain in a nutshell. You're investigating a possible killer's house, and after a certain amount of time investigating the guy's extremely creepy house he shows up unexpectedly and you have to try to escape. There's a lot of different ways you can go about it, and at least five different ways it can end, some good and some bad. It's completely inessential to the main game's story, but if you had fun with it and want another little piece with the same strong presentation and tense gameplay, it's certainly worth checking out.

LittleBigPlanet: Pirates of the Caribbean Level Kit


I was lucky enough to play this for free thanks to a code from a friend. It's similar to the Metal Gear Solid pack, adding some new gameplay mechanics, pieces to make stuff with, and a set of five levels themed after something famous. I think they only cover the first two movies, which happen to be the ones I've seen, having you escape from some pirates, find a ship, and take on the Kraken. The water system certainly adds more to the game than the paint gun, and the levels are full of the stuff, letting you swim around and solve some new puzzles with some things that float and some things that don't. I'm not sure how I feel about all these premium level packs relying on other properties to sell themselves, but I can't say they aren't fun ways to extend the game's life and inspire players to create more interesting levels. Really, they could keep doing this instead of of releasing a sequel and I'd be fine with it.

Game Update 14: DLC Round-Up 2

So I've played some more downloadable content. It was mostly pretty fun I guess! This is the significant stuff.

Fallout 3: Broken Steel


I liked Fallout 3, but the ending was, well... irredeemably stupid. Without spoiling anything, finishing the main quest ends the game immediately with a cheap cutscene instead of wrapping up the story nicely and letting you keep playing as your character, and makes some giant logical leaps to pack it all into some sort of nice dramatic wrapping without earning it. Broken Steel fixes that by rewriting that portion slightly, still moralizing your actions pointlessly but at least keeping the plot going with a few more missions, raising the level cap to 30, giving you some new equipment, and disabling the switch that basically kills the game. The scope of the new quests feels more like an actual climax to the plot, though in a way it still feels like they're stretching something that's already resolved itself. Still, it's the most essential of the five add-ons Bethesda's released for the game, letting you do whatever you want without worrying about having to load old saves.

Fallout 3: Point Lookout


Broken Steel is the most important add-on, but Point Lookout might be the most interesting. It takes Fallout to a different setting, the mutated wastes of Maryland, infested by monsters, a dangerous cult, and irradiated versions of offensive Southern stereotypes. I haven't played the other DLC packs for the game, which apparently whisk you to other areas which are very linear and guided, leaving Point Lookout as the only one that resembles the actual Fallout 3 experience in smaller form. There's a fair amount of wandering you can do to see what's up, or you can just do the main quest line which features some glitchy action (I can't tell if the game is acting up because I've been playing this character for 30 hours or what), unique moments, and interesting if not overly difficult choices to make. It's not exactly classy, but still enjoyable.

Left 4 Dead: Crash Course


I'm glad I got this for free on the PC instead of paying for it on the Xbox 360, but it's still a neat addition to the original game that was made not too long before the sequel came out. It's a quick little campaign designed to be finished in half an hour in versus mode, so it's not the most substantial thing ever, but the two chapters here add some unique and entertaining twists on the formula. It fits in between two of the existing campaigns, explaining what transpired between them, which on one hand is interesting but on the other just makes me want them to do the same for the entire story, and I don't know if that's going to happen with them already announcing add-ons for the new one. Still, no new Left 4 Dead content is bad Left 4 Dead content, and it's worth a trip if you're not already spoiled by the sequel.

LittleBigPlanet: Metal Gear Solid Level Kit


I think this would have been a bit better for the value if it included the Metal Gear Solid-themed costumes as well, but it was still a good time with my brother for somewhere around an hour. Most of the DLC for LBP is packs of outfits and stickers to throw in your game, but once in a while they do a themed one that adds new gameplay elements and trophies (a Pirates of the Caribbean-themed one just came out this week, I think), and I like MGS a lot, so I finally decided to give it a whirl. We probably had the most fun with the paintball gun which you get to use pretty frequently, shooting each other as much as the enemies, and it definitely adds something new to the game. There's some pretty clever boss fights and special events they put together, and I'm always impressed how much people can do with the simple tools at hand, especially the developers. The LBP/MGS cross-over plot was a nice touch too. A bit short, but as cute as anything else in this game.

Game Update 11: DLC Round-Up

It's becoming an increasing trend in gaming, especially since the launch of the Xbox 360, to extend the life of games via downloadable content, which is cheaper than traditional expansions but also less substantial. Sometimes the DLC is really lame profiteering crap like paying for cheat codes or content that's already on the disc and just needs to be unlocked, but some developers do really interesting stuff with it. Here's a few of the updates and content packs I've played that are interesting enough to discuss but don't warrant full reviews.


The Elder Scrolls IV: Knights of the Nine


A pretty satisfying and enjoyable new faction quest line for the game. It requires you to erase any infamy you have to get it going, which is annoying if you actually roleplay your character as a jerk, but once you get into the main quest there's a really nice story and progression going on. Some creative moments, decent fights with lots of allies, and the rewards are great - a full set of really good gear and an infinite supply of knights to fight by your side.

Mercenaries 2: Blow It Up Again


It's nice that this was available for free at first, because it's not really worth it otherwise. It comes with four new missions in new areas and two new skins based on Barack Obama and Sarah Palin, complete with goofy voice overs from crappy sound-alikes ( It was developed during the election frenzy). The problem is the skins don't lend themselves to the missions and the missions don't lend themselves to what makes Mercenaries 2 fun, since instead of having a chance to explore and mess around the new environments you're just plopped in a vehicle and told to do something, with not much chance to laugh at the fact that you look like a candidate for major national office. A few of the missions are pretty fun, but it just seems like a rushed job, and you can't even bring the presidential skins into the normal game.

Noby Noby Boy 1.1


Not so much DLC as a pretty substantial addition of content through patching. The new music and sound selection system is nice, multiplayer is wacky as hell, and the players have also managed to reach Mars thanks to some big multipliers randomly given as various lengths were reported. I don't know how far in the solar system or even galaxy this game intends to eventually go, but new areas to run around in with new creatures and objects to eat and crap out is always fun.

Prince of Persia: Epilogue


I mostly enjoyed it while I was playing, but in the end it wasn't worth the time and money. It's a couple more hours of the game, with the difficulty on the platforming stepped up thanks to longer sequences in between solid platforms you can be brought back to after falling. They also took out any semblance of the free-roaming aspect, making it a straight shot from beginning to end. The new boss and power are pretty much rehashes, and any story development ends up to be not worth it, as it ends on pretty much the same note as the main game with little of consequence really happening. Not necessary for anyone looking for some closure and not just more of the game. Not not not not.